Enjoy this teaser from Chapter 1.

Everything was hot in The Hole, even the stripper pole that Natalia wrapped her supple hand around. Her black leather corset clung to her damp skin, her large breasts heaving as she walked the stage in stiletto heels.

She could be forgiven for finding the end of the world natural.

After the apocalypse, there was still demand for sexy young women shaking their ass in a stripclub.

Natalia lifted her body with ease, walking on air as she encircled the pole horizontally to several cheers. Black hair flipped down, then fell in segments as she arched her back, grinning at one of the familiar patrons.

Cambridge didn’t get many strangers anymore.

Most of America was dead, after all. There were fewer tourists after all the plane crashes and bombs and chaos.

Natalia’s green eyes scan the crowd, looking for the boss. She hadn’t seen him all night, and though she didn’t want to, his absence put her on edge. Did he know what she’d done?

Her large breasts were separated by the pole, and she slid down it with open thighs, stroking the centre sensually. A man tossed a ring onto the stage—something cheap and gaudy—but Natalia swiped it all the same. Beggars couldn’t be choosers. Paper bills were scarce.

Zack Varela Zann, legendary rockstar, played on the speakers. One of his early songs, before he went into the more experimental territory.

Vaguely she recalled that she’d had tickets to one of his concerts, before everything went to shit. His voice was rich, melding into the powerful guitar as she spun her hair in a circle. His music always made her feel sexy, powerful, and she brought every ounce of that to her erotic performance.

Her knees glided along the stage, and she rolled to her back, legs in the air in a carnal display. To her left, there was a disagreement. Most people wouldn’t notice, but Natalia had worked in clubs all over the continent before the apocalypse. Her instincts were tight, and that little mousy blonde was in trouble.

Her stage show went on autopilot as she watched the slender girl dance, swinging her hips, running her hand through her hair. A pretty thing. Too young, but after the end of the known world, well, there weren’t licenses or IDs to check. Kids needed to eat, and they took any dangerous job that would provide it.

She was dancing for a man known as HH. Natalia hadn’t figured out if it was code for Heil Hitler or Humbert Humbert, but with how young and white he preferred his girls, and how fucking crazy he was, she imagined both.

The girl didn’t see the light bouncing off the metal of his blade, but Natalia did.

Natalia didn’t hesitate. Out of the corset of her fetish wear, she pulled a throwing knife, and before he could lift his own weapon, his ear was severed from his head.

“Get out of the way!” she screamed as she pulled off one of her high heels. Diving off the stage, she knocked the girl to the ground, just in time for her stiletto heel to pop HH’s eyeball with a sickening plop. She removed her shoe from the socket, and blood spurted from both holes, some of it staining her face and costume.

The room was silent, but for the blonde stripper’s screaming, and when Natalia looked up, her gaze landed upon Baldwin’s disapproving frown.

“Office. Now.”

Natalia spared a glance at the girl she’d saved. Would’ve been nice to get her out of The Hole, but that wasn’t an option. Baldwin didn’t wait for anyone, certainly not someone who just got blood all over an upholstered bench.

Natalia fastened her bloody shoe onto her foot.

“That was so hot. Are you free?” Tony had never asked her for a private dance before, but seeing her turn to violence had created a new fan.

“Not now, hun. Find me later. I’ll give you a real good show if you get her outta here.” Natalia gestured with her head towards the sobbing blonde, who was curled up in a ball at the man’s lifeless feet. He had bled out fast. Or had a heart attack. Didn’t matter.

The world was a better place without him.

Tony was rock hard in his pants, but to his credit, he nodded obediently and helped the blonde to her feet.

Natalia knew she couldn’t save them all and shouldn’t bother trying.

It was stupid to risk her neck for someone else.

Especially so soon.

Especially when she saw Baldwin’s glower as he sat behind his desk, gesturing to the chair across from him.

The club had been owned by some billionaire real estate mogul, and as far as Natalia had pieced together, Baldwin was the guy’s right hand. Bodyguard, cleaner, the kind of dangerous man Natalia always found herself in the orbit of.

She believed people when they said Baldwin had turned on his boss once the bombs dropped, because who wouldn’t? The social fabric was weak and then torn, and the strong and cunning survived.

Some pampered billionaire with paid guns?

They weren’t meant for the new world.

Natalia stared at Baldwin, her naked legs crossed, her bloody shoe starting to stick to her bare foot. Despite the intensity that radiated off of him, and the way her stomach was in knots, she refused to lower her gaze in apology.

“I’m not going to play games. You know why you’re here.”

Natalia’s lips tightened, and she sized him up. Six foot six, she reckoned. Three hundred pounds. A mean scar across his throat that was still angry and red, from after the fall. A mild infection that he fought off.

It added to his dangerous appeal, and Natalia felt the fear, though her voice was steady.

“It was just a stuffed animal.”

She stared him down, refusing to be cowed, despite the power of his glare.

“You know it wasn’t.”

“How’d you find out?”

He leaned back in his chair, his grey eyes stormy. The springs groaned beneath his heavy weight.

“Alice told me when my men caught up with her. She’d die out there on her own. You know that?”

“She’d die in here if she stayed much longer.”

Baldwin let out a sigh, pulling open a heavy briefcase. He spun it towards her, showing some high-tech laptop that had somehow survived everything that had happened.

If she could get it away from him, she could use it to contact the outside world!

No.

There was no one left.

The world was gone.

Everyone she knew and loved and hated was dead.

A veil of sorrow dropped over her.

Adrenaline chased it away.

On the screen was a familiar room. The bunker she’d recently infiltrated, all to steal a stuffed animal for a girl compelled to work at The Hole—Alice.

Natalia wasn’t surprised she’d ratted her out within a day, but it sucked all the same.

She risked her neck for someone else, and the guillotine was about to drop.

“You recognize it. Now,” Baldwin said, pressing play on the video. It wasn’t the highest quality, but out of the shadows, Natalia, dressed all in black, crawled. She avoided a laser tripwire, then stepped over another. At the time she’d thought it odd, all the old world security. She bypassed jewellery, cash.

There was only one thing she was there for. One thing she took.

Alice’s stuffed rabbit.

And then, in moments, she was gone, and the screen went still.

Natalia’s guts churned.

“You killed that man?”

Natalia had almost forgotten about that. Her teeth ached as she pressed them together, but she forced herself not to shrink away from Baldwin’s interrogation.

“Looked like. But I’m not a doctor.”

Sadistic amusement danced upon his face, but it was chased away by his usual steel gaze.

“You’ve been my best girl over these past few months. I’ve treated you well, haven’t I?”

“I guess,” she replied, not wanting to give him any ground. “For a tyrannical warlord who rules with fear and guns.”

“You had a place to stay. Steady employment. Drink. Luxuries that don’t exist outside the walls of this city.”

He seemed almost sad, and Natalia knew why instinctively. Because he said she had a place to stay.

It was never good when a man slipped into past tense.

“She was in the room next to me. She cried. Constantly.”

The words hung between them until finally he nodded.

“I’m sorry, Natalia.”

Baldwin meant it. Natalia swallowed her vomit. It was only then she realized that there was some of HH’s blood on her hand, and she wiped it off.

“You will pay me back for what you tried to take. With interest.”

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