Heathens (Badlands Book 4)

by Natalie Bennett

  And then there was me.

  The black cobra tat coiled down my arm represented everything I was, a lethal monster of my own making.

  The inverted cross tatted beneath my eye represented what I stood for.

  Together, we’d built the foundation for the Savages, a satanic cult no one with half a brain fucked with.

  But things had most definitely changed.

  Romero had Cali, and she’d made him semi-human again. Grimm had Arlen, someone who accepted every immoral part of him. Our acolytes had families of their own.

  I was still wrapping my head around the fact this pair of assholes had found themselves two kickass women to hold onto. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a tiny bit envious.

  And right now, it was all at risk.

  I felt I played a role in how we got here. Nah, scratch that, I knew I’d greatly contributed to this clusterfuck we were dealing with.

  It was another black mark on my character card.

  Personally, I couldn’t give two fucks about myself, but this was my family, and I gave all the shits about them.

  If I thought it would end things peacefully with no repercussions, I’d give my life for theirs with no hesitation.

  I was the most expandable and the least likely to be missed. I was gonna die a painful death eventually—it came with the territory. At least that way, it’d be worth it.

  This was the Badlands, though, and every undeserving asshole seemed to want a piece of our home.

  Peace was a foreign word they’d never understand. They’d kill me just for the fuck of it and still come for them.

  Inside the house we were as safe as could be. The compound was damn near a fortress of security.

  It would take a damn big militia to get past the acolytes, but they weren’t just people in robes. They were family, too. We couldn’t risk their lives just cuz they’d happily die protecting our more than capable asses.

  The Badlands was more than just the compound, though, and we couldn’t stay locked up forever.

  With Romero’s kid here, Grimm’s baking in the oven, and me possibly having one of my own, we couldn’t afford to sit by and wait to strike out even the smallest threat.

  Plus, the fun for me was in the carnage.

  “I got an errand I need you to run,” Romero said, drawing me out of my mental tangent.

  He passed Adelaide back to Cali, dropped a kiss on her lips, and motioned for me to follow him.

  The second we stepped outside, my brows shot up and I whistled. “Exactly what kind of errand is this?” I asked.

  Sensing Grimm behind me, I moved to the side but didn’t look away from my latest pride and joy.

  The plum colored seventy-three Plymouth had been my project for the last couple months.

  With the metal guard rail, floodlights, and beastly Maxxis tires that could handle anything, I’d created the perfect machine for Badlands terrain.

  “Where’d you get the right engine?” I asked Romero.

  “I need you to pick a package up from Luther’s.” He easily dodged my question.

  “That can’t be it. You didn’t have to finish this for me to do that. You didn’t have to finish this at all. So what’s up?”

  “Think of it as a bonus incentive,” Grimm answered.

  Bonus incentive?

  There was something I wasn’t being told.

  I looked between them, getting nothing but well-mastered stares of impassivity.

  “You two realize I know I’m being left in the dark about something, right?”

  “Do you trust us?” Grimm asked.

  “Is that a trick question, or just a really stupid one?”

  “Right now, it’s the only one that matters.”

  Hearing his somber undertone, I bit back my smartass response.

  “I trust you two with my life.”

  “Good. Car’s already loaded with everything you’ll need,” Romero cut in.

  I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but I did know that evasiveness would be all I got, the more questions I asked.

  I also knew Rome never did anything without a reason.

  I’d been by his side for years, and had only questioned a plan of his once.

  Resigned and knowing I’d gotten all the details I was going to, I ran a hand through my hair and asked, “When do I leave?”

  Romero’s face broke into a smug grin and he held up a car key.

  “Now.”

  Chapter Five

  BLUE

  A flurry of movement out in the yard caught my attention.

  Three dogs were feasting on a carcass. They were too far away for me to tell what it was they’d managed to catch, but they were certainly making a messy meal of it.

  Their muzzles were stained red. I could practically hear their jaws gnashing on bones as the animal was torn apart.

  Shaking my head, I continued on my way. As I was passing by the old cafeteria, I paused again, this time because the woman I’d seen two nights prior was sitting at one of the tables.

  No one else was in the large room but her; people never actually ate in there. The kitchen barely functioned outside of two faulty microwaves, and due to a rat problem, food was stored elsewhere.

  I’d seen her the day before through an upper window, wandering around outside. The men had looked at her with disgust and the women had given her a wide berth.

  The hostility on their faces gave away how they really felt. It was the exact same way they felt about me.

  We weren’t welcome here.

  From what I’d seen so far, though, it was apparent that this woman had history with these people.

  Whatever her connection to Vitus was kept her safe, just like with me.

  The one thing I had that she didn’t was the symbol on my neck. The inverted cross Romero had burned into my flesh was now a permanent scar. It made me stand out even more, but it also was my claim to his hierarchy.

  I was technically a Savage, and that had turned out to be a welcome buffer. I never thought the mark of the devil would wind up being a blessing instead of a curse.

  Unsure of how long I had until Vitus came to find, or sent for me, I decided to make my way over to her.

  She looked much better than she had in the hallway. Her bundle of tangles had been chopped off, leaving a pixie cut behind. Her rags had been swapped for clothes that fit, and all the skin that had been marred with dirt and whatever else was clean.

  She seemed lost in her own little world, twirling a spoon in a half-eaten bowl of broth. Her head turned towards me as I drew closer, and it took effort not to visibly react to what she looked like.

  This was my first time being able to see her up close. The gaunt lines on her sunken face and dark circles beneath her eyes were nothing in comparison to the painful looking burn scars covering her entire left cheek.

  I stared at her, and she at me.

  Her brown eyes were dead, empty of light and aged far beyond her years.

  In spite of her haggard appearance, I knew she couldn’t have been much older than my fresh twenty-four.

  “I’m, Mavi, but everyone calls me Blue,” I casually introduced myself, sliding onto the bench across from her.

  Noticing she was trembling, I folded my hands on the table in front of me to appear as non-threatening as possible.

  Less than a minute rolled by when I realized my second assumption was just as wrong as my first.

  This woman wasn’t shaking because she was scared; she was shaking from the withdrawal of whatever drug she’d been doped up on.

  There were multiple syringe marks up and down her wrists.

  A light sheen of sweat was beading on her forehead, and her posture was stiffer up close than it had seemed from afar.

  Dropping my gaze to her fingers, I saw the nails were chewed down to the bloody stubs.

  This had Vitus written all over it. Drugs weren’t something people had lying around. Those who sold them were able to live comfortably due t
o their high bartering demands.

  The question that needed answered was why?

  “Blue, huh? So you’re Vitus’ new dolly.” The woman finally spoke.

  There wasn’t any bitterness in her tone; it was just a statement, one I didn’t agree with.

  “I’m nobody’s doll,” I replied evenly, more taken back by the harsh quality of her voice than the ridiculous label.

  “Is there something I can do to help you?” I asked as her trembling increased to the point her spoon was repeatedly tapping the side of her bowl.

  She ignored me, her eyes roaming over my person, stopping on the brand on my neck.

  And there it was.

  The flicker of recognition and a slight smile before it all faded into a look of utter sadness.

  “You’re one of the lucky ones.”

  “You think this makes me lucky?” I touched the bumpy tissue on my neck.

  “They’re going to take care of you. He’s going to keep you safe. Safe. You’ll be safe.”

  I gathered I couldn’t converse with her on a normal level. Her responses were robotically monotone and curt, or didn’t make much sense.

  Still, I felt compelled to figure out who she was and what had happened to her.

  I leaned back and decided to go with a different approach.

  “The lucky people sent me here as…collateral.”

  “Me too. Tillie. Too.”

  Tillie? At that obscure statement, I found myself looking her over once more. She didn’t have any tattoos and lacked the mark of the Savages.

  I tried not to be vain, but she didn’t look like the type of woman any of the men I’d gotten to know would touch.

  She zoned out again, staring into her bowl of green liquid.

  Silence settled between us.

  I waited to see if she would speak without my prompting. I never expected her to say what she did next.

  “My name’s Beth.”

  Beth….Beth…Beth…

  My spine stiffened as realization set in.

  “You…You’re Beth?” I repeated, louder than intended, positive I’d misheard her. “You’re Arlen’s sister?”

  “Half-sister,” she corrected harshly.

  I found myself scrutinizing her once again. She couldn’t have resembled Arlen any less. Her sister was gorgeous and had an exotic look about her.

  I’m sure before life dragged her through the dirt, Beth was pretty in her own way, but there were no similarities between them. Their hair wasn’t even the same shade of brown.

  My mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. I was at a loss of words.

  Why was she here?

  She was supposed to be tucked away inside Centriole, under strict guard.

  Furthermore, she was supposed to be pregnant. It was my understanding that was why I was even here.

  Vitus was supposed to be helping infiltrate an entire city to find the woman sitting right in front of me.

  I honed in on her stomach. She clearly wasn’t. But that didn’t necessarily mean she hadn’t been.

  I’d been around women who’d lost all signs of pregnancy as soon as their baby was born. With Beth being in such an emaciated state, that could easily be the case.

  “Did you have a baby?” I asked, keeping my tone soft.

  She nodded her head slightly.

  My gut rolled as I thought back to her condition the first night I saw her, piecing two and two together.

  I asked my next question, knowing I wasn’t going to like her answer.

  “What,” I started and stopped, “where is your baby, Beth?”

  She lifted her shoulders in a subtle shrug and stared down at the bowl sitting between us. I wanted to reach across the table and throttle her.

  “Beth. Where. Is. The. Baby?” I slowly enunciated each word.

  “He’s gone,” she barely whispered.

  “The baby’s gone?” I breathed out, feeling a tightening in my chest.

  Did gone mean he was dead? Or had Vitus simply taken him away from her?

  I told myself I didn’t want to know any details, had no desire to figure out what happened, but I knew I needed the truth.

  Vitus had purposely built a whole agenda based on a lie, and I’d been swept up into his conspiracy. That in itself gave me the right to know what the hell was going on.

  “Beth, can you make this make sense for me?” I twirled a finger in the air between the two of us.

  Hearing voices, I glanced over my shoulder and spotted two Venom members coming down one of the halls. They were talking to one another, paying us little attention.

  “Promise to help me, then I’ll tell you everything,” Beth rushed out, speaking normally for the first time since I’d sat down.

  “What do you need my help with?”

  I wasn’t sure how I could help her accomplish anything when we were both wards of the same prison.

  Her eyes were wild, darting from the two men, then back to me. “Tonight. Cell block D.” And with that, she was gone, scooting away from the table, knocking her bowl to the floor, and all but running out of the cafeteria.

  “Great,” I muttered to myself, staring into the empty hall she’d retreated down.

  I debated going after her, but thought of better it. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself or overwhelm her.

  The two men laughed at her expense. I remained exactly where I was as they passed behind me. From my peripheral, I saw them staring at me.

  Their expressions were indifferent. I looked away before they could tell I was watching them.

  The words “Savage cunt” drifted back to me as they entered the hall Beth had just gone down.

  I bristled for a second before simply brushing the insult off. They could call me anything they wanted, as long as they left me alone.

  I sat for a bit longer, trying to figure out what Vitus could really be up to and why he involved the Savages, continually coming up blank.

  A prickling sensation on the back of my neck had me looking over my shoulder again.

  I immediately spotted another of the Venom watching me from the opposite side of the room.

  Even with distance between us, I knew the color of his eyes was bright green. His hair was sandy brown.

  I had never heard him utter a word but I’d caught him watching me multiple times when no one else was around, just like he was now.

  His gaze held no malice or lust, but something else. Concern maybe?

  “Or maybe I’m losing my mind,” I laughed humorlessly.

  Rising from the table, I boldly walked to where he was standing, holding eye contact the entire way.

  He was unnaturally attractive and not that much taller than myself.

  From what I’d been able to tell since I’d been at the prison, he wasn’t longstanding Venom, nor a newbie. He was somewhere in the middle.

  I’d made it a habit not to talk to any of Vitus’ men, holding down my role of naïve little Blue, but I was tired of playing the role of a helpless damsel. I was tired of not knowing what was going on around me.

  All I’d concluded so far was what I’d already known. Nothing was ever as it seemed. That could be the Badlands’ catchphrase.

  “Does Vitus have you watching me?” I asked the man.

  When he remained silent, I looked up at him and quirked a brow as if to say, well?

  He came forward, and for a brief moment I thought he was going to walk right into me. At the last second, he side stepped, brushing my shoulder with his.

  He whispered something that sounded like, “Ave Satanas,” and continued on his way.

  His steps never faltered.

  Hope bloomed in my chest knowing those words were linked to Cobra.

  When I whirled around, though, there was no sign of the green-eyed man anywhere.

  For a second, I thought I may very well be losing my mind, but if I was certain of one thing, it was that I wasn’t crazy.

  If he’d really said those two words,
there was only one person who would have sent him here.

  It seemed Vitus wasn’t the only one with ulterior motives.

  Chapter Six

  BLUE

  There’s the calm before the storm, and then the storm hits.

  And it hit hard.

  The sense of foreboding started in my gut the second I returned to my room.

  It worsened as the evening progressed.

  It was to the point where I considered not going to meet Beth, but really, what other choice did I have? She was my only hope of getting answers.

  So there I was, entering a part of the prison that was unused and in worse shape than the rest of the entire building.

  Weeds were sprouting through tiny cracks in the floor and mold was growing along one wall.

  After flipping a few random switches, I realized the power didn’t work here either.

  Even with the moon shining down through a large skylight, it seemed ten times darker than it should have.

  I stopped and searched for some sign of her.

  If Vitus woke and saw I wasn’t beside him, he’d assume I’d gone to the bathroom. It wouldn’t take him long to realize that wasn’t where I was, which meant my time was limited.

  Hearing movement above me, I looked straight up and spotted Beth watching me from the third level of cells.

  “I did it all for him,” she sighed, her voice carrying down to me. “I left home, betrayed my sister, slept with strangers. I did everything he wanted.”

  “Did it all for who?” I questioned.

  “Vitus, who else?”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I kept quiet. It seemed even the cruelest of men could be loved.

  “We both want Zane,” she added after a minute of silence. “Promise me you’ll find him before he does.” She stepped closer to the rusted banister.

  I couldn’t see her clearly due to the lack of light but I could feel her heavy stare.

  “And where is Zane, Beth?” I asked.

  “Do you promise?” Her voice shook this time.

  She stepped forward again.

  “Beth,” I warned, understanding her intent.

  “I’ll find him,” I lied, “but you have to tell me where he is first.”

  I didn’t fucking know who Zane was. Maybe the baby? But how would Vitus not know where he was?