by Lilly Black
"Okay," she said, and he kissed her on the forehead then pulled her into a tender embrace.
"Damn, I love you, baby," he said. "It's so good to be home."
Olivia was nervous as she walked toward the gate. After Reid finished shaving, they had talked more and agreed that they were going to try to make it work with Alek and Reid's lover, whom Olivia suddenly realized he had forgotten to name. He also never asked Olivia who she intended to send to bring his companions up from the Vincent house, and Olivia made that decision on her own. She left Reid in the guest room to "send a welcome party" for his lover and the others, but she neglected to mention that she intended to lead that party.
Along the way, she called Liana and asked her to enlist a pair of guards to accompany her, and she stopped off at the front gate to talk to Alek as she waited for them.
"Hey," he said almost robotically when she walked into the guard house.
"Hey," she echoed with a smile, but as she took in a breath to say more, Jax interrupted.
"Have you seen Dani? I've been trying to call her all morning."
"I haven't seen her, but she probably had appointments this morning. If you want, I can stay here for a few minutes while you check on her," she offered.
"Nah, I'm off in about half an hour. I'm sure I'm just being paranoid," he said, and Olivia didn't press the issue, assuming his concern was driven by jealousy as it usually was with those two.
"Are you sure you don't want to go check on her?" Alek asked, giving Jax an impatient glare.
"It's okay," Olivia said as the guards she requested knocked on the door. She motioned for them to enter. "I have an errand to run, but I'll be coming back with good news. Is your shift over in half an hour, too?"
"Yeah."
"Wait for me, okay?"
"Okay," he said, and Olivia leaned in and kissed him quickly, whispering I love you in his native tongue. Then with her guards in tow, she headed down the drive to the lower ring, leaving Alek feeling lost and confused. He might have been more hopeful if she had been more forthcoming, but she had already received too much life-changing news this morning. She couldn't face the possibility of him refusing the arrangement she and Reid had made. Though she knew it was wrong, she believed allowing Alek to remain uncertain for a while longer would make him more likely to accept the merger. And he just had to accept it.
Olivia left Alek brooding. Even though she told him she was coming back with good news, he didn't see how anything she did outside the gate could possibly make a difference. Inside the guard house, he seemed content to sit staring out the window, awaiting her return, but Jax took his mind off his problems by reminding him about what Savannah had told them shortly after her father's arrival about the group Austin came from at the prison.
"I haven't forgotten," Alek said. "I need to talk to Olivia about it, but she's obviously too busy at the moment."
"You don't have to start with Olivia. Call Liana. Have her set up a founders meeting."
Suddenly Alek began to come back to life. There were very few things that remained important to him in this new world, and while Olivia and the safety of the Deadfall were his top priorities, eradicating men like those Austin described from the prison was definitely not far behind. He picked up his phone.
"Don't forget to ask her if she's seen Dani," Jax said as Alek dialed. "I'm starting to freak out a little."
Liana answered on the first ring, and bored by the desk duties of her job, she was immediately interested in what Alek had to say. He told her about Austin's group and asked her about Dani, and when they hung up, she immediately dealt with both issues, scheduling a meeting of the community founders for that afternoon then trying to find Dani herself. After dialing her number to make sure she wasn't just avoiding Jax's calls, she tried a few others, eventually hitting pay dirt with Ravi at the back gate. When he took over this morning, Gary from the night shift had made sure to point out that "the dumb bitch went out in the woods alone a couple hours ago." Ravi let him know in no uncertain terms that misogynistic rhetoric was unwelcome around him even though he chalked it up to the fact that Gary was socially inept, and Gary insisted that all he meant was that it was stupid of Dani to go out in the woods alone in the dark. In any case, she hadn't returned.
"Why didn't you let me know immediately?" Liana demanded. "We should have sent out a search party hours ago."
"Excuse me?" Ravi asked, offended. "There's a reason nobody let you know, and it's not just because Dani gets angry when we don't treat her like we treat you and Olivia at the gates. It's because it occurred to us that she was right. What has she ever done not to deserve the same trust?"
Liana was stunned by the realization that he was right. Once upon a time, Dani may have been just the pretty one, but she had more than fifteen years of life experience and a masters in psychology under her belt. Maybe it was time to stop treating her like a helpless beauty queen.
"I'm sorry, Ravi," she said. "You have a valid point, and no one at the gate is to blame for this. I do still think we need to send out a search party, though. Would you please make the arrangements while I go to her cabin to see if I can find a clue to tell us where she was going?"
"Yes, sir, General Navarro," he said respectfully.
"Thank you, Ravi," she said, then as she began to walk away, she stopped and turned back.
"And one more thing," she said. "Please start a log of everyone who comes and goes through the gate. Since we're growing, we may need it to save lives."
"Yes, sir," he said, feeling disconcerted about the idea, but with more important matters at hand, as Liana headed toward Dani's place, Ravi and the other guard, Porter, started recruiting the search party. It took them only five minutes to find enough volunteers, then as he waited to hear back from the general, he called June to see if she would like to allow her older boys to join them.
"I don't know, Ravi," she said. "I'm not sure I want them out there where the dead could be wandering the woods."
"You could go along to keep an eye out for them if it would make you feel better."
"Will you be coming to keep an eye out for me?" she asked.
"I wish I could, but I'm stuck at the wall for a few more hours. I'm free this evening, though, and I'd be happy to take you on a walk in the woods...or anywhere for that matter."
June was silent for a long moment, then she finally said, "Okay. Can you meet me at the back gate after dinner?"
"I'll be there," he said, then he received a text from Liana asking him to cancel the search party. She had found Dani in her cabin.
How did she get past the guards? he texted back.
I'm not sure, but if there's a weak spot in our security, we'll find it, Liana replied, then she put her phone away to return her attentions to Dani. When she had knocked on the door, Dani had called out to say that she would be there in just a second, but now Liana had been waiting on the porch for several minutes. She wasn't sure if she was worried or pissed because Dani had sounded hung over, so Liana took out the master key she had swiped from Olivia long ago and used it to get inside.
She found Dani lying on the kitchen floor, and she rushed over to her, checking for a pulse. Her heart was beating fine, and she was breathing. If there was anything off about her, other than the fact that she was completely nude, it was that she felt unnaturally warm, another sign that she had been drinking. Liana had plenty of nights herself when she had ended up lying naked on the cold bathroom tile after a few too many screwdrivers.
"Dani! Dani, wake up!" she shouted as she shook her.
"I'm fine. I'm up," she hissed, pushing her friend away as she rolled over onto her back and sat up.
"Are you drunk?" Liana asked.
"No," she said, offended, then she thought better of it. "I mean, yeah. I mean, I was, but I'm just hung over now."
"You left the compound and went wandering around the woods drunk?" she demanded.
"No," Dani said. "I just went out real quick to get the bottle
of Jack I hid beneath a tree. Then I came right back."
"How did you get in without the guards seeing you?"
"It was just Gary, and he's an idiot. I guess Phil was in the bathroom or something," she lied. Gary may have been an idiot, but neither he nor Phil saw her come back through the gate because she didn't. Though Liana was suspicious of her story, right now the story Alek had shared about a group of thirty or so men living at the regional jail facility about forty miles north of Princeton was a higher priority.
"Alright," she said to Dani as she handed her the throw blanket from the couch to cover herself. "We've got a meeting of the founders this afternoon, and Jax is going to be home in about twenty minutes, so whatever your deal is, if you don't want him to see you like this, I suggest you get your shit together before then. I'll see you in the war room at sixteen hundred hours."
"What time is that? Six PM?" Dani asked, irritated.
"It's four."
"Then just fucking say four o'clock," she hissed with a roll of her eyes as she stood up. She was wobbly at first, but she soon got her bearings and walked toward the bathroom to get a shower.
"I'll see myself out," Liana called after her, and she heard Dani grumble from down the hall as she stepped out the door.
While Liana called Jax to let him know that his beloved was safe, Dani turned on the water, hoping it would wash away the sick feeling she had. She hadn't actually been drinking, but she felt like she had the bedspins nonetheless. And unfortunately, the shower didn't help matters. When she got out, she pulled her hair into a tight bun and laid down in bed, still naked, praying for a reprieve from the dizziness.
Jax got home a few minutes later, and not knowing what to say, she blamed it on food poisoning. He did his best to make her feel better, and though she was much improved by the time 4:00 PM rolled around, she had more important things to do than attend the meeting, so she kept up the act, pretending that she didn't even have the energy to put on her lipstick. Without her makeup, Jax knew she wouldn't be joining them.
"If there's a vote, just add mine to whatever you think is right," she said.
"I'm so sorry you feel bad, baby girl," he said. "I wish there was something I could do for you."
"I think a nap in a dark, quiet room would be the best thing for me," she said.
"Then I'll leave you alone, but you have to promise to keep your phone nearby. I was really worried when I couldn't get a hold of you," Jax said as he kissed her on the forehead.
"I promise," she lied because her phone was probably on the forest floor with her guns and clothes, and as he walked out the door to leave her to her misery, she knew what she had to do.
Alek had told Olivia he would wait for her when his shift ended at the gate, but he just couldn't sit still. He needed to keep his mind occupied so he went into the lodge and through the greenhouse to the cell where they were keeping Austin to make arrangements for the guards to bring the boy to Olivia's office later. Regardless of whatever else she had going on, when she returned, she was going to deal with this situation. It was important to him.
Once she knew about it, it would become just as important to her, but while Alek was already planning to rescue the women at the prison, Olivia was on her way to meet the woman her husband had been cheating with for two months. With an AR-15 strapped across her back and flanked by two guards, she hurried down the road to John's house. When she came upon the men patrolling the gravel drive, they dipped their heads and said, "my queen" as she passed, and she smiled because while it irritated her, it also reinforced the commitment everyone had to making sure the Deadfall survived. That gave her hope for the future, even if her romantic future was uncertain.
At the bottom of the hill stood the Vincent family's two story, classic farmhouse, and with her guards waiting at the end of the sidewalk, she took a deep breath as she approached it, not sure what to expect.
"Hello?" she called out as she knocked on the door, and she saw the curtains move to her right as her husband's silhouetted lover peeked through the front window. "Hello, in there. Can you answer the door? I'm here to escort you to the community."
Slowly, the door began to open, and surrounded by darkness, a pair of gorgeous, deep green eyes peered out.
"Hi," Olivia said, extending her hand toward the crack. "I'm Olivia Anders, Reid's..."
Suddenly, the woman slammed the door shut.
"Where's Reid?" she demanded with pure terror in her voice, and Olivia realized this has been another classic Oblivia moment. She was so determined to be the one to welcome her, she couldn't see how it would affect the other woman.
Shit! she thought, annoyed with herself as she tried to figure out how she was going to get her to open the door now.
"Reid is waiting for you in the guest room," she shouted, trying to sound as nonthreatening as possible. "Your room."
"Why didn't he come for me?"
"Because I wanted to come. I wanted you to know that you'll be safe. Everything's going to be okay."
No, it isn't, the frightened woman behind the door thought. Even if Reid was waiting for her in her room, it didn't change the fact that the best she could hope for was sharing him with his wife, and she was convinced that his wife had come to mark her territory. In reality, Olivia was just being honest. She wanted her husband's lover to feel welcome.
"Listen," she began, her mouth close to the door frame, hoping the woman could hear her clearly. "The compound is about a mile up the road, and at the gate, you're going to meet the man I've been sleeping with. Does that make you feel better?"
Reid's lover thought about it for a moment, then she cautiously opened the door again...just a crack.
"Until today, I thought Reid was dead, so when my husband told you that he was going to see if I was willing to find a way for him to keep you, well, it was bound to work out. And to be honest, I think you're really going to like this plan a lot better than when you thought you'd just be sitting alone on the nights my husband is with me. I mean, I guess it's not ideal considering that you're in love with Reid, and I know what you're probably thinking - I'm in the mountains of West Virginia during the apocalypse, so my lover must be a gun nut with a beer gut - but I promise that's just a stereotype. You're going to be very pleasantly surprised." Olivia was nervous, so she was babbling, and as it put the other women at ease, she allowed the door to slowly inch open until Olivia could see who she was.
"Holy. Fuck," Olivia said when she found herself faced with Amina Vašilić. Olivia's heart was suddenly in her throat because if the young Bosnian actor was the woman Reid had fallen in love with, she could no longer deny that the spell they cast with Madam Levinia in Pittsburgh was responsible for bringing them together with the objects of their affection. She still wasn't willing to take the blame for the apocalypse, but the citizenry of the Deadfall was clearly the work of magic. Of course, Olivia didn't want Amina to know about any of that.
"Wow! You've been on the road chased by zombies for eight weeks, and you still look gorgeous," Olivia said, shifting the focus of her reaction so Amina didn't get curious, and besides, it was true. Amina had an exquisite combination of dominant and recessive traits that made a striking impression upon the eye, and even though Olivia's natural blonde hair and fair skin still turned the head of every man she met, she felt plain beside the exotic beauty.
"It's been a long time since I felt gorgeous," Amina said with a heavy sigh, unsure how to respond to the compliment.
"Come on," Olivia urged as she reached for her hand. "I'll bet you'll feel a million times better once you've had a hot shower and something to eat." Amina stepped out the door, and as Olivia turned and began walking toward the road, she noticed that the guards' weapons were aimed at the corners of the house. When she followed the line of sight to one side and saw a young man with a gun trained on her, she remembered that Reid said he had come with companions - plural.
"You might want to tell your men to lower their weapons before my men kill them
," she said to Amina.
"Chase! Mateo! Stand down!" Amina shouted, and two young men came out from either side of the house where they had been poised to protect her. They were in their early twenties, and neither of them seemed like the seasoned veterans of the zombie war they should have been. Olivia surmised that her husband had probably been keeping them alive as well as Amina.
"Well, I'm glad you didn't shoot me," Olivia said with an awkward laugh as she extended her hand upon their approach.
"Amina's the only one with real bullets. Reid only lets us use the rubber ones," Chase said, shaking hands with her as he laughed nervously. "I'm Chase, by the way, and this is Mateo."
"Olivia."
"We were just planning to scare you off if we needed to," Mateo said. When they had heard the knock at the door, he and Chase had slipped out the back and sneaked around to cover both sides. "I didn't even notice those army guys over there." He indicated Olivia's guards at the end of the walk, and Chase did a double take.
"Shit! Me neither!" he exclaimed.
"How are these two still alive?" Olivia asked Amina.
"Reid," she said, and they shared a laugh as they turned and headed up the walk with Chase and Mateo close behind followed by Olivia's guards. While they climbed the mountain toward the inner ring, Olivia continued chatting with Amina to help her relax.
"So, what's your favorite food?" she asked.
"Quiche Florentine," Amina said. "What I wouldn't give for just a sliver. No ham or bacon, just fresh spinach and..."
"Are you sure about the bacon? I still have a little stashed away, and this is a special occasion after all. I could mince it then get some fresh spinach from the greenhouse..."
"Are you saying you have real eggs?" Amina asked, and Olivia nodded. "Reid told me about the chickens, but we figured they'd all be gone by now."
"No, we've been very careful with our meat consumption, and we're hatching more chicks as we go along. There's plenty of feed for them all over the county now, so we're set for eggs. Bacon is a different story, but we've collected some of the kind that doesn't require refrigeration."