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The color drains from Brooke’s face. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” she says, her voice cold rage.
“I wish I was.”
“You mean to tell me that everyone I fucking know is dead, that I was sold to a fucking apocalypse kingpin, because of some scientist you have working with you?”
My heart sinks to the pit of my stomach. “I’m sorry for what you went through. I promise I had no part in that. Not intentionally.”
“And when your people found out, I assume they killed him?” she shouts. “Tell me he’s fucking dead.”
I suck in a breath, knowing what I’m about to say will not go over well. “He’s being held.”
She grabs an empty vase from a shelf and throws it full force against the wall.
“FUCK!”
“I’m sorry!”
“What’s going to happen to him?”
“Truth is, I don’t know. He hurt one of our own, a Kept woman, which should have gotten him executed. Then we discovered what was in the lab.”
“A Kept woman?”
“It’s what the women are called. It solidifies our resolve to keep them safe.”
“And what are you?”
“The men that are paired with them are called Keepers.”
“And how do I know you guys are any better than Frank?”
“Because with us, you’ll never be hit. You’ll be fed the best food, given the best care. There isn’t a man that would talk crossly to you. Women are in short supply, and we absolutely believe they are worth killing for.”
“If that were true, why is that one dude still breathing?”
“Because the thing that’s making the dead less dead…well, it could get worse.”
“Don’t tell me that.”
“Then don’t ask.”
She paces the room, and God help me, I can’t take my eyes from her toned legs. She’s been dancing since she was little, and you can tell. She’s graceful as a swan with the body any hot-blooded man would kill to dominate. She’s everything I’ve ever longed for in life but was too scared to hope for, because a man that comes from where I do shouldn’t have such wholesome delights.
Again, I’m reminded that I’m not good enough for Brooke. We aren’t just from the opposite side of the tracks, we’re from different planets.
“Fuck it—I have to know. What’s worse than the dead rising?”
“Right now, it’s just the human dead that rise. His research shows that birds can be infected, and there’s the possibility that other mammals that aren’t human could be as well.”
Her head snaps in my direction.
“That’s why it’s so important that I found you. There’s talk of closing the Keep and bringing everything underground.”
She brings her palm to her forehead as if she’s going to faint.
“Take a seat.”
She does, looking dazed. “I never got to leave the club…”
