Sole Survivors: Crux Survivors, Book 2 (10 page)

Keera poured a mug of tea and walked to the front of her apartment to look at the RV. She was surprised to find Chase already up and staring at her windows. He spotted her immediately and his half smile sent butterflies fluttering about in her stomach. She held up her mug and waved him up to join her.

He didn’t hesitate.

Chase was chuckling when she let him into the apartment. She lifted an eyebrow and he pulled her back out the door to the top of the stairs and pointed to the corner where Tripp and Cadmar had set up their small theater. Tripp, passed out on his back, long legs mostly on the floor, had his mouth wide open. The back of his head was hanging off the cushion.

Cadmar had rolled completely off his cushion and one of his feet was on Tripp’s chest. He still had his boots on.

Keera covered her mouth to smother her laughter and tugged Chase into her apartment. He followed and watched as she poured him a cup of tea. “Wish I had coffee, but we ran out of that a long time ago. It didn’t store as well as my father hoped.” She wrinkled her nose. “He drank old, stale coffee for years anyway. After he died, I used it to fertilize the garden.”

Chase took a sip. “Tea is great. I don’t even remember the taste of coffee.”

“You were probably too young for it still.”

He nodded. “I do miss Coke.”

She sighed. “Ginger ale for me. It was the only carbonated drink my dad let me drink, but I tried the others and it was my favorite, so I didn’t mind.” She glanced out the kitchen window, glad to see the others still asleep. “I don’t think those three have been resting well on this trip.”

He came closer so he could look out of the window too. “They’re worried about what Cadmar is going to find. It’s hard to believe they’ve only known him a short time because they’re obviously attached to him.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t take long,” she said, voice low. She lifted her chin, looked into eyes that resembled polished blue crystals in the morning light. “It’s so odd to be around all of you. I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just—” she broke off, bit her lip.

“I understand. You’ve been completely by yourself for three years. I’m… I can’t even contemplate what that’s been like.”

“It was hard at first because I missed my father so much. But he raised me to be self-sufficient and we were mostly alone even when there were a lot more people in the world. It’s only been the last few months, the loneliness started to really get to me. That’s why it feels so odd to suddenly have raiders, then you and your brother…then the others. It’s got to be weird for you and Tripp too.”

“We’ve only been the two of us for a year. Before that, we had Jeff and Mooch…and my sister, Maggie. You would have loved her.”

“Your brother told me about her.”

He lifted his eyebrows. “Really? He actually spoke about Maggie?”

She nodded. “Told me about a cake you made for their sixteenth birthday.”

Chase closed his eyes, shuddered. “Oh, it was bad. So bad. I could throw together edible meals, but baking was never something I could do.”

“Unfortunately, baking is more science than anything else and without the right ingredients, it doesn’t work.” Keera poured herself more tea. “Did she look like Tripp?”

He nodded, leaned back against the counter. “A lot like him, but more like our mother. She was pretty short. Tripp and I got our height from our father. I never really knew him. He was gone a lot with work, then just disappeared a year or so before the Crux hit. Maggie was—the best word to describe her was sunny. She smiled a lot, laughed, yet she had this completely at odds love of morbid movies and books. I can’t believe Tripp talked about her. He’s barely done more than speak her name since she died.”

“Oh, speaking of books, I thought it would be fun to give Ross and them a copy of
The Picture of Dorian Gray
. I have two.”

“Oscar Wilde.”

Her mouth fell open. “Really? You’ve read it?”

He nodded. “Our house was near a library that had remained pretty much intact.” He held up his mug. “This is really good, like everything else you’ve shared. I’ve appreciated everything you’ve done.”

“You would do all this yourself.”

Chase opened his mouth to say something else, but there was a shout from the warehouse. He slammed down his mug and took off running.

Keera followed.

They got to the top of the stairs only to find Cadmar rolling on the floor laughing. “It’s not poisonous, I promise! It was just a milk snake.”

Tripp was in the middle of the stairs. “I read the colorful ones are bad.”

Cadmar kept laughing.

“It’s not funny,” Tripp grumped as he came up the stairs. His eyes got wide when he saw Chase and Keera together. “Um…there was a snake on me.”

“On you?” Keera asked. “I’m surprised. They don’t usually get close.”

“Well, this one did.” He stopped, stared at his brother.

“I just came up for tea. Only been here a few minutes.”

She wondered why he felt the need to explain, but didn’t ask. She smiled at Tripp. “Want tea?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Chase passed his brother on the stairs. “I hear movement outside, so I’m going to stoke the fire back up.”

Keera peeked out of the window when she went to brew more tea, watched Chase join the others who were up and moving around. She handed Tripp a mug, then opened her refrigerator. “I’m not much of a breakfast eater. What do you think everyone would like?”

“You don’t have to worry about breakfast. I’ll just grab a piece of that flatbread. It was really good.” Tripp leaned against the counter. “Sorry for yelling and scaring everyone.”

“I would yell if a snake slithered onto me while I was sleeping.” She shuddered, then chuckled. “But you were sleeping with Cadmar’s boot on your chest this morning. Now that was funny.”

“I was?” He frowned. “You’d think I would have noticed that. But then, we stayed up pretty late. Thanks again for the movie player.”

“No problem. I have another down in the shelter, so you’re welcome to keep it.”

“Thanks. Again. I feel like I should just tattoo that on my forehead.” He watched her move around the kitchen. “Keera?”

“Yeah.” She set two jars on the counter. One had peaches, one cinnamon apples. She looked at him.

“You kind of like my brother, don’t you?”

“My mouth didn’t give that away yesterday in the car with the humiliating shivery remark?”

His lips twisted. “It sort of did.” He looked down at his cup before taking a deep breath. “Chase is great. He’s honest, strong, really good at hunting and fixing things.”

Keera blinked at him, put her hand on his arm to shut him up. “You sound like you’re trying to sell your brother.”

His shoulders slumped. “Maybe I am. A little. I know we all just met, but it’s been so long since we did meet people and you’re really pretty and I think you could…I think you could make him happy. I don’t want him to be alone.”

For some reason, the way Tripp said that tightened her gut. She stared at him. Hard. “Your brother isn’t alone. He’s got you.”

“I know. But anything can happen.” He looked over her shoulder to the window. “I just need him to be happy.”

She didn’t know what to say to that so she merely nodded and began to fill a basket with jars of fruit. Then she poured a Thermos of tea, added more mugs and the entire time they walked down to join the others, she worried about that note in Tripp’s voice. It sounded as if he expected to be out of Chase’s life. She wondered if she should tell Chase about it or just stay out of it.

The kid was right. They had all only just met.

Ross leaned under the open hood of his truck. “I have to change the filters out often with biodiesel when it’s cold. The temperature is dropping fast today.”

Chase nodded even though Ross couldn’t see him. “I’m just impressed you make your own fuel. I read about it, but didn’t look into it too much because we found the solar RV.”

“I’ve never seen one quite like that.”

“We added more panels to it, changed a few things. But it’s past its prime. It might be time for me to learn to make biodiesel.”

“It’s not that easy, but we did set aside the barn just for that purpose. We plan to build another one if we can talk Caddie’s parents into coming to live with us. They have animals.”

Chase leaned against the side of the truck. “Like a milk cow?”

“And pigs. But I doubt there are going to be pigs if his family has raiders staying there.” He groaned. “Bacon. I can still remember how good it was.”

“But if there’s a milk cow, there’s butter. Oh my God, there could be real butter.”

The bigger man laughed as he set the old filter down. “You sound like Georgia.”

“Georgia?”

“Young woman who lives on the mountain with us.”

“She a part of your…um, you…”

Ross stood up, threw his head back and laughed. “No, she’s not with us like that. Not everyone up there is jumping into bed together. Outside of the four of us you’ve met, there are three other adults up there and two of them are married.”

“Think Georgia might like Tripp?”

“Trying to set up your younger brother?”

“I just want him to be happy. I’d kind of hoped he’d hit it off with Keera.”

Ross picked up an old stained shirt he was using as a rag. He wiped his fingers, all the while watching Chase closely. “Keera doesn’t look at your brother the way she looks at you.”

“Yeah. Surprises the hell out of me, but I’m not complaining.”

“I wouldn’t either. The woman is skilled, self-sufficient and pretty. I spent years looking for someone like her. You’re a lucky man if she decides she wants you.”

“We just met.”

“There are sparks.” He frowned. “Jenna has made me watch too many chick flicks. Sorry.” He grinned.

“Well, I barely know her and besides, Dorian and Jenna are nice. You’re not doing so badly.”

“No, I’m not. Even when I was looking for another woman, I wanted them. Just felt bad about it for a time.”

“Sorry to be frank here, but that was dumb.”

Chuckling, Ross tossed the rag onto the side of the open truck. “No need to apologize. I was.”

Chase caught movement out of the corner of his eye and grinned when he saw Dorian kissing the breath out of Jenna against a tree.

Ross followed his gaze, his eyes flaring hot. “We’ve been on the road awhile with Cadmar so we’ve learned to take any alone moments we can and use them wisely. The boy is a bit skittish about sex. I didn’t find him in the best of circumstances.”

“That’s been one of my fears for Tripp. Kid is good looking and he didn’t get his height until late. Like Cadmar, he had that small, delicate prettiness to him for a time. He grew out of it.”

“I don’t think Cadmar will. He’s already nineteen. Of course, Jake said he did the same thing. Didn’t have enough food at first so he shot up fast once he did have it.”

“Jake is one of the others?”

Ross nodded. “He’s from Oklahoma, too. You guys would probably hit it off. He’s a nice man. I knew it the first time I saw him. Took a chance and invited him to live up there.”

“Jenna took a chance and invited Keera, Tripp and me to come last night.”

Ross nodded again.

“You knew?”

“Of course. She wouldn’t have done that without knowing Dorian and I were okay with the idea first. We work together.” His gaze strayed back to the two in the woods and his eyes widened.

Chase turned and had to bite his lip when he saw that Dorian’s hand was down the front of Jenna’s jeans. She had her head thrown back, showing one of the longest, prettiest necks he’d ever seen.

“Guess I should tell them they aren’t as hidden as they think they are.” Ross’s voice had dropped an octave.

“There’s no hurry,” Chase murmured, then grinned when Ross curled his lip at him. “I’ll turn my back. Remove temptation. But damn, I’m not sure how you’re still over here with me.”

“I wouldn’t be, but Cadmar and Tripp are coming up.” He cleared his throat, then yelled out. “Hey Caddie!”

Chase couldn’t help looking back at Jenna and Dorian, who had yanked his hand back out of her pants. The blonde woman looked so disappointed until she spotted Cadmar, then her shoulders slumped. She then balled up Dorian’s sweater in her fist and pulled him deeper into the woods.

Chase could tell his brother had spotted Dorian and Jenna. He looked like he wanted to follow, but Cadmar captured his attention when he stopped chattering. The kid turned red, looked at the ground.

Ross cursed under his breath, but broke off when Keera joined them. He towered over the petite woman. She still wore the soft sweater and old jeans from earlier. They hugged her thighs and made Chase want to touch.

She shivered. “I’m thinking we might be in for storms.”

Ross looked at the sky. “Still clear, but I think you’re right. I feel it in the air. I’d planned to get on the road.” He looked down at Keera. “We might have to stay another night if it rains.”