Her feet pounded across the asphalt and she landed next to me, her soft hands on either side of my face. I flinched again, looking down at the ground, ashamed to be how I was. Ashamed that I had succumbed to death and was now full-on hallucinating. I was weak and I was going to die if I didn’t get up and get moving, because it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.
“Mikey?” she sobbed, and pulled my face up to hers. “Mikey, it’s okay, we’ve got you now. We’ve got you,” she whispered against my mouth. A flutter of magic on those soft lips of hers. “You’re okay,” she said, the taste of hot salt tears being shared between us.
“How did you get out?” the other man said.
“Where’s Drag?” another man’s voice called out.
But it was too much, all of it. Seeing her again, seeing people and knowing that I had somehow, inexplicably, made it to safety. Away from death. Away from hell…It was too much.
I fell forward, my eyes closing as I collapsed into her arms. Arms that I had dreamt about and wished to see once more before I died. Arms I never thought I’d feel again.
“It’s okay, I’m here, Mikey, I’m here,” she soothed, her voice like waves caressing my soul as I let go of everything.
And she was there.
It wasn’t a dream or a mirage.
She was real.
She was alive, and so was I.
“O’Donnell,” I sighed as I passed out.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Nina
I climbed down from the truck and took a couple of steps forward, watching as Mikey passed out into O’Donnell’s arms. He was a mess: thin, exhausted, and filthy. His features were sharp and his eyes haunted. He looked like a broken man. But he was still him—Mikey. The Mikey that had saved me on so many occasions. The Mikey that had risked his life for mine. That had protected me, and in turn that I had protected.
He was still there, alive, and with O’Donnell and not me.
O’Donnell was bent over him, pulling him closer to her, and even unconscious his body molded to hers, his hands clawing at her like he was scared that it wasn’t real. That she wasn’t real.
We’d come so far together; through heaven and hell, watching our friends around us succumbing to the cruel world, falling by the wayside in blood and pain. But we’d always found our way back to each other. Yet it seemed then that this was where it ended. This was where our journey together truly ended.
I couldn’t deny the sharp pain in my chest that far outweighed the pain I felt in my arm. The pain was so much worse than losing a limb. It was like dying and living all at the same time. Like breathing poison and having to be happy about it. I blinked, feeling hot tears prickle my eyes before falling down my cheeks in hot tracks.
Everything hurt, both inside and out; my body broken, my heart shattered, and my soul crushed. But at least he was alive.
That was what mattered most.
That was what was important.
Wasn’t it?
I took a step forward but then changed my mind and turned around. I moved so I was out of sight if Mikey did open his eyes. I couldn’t imagine what seeing me right then would do to his mental state, but I imagined that it wouldn’t do him any good. I wouldn’t do him any good. I never had. Not like O’Donnell. Not like the NEOs.
Mikey thought I was dead, that I’d gone back inside and avenged our friends and killed Fallon for him and for us. But I had lived. And then I had left what was left of our friends to the Forgotten in the hopes that they would keep their end of the bargain and save the people within the walled cities.
I had sold my soul for the greater good, and it was time to pay the price. And my price would be Mikey. Love. Happiness. Us.
I’d been selfish the past months, trying to prove to myself that I was something, that I wasn’t some awful woman that had done something horrible. That I could be saved. I had believed that if I could help the Highwaymen women I could atone for leaving behind our friends to the mercy of the Forgotten. I could finally see that I was wrong. So very wrong. That trying to do one good act to make up for something awful didn’t work.
Life didn’t work that way.
It’s funny how that happens. How we can be so set on our paths, so determined to see a plan through, that when we do…we realize that we were wrong all along.
But at least Mikey was alive.
At least he would live.
Like I said, that was what mattered, right?
Shooter had stormed past Mikey to kill the deader that had been behind him. I wasn’t sure if Mikey had known it was there and just hadn’t had the strength to fight it off or outrun it, or if it he had been unaware, but it didn’t matter anymore. Shooter had taken it out with a single blow to the head from his hatchet.
Shooter turned and ordered some of his men to help get Mikey into a truck. We couldn’t stay out there all day; the Savages still needed to be ended. There were still people missing—Drag, one of the Rejects shouted; Phil, someone else yelled.
The battle was still going ahead, despite Mikey being there, and someone needed to take him somewhere safe. Because if it all ended badly then he had to stay safe.
Shooter looked over to where I was standing, his beautiful blue eyes picking me out from the crowd that had formed. He said something to Highlander, who nodded and in turn said something to someone else. Gauge climbed back onto his bike, and then Shooter stalked toward me as Mikey was carried past me by two Highwaymen. I glanced across as Mikey passed, and O’Donnell looked at me briefly—her eyes meeting mine in recognition that he had picked her and not me—before she looked away and hurried past.
Mikey was placed inside a truck near the back of the convoy, and then I watched as O’Donnell drove him away from there, away from that nightmare and back to safety. Back to NEO, where he belonged now.
And I smiled.
They say love is the most painful thing of all, and I agree.
Because I loved Mikey, I always had and I always would, and I was watching him drive away with another woman. Heading to safety while I went headfirst into danger and possible death.
It would be worth it though, I had no doubt.
Shooter stopped beside me. He reached out and cupped one of his large hands against my cheek and looked down at me with a hard frown.
“So, now you know,” his gravelly voice bit out.
I nodded and forced myself not to cry. To be brave and true and strong like all those people expected of me.
“You good?” he asked.
I couldn’t find my voice, or even the words to describe what I was feeling. And really, even if I could, would it have been fair to tell him what I was thinking? What I was wishing? So instead of telling the truth, I told a lie.
“I’m fine.”
“Still not happy with you comin’. If that gets infected—”
“I know,” I replied.
“You’re weak now, you can’t fight like this.” He pointed toward my missing hand.
I narrowed my eyes at him and shook my head. “I’m anything but weak, Shooter,” I bit out. “Don’t you know anything about me?”
A slow smile climbed his face and then Shooter chuckled darkly, his rough thumb rubbing along my chin. He leaned in suddenly, surprising me by placing a heavy kiss upon my mouth. It was brief and hard—brutal, almost—and when he pulled away he was smiling.
“You’re right.”
“I usually am.”
He chuckled again. “You sure you wanna do this? I can get someone to drive you back to the clubhouse.”
He was giving me an out.
He was offering me a choice. Not between life or death or fighting or not fighting. He was asking me to choose between going to Mikey or standing by him and fighting by his side.
I looked around us, at the convoy of people sitting and waiting to risk their lives to end the Savages, to end their barbarism and cruelty, and then I looked back at Shooter.
“It’s going to be dark soon. We need to get goin
g if we’re going to kill these bitches,” I replied.
I made my choice.
I let Mikey go.
Shooter smiled, his eyes hard—almost cruel—and then he nodded. He whistled to attract the attention of his men, of all the people waiting to end the fight. “Let’s roll out, brothers and sisters,” he said, looking down at me.
I nodded, acknowledging the respect he was giving me.
“We got some Savages to kill.”
To be continued…
ODIUM VII coming early 2019
Thanks
Thanks so much to my amazing team: Amy, my badass, hilarious editor; Elizabeth, my cover designer and sister from another mister; and also to my reviewers, bloggers, and beta readers. Thanks also to Karen Dziegiel for beta reading Odium VI for me at such short notice. HUGE thanks also to my reader group—Riley’s Rebels. I honestly couldn’t do this without each and every one of you. Seeing your posts every day and demanding more Nina really makes all the hours agonizing worthwhile.
And finally, thank you to Tim Feely. I hope that you liked your character.
Thank you to you all for being a part of mine and Nina’s crazy journey.
Claire / Cee Cee xox
Author note: If you enjoyed reading about the Highwaymen and the Devil’s Rejects in Odium VI, you might want to check out the Ride or Die series. There’s no zombies, but there’s plenty of bikers and romance <3
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claire C. Riley is a USA Today and international bestselling author.
Claire writes in the darker side of fiction, dipping her pen into genres such as post-apocalyptic, dystopian, thrillers, and horror. She also writes under the pen name of Cee Cee Riley, where she writes in the MC romance and post-apocalyptic romance genres.
Claire lives in the United Kingdom with her husband, three daughters, and her naughty rescue beagle—Dogface.
Author of:
Odium The Dead Saga Series
Odium Origins Series
Limerence (The Obsession Series)
Out of the Dark
Twisted Magic
Beautiful Victim
Blood Claim
Thicker than Blood series
Shut Up & Kiss me
Under her pen name of Cee Cee Riley
Ride or Die, a Devil’s Highwaymen MC series
Ride or Die Nomad series
Contact Links:
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‘She writes characters that are realistic and then kills them without mercy’
The Dead Saga (Book 6): Odium VI Page 27