The Breeders Series: The Complete Box Set

by Katie French

  Don’t let him die, I pray. Don’t let him already be dead.

  Tommy sets Gabe down on the pavement and opens the van’s back doors. I suck in a deep breath and run to them. He needs to get Gabe back to Harpy fast.

  When I get inside, Tommy’s already pulled off Gabe’s clothes. I tell myself not to be embarrassed, but I don’t know where to put my eyes. I slough off the pack and climb up to brush dirt and debris out of Gabe’s hair.

  “Most of these seem superficial,” Tommy says, though he sounds uncertain. He’s taken off his own shirt to wipe Gabe’s skin clean. He frowns and waves me over. “This one’s gushing,” he says, taking my hand. He presses it over a wound, wet and warm with blood. “Press hard.”

  I hold my palm to Gabe’s chest. His flesh is still warm, but I know that could only be temporary. Tears come to my eyes. “Is he…alive?”

  Tommy nods, tossing his shirt aside. He pulls out the keys and starts for the front of the van. “I’m gonna drive real fast. Do everything you can to keep pressure on that wound and him on his back.” Tommy scampers out, slams the door, and gets in the driver’s seat. When he starts the engine, I brace myself.

  The ride back is hell.

  Tommy drives faster than I thought the van was capable of. He drives with headlights on even though it’s dangerous. He swerves around potholes and old tires, nearly flipping us over. It’s everything I can do keep my palm on Gabe’s wound. We rock back and forth. Several times, I almost tumble over his body.

  When we skid to a stop, I almost cry out with relief. Tommy flings himself out of the van, runs to the back, and looks at me. In the moonlight, his hair and eyes are wild. His bare chest is splattered with his brother’s blood. His expression—loving and fearful—breaks my heart.

  He lifts Gabe into his arms, climbs out of the van, and heads to the apartment. I clamber out, sick as a dog, but determined to keep going. Running to the complex, I yank open the door. I wonder where Prentice’s men are. They were right here, but now they are gone. I sprint up the stairs and hold that door open, too. Tommy tromps up, though I can tell he’s used up his last bit of strength. And to think, twelve hours ago, Tommy was being beaten bloody. He probably still has broken ribs that feel like knives with every step, and his eye is nearly puffed shut, but you wouldn’t know he’s in any pain.

  He charges down the hallway and into the apartment.

  Harpy’s gasp from inside tells me the doc is in. I fall to my knees and throw up until I’m empty.

  When I wake with a start, dawn light is spilling in through the hallway window. I’ve passed out on the floor outside the apartment. A nasty pile of my own vomit has crusted near my head. And every ache and pain I had when I went to sleep has multiplied. Sitting up brings tears to my eyes. Every inch of my body feels broken. Not shattered, but misshapen like a bike that’s been run over and left in the street. I crawl toward the open doorway where the voices are and stand up.

  Tommy’s slumped over, asleep in a chair. He’s still shirtless and bloody. As I walk over to him, his mouth twitches. A fitful sleep. I’m sure he never intended to let unconsciousness take him. With a man like Tommy, sleep has to claim its victim by force. It takes all my willpower not to brush a dark lock of hair off his forehead.

  Murmuring voices draw me away and down the hall. In Tommy’s austere bedroom, I find Harpy standing over the Gabe’s body, which is dressed in so many bandages that he looks mummified. This must’ve been what I looked like when I was burned. Did Bell feel a choking gasp in her throat when she saw me for the first time? Did she want to rewind time and go back? If I’d been just a bit faster… In my memory, I replay the scene—his hand reaching out for the painting. All he wanted was to put something right in the world where too much is wrong. All he wanted was beauty in the chaos. Now look at him.

  “Where’s my aunt?” I ask, taking Gabe’s hand. He feels so cold.

  “Are you okay?” I whirl around, and Tommy’s there in the doorway. He runs a hand through his dark hair. “I would’ve had Harpy look at you, but he had his hands full.”

  I rub my thumb over Gabe’s hand. “I’m standing, aren’t I? I’m breathing.”

  “He’s breathing, too.” Harpy presses two fingers into the crook of Gabe’s neck, taking a pulse. “He’s going to live, this one.”

  I nod as the tears threaten again. “Are you sure?”

  “Sure as shootin’. Sure as any of us are gonna live another day anyway. Most’a the wounds ain’t deep. He’ll be mad he’s got so many scars, though.” When he looks at me, his face darkens for a minute, and I wonder if he’s keeping something from me. But he puts on a smile that doesn’t quite meet his eyes and says, “You kids really do know how to use up most of your nine lives, dontcha? Keepin’ me busy.”

  “We were trying to be careful,” I say.

  Harpy snorts. “Hate to see what comes back when you try to be reckless.” Then he points to the bags. “But that booty might be worth it. Have you seen what’s in there?”

  I shake my head. “We grabbed it so fast.”

  “Antibiotics, painkillers, heart medication, insulin. And most of it was made in the last few years.” He ticks them off on his thick fingers. “I never seen such a haul.”

  “It’s Breeder’s stock. Stolen,” I add.

  When Harpy shakes his head in wonder, a small part of me considers if we should trust Harpy with this much information. But then, Tommy knows him best. “Is there anything in there to solve Gabe’s seizure problems?”

  “Not solve, but there’s Diastat to help stop seizures when they come. If you’re wondering if this means getting them away from Prentice, I suspect it does.”

  I blow out a sigh and smile at Harpy. “But don’t you…work for Prentice?”

  Harpy waves a dismissive hand. “Everybody ‘round here ‘works’ for Prentice.” He makes air quotes with his fingers. “We’re all under Prentice’s thumb ‘cause he got all the wealth and we got all the need. If you’re good at somethin’, Prentice uses you. If you ain’t, well, he ain’t got time for you. Luckily, I got know-how. I seen Prentice throw somebody in the puzzles just because they scuffed his shoe.”

  “God, he’s so awful.” I picture Prentice’s face and want to punch it.

  “That he is,” Harpy says, running a hand through what’s left of his hair.

  I lean against the wall, mulling this over. “I’d rather starve than work for Prentice.”

  Harpy shrugs. “You tell me that when you’re starvin’. You see how you feel then.” He gets up and shuffles to the door. “Gabe oughta be okay. You can tend to him for a while.”

  I look at Gabe, injured but now free from the man who used to control his destiny. When Bell wakes up, I’ll tell her I want to invite Tommy and Gabe along with us when we leave.

  I want them with me. Plain and simple. I’ve never wanted much for myself, and this is what I’ve chosen—two brothers with flaws, faults, and beautiful souls. I want them maybe as much as Houghtson wanted me, though not in the same way. I don’t need to own them or control them. I simply want to hear their laughter, their constant bickering, long after we leave this place. It’s selfish and needy and I’m okay with that.

  “Where’s my aunt sleeping?” I ask Tommy as he brushes past me on his way to the kitchen.

  When he swallows hard, I realize something is wrong.

  “What is it?” My pulse skyrockets. I grab his arm. “Tell me.”

  “I didn’t want you to go flying off the handle.” Tommy grabs his hat and strangles it.

  “Where is Bell?” I demand.

  “It was Prentice,” he says. “He took her when the guards found out we were gone.”

  Tommy and I stand outside Prentice’s warehouse. His hair is still rumpled and his eyes are bleary, but he chugged coffee the whole way here. I had some too, though it was searingly hot. I thought maybe it could burn away some of the cold dread that built the closer we got to Prentice. I was wrong.

  “Knock,�
� I say as we stare at the door.

  Tommy hefts his pack and looks at me. We’ve stuffed half the medicine in this backpack. The other half is hidden somewhere. Tommy wouldn’t say where. He wanted me to be able to tell the truth if Prentice asked if I knew about any other drugs.

  Tommy examines the door like it’s the puzzle he has to solve. God, was that just yesterday he was here solving puzzles for me? With little sleep and so much going on, I’m losing track of days. Less than a week ago, I was in the Breeder’s hospital worrying about Houghtson. It seems like another lifetime.

  God, let Bell be okay, I pray.

  “When we go in, let me do the talking,” Tommy says, staring at the doorknob.

  “You always do all the talking,” I say. “Maybe I have something to say.”

  He looks over at me. “Do you?”

  I shrug. “Maybe. Maybe something brilliant will come to me.”

  “This should be simple,” he says. “We give Prentice the pack. We say, ‘Here’s the payment. A lifetime supply of drugs. We coulda sold it. We coulda hightailed it, but we’re giving it to you. Now we’re even. Give us Bell back.’”

  I smirk at him. “Really? You think Prentice will have nothing to say?”

  Tommy sniffs. “Hope he doesn’t.”

  “Only one way to find out.” I reach my hand out to knock.

  The door pulls open, and both of us jump back in surprise. Prentice’s bodyguard appears in the doorway. The boulder of a man peers down at us from his six-foot-something height. “Come in.”

  Tommy and I do as he says. He leads us into the dim building. When the door clangs shut behind us, I flinch. Why does it feel like we’re walking to our doom?

  We pass the guttering torches and finally reach Prentice’s office. Before we enter, an unhuman cry gurgles from inside. I freeze. Tommy stops in his tracks.

  “What’s going on?” he asks the bodyguard.

  Another scream cuts out from Prentice’s office. Bell! I run toward the screams.

  We stumble into the office. Bell is on her hands and knees, blood pouring out of her mouth. A pool of it has darkened Prentice’s carpet. Another bodyguard stands over her, a set a pliers in his hand. A giant, blood-smeared molar is clamped in their grip. On Prentice’s table, next to his puzzles, sits a pile of bloody teeth.

  “Stop!” I gasp.

  Tommy starts forward, but Prentice’s thugs push him back.

  Her teeth. Oh God, how many have they taken? I look at the blood and then back at her face. Her chin is coated in red. Her lips are swollen. How could they?

  Prentice looks up at us. He was grinning as he watched his man rip Bell’s teeth out. Now his grin fades.

  “Ah, my friends,” Prentice says, clasping his hands. He pushes off the desk he was leaning against and walks toward us. “Here with your payment?”

  Tommy’s eyes blaze as he looks at Bell. “What makes you think you can treat a lady like that?”

  Prentice looks back at Bell, who’s spitting gobs of blood onto the carpet contemptuously. “A lady? Have you heard the mouth on this one?” He picks up a bloody tooth and examines it. “I was asking about your whereabouts, but she’s been closemouthed.” He smirks at his awful joke. “Get her out of here before she bleeds on my Persian rug.”

  “Stop!” I reach for Bell, but they hold me tight and drag her away. What will they do with her?

  I hate Prentice. I’m terrified. I hate that I’m terrified.

  Prentice turns back to us. “So, you’ve found something to please me? Something to make up for yesterday’s display?”

  I look between Tommy and Prentice. If I thought I wanted to speak up, I was wrong. My tongue feels welded to the roof of my mouth. Prentice is so horrible I can’t stop my hands from shaking. Tommy steps up. He opens the backpack and hands it to Prentice.

  “More drugs than you can possibly need. Found at great personal cost. Gabe’s been hurt bad, but we pay our debts. This makes us even.”

  Prentice raises an eyebrow and lifts a pill bottle. He turns the orange cylinder over in his hand and peers at the label. “Española Hospital?”

  Tommy nods. “Booby-trapped to the gills. We were lucky to get out of there alive.”

  “You were.” Prentice still gazes at the bottle. His face is stone. I can’t tell if he’s pleased or not.

  “So…” Tommy says, trying to gauge Prentice. “Are we set? We’ll take Bell and be on our way.”

  Prentice sets the bottle down on his desk. He straightens it so that it lines up with his puzzles and the pile of Bell’s teeth. He selects a bloody tooth and holds it up. The root seems impossibly long.

  “People pay me in a lot of ways,” he says, turning the tooth over. “Some pay me with goods. Some with services. Some pay me in flesh and bone.” He throws the tooth to Tommy, who snatches it out of the air and holds it in his palm.

  “We paid you with drugs.”

  “Yes,” Prentice slowly says. “My drugs.”

  Tommy’s jaw drops. “What?”

  Prentice lifts his head. “My drugs!” With one motion, he swipes everything off his desk. Teeth pelt off my shoes. I curl inward.

  Tommy looks around, panicked. “We didn’t know.”

  “Of course you didn’t know!” Prentice shouts. “I wouldn’t tell you where I keep my drug supply! I’m not an idiot. Am I an idiot, girl?” He looks at me.

  I shake my head. Every inch of me trembles.

  “You broke into my hospital. And now you bring me a fraction of what was there like this will make up what you’ve done.” Prentice grabs a Rubik’s Cube by his desk and slams it down on the surface.

  His bodyguards have circled in. We’re surrounded.

  Tommy holds up his hands defensively. “Now hold on. Don’t you want the rest of your drugs back? We have them. If you let us go—”

  “You think I can’t find where you’ve hidden my drugs?” Prentice raises an eyebrow. “My guards will tear your place apart.” He waves his guards toward us.

  Tommy holds his hands out in defense. “You can be mad at me, but she didn’t have anything to do with it.” He flicks a glance my way. “Let her and her aunt go.”

  Prentice snorts. “She started this mess when she ran into the hallway to save you.” He steps close to me, his cane tapping on the floor. How soon before he strikes me with it? Or asks his minions to rip out all my teeth? I wait for whatever terrible punishment he’ll dole out.

  He grabs my chin. “My puzzle girl. You like a challenge, don’t you? That’s why you help these pathetic excuses for men. Because they’re a puzzle you want to solve.” He turns my face over in the light. He’s too close. I smell his cologne, feel the rough pads of his fingers against my jaw.

  He shoves my away and I stumble back.

  “You’ll compete. Tonight. We’ve invited everyone. Promised them a night to remember. I promise the puzzle will be a challenging one, puzzle girl. Don’t you worry.”

  “Who will complete?” Tommy asks as the guard closes in. One grabs his shoulder, but he fights away. “Who will compete, Prentice?!”

  Prentice smiles wickedly. “You both will. Against each other.”

  Chapter 20

  Janine

  Crying does no good, but I do it anyway. I’ve been at it for the past hour, and it hasn’t solved my problems. All it’s done is left me bleary-eyed and thickheaded.

  Tommy lets me cry. At first, he tried comforting me, but now he just sits beside me.

  Through my tears, I watch his calloused hands, worker hands, rub over themselves. Over and over they rub, as if they could rub this day away. As if they could rub back to before he met me. I’m sure he wishes he’d never stopped my van. If they’d let us go on our merry way, none of this would have happened. We wouldn’t have to face each other in the game. I wouldn’t have to decide between saving myself and saving a boy I can’t imagine being dead.

  Rock meets hard place. I’d laugh if I wasn’t already crying.

  The ro
om Prentice’s thugs locked us in is an old supply closet. Metal shelves line one wall. The air smells faintly of bleach and fertilizer. Tommy and I sit on plastic buckets with metal handles. There’s no window, but a few guttering candles keep it from being pitch dark. The whole thing reminds me too much of the awful hallway. One of us will face it tonight… and no amount of begging will stop what’s to come. I choke on another sob.

  Tommy blows out a breath. “Wonder how Gabe’s doing? Harpy sure as shit ain’t heading back out there to check on him if Prentice has anything to do with it.”

  “I’m worried about Bell, too,” I manage, though even talking about her makes me feel like breaking out into sobs again. Her beautiful teeth scattered on the floor like trash. All because she wanted to protect me yet again.

  He lifts serious, thoughtful eyes to mine. “When I don’t come back, Gabe will need someone. I’d say Harpy will look out for him, but after what happened…”

  “What are you saying?” I ask.

  His face folds with a grief he’s trying desperately to control. “When I don’t make it out—when it’s over…”

  I shake my head. “Don’t say that.”

  He locks eyes with me. “You don’t think I’d beat you, do you? Even if I could…I couldn’t.”

  I put my head in my hands. “I can’t beat you, either.”

  His fingers brush my cheek and, slowly, he lifts my face until we’re looking into each other’s eyes. “You have to.”

  “How can I? How can I live with myself knowing I sent you to the hallway?”

  Tommy’s eyes brim with tears, but he won’t let them fall. “Janine, Prentice would never let me live. He’s hated me for too long. I never liked him, not from the start, and when Gabe started hanging out with him, I made it very clear what I thought of Prentice. Now he has an excuse to get rid of me. He has no grudge against you. When you win, take your aunt and run.”

  “I can’t just let you die.”

  He pushes up his cap and scratches his forehead. “Oh God, what’re we gonna do?”