“LikeDie Hard?” Santi asked me with a grin.
“Yes, just likeDie Hard.”
“Well,youlook like shit,” Santi said to Cipher and offered his hand.
“Nice to see you too, man,” Cipher said and shook it.
“Hey, buddy, long time no see,” said the man at my brother’s side. He was thinner too and no longer clean-shaven as he was when I’d last seen him in Atlanta. Ansel, my brother’s friend, the guy who’d tried to trade me information for a blowjob. From the way Cipher was glaring at him, he hadn’t forgotten that either.
“Nice to see you again, Ansel.” I offered him my hand.
“This is Rafi and Selena,” Santi said about the other two people with him. “They were in the vaccine trials with me.”
I nodded at them, then turned to my brother again. “How are you? Did you get the virus?”
“Nope, not yet at least. I’m healthy as a horse.” He flexed one bicep to show me.
“Are you immune to Rabid Fever?” I asked, holding out hope.
“Some strands, but they say the virus is mutating faster than they can create vaccines for it.” His disappointment was clear. None of us were immune, and the Rabids were evolving with every new strain. How much longer could we go on living like this?
“Did you go to Promised Land?” I asked, worried for his safety and ours.
“No. We tried staying in Atlanta but it’s a mess there. There were food shortages and lockdowns. Rabids popping up in places without any warning. The government is corrupt and the people in charge don’t do shit about it. I thought about tracking you down, but I wasn’t even sure if Promised Land existed or if you were still there, so we figured we’d wait until the weather got warmer, then come here in case you’d changed your mind.”
“Promised Land does exist, but it’s nothing like what we thought. I’m glad you didn’t go there,” I said.
I had a million questions to ask him and a ton of things we needed to catch up on. Cipher up-nodded the group of them, then said to us Assholes, “I’ve had a hell of a night and to be honest, I’m a little too drunk for this conversation. I’m going to crash. Kitten, come find me when you’re done here.” Cipher then turned to Artemis, “Don’t make any decisions without me.”
“You got it, boss,” she said while I wondered what decisions he might mean.
My brother spoke in Spanish to Rafi and Selena as I watched Cipher amble toward our house, cradling his bad arm. My poor guy.
“He doesn’t want to have it looked at,” I said to Artemis. “He’s being stubborn about it.”
“I’m not surprised,” she said with a sigh.
“Do you guys want a tour?” I asked my brother and his crew. They nodded, but Artemis laid a hand on my arm.
“Kitten, a word please?” she said, leaning toward my good ear.
I followed her a few paces away and she said very quietly, “I’d prefer you not show them our compound until we decide on whether or not they’re going to stay.”
Decide? A lot had happened in the past twenty minutes, so it took me a moment to catch up with what she was saying. Also, Imay not have heard her correctly. “What do you mean whether they’re going to stay?”
“We need to discuss it as a group. And make that decision together.”
“But this is his home.”
“No outsiders. No exceptions,” she said.
“Artemis, are you serious?”
“We don’t know yet if we can trust them.”
“But he’s my brother.”
“And he abandoned you,” she said coolly. “We’re your family now, Kitten. We are loyal to each other and no one else. I’m sorry.”
