by Toby Neal
“I love you.” She kissed him, and he brought his hands down, still bound, sliding them down over her back, wrapping her close.
“I love you too.”
He flipped them over so fast that she lost her breath. “Now it’s my turn.” He looked down her body, his hands following.
How did he get his hands free? It didn’t matter. Because he was using her the way he used his knives: with authority, respect, and confidence.
Cash removed her lingerie, admiring it, whispering against her skin. “You’re perfect, so beautiful. I love you so much.”
He tasted her, teased her, found a rhythm, and she screamed his name as a wave of pleasure crashed over her. Cash rose above her and dove into her mouth as she trembled from the last explosion.
Jolene wrapped her legs around his hips as he sank into her. Time expanded and contracted, the impossible and the possible occurring in the same moment.
Cash held her gaze, and tears pooled in her eyes. “Am I hurting you?”
She shook her head. “I’ve just never been so happy. I never thought it was possible to be so happy.”
He groaned and took her mouth again. She moved with him, feeling his strength and his power, knowing that it was kindled by hers. They nourished each other. They needed each other.
Her climax built, the power of it terrifying. She tried to hold back, a vestige of fear paralyzing her.
If she needed him this much, he could destroy her.
“Oh God, Jolene, I’ll never get enough of you. Of this.” Cash crushed her close, her hands clasped in one of his. He pressed his face into the hollow below her ear. She felt the searing truth of his words dropping around her neck like pearls. Whatever risk she was taking, he was taking it, too.
Moving deeply, his pace increased as her hips rose to meet him. Their bodies united as their souls already had.
The truth of their love and the depth of their connection ignited the powder keg in Jolene. Her thoughts splintered and her body arched as he bowed into her, wordless cries of love filling the room.
They melted into each other.
Disappeared. Obliterated. One.
Their own fairy tale, come true.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Cash
Cash threw his backpack, compound bow and quiver into the bed of the Ford F-250, already packed with supplies, extra food and plenty of gas. Tiny jumped up into the back and he slammed the tailgate shut. She panted happily, gazing around from her elevated vantage point. Tiny loved riding in trucks, and this one was a wedding gift from the town.
Cash had reached JT on the shortwave radio that morning, and the family was readying space for him and Jolene at the Haven. Delighted cries from his mother and sister Lucy greeted news of his marriage. He couldn’t wait to bring Jolene to meet his brother’s scientist fiancée so they could start working on a vaccine. If they kept the pedal to the metal and took turns driving, they should be able to reach the Haven in about two days.
“You sure you’re going to be okay, getting there on your own?” A worried look stitched Jeb’s unkempt brows together as he stood, hands on hips.
“We’ll be fine.” Cash smiled, clapping the older man on the shoulder. “You checked activity at the Compound, right?”
“Yeah. The scouts reported that they left a skeleton crew with the women and kids, but most are gone.”
Cash frowned. “I wonder where they went.”
“Our guy followed them south for a few hours then turned back. He figured if they were that far away we didn’t rightly care where they went.”
Cash nodded. He just hoped they’d stay gone. He turned away from his friend toward Jolene. His wife walked down the steps of the inn, carrying the bag of clothing Maud had helped her pack.
Sunshine’s eyes were bright, her cheeks pink, her hair an angelic blonde halo. As their eyes met, memories from the night before lit him up: the things she’d done to him, the silky heft of her, the completeness of her in his arms. He wanted to grab her and haul her right back upstairs for another round.
She smiled and kissed him. “I know what you’re thinking,” she whispered. “We have the rest of our lives for that.”
“And it will never be enough for me.” He loved the way her skin felt beneath his lips, the shivers his breath unleashed.
“Newlyweds!” Maud came down the steps with Billy. “The same the world over. Now git, before we change our minds and try to keep you here forever.”
“We’ll be back,” Cash promised, kissing the older woman’s cheek and clapping Jeb on the back in a man-hug. Billy and Jolene were still embracing when he finished saying goodbye to the older couple.
“I love this girl like a little sister.” Billy grinned as he released Jolene. “I know you’ll treat her right, and keep her safe at that fortress you’re headed for.”
“Speaking of that.” Cash spread open an arm to include their three close friends. “JT has extended an invitation to you. If things ever get too bad, come to the Haven. There’s room for you there.”
“But we’ll come visit you in any case,” Jolene promised.
They got into the truck, and with much waving and kisses blown, pulled away.
But the love fest wasn’t over. The main street of Grimesville was lined with townspeople waving and cheering as they drove through. Cash had to blink stinging eyes as Jolene frankly cried, waving out the window until the little town disappeared in the rearview mirror.
“Grimesville. Who knew?” Cash smiled over at Jolene, reaching out to capture her hand and lift it to kiss her fingers. “I remember when Jeb and his men stepped out of the forest with their guns and told me the name of the town. I thought it had to be ugly, and the people hostile.”
Jolene laughed. “Remember the way Jeb spoke to you?” She giggled. “He sounded so tough but he is such a softie. I’ve never been part of anything like that wonderful community.” Jolene dashed the last tears off her cheeks. “And I never imagined I could be with a man like you.” She kissed Cash’s fingers in a gesture that mirrored his. “I love you, Cosimo Luciano.”
“You are my Sunshine. My only Sunshine.” Cash could barely contain his happiness as they drove down an open ribbon of road.
The miles rolled by and the road opened up before them. Using four-wheel drive, they maneuvered past obstacles and stayed on back routes around any towns. Taking turns driving, they kept moving, not wanting to put themselves in danger by stopping and camping.
The road between Grimesville, Colorado and North Fork, Idaho wasn’t well-populated, and only twenty hours had passed when Cash spotted the high cement wall topped with razor wire that JT had told him marked the edge of the Haven.
“Ugly wall,” Cash commented, feeling constricted by the mere idea of having to stay inside the compound.
Jolene held his hand, and she rubbed her thumb in the center of his palm. “We don’t have to stay inside if we don’t want to.”
Cash looked around at the steep, forested mountains surrounding the area, and the rich wild meadows. “Plenty of places to build a little cabin around here once things settle down.”
“I’d like nothing better. You know that.”
Cash smiled at her. He knew that.
A tall metal gate marked the entrance to the Haven, and Tiny gave a deep woof that was answered by a chorus of barking from the other side as they pulled up in front of a security kiosk.
Cash rolled down his window and grinned into the video eye surveilling them. “Hey JT! The rolling stone’s come home to rest!”
“Cash!” The voice that came through the metal speaker was his mother, Ana’s. “Oh, my son! And his wife! We’re so excited you’re here!”
The metal gate retracted, and they drove through. A pack of dogs surrounded the truck, leaping and barking: a gray wolf, a brown-and-white Catahoula, a little Jack Russell, a German Shepherd, and a pair of fluffy puppies. Fields, fallow with the approaching winter, stretched away in the distance, bounded by the high
fence. The silver blades of a windmill turned slowly, reflecting the bright afternoon sunlight.
“This is beautiful.” Jolene surveyed the gentle hill ahead, bounded by a second fence whose gate retracted at their approach. A modest log cabin crowned the knoll, giving no indication of the warren of secure bunkers that lay below it. “Is that your mother?”
Cash focused on the small, dark-haired, energetic figure waving from the porch. His brother JT came out from a big barn, waving his arms for them to pull in beside the huge structure, so Cash did. “You got married!”
“I sure did.” Cash jumped out of the truck and into a hug that blasted the breath out of him. He thumped JT’s back, but his attention stayed focused on Sunshine as she got out of the truck slowly, facing his mother who ran down from the porch, her arms open wide.
“Cara Jolene! You are an answer to prayer!”
“You think Mama’s going to let you get away without participating in our wedding celebration?” JT whispered in Cash’s ear. “Brace yourself, because there’s a huge Luciano group wedding and feast coming up! Prepare to tell the story of the Resistance and the hero of Grimesville.”
“Shit, we got here in time for a wedding?” Cash grinned. “Who’s getting hitched?”
“Elizabeth and me, Luca and Nani, Avi and Dolf, and Dante and Melody.”
Cash gazed into JT’s hazel eyes a long moment, then shook his head. “Wow. I’m glad we made it in time for this epic event! I guess the apocalypse kinda focuses the priorities. But Avital and Dolf?” The news that Nando’s widow planned to wed her husband’s twin sat strangely, but only for a moment. “I can see it, though. Those three were always tight.”
“Yeah, and she’s having twins who need a father. Nani’s pregnant, too.”
Cash threw his head back and laughed. “I’m glad to hear we aren’t the only couple who’ve been getting busy.”
“I’m still shocked you’re the first of us to get hitched.” JT punched Cash’s shoulder.
“The biggest always fall the hardest.” Cash aimed a shot at his brother’s gut. JT bowed slightly at the impact even as laughter escaped.
“Oh no. You aren’t taller than me, little bro.” JT hooked an arm around his neck, pulling him into a tight hold as he continued. “Luca’s wider than both of us put together, and Dolf could buy and sell all of us,” JT’s knuckles ground into Cash’s skull in an epic noogie as he continued. “Dante could obliterate us at anything to do with a computer, and let’s not get started on Lucy’s mouth. We’re all big!”
Cash pushed hard against his brother, breaking his hold and stumbling back with a laugh. “Who’s biggest! I’ve missed that old argument. I’d kick your ass and prove my superiority but…” Cash walked around the front of the truck. “Right now I want to introduce my wife to my mother.”
“It looks like that’s taken care of.” JT laughed again.
His mother and Jolene were locked in an embrace. Ana took Jolene’s face in her hands and kissed both cheeks. “You captured my Cash. Many have tried over the years, and no one even came close. You must be truly special. How’d you do it?”
Cash opened the tailgate of the truck and Tiny leaped down, happily wagging her tail and greeting the other dogs, but staying close to Jolene. Cash looped an arm over his wife’s shoulder, pulling her into him. No matter how often he did that, he’d never get tired of how perfectly she fit against his side. “Tiny picked her out for me, and I always obey my dog.” Everyone laughed, and Cash continued. “For me, it was love at first sight. It just took a little while for me to realize it.”
Jolene smiled up at him, and Cash couldn’t help but lean down for a quick kiss.
As they headed for the house Cash walked next to his mother, her arm linked through his. “I’d like a word in private with you, Mama.” He needed to share the revelation about Tony’s death to clear his conscience and put that toxic secret behind him once and for all. Jolene met his eyes, and touched his arm in silent support.
JT leaped into the breach. “Let me take my new sister-in-law inside and show her around. The rest of the family’s in town, prepping for the wedding celebration and dinner, but I’d love to be the first to orient you to your new home. C’mon in, Jolene. Welcome to the Haven.”
Once Cash and Ana were alone on the porch, Cash wrapped his arms around his mother, folding her in under his chin. She smelled of basil and fresh tomatoes. “It’s so good to be here, Mama.”
She smacked his chest. “I can’t believe you got married without any of us there.”
“I know, and that was my one regret at the time. I knew you’d give me hell about it.”
“I just would have loved to see it, that’s all. But never mind. We’ll make up for it tonight, and you’re in time to witness all your brothers get married. Come see my garden. I’ve still got a few late tomatoes.”
The two of them walked around the outside of the cabin. Goats, chickens and horses grazed in the well-tended pasture, and the majestic mountains around them felt like sheltering arms. “JT did good with this place. We’re safe here.”
“I hope so. It seems our family has a natural resistance, thank the good Lord.” They made their way across the lawn to the big vegetable garden, the beds mostly mulched for winter. One stand of tomato vines still twined on drying stems over a trellis, holding a few shining red Romas.
“This is going to seem really out of the blue, this thing I need to talk with you about.” Cash plucked a couple of tomatoes and slipped them into a basket Ana had brought from the porch. “But do you remember my friend, Tony? The kid who died from a gunshot wound when I was eight?”
“Of course. His poor family.” Ana squatted, reaching under the trellis for an elusive tomato. “I felt so bad for them, and you took it so hard.”
“I killed Tony.” The words, unvarnished and terrible, dropped like rocks from Cash’s mouth. “We found his dad’s gun. We were playing around. I shot him by accident.”
Ana froze, kneeling, and slowly swiveled to face him. “Oh, Cash. Oh, how horrible. Why didn’t you tell us? You carried that alone, for so long?”
Cash dropped to his knees in the dirt beside her, his eyes filling with tears. He put a hand on her shoulder. “I couldn’t tell anyone. I was so afraid I’d go to jail, and that I’d make you and Pops ashamed, having a murderer for a son.”
“But it was an accident, honey. You loved Tony. You’ve always been my gentlest, kindest son. I’d never be ashamed of you, Cosimo.”
Cash shook his head, his eyes fixed on the ground between his knees. If she only knew how many men he’d killed. Tony was just the first.
And yet, his mama called him her kindest, gentlest son. Ana groped for his hand. “Cash, I’m just heartbroken that you didn’t think you could tell us. Yes, it would have been a terrible thing to go through as a family, but we’d have gotten through it together.”
“That’s just what Jolene told me you would say. She’s so wise, Mama. She’s made me a better man: a man who can be steady and stick with things, make commitments and keep them, even lead others.”
Ana put a hand on Cash’s cheek. “Then we all owe her a debt of gratitude.”
“More than you know.” Cash would wait until they were all present to tell his brothers and the scientists about Jolene’s blood.
“Well, I’m glad you told me. And I’m glad you married that amazing girl. Now let’s get going. We have a lot of cooking to do for tonight.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Dwight
The group of Grand Masters had come from all over the country to meet with Dwight so he could make his bid to replace Hillish as head of Great Nation America. Plans for vengeance and recapturing Jolene had focused Dwight, lending him strength as he recovered from his gunshot wound.
Wearing a white robe, Dwight stood up from a thronelike armchair as he presided over the group in the Masonic Hall in Provo, Utah.
“Our priority needs to be keeping the pure of this nation protecte
d, and then consolidating our hold on each of the states. Our plan to overthrow the centralized government is working. The Acting President is the Speaker of the House, and he’s sick, so the time is ripe for us to disband the government entirely, drain the swamp, and replace them with pure men of vision.”
The room erupted in a rumble of applause.
Dwight had spies everywhere. While it was a blow that they’d lost their man in the White House to the flu, Dwight had a new person in mind to head up the country: himself.
His leg gave him a stab of pain, but he showed no sign of it as he addressed the group of white-robed men seated in a circle of chairs around him. “We must stamp out the rebellion springing up around our centers and encampments by organizing and distributing more weapons to our men. And we need to deploy a team to North Fork, Idaho. Hillish had a cell in Jackson, not far away, that I’ve already contacted. But I’ve got intel that puts my sister, Jolene in a fortified compound near that town, and she’s a priority to recapture. She’s incubating the vaccine, and we only have a small amount already produced.”
Assent echoed from the white-robed council.
“As you know, I summoned you to hear what I can do for Great Nation America. And I won’t just back up my plans with talk. I’ll show you that I’m a man of action and conviction. I have a trial for you to witness.” Murmurs of anticipation filled the room. This group was plenty familiar with “trials,” many of which ended with a hanging.
Two of Dwight’s men walked into the circle and rolled out a large sheet of plastic in the middle as he returned to his seat. Three men who’d been waiting outside pushed open the doors and entered.
Two of Dwight’s soldiers bracketed a huge blond man. Black and blue from a beating, hands bound behind his back, Hank nonetheless shrugged off his guards like shaking off flies. “Leave it to you, Dwight, to turn a family disagreement into a chance to grandstand.”
Dwight inclined his head, and one of the men beside Hank backhanded him.