Justice (23 page)

“What will they do to the brothers that are found guilty?” I asked, changing the subject, but she followed along as if her thoughts followed my same rhythm.
 

“Firing squad,” she said simply.
 

“That’s, that’s…” I had nothing to respond with.
 

“It’s the only way. What else could we do? We don’t have a jail, and we can’t rehabilitate. If the truly guilty of your brothers were to be exiled, released into the wild, so to speak, they would only go out there and do it again. We would be allowing them to take other women, rape and kill indiscriminately. This, in my opinion, is letting them off easy.”
 

She looked at me regretfully, but didn’t release my hand.
 

“That’s putting a lot of responsibility on the men with the guns. Taking a life, many lives as they stand there. It’s not right.”
 

“We’ve done it before,” she said quietly.
 

“Who? And what did they do?” My voice was rougher than I expected.
 

“The men that sold Alexis to your group. We found them and that was how we handled the situation. They didn’t have a court though. Your men will at least have a court. If any of them are innocent, at least they’ll have a fighting chance.”
 

“The situation,” I said and looked over at her. “Do I have a fighting chance?” I asked.
 

“I don’t know. Doing this might give you a pardon. Hell, it should. I’ll make sure of it. You’re not a part of that group.”
 

“I was though, Baby. I was one of them. I might not have done what they did, but I sure let it happen. I saw your friend, Lex. I was there when she was brought in. I was there when Senior claimed her. I did nothing, I’m just as guilty.”
 

“I don’t want to talk about this,” she said, her voice panicked.
 

“It’s only the truth,” I said lightly, catching sight of the large banner that advertised the solar power company. It was brightly colored with a picture of a woman smiling brightly and tearing up her energy check. It was still crisp and bright, a beacon that stood out from the rest of the dreary city.
 

I pulled to the side of the road. We were mere feet from the building. The interstate was so close to the warehouses that were built before the modern conveniences of cars and the burden of traffic jams.
 
We could jump to the balcony that surrounded the upper floor of the building with ease.
 

“What kept you there?” she asked and turned to face me.
 

“Fear,” I said honestly and I saw her eyes become shuttered in unmistakable disgust. It was only right. It was what I deserved.
 

“Fear of what, Reid?”
 

“Fear of being out here, on my own. Fear of them tracking me down and beating the heck out of me again.”
 

“They did that?” she asked.
 

“Regularly,” I laughed. “It’s why I began taking MMA, I was done with being beat down. It didn’t help though, once I beat them one on one, Junior began to get his buddies to wail on me all at once.”
 

“Why stay?”

“It was all I knew.” I looked at my hands, suddenly ashamed.
 

“Well, now you can know something different,” she said earnestly. She squeezed my hand and smiled. It was the first time her smile was reflected in her eyes. She was beautiful. I wanted to pull her in my arms and tell her everything would be okay. That we would go back and we would be fine. That I was the man she needed. That I could make everything right.
 

I didn’t, though. Because it was a lie. I smiled back. We got out of the hearse. I left the keys on the dash. We stayed on alert, but it was a ghost town. Baby crawled up on the ledge of the interstate and jumped.
 

My breath caught in my throat, but she made it with ease and looked at me as if to say, “your turn.”
 

I got onto the side rail and made the mistake of looking down. I was at least thirty feet up and a few of the dead wandered under me, their moans unheard but their movements gave them away.
 

If I fell, I would be like a snack falling from the sky for them.

“Jump,” she urged me. I did. I coiled up all my energy and pushed off from the side rail. It was nothing, only a few feet, but it was the scariest thing I had ever experienced.

“That was insane,” I said after I had calmed down and got a look at our surroundings.
 

“That was easy,” she laughed.

“Sure, you do that all the time.”
 

“I used to, but out of airplanes. You’ve never lived until you’ve jumped from a C130 to a Blackhawk.”
 

“Okay, you win, I’m a pussy.”
 

“I think that’s the first naughty word I’ve heard you say. Figures it would be in reference to a part of the female anatomy.”
 

“I curse,” I frowned, knowing it was a stretch. I had gotten out of the habit when I realized how crass it made the other brothers look. I cursed with them, always playing a part.

“No, you don’t. I think it’s sweet.” She got on her tiptoes and kissed me lightly on the lips.
 

I deepened the kiss and she moaned against my lips. It took every bit of strength in my body to pull away from her. We didn’t know what was in store for us in this building.
 

“Let’s get this over with,” I said. “I really have something else I want to do.”
 

“You and me both,” she said and smacked me on the ass.
 

FORTY-SIX | Wash Me

We were on a balcony with a glass, hip high wall that enclosed a large area. A trendy outdoor table set sat in the corner and a high-tech looking panel was embedded into the wall near a sliding glass door.
 

The balcony was set lower than the interstate so you weren’t staring right into traffic, but all you got was a view of the cement of the raised road. It wasn’t exactly a room with a view.
 

Rebel went to the sliding glass door and pulled on it. It opened. I guess no one expected someone to jump from the interstate to get in. We banged on the wall to attract the attention of any dead in the building, but nothing moved, nothing moaned back at us. All clear.

We walked into what was a surprisingly posh, efficiency apartment. I looked around in disbelief. It was clean and the air was fresh. It was like a dream. Like we had stepped back in time to a PreZ moment. I slid the door closed behind me and looked around the room in fascination.

“The HVAC is working,” he said and went to a panel on the wall, clicked a switch and the lights came on.
 

“I thought this was a solar company, not an apartment complex?”

Rebel held up a pamphlet from the coffee table.
 

“It’s a showpiece.” He flipped through the pamphlet. “They were trying to showcase the future of energy independent living in an apartment setting. Everything in this apartment is hooked up to self-sustainable energy. It should all work.” He looked around. There wasn’t much to the place. It was little more than four-hundred square feet, only a low wall and a few steps separated the bedroom from the living area.
 

He went to the sink in the kitchen and turned the tap. Water ran from the spout. It ran clear.
 

“This is fantastic. I would have been trying to get hired on with this place if I saw this.”
 

“Can we stay here indefinitely?” I asked, sitting down hard on the white sofa. I got up quickly when I realized I was dirty and this sofa was bright white. Rebel started to open up the cabinets. There weren’t many, but they were pristine. They were also empty.
 

“Not much food,” he laughed. He opened the last cabinet and revealed a washer and dryer combo. It was one of those tiny ones that could only do a small load.
 

“Now, that is gold!” I dumped my pack on the floor and pulled out my extra clothes. I kept a shirt and a pair of pants rolled up in the bottom. I had hand-washed them in our homemade detergent, but all my clothes smelled perpetually like campfire.
 

I squeezed past Rebel and shoved them into the washer machine.
 

“I can’t wait to put on a shirt that smells like fabric softener!” I yanked my armor vest off and threw it on the ground, then yanked my shirt over my head, putting it in the machine to join the other clothes. I really wanted to wash my underwear. It was rather trivial, but I really missed crisp, clean underwear.
 

As I pulled my boots off, Rebel made an odd noise in his throat and I stopped to look up at him.

I was about to strip down to nothing in front of him. Which really shouldn’t be a big deal since his face was buried between my legs a few hours earlier. Nothing he hadn’t seen already. But we were in that awkward, ‘are we going to do it again and maybe this time complete it’ phase.
 
He must be of the impression that what we did earlier was it.
 

I wasn’t. In fact, I had every intention of him finishing what he had started and now I would have clean underwear to put on after.
The little things.
 

“It can fit your clothes too,” I said innocently. “You should probably,” I smiled coyly, “Strip.”

He pulled off his shirt and handed it to me. I put it in the washing machine. We both undid our heavy boots, putting them to the side. I undid the button of my pants and pulled them off. Being efficient, I brought the panties down with the pants. I didn’t meet his eyes, I turned around and shoved them in the washer, then ripped off my sports bra and put it in with the rest.
 

I turned around to find him completely nude also, his pants held in his hands, covering up a part of his body I was most interested in seeing. I hadn’t realized the extent of his tattoos. They were sexy as hell. I had always had a thing for ink, but it had to be just right. His right arm was covered from wrist to shoulder in an intricate mix of bright colors and swirling Escher-like patterns. The designs crossed his shoulder and plummeted down his chest and across his stomach. His chest was mostly done in blacks, with only a little bit of color peeking through every now and again. One of those spots was the confederate flag and the words of his MC, but it was obvious he was trying to distract from that with the rest of the design, including an intricate clockwork bird design that overtook all of it, mixed with interesting flowers and
was that a sugar skull?
I would have to inspect his tats a little more.
 

I held my hand out for his clothes and he handed them to me. He was erect. His cock was hard and protruded proudly from his body. I hadn’t been with many men, but he was impressive compared to the others. He was thick and the length was enough to give me pause. I might be taking on a little more than I could handle.
 

His cock jumped and I looked up and met his eyes guiltily. I was staring. I turned quickly and put his clothes in the wash, sprinkled some detergent on the top and turned the dials until I thought it was the right setting.