The McClane Apocalypse: Book Two (12 page)

Her confession of her feelings about his young siblings shatters him. She’s so open and ready to give and receive love from people, so trusting and gentle. There are no walls, no shields around Hannah.

“I like you, but I can’t like you. Don’t you understand? Damn it!” he hisses in anger which makes her jump.

“But, I... Kelly, you’re confusing me more. You say you like me, but you don’t or you don’t want to or this nonsense excuse of Cory and Em. What do Cory and Em have to do with anything? I promise I’ll help you with them. I could never
not
want you because of them. Is that what this is about? You are the most exasperating man alive! Argh!” Her sadness is quickly morphing into anger. She continues on at him. “Look, I don’t have relationship experience like you probably do. I’m sure you have a lot of experience in that way, but I don’t. And I don’t want your pity, either. Don’t use the kids as an excuse. You don’t like me? That’s ok but don’t pretend to because you feel sorry for me. I don’t need your...” she says angrily and Kelly can’t take it another second.

He grasps her face between his two large hands and pulls her up and into him, crushing her mouth and silencing her ridiculous tirade. Her mouth is sweet, soft, yielding under his devious expertise. Her small, graceful hands cling to his forearms as if she’s afraid he’ll let her fall. As if he would ever let her fall. Hannah whimpers softly into Kelly’s mouth, and it is almost his undoing. She presses herself to his chest where Kelly can feel her breasts against his stomach because she is so much shorter than he is. It’s enough to make him pull away before he goes too far. They are standing half in the hallway where anyone could walk by and see, even her grandfather.

When he looks down at her, Hannah’s cheeks are flushed a pretty pink, her mouth a dark red from their kiss. Kelly sets her away from him as her elegant fingers trace her lips. If it’s meant to be suggestive, which he highly doubts, then it’s a very successful maneuver.

“Did that feel like pity?” he asks rhetorically and with a touch of angry frustration. He traces a finger down her satiny cheek. “I like you, ok? Do you understand now? I like you, Hannah McClane. The problem is that I like you too damned much.” Her chest rises and falls rapidly and Kelly knows the tell-tale signs of desire in a woman. He knows that Hannah wants him, and the feeling is frighteningly mutual.

“You shouldn’t swear,” she mumbles.

“I shouldn’t do a lot of things. Kissing you would be at the top of the list, but I can’t seem to stop doing that, either,” he tells her which makes her grin wickedly.

“If you like me, then why don’t you want to be with me, Kelly?” Hannah asks in soft tones and reaches her hand out to him, which he takes into his own again.

“Hannah, I’m no good for you. Don’t you understand that?” he asks her brokenly.

“Why would you even think something like that?” she returns his question with one of her own.

Kelly hears the rattling of plates and dishes and knows that his time is about to become very limited in this secluded hall with Hannah. He glances nervously down the hall, hoping that no one will see him loitering at her door like some kind of stalker creep.

“I don’t think I’m going to have a whole lot of time to explain it all right now. But just know that I don’t feel sorry for you. I do like you. It’s just not meant to be for us, Hannah. I want you to be happy and be with someone good like you, and I’m never going to be able to be that for you- what you need,” he explains as gently as he can. Her face falls, making Kelly feel like shit again. He doesn’t want to hurt her, but he can’t allow this behavior to continue.

“You are what I need, Kelly. Please,” she pleads delicately.

“Hannah, you don’t even know me. Not really,” he tries another angle, keeping his voice low and soft. She looks perplexed by this new direction he’s taking to explain their situation. “We’ve only really known each for the summer, so maybe you should just stay away from me. I don’t want this to turn into something that gets out of control. Trust me, this is difficult for me. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, either. When I see you upset, it just kills me.”

“But I do know you. I know the only things that matter about you. Sometimes I think I know you better than you know yourself,” she argues softly and whips her head to the side. “Sue is coming.”

Three seconds later Sue appears around the corner and is coming straight toward them. Hannah’s sixth sense- or Bassett hound ears as Reagan calls them- are sometimes on the verge of eerie. She always announces people before they’ve even come within a visual distance of everyone else.

“Is everything ok, Hannie?” her annoying, protective sister asks as she approaches them.

Hannah twists her hands nervously. “Yes, I’m fine, Sue. Kelly was just checking on me,” she fabricates.

“I brought you some hot tea. Grandpa said this will help with your headache,” Sue offers and looks suspiciously at Kelly, who in turn sneers at her hoping to scare her off.

Of course it doesn’t work, and Sue smiles as she brushes past Hannah to take the tea cup and saucer into the bedroom where she places it on a nightstand.

While Sue’s back is turned, Kelly grasps Hannah’s hand and gives it a squeeze, pulling her close enough to whisper in her ear.

“We’ll talk more another time, but just take my advice, Hannah, and forget about me, ok?” he pleads which earns him a frown and a pursing of her lips.

He turns abruptly and leaves her. Kelly hears Sue speaking with Hannah in her room when he gets halfway down the hall. He sure as hell hopes that her sister will discourage Hannah from having any more to do with him if she should confide in Sue. He’s not the kind of man that he’d want Em to ever get involved with someday. As a matter of fact, he’d simply kick the dude’s ass right after Cory did and send him on his offensive way.

When he gets to the kitchen, the kids are already washing dishes while Grams works in the pantry. Derek and Doc are nowhere to be seen, probably working in the doc’s office at the other end of the sprawling house. With a house this size it is easy to make yourself scarce, which is what Kelly intends to do as he heads downstairs to his bedroom to clean it up and put away laundry.

He doesn’t need to be making moves on a girl he has no right trying to make a move on in the first place. Hannah McClane doesn’t need to soil herself with someone like him. She is the embodiment of purity and innocence and he is... a cold-blooded killer with blood on his hands and on his tarnished soul. There is no doubt left in his mind of where he will spend his after-life and it sure isn’t where she is destined to be spending her time. After he’s finished in his own room, he decides to check Cory’s to make sure the kid is keeping it clean and neat. He ascends the stairs to the second floor.

Cory opens the door and smiles broadly which makes Kelly feel slightly better and more certain of his decision regarding Hannah. He can’t risk anything that would jeopardize the kids’ safety.

“Hey, Kelly. What’s up?” Cory asks and moves into the room where he plunks down on his new bed.

“Nothing, dude,” Kelly answers and walks around the room that is immaculately kept.

There are no dirty clothes on the floor, no rock concert posters littering the walls, no old soda cans on the dresser or bedside table. It doesn’t look at all like a typical teenager’s room. The only thing that needs done is the single basket of folded laundry waiting to be put away. “Just checking in on you; making sure you’re keeping the room clean and all.”

“Oh, yeah sure. I try to keep it real clean. You know, so that Grams doesn’t have to come up here or, God forbid, Hannie,” his brother explains and for some odd reason it bothers Kelly that Cory would use her nickname.

“Hm, that’s good. We don’t want to be a pain in the ass for anyone around here. We gotta keep up on chores and pitch in to help where there’s a need. We can’t ever get lazy and slack off,” Kelly says harshly and wonders why he is even lecturing the kid who in turn looks confused. Cory has done more than his fair share. He works hard, as hard as the adult men.

“Ok, Kelly. I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can, like running the tractor and working with the cows, and I kind of like the horseback riding, too. I always take my clothes down to Grams and Sue and Hannah to do the washing, but I can start washing my own and Em’s, too. I can do more if you think...” Cory starts, but Kelly interrupts him.

“No, no you’re ok, man. I didn’t mean it like that. You do more than enough Cory. You’re really helpful around here. Everyone’s been saying so. I’m just kind of stressed out. Worried about John...,” he awkwardly covers for the real reason for his distress. His brother looks at him with one eyebrow raised in speculation. Kelly runs his palm roughly over his face and pinches the bridge of his nose before he goes to look out the window at the pouring rain.

“Are you stressed out about Hannah, Kelly?” Cory asks as he opens the dresser drawer and starts putting away the clean laundry.

The kid looks dead on his feet, like he could use a good shower, and he’s still doing another chore probably because Kelly made him feel guilty. It makes Kelly even more disgusted with himself. His people skills suck lately. Who would’ve known that his biggest problem in the end-times was going to be trying not to act like an asshole every time he opens his mouth?

“No, it’s cool, Cory. You don’t need to worry about anything, ok?” Kelly tells his brother, trying to calm any fears he might have of Kelly screwing up their current living situation.

“What do you mean? Why would I worry about you and Hannah? I just want it to work out for you two,” his brother says with hopeful sincerity.

“That’s a non-issue, dude. There is no me and Hannah. So don’t worry,” he tells him as he scans the barn area with the night vision binoculars perched on the window sill.

“What the hell do you mean it’s a non-issue? You love Hannah. I can see it plain as day,” Cory says with such frankness that it scares the shit out of Kelly, causing him to startle.

“What did you just say?” Kelly half whispers raggedly.

“You and Hannah. You guys should be together. She likes you, so you should be with her. Besides, nobody else is ever gonna like your ugly butt, so you’d better jump at the opportunity. You could take care of her ‘cuz she’ll always need someone to look after her. So do you, Kelly,” he explains as he puts his underwear and socks away.

He’d been so thankful for the clothes that Kelly thinks he must have said it a hundred times to Reagan when she’d come back with the items they’d found at the mansion in the burbs. Reagan had told Cory to leave her alone or she’d kick his ass, though. They’d all chuckled at the little nut job.

“Bullshit. I don’t need anyone to look after me. I’ve always looked after myself,” he argues and stares at his brother, who continues to ignore him and stack his jeans on a shelf in the closet.

“Everyone needs someone to look after them, Kelly. You take care of me. I take care of Em. And Hannah wants to take care of you. It’s simple. You’re the moron who can’t figure this shit out. You’ve been gone from the real world for so long you forgot how it works. She cares a lot about you. And I see how you look at her. She’s a catch, Kelly. She’s so pretty and nice and sweet, just like my mom was. I mean our mom, dude. Sorry,” Cory amends as he comes back out of the closet. Janet had been the only true mother figure Kelly had ever known.

“Don’t say shit like this. If Doc hears you, he’ll kick us to the curb. You be sure about that one, little brother. He doesn’t want his granddaughter gettin’ involved with someone like me.”

“What? Why not? That’s stupid. Doc would be lucky to have someone exactly like you taking care of someone like Hannah. She can’t very well take care of herself,” Cory argues as he picks up his rifle, peering intently through the scope.

It’s technically Cory’s watch, but sometimes, many times when Kelly can’t sleep he’ll also pace the first floor to look out windows or walk around the grounds. All of the men do it when they are restless and find that sleep eludes them. He’s even bumped into Doc once or twice on the ground floor near the music room. But it is getting a lot harder to look the old man in the eye because he is lusting after his innocent granddaughter.

“Someday she’ll meet someone just like her. Nice and clean-cut and good- someone not like me,” Kelly pushes.

“Yeah? Maybe we should invite that Reynolds guy over for dinner some time and see what he thinks of her,” Cory antagonizes.

“Hell no! That fucking jerk got himself shot. He’s not getting anywhere near Hannah,” Kelly says with lightning fast anger which, for some strange reason, makes Cory laugh.

“So you don’t want to be with her, but then you don’t want her to be with someone else?”

“Dude, just drop it. You’re starting to piss me off.” How the hell did this kid get so smart?

“So? You’re in my room, remember?” Cory asks. “There aren’t a whole lot of choices in women to marry anymore in case you haven’t been keepin’ up. I mean, beggars can’t be choosers. I fully intend on marrying the first hot supermodel that drives down that damn driveway. So you’re screwed on that one, too. If Hannah wants you, then you should take her up on it ‘cuz I already got first dibs on the supermodels.”

“Shut up,” Kelly growls testily and resumes looking out the window. It’s difficult to see much because of this irritating rain.

“I’m just saying that maybe you ought not to sell yourself short. You’re crazy for her and she- for some freak reason- seems crazy for you, too,” Cory informs him. “I think you two should just give up and get it figured out already. You aint getting’ any younger, bro. I mean, I’m just sayin’.” Kelly harrumphs at him.

“I’m outta’ here. I can’t take any more of this stupid talk. I thought you were more realistic than this, Cory,” Kelly berates his brother and then for the millionth time this day feels like shit.

“You know, Hannah is only four- well, my birthday is coming up soon, so- three years older than me. Maybe I’ll make a play there,” Cory warns and doesn’t turn around as Kelly marches toward the door. His pesky, meddling young brother’s words freeze him in his size sixteen tracks.