"Sure. The girls can come stay at my house." Gary looked over at Sonya who had her face hidden in her hands.
Gabriel firmly clapped his hand down on Gary's shoulder. "Whoa there horn-dog, I didn't say your girlfriend—my baby girl—would be spending the night under the same roof as you."
Gary's voice became very serious. "Sir, my parents will be there. You, uh, you know you can trust my mom. She's like the kissing Nazi."
Gabriel raised his eyebrow at Gary for a moment before nodding. "You're lucky she's more obsessive about where you put your hands than even I am, or I wouldn't let Sonya near you."
"Uh, hello!" Sonya waved her hands wildly. "Remember me? Your responsible daughter? Don't I count for anything?"
Gabriel glanced at her with a small smile of pity. "No, sweetie, not really." He turned back to Gary. "Just one misplaced hand, just one, and I swear to you young man, I will shoot off the part of your anatomy guiding your brain."
Gary nodded, but he looked really scared. I almost felt bad for him, but then I reminded myself that he was the idiot that opened his big mouth about four hours being enough time. He deserved the crap Gabriel gave him.
I sat down on the floor in front of the coffee table and stared at the blank piece of paper. "Should I tell him the whole plan or just—"
Gary took the pen from my hand before I could write anything and gave it back to Gabriel. "With all due respect, sir, I think anything in writing is a bad idea."
Gabriel seemed to consider this for a moment, forcing me to rethink it as well. What would Dev do with the note once he'd finished reading it? What if his shadows wanted to read it? Physical proof was a bad idea.
Gabriel glared at Gary, but said, "As much as I hate to admit it, loverboy's right about this."
"Okay then." I stood up and tried to sound strong and confident about this plan. "Tell him to drug the military guys, and come see me at your house. If you can't tell Dev and give him the pills, get them to his dad."
Evelyn came back from the kitchen with a clear sandwich bag and a pamphlet. "It says the effects last anywhere from five to twelve hours, so tell him to count on five." She handed Gary the baggie.
"Pills, five hours, meet at my house," Gary repeated. "I got this, and I'm sure it's fine with my parents that you both come over for dinner then Evie and Sonya can spend the night in the guest room." He kissed Sonya's forehead and squeezed my shoulders. "I'll swing by here on my way back from the hospital to pick you two up."
"Gary?" I called out as he opened the door, and he stopped, looking up at me. I thought about the possibility that Dev might not be able to slip the pills to the military guys. I might not get to talk to him again. "Tell him no matter what I love him, and I'll wait for him to come back to me."
Gary's shoulders fell sadly, but he nodded. "Evie, he knows that already, but I'll tell him anyhow."
"And thanks, Gary." I yelled as he closed the door.
After throwing some things in a bag, I sat down to write in my journal until Gary came back for us. There were so many ways this plan could fail that it was hard not to obsess over them. There could be more people watching him besides just the two guys with him. They could be watching his house and see him leave to meet me. What would they do to him if they caught him trying to leave? Was talking to him really worth putting him in possible danger? But Gabriel seemed to agree that we needed to know what was going on. Dev was clearly being held against his will. His will was to be with me—or was it?
Fake or not, his words to me in the hospital had shaken my confidence a little. I was still willing to bet he loved me and that everything between us was real, but now there was a tiny little voice in the back of my head asking "what if?" I hated that stupid voice. But I had to admit that it was part of my self-preservation instincts, and in this particular instance, I needed to be at least a little prepared that Dev had changed.
I Keep Thinking of Apocalyptic Movies
It was the most nerve-wracking afternoon of my life—okay, that's a little dramatic considering the whole chased-by-infected-murderers thing, but it felt that way. Sonya and Gary tried to keep my mind off Dev, but I just couldn't stop obsessively worrying.
Gary said everything had gone smoothly at the hospital. Dev's dad immediately caught on to the plan with the sleeping pills, and managed to distract the guys with Dev long enough to give Gary a minute to tell Dev our plan. Gary also mentioned that Dev's mom had been moved from ICU to a regular room and that they didn't think any permanent damage had been done by the heart attack.
On the way to Gary's house, we stopped at the store. I argued that we didn't have time for shopping, but Gary told me he was under orders from Dev to buy me a belated birthday present. I thought it was silly and told him so, but was curious enough to follow him into the store. Gary pulled us straight to the prepaid phones.
"Gary, I have a cell phone. Dev knows I have a cell phone."
He looked around us and back at me intently. "The government knows you have a cell phone, too."
My eyes widened, and fear crept up in my heart. I looked to Sonya and found her expression matched mine. "My phone is tapped?" I couldn't believe it. Why would they tap my phone? I was nobody. I stood there thinking about it all as Gary picked out a small silver phone and several refill cards. We walked to the register where he paid with cash, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it all. If they had my phone tapped, were they watching my mail and my email?
The eeriness of thinking I was being watched followed me as we walked back to Gary's truck. We were all quiet as we headed back to Gary's house. When we pulled into the parking lot of the pizza place we often ordered from, I looked questioningly at Gary again.
"I'm hungry, aren't you?" He smiled, grabbed the bag with the phone in it and climbed out of the truck.
"What are you doing now, Gary?" Sonya asked impatiently.
Sonya and I scrambled to catch up to him. Inside, he went straight for the counter where I recognized the solid, dirty-blond-haired football player Gary talked to at school sometimes.
"Remington," Gary called out. "Need to call in a favor."
"Yeah, what's that?"
"We need to use your phone." Gary leaned against the counter.
"Hell, that ain't no favor, man." He turned around and grabbed a cordless phone from the wall behind him. "Here ya go."
Gary took the phone to a booth, and we sat there for several minutes as Gary called to activate the prepaid phone. I heard him give the name "Angelica Brady" and the school's address. By then, I'd obviously caught onto the fact that this was an anonymous phone.
When he handed the cordless back to Remington, he said, "The real favor is we were never here."
He shrugged. "No prob, see ya at school."
Gary did a hand slap handshake thing, and we were off again.
Outside, Gary whispered to me, "Dev said he'll explain later."
I nodded, and hoped and prayed that he'd be able to get away.
At dinnertime, Evelyn and Gabriel came over. Gabriel did his best to warn me that Dev might not have an opportunity to slip his shadows the pills, but I'd already worried a ton about that same possibility. This had to work—it was our only shot. He'd be leaving tomorrow. This just had to work.
When dinner was over, we all sat around the table talking about the latest information from Gabriel's blog sites. The spread of the infection was getting much more serious. It seemed to be taking over larger areas and leaving more destruction. I had to wonder why the media seemed to be so much more behind on these outbreaks than the conspiracy theorists online.
By ten o'clock, my nerves were completely shot. We were all sitting in the living room talking and vaguely watching TV. I'd chewed off all of my nails and couldn't sit still any longer. Jumping up, I flexed my hands and walked to the window.
Sonya walked over to me and looped her arm through mine. "Hey, let's go out back and start a fire. I think we could use some air."
Gary came up behind us. "Su
re, these old people are driving me crazy with their calmness."
Sonya steered me out through the kitchen and to the back doors. Just outside, a wide porch wrapped around the back of the house and led down to a stone circle with a fire pit in the center. Gary followed us with several blankets and a box of matches. The chill of the evening air somehow helped me calm down, and I was able to sit on the blanket Gary spread out and lean back against one of the low stone benches surrounding the fire pit. Butcher immediately flopped down next to me with a groan and placed his head in my lap. Sonya sat down on the other side of me and threw a soft, fuzzy blanket over our shoulders as Gary started the fire.
He leaned over the pit with a long match. "I was just thinking about the last time we were sitting around a fire like this. Why does it seem like so long ago?"
"Because everyone's gone," I answered. "Only half of the population is left here, if that."
"Dad said it's getting worse." Sonya stared into the fire. "After living through it, it sort of makes you wonder what 'worse' could possibly look like."
Gary stretched out across the stone bench opposite us. "I keep thinking of apocalyptic movies."
Sonya leaned closer to me. "'I am Legend' comes to mind, doesn't it? Or what was that one we watched last summer with Jay? 'Twenty days later?'"
"'Twenty-eight Days later,'" Gary corrected.
I pulled the blanket closer to me and ran my fingers through Butcher's fur. "Yeah, I had nightmares about that one. Ironically, Jay made fun of me and told me nothing like that would ever happen." I laughed sarcastically.
We were all quiet for several minutes, listening to the fire crackle and pop. I tried not to think about the crazed, zombie-like monsters of the movies, but it was impossible not to. I almost wished our monsters were more like them. Jay had retained his intelligence, which made him a lot more frightening than the instinct-driven zombies of the movies.
But this was real-life. We had medicines and technology. "There must be a cure though, right?" I looked from Gary to Sonya, but they didn't make eye contact with me. "I mean, this isn't a movie. They only throw that incurable stuff in there to increase the drama. We have cures for everything. They thought they'd never cure HIV, and they haven't, but it's barely reducing life span now. So I'm sure there has to be a cure, right?"
Neither one of them said anything. I could feel my heart beating faster, and the feeling of panic started to choke me. I got up quickly. "I need some water." Butcher followed behind me. As I reached the steps up to the deck, I could hear voices from the fire, but Sonya and Gary were speaking too softly for me to understand them.
Inside, I was able to look around Gary's home and calm down. Something about the hutch in his kitchen that had the same exact items on it since before I could remember made me feel better. It made me feel like things weren't so different right now—we'd be okay. Sitting at the kitchen table, Butcher put his head in my lap, and I leaned over to give him a strong hug.
"We'll be okay, won't we boy?" He licked my face, but then his ears shot up, and he let out a growl in the direction of the door. "What do you hear, Butchie?" Then I realized, "Dev!"
I bolted out the door, running as fast as I could, but about five feet away from the steps, I stopped. Standing there, right in front of me was the most handsome man in the entire world. His hands were on Butcher, rubbing his head with both hands. But then his eyes came up to watch me with that smirk on his face that always made me want to simultaneously poke at his confidence and swoon like a silly girl. Right now, I was leaning toward the swooning. Of course, I'd just seen him several hours before, but this was different. He didn't need to hide the way he looked at me, and I didn't need to hide the blush that had to be all over my whole body. The light in his eyes made me bite my lower lip to force back my ridiculous grin.
He shook his head slightly and let out a short gasp. "God, you're beautiful."
Lip biting or not, I couldn't keep the smile that spread across my face. Five little steps forward and I fell right in to his arms. He held me tightly, pressing little kisses against my neck, my cheek, and finally my lips. It started out so gentle, but I wouldn't let it stay that way—I just didn't have the willpower to be calm. Placing my hand on the back of his head, I pulled him into deepening the kiss. The way his lips felt, hardened by the tension between us, was just amazing. I'd dreamed of kissing him for so many months, but none of it came close to the reality.
After several breath-defying moments, my uninfected body protested, and I pulled away from him. But his lips just moved to my neck, driving my senses beyond insane. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I registered Gabriel clearing his throat, but it wasn't enough to stop me from clinging to Dev.
"Ah, I see Devlin is here." Gabriel cleared his throat loudly again, but Dev kept right on kissing my neck. "Devlin, son, get your lips off my daughter."
Dev groaned and pulled back to look me in the eye. His eyes were so beautiful, even with the unnatural green that formed a ring around the outside of the blue sea I was so familiar with. One arm encircled my waist while he ran his hand through my hair and down to hold the back of my neck. His eyes were completely focused on me, and he grinned arrogantly. "With all due respect, sir, no." Then he attacked my lips again.
"Walter!" Gabriel shouted behind me. "You still got that shotgun?" Then in a normal voice that sounded like he was having trouble holding back laughter, he said, "What do you think, son, between the eyes or between the legs."
I finally pulled away from Dev and wrapped my arms as tightly around him as I possibly could. "We have plans to discuss," I admitted as he groaned loudly in my ear. "Just don't take your hands off me."
"Finally, a request I don't have a problem with." His voice was so deep and sexy it made me melt inside. "I love you, baby. I love you so much."
"I love you too. I missed you so much. I'm so sorry about your mom. Is she doing better?"
He squeezed me tighter. "She's out of ICU. They think she'll make a full recovery. She's always had slightly high blood pressure, but it's never been so high she needed medication." He stared at the ground, and I knew the look of guilt on his face. "Because of the stress of me being gone and not being allowed to talk to them, her blood pressure has been too high. They'll put her on medication to keep it low and monitor her more closely now. We're lucky, really lucky. It could have been so much worse."
I stood on the tips of my toes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "It's the military's fault, not yours. They have no right to keep you hostage."
Gabriel smacked him on the back. "She's right. It's not your fault, but let's lay everything on the table so we can see what can be done."
Dev nodded, but still didn't take his eyes off me. Before I could guess his intention, he scooped me up into his arms and winked at me. "Just following your orders."
I kissed his cheek and happily wrapped my arms around his neck. The desire to live in that moment forever choked me, and I had to swallow back the lump in my throat and focus on enjoying my time with him.
"She's got legs, Vaughn." Gary chuckled as we walked toward the living room.
"Don't make me hurt you, Ryans." Dev's voice was gruff, but full of humor.
Gary just chuckled in response. "By the way, I gave her your present. Here's the number." Gary pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket and put it in Dev's hand.
"I always know I can count on you, man," Dev said as he carried me into the house.
In the living room, Dev sat down on the couch, but kept his arms around my waist as I shifted to sit up on his lap. I threaded my fingers through his, and he leaned forward to gently kiss me again. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sonya come into the living room, smiling at Dev and me. I could tell she was happy just seeing me happy, and it meant a lot. No one could be a better sister.
"When did your pals pass out?" Gabriel was sitting in an armchair across from us, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
Dev looked down at his watch. "I
t's been twenty-five minutes."
"The pills knocked me out for eight hours straight." Evelyn perched herself on the arm of the chair Gabriel was sitting in and continued talking. "I'm sure their metabolism is higher than mine, not to mention I was on pain pills too, so maybe we can count on five hours."
Gary's mom brought in several cans of soda.
Gabriel put his arm around Evelyn. "So, let's be on the safe side and say it takes you thirty minutes to get back, you need to leave here by." He turned around to look at the clock.
Dev squeezed my hand, and I looked back to him. He closed his eyes, and I could feel the stress return to his body.
"O two hundred hours," he said angrily. "So let's get this talk over with. They studied us for a few months, taking blood, doing tests. At first, it seemed like they were allowing the infection to spread by purposefully waiting too long to quarantine cities. Harm and I think they were trying to build up as many infected fighters as they could. Problem was they didn't know how or why the infection didn't affect us like the psychotic Infecteds. They know that now, but it's too late. After Albuquerque, the infection has gotten too far."
I put my hand on Dev's chest. "Wait, what do you mean they know that now?"
His thumb started rubbing circles on my hand. "I've been exposed to the bacteria. It comes from a tree whose roots have been growing in our well since before I was ever born. They even have a vaccine for it, but it takes too long to make and after Albuquerque, it's obviously unreliable."
"Albuquerque?" Gabriel's head flinched back slightly. "I've heard brief things about the quarantine there."
Dev wiped his hand across his face. "I just left there. It was—I'd say 75% didn't make it. They—"
"What?" Gabriel stood up.
Gary's dad sat heavily on the couch next to us. He put his hand out to Dev in disbelief. "Albuquerque, New Mexico? That's—but that's hundreds of thousands of people. You can't mean—"
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