I almost laughed, a manic need to smile had me ducking my head and rubbing my face in an effort to force it away. I wasn’t sure I liked Shadow’s claim, or the fact Kingsley had given his blessing, but the way he spoke to Timber filled me with outright glee.
“Alright, now that we got things settled, let’s go get the newbie, and, Timber?” Shadow released his hold and Timber wheezed for breath as he rubbed at the angry red marks already settling into the skin at his neck. “The law says you keep your hands off the newbie until she’s found her place. If she chooses the Whore Pit, then you can fill as many of her fuckin’ holes as you like, but until then, hands off.”
Shadow turned, and with a nod, he signaled that I precede him. And I did without question. Whatever was going on with Shadow and me, having him at my back didn’t bother me like it used to, and it was a damn sight better than having the other soldiers there. Maybe I was beginning to trust him, or maybe I was losing my ever-loving mind.
10
SHADOW
I reacted on instinct alone; a primal, bloodthirsty impulse to protect what was mine. As soon as Timber appeared in my line of sight, an image of him watching the then sixteen-year-old Nada getting brutally assaulted crossed my mind, and I saw a red haze of fury. His neck felt as fragile as a twig beneath my hands, and the need to squeeze the life out of him was so intense I couldn’t for the life of me understand how I dialed it back. For a split second, I feared Kingsley would see my attack on one of his soldiers as an attack on him personally, especially if that attack was over the girl. But in the end, he wouldn’t give a shit about a little bit of territory marking.
The girl . . . Nada . . . I followed her as she wound her way through the maze of corridors that led to the Wild Zone. She’d almost hit the nail on the head when she’d accused me of being scared, but I wasn’t scared. I was fucking terrified. If Kingsley had any indication of how badly I wanted her, he’d take her away. I’d already lost too much in this life, and I was pretty sure one more hit would break me. My fear was a backseat passenger to my desire, though. I might as well be collared and leashed, she had me so wound up in knots, and she wasn’t even trying. I couldn’t ignore the feelings, the pull towards her was inconceivable, and I was a selfish son-of-a-bitch. I wanted her. I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to see the look in her eyes when she came. I wanted to be buried so deep inside her we’d be inseparable. I wanted to peel back her skin and see if there was any light under that darkness. MINE. She was so fucking mine my hands trembled with the fear that came with it. I clenched my fists tight and wished I was in my room with my punching bag, so I could pound the panic right out of me. As it was, the three men behind me were walking a fine line. One wrong word and I’d unleash my fury on them, consequences be damned.
Nada pushed open the door to the Wild Zone and entered ahead of me. I had to duck under the low doorframe, as did the three men behind me, when we entered the cavernous room that housed the cages for new arrivals. We’d had a food and possession drop this morning, but you wouldn’t have known it now. The cages, only a few short hours ago, had been full of food, water, and crap that the people above no longer wanted. I snorted. They gave us their trash in an act they regarded as selfless and compassionate. It was fucking trash, trash that we hoarded like feral rodents. Right now though, all the cages bar one were empty.
I stilled and watched Nada as she zeroed in on the only occupied cage. The soldiers behind us moved forward and stood by my side, watching, curious about the newcomer who was clearly female. This was why I’d brought Nada. The soldiers would have used and abused the newbie before she even had a chance. Every newcomer was supposed to get a chance, a chance to prove they were useful, whether it be on their back or knees in the Whore Pit, or another skill they had learned in the above world. We didn’t get a lot of female drop offs, but when we did, the scum of the Underworld would come out in full force, ready to lay their claim on someone vulnerable.
In the furthest cage, backed into the dimly lit corner, was a woman. Long, dark hair hung around her face, her knees curled into her chest, and her arms were wrapped tightly around herself. She was trying to make herself small and insignificant. Thing was, a new female in the Underworld could be as small as she wanted, but she sure as shit wasn’t insignificant.
Nada moved to grab the key off the wall, but Timber beat her to it. Her hand automatically moved to her knife, and Ginger moved forward to protect Timber from her wrath. Out of the three soldiers, Scotty was the one with the brains. He stayed back, out of the line of fire.
“Open the gate, Timber, but the girl goes in first,” I mumbled, quickly diffusing the standoff. Dumb shit was going to get himself killed, which I didn’t really care about. What I did find myself caring about was the lashing Nada would get for doing it. Timber’s face went from triumph to disappointment in a heartbeat, and with a sulking expression, he stepped forward and unlocked the cage.
“Hey, little mousey, mousey, mouse,” Timber taunted. I watched Nada’s hand flex around the hilt of her knife, but she didn’t pull it out. “You found yourself a new home.”
As soon as the door opened, Nada cast me a quick glance. In her eyes was a question: Could she trust me to watch her back? She would be making herself vulnerable by ignoring the soldiers behind her, her entire focus on the newbie. I gave her a subtle nod before she entered the cage. My alliance and loyalty had always been to one man, Kingsley, but his daughter had slipped under my defenses, and the one thing she could definitely count on . . . I had her fucking back.
She paused a moment, as if collecting herself, before she lowered onto her haunches in front of the woman. I didn’t miss the grimace; the pain in her healing body had to be substantial to raise a reaction from her.
“Hey,” she whispered. “My name’s Nada. I’m here to make sure you transition into the Underworld without any problems.” I’d never heard her speak with such a soft, gentle tone. It had me captivated the moment words began to slip off her tongue. The woman, however, remained still, her head buried into her knees. “I know you’re frightened, but I need you to trust me. I’ve done this before with other women, just like you. I’m going to get you out of here, and you’ll be taken to a small office with a computer where we put your name into the system. Then you’ll get the chance to take a warm shower and have something to eat before we find you a safe place to stay in whichever sector you belong in.” Nada inched forward. “There are men behind me, but I want you to ignore them and focus on me. I heard Timber has a small dick and he doesn’t know how to use it, so you’re completely safe.” Timber growled out a few obscenities from the cage door, and I suppressed the urge to smile. “Is that all your stuff?” There was a small pink bag by the woman’s side sitting on the concrete floor. It was a childish looking thing for a woman to carry, but whatever the fuck. I’d seen stranger things in my time. “I like your bag. I wish I had one like that. I don’t even have a bag because I was born here.” That seemed to raise the woman’s interest, and one painfully slow inch at a time, her head rose.
“I like your hair,” Nada murmured. The men at my side snickered, but she ignored them as she hesitantly reached out a hand and ran her fingers through the long, dark straight hair. It was an odd thing to do, and Nada’s eyes seemed lost in wonder as she gently stroked the woman’s hair.
“You’re an innocent?”
Everyone in the room stilled at the small, childlike voice.
“How old are you?” Nada whispered, the shock in her tone evident.
“Twelve,” the girl replied.
Fucking twelve? She was a fucking child!
“W . . . why are you here?” Nada stammered.
“I broke the law,” the girl breathed, almost afraid to speak it aloud.
“What did you do?” I barely heard Nada’s question
“I hurt my daddy.”
“Why? Did he hurt you?”
“It was an accident. He wouldn’t let me sleep over at Danyelle’s house, so I t
ried to take his car, and he stepped in front of it. I promise it was an accident. I didn’t mean to hurt him.” The child’s voice was small, nothing but a whisper, but it echoed off the stone walls like thunder.
An accident, a childish accident, and they’d sent her to the Underworld? And they called us motherfucking animals!
“Okay, I believe you,” Nada said in a hushed, pacifying tone. “Let’s get you out of here. We’ll get you something to eat, maybe even some hot chocolate. I know someone who has a secret stash, and I know she’d be happy to share it with you.”
Slowly, the girl unwound her arms and reached for her small pink bag, clutching it tightly as she rose to her feet, placing her other hand in Nada’s outstretched one. She was a tiny thing; her body was at that stage where it was trapped between childhood and adolescence, all gangly limbs with a barely recognizable swell at her chest. Scotty and Ginger watched with shocked faces, but Timber, he looked like a wolf salivating over a prize fucking lamb.
“Move,” Nada ordered when he didn’t step away from the cage doorway.
“I’ll take her,” Timber murmured, his eyes never leaving the young girl.
Before I could step forward to intervene, Nada pushed the young girl behind her body and swung at Timber, hitting him in the jaw with a move he was completely unprepared for. He stumbled back and fell on his ass.
“You bitch!” Timber roared as he sprang to his feet and raced at her. Nada met him head-on, ducking under a wild swing and punching Timber in the kidney. The man grunted before reaching out to grab her hair. Forcing my way between Scotty and Ginger, I grabbed Timber and pulled him clean off his feet, throwing him against the wall behind us. With feral eyes, Nada went for him again, and I grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back against my chest. She fought me like a crazed animal, and I grunted as an elbow connected just under by ribs.
I pressed my head against hers and whispered in her ear, “Wait for the cage. He’s yours, I promise. If you kill him now though, Kingsley is gonna take that little girl and make her life a livin’ hell just to punish you. You feelin’ me, tough girl?”
At that, she stilled, her chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. Timber rose to his feet, a trickle of blood falling down his face from where his head had connected with the wall.
“The girl goes through processing just like everyone, and she’s underage, so keep your fuckin’ hands off,” I growled.
Timber was seething, his nostrils flaring with barely restrained fury, yet he knew this wasn’t a battle he could win. He also knew violating a child was frowned upon in the Underworld, and he’d be dealt with by his fellow soldiers if he so much as touched one inappropriately. We might be blood thirsty criminals, but we protected our young.
“I was just gonna escort her,” Timber spat out.
“Yeah, well, I think Nada has this, so you can back the fuck off.”
“On a first name basis now, are we?”
I released Nada, having felt her wince as my hand pressed against her rib. When I would have stepped forward and finished off the mouthy little fuck, Nada’s voice stopped me in my tracks.
“He’s mine, in the cage. He’ll be crying like a little bitch before he’s carried out of there.”
Scotty snickered, and Ginger looked a little pale. I imagined by the way the new girl winced that my smile looked dark and bloodthirsty. Timber was going down, and Nada wouldn’t let him leave the cage until he was crying like a pussy.
11
NADA
Her name was Grace; it was a name that didn’t belong in the Underworld. She didn’t belong in the Underworld. She was nothing more than a child, guided by innocence and childish impetuousness. Grace had made a mistake and would now pay for it for the rest of her life. Fifteen had been the youngest inmate on record, a gangbanger named Louis who had been on a steady path of destruction, following in his older brother’s footsteps. Louis had died of pneumonia three months after arriving in the Underworld. His brother, Nathaniel, had died in the cage four weeks later.
Grace shouldn’t have been here; her crime had clearly been an accident, yet the inmate report we found tucked in her little pink bag from the holy-as-art-thou bastards above had made the child out to be a vengeful girl with no hope of rehabilitation. Her father had been killed in the accident, a head injury from the force of impact as his head hit the ground. Not only did Grace have that burden to live with, but she also had to learn to live in a world of death and violence.
I glanced at the tiny girl, her big blue eyes fixed on Dejohn as he asked her questions in his familiar, deep timbre. He hated using the computer, but Grace had garnered a crowd of curious onlookers, and we didn’t want to risk me being seen behind the electronic device I was banned from using. In reality, nobody really cared if I entered newbies into the system, but Kingsley knew of my fascination with the computer, and banned me out of spite. Regan was sitting by Grace’s side, holding her hand and gently stroking her hair. Regan was not supposed to be in this room at all. I’d tried to force her out, but she’d yelled at me, which shocked me to stilled silence. She’d taken advantage of my frozen state and stepped clear around me to take up position beside Grace. In the end, I knew having Regan here was right. I was clearly out of my depth, providing comfort not one of my strong suits.
While Regan gave Grace what I could not, I held myself still and alert, ready for anything and everything. While it was uncommon for Kingsley to make an appearance and greet new inmates until after they’d been entered into the system, I was sure that a young girl would quickly gain his attention.
We had been in the arrival room for over an hour now, and he still hadn’t shown up. Maybe he wouldn’t. It was clear the new girl was absolutely terrified, and if Kingsley did show up, she’d completely flip out.
Outside the room was a horde of curious inmates, hoping to catch sight of Grace. A representative of the innocents had arrived only moments ago. Paul, a tall, lanky man of twenty-three was already demanding access to the child. Ordinarily, such a thing would not be permitted. The innocents, for the most part, were kept separate from the darker elements of the Underworld, living in their own sector and keeping themselves busy in their own quiet way. Grace was a special case, though; she was a big, vast ocean of murky grey that not even I was entirely sure what to do with.
Rubbing my pounding head, I could scarcely drag my eyes away from Grace. I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that the girl was only twelve, and that she had been sentenced to the Underworld over an accident. She was a red. Plenty of newbies cried innocence upon arrival, though the incriminating reports that were delivered with them made it hard to believe. Now, my mind was a tangle of disbelief and mistrust. How many others were here because of accidents? My preconceived notions were full of doubt. Dejohn always claimed the world above introduced new laws that were very black and white, when in truth, almost every case was full of different shades of grey.
I felt more than saw Shadow move at my side, and from the corner of my eye, I watched as Kingsley entered the room. He was dressed completely in black, his dark hair combed back, creating a harsh, blunt aura. His dark brown eyes were set on Grace as he strolled in, Timber, Scotty, and Ginger behind him. His eyes left the girl for a brief moment to take in Shadow, whom he appraised with a critical eye. Then, with the ever faithful disdain he wore like a robe, he glared at me, his lip practically curling with distaste.
“Have the seamstress removed,” he commanded, his deep voice an offensive rasping in the silence of the room.
Grace whimpered as Regan quickly stood, casting me a desperate look, before she moved towards the door. I knew what she had asked me in that silent, anxious moment, and without question, I stepped forward to replace Regan as she exited the room. My body was now strategically placed between Grace and Kingsley, and though I didn’t have the same soft, nurturing qualities that Regan possessed, I could keep the child safe.
“She’s twelve?”
&n
bsp; “Yes,” Dejohn replied with that casual calmness that never ceased to amaze me.
“She killed a man? She’s a red?”
“It would appear so.”
“Her father?”
“Yes, bass.”
Kingsley’s surly gaze settled back on me. The corner of my mouth tipped in a satisfied smirk, and the prick smiled right back. The irony was not lost on me. This innocent little flower had done what I could not, and purely by accident.
“De innocents ah asking for her.”
“She’s not an innocent,” was Kingsley’s terse reply.
“She doesn’t belong here,” I interceded.
“I beg to differ. She’s a killer, and she’s found herself a new home.”
“She’s a child. She should be protected; she won’t survive in the red sector,” I growled.
Kingsley was quiet a moment as he considered Grace carefully. “She’ll be housed with the blues until she comes of age, then she’ll get her chance to prove exactly where she belongs in this world. You’d better hope she learns a worthy skill between now and then; otherwise, she’ll be on her back in the Whore Pit. I believe Timber is hoping for the latter.”
My fist clenched, and the world around me narrowed. We already had one girl in this room who had killed her father. I was about to make it two.
“Rocket an’ Claire ave’ space available since Ivy shacked up with Jude. Dey’d be a good match.”
Dejohn’s voice infiltrated the fury and knocked on the door to common sense. Kingsley’s eyes dared me to do it. With his dog pack surrounding him like rabid animals, I didn’t stand a chance, but I was sure I could get close enough to inflict a little pain. Like the slow pull of Velcro tearing apart with an abrasive rip, I tore my gaze away.
“The child goes to Rocket and Claire; Scotty can escort her.” Before I had a chance to argue, Kingsley went on, “Have the clothes maker go with you. Children are protected, regardless of their criminal record, and they will be treated as such until they become of age.” With that, he turned to leave.
When Nothing Is All You've Got Page 10
