Thicker than Blood Read Online Free Page A

the path and disappearing into the night.
    Shocked and horrified, I clasped a hand
over my mouth. Why stabbing was so much worse than anything else, I
didn’t know. Perhaps because it was so much more personal, so up close, and much more vicious
than I would have ever expected of Leisel.
    Surely this would help her. How clearly
unravelled she must have become to resort to such extreme lengths,
killing him in such a brutal and violent manner. In the old world
it would have meant something, her defense would have been cut and
dried, crystal clear to a jury as the evidence of her abuse was
laid out for them. But in this new world, here in
Fredericksville…
    I stumbled forward, dropping to my knees,
already knowing that Leisel had no defense. No matter what
happened, her voice wouldn’t be heard. Justice here wasn’t justice
at all, and no one had the time for sob stories. Surviving was all
that mattered anymore, the protection of our community from outside
threats, and ensuring that everyone continued to do their part to
keep the cogs turning, to keep humanity afloat.
    A sob began to build in my throat, making it
hard to breathe. “No,” I whispered to the darkness. “Please,
no.”
    I’d promised to protect her, to keep her
safe. But I’d broken that promise, told her to forget about her
previous husband, her previous life, even though I hadn’t—couldn’t.
I still thought about it every day, my first husband and our lives
before the infection. I’d been a hypocrite and a liar, and part of
me felt that if I’d been honest with her from the start, instead of
always shielding her from my own pain, that maybe things wouldn’t
have ended like this.
    Choking back my bitter tears, I slowly got
back to my feet and looked around my sham of a home.
    Three months after the infection had arrived
in America, Leisel and I had both lost our husbands, our entire
world. It took everything we had to carry on when all we wanted to
do was curl up and die. I’d kept us strong, kept us fighting. I’d
lied through my teeth, choking back my own sorrows in order to
comfort and soothe hers, and now I was going to lose her
anyway.
    It had all been for nothing.
    But then again, that was what I did. I stayed
tough despite all odds, and even in the face of utter devastation,
I’d always been the resilient one. I’d always refused to give
up.
    And, by God, I refused to give up now.

Chapter Three
    Leisel
    Seated on a lone bench in the corner of one of two
concrete rooms inside the Fredericksville police station, both my
hands and ankles bound in handcuffs, I stared blankly through the
candlelit cell at the guard stationed to watch over me.
    Alex was younger than me by about five years,
still in his early twenties, and I’d previously thought one of my
late husband’s most trusted friends. He’d been the one who’d always
quietly spirited me away to the infirmary when I’d been too injured
to walk, who’d made excuses for my absences, who’d ensured that my
husband’s sick secrets remained just that. Secrets.
    Worse, he’d been Lawrence’s personal escort,
following wherever the man went, even standing watch outside our
house at night. Because of this, it had been Alex who’d found me
with my husband’s dead body.
    If anything, I’d expected to see anger or
hatred in his features, or at the very least, shock and horror.
Instead, he’d taken one look at my bloody, battered body, another
at Lawrence’s mutilated form, then lifted his eyes to mine filled
with what looked like pity. And something else, something shocking
and unrelated that I couldn’t quite fathom.
    Not a word was spoken as he’d slowly pulled
his handcuffs from his belt and gently placed them on my wrists.
Even more surprising was that he’d waited until I’d been securely
locked inside a cell before alerting the others to my crime. It had
dawned on me then that he’d been protecting me from the town’s
wrath, especially from those who had been a part of