lori king rough ride romeo (26 page)
Read lori king rough ride romeo Online
Authors: Lori
sections to be found. He even told them there was one section that should
lead directly beneath the dome, but he didn’t have a clue how to find
those.
The Tribes used the subway cars as housing. Maggie shared her car
with Walter and Lily and Lily’s six-year-old son Thomas. She and Walter
had met Lily and Thomas the first day they reached the main subway
tunnel. She was holding her then one-year-old son in her arms as he slept.
Lily was twenty-five years old and married to an air force pilot. The day
the nukes were launched, her husband had called her and told her to try to
get to the dome. But she didn’t make it that far before she had to take the
entrance to the subway station.
Maggie and Walter invited Lily and Thomas to live with them in their
subway car. They would offer support and safety to one another. Having
Walter live with them added a certain measure of protection. Not that
Walter, being a much older man, was much protection, but he did have
respect, not to mention an old army blade that he kept close by and was
good at using.
He was also the one to find the supply area with all the weapons the
government had stockpiled. He refused to tell anyone but Maggie where it
was. He went there only once and brought back an M4 rife, two double-
action revolvers, and a semi-automatic pistol. He gave the leader of the
Tribe at the time, Ben, the semi-automatic pistol, he kept the rife for
himself, and he trained Maggie well on how to use her revolvers.
Six months living in the subway was hard on Walter. He was already
sixty-eight years old and couldn’t move around without it hurting. Maggie
remembered the day she came back from scavenging for the Tribe and
found him. Lily wasn’t home yet and Maggie was surprised to find Walter
still in his bed. He had died in his sleep. His health had been slowly
deteriorating since the day the bombs fell, but she felt like she had lost her
family all over again.
Maggie sometimes wondered if there had been foul play involved.
There were others who were jealous of Walter for knowing about all the
supply areas. When she found him dead, his shotgun was gone. She took
his knife for herself and gave Lily one of her handguns, even though Lily
wasn’t very good with a weapon.
Walter dying was a catalyst for another event in Maggie’s life, one that
changed her irrevocably. Without a man living in their subway car home,
Maggie and Lily became easy targets for the other men in the Tribe. They
had to take turns watching over one another and Thomas. But no matter
how careful they were, it was impossible to be careful enough. Maggie
learned that lesson the hard way.
The tribe designated certain areas with water fountains as places
where people could bathe. The women and children went separately from
the men. One horrible night four and a half years ago, Maggie had gotten
there late for bathing and thought she would just wash herself quickly.
Ben, their Tribe leader, had snuck up behind her and attacked. He kicked
her gun out of reach and beat her until she couldn’t move or fight him
anymore.
He had whispered, “Be nice to me, Mags.” He held her down as her
hurt her. She screamed but no one came to help her. He wanted to drag
her back to his subway car and keep her there. But had she managed to
reach the knife hidden under her clothes. She cut the side of his face.
While he was distracted, she took his semi-automatic and hit him in the
back of the head, knocking him unconscious. She grabbed her clothes and
limped her way back to her subway car. Thomas was asleep but Lily was
waiting up and she had her gun nearby.
Lily treated her wounds and then went to get some of the other Tribe
members. Maggie was thoroughly embarrassed to have to tell so many
people what had happened to her. She couldn’t even look at Corey, the boy
she had been crushing on since she and Walter joined his tribe. He was so
hot with red hair and the warmest brown eyes. He was twenty years old,
but she was only sixteen and a half and he looked at her like a little girl
most of the time. She didn’t want to see how Corey would look at her now.
The tribe brought Ben forth to question him. They had a hard time
believing her. Ben had been a strong leader, not always fair, but he got the
job done. He was blond haired and considered attractive by most of the
women in the tribe. Ben tried to deny it what he had done claiming that
Maggie pursued him. But the evidence was stacked against him. He had
been found naked on the foor of the bathing area, with Maggie’s blood all
over him and the foor. The Tribe had no choice but to find Ben guilty of
the assault.
There was only one form of punishment in the subways: banishment.
He was stripped of his supplies and weapons and left with nothing. But
Ben didn’t leave alone; he convinced a group of friends to leave with him.
She wished that had been the last she had seen of Ben. But he came
back periodically with his own little rebel tribe to trade supplies. Maggie
always made sure that she, Lily, and Thomas were protected whenever he
showed up. Ever since the attack, Corey would come by their subway car
to check up on them, and he tried to be nearby whenever Ben was in the
vicinity. Despite her initial shame and embarrassment, Corey proved to be
a true friend to Maggie.
She did her best to put the incident behind her. However, every time
Ben visited and traded with her tribe, it not only reminded her of the
innocence he had stolen, but also of the deeper scar left on her soul, the
loss of her child.
The assault had resulted in her ending up pregnant. After the shock of
realizing she was pregnant wore off, she came to want the baby. It was a
part of her, almost like having her family back with her.
So there she was not quite seventeen and pregnant. She didn’t know
anything about having babies. She was scared beyond belief. She had been
three when Rachel was born. But as the baby grew in her womb, she felt a
deep connection and began looking forward to holding her little one. But
five months into the pregnancy, she miscarried. It had been a little girl that
she named Darla. She only got to hold her baby once in her arms, but she
would hold her in her heart and soul forever.
She was grateful for Lily, Thomas, and Corey. They were there for her
and kept her going when she would have given up. She learned hard
lessons but ones that were essential to survival.
Subway living was a hard life, but they found a way to not only
survive, but to survive as a family. That didn’t mean a day went by she
didn’t think about her mom, dad, or even Rachel. She wished she could
have been a better sister when she had had the chance. That chance was
gone now. This had become her life and she was going to make the best of
it.
***
Maggie’s thoughts brought her back to her conversation with Lily
about Ben. “How long were they here for this time?”
“A couple of hours. Looked like they found them some more
weapons.”
“Shit! Did they bother you?” Maggie quickly checked Lily and
Thomas over to make sure they were okay.
“I didn’t really see Ben, but Taylor stopped by the sub car.” Taylor
was Ben’s right-hand man. He wasn’t as bad as Ben, but there was a
ruthlessness about him that Maggie didn’t like.
Taylor wanted Lily. Every time he was in the area, he stopped by and
tried to convince her to leave with him. Lily had spent some time with him
before the whole incident with Ben, but when Taylor chose to follow Ben,
Lily ended things between them. Maggie always felt bad about that,
though Lily swore she would have ended things anyway. Taylor might have
wanted Lily but he did not want Lily’s son Thomas. That was a done deal
for Lily. She wouldn’t give up her son for anyone.
“Did he try anything?”
Lily shook her head. “He just talked. He wanted me to leave Thomas
with you and come away with him.”
“God, he’s an idiot. How many times does he have to ask and hear
you say no before he finally gets it?” Maggie said, shaking her head.
“I know. He honestly thinks I would leave my son for him. He’s
delusional.”
“Well, he is friends with Ben, so his mind frame is questionable.”
“I was worried at first that he wasn’t going to leave and I was going to
have to shoot him or something. But then Corey stopped by and it pissed
Taylor off enough that he finally left.”
“Corey came by? Why?”
“He knew that Ben was around and he was worried about you. He’d
do anything to protect you,” Lily told her.
Maggie shrugged. “He’s just being a good friend.”
“Honey, that man has the hots for you bad.”
“What?” Maggie blushed. Once, a long time ago, she had a crush on
Corey, but after what happened with Ben, she didn’t think about men that
way at all. “Corey only thinks of me as a little girl.”
Lily snorts. “He sees you for the woman you are now. Don’t you notice
him watching you whenever the two of you are in the same place?”
“I . . .” She didn’t know what to say.
Lily smiled and pointed ahead of them. “See what I mean.”
Maggie looked up and there he was, leaning against the side of their
subway car with his arms crossed. His red hair was shoulder length, but he
kept it tied back. He was taller now, about six feet three inches, and despite
the thinness to his frame, he still managed some nice muscle definition. Of
course, everyone in the tribes was on the thin side. Corey Nash was still the
best looking guy she had ever seen, before the bomb or after the bomb. He
smiled at her and she felt the heat rise in her face again.
“Like I said, he has the major hots for you, honey,” Lily whispered.
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Also By Lori King
Crawley Creek Ranch
Rough Ride Romeo
The Surrender Series
Fetish & Fantasy
The Gray Pack Series
Apache Crossing
Sunset Point
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About the Author
Best-sel ing author, Lori King, is also a full-time wife and mother of three
boys. Although she rarely has time to just enjoy feminine pursuits; at heart she is
a hopeless romantic. She spends her days dreaming up Alpha men, and her
nights telling their stories. An admitted TV and book junkie, she can be found
relaxing with a steamy story, or binging in an entire season of some show online.
She gives her parents all the credit for her unique sense of humor and acceptance
of all forms of love. There are no two loves alike, but you can love more than one
with your whole heart.
With the motto: Live, Laugh, and Love like today is your only chance, she
will continue to write as long as you continue to read. Thank you for taking the
time to indulge in a good Happily Ever After with her. Find out more about her
current projects at
http://lorikingbooks.com,
or look her up on Facebook:
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Twitter:
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