Sole Survivors: Crux Survivors, Book 2 (14 page)

“I’ll go with you.” Chase opened the apartment door.

“Here.” Ross handed him his gun.

Chase merely grinned and picked up his jacket to pull one from the pocket. “First thing I learned about this new world. Never walk around unarmed.”

“I’m going to make myself one of those small crossbows—one that could fit into my pocket so I can just be all cool and whip a weapon out.” Jenna set her bow on the floor, leaned it against the wall.

“And shoot what? Tiny arrows?” Dorian chuckled.

“A tiny arrow can do a lot of damage if you hit a person right.” She picked her plate back up. “It might not be a party anymore, but I’m still going to finish eating. I love these things. Wish we had them at home.”

Keera smiled as she heard Dorian laughing while she walked down the stairs.

“There are crawfish in New Mexico,” he was saying. “In Phoenix too. We called them crawdads.”

She watched Chase scouting the area. A gust of wind swept in through the open garage door and Keera shivered and wished she’d grabbed her coat. “Maybe we should have invited her to stay inside. It’s grown so cold. She could stay down here at least. Out of the rain and wind.”

“She wouldn’t. That woman doesn’t trust us any more than we trust her.”

He must have felt it was clear enough because he grabbed the door and pulled it down.

“There used to be a remote for that thing, but I couldn’t fix it.” She stepped closer to him, still shivering. “You know, I haven’t known any of you much longer than I have that woman and yet I trust everyone in my home. It’s strange.”

He turned, frowned when he saw her arms wrapped around herself and tugged her against his body. “It’s weird for me and Tripp too, but I feel the same way.”

She sighed into his warmth, hugged her arms around his waist. “Guess today proved I trusted you most of all.”

He tilted up her chin, stared at her a long moment, then gave her that half smile she found herself waiting for. “You gave me the ultimate trust.”

“Yeah, well I want to give it to you again.” She chuckled, couldn’t help it.

His smile grew before he kissed her.

What started as a peck quickly heated up and Keera opened for him, felt the rumbling of the low sound he made in his throat as his tongue swept into her mouth. He kept his fingers on her chin, tilted her head to give him better access. Her shivers this time had nothing to do with the cold. She pulled back. “Do you want to sleep in my room with me tonight?”

“I do. I do more than I can possibly explain. But I’m not going to—not yet. Tripp—” he broke off.

“Yeah, guess it would be kind of awkward yet.” She barely kept the frown off her face because she didn’t completely understand his reticence. Tripp was a man, an observant one, and she was pretty damned sure he’d picked up on what had already happened between his brother and her. She’d caught him looking at the mark on her neck. “I’m going to see about getting everyone settled somewhere.” She gave him a quick smile and jogged up the stairs.

It was possible the man wasn’t really interested in more than she’d already given him.

“There’s another storm comin’.” Tripp leaned forward and squinted at the sky through the windshield of the RV. “Think this one’s going to be worse. Those clouds look awful.”

Chase followed his gaze, his gut clenching at the speed of the dark clouds moving overhead. They rolled in round and thick and hungry. Within seconds, fat drops of rain splattered the glass. Slow at first, then they picked up. The storm that had kept all of them at Keera’s overnight had finally let up this morning and they’d been able to get going just fine. But between the lack of passable roads and old and newly downed trees, their progress had been slow. This storm looked rough. The wind already bent trees in front of them. “We’ll need better shelter than the vehicles if this gets worse.”

“Looks like Ross is thinking the same thing.” Keera came forward to stand between them. She’d opted to ride with Chase and Tripp. “They’re slowing down.”

“But I don’t see any buildings.” Tripp stretched over and flipped on the defroster. “I only see mostly dead kudzu. But—” He broke off when the RV hit something in the road, causing the vehicle to rock hard.

“I see vines in the shape of a building.” Keera braced herself on a wall and pointed just as the RV hit something else. She stumbled back.

“Sorry,” Chase muttered as he gripped the steering wheel tight. “The rain is starting to make visibility impossible. Looks like Ross found shelter.” He stopped the RV. “Rain’s too hard to see now. Tripp, go ahead and start packing extra clothes and food packs.”

Chase parked the RV and walked to the long drawer under the couch.

“Pulling out the big guns?” Tripp asked.

“Did you happen to see the door of that place?” Chase pulled out the drawer and lifted a rifle and two guns, then set them on the couch. “We have the most ammunition for these.”

Keera knelt beside him. “I saw the door. It was cleared of vines.”

“So someone has been there and they could still be there.”

“But they could be nice,” Tripp added.

“Or not.” Chase looked up at his brother. “Most of the people we’ve met the last few years have been bad, Tripp.”

“Yeah, and the last few days, those odds changed. We met Keera and the others.” Tripp picked up the Glock. “But I get it. Always err on the side of caution.”

Grinning, Chase grabbed the box of ammunition. “So you have been listening.”

“Oh, I listen…I just don’t always agree.” Chuckling, he began stuffing clothes into a satchel just as someone banged on the door.

Keera ran to open it and Ross bustled inside, water dripping off his soaked hair and clothing. “I was thinking this would be a good place to stop for the night. Ride out the storm. Cadmar said the raiders he was with used this place, that it’s cleaned up inside.”

“Then it’s on their route and not safe.” Chase stood up.

“His group cleaned it up. They didn’t stay long because one of the men got sick.” Ross grinned. “The youngest member of our group knows a little about making people sick with herbs. But he doesn’t think other raiders used the place and all the ones he was with are dead. It’s as good a place as any.”

“Let’s check it out.” Chase snagged his coat, slipped it on and followed Ross. He squinted through the rain. “Looks like it was a Chinese restaurant!” he yelled just as Dorian and the others joined them.

The inside of the old restaurant wasn’t what Chase expected. It had been cleaned, though the last cleaning hadn’t been for months because a new layer of dust lay over everything. It was easy to see why the raiders would have picked this place. The roof was intact, as were the doors. A couple of windows had been boarded up, but a few open places allowed in dirt and cold air. There was an in-ground fire pit in the center of the stone floor. It had probably once had wooden stumps around it for stools. He’d seen another like this years ago in a mall.

Ross walked past him, carrying a large satchel. “All these fire pits are making me want to put one in at our place. We could dig a pit off the deck near the stream. This one will be perfect for tonight.” He dropped the bag, shivered. “I’ll see about gathering firewood outside.”

Dorian grinned at him, pointed past Ross’s shoulder. “Why don’t we start with the dry stack over there?”

Chuckling, Ross just shook his head and turned toward the stack of wood. It probably wouldn’t be enough to keep the fire going all night, but if they got a fire hot enough, adding wet wood to it wouldn’t be a problem.

“Since we’re already pretty soaked, I’ll go out and gather more wood now.” Tripp blew on his hands, rubbed them together.

“Wait!” Cadmar set down the bag he was carrying and dug inside. “I’ll help, but take these. One of the other women at Ross’s place sent extra knitted gloves and hats. She stuffed several in my bag.” He handed Tripp a pair of bright purple gloves. “The color’s weird, but these have the longest fingers.”

“Who cares about the color?” Tripp took the gloves, slipped them on and wiggled his fingers. “They fit. Thanks.”

Chase grabbed a rickety-looking broom leaning against the wall and started sweeping a clean area for them around the fire pit.

“There’s a canvas wood carrier over here.” Ross stacked several pieces of wood in his arms and carried them to the fire pit. “But it has so many holes it might not be any good.”

“We’ll be fine.” Tripp walked with Cadmar toward the back of the restaurant. “Ready to fight the elements again?” He grinned down at the smaller young man.

“Always.”

“Wait,” Keera called out. She walked over and handed them one of the walkie talkies. “Stick it inside your jacket.”

Tripp took it. “We’re not going far.”

She just shrugged and walked over to help Ross and Dorian move firewood.

The creak of the back door was loud enough to be heard over the sound of the raging storm outside, but as soon as the door opened, wind and rain swept into the place, hard enough to sting Chase’s cheeks.

Tripp and Cadmar ran outside then turned instantly to work together to push the door closed.

Jenna knelt next to the fire pit and started to get the fire going. “Holy shit, it’s cold. You guys think that MacKenzie is out there in it? At the rate we were moving, she could have just walked behind the vehicles.”

Ross dropped an armful of wood. “She’s out there. I’m still not sure she’s alone, though. We’ll keep watch tonight.”

It didn’t take long to get a fire going. Cadmar and Tripp came back inside and disappeared briefly to change into dry clothes before huddling in front of the flames. Instead of trying to rig up a way to cook food, they filled up on flatbread and leftover cold crawfish. Chase found himself watching Keera a lot. She’d been different since last night. More standoffish.

Now, she rested in a sleeping bag a few feet from him.

Firelight flickered over her features and Chase’s heart picked up rhythm as he took in her wide, dark stare as she returned his look. She was chewing on a thumbnail, speculation burning in her gaze. Damn, everything about her called to him. It had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with her being one of the few women he’d seen in years—Jenna was a stunning woman and he felt nothing like that for her. But with Keera, his chest burned with the effort it took not to circle that fire, pick her up and carry her somewhere they could be alone.

Her eyes narrowed like she could pick up on his desire. A sensual, heavy cast came over her face as something snapped taut between them, something that made his cock go instantly hard. He sat perfectly still, willed it to go down, not wanting to spend another uncomfortable night sleeping on a log. He forced himself to look away only to find his gaze land on a very private exchange between Jenna and Dorian. The way they stared at each other filled him with even more heat. He wanted that.

Glancing at his brother, he smiled to see that Tripp and Cadmar had both passed out, barely a foot separating them. He wanted what Jenna, Dorian and Ross had for his brother too. But having a friend like Cadmar was a good start. Tripp hadn’t once wandered off in one of his weird silences since they’d met everyone.

But it had only been days. Seemed like longer.

Movement by the front window caught his attention and Chase turned to see Ross watching his lovers. An expression of such need crossed his face it embarrassed Chase to see it. It embarrassed Ross more when he caught Chase watching. He cleared his throat and turned away.

Smiling, Chase crawled out of his sleeping bag, picked up his gun and put it in the back of his jeans. He walked over to Ross. “I’ll take the watch for a while. There’s a door that actually works between this room and the kitchen. There’s even what used to be an office in the back.”

Ross lifted an eyebrow. “You didn’t see me scoping the place out?”

A grin tilted one corner of his mouth. “Yeah, I did. I was trying to be subtle here. I also know you three are on a kind of honeymoon and have been traveling with a teenager.”

Ross looked over at the sleeping young man, stepped closer to Chase and lowered his voice. “You see the way Cadmar looks? He’s as pretty as a girl. It’s made life hard for him.”

“So I’m guessing this trip has been a little less than honeymoon-like.”

Ross grimaced. “We’ve had to be careful around him. But it’s okay. We’re creative.” He looked away and suddenly straightened.

Chase turned to find Jenna and Dorian staring at Ross, both of them watching with somewhat predatory looks. Jenna suddenly smiled, stood and began gathering up the sleeping bags. Dorian came around the fire and walked up to Ross.

“I’ll take the next watch,” Chase repeated.

“Thanks,” Dorian murmured, holding out his hand to Ross. “Come on, Boss. Jenna and I have a great idea.”

“I’m sure you do.” Ross’s voice faded as he followed them through the door.

Chase leaned against the wall and took up watching the outside through the crack in the boards over one window. They’d barricaded the back door and all the windows were decently covered back there. This clear strip had probably been left on purpose. It gave him a good view of the truck and RV despite the still-heavy downpour.