by Jill James
They looked up at Teddy. “I know you two don’t have rings, but a piece of metal doesn’t make a marriage. Love, commitment, and trust hold you together forever. Even in this world that seems to have made a mockery of forever, I believe you two will pass the test and stand together as you were meant to be.
“Cody Taylor, Miranda Stevens, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Her man didn’t need to be told twice. His lips found hers and his heart was in his kiss. Warmth filled her body as his tongue slid along hers and made her heart race and her pulse skyrocket to a pounding crescendo. She slid her arms around his neck and pulled him in close.
She blinked as their friends surrounded them and hugged and kissed them. Congratulations rang out across the still water as Emily, Michelle, and April kissed her cheek with tears in their eyes. Seth and Teddy slapped Cody on the back hard enough to almost push him overboard.
Time passed at a snail’s pace as they ate a hastily thrown together dinner and all she wanted was to have Cody all to herself. Seth and Teddy seemed to be trying to prolong the event to tease them, but finally Michelle and Emily dragged them below with April in tow. Michelle called back over her shoulder before they disappeared.
“You and Cody have first watch. Four hours of alone time. Put them to good use.”
Ran blushed and her face was on fire. She looked up at Cody in the shine of the twinkle lights to find his cheeks just as red as she was sure hers were.
He pulled her over to a cushioned seat. “Come here, Mrs. Taylor.”
She giggled. “I will never get tired of hearing that.”
A red streak shot across the sky. In seconds there was another and another and another. Even in the cities there was no longer any light pollution, but out here on the river it had always been dark enough to see the stars. She craned her neck and gasped at the Milky Way spilled across the night sky.
“There are so many wonders and we were too busy to see them,” she whispered.
Cody pulled her down to the deck onto a pile of blankets. They laid side-by-side, holding hands. “A trillion stars and none of them are as bright as you.”
A green streak painted a line across the midnight black. “What would you wish for, Cody?”
He leaned over and his face filled her vision. “I don’t have to wish for anything. I have all I want right here.”
His lips claimed hers and then his body followed. They took Michelle’s advice and made excellent use of their alone time.
Chapter Twenty-two
Jack and Lila
Commander’s Log
Near Selena’s last known location
Scouting for Selena’s current location
Spring, 1 AZ
Rumors abound in this side of town of a mysterious Sisterhood or Sisterhood of the Earth. The name is whispered about but no details are emerging. Are they real or the beginning of a new urban legend? If they exist, do they have Selena? If they have Selena, how do we get her back?
“We need to take a break,” Jack said, his stride lengthening to catch up to Lila’s almost jog.
She took a few steps and bent over to put her hands on her knees. Her breath echoed as her head hung down. He reached her and handed her a bottle of water.
“We don’t have time to take a break.” Her words came out one at a time between pants. “That old lady said she’d seen Toby scavenging down this street a day or two ago. She didn’t mention Selena but from the look of her thick, cracked glasses I’m surprised she recognized this Toby person.”
“Everyone we’ve met says he’s a tall, large guy who likes to wear plaid shirts. He should be easy to spot once we find him.” He took a sip of water and watched in silence as Lila finally opened hers and took a few gulps.
“What about the golf course? The kids said it was down this street and to the right.”
He sighed. “We’ll be in the open, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Let’s try it.”
Jack gave Lila her space. The woman was in mama bear mode. He didn’t envy this Toby Hill if they found him and Selena was hurt. Not if—when they found him and his daughter. Just thinking of Selena as his daughter tightened his chest. Thinking of not finding her sent a shooting pain through his heart.
He glanced up ahead and spotted the open expanse of the golf course. They hopped over a fence more ornamental than a barrier. The white pickets leaned and several sections had fallen. The once trimmed grass was calf-high and full of weeds. Deer drank from a water hazard and birds hopped across the sand traps.
The creatures going about their business reassured him. He took a breath and held it, listening for anything out of place. All he heard was the scattering of squirrels in the trees and the call of birds across the sky.
Jack and Lila walked along the wrought-iron fence dividing the houses from the golf course. Blood spatter coated the wall of a dingy white house. Drag marks and blood drops coated the out-of-control grass and weeds. All the signs of a hunter getting food.
The hairs on the bad of his neck rose on end. Jack took Lila’s arm and they steered a wild berth around the yard. He felt eyes on them from the curtained windows. Lila opened her mouth, but he put a finger against his lips and she stayed silent until they’d passed a few more houses.
“Someone was there. I could feel them watching us. Why didn’t we stop and ask them about Selena?”
“Because there was someone watching us who didn’t want us to know they were there,” he replied.
“What if it was Toby Hill? What if Selena was in that house?”
“I counted at least four people at the windows. Perhaps five because I’m pretty sure one was in the attic with a gun barrel through the vent. Selena wasn’t there and they were going to shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe. Unless we were dead, and couldn’t answer questions.”
She shook her head, her bandana falling off. “You don’t know that. You aren’t a god.”
He bent and picked up the checkered fabric and handed it to her. “I do know. At least as much as I can. You heard all the same people I did. What does that tell you?”
She bit her lip and tied the bandana back across her forehead. “That this Toby guy is a loner. He is always seen with just him until he was seen with a little girl in the past few days.”
He smiled. “Right. He wouldn’t be with a group of people barricaded in a house. He lives alone so he is self-reliant. He’s big and strong, so he can obviously take care of himself. When we find them I’ll bet you the last chocolate bar in the pack it is just him and Selena.”
“You mean if.”
He shook his head and strode down the fence line. “No, I mean when.”
The buzz of flies grew stronger as they neared the next house. The wrought iron gate stood open, swinging a few inches back and forth with a quiet squeal with each movement. In his gut, Jack knew what he would see, but he had to look anyway.
He grabbed a rock and placed it against the gate. The sound stopped, leaving just the buzzing of the flies. Two steps forward brought him to two bodies. His head swerved back and forth, but the dead were the only ones in the yard. The sliding glass door to the house stood open, but no sounds came from the darkness within just past the blood and gore coated glass.
The first body had been undead longer than Selena had been missing. At least a month, from the look of his desiccated skin and tattered clothing. He was small-framed also, barely a grown man.
They’d had no idea what the man looked like that they were looking for and they’d never know as Jack swallowed bile at the mess of the man in front of him. Nothing was left of the man’s head. It looked like whoever had attacked him had taken baseball bats, pipes, and crowbars to his skull. The man hadn’t turned, but Jack figured the damage to his head made that impossible. His enormous size and red plaid shirt told him all he needed to know.
“I think we’ve found Toby Hill.”
* * *
Lila turned to the side a
nd threw up until she had nothing left to splatter across the dry and brittle grass. She spit a few times and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her head came up and her gaze targeted the open sliding glass door.
In a rush, she sprinted to the opening and through to a kitchen.
“No, Lila. Wait.” Jack’s call came as if from a distance. She skidded to a stop at the horror on the floor in front of her feet. A small child, almost a baby lay dead in front of her. Her mind slowly took in the milky eyes and gray skin. No, he was dead dead. A knife mark marred his skull.
A woman was sprawled across the carpet beyond the dining room. A sob caught in her throat. Probably his mother. Her head swung back and forth, trying to look at anything not bloody and dead. A flash of bright blue caught her eye.
She gave a cry and rushed across the room, tripping and falling to the floor in front of a backpack with a purple S on the front. Hearing footsteps, she turned and gazed up at Jack.
“It’s hers. Selena was here.”
The sound of the zipper being pulled reverberated in the silent room. Lila cried as she pulled out T-shirts and shorts and a gray sweatshirt with Selena written in a fancy font across the back. She hugged it to her chest and lifted it up to her face. Her child’s scent filled her nose and senses.
“Selena,” she yelled in the house. “You can come out. It’s mom.”
“Lila,” he said in a whisper, squatting down beside her. “We’ll look, but I don’t think she’s here. I think whoever killed Toby out there took her.”
“Why?”
“We won’t know until we find her. But I think a group killed that man out there. They had to be a group to take him on. Hell, it would take a horde of zombies to take him down. The only group we’ve heard about is this Sisterhood they keep mentioning.”
She pulled the sweatshirt to her face again and inhaled deeply. “We’re so close.”
His arms wrapped around her and he pulled them to their feet. “Damned close. With the weather and when we know Toby bought her, that dead man out there was killed a day ago, two at the most.”
“You think we’ll find her.”
“I believe we’ll find her.”
Hours later, Lila didn’t know what she believed anymore. The sun was setting in a fiery ball and they were no closer to finding Selena than they’d been back at the house. Like rats in a maze, she and Jack had followed every lead, every rumor, and every bare mention of the mysterious Sisterhood of the Earth. One person would say they were in a building on the edge of town, and then a person there would say they lived in the trees. One person had even told them the Sisterhood was everywhere, like goddesses.
Her legs were limp noodles on top of the blocks of wood she now had for feet. Her vision swam in and out of a gray mist. When had she eaten last? Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner yesterday. She couldn’t remember. Oh, wait. The water and protein bar she’d shoved down hours ago because Jack wouldn’t take another step until she ate something.
Probably the only thing keeping her from falling on her face, but she refused to stop looking. They were so close. She could feel it, taste it, breathe it. They approached a group of teenagers scavenging in a vacant lot.
Jack pushed her slightly behind him, his hand on his gun in the holster. He held the picture out with his other hand. “We’re looking for this little girl. Have you seen her? Have you heard of the Sisterhood? Or the Sisterhood of the Earth? We think they may have her?”
A girl only slightly older than Selena stepped forward. “Got something to trade for the info?”
Jack nodded. “Maybe. Depends on the information. We’ve been running around in circles today. Does the Sisterhood even exist?”
The girl nodded with fear in her eyes. Her gaze shot from their packs to the knives on their belts and Jack’s large gun pointed at her.
Lila slid her pack off and dug around in it until she located the last two cans they had. She pulled them out and sat them on the ground between the two groups. “That’s the last of the soup. It’s all we have left.”
The girl scooped them up as if they were priceless gems, her eyes shining, licking her lips. “A large group of women come through here every couple of days. Any girls alone are snatched up. They’ve hit all the sporting goods stores. We think they camp on the mountain. You can see fires up there late at night. Probably them. That’s the direction they head when they leave town.”
“Thank you,” Lila whispered as the girl backed away and the group melted into the trees. She closed her pack and stood, leaning against Jack.
Jack turned and walked in the opposite direction of the mountain. She ran to keep up. “What are you doing? You heard the girl. They’re camping up there.” She flung her arm back the way they’d come.
“I know. I also heard you tell the kid that was the last of our food. Night is coming and we’re standing in the middle of the street. They sound like a large group. We’ll do better with a night of sleep and some food in our stomachs.”
God, she hated when he was right. She could barely stand, but it seemed so wrong to walk in the opposite direction. “Where are we going?”
He pointed to the office building across the street. When he bypassed the door and headed to the alley she saw the fire escape above the dumpster. He pushed her up on the dumpster and she grabbed the rungs of the ladder. A short climb and they were on the roof of the two-story building. She turned to the mountain and stared as the setting sun painted it in a fiery glow. As twilight fell, fires sprang up near the top.
Jack handed her a bottle of water. “Not much of a dinner.”
She smiled. “Oh, we have dinner.”
Lila carried her pack to the middle of the roof and opened it. Reaching in, she pulled out a single can. “Care for some beef stew?”
“You told the kids that was the last of the food.”
“No, I said that was the last of the soup.”
“You always were a good liar,” he murmured. His smile died and he looked away.
“I never lied about loving you, Jack. I never stopped loving you.”
His voice lowered and grew gravelly. “Don’t go there, Lila. You married another man.”
She reached out a trembling hand and placed it on his cheek. He stilled but he didn’t pull away. “I never stopped loving you,” she repeated. “Yes, I tried to make it work with Juan for Selena’s sake. I didn’t want her growing up in a dysfunctional family. But it was never right. He was distant to me and Selena both. I will never forgive him for what he did to us.”
Tears came to her eyes and her voice caught. “He treated me like his whore. Dragged us to that church.” She whipped off her bandana. “He cut off all my hair. He beat me. He starved me. He strangled me and left me for dead. He took my baby and sold her like a slave. I will never forgive him and I’m glad he’s dead.”
His arms were around her. His lips were against hers. Tasting of salty tears, and sweat, and passion. His tongue swept out and slid along hers in a sensual glide. Her pulse raced and pounded in her ears. Memories overwhelmed her of their times together. Long ago and right now collided in her mind and in her memories. Jack had been her first love and her first lover.
His kiss deepened and their moans sounded as one. She reached for and found his hardness in his pants. “I want you,” she begged.
He kissed her lips, her cheek, her neck where it met her shoulder. She arched into him, impatient to be naked, feeling him skin to skin. Her memories were tainted by their last good-bye. She needed new memories to fill her mind.
His fingers ran over her short hair, the heat of his hand against her scalp. “You are so beautiful. As beautiful as I remember. As beautiful as I imagined in my dreams.”
She smiled. A lie. A sweet lie, but a lie, nonetheless. Who could imagine Jack Canida knew how to tell one?
One kiss led to another. One touch blended into the next. He laid her back against the sleeping bag. When had he gotten it and rolled it out? Time was a blur of emotions and fe
elings.
He whisked her shirt off and flung it aside. His followed. He pulled her in close. Finally. Skin to skin. As wonderful as she remembered. More wonderful, because it was now. His fingers trailed down her side and his hand dipped into her pants. He cupped her and her hips came off the sleeping bag. Her wet panties rubbed against his fingers as they searched and moved the damp fabric aside.
He slid his fingers into her wetness and she exploded. Her head thrashed from side to side and she yelled his name. She slowly came back to earth and gazed up at him. His beloved face filled her vision. “I want you.”
“I want you, too,” he whispered against her lips. “But I’m not leaving you with another child.”
She sat up and shoved him away. “I would never do that to you again. You have to believe me.”
His hand reached out and cradled her cheek. “I know that. I would not leave you with a child, a baby, if something happened to me.”
He pulled her in close and slid down to lie beside her on the sleeping bag, his arms wrapped around her. “Once we have Selena back and we’ve in a secure location, you better watch out. I won’t let you out of my bed or my life again.”
Lila fell to sleep with a smile on her face.
Chapter Twenty-three
Selena
Selena’s Diary
Sisterhood of the Earth camp
Day 410 of Woman Rule (Teacher said to write it that way)
I miss my mommy. I miss the boys from the RV yard. We got to play and have fun. Here it is all work and lessons. I thought school was over when the dead didn’t stay dead but Alaina and her mate, Belinda say we have to learn our new place in the world. Women are the rulers of the land and men are the slaves. I didn’t like the men at the mean church but most of the men at the RV yard were nice.