Smoke Road

by Toby Neal

  What the hell?

  “You’re hit,” Nani yelled. He heard the rush of her footsteps as she ran to him. Luca rolled over and looked down at himself. His left thigh was bleeding, he’d thought the pain was his old shrapnel wound, but it was a fresh bullet hole. Luca felt it as soon as he saw the blood, a sharp burning sensation, like he was being speared with a hot poker.

  Nani crouched and inspected the wound.

  “I need something to stop the bleeding.” She grabbed her skirt at the already frayed hemline and ripped off another layer, exposing the top of her thighs. She wrapped the white cloth around his leg to make a tourniquet. “We need to get you to the infirmary, stat!”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Haunani

  Nani supported Luca on his left side. He kept scanning the room, amped up with so much adrenaline that he hadn’t even felt the wound in his leg.

  But he would soon enough. Nani hoped she still had enough morphine in her kit to get the bullet out.

  The presence of the grave nearby in the obstacle course seemed to haunt the place and now there were five new bodies that needed burying.

  She hated these skinheads too much to spend the time or energy to do it.

  Luca limped and hopped, with her help, to the infirmary. She hit the light switch and found that there was no power; the generator must have run out of fuel. But on her visit before, she’d identified some light sources in the emergency supplies cabinet.

  Fumbling in the dark, Nani located the examination table and helped Luca up.

  He let out a stifled hiss as she got him onto the table. He’d begun to feel the pain.

  “Just try to relax.” Nani patted his shoulder, easing him down.

  “I want to recon and make sure we got them all.”

  “Trust me, Luca, if there were any more men that gunfight would have brought them all running.” Nani went to the supply cabinet and pulled out a flashlight and a photovoltaic lamp. “I have to get those pants off you and examine the wound.”

  Many of the supplies had been used up in the outpost’s fight against the virus, but not those that pertained to basic first aid. Nani gloved up and with the lamp on and the flashlight aimed at the target area, she used surgical shears to cut Luca’s blood-soaked pant leg off just below the tourniquet. Nani could tell by his labored breathing and body tremors that Luca was feeling everything now.

  “Tell me about your family.” Nani needed to distract him while she did more painful things. She used a low, soothing voice. “Your mother. What is she like? She must be such a strong woman, to raise all of you alone after your father died.”

  “She is.” He stifled a gasp as she lifted the pants fabric out of the welling bullet hole. “She’s the classic Philly Italian Moms.”

  “Don’t think about what I’m doing. Look at the ceiling. Think about your childhood. Tell me a happy memory that shows me more about your family.” The tourniquet wasn’t tight enough and blood was flowing freely from the wound now that the fabric blocking the hole was removed.

  “I want to tell you a good memory, but that’s not the one that’s coming to me right now.”

  “Tell me. Get it off your chest.”

  “All right. I love my mother, Ana. She is a small and powerful woman. She’s kind to others, always taking care, always working.” He hissed between his teeth, raising his head to look at what Nani was doing. She gently pushed his shoulder back.

  “Go on, tell me more about her,” Nani encouraged as she returned her attention to the wound.

  “She kept us boys in line with nothing more than a wooden spoon and the wrong side of her temper.” Luca blew out a breath as Nani prepared a sterile area, swabbing his leg and putting sterile gauze around and beneath. Every little movement seemed to hurt him, and it hurt her, too. “But she wasn’t faithful to my father.” Nani heard the echo of long-held betrayal in Luca’s voice.

  “What? How do you know that? She seems like a very traditional kind of woman, and with all those kids, how would she find time for another man?”

  “I saw her with someone. At my father’s wake.”

  Nani glanced up at his face. Luca’s eyes were shut, his long lashes and dark brows stark against his skin. “She was up against the fence and my father’s partner was kissing her and grabbing her breast. It was so big, you know, because Lucy was nursing.”

  “So wait a minute. Your father’s wake seems like a weird time and place to be carrying on.” Nani was getting distracted by the story. “How old was Lucy?” she asked, moving away from him to rummage through the cupboards, collecting what she would need to remove the bullet.

  “Four months old. I saw them because Lucy woke up and was crying to be fed. I was fourteen, and as the oldest I was in charge. I saw them.” He shuddered, either with pain or at the memory.

  “Was Ana kissing him back? Did she have her hands on him too? That seems like an awful time to be having an affair. The friends I’ve known with infants that age couldn’t be less interested in sex, and at your father’s wake? Are you sure the guy wasn’t just liquored up and copping a feel?” Nani began to work a surgical tourniquet with a clamp up Luca’s leg. “Your poor mom. Did you ever see her with this guy again?”

  “We all knew he liked her. He was always kind of chasing her around when he came over, and my parents made a joke of it.” A frown had appeared between Luca’s brows. “I saw them, and I always just assumed...but come to think of it, he never came around the house after that time.”

  “Luca, I have to replace the tourniquet.” Nani had the rubber tubing of the official tourniquet in place at last, but still had to tighten it and remove the crude cloth one. “After I do that, I’m going to find my kit, and give you some morphine before I go after the bullet, okay?”

  Luca gave a dry chuckle. “I’m all for the morphine.” He groaned as she positioned the rubber tourniquet in place around his thick, muscular thigh. The rubber almost wasn’t big enough.

  “This part hurts.” She gave a powerful yank on the clamp, drawing the tourniquet as tight as she could, the rubber stretching and digging deep.

  He cried out, a wolf howling in agony.

  This was the man she loved, and she was hurting him.

  Nani had thought that nursing their dying men was her personal doctoring nightmare, but this was worse. Sweat beaded her brow and pooled in her lower back, and Nani’s hands shook as she removed the cloth tourniquet.

  “There. All set.” She checked the bleeding; it had already slowed.

  Luca’s hand came up to grip her arm gently. Even as his big body shuddered with the aftermath of the agony she’d inflicted, he stroked her skin. “Pay me no mind. I’m a screamer. You already know that.”

  She whipped her head around, her cheeks flushing at the memory of him crying her name in the peak of passion. Despite the sheen of sweat on his pale cheeks, she saw that he remembered it too, by the smile lurking on his lips.

  “It’s killing me to have to hurt you,” she whispered.

  “I’m glad you’re here to hurt me. My body is yours,” he whispered back. “Do what you want to it, to me.”

  Nani felt his words drop like jewels into her heart. But she needed to stay practical right now.

  “You should have stayed in general medicine. You’re an amazing doctor.” Luca’s eyes were glassy with pain and shock, but he was still stroking her arm. “I’m sorry. I was an ass. I overreacted about the proposal. It was irrational.”

  “Yes, you were. And it was irrational. And I’ll even agree that you were an ass.”

  “I have issues.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  Luca squeezed her arm. “I wish I could kiss you right now.”

  “You can’t kiss me. But I can kiss you.” She leaned over and set her lips on his.

  It was like the conversation they’d begun had merely been interrupted. She smelled the acridity of his leg wound, the iron tang of his blood and of her own. She felt the fragility of their lives�
��trembling, vulnerable, needy—and also their strength, their will to live, their power to overcome. They were better together than apart, and she knew they always would be.

  She gently detached her mouth from his.

  “I swear to work on my temper, on my issues, if you’ll give me another chance.” Luca’s voice was that low rough growl that melted her bones and heated her core.

  “Okay,” Nani whispered, and pressed her mouth to his full, sculptured lips one more time.

  “I love you.” His voice was fading.

  “I know, and I love you too. Now I’m off to get the morphine, and we both get to find out just how good a doctor I am.”

  Nani drove the F-150 extended cab, one of the vehicles the men from The Center had brought on their raid, north. She’d got Luca into the truck with the help of the hand truck they’d used to move Tug. The passenger seat was fully reclined, and Luca slept beside her, drugged with morphine and snoring softly.

  The surgery had gone well and as a bonus, Nani had dug a good-sized piece of shrapnel out of Luca’s leg. Clearly, a hack had performed the original surgery. With more light, more time, and better anesthesia Nani could have removed the rest of the shrapnel. But Luca’s moaning frayed her nerves and the morphine she’d given wasn’t enough to keep him comfortable.

  Nani glanced over at her wolf. Those ridiculous lashes were stark black fans against his pale cheeks. The stubble of his dark beard made his face rugged and dangerous-looking. He’d lost a lot of blood, but she’d found some plasma and been able to at least give him that. They probably should have stayed and let him rest undisturbed, but Nani needed to get out of that haunted outpost.

  Nani had gathered food, water, and an atlas of the area, even rifling the dead men’s bodies for their weapons and anything useful.

  But Nani didn’t have the time or energy to waste burying the bodies of Hillish’s men. In the end, they were all the result of their choices, and those men chose to participate in the murder of millions by helping distribute the virus.

  Nani headed toward North Fork, Idaho, where Luca’s brother lived. With his wound, Luca would need continued care. She would take him there, then see what to do next with the rest of her life.

  The thought of leaving Luca made her chest hurt.

  Night faded and a faint gold glow at the horizon signaled a new day rising. Nani took out Mikaela’s glass, rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger. Her little sister had been an extraordinarily sensitive person, intuitive and kind. “You shouldn’t be with that man,” she’d told Nani about her marriage to Clyde. “He doesn’t really love you, and you don’t love him.”

  Nani had laughed at the time, and teased her. “Oh yeah? And you know this from your great wealth of experience?”

  “I know because I know you. There’s someone better for you, someone who will see and appreciate and love everything about you, even the parts you don’t love yourself.”

  Like her ass. Luca certainly seemed to enjoy it. Nani smiled, remembering how he’d caressed it, admired it, and whispered in her ear that he loved it. She sneaked another glance over at her wounded warrior. He also seemed to appreciate her bravery, a part of herself that Nani had worked hard to cultivate. Fear was always there, but over the years Nani had learned to fight through it. That courage had led her down a hazardous road to this man.

  They’d worked well as a team, both in escaping The Center and in fighting off the cultists. Luca had apologized. He’d owned his issues. Maybe those issues went all the way back to thinking his mother had betrayed his father. He certainly seemed to have a thing about being lied to, and how sneaky women were.

  Luca’s religion was obviously important to him and she understood that it demanded that he marry her. But Nani could not make that kind of commitment just because Luca wanted her to. That wouldn’t be honest or right. She would only do it because she wanted to.

  Nani trusted him to admire and protect her, to help her grow and blossom, and to never try to control her...except maybe in the bedroom. She smiled, and her cheeks warmed at the thought of sharing a real bed with Luca.

  A beam from the sunrise lit the glass in her hand like a sea-colored opal, and Nani had to force herself to focus on the road ahead. She could almost hear Mikaela’s voice in her head. “This is the one.”

  Luca stirred on the seat beside her. “Thirsty,” he muttered.

  She’d prepared for his dehydration from blood loss, setting up a jug of Gatorade from the outpost’s store. “Here.” She handed it to him and he drank, finishing half the bottle.

  “You were pretty out of it, but I got us out of the outpost and on the road. I couldn’t handle staying there one more minute.” Nani slid the glass back into her pocket. “But I’m getting tired. We need to find a place to pull over and rest. I think we should travel at night with all the potential hazards out here.” She took the atlas off the dash and handed it to Luca. “I think I should take you to your brother’s place. He can help you get back on your feet.”

  “Is there anything you can’t do?” Luca’s gaze on her was that warm honey-brown that peaked her nipples.

  “I’m pretty capable, yeah. And so are you.”

  “Between the Gatorade and your drugs, I’m feeling pretty good.” Luca’s big warm hand slid over to rest on Nani’s thigh. She’d showered and donned a fresh uniform, but for a moment she wished she were still wearing that ripped skirt with no panties.

  “I miss your dress.” He read her mind. His hand slid up her leg, squeezing. “I’ll get you another one. In general, I like dresses and skirts. Without panties. Just for future reference.”

  “That’s not very practical.” She smiled.

  “We could make it work. For special occasions.”

  Her tongue felt thick as his hand slid around the top of her thigh to cup her feminine heat through the uniform pants. She bit her lip to keep from moaning as he massaged and touched her, confident and possessive. “I think you should be resting, Captain.”

  “And I think you should pull over so I can show you how much I love you.”

  Nani was having a hard time concentrating on the deserted road anyway as the sun brightened the open swath of mesquite and sagebrush. They’d passed the gate of a ranch a ways back, and now Nani spotted a dirt turnoff leading to a barn and a big aluminum watering trough.

  “We can probably hide the truck in that barn and get some shut-eye.” Nani was breathless as she navigated off the road, highly distracted by his hand working magic on her. They drove around the barn, verifying that it was deserted. Cattle and people were long gone judging by the dust in the trough and the decayed look of the building. “I have to check for threats.”

  “Of course.” Luca let go of her, straightened his seat and gripped the Desert Eagle, lowering the window. “I’ll cover you from here.”

  Nani got out, Peaches following, and reconned, opening the big barn door on squeaky, rusting hinges, and checking the musty interior. Peaches was delighted to investigate the interior of the barn, snuffling at all the good smells. There was nothing inside but a sparrow circling the worn rafters, and a pile of hay in one corner that would make a nice bed for the day. Dust motes danced in beams of early-morning light coming through knotholes in the wood.

  “All clear.”

  She drove the truck in and closed the door. Nani rearranged the hay pile into an approximation of a bed and laid sleeping bags out on it.

  “Peaches will keep an ear out for us.” Luca leaned on Nani as he hopped to the pile of hay. “We can take it easy for a while.”

  “I really do think you should just rest right now.” Nani hesitated as he tugged her down beside him. “Too much exertion could open the stitches.”

  “I want you now,” he growled. “We can rest when we’re dead. I need to be in you, Doctor Healing. You can be on top.”

  His rough words stirred her. Desire for him was so intense it almost felt like pain, little urgent signals firing along her nerves. Nani’s fing
ers trembled as she unbuttoned her shirt, wriggled out of her pants, and pulled Luca’s shirt off of him. She slid off the sweatpants that she’d dressed him in after the surgery—all the while his hands roamed, caressing, kneading every bit of her he could reach.

  She gazed down at his jutting erection, going damp and pliant at the mere sight. God, she wanted him. “I’ll try to minimize movement,” she panted. “Just lie still. Let me do all the work.”

  “Men dream of hearing words like that—but don’t minimize the movement too much.” Luca chuckled. The sound melted her further. Deep, authentic, and strong, it was a perfect distillation of his personality.

  Driving hunger pulsed through Nani, but she needed to say something. “We don’t have a condom,” she wavered, bringing up the dread subject, even as she stroked his chest and abs, and he caressed her breasts.

  “We could die tomorrow.” Luca wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and pulled her close. “Don’t make me beg.”

  Nani slid a leg carefully over his hips, keeping herself as far from his well-wrapped thigh as possible but he grabbed her buttocks, one in each hand, and guided her onto his thick shaft with a groan of satisfaction.

  Throwing her head back, she arched, sinking deep. Luca’s steely heat filling her was exquisite.

  Nani stayed there a long moment, trying to figure out how to proceed without movement but Luca was having none of that, and, holding her butt, he worked her up and down his shaft with sheer arm strength.

  Waves of sensation rippled through Nani. She writhed and bit her lip, holding back to keep from disturbing his injury.

  “Let go. Ride me hard. You can’t hurt me any more than you already have, Doctor Sexy.” Luca used his abs to sit up and clasp her to him, biting the side of her neck, kissing her, marking her and she did let go, pumping herself up and down on his length.

  They came together, much too soon.

  There was nothing in the world like this incredible fusion of power, love, and passion—and there never would be, with anyone but him.