by Deb Rotuno
“Take the rifle with you, Shortcake,” he said against my lips. “And I’ll bring you guys a thermos of coffee for the night. Okay?”
“Thanks, baby,” I sang, walking to our porch for his rifle.
Closing my eyes to the sounds of Lucy in labor, I sipped the coffee Jack had brought us. We’d been up in that tree for several hours, and not a word had been spoken between us. It seemed to be a battle of wills between Lexie and me—something that made me smirk a little before gazing out over the camp and then the winding driveway.
“Jesus Christ,” Lexie groaned, rubbing her face before tucking her chin-length hair behind her ears. “She’s gonna draw every zeak in from ten miles away. Is labor always so loud?”
I couldn’t help but laugh, glancing her way. “Sometimes. I didn’t exactly whisper when I had Freddie…”
There was just a bare hint of a smile that ghosted across her lips, but she didn’t say anything.
“As far as zeaks go…well, we’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled,” I told her.
She nodded, drawing her knees up and wrapping her arm around them. She flinched with another scream echoed up from Jonah’s RV.
“Doesn’t sound worth it…”
Chuckling at that, I turned her way. “Oh, but it is. All the pain is forgotten the second you wrap your arms around them.”
As if perfectly timed, the piercing wail of a newborn met our ears, along with, “It’s a girl!”
“Nice,” I whispered with a nod, swiping at my happy tears. Jesse and Lucy—hell, the whole campsite, really—deserved one small moment of happiness. We needed something hopeful and good in the dark that surrounded us.
“I’m not sure I’d bring a kid into this shit,” she muttered bitterly.
“Hmm,” I hummed, neither in agreement or argument. “It’s certainly risky. Though, in their defense, they’d been trying prior to the virus going global, so…” I shrugged, gazing over to see her staring at me.
“Would you?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “Jack and I had talked about having another child not long ago. He’d wanted to be out of the service, and I’d wanted a little more time with just Freddie.” I shrugged a shoulder and then snorted a little. “I guess he’s out of the service now…”
Lexie huffed a laugh. “Yeah, he said he was close.”
“He was,” I concurred, nodding a little. “He had one more year, and he was going to leave the military and work for his cousin—Derek—in construction. Joel too.”
I felt her stare from across the tree top platform, and when I looked over at her, she sighed deeply.
“Did you really trust Jack was coming?”
Wrinkling my nose, I nodded. “I had to have faith in something. I’d lost it in just about every other aspect by the time the virus truly hit, but I could trust Jack’s warning, his love for Freddie and me.”
She laughed softly and humorlessly. “He said the same thing, that you would’ve listened. He had to put you out of his head to focus.”
Smirking at words meant as a jibe, I nodded again. “I can understand that. It’s how he’s always worked when he would go overseas. He’d black out everything but the task at hand, the mission, at staying safe. He’d release it all over the phone or in letters, even more once he was home. This time, though, he couldn’t do that. I imagine he got a little…cranky.”
Lexie laughed, having to cover her mouth with her hand to keep it from being too loud. “I suppose you could say that.”
Smiling, I shook my head. I knew he’d gotten temperamental, simply because he’d told me bits and pieces, but Ruby and Joel had ratted him out too. It had all been in good fun, teasing Jack, but I knew my husband had been out of his mind with worry and stress, and the responsibility of more lives on his strong shoulders probably hadn’t helped.
“He’s…” Lexie started, looking out across the trees. “He… He kept us all alive, even when he was dying inside,” she said softly. “I owe him and the rest of them a thank-you. But I owe Jack an apology. I owe you one, I think… I pushed him. I—”
“No, you don’t,” I countered, smiling a little when she spun her gaze to meet mine. “He values you as a member of his group, which makes you important here too. He told me what happened…” Her eyes widened, but I chuckled. “Well, that too. But he told me about your home, your family. I’m sorry.”
She nodded, and for the first time, I saw a crack in the wall she’d built up around herself. Her hair hid her face as she gazed down at her hands in her lap. She swiped at her tears, and I left her alone for a moment, gazing out over the camp. I looked for Brody but couldn’t see him, so I used the scope on the rifle. I found him strolling slowly around the cabins, sipping from his canteen. My eyes narrowed, wondering if somehow that wasn’t water he was guzzling.
“What is it?” she asked, sniffling.
“Oh, I was just checking on Brody,” I muttered, looking over at her. “You okay?”
She nodded. “I wanted to hate you,” she said suddenly, and her honesty made my eyebrows rise. “Sorry,” she huffed with a slight smile. “But I see why they wanted to be here so badly. Why Jack was determined to get here. I shouldn’t have pushed him. I was… I felt crazy after we left my house.”
“Hmm,” I hummed, nodding. “I imagine so. I lost my mind a little after my mom died. Car accident when I was sixteen. I was angry for a bit, then closed myself off a little. Though, I can’t fathom what you’re going through. Again, I’m sorry. But it’s me who owes you the thank-you…” She looked to me, and I shrugged a shoulder. “You helped bring them home. I haven’t had the chance to say thank you. You have no idea what that means to me. I’m forever in your debt. They’re my family—Rich, Dottie, and Joel—and Jack’s my heart. So…thank you.”
She sighed, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, but she smiled tentatively, giving me a nod.
We fell quiet for a little while. This time it was much more comfortable than before as we shared the last of the now-tepid coffee and watched over the camp as the night wore on. Dottie and Rich finally left the RV, and the occasional baby’s cry met my ears. Brody continued to pace a large portion of the area but eventually made his way over to us, looking up from the ground.
“You still up?” he snapped.
“You still sober?” I countered, raising an eyebrow he probably couldn’t see, but Lexie did, and she grinned next to me as we looked down at him.
“Is that the ex? I’ve heard about him,” she whispered.
“Hmm, I bet,” I whispered back with a laugh. “Joel, Derek, and Jack aren’t exactly fans of his.”
“You think you’re funny,” Brody muttered, shaking his head.
“No, I think I’m right,” I told him.
“What? You gonna tell Jack? Or maybe it’s Derek. Who knows with you…”
I laughed, ignoring his asinine accusation. “Nah, I’ll let you sink your own ship in about…thirty seconds.” I swung my legs over the side, kicking them back and forth as a shadow I’d recognize anywhere stepped out of a cabin and started our way. “Mornin’, Daddy!”
Lexie snorted into a soft laugh when Brody spun so quickly that he lost his footing a little. Even better was that the canteen in his hand fell to the ground at my dad’s feet.
My father’s eye twitched before he bent down to pick up the canteen. He eyed Brody as he took a whiff of the open container.
“Brody, I’m willing to overlook a few things, son, but not the compromising of my daughter’s safety, the safety of this entire damn camp.” My dad was pissed as he dumped out the remaining liquid in the canteen, his sharp, dark eyes never leaving the tall form in front of him.
The sun wasn’t quite up yet, but a few people started to stir. I saw Derek emerge out onto his porch, stretching a little. I even saw my own cabin door crack open. When Ruby’s RV door slammed open and Joel stepped out at the same time Brody tried to push past my dad, I knew I’d better hit the ground
soon.
“Oh, shit…” I scampered by Lexie, grabbing the ladder nailed to the tree and practically jumping down to the ground.
I turned just in time to see Brody’s shoulder collide with my dad’s chest, making him stumble back a few steps.
“Leave me alone, Hank,” he snapped, glaring at my dad when a hand halted his progress.
“Son, I promised your dad I’d watch over you,” Dad countered solemnly. “I meant that.”
“Yeah, well, no one watched over him now, did they?”
I saw three forms heading for Brody, but it was my fist that went flying. I’d dropped the rifle, but I caught Brody in the mouth before pulling my handgun from the small of my back. He was so damn tall, but I pointed the weapon straight into his chest.
“Say it again,” I told him, slowly engaging my weapon. I could see that it was taking both Derek and Joel to hold Jack back. “Say it again, Brody. That I didn’t give a shit about Leo. Tell them all how I just…let him die! The one man who apologized to me over and over about you. The one man who guided us when we first got here. The one fucking man who kept you human at every turn. The one man my father asked to watch over us. You think I let him die…on purpose? Despite all our bullshit, Brody Matthews, you really think I’d do that? You think I’m that vengeful?”
“Pull the fucking trigger, Sara,” Brody slurred, his lip curling in anger. “It’s what you want, all of you…”
I snorted, glancing over to make sure Jack hadn’t completely lost his mind, though he’d stopped fighting Joel and Derek. But it was my dad’s firm hand on my arm that made me jump. He pushed my arm down, taking the weapon from me. Before any of us could blink, Jack shifted and a fist connected with Brody’s face, making him fall to the ground on his knees.
“That’s for being drunk on patrol, you stupid fuck,” he snarled, landing on his chest hard with one knee. “Do it again, and I’ll let her pull the trigger. You could’ve gotten us all killed!”
Joel and Derek moved as one, lifting Jack off Brody before the balled-up fists could fly again.
Brody sat up groggily, and I stepped forward, saying, “He’d been bitten, Brody. There was nothing that could change that, and you know as well as I do that he’d have hated it. It was probably the hardest thing I’d ever done. You want to blame me, that’s fine. But you’re not going to jeopardize these lives around you. I’ve told you more than once that you’re welcome to leave anytime. If not, then suck it up and stop acting like a selfish ass.”
I heard footsteps behind me, and Lexie lifted my hand. “Jack, you should get your dad,” she said, turning my hand gently. “Looks broken…”
Jack’s mood shifted in an instant, going from puffed up and pissed off to worried and concerned. He shrugged off Derek and Joel, walking to me.
“Let me see, Shortcake,” he whispered, taking my hand in his. “Can you make a fist?”
I did as he asked. It hurt like hell, but I could do it.
“Not broken, but sore as shit, huh?” He grinned when I rolled my eyes up to his face, and he leaned in to kiss my forehead. “That’s my girl. C’mon, baby… I’ll make sure you’re okay before we take off.”
“Right,” I huffed, still feeling a little twitchy and looking to Derek, who flinched a little. “Because Derek’s been waiting for you to go hunting…”
“Easy, killer,” Jack soothed in my ear. “One battle at a time, ’kay?”
“Okay,” I sighed, letting him guide me to Rich’s front porch, but I stopped him. “By the way, Brody being drunk would have no bearing on the patrol. Lexie and I had it under control. It was a quiet night.”
Jack smirked but kissed my lips. “My apologies, Sara. I forgot who was watching over us. How’d that go, by the way?”
I kissed him again. “She’s very sad and lonely and angry, Jack, but she’ll be okay. I thanked her for keeping you safe.”
Jack sighed, dropping kisses to my forehead, lips, and then bringing my sore knuckles up to kiss them as well. “Don’t expect me to be so…giving to Brody.”
Grinning, I shook my head. “Never. Now…go get packed for your hunt. I’ll go see your parents about this.” I held up my hand but rolled my eyes.
He kissed me again, making sure I was okay to knock and then step inside.
JACK
Gazing over the sleeping bags, I shook my head, stoking the small fire. The two kids—Quinn and Josh—were out for the night, but we’d been tracking a deer all damn day. Derek stepped lightly around them, checking the simple alarm system Quinn had come up with. Empty tin cans hung on a string, which was tied to several trees that encircled us. As dumb and oblivious as the zeaks could be, it was perfect. They’d run right into it, causing the cans to rattle. It was easy and something we could probably use back at camp.
“Smart kid,” Derek said softly, falling onto the log next to me. “Where’d you find him?”
“Kansas,” I replied. “Dodge City. He was the only living thing we ran into. Saved our asses too. Got us those four-wheelers and then guided us out of the city.” I jerked my thumb toward the vehicles we’d taken from camp.
Derek nodded, fiddling with his compound bow. He stopped when I flexed my hand. There was soreness there, but nothing like Sara’s had been when we’d pulled out of camp for this hunting trip. Both my parents had said it wasn’t broken but probably damn close. They’d wrapped her hand and wrist up just to keep it stable. She wasn’t happy, but she didn’t say much about it.
“You gonna live?” he asked, smirking my way. When I nodded, he huffed a light laugh. “That stupid fucker has been punched more times than Rocky since all this shit started. I offered to kill his ass before we even got to camp, but Sara wouldn’t let me.”
Grinning, I shook my head. “I would have…”
“That’s what we said,” he agreed with a light laugh, checking his arrows and cleaning the few we’d used along the way. There hadn’t been many zeaks, but the ones we’d seen were eliminated quickly and quietly.
“I still might,” I added, sneering at the fire. “Drunk? Really? Where the fuck did he get it?”
Derek sighed. “There’s some in Aunt Dottie’s bunker. We’d gone on a run, Josh and me. We came across this one cabin. The people inside had turned, but they’d stocked up well. They had whiskey and beer in there. The ladies… Millie, she likes to cook with it, makes a killer batter with the beer, never mind the barbecue sauce that’ll melt in your mouth with that whiskey. Hank had forbidden him to have any, but since we lost Hannah—she used to keep the food stock under control—I guess he got in there… Probably when your parents were helping with the baby.”
“And that’s not the first time he’s been drunk.”
“Uh, no. He was plastered the day his dad died, not that I blame him for that, but he got really foul. It was the night Hank arrived, actually. I’d already punched the piss out of him for blaming Sara. I mean, you could see that Leo had turned, and we’d been taken by surprise with a shit-ton of them, but he couldn’t see reason. Still doesn’t. And he’d smashed the bottle in his hand…” He trailed off, looking to me when my head snapped around to gape at him. “Hank arrived just before I was gonna put one of these in his head.” He held up one of the arrows.
“Fuck, he’s more trouble than he’s worth,” I groaned, rubbing my face.
“Sometimes.”
Snorting, I pulled my hands away, gazing into the fire. “We’ll have to watch him closer.”
“I know. He seems to be focused on Sara. Some shit never changes.”
Glancing over at him, I could see what Sara was talking about. He’d fallen for my wife. The part of me that loved and trusted her knew he’d never stand a chance, that she loved me completely and unequivocally. The man who’d grown up competing with my cousin, the kid who’d chased after him, hero-worshiped him, wanted to mark my territory. Either way, I knew I couldn’t stay quiet. And for the first time in a very long time, I was about to break a promise to my wife—one that wou
ld have me begging for forgiveness.
“Some things changed while I was away.”
Derek froze, his eyes falling closed. “She told you.”
“If she hadn’t, I’d have still figured it out, D, so tell me.”
He shook his head slowly, until finally he laughed humorlessly. “You…” He bit down hard on his bottom lip before going on. “You might be the luckiest son of a bitch I’ve ever met.”
“I can’t argue that.” That was a fact. I was damned lucky to have been able to keep my family, keep everything that mattered, and survived hell to do it.
“It doesn’t matter, though, Jack.” He looked to me, still smiling sadly. “It wouldn’t have mattered if we’d have lost you or buried you or whatever. She will never look at anyone the way that she looks at you. Not a fucking soul. Once I realized that, once I realized that she’d watch Freddie just to see you in him… I envied you, even when she had faith and I didn’t. I tried to… She’s pissed at me for bringing you on this hunting trip.”
“Wanna tell me why? Because she wouldn’t say it.”
He groaned, rubbing his face, finally looking my way. “From the minute you called her that day, until the second you flew through the door of that cabin, she… She just…knew, man. She knew you were coming. Freddie too. And we all…all of us felt sorry for her—even her dad—because we thought there was no fucking way you could survive, especially where you’d been. I’d promised you before you left for Florida that I’d watch over her, but in doing that, I saw how amazing she truly is, but… Jack, I didn’t stand a fucking ice cube’s chance in hell. I really didn’t.
“And the day she kinda busted me on how I felt, I saw that. I said I could use you in the woods, that you’d always been good at it, but I asked if she’d have let you go had you been there…or could things be different if she had closure. She argued all the reasons why you would make it, said that playing the ‘what if’ game wasn’t cool. Right then, I saw that she pitied me. She’d never say it, never hurt a fucking fly, but she looked at me like…like I was pathetic, that she was sorry.” He laughed, grinning my way. “You’re back, cousin. That’s…everything. That’s all that matters, really. She’s your wife, Jack. I’d never… I’ve never, ever been so glad to be wrong, man. Seriously.”