The McClane Apocalypse Book Five (3 page)

“It’s nice to meet you, Paige,” he says,
revealing his white teeth.

Her eyes just widen. She wants to curse him
out in front of his family. She gives him her best sneer and
doesn’t answer. She literally locks her teeth together to stymie
her need to curse.

“Like your shirt,” he remarks smugly.

Nobody comments because they probably don’t
understand their strange interaction. She still doesn’t answer him
but stands close to her brother. Simon had told her that she could
borrow Cory’s t-shirts or hoodies, whatever she needed since he was
gone. They weren’t sure he was ever going to come back. She wishes
Simon hadn’t made that offer. Now she wants to burn this damn
shirt. He seems like a real dick, and Paige sorely wishes he hadn’t
come back.

“What’d I miss while I was gone?” he asks
like a smartass and gets an uproarious bunch of laughter from all
of the men.

“Quite a lot, Death Stalker, quite a lot,”
Kelly remarks.

Paige doesn’t find the humor in any of it.
And she doesn’t like his nickname. He’d stalked her in the woods
just a few minutes ago. He’d threatened to kill her. She’d like to
tell the family that part, but they seem so happy to have him home.
Everyone’s faces have smiles of pure joy plastered to them. Even
Doc, who is usually calm and reserved, is exuding happiness. She
doesn’t want to spoil this family reunion for them. But that
doesn’t mean she has to like this dick, either. Nor does she trust
him.

“Well, I figured I should bring the stallion
back to get those mares bred again,” he tells them.

“So you’re telling us that you came back to
offer your stud services?” John jokes.

Everyone laughs again. They are all elated to
have this jerk back. Not her. She’d like to tell him to go back to
wherever the hell he’s been. They’ve been just fine without
him.

“You’re just in time for your favorite time
of day, brother,” Kelly remarks.

“Dinner?” he asks with a grin, his beard
unkempt and disgusting.

“No, chores!” John jokes and gets more
laughter from the crowd.

“Bummer,” Cory says with good humor.

“Yep, let’s get you settled in,” Kelly
answers. “We might give you a pass on chores tonight. And dinner
will probably be ready soon.”

“You’ve got a friend there,” Reagan observes
his dog.

The little kids have already been petting his
dog and loving on her. She looks as mean and mangy as her owner,
but the kids know no fear when it comes to animals. The German
shepherd is a puddle of goo in their hands.

“Yeah, couldn’t shake her,” he says.

“Real lady’s man, huh?” John jokes.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Cory says
with
another grin that exposes two deep
dimples this time near the edge of his scraggly, black
beard.

“What’s her name, Uncle Cory?” Arianna
inquires.

Why is she calling him uncle? He’s not her
uncle at all. Paige has some suggestions on what they could call
him.

“Damn… well, she doesn’t really have a name,”
he stutters as if he is covering up something. “Why don’t you guys
give her a name? I never got around to it.”

He picks up the reins of his stallion, a
brutal looking beast who is stomping and snorting ferociously.

“Let’s get your gear and we’ll take care of
chores before dinner,” John suggests. “Guess we can let you off the
hook for milking the cows for just one night, right?”

“Sure, cool,” Cory
murmurs
.

This soft, quiet tone of his is nothing like
the roaring monster he’d been in the forest. They unload three big
bags, cargo style military bags, from his horse. Kelly takes his
rifle.

“Army issue? Where you been, little bro?”
Kelly asks, observing one of the bags.

Cory’s eyes take on a haunted look for the
barest of seconds but quickly change back. “A little bit of
everywhere.”

Reagan jumps in to relieve him of the big
interrogation that was brewing, “Great. You can tell us all about
it later.”

“Thought maybe you guys got overrun or
something,” he tells Kelly. “I ran into her in the woods with your
pistol and… man, I couldn’t get you on the radio, either.”

He’s thumbing his finger at her. She squints
her eyes at him. He just smirks again. Creep.

“Oh, yeah, sorry, man,” Simon offers. “We had
to switch channels. Had some problems. I’ll fill you in. Let’s get
him turned out to pasture. Come on.”

“Hurry up, boys,” Hannah calls out jovially.
“Dinner will be ready in less than an hour and then you all have a
meeting in town tonight, don’t forget.”

“Meeting? What’s that all about?” Cory
asks.

“There’s a lot to fill you in on,” Simon
tells him.

The men split up to take care of
chores. Paige and Sam follow along with her brother and the creep
to the barn where he hooks his horse to a
tie
ring
. It’s preferable to stay near her brother than to
let this psycho out of her sight. His equipment is dusty and rough
looking, just like him.

“Glad to have you back, brother,” Simon tells
him a moment later.

Traitor, Paige thinks to herself. She doesn’t
think her brother would like how this Cory jerk had treated her out
in the woods if he knew the truth of it.

He even turns his back to her and hugs
Cory. She stares down Kelly’s brother who returns Simon’s
hug
. He’s taller than
Simon,
which enables her to clearly see Cory’s
face. His eyes look troubled. When he catches her staring at him,
though, the smugness returns. She wishes she’d kicked him in the
balls harder.

“Good to be back,” he tells Simon. “Things
sure changed around here.”

“You have no idea,” Simon says. “Paige came
here with her two friends and a little girl. Her friend now lives
over at the Reynolds. She’s gonna marry Chet if you can believe
that.”

“Really?” Cory asks as if in disbelief.
“Where’s the other friend?”

His question is guarded as if he is wary of
new people being on the farm. Screw him. He’s been gone for a long
time. He doesn’t exactly have a weighty opinion right now on who
does and does not get to live here.

“He was killed a while back,” Simon answers
quietly.

Paige lowers her gaze. Sam puts a
comforting arm around her waist. She leans down and gently presses
her head against the other
woman’s
.

Cory doesn’t even flinch or show an ounce of
emotion before asking, “Killed how? On a run or something?”

“No, the farm was attacked, Cor,” Simon tells
him as he removes the stallion’s bridle for Cory.

“What?” Cory asks in genuine shock. “What the
fuck happened? Oh, sorry, Sam.”

Is he apologizing for swearing? If so, she’d
like to remind him that he owes her about a hundred apologies. Of
course, she hadn’t been in her best form, either, just a short bit
ago.

“It’s ok, Cory,” Sam says and goes to
him.

She places her hand on Cory’s arm to reassure
him.

“We’re just glad you’re home,” she says
kindly and hugs him around his middle.

Apparently she really likes this asshole.
Paige doesn’t get it. Just because someone is family doesn’t mean
you have to like them. She’d like to enlighten them all to this
concept. Sam steps away again.

“We’ll let you two get caught up while we get
the chores done. See you in the house,” Sam says.

She doesn’t have to tell her twice.
Paige is glad to get out of the barn and away from that creep. As
they are leaving the
barn
, Paige
glances over her shoulder. Her brother has his back to her. He’s
squatting down and checking the horse’s front hoof. Cory is staring
right at her. Right at her butt. She glares at him until he grins
and turns away as if he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Super creep.
She can’t wait to get her brother alone later to tell him what went
down in the woods. Her palms itch, the hair on the back of her neck
stands up and her flight instincts are kicking into high
gear.

Sam says as they walk toward the yard, “Let’s
collect the eggs first. Then we’ll head over and help with the
cows.”

“Sure. Sounds good to me,” Paige answers and
follows along.

They each pick up a wicker basket hanging on
the side of the coop and go inside the small building to collect
the little brown eggs from their cozy boxes bedded down in
straw.

“I wanted to let Cory and Simon talk by
themselves,” Sam says.

“Oh, ok,” Paige says. She wants Cory to get
kicked by that big horse of his.

“They have some things they need to work
out,” Sam tells her.

Paige realizes that Sam has stopped
collecting eggs and is looking at her.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t
think they’re going to work out everything right this second, but I
also didn’t want to crowd them, either,” Sam says quietly as if she
is conveying a secret.

“What do you mean?”

“You know, because of what happened to
Em?”

Paige shakes her head and furrows her
brow. Cory and Kelly’s little sister was murdered by some
bad
men like the ones who’d raided this
farm. “I don’t understand. Wasn’t she killed by some guy when they
were on a raid or something?”

“Yes, technically,” Sam says and looks
around Paige as if she is making sure they are still alone. “But
Simon told me he feels really guilty for it. He said that Em nagged
him to tag along instead of waiting for them at the cabin and kind
of persuaded him to side against Cory with her. Cory never would’ve
let her go with them. He was way overprotective of her. She sneaked
out of here and caught up
to
them
in the first place.”

“I knew that part, but I didn’t know that
Simon talked Cory into anything,” Paige admits, finds another egg
and tucks it into her basket with at least a dozen others. Almost
every morning the family eats eggs for breakfast, a lot of eggs.
She’d been a vegan before the fall of the country. That hadn’t
lasted long. Now she’s a carnivore like the rest of them. She
hadn’t had much of a choice in the matter. It was either eat wild
game that they’d catch or go hungry. It wasn’t like she had a fresh
garden before she came to the farm. She had to eat meat and eggs
when they could find them. The other option was to go out and chomp
on grass like a cow. She could’ve converted back, but the
apocalypse has changed her viewpoint on many of her former ideals.
Now she’s pretty sure she’d eat a baby seal if she had to. The
world has changed. The people in it have changed, as well. Those
who couldn’t adapt are probably dead.

Sam nods sadly and
says
, “Yes, he did. I know he feels terribly
guilty
over
it, too. He won’t
talk to me about it anymore, though. I’ve tried. Maybe he’ll talk
to you?”

Paige shrugs and replies, “I doubt that. He’s
not a kid anymore that needs my help. He is more independent than I
am now. I really don’t think he’d discuss it with me. Hell, Sam,
he’d probably talk to you before me.”

Sam frowns hard and shakes her head.

“You don’t understand how close Cory
was with his little sister. They were tight. He kept her alive when
they were younger for four days before Kelly got to them in
Arkansas. Their parents were both killed. I guess Cory’s the one
that found them. Then he had to hide
with
Em until Kelly got to them. I can’t imagine.
He was only like sixteen or seventeen. He’s so loyal. And he was
crazy about her.”

Paige says, “Well, it’s not really anybody’s
fault. It wasn’t like they meant for her to get killed. It just
happens. I mean, look at Gavin. He came here. We made it all the
way here only to have him be shot and killed so soon after. This is
the safest place that I’ve been since the fall. Nothing really ever
makes sense anymore. I doubt if there’s anyone in the country still
alive that hasn’t lost someone.”

Sam’s eyes tear up and she bites her lower
lip.

“I’m sure they’ll work it out,” Paige offers
optimistically. “Men have a very different way of communicating
than we do, but I’m sure they’ll talk it out some day.”

Sam nods and says, “Yes, I don’t know how men
communicate. You’re right. It’s not anything like the way that we
do, though.”

The younger woman rolls her eyes as if she’s
frustrated and goes back to plucking eggs from nests. Sam passes
her basket of eggs to Paige to carry to the house while she plans
on heading out to the horse barn to help with the evening feeding.
Paige surely won’t argue with that decision. She’d rather do
anything than be around the horses. Or the newly arrived family
member.

A few hours later, the family is gathering
together in a loud flurry of movement and chaos. People are
carrying trays of food. Others are collecting kids and coercing
them into washing their hands in the mudroom. Others are just
missing.

“Paige?” Hannah calls over to her.

“Yes, I’m here,” Paige answers her and goes
toward the stove where Hannah is lifting a heavy pan.

“Of course you’re here, silly, or I wouldn’t
have asked for you,” Hannah says on a sassy laugh. “Why don’t you
go up and get Sam for me? I called her some time ago, but she must
be drawing in her room again. That girl, I swear.”

“You’re gonna swear?” Reagan asks jokingly.
“If you are, hold on a minute so I can write this down.”

She and Kelly laugh and bump fists,
conspiring against Hannah.

“Oh, no! I don’t think I need to
really
swear. You two heathens do enough
of that for the lot of us!” Hannah
jabs
with impatience.