The Barrier Between (Collector Series # 2) (28 page)

Neither one felt like questions to me, so I didn’t
respond.

She cleared her throat, anger vanishing from her
expression. “Come. I want you to see what you are responsible for.”
She motioned for the men to follow her. She walked me back toward
the room I was all too familiar with. My stomach twisted in knots
recalling my last stay in the back room of the warehouse. I was
left for two days chained to a water pipe, only in my
underwear.

Maria unlocked the door and slowly opened it. She
peered around the corner before turning back to me. “See for
yourself.”

The men shoved me into the room, and I stumbled past
the door. The room had been bare last time—only me, chains, and the
water pipe above. The room now held a cot pushed against the wall,
a bed pan, a side table holding a glass of water and bottles of
medication. The man on the bed stared absently out the window at
the pigeons nestled at the broken window.

I gasped.

Marcello.

The vacant expression on his face only emphasized the
side of his head, which was completely caved in. It was wrapped
with gauze as not to display the grotesque deformity. His eye on
his bad side was closed and drooped down to his mouth. The features
on his good side had slid down an inch. Acid careened around into
my stomach, blending both guilt and anger together. My emotions
mixed with extreme loathing for seeing him still alive, remembering
all he did to me, and the revolt at seeing his condition.

“Marcello, look who’s here.” Maria spoke sweetly, but
her expression was crammed with disgust and hatred for me.

Marcello jerked his head, his one eye landing on me.
He watched me for a while, with no recognition or response in any
way. I could have been another pigeon to him.

“He can’t form sentences anymore. And I don’t even
know if he recognizes who I am. He wakes me most nights
screaming.”

My lungs felt like two blocks of ice. I didn’t know
what I should be feeling. I was sick at the sight of his
disfigurement, but he had hurt many of the girls and had beaten me,
and if Ryker hadn’t come, he would have used me as his sex slave.
Now the ruthless, merciless man was nothing more than a drooling
mass of bones and skin.

“He still seems to know how to eat and go to the
bathroom by himself. I’ve been told when those abilities go... so
does he.”

“Been told?”

“You think he was the only one affected by you?”

Technically, Ryker had done this to Marcello, but I
was the reason Ryker acted against them. And I can’t say he would
be upset by Marcello’s current condition. I wasn’t even sure I
was.

Maria turned to the men behind me. “Leave us.”

“Ma’am.” One of the guys I recognized from my stay
before spoke.

Maria leaned over and took the gun out of his hand.
“She is not going anywhere. And I think I can handle her.”

I wouldn’t bet on it, Maria. I have fae power in me
now.

He nodded, and the rest of the men retreated out the
door, closing it behind them.

The gun barrel pointed at my face. “Don’t think about
it. It’s taking everything in my power not to shoot you in the head
now.” She stepped to me, the gun pressing into my skull. “But you
will be my security here. Like you, I am a survivor. I will do what
I need to get by. Unfortunately, right now this means not killing
you.”

A tortured grimace flicked the edges of her mouth. “I
wish he had simply died. But now they have leverage on me. They
know I will do what they say.”

“What are you talking about?” I stepped back.

Maria shoved me, my back slamming into the concrete
wall. She rammed the mouth of the gun into my forehead. “My brother
might have been a bastard, but he is my family. I love him. Now
they have me trapped as their puppet.” She gulped, tears reflecting
in her eyes. “Do you know how it feels to wish your brother
actually died that night? How much easier it would have been. I
could have run. Gotten away from here... from them.”

“Gotten away from who?”

The weapon pressed harder into my head, causing my
eyes to water, before she relented and stepped back. “The
Scorpions.” Her arm dropped to her side. “Duc.”

Everything came into sudden focus. Now it made sense
why more than half the men downstairs where Asian. The Scorpions, a
rival gang in Seattle, had swooped in when Marcello could no longer
fight them, and taken over. I understood who Hiro was talking
about. There was little doubt the sister he mentioned was Crazy
Kat, the girl I almost killed in the fight against the
Scorpions.

Hell.

“They have taken over Seattle, running everything.
Marcello was the only one formidable enough to keep them in check.
Now no one curbs Duc’s greed for supremacy and control.”

“I’m surprised they kept you alive.”

She shrugged. “Duc is exceptionally shrewd. He saw
how I ran the girls here and coerced me to keep managing them. I
live as long as the girls keep winning their fights. I run a tight
ship, so I’m allowed to have some freedoms and authority, but it’s
all an appearance. The moment I step wrong, I’m dead.” Maria
glanced back to the form on the bed. Marcello glanced up and waved
to us, an innocent grin on his mouth. Maria nodded at him, then
turned back to me. “First they will torture him to death.”

Even after the shit I went through here under Maria
and Marcello, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for her. I
understood how it was to live in fear every day or to stay
somewhere you hated because of family. Lexie might not have been my
real sister, but I couldn’t have loved her more. I stayed because
of her, living life as a caged rat. But I wouldn’t have done it
differently. She was everything to me.

Maria’s threat was quite real. I didn’t necessarily
think it was my fault, but I was a huge reason it all came to be
and why she was in this situation. But like Maria said, she was a
survivor, and my sympathy would be fleeting because I was the one
she was going to throw under the bus.

Almost sensing my train of thought, Maria drew her
arm up, pointing the revolver at me again. “God dropped his Angel
on me again, and I’m not letting you get away this time. You are
going to secure my survival.”

A squeal behind Maria directed my focus past the gun.
Marcello cowered on the bed, his eye locked on the gun in Maria’s
hand.

“I’m sorry, Marcello. I know guns scare you.” She
slowly backed up, keeping the gun on me, reaching back with her
hand to touch him.

Guns scare him? Wow. Things had changed.

Marcello curled tighter into a ball the closer she
came. Terror warped his expression. His eyes fixed only on the
weapon.

It was kind of sad to watch, but I had to keep
reminding myself this was a man who raped and abused many
women.

“Drop the gun. Forget I was here.” I stared deep in
her eyes, hoping this time if I said it out loud it would work.

She tilted her head to the side, studying me before
she burst out with a laugh. “I don’t think so.” Her finger
twitched. “Now let’s move, girl. Your fellow bunkmates will be
eager to have such a legend in their midst.” For a moment Maria
peered over her shoulder to comfort him. “Marcello, it’s all right.
No one is going to hurt you.” I wasn’t about to let any opportunity
to escape get by me.

I leaped forward, my hand reaching for her wrist, and
knocked her hand holding the gun.
Boom!
The gun went off,
exploding in my ears. The bullet hit the ceiling, bouncing back.
Maria and I jumped back, ducking out of the way of the ricochet.
The slug hit close to my foot, embedding in the floor.

Marcello’s screams broke through the ringing in my
ears.

“You crazy bitch!” Maria bellowed over her brother’s
wails.

“I’m the crazy bitch, seriously?”

Feet pounded outside the door before breaking
through. “Maria!” A familiar dark-haired boy, his lip scarred and
misshapen, was the first to cross the threshold. “Are you
okay?”

“I’m fine, Carlos.” She brushed ceiling debris off
her pants. He watched her, bobbing back and forth on his feet,
debating whether to run to her side. I remembered him. Carlos, the
boy with the hair-lip, was the one who saved me from another one of
Marcello’s groping men, Pedro. Pedro was a victim of Ryker’s wrath
the night of the fight. I felt no sadness that asshole was
gone.

Marcello continued to whine, curled tightly around
his blanket. Maria picked up the gun, handing it to Carlos, needing
to get it out of the room, away from Marcello. “Take her across the
street and put her in the room. I’ll be over in a bit.”

“Come on.” Carlos grabbed my shoulder and pushed me
out of the room. Normally, I would work him, play with his emotions
to help free myself. The expression he gave Maria when she wasn’t
looking told me pleading my case would be pointless; he would do
anything she asked.

My escape would have to come another way. If only for
one moment, maybe the powers would work in my favor, instead of at
inopportune times. My body jumped at the bar when Ryker was about
to kiss me, but not now. Go figure. Until they decided to come
back, I had to stay smart and alert. Just like old times.

Carlos and a few others walked me away from the
warehouse. Evening was slowly descending on Washington. It felt
strange to be reliving the same sunset I’d just seen in Peru. I
hoped Ryker wasn’t worrying about me and had escaped the throng of
jaguars.

He did. He had to
, I told myself. And he was
back safely in our room, freaking out, realizing by now I was not
at the usual places I jumped to. Even if I were free, there was no
way I could have contacted him to let him know I was okay. The
inconvenience and frustration from the lack of modern technology in
this area in the last few months was getting easier to deal with,
but at times like these I really wished for a cell phone.

Even though I had only been gone a short time, I was
curious how Seattle was doing. The generator in Maria’s office led
me to believe there still was no electricity. At least not
constant. Had anything been done, or was Seattle still stuck in the
waiting game?

Carlos marched me across the road, giving me no
opportunity to get any of my questions answered before hauling me
through the doors of a warehouse. Another one vacated, left for
gangs like the Scorpions to take over.

The bustling noise of people talking and laughing
echoed off the tall roof. Thirty or more tables lined one side of
the warehouse, the other filled with cots. More than a hundred
women and younger girls lounged across tables and beds. Makeshift
lighting connected to generators spotted the room, giving a low
glow to the darkening space. A cafeteria-type space sat at the far
end of the building. More women in aprons went in and out of the
back doors into another room, bringing food in large tin containers
and placing them inside the buffet station. Seven guards stood
around the premises, guns hooked to their waists. Seven guards
could be taken down by a hundred girls who were trained fighters.
But compared to what was outside the penitentiary, inside seemed a
better option. Food, bed, clothes. If they left, where would they
go? And if you did escape, Duc didn’t seem like the type of man who
would simply let you go. He would track you down and kill you.

A group of girls who played cards at the first table
looked up when Carlos walked in. Their eyes landing on me,
analyzing me from top to bottom.

“Fresh meat,” a girl cackled, her black eyes
flashing. She yelled to the room behind her, “We got a newbie,
ladies.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at
me.

Just like prison these girls were deciding quickly to
either take me down or make me their bitch. I would be neither.
There was a reason they called me the Avenging Angel. I couldn’t
match a bullet, but I could fight any one of these girls.

Carlos gripped my arm. “You don’t want to fuck with
this one, Jada.”

“This tiny white girl? Pleeease.” She waved her hand
at me. “I wouldn’t even have to get out of my seat.”

Carlos smirked and tugged me to follow him. “Don’t
say I didn’t warn you.”

Rewind four years and I would’ve ripped out of
Carlos’ hold to show Jada how much she’d misjudged me. I could
protect myself, but I didn’t have the desire to battle for no
reason like I used to. Since meeting Ryker, my bloodlust had
plummeted, probably because during my time with Ryker my fights
were not about releasing my pent-up anger or proving myself. They
were life and death.

Also, being with him made me happy. Nothing kills
your savagery like happiness. Damn him. He was making me soft.

“You know, if they find out who you really are, it
will cause more problems for you.” Carlos turned us in the
direction of the stairs. The setup of this warehouse was similar to
the one across the street, so I easily took the lead up the
steps.

“I can handle them.”

He scoffed. “There are over one hundred fighters
here. Each one would love to claim they took down the Avenging
Angel.”

He was right. A dozen or so I could handle. One
hundred sounded exhausting.

A guard standing at the entrance of the stairs nodded
at Carlos and stepped out of our way. His eyes widened at me, and a
curse mumbled from his mouth. Another one of Marcello’s men who
remembered me.

“I seemed to have made an impression on you
guys.”

“Let’s say you and your friend left a mark.” Carlos’
lip hooked up even higher than normal in a sneer. “I will be
extremely surprised if you make it out of here alive. I’d keep one
eye open when you sleep. Too many of us want you dead.”

“Take a number,” I mumbled to myself.

The room where he led me was only a ten-by-ten,
windowless cell. Chains hung from the wall. It smelled of blood,
body odor, and urine.