Falling Apart (Barely Alive #2) (9 page)

“Boise. He’s meeting me in Boise.” He sniffed. Hopefully, Heather wouldn’t fall for a wimp like him.

He made me feel old. Another moment in my shortening life, where I wouldn’t be given the time to think out my course of action. So be it. I sidled to the open driver’s door. “Heather, can you get out?” I expected to see handcuffs or some other restraint, but nothing held her in place except a car seat. “Heather! Get out. You’re coming with me. Come on.”

Slow as honey, she removed the restraint and slid from the car. Hell, her door wasn’t even locked. She met my eyes over the roof of the vehicle, hers red-rimmed and tear-filled. She sniffed. “Paul, I can’t go with you.”

My jaw dropped. “Say what?” Where was the hero worship? The excitement and relief at seeing me? Where was the kiss?
Hello?
With a little bit of boob pushed against me? “Yes, you can go with me. He doesn’t even have his gun out. I could eat him before he pissed himself. Go get in with James.” I motioned toward the SUV. James had finished gassing up and had returned to the driver’s seat.

She shook her head, the mangled chunk where her missing curls had been spotlighted in the fluorescent overhead lighting. Spying my gaze, she reached up and patted the spot of shorn edges. “I can’t go with you. Brian’s mom is down there. He told me everything.”

I lifted my hands. “So? I hate to sound insensitive, but you can’t die just so she can live. You’re more important than that, Heather.”
Especially to me.
But I’d never say it. Not when she was choosing some loser ass and his mother over me. It stung. More than I could admit.

Tears pushed over her excruciatingly long lashes. Damn, I was a sucker for big eyes. She bit her lower lip. And a sucker for those lips. Agh. In a tone just above a whisper, she added, “I can’t abandon her. Don’t ask me why. I just can’t. Okay? I’m going with Brian. That’s it.” She looked away from me, but at least not toward Brian. I might have chopped him in the neck with the side of my hand. Regardless, she returned to her seat and shut the door.

Embarrassed, I turned toward James. He held up his fingers on the steering wheel. I screwed up my face like
I have no effing idea
. I turned back to Brian. He hadn’t moved. Had in fact frozen with his hand on the gas nozzle. He wasn’t looking at me. He stared at the gas station, his lips slightly parted and his eyes nearly as wide as Heather’s.

I followed his gaze. Three stumbling people tripped over each other to the entrance of the building. One tackled a middle-aged man just exiting the store, the sounds of insane gnawing reaching us over the cracked and stained concrete. The victim’s girl-like scream faded into a faint gurgle.

Under my breath, I muttered, “Get your ass in the SUV. Hurry. James will follow us. Run.” I pushed him toward the rig. “I’ll drive Heather.” I couldn’t guarantee her protection unless I was with her. Plus, I’d never get a piece riding in the car behind her.

Brian didn’t reply. The weasel ran as fast as he could to the side door and yanked it shut behind him. He didn’t even check on Heather who he’d just abandoned with a zombie. Shithead.

I sidestepped the few feet and spoke to James through his open window. “We’ll pull off just out of town. Apparently you and I need to eat.” I nodded toward the mangled body the zombie had abandoned on the ground for the people inside. Screams reached us. “I can’t have Brian driving off with Heather.”

James widened his eyes and mouthed “What the hell?” to me.

I rolled my eyes. “Just don’t eat him, okay?” I rushed back to the side of the small car and slid in beside Heather. Brian didn’t have to know that James wouldn’t eat him. A little bit of a scare never hurt anyone.

I sat next to her, craving her, crushing on her, and I couldn’t do a damn thing to her.

The engine turned over. Her tears hadn’t dried yet, and she stared straight ahead.

One more glance at the silhouettes of attacking creatures in the store, I shifted and squealed the back tires as I pulled from underneath the gas station overhang.

Heather clenched the arm rest. “I’m not going home. I’m going with Brian.” The car’s low frame scraped and almost high-centered on the pavement as I pulled from the parking lot – away from Coeur d’Alene. We’d move further south and then decide what to do. Hell no, was Brian going to drive Heather. His kind couldn’t be trusted. Weasel-y, if I’d ever seen one.

She sighed and relaxed her grip. “Thank you. I’m sorry to drag you into this. I tried waving you off when I was in the car, but you just kept going. It made Brian nervous.” She stared at me in the silence.

Pissed off didn’t begin to describe my anger.

Her hand on my lower arm cooled me a degree or two. But I stared straight ahead. She pressed down, beseeching me, but I held strong, even as her eyes bore into me. Buildings intermixed with trees passed by. I tried ignoring her, I did. But her voice had captured me when I’d started crushing on her. Dammit.

“I am glad you’re here, Paul. I don’t
want
to go this way, you know, but Brian’s mom is down there. I
have
to go.” She angled her head, trying to get in my field of view. I flicked my gaze her way and then back at the road. She sighed. “Are you mad at me?”

How could I be mad when she sounded so sad? I allowed the anger to melt away, replaced with a glow –
shit, I was glowing, I’m a dude, I don’t glow
– that she cared if I was upset or not. Girls are trouble.

I put my hand out on the console between us. If she wanted to take it, great, if not, I’d look like a damn wimp. I prepared for the embarrassment. But before I could pull it back, she cradled my hand in hers, the heat nearly unbearable
. I was still starving, people.

I broke through her monologue – something about spending time with Brian and his mom as she was growing up – blah blah blah. I don’t mean to sound rude, but I didn’t want to think about her with Brian any more than I had to. “Hey, I don’t agree with you going down there. We’ll pull over up here and come up with a plan. I’d rather not have you hurt, Heather, and that’s exactly what Dominic wants to do.”

“You’ll protect me, though, right?” When had she started acting like she needed protection? She’d held a knife on me, all tough badass chick. But when I glanced her way, an impish smile surprised me into nodding. Sweet, flirting was awesome. I squeezed her hand and offered a slight smile. Heather dripped hotness.

“We’ll pull over up here, just out of town.” The zombies would congregate around a lot of people. Hopefully, we wouldn’t have to deal with any.

She twisted in her seat. She’d see the same view I had in the rearview mirror – the SUV holding James and Brian close behind us. Damn, why was he so close?
Dim the lights, bro, jeesh.

The ride to Boise was another five hours or so. Brian’s blood had dripped on the steering wheel and onto the floor. The longer I went without the food, the more localized my sense of smell would get. Heather smelled hella good and I hoped I could keep my hands to myself. I had to talk to her – keep my mind off eating her thigh. “We got some strategy ideas from my mom. I think we’re going to have to attack Dominic on his territory before he spreads up into ours. Plus, Dominic doesn’t care if you’re alive or dead. I’d rather deal with him and get it over with.” Especially if she was going to be so damn stubborn about going down to help Brian’s mom.

She released my hand and crossed her arms over her chest, tight to the rib cage. “You don’t have an army. You have nothing, nobody, but your flipping brother who Dominic has control over. Oh, and two humans. Really? C’mon, Paul. You’re not fooling anyone. Why are you going down there, for reals?” Heather wanted me to say it. I couldn’t. How could I tell her I hated the idea of her being away from me? Away from my protection? Plain away from me?

“What do you want me to say?” I ignored the heat coming from her side of the car. I wanted to yank her into my lap and do all kinds of things I’d never get away with.

If her eyes could have thrown daggers, I’d be full of holes. I divided my gaze between the road and her. I really just wanted to look at
her
. She didn’t back down, but effectively cut off my fight with, “Nothing. I want you to say nothing.”

Parts of me wanted to shrivel. Rather than continue talking about why I clung to her, I changed the subject. “Travis and Connie have a viable vaccine. They tested it on my mom and your grandma.”

Heather dropped her hands to her lap and a slight gasp cut through the air. “What? Travis and Connie haven’t had enough time to make one. We haven’t been gone very long.” A hand over her mouth, she turned to the car window and stared at the blurring darkened scenery.

Okay, that shut her up. But it didn’t make me feel any better.

A little cell phone rested in a cup holder in the middle console. I’d left mine with James. I dialed the number, one hand on the wheel. No cars in sight except for my brother, if I wrecked it’d be in a damn field. Endless plains of wheat were everywhere.

Connie answered. “Hello?”

“Connie, can you get Grandma Jean on? I think Heather needs to speak to her and make sure she’s alright.” I held out the phone in Heather’s general direction and focused on the road. The touch of a hummingbird wouldn’t be softer as she took it from me.

I tuned her out. I really didn’t care what she had to say to Grandma Jean. I had to figure out what exactly was about to happen. I listed in my head the goals I needed to accomplish – one, get food for James and me, two, food for the humans, three, get to Boise and somehow see Dominic without him knowing I was there, or give away Brian’s position, or give Heather over to him, or allow James too close.

Heather was right.
I don’t have an army and I’m not much by myself.
The impossible loomed before me and I realized I’d settle for making it out alive and sending James back north in the sports car while the rest of us went to Boise. I’d try one more time to get Heather to go with him. Maybe I could pretend to care what happened to Brian’s mom, or maybe I could rescue her myself. I’d promise anything at that point to secure Heather’s position.

She was seriously turning me into a big, fat, dying pussy.

~~~

The small phone clicked shut nearly thirty minutes later. We’d made considerable ground, but my fingers had passed from grayish to solid gray with the colorless tone moving up to my wrists. I hoped Heather wouldn’t notice in the dim green light of the dashboard. She’d gabbed and babbled with her grandma for far too long. My head was about to explode.

I held out my hand. “Can I use that?”

She passed it over, not quite as surly as before the call. I dialed James.

He picked up on the first ring. “Dude, get me the hell some food. I’m about to eat this idiot.”

“Pull over up here. We’ll see if we can scare up some meat.” I chuckled and hung up. To Heather, I said, “If your friend doesn’t watch it, James is going to eat him. He’s starving.”

“Like you’re not.” She splayed her fingers toward my hands on the wheel.

I dropped my smile. “So, what? I haven’t eaten you, have I?” And I wouldn’t, but how rude to indicate my graying extremities. There had to be an etiquette book on this kind of thing. Wasn’t there something about not pointing out when a person’s stomach growled? Didn’t this count as the same thing?

The shoulder widened and I pulled over. Turning off the car, I turned to Heather. “I’m locking this car and taking the keys with me. Do not let Brian in. He was given orders by Dominic to get you in dead or alive. He cut your hair and himself to throw us off his track.” I reached up and fingered the shorn edges that ended in empty space behind her ear where her beautiful curls had fallen to her neck. I almost said what I didn’t want to say but longed to. “I need to eat, Heather. And then we’ll find something for you guys to eat, okay?”

She nodded, transfixed by my voice or something in my expression.

I climbed from the car and locked it.

James followed suit. He glowered into the passenger’s side. “Keep down. I don’t know how close we are to Boise but if there are less
conscientious
versions of me out here, you’ll be eaten for sure.” He slammed the door shut and rolled his eyes my way. Feet from me, he muttered. “That guy is a loser. He whined the entire way down. I don’t know if I can handle another minute with him.” He shook his head like he had a fly on his ear.

“Alright.” I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and directed him into the woods about four feet from the gravelly edge. “I’ll switch you when we get back. But you have to promise not to tease Heather. Hell, you should probably take her home. I could finish this on my own.” I could drop Brian off with Dominic – or try to save him and his mom and then head back. Both James and Heather would be safe. What could Dominic do to me?

We stepped on slick moss, fallen needles, and leaves. The silence of the forest raised the hairs on my arms. I yanked James to a stop. Under my breath, with my mouth as close to his ear as possible, I whispered, “Do you hear that?”

He shook his head.

“Silence. Something is here.” And it wasn’t us. “Something that’s not supposed to be.” I stepped backward, pulling him with me. “Move carefully and when I say go, get to the SUV.” We moved again, slow like hardening molasses.