The Breeders Series: The Complete Box Set

by Katie French

My face burns with his comment, but I say nothing.

  Gabe shoots me a worried look. “Prentice, she’s had it rough. Maybe I should take her ba—”

  Prentice cuts him off with a wave of his hand. “She’s won her first round. That means she competes tonight.”

  Gabe’s jaw drops. “But you said it yourself, she’s a girl. They don’t compete.”

  Prentice leans back on his desk, pondering this coolly. “But this girl did, and she did so very well. Last time we used that puzzle, both contestants were sent to the hallway.”

  Gabe looks between me and Prentice. “She’s a Breeder. She’s worth much more than a simple contestant in a game.”

  Prentice toys with one of the puzzles on his desk, turning colored rows on a cube. “Gabriel, do you know how I maintain my fortune? How I’m able to barter for the medicine you need so badly?”

  Gabe swallows hard. “Gambling.”

  “And how do I get people to gamble?” Prentice’s tone is like a bored teacher.

  “You host the games and set the stakes. You give people something to look forward to. Something to spend their money on.”

  “Very good,” Prentice says, condescendingly. “You said yourself people aren’t coming here anymore. They’re all going to Albuquerque. We need to give them a reason to detour. And what’s better than a woman puzzler? No, a clever woman puzzler?” Prentice raises one thin eyebrow.

  Gabe shakes his head slowly. “I don’t know.”

  “Of course you don’t know!” Prentice shouts, striking the table. “Nothing is as interesting as a woman. Think how the men will bet if they think they might get the chance to take her into the hallway?”

  Gabe pales. “You can’t be serious.”

  Prentice pouts his lip and puts a hand to his chest. “As serious as a seizure.”

  Gabe presses his lips together angrily.

  “What if I won’t play?” I ask.

  Prentice gives me a thin smile. “If you won’t play, then you forfeit. You’ll face the hallway after tonight’s games as a loser.”

  “Prentice, no,” Gabe whispers.

  “What happens in the hallway?” I ask, even though all of me is screaming just to shut up. Shut up!

  Prentice’s smile widens. He snaps his fingers and his guard strides in. “Show our winner the hallway.”

  Gabe starts to protest, but Prentice silences him with a look. The beefy guard grabs my arm and starts pulling.

  “I don’t need to see it,” I say to Prentice as the guard yanks me away. Prentice smiles and flicks his hand to the guard, gesturing to keep going. “I don’t want to see it!”

  The guard keeps pulling.

  My heart begins to pound as we enter the dim hallway. Is this the hallway he was talking about or another one? Is something waiting for me around the bend? My whole body trembles.

  “Please,” I whisper, but the guard either doesn’t hear me or ignores me.

  When we turn another corner, I know we’re here.

  Torches line the walls, illuminating a long, dank hallway. The smell hits me first. Blood. Then I see it on the floor in puddles and splattered on the wall. Even the ceiling has brown splatters.

  At intervals down the hallway, bloody implements lie in puddles: a rock, a crowbar, a piece of rusted rebar, a shard of glass glinting red in the torchlight.

  “Who…?” I ask. Though I can’t form any more words. At the end, I see a lump on the concrete. A hand stretches out for help that never came. The old man. The one who attacked me.

  The guard drags me toward the body.

  “I’ve seen enough!”

  He doesn’t care. He drags me. My legs go weak, so he picks me up by the waist and carries me.

  The smell of blood is cloying. His boots slosh through red puddles and splash my feet. I’ll be dappled in blood when we leave here.

  Cut, smashed, and gouged, he’s almost unrecognizable. The whole crowd must’ve beaten him. And judging by the blood starting at the end of the hallway, it went on for a while.

  I close my eyes. If only I could unsee.

  How could they? He was just an old man. A very frightened old man.

  The guard must feel sorry for me. Either that or he doesn’t want to linger around the mangled body either. He walks us back toward Prentice’s office.

  I don’t remember much of what happens next.

  Prentice and Gabe talk. Gabe helps me out a side door. He sets me on my bike, and I somehow manage to pedal. Before I know it, we’re back on campus at his apartment complex. I drop my bike and sit on the stoop.

  Gabe sits beside me. “I’m so sorry, Janine.”

  I say nothing. A breeze has picked up and the trees sway with it. Then I see the old man’s body in my mind. I press my hands to my eyes.

  “Where were you? You left me.”

  Gabe turns sad eyes to me. “Another group of men grabbed me. They didn’t know I was a Prentice’s friend. It took a while to sort things out.”

  “Why did they beat that man to death?”

  Gabe sighs. “Prentice needs an…incentive to get people to come. Watching puzzling isn’t all that exciting.”

  “They come to beat an old man to death?” Tears pool in my eyes. No wonder he attacked me. He knew what was coming.

  Gabe rubs a hand down my shoulder. “The spectators aren’t the nicest people. They’re losers. They’ve lost everything to the games. The only way they can win it back is to keep playing, but it never works out.”

  I flick tears away and press my chin to my knees. “Why would anyone want to be a part of that?”

  “Prentice offers the chance to get rich quick. A few have gotten filthy rich because of it. He sells them hope. But he takes a cut of all the winnings. And sometimes, he rigs the games. The house always wins.”

  I look at Gabe, confused, and he shrugs. “It’s an old saying. Back when there were casinos and people played games with cards and wheels called Roulette.”

  “How do you know so much?” I ask.

  “Prentice has books. He’s obsessed with gambling. And puzzles. You saw some of them.”

  “Why puzzles? Why not just let people pummel each other? At least they’d stand some chance.”

  Gabe leans back and rests his long legs out in front of him. “Prentice likes that anyone can win a puzzle game, not just the big guys. It makes the betting more interesting. You see, he’s not very big, but he’s very smart. It’s how he runs an empire even though he’s a regular guy. Like me.”

  There’s something in Gabe’s voice that makes me think he’s hiding something, but I focus on something else. “Prentice is a monster. Not like you.”

  Gabe smiles warmly. He traces a finger down my cheek. “You poor thing. Let’s get you something to eat.”

  We head up the stairs. When we get to the top, Tommy bursts out of his apartment.

  “Where the hell have you been?” He looks angrily at Gabe and then at me. I offer him a blank stare. His anger doesn’t scare me anymore.

  Gabe runs a hand through his wild hair. “Look, I don’t want to be yelled at right now, so can you just save it? Janine’s had a rough day, and she needs to rest.”

  Tommy tenses his body and blocks the door. “You took her to town, didn’t you? Did you go see Prentice? And you didn’t bother to worry about her aunt, who I found barely breathing.”

  “Bell!” I run toward the door, but Tommy holds his hands up.

  “She’s okay now, but I had to run to get Harpy.” He looks from me to Gabe. “We owe him big time.”

  Gabe sighs. “Owe him what?”

  Tommy looks at me. “I’ll tell you later.”

  I crane my neck to see inside. “Let me in. I need to see her.”

  Tommy steps aside, and I run into the apartment. Bell is where I left her, but she looks more pale and sunken than ever. I drop to her side and run my hand down her cheek. “I’m sorry I left. Please be okay.”

  Tommy and Gabe stand over me, looking down. Gabe taps my
shoulder. “You really need to rest. Prentice wants you back there just after sunset.”

  “Why does Prentice want her?” Tommy is still furious.

  Gabe huffs. “If I tell you, you’ll just fly off the handle.”

  “Damn right I will!” he shouts.

  “Stop it!” I say, looking up at them. “You two can argue all you want, just get out of here!”

  Both boys look at me, but instead of getting mad, they seem to feel sorry for me.

  “Please,” I say, barely getting the words out. “I just want to be alone with her.”

  Surprisingly, they listen. They leave, and I curl into Bell beside her on the floor. I should plan an escape or pick Bell up and run, but it all feels too impossible. I nudge my head into her warmth and smell her scent. She’s the only piece I have of my old life. I cannot lose her. I listen to her breathe. I listen to Gabe and Tommy fight through the thin apartment walls. I listen until sleep overtakes me, hard and fast.

  I wake with a start. I was having a dream of the dark hallway—my bare feet splashing through blood as I walked toward a crumpled body. When I snap upright, Tommy sits up in his chair.

  “You’re awake.” He rubs his eyes and checks to see if his hat is on straight. Once again, I wonder when he sleeps.

  “Yes,” I say, stretching the kinks out of my back. My leg and shoulder ache from falling off the bike. But then I notice the sky and all thoughts drain away. The light is faint. It’ll be sunset soon, and I’ll be forced to go back to Prentice. To the game.

  “How do you feel?” he asks, offering me a glass of water.

  “Terrible.” I check Bell’s pulse. Slow but steady. “When’s Harpy coming back?”

  “Tonight.” He offers me the water and won’t stop until I take it and drink.

  “Will she live?”

  Tommy sighs. “I don’t want to lie to you.”

  “Then don’t.”

  He lets the moment hang.

  I stare out the balcony door. I cannot go back to Prentice. When I look up at Tommy, his face is soft. This is my only shot. “You have to get us out of here.”

  He wrinkles his forehead. “It’s complicated.”

  I shake my head. “Prentice is going to make me compete again. If I lose, I’ll have to face the hallway. Do you know what they do there?”

  The pain on his face says he does.

  “Then you have to help us. You helped my aunt. You seem like a decent person.”

  Tommy drops his eyes to the floor. “If we help you escape, Prentice will take it out on us.”

  “Come with us.” I can’t believe what I’m saying, but I press on anyway. “You and Gabe can come, too.”

  Tommy shakes his head. “Gabe can’t survive without his medication. We’ve tried. It didn’t go well.”

  “But he said—”

  “He told you he doesn’t need his meds anymore, right?” Anger flashes across Tommy’s face. “That he’s grown out of it? He tells that lie to everyone he meets. It’s wishful thinking. My brother has never lived in reality. I have to do that for him, and he hates me for it.”

  “At least he has hope. You’re just so,” I look up at him, “angry.”

  He flinches like I’ve struck him.

  That was stupid. I shouldn’t have said it. Here I am, asking him to save us with one breath and insulting him with another. I take Bell’s hand and press it to my cheek.

  “I don’t like to be this way.” His eyes track down to me. His face is pained. “I don’t want to be mad all the time. Yell at him all the time. But he makes it impossible. If I’m not hard on him, he’d just run off, forget his meds, and die in a ditch somewhere.”

  “Bell is hard on me, but she never makes me feel like I’m a burden.”

  Tommy narrows his eyes. “She’s not your aunt, is she?”

  I shake my head. “She was like a mother to me. Still is.”

  He watches Bell’s chest rise and fall. “I’m trying to save her.”

  “Thank you,” I whisper.

  “I wish I could save you, too,” he says quietly.

  “But you can’t.” I close my eyes. “Or you won’t.”

  “If there was something I could do—”

  “Just…don’t. Talking about it is making it worse.”

  “Were you good at the game?” He leans forward, elbows on knees.

  I shoot him a look.

  “Sorry.” He’s quiet for a while. Then, “If you win, you’ll be okay. And Prentice won’t want to sell you anymore. Maybe he’ll let you leave.”

  I shake my head. “That’s comforting.”

  “Gabe went back to Prentice. He’s going to ask him to rig the game in your favor. Maybe it’ll work. I didn’t want to tell you before because I didn’t want you to get your hopes up.”

  “So if he rigs the games, someone else will die instead of me?”

  Tommy fiddles with the hem of his shirt. “Nothing we can do.”

  “You keep saying that,” I say, a rage building in me. “It’s pathetic.”

  Tommy sits up. “Prentice has gangs of men. He has guns. He could wipe us out in a heartbeat.”

  “Is that an excuse? Does that make it right to work for a maniac who kills people for fun?”

  Tommy stands and jabs a finger at me. “How many times did you lead a revolution against the Breeders? They’re the worst people on the planet, and you were right in the middle of them. How many times did you try to take them down?”

  Heat blazes in my face. “I couldn’t!”

  “Well, neither can I!”

  When he storms out, I don’t stop him, but his words linger long after he’s gone.

  Gabe comes for me just as the sun is sinking into the ground. He’s all sympathetic blue eyes and slouched shoulders, so I know it didn’t go well with Prentice. If it had, he would tell me and ease my suffering. He takes my hand as he leads me out of the apartment.

  “It’s going to be fine, Janine,” he whispers near my ear.

  “Mm-hmm,” I say, feeling my throat constrict. The hallway. The jeering crowd.

  “Just focus on the puzzle,” he says as he holds the door open for me at the bottom of the stairs.

  I offer him a smile, but I can tell by the look on his face it’s not convincing.

  He starts to speak when someone steps through the door.

  “Harpy,” Gabe says, surprised. “What’re you doing here?”

  “He’s come to sit with our patient,” a voice behind us says.

  We turn around. Tommy is bounding down the steps two at a time. He’s changed his clothes, combed his hair, and the cap I rarely see him without is tucked in his back pocket. Blue eyes blaze from his serious face.

  Suddenly, I’m struck with how much the twins look alike. Without the cap, I’d barely be able to tell the difference.

  Gabe frowns. “What’re you doing?”

  Tommy strides around him and out the door. “I’m going.”

  Harpy slips around me and heads upstairs. I have a feeling he’s seen these two fight before.

  Tommy grabs a bike leaning against the side of the complex and inspects the chain, but Gabe is close on his heels.

  “You can’t go.” Gabe plants both feet. “Prentice will flip.”

  Tommy doesn’t look up. He spins the pedal a little and watches the chain.

  Gabe grabs his shoulder. “I mean it. You can’t go! He could hurt you.”

  Tommy stands up, his body as tense as my shoulders. “You got her in a mess this morning.” He looks at me and then back to Gabe. “I’m gonna make sure you don’t do it again.”

  Gabe puffs with indignation. “I got this under control.”

  “Ha!” Tommy laughs. “Since when do you have anything under control? You can’t even control your own body.”

  Gabe’s jaw drops.

  Tommy eyes his brother, his face flushed. If he thinks he’s gone too far, there’s no telling. He doesn’t back down. “This is for your own good.”


  Gabe says nothing. He grabs his bike, slings a long leg over, and pedals away. I watch, numb with dread and confusion. He went ahead without me. Again.

  Tommy watches his brother pedal and then looks at me. “We better get a move on.”

  Neither of us speaks as we cruise out of the parking lot, but my heart is heavy as the concrete barricades that line the highway. I said my good-byes to Bell before we left, but she was unconscious and probably couldn’t hear me. When I glance back at the apartment, it’s all I can do to choke back sobs.

  It’s so hard to make myself pedal, to keep moving forward. What if I turn and flee right now? They’ll kill Bell. It’d be all too easy. And they’ll catch me. All I have is a bike and no supplies. Still, my brain begs me to turn around, tuck tail, and flee. Why don’t I? Because I’m too scared to do anything other than follow orders.

  I hate that part of myself.

  Tommy rides ahead of me, but never more than a few feet. He never looks back, but somehow, he stays close no matter how fast or slow I pedal. It’s like he can sense me behind him. I think of Gabe taking off without me again. One minute, he’s all tender looks and concern, and the next, he’s flying off the handle and leaving me behind. He’s so hot and cold. But he must care about me if he went to Prentice and asked for my game to be rigged. Asking anything from Prentice has to be taking your life into your hands.

  Yet it’s Tommy who leads me to the warehouse and maneuvers us around the dozens of bikes, motorcycles, trucks, and even whickering horses parked outside. There are so many vehicles, so many more than this morning. So many men. What will a worked-up crowd do to the loser in the hallway?

  Tommy leads me up to the side doors. He parks his bike along the wall and helps me off mine. When he steadies me, one hand on my elbow, I drag myself away.

  “I’ve got it,” I say coldly.

  He looks hurt. “I was just trying to help.”

  His gaze is full of pity, which I don’t want. What has pity ever done for me? It’s never saved me pain or anguish. It won’t save me or the little life I carry inside me. If I die, the baby dies. I could tell Prentice, but then they’ll definitely never let me go. My hand finds my stomach. I have to win.

  When we get inside the warehouse, it’s no better. A chorus of male voices throbs from the center of the building like a beating heart. Tommy walks the torch-lined hallway, not looking back at me.