He never got to finish what he was saying. She ran across the room and barreled into the two of us, wrapping her arms around us, her head buried in the space between our shoulders. She was squeezing so tight, and I could hear her snuffling and trying to cover it up.
I looked up at Gemma and mouthed “thank you” before crouching down a little to get my arm firmly under her ass. I stood up, hoisting her into the air where she automatically wrapped her legs around my waist, totally stealing her away from Sev. He’d get her second. He was cursing me out, but it wasn’t very forceful.
“How much did you hear?” Sev asked her, interrupting what might have turned into a kiss, which I probably should be thankful for, but also wanted to put the hurt on him at the same time.
“Enough,” she said breathlessly, burrowing under my chin as she attempted to squeeze the life out of me. It was a good hug. “I hadn’t even thought about any of that, I was just going to walk away from them. Didn’t even think about what I should be eating. You doing that for me— that’s… that’s a huge weight off me that I didn’t even know I was carrying.”
I passed her over to Sev, and he turned them so his back was to the room, and I could hear him murmuring something to her but it was too soft for me to hear even as close as we were. I stepped away, back towards the group, and let them have their time together.
We might just figure this shit out yet.
Azzie released the lock-down soon after that, and I walked with Spider and Sev back to where we’d left our bags, the room she called “Mission Control.” Spider dug a notebook out of his pack and handed it over. It was a standard composition notebook, the kind with the black and white marbled cover.
“Back at the house, when you told Rachel to pass over the information properly?” He looked at me and I nodded warily, anticipating some new, fresh hell. Unfortunately, he delivered. “She didn’t see me watching her. She made some notes for Azzie, then threw this out — actually covered it with garbage in the trashcan so it wasn’t obvious it was there. Feel free to let her know we don’t appreciate her being a vindictive bitch, and if she doesn’t give us the right information… get creative with the threats.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Sev’s clenched fists, tense muscles, and rapidly reddening face made me think he was decidedly unhappy with this news.
“That’s rhetorical, right? Does any of that sound out of character for that— that person?”
I clasped a hand on Sev’s shoulder. “We’ll do our best to get what we need from her and walk away without violence,” I said, more to convince myself than either of them. “Hopefully.”
Spider nodded, flicking my arm. “I’ll get the weapons figured out, and put together basics for our bug-out bags. How far is this place we’re meeting your dad at?” he asked Sev.
“The original rendezvous location is sixty miles from here, but he assumed we’d have access to a vehicle of some kind, but I think they’ll be watching the roads.”
I nodded, as did Spider: we needed to stay off the roads as long as possible, it was too exposed and there wasn’t enough traffic anywhere to blend in.
“There’s another place that’s closer but it may be a bit riskier to get to. I don’t think we have a choice though. Azzie can’t be walking sixty miles at the pace we’d have to go — and every day we’re out there without backup puts her at risk. Once we’re outside the barrier and can get to a phone, we can see if there is someplace else or something closer if possible.”
“We’ve got the satellite phone, as soon as we aren’t under forty feet of rock, you can text him. Calling is a risk but the texting is secure.”
Sev nodded and took the notebook, tucking it in his waistband in back and tugging his shirt down to cover it. “Let’s go deal with this.”
Chapter Six
Sev
“I’m not an evil person,” the evil person said, and I rolled my eyes at Tai, because it was better than stabbing her. For her, I mean. I would’ve much rather stabbed her.
She glared at the floor.
We’d met her in the big, commercial kitchen, and she made a point of shutting the safe room door and telling Greg to lock it from the inside. Then she had the balls to stand there wringing her hands and looking conflicted, trying to work up the companion ball-sweat needed to spew her bullshit.
“Fine,” Tai said, sounding way more reasonable than was warranted. “Go ahead and try to justify yourself to us if it will make you feel better. Go on, tell us how Azzie was asking for it, or how she deserved it. Or maybe how you were forced to do something so incredibly heinous—”
Her face twisted into a snarl. “I’m not justifying it. I did what I had to do, and no, Azzie didn’t deserve it. But I— I tried to tell them!”
Tai leaned back against the stainless steel countertop and crossed his arms, looking down his nose at her like she was dirt under our shoes. I hopped up on the counter behind her; she flinched and I enjoyed every second of her discomfort. “Go on. Explain.”
“I don’t know if you’ve realized this yet, but Mouse is a know-it-all little bitch,” she hissed, and I raised my eyebrows at him; if we found out one more terrible thing that Mouse did, I’m not sure we’d help Azzie look for her. “After a month or so, after Dr. McNamara told me that my changes were achieving the desired result,” she made air quotes around that bit, gritting her teeth. “I hinted and then openly suggested to Azzie that Mouse run a liver panel on her blood. They’d see the elevated numbers and know she wasn’t anemic and didn’t need all the supplements. But little miss I-know-everything didn’t listen, instead she sent a fucking email requesting to see the results of the last panel Dr. McNamara had run. He sent her a doctored report, of course, and then he told me that if I tried anything like that again, he had people on the outside that would love to get their hands on my daughter. Heather would disappear. She was nine.”
I shrugged at Tai — her non-justification actually worked for me to a certain extent. I could totally see Mouse being obnoxious about anything Rachel said, and being just arrogant enough to assume Azzie’s doctor would do whatever she asked.
“Alright, cool. What else have you done in the last — what is it? Two years?”
“She made sure Azzie knew she wasn’t family,” I supplied helpfully as Rachel stuttered and sputtered and tried to come up with an answer.
“Mmhmm,” he pursed his lips, nodding at her. “She sure did. Anything else?”
“Well, there’s that notebook you threw out,” I mocked her, slamming it on the counter and hopping down. “Does this look familiar?”
“Right,” Tai said coldly. “Want to explain that?”
“Sh-she shouldn’t eat anything high in iron!” Rachel paled when she saw the familiar composition book.
“And that’s all that’s in here? Just recipes for her supplements for the last two years?” Tai set his hand on the notebook and her eyes darted towards the safe room. “Right. Pretty sure this has everything in it, right? What you fed her before the poisoning started—” she visibly winced at that, “—and all the stuff for her skin and hair too, the stuff I asked you for earlier. Should I compare what you wrote down then to what’s in this book? Yeah. That’s what I thought.” I was impressed by how intimidating Tai was when he was angry. Pretty sure she was about to shit her pants.
“According to her classmates, when Azzie wasn’t feeling well, Rachel here made sure that Az knew she was on her own and needed to take care of herself. Pretty sure she didn’t once visit her when she was in the hospital, where she works.”
“That’s a total bitch move, giving those assholes anything to hold over her,” he frowned.
“You worked at the hospital, but you didn’t even offer to drive her home when she was released,” I sneered, shifting to put her between me and Tai again, which made her all kinds of nervous.
“Oh, but she did pack a bag for her!” Tai growled sarcastically, glaring daggers at the woman. He’s legit a scary fuck, I had no idea. He and Spi
der are both so quiet and easy-going most of the time, I forget they’re both ex-soldiers and tough as shit. “The overnight bag for Azzie to use with the five grown men who wanted to have a sleepover,” he continued, truly outraged by this, and I got the sense it had been bugging him since that night.
“Are you really judging me for not keeping her apart from you?!” Even on the verge of running away like the coward she was, Rachel managed to look outraged by our hypocrisy, making me laugh even though nothing about this was actually funny.
Tai slammed a hand on the stainless steel countertop, making her jump like it was a gunshot. “You were her guardian, and she’s seventeen years old!”
“Eighteen.” She stared at Tai, all her fear suddenly dissipating, her mouth curling up in a smug smile. “Oh, she didn’t tell you?”
What. The. Fuck?
“As of when?” I demanded, grabbing her shoulder and spinning her toward me. I think she forgot I was there, or at least had forgotten to fear me. She was remembering now.
“Maybe you should ask her.” She tried putting up a front, but it was pathetic. The woman was shaking.
“Maybe you should tell us,” Tai said, voice like a wind out of the Cold Lands. He loomed over her — at least when it came to Rachel, he wasn’t the calm, reasonable one next to my feral wolf, and she was terrified.
“Today,” she whispered.
My eyes met Tai’s — we needed to do something about that, but we also needed to take care of this shit, even though I’m starting to wonder if we can believe a damn thing this woman says.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Tai stepped into her and she shrank back. “We’re going to go through this notebook, page by page, and you’re going to make corrections to things, and tell us the most important parts — what’s good and what’s bad. You’re going to tell us everything she should be eating, and the best things we can do to keep her as healthy as possible. We’re going to go through this kitchen and pick out two — no, three — days worth of food for her so we can see how much she should be eating, and we’re going to put together a bunch of things that are easy to eat on the go. And then you’re going to tell us her favorite foods and what sweets we can safely give her, and help us put together something special for her birthday. And you do not want to lie to us, you understand?” She nodded warily. “Good. And in exchange, we’re not going to hurt you, and that’s going to be a struggle because right now? Right now, I want to take that cast iron pan over there and beat you to death with it. Do you understand?”
We spent the next two hours with the most useless, mean-spirited, bitchy creature I’ve ever met, and I grew up surrounded by criminals, meth-addicts, and whores of both sexes.
Azzie
Sev and Tai left to go to the kitchen to deal with Rachel, and Spider went with them for some reason that I was only sorta curious about, but since he came back pretty quickly and wasn’t drenched in blood, I was comfortable not asking.
He got right up in my grill and rested his hands on my shoulders. “Sev and Tai are taking care of the food situation, and I’m going to sort through the weapons and gear with Sasha and the others. Why don’t you take Luka with you and go pack up your stuff? Maybe even take a nap? You’ve been going full-throttle since really early this morning, and this might be your only opportunity to rest.”
I stared at him dully, trying to process what he was saying, which was a pretty good indicator that I absolutely was over-tired and slow of brain. I nodded, eventually.
“Luka, you got this?” Spider called over his shoulder, and the next thing I knew, I was being hoisted up into Luka’s arms like a toddler; I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist and arms around his neck. He had one arm braced under my thighs, and one big hand cupping my ass. I narrowed my eyes at him and he squeezed, winking at me.
“Oh yeah, I got this,” he hummed happily and wandered away from the armory with me while I watched over his shoulder as Spider shook his head and fought off a smile.
“I’ll come get you in an hour or so,” Spider called out, and Luka threw up the devil’s horns then went back to clutching my ass.
I directed him through the maze of corridors until we reached my room, punching in the code to open the door. I wandered in while he stood in the doorway and looked around, and I got it, it was a lot to take in.
One whole wall of my room was an aquarium, the side of one of the largest tanks in the aquaculture room. “It’s a saltwater tank with oysters, clams, and mussels in a suspension system. If you get close to the glass and look up, you can see the bags hanging. There’s a bunch of fish in there too, but I don’t know all the species, that was more Mouse’s thing.”
“And that’s all it takes to grow shellfish as a food source? A big ass tank and the right kind of water?”
I smiled at him, tired and slow but willing to talk about whatever he wanted to know. “Sorta. That’s the most important part, but there’s a whole system set up. The water circulates through a separate tank of worms and sea cucumbers that filter out all the fish, um, output, and then through a tank growing microalgae, and that circulates back into the main tank and feeds the shellfish and smaller fish, which then feed some of the bigger fish.”
“This is amazing, how you set this all up—”
“Wasn’t us,” I interrupted him, too tired to be polite. “This was all here, totally self-sustaining as long as the pumps are working. When Mouse first moved in, she had to harvest a bunch of it to keep the balance in place, but other than that… the environment is healthy as long as babies are being produced, and you can see all the fry and juveniles if you look close enough.”
“Fry—?”
“Baby fish.”
“And this is just one of the systems?”
“Yeah, there’s a big freshwater setup and a smaller brackish too, but those are more integrated with the plant side so the tanks aren’t as deep as much as they’re wide and long—”
“Tee hee,” he fake giggled, covering his mouth, and I snorted.
“I know there’s a joke there with being wet too, but I’m too tired to figure it out,” I said, collapsing onto my bed.
“Is there a way to cover this up or something? So we can get the room darker for napping?”
“No, I don’t like it dark,” I said, struggling to sit back up to take off my boots. “After being blind.”
“Lay back,” he said, voice low, and he rested his palm on the center of my chest and pushed me down gently. “I’ve got you.”
I sank back, grateful beyond measure, as he unbuckled and unzipped my boots, removed my ankle holster and knife, and rubbed my feet and calves. I groaned as he dug his thumbs into my soles, then worked his way up to my knees — he was almost as good as Ethan, and I was selfishly thrilled that I could still get some massage-action in the future.
“Who’s Ethan?” He asked as he lifted my shirt up and unstrapped my belly-band holster, moving my 26 off to the side. I vaguely registered that he was unbuckling my belt and dragging my pants off — all I cared about was that I was getting incrementally more comfortable as things were removed, that’s all that really mattered.
“Huh?” I opened one eye as his weight lifted off the bed and I realized he asked me something.
“Ethan,” he repeated as he shed most of his clothing too. “Who is he?”
“Works at the spa,” I mumbled, hypnotized by the way the shifting light played across his abs and chest. He ran a hand down to the waistband of his tight, black boxer briefs, and I’m not sure what sound I made, but he grinned.
“Scoot over,” he purred, climbing up on the bed next to me and dragging a soft, fleece throw over us. I wiggled over a bare inch, and he chuckled low in his throat. “There’s barely any room for me, sweetpea,” he chided me in a low voice that seemed to thrum against all my important parts. “There’s like three feet of space over there.”
“Occupied,” I assured him. “You gotta work with what you have.”
&nb
sp; He laughed, a dark, wicked sound, and draped himself on top of me. My legs automatically shifted, knees parting, making room for him in between my thighs before tangling my legs with his. My arms snaked up around his neck as he sank down and laid over the top of me, burying his face in my throat. “Mmmph.”
I ran my hand down over the planes of his back, his skin hot and smooth over lean muscles. He nuzzled down deeper and began to kiss my neck in a trail leading to my ear, making me shiver.
“You know we’re supposed to be sleeping,” he whispered directly in my ear, his breath tickling me and sending goosebumps down my spine.
“I am. This is a dream,” I murmured, closing my eyes as he kissed and nibbled along my jaw. “Has to be. Too good.”
“Agreed.” He reached my mouth, kissing the corner before moving his face back. A finger traced down my forehead then the bridge of my nose, booping against the tip. I opened my eyes and met his, heavy-lidded and intense. “I’m going to kiss you now,” he said, making my belly somersault, “on all your lips.”
I was still trying to figure out what he meant when his mouth descended again; he pressed against my lips and I opened to him without another thought. Tongue caressing mine, lips demanding, I lost myself, gripping him with arms and legs as tight as I could, trying to forcibly meld my skin into his. He was hard against me, grinding between my legs as I rolled my hips, seeking friction.
I wasn’t nearly done with the kissing when he detached himself, and I tried to hang on but he was too determined to escape. I made a little distressed sound and he crawled back up on hands and knees to kiss me again, but didn’t let me pull him back down on top of me. “Hands above your head,” he ordered, “and keep them there.”
I stretched my arms up, arching my back, hoping it would be like last time when he burrowed under my shirt, but this time maybe he’d do something about the little rocks chafing against my bra that had apparently replaced my nipples.
Book of the Lost: AAV-07d25-11: (A reverse harem, post-pandemic, slow-burn romance) (The JAK2 Cycle, Book 3) Page 8