by Bella Street
Then she looked over at Seffy and proclaimed the boyfriend shirt look was so out right now.
“See,” she said to Trent.
“She's just jealous. Besides it's your fault for making me want you to wear it all the time.”
“Tomorrow, it's back to the tracksuit.”
“Oh, like that look isn't out.”
She stuck her finger in his ribs. He laughed softly and pulled her closer.
Lani was trying to coax Malone to dance while he complained that there was no music.
Cynthia took the opportunity of Malone's distraction to finish off a bottle of peppermint Schnapps. Seffy shuddered.
“Do you want to find a dark corner and make out?”
She looked up to find Trent smiling down at her, his eyes lit with amusement. “Do you remember the last time you asked me that? We were right in this same room.”
“You should've taken me up on it then. So much time was wasted waiting for you to come around.”
A sliver of melancholy shot through her. “I've thought about that a lot. Wasted time and opportunities that we could've spent together. But then there was that whole part where you were a jerk.”
Trent grinned. “Blame it on me.” He held out his hand.
Seffy took it and he drew her into his arms, beginning a slow dance. She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat under her ear. As long as I have this I can bear anything.
“This party sucks!” Cynthia suddenly yelled, then burst into tears and dropped the empty bottle onto the floor.
“Hey!” Malone roared. “Get outta my liquor!”
“Yo, troglodyte,” Eva said nastily. “Leave my friend alone!”
“Uh oh,” Trent whispered in Seffy's ear. “This party just died.”
Gareth pushed past Jared. “Hey, everyone just needs to calm down.”
“Don't talk to her like that,” Jared snapped. “I'm sick of you always thinking you're the leader.”
“What, you think you can do better?” Gareth sneered. “Why are you here, Jared? You have no connection with any of us. Dude, you don't belong.”
“He's not gonna like that,” Trent murmured.
“You son of a bitch!” Jared screamed, swinging his fists at Gareth.
Malone stalked over and grabbed Jared's arms, pinning them behind his back.
Addison's eyes widened. “Whoa.”
“This is all her fault!” he yelled, writhing against Malone.
“Who?” Gareth asked.
He spat at the ground. “Seffy!”
Trent pulled her close to his side. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“She's at the center of this. She's why we were brought here.”
Seffy felt tendrils of dread slither through her.
“What are you talking about?” Addison said, her gaze swiveling drunkenly between her and Jared.
“It's true,” Gareth said. “Eugene told me Seffy is at the hub of the time travel event. They just can't figure out why yet.”
“Maybe we get rid of Seffy, then we can go back.”
Malone let go long enough to clock Jared hard across the face. He slumped over, unconscious, haning from Malone's arm.
Malone grinned at his handiwork.
“Stop it!” Lani cried. “It's Christmas time!”
“Your party sucks,” Eva snarled. “There's no tree, no decent music, and the lights are stupid!”
Lani began to cry. “We did the best we could with what we had.”
“Yeah,” Cynthia said, swaying back and forth. “Christmas is supposed to have fireplaces and stockings and snow.”
“We saw snow,” Seffy said.
The girls stopped and turned to her.
“I mean, it was snowing a few weeks ago.”
“It's been snowing on and off since then,” Malone said. “Big whoop, it's winter.”
“I want to see the snow!” Cynthia said before falling flat on her face.
Lani turned to him, obviously desperate to redeem her party. “Is there any way we can slip outside, just to see it for a minute?”
Eva went over and helped Cynthia up, then linked arms with her. “We want to see the snow!”
Malone, bleary-eyed and harassed, checked his watched as he held up Jared with his other hand. “I guess everyone else in the compound will be partying too hard to notice us.” He jerked his head toward his burden. “First we gotta get this loser back to his room.”
He and Gareth manhandled Jared out the door.
Lani clapped her hands together. “I can't wait to see the snow! When did you see it, Sef?”
“Like I said, a few weeks ago. It was pink.”
“Hot pink, like the sky?” Eva asked.
“No, it was more subtle than that.”
Addison laughed drunkenly. “You with that damn tracksuit? What do you know about subtlety?”
“You know, Addy, I have to say I like you better sober.”
Addison sent her a raspberry.
Trent snorted. “I think a little fresh air will do everyone a world of good.”
A few minutes later, Gareth and Malone returned to lead them from the room. They followed them through a series of quiet hallways. If compound holiday revelry was in the air, it was done very hush-hush.
After what had to be a half a mile, they got to the main garage. The security guard looked up when they approached, but relaxed when he saw Malone. They conferred for a few moments, then he led them through the garage as the guard opened the bay door.
A frigid wind rushed in, but those that had done the most imbibing seemed impervious to the chill.
Trent put his arm around Seffy as they straggled behind the group. She grabbed his hand and clutched his arm for warmth with the other.
A halogen security light created a vast puddle of light against the deepening darkness, which consisted of a bruised and bloodied sky.
And snow. It came down fast, pouring past the lights onto the party-goers as if it came from the flood light itself. The girls danced in circles, their faces upturned while Malone and Gareth looked on indulgently.
“Now it's really Christmas!” Lani breathed, reaching down to scoop up some of the powder.
“It's not very deep,” Seffy said looking down.
“It's about four inches,” Trent said. “Enough to be pretty.” He tugged her away from the group, away from the spill of light, and put his arms around her. He lowered his head and kissed her. “Merry Christmas.”
She smiled, filled with a surge of distinctly sappy emotion. If she started blubbering, Trent would think she was drunk, too. “You're my favorite present ever.”
He looked up at the sky for a while, as if looking for something beyond the bizarre colors. The wind, blowing in from the darkness, ruffled his hair, but he didn't seem to notice the cold.
Seffy looked at his profile, wondering if her heart would split. He looked back at her, his gaze intimate, and reached up to brush a windblown lock of hair from her face. The light sparked off the gold of his wedding band.
She bit her lip. Yep, my heart's gonna split right in two.
Trent frowned slightly. “Are you okay?”
She made a sound that was half-laugh, half-sob. “I'm just really...” She glanced down to compose herself. When she looked up, too full of emotion to speak, she felt tears freezing at the corners of her eyes.
His arm tightened around her, his smile sweet. “I know.”
As he lowered his head to kiss her, a commotion broke out behind them, separate from the happy cries of the girls.
Men yelled. Laughter stopped.
Trent lifted his head up, frowning. He led Seffy back into the flood light to find out what was going on.
They watched in confusion as two guards grappled with someone at the edge of the garage.
Trent nudged her behind him as the guards lost control. The man burst into the light.
Jared?
Seffy didn't understand what she was seeing.
She thought he was unconscious. Didn't he like the snow?
A report shattered the windblown stillness. Then another.
She heard the sound of a spurt. Seffy looked down to see her shirt covered in a red mist as Trent turned toward her, his face tense, his eyes wide and bleak.
What the hell?
“Sef.”
He put his arms out, and she realized he was falling. She caught him as he went down onto his knees. “Trent, what's going on?”
Someone screamed.
Seffy collapsed under his weight.
Her brain refused to make sense of the moment, but she managed to pull him onto her lap.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” she asked, her voice as shaking.
“Is he dead?” Eva shrieked.
Seffy looked up and saw everyone staring at her in various states of horror.
Jared, sweaty and pale, stood with a gun pointed at her.
Malone patted his empty holster in alarm.
Seffy looked back down and saw blood soaking through Trent's shirt. “Jared shot you?”
“Someone get help!” Lani.
The wind tore at Seffy’s eyes, making it difficult to see. “I think he hit you. God, oh my God...” She looked up. “Somebody help!” Her voice was shredded to ribbons by the wind.
She clutched his body closer, hovering over him to protect him from the cold. “Just hang on, Trent. Help is coming.” A sob escaped her lips. Where is help? Someone please hurry!
Seffy touched his face and saw his entreating gaze. She kissed him...kissed him from the overflow of her heart, tasting salt on lips that were so cold. She felt his hand in her hair, and tried to impart her warmth to him.
Then his hand fell, and his mouth went slack beneath hers.
Seffy raised her head and looked into his eyes.
But there was nobody there.
She began to tremble, not believing what she was seeing.
When she whispered his name, he didn't respond. Seffy pulled him against her chest, her vision glazed with incomprehension.
No, no, no, no.
Was she saying the words or was it the wind? A warmth spread across her lap, making her look down.
She saw blood creeping across the snow, staining it red. Red to pink. Pink to white.
Movement came from the garage. She saw the girls staring, hands over their mouths, tears running down their faces.
Medics jogged from the bays toward her.
The snow fell, ignored.
The guards had a hold of Jared now, his face a twisted mask of light and shadow as he stared at her. “I was supposed to kill you!” he screamed. “You were supposed to be dead!”
Realization seeped into her brain like her husband's blood soaking the snow beneath her.
Seffy spoke through cracked lips.
“Bull’s-eye.”
Read the conclusion of Apocalypse Babes in book Six:
Apocalypse For Realz
Other books in the series:
The Z Word—Apocalypse Babes Book One
The X Factor—Apocalypse Babes Book Two
iRobotronic—Apocalypse Babes Book Three
Kumbaya Much—Apocalypse Babes Book Four
Other titles by Bella Street:
Tennessee Waltz Series
Kiss Me, I'm Irish: Book One
Kiss Me, I'm Yours: Book Two
Kiss Me, I'm Home: Book Three
Retro Romance Presents: Tome Travel By Design Series
Mid-Century Mayhem: Book One
Visit Bella at
ApocalypseBabes.com
and
BellaStreetWrites.com
Also her blog, Facebook, and Twitter
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Thank you for reading!