by Dia Cole
In a blur of motion, he knocked the weapon away and threw me over his shoulder.
“Let me go! Help!” Blood rushed to my head as I beat my fists against his massive back.
The giant laughed as he carried me toward the parking lot. “Nathan didn’t mention you’d be a handful.” His deep voice rolled over me like thunder.
“Nathan Steele?” I asked feeling like I’d just been smacked with a lead pipe. How does he know my ex?
“The one and only,” he replied. Answering my unspoken question he said, “Nathan told me, Gabriel, and Mason to bring you somewhere safe. If you hadn’t noticed, the world is going to hell.” He waved behind us where Jess and her friends still writhed in a heap.
I shivered, suddenly very willing to trust the stranger with my life. “Where are you taking me?”
The man twisted around to look at me with a surprisingly handsome face. In the light of the parking lot I made out the deep auburn color of his beard and hair. “Sanctuary.”
“Where's that?”
Instead of answering, he made a beeline straight to a black SUV parked toward the front of the parking lot, opened the back door, and gently set me down on the leather seat. “I smell blood. Are you hurt?”
“I sliced my hand in the alley when I fell,” I said, holding up my bleeding left palm.
He gently cupped it in his basketball-sized hand and frowned. “I’m sorry for scaring you back there.” He lowered his head as if ashamed. “I seem to have that effect on females.”
Although I didn’t know him, he’d just saved my life and the last thing he needed to feel was bad about how I’d reacted to him. I reached out and touched his cheek with my free hand. “Thank you for what you did back there.”
He turned his face into my hand and kissed my fingers. “Believe me, it was my pleasure. My name is Liam Murphy.”
I sucked in a startled breath, taking in his beautiful deep green eyes. Wow. He’s as sexy as the other two guys.
As if conjured by my thoughts, Mason and Gabriel came running out of the club.
Gabriel stalked over to the SUV and gave me a hard look. “You just needed to change, right?”
I dropped my hand away from Liam’s face. “Um, well, I didn’t know you guys were friends with Nathan.”
“Give her a break,” Liam said. “She just went toe-to-toe with infected in the alley.”
Gabriel studied me. “Were you bitten or scratched?”
I shook my head.
Gabriel sniffed the air. “You’re bleeding.” He shot me an accusatory look.
I showed him my blood-covered hand. “I fell when I was trying to run from those…” I started to say zombies, but stopped myself. They couldn’t be zombies, right? But what other explanation was there?
Mason peered around Gabriel’s shoulder. “That cut needs to be disinfected. Let me get my medical bag.” He walked around to the back of the SUV and opened the trunk.
Bag. “Oh no!” I glanced back at the alley. “I dropped my duffel bag in the alley.” Shit. It held my phone and purse.
“I’ll get it for you,” Liam offered.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Gabriel scoffed.
Those things are back there. I grabbed Liam’s muscular arm. “He’s right. It’s not worth your life.”
Liam’s grin transformed his face from ruggedly attractive to drop-dead gorgeous. “I’d gladly risk my life for your happiness.”
Gabriel’s gaze narrowed. “Liam, forget it. Get into the car.”
Ignoring him, Liam jogged back toward the alley.
“Damn it!” Gabriel slammed his hand on the roof of the SUV. “Happy now, princess?”
I sucked in a breath. “I didn’t want him to go.” God, what if those monsters tear him apart? My stomach knotted as I watched the alley.
A minute later, Liam reappeared with my bag. He carried it over and set it on my lap like a trophy. “Easy peasy.”
Unable to help myself, I threw my arms around his beefy neck. “Thank you. Just don’t do something crazy like that again.”
He slowly pulled away, his deep green eyes never leaving my face. “I have a feeling that I’m going to be doing a lot of crazy things over you.”
Heat moved low in my belly as I inhaled his scent—fresh pine with a hint of mint. I decided then and there that I liked Liam. A lot.
“For Christ’s sake, let’s get out of here,” Gabriel snarled, opening the door to the front passenger seat and getting in.
We weren’t just going to leave. Were we? “Wait. Shouldn’t we call the police?” There were monsters in the alley, surely that warranted a call to the authorities.
“There’s nothing they can do,” Gabriel said tersely. “Besides they’re probably overwhelmed with calls as it is.”
I blinked at him in disbelief. “But we need to at least tell Max—”
“What we need to do is get to safety. Now, Liam,” Gabriel growled.
Liam got into the driver’s seat and started the vehicle while Mason slid into the seat next to mine.
“Step on it, brother. We’ve wasted too much time here already.” Gabriel glared at me again.
As Liam pulled out onto the street, Mason tore open a package and the sharp, acrid smell of alcohol filled the inside of the car. “This may sting a bit.” He gently pulled my injured hand into his lap.
That was an understatement. I hissed in pain when he started cleaning the cut.
Without even turning on a light, he reached for a spool of gauze and then expertly wrapped my hand.
“Are you a doctor?”
“I am.” The flash of his even, white teeth made my heart pound a little faster.
Does he do backs? I wondered.
Liam caught my eye through the rearview mirror. “So what’s the deal with you and Nathan? Are you two together?”
I shook my head. “No. I haven’t spoken to him in ages.”
“Really?” Liam said, flashing me another smile.
Damn. Liam was sexy in a mountain man kind of way. I licked my suddenly dry lips. “I was his daughter’s nanny before we got together. We only dated for a few months before Nathan broke up with me.” Realizing that I was rambling, I shut my mouth.
“He’s a fool,” Mason said softly.
“His loss, our gain,” Liam rumbled from the front seat.
Gabriel snorted. “Eyes on the road, Liam. Nathan wouldn’t have us drop everything in the middle of the goddamn zombie apocalypse and go after this female if she wasn’t important to him.”
“The zombie apocalypse?” I repeated with a laugh. “You don’t actually believe that, do you?”
All three men nodded in unison.
“That’s insane.”
“What did you think those creatures were in the alley?” Liam asked.
“I don’t know…sick people,” I answered weakly, trying not to remember how Jess’s guts had hung outside her body.
Mason white-knuckled his medical bag. “They are sick. Sick and dead. And soon the entire world will be filled with them.”
It suddenly seemed colder in the vehicle. “What are you talking about?”
Mason sighed. “The flu vaccine is causing pathogenic side effects in a sizable subset of the population. That older gentleman back in the club is a good example. He must’ve received the vaccine within the past twenty-four hours—that’s usually how long it takes for the Z-virus to spread and kill a person. Like the other infected, he reanimated immediately after death.”
I gasped. “Dr. Sullivan died?”
Mason put his hand over mine. “I’m sorry if he was a friend.”
“He, ah, wasn’t, but I didn’t realize he was that bad off.” Crap, in less than an hour that guy went from drooling over me to dead.
Gabriel cleared his throat. “The flu vaccine kills people and brings them back as zombies who infect and kill others.”
“Holy shit.” That explained the crazed people on TV and Jess’s new undead look. As impossible as it s
ounded, I was starting to drink the Kool-Aid. “I have to warn my friends.” I pulled out my cell phone and rang Sydney. My call went straight to voice mail. “Syd, call me as soon as you get this. There’s some bad shit going on and you need to get somewhere safe.” Hopefully, she was just finishing up with that bachelor party and I’d catch her before she got to the airport.
I tried the club, but the phone just rang and rang. They must’ve already closed. I then tried Donna’s cell and then Max’s. Neither one of them picked up. Damn it. I left Max a voice mail asking him to call me. He’d want to know about Jess and my dead VIP customer.
After ending the call, I stared down at the phone. There was only one more person I felt compelled to call. Even though I’d deleted his number from my phone, it was seared into my mind just like the memory of his mouth on my body. Taking a steadying breath, I dialed Nathan.
He picked up on the second ring. “Vana?”
The sound of his deep rumbling voice wrenched my heart. How can he rattle me after all this time? “Hi, Nathan,” I managed to say through clenched teeth.
“Are you with Liam and Gabriel?”
“Yes, and Mason,” I said with all the calmness I could muster.
“Good. They’re going to take you to a property up in the mountains.”
The mountains? “But that’s hours away.”
“The farther away from town you are, the safer you’ll be. As soon as I get Mira, we’ll join you.”
“Where is she?” I asked, my throat tightening with worry.
“With her new nanny,” he said in a clipped voice. “We’ll see you shortly and then you and I will talk. I have a lot of things I need to tell you. I’ve missed you…I want you back.”
A million different emotions flashed through me—confusion, pain, anger and a dump truck full of bitterness. “You’re a few months too late for that.”
“Vana.” My name sounded like a plea on his lips. “I’m sorry. I can explain everything.”
My breathing grew ragged. “Fuck you.” Tears swam in my eyes as I thought of all those anguished nights I’d dreamed of him begging me to take him back. “You told me that I meant nothing to you and now you mean nothing to me.”
“Vana, I—”
A loud crash sounded through the phone and our connection went dead.
5
Liam
I’d never been a jealous man. In fact, I’d long come to terms with the fact that my size intimidated females, both human and Lykos alike. Other than the rare female or two whose curiosity temporarily overwhelmed their fear, they avoided me like the bogeyman I’d become. Over the years, I’d gotten used to seeing other males chosen by females. So why did the sight of Doc’s arm wrapped around Havana’s slight shoulders make me want to rip the offending limb off and beat him with it?
As if feeling my glare in the rearview mirror, Doc looked up. “Is something wrong, Liam?”
I enjoyed the scent of anxiety wafting off the smaller male. He might be better-looking, and a doctor, but we both know who was deadlier.
Gabe looked over at me. “Why are you giving that poor male The Look, brother?”
I feigned innocence. “What look?” The other Enforcers told me I wore a particular expression before going after someone who had the misfortune of pissing off Tasha. It was a running joke back among the rest of the Enforcers that Liam’s Look was enough to stop a male’s heart from beating. If only. It’d make my work far less messy.
“Ease up or Mason will piss his pants,” Gabe chided. “That’s an order.”
I swallowed back my growl. Gabe was one of the few who could speak to me like that without fearing for his life.
The dark-haired male gave me a puzzled look. “What’s going on with you?”
I shrugged. Normally, I maintained an ironclad hold on my emotions. But seeing Doc plastered all over Havana set my teeth on edge. “The female is pretty,” I said trying to offer an explanation.
Gabe grunted in understanding.
My gaze shifted back to Havana. Pretty. That was an understatement. I’d never seen a more stunning female in my life and that included every Lykos female in our faction. But that wasn’t very many if I was being honest. There were at least five males for every female, which meant that most males remained unclaimed like me. It was the female’s choice after all and no female would ever choose a freak of nature like me. Having the reputation as the killer of killers probably didn’t help my cause either.
But Havana didn’t recoil in horror at the sight of me. Well, I guess she had, but later she’d touched my cheek. I couldn’t remember the last time a female had touched me. The feel of her soft hand against my skin would fuel my fantasies for the next month.
Of course, now Doc was holding her hand. I glanced up in the rearview mirror and growled.
Doc flinched. “What is it?”
I scowled at him. “She doesn’t need you pawing at her.”
The smaller male let out an indignant sniff. “I’ve never pawed at a female in my life.”
He probably hadn’t needed to. Lucky bastard. No doubt females threw themselves at the handsome male wherever he went. I gritted my teeth. “Just give her some space.”
Doc dropped Havana’s bandaged hand and shame pounded through me. She’d been injured on my watch. I should’ve protected her better.
Seeming to sense my darkening mood, Doc wisely moved to the other side of the seat.
The tightness in my chest eased. Unable to stop the impulse, I adjusted the mirror so I could better see the object of my obsession. There she was in a tangle of long dark hair. Her short black dress barely covered the tops of her tanned, toned thighs.
The sight of those long legs had me squirming in my seat.
Havana looked up and our gazes tangled in the mirror.
For a moment, I lost myself in her eyes. Back in the alley, I didn’t notice their color, but now I could see they were a deep brown. Beautiful. Just like every inch of her. My heart pounded as I imagined her seeking comfort from me instead of Doc.
I’d put my arm around her and draw her against me. She’d sigh and pull me close and—
“Watch the road!” Gabe yelled, startling me back to reality.
I jerked the wheel to the left narrowly avoiding a car that had stopped in the middle of the street. “Sorry.”
Gabe cursed. “This was such a bad idea. I should’ve found a way to refuse Nathan. No way do we need to deal with a female like her right now. Look at you and Mason panting over her instead of focusing on our mission. She’s the last goddamn thing we need.”
He was wrong. Havana was the only thing I needed. Fuck all those other females. Their fear and rejection no longer mattered. I’d been waiting for this female all my life and now she was here. I tightened my fingers around the steering wheel. She’s mine and no one, not even the doctor in the back seat, is going to get in my way. But… What if she doesn’t want me? Doubt crept in like shadows. No female had ever chosen me—why will she be different?
As if sensing my inner crisis, Havana said, “Thank you again for rescuing me back in the alley. I owe my life to you, Liam.”
Her caramel-coated voice electrified every vein in my body. “I couldn’t let any harm come to such a beautiful woman,” I said proud of myself for delivering a line worthy of even the smooth doctor. “I apologize again for scaring you. My size can be intimidating.”
Next to me, Gabriel snorted.
I fought the urge to punch him in the arm.
Havana smiled. “I find tall men incredibly sexy.”
The curve of her blood-red lips made my heart beat wildly. She likes me. Fuck. She likes me. What if she’s the one? My mate. I’d never heard of a human bonding with a Lykos before, but there was a first time for everything. I didn’t share the same hatred the majority of our kind had for humans nor was I intimidated by the Council’s law against interbreeding with them. The only reason I’d never approached a human woman before was because they seemed to
eye me with the same fear Lykos females did. But Havana wasn’t looking at me with fear in her gorgeous eyes.
I took a deep breath inhaling her heavenly scent. The sweet fragrance teased my senses and made my aching cock stand at attention. Down boy, I commanded, hoping that Gabe didn’t look over and see the tent pitched in my pants.
A quick look told me I was the last thing on Gabe’s mind.
The dark-haired male looked out the window, agitation rolling off him in waves. “The majority of the human population was vaccinated yesterday or earlier today. Within twenty-four hours they will die, reanimate, and attack any living thing they encounter. Do you know what that means, Liam?”
His words sucked the air out of the car. Immediately, my hard-on deflated. “The world is fucked.”
“Pretty much. I hope Nathan knows what he’s doing.”
“Of course he does,” I said automatically. The Alpha male always knew what he was doing. He was one of the smartest, strongest, and most courageous males in our faction. My trust in him was absolute and my appreciation to him for introducing us to Havana would endure for much longer than tonight. I thanked the powers that be that she was no longer his. An unclaimed female could choose any male. Including me. I grinned.
“At least one of us should've gone with him.” Gabe drummed his fingers against the armrest of his seat so hard, his claws extended and dug into the leather.
I sent him a sharp look. Revealing ourselves in front of humans carried a death sentence. It wasn’t like Gabe to be so careless. “Brother?”
He jerked up in his seat and fisted his hands. “We should’ve forced him to come with us like Tasha ordered.”
I gave Gabe an incredulous look. Just because Tasha ruled the faction didn’t mean we could force Nathan to do anything. Male Alphas were almost as powerful as their female counterparts. With one thought Nathan could force Gabe and me to fight each other to death. I shuddered at the idea of harming one of the few males I called friend. “He wanted to save his babe,” I said softly.