Heartache. Never ending heartache.
I picked up my book, but I just stared at the words on the pages. Before I knew it, the daylight started to fade away. Another day passed by and still no sign of the others.
I didn’t know what I’d do if they didn’t come back. Would Danny and I just stay here until the end… miserable?
“Ready to go up?” Danny asked as he walked over to the door and checked the lock. He walked over to the windows and checked them even though we never opened them.
I nodded. It wasn’t like I had a choice, he was going to take me upstairs either way.
A shiver ran down my spine as I stood there listening as Danny walked through the rest of the first floor checking the other windows. He wiggled the back door vigorously before stepping out of the hallway and stopping in front of me.
“All locked up,” Danny said gesturing toward the staircase. “After you.”
I listened to the familiar creaking of the steps as my weight pressed down on each one of them. They hadn’t changed since I was a kid. I knew each squeak by heart.
We stepped into the room at the end of the hall. It made me a little uneasy to be in her room without her permission, but it was the biggest room and had the best view of our surroundings.
Danny adjusted the already closed curtains before lighting the small candle on the nightstand. He touched the shotgun before flopping down in the chair he’d placed near the window.
I wrapped my arms around my middle as I lowered myself down onto the bed. My eyes focused on the same small orange water spot I stared at every night since we’d arrived.
“Tomorrow will be a better day,” Danny said with a small smile.
“Was today that bad?” I hadn’t thought I’d been that bad.
“Nah,” Danny said shaking his head.
I was pretty good at reading Danny. What he wanted to say was that there had been worse days, but he was far too polite to tell me to pull it together.
He didn’t get it though. Danny didn’t know the shitty life I’d had. It was just sucker punch after sucker punch right to the center of my gut. I was just sitting here waiting for the next blow.
I pressed my lips together to stifle the groan that tried to escape. Feeling sorry for myself was the last thing I should be doing. Danny’s unspoken words were what I needed to hear because no matter how bad things had been, I did need to pull it together.
Jamie wouldn’t have wanted me moping about, but I just couldn’t get the image of what happened out of my head. Every time it replayed, I felt the same heartache.
“Will you show me how to use the gun?” I asked.
“Yeah, sometime,” Danny said swallowing hard. He didn’t have to say it, but he was worried about me having a gun in my current state.
“When?”
Danny let out a breath. “Soon.”
“I should know how,” I said pushing myself up on the bed. “Just in case.”
“You should,” Danny agreed. His body stiffened, and he slowly got to his feet as he peered out between the curtains. “What the hell?”
I turned toward the window, but I couldn’t open my mouth to ask. A chill ran over my body due to the sudden change in the air inside the room.
Danny let out a slow breath. “Someone’s out there.”
Chapter 2
I got off the bed and was standing next to Danny so fast he looked at me as if I had superpowers. He shook his head briefly before pointing to the light in the distance with his chin.
“I see,” I said staring at the small light bobbing up and down in the distance. It was impossible to see how many people were out there, but there was only one light. Something small… like a flashlight.
“Could it be?” Danny whispered.
I shook my head even though for a split second the thought had crossed my mind sending butterflies to my stomach. But Nick wouldn’t be traveling at night unless he absolutely had to, and if that were the case, the light would have been moving faster. It hadn’t been, the yellow circle moved slow, with uncertainty.
“Maybe it’s Tom.”
“No,” Danny said. “He has no idea where you live. The odds of him coming this way at night are impossibly low.”
Was he right? Maybe he was right. It was too hard to shake the possibility from my mind.
“Hey,” Danny said lightly touching my shoulder as he looked into my eyes. The candlelight glimmered in his pupils. “If it’s them or anyone else we need to hide from, we can. They won’t find us.”
I nodded even though a sour taste bubbled up to the back of my throat. We had a way to barricade ourselves inside the cellar. Of course, if someone really wanted to get to us, they’d find a way. But Danny was certain any random intruders would give up easily. He believed they’d be there looking for supplies, not people. I hoped he was right. Rather, I hoped it never came to that.
We watched out the window but less than five minutes had elapsed before the light went out. I couldn’t see who was out there and I couldn’t even guess how far away they’d been.
“Hopefully they’ll pass right on by,” Danny said letting his shoulders relax. “Try to get some sleep.”
“You’re kidding right?” I tried to hold back a small chuckled, but it managed to find a way out.
“No, I’m not kidding,” Danny said narrowing his eyes. “I’ll wake you if anything changes.”
I crossed my arms. “What if they try to come here during the night? Shouldn’t we go into the cellar?”
“Not yet.”
I shook my head.
“We have time. I’ll see anyone before they even step onto the property.” Danny’s finger was steady as he held the curtain open. He turned and looked into my eyes. “If they even come this way.”
“Of course they will. They’ll see the house.”
“That doesn’t mean they’ll come here. We don’t even know it’s a they.” Danny let out a calm breath. “Could just be one person. Maybe they’re lost. Scared.”
My fingers trembled as I moved my hand up and down my arms. “Maybe it’s Tom. Or maybe someone worse.”
“It’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that.” I sat down on the edge of the bed. I didn’t bother to lay down because I knew there was no way I was going to fall asleep.
Danny tried to convince me for at least a half-hour to get some sleep before giving up. I told him I’d take watch and that he could sleep but when he laid down on the bed, his eyes wouldn’t close either.
He said it was because I was making him nervous, but I knew I wasn’t the reason he wasn’t able to fall asleep. We switched back and forth until morning, and it wasn’t long before we saw them standing there staring at the house.
The sunlight overhead was so bright I couldn’t make out their faces. They looked so small at the end of the driveway.
“Let’s go downstairs,” Danny said grabbing the gun.
I followed him as he tried to make soft steps but each one creaked loudly. He still didn’t know where to place his feet on the stairs like I did.
When we got to the front window, I hesitated. I worried they’d see the curtain move, but we needed to know what to do. We needed to know if we had to stand our ground or hide in the cellar.
My fingers shook as I moved them up toward the curtain. Danny grabbed my wrist and held it as he stepped in front of me.
He moved his body as he turned his head slowly side to side without moving the curtain. When his head stopped shaking, I knew he’d located whoever was out there.
“Well?” I whispered so softly the words nearly disappeared before leaving my lips.
Danny turned to me without blinking. His mouth dropped open, but it took a few seconds before the words spilled out.
“There’s a woman, a child, and…,” Danny sucked in a breath as his hand around my wrist loosened and he wrapped his fingers around mine.
“And?” I asked swallowing so hard it hurt the center of my chest.<
br />
“Bronx.”
A rush of disbelief surged through my veins, but the excitement vanished when it crashed into the sadness and worry of what that might mean for Nick.
“Just Bronx?”
“Sorry,” Danny said shaking his head.
My breaths came quickly, and my head started to tingle. I stepped around Danny and looked out of the window.
Bronx was standing out there with the young woman and a child that was maybe ten. He was staring at the house, looking it up and down.
I let go of the curtain and rushed to the front door. My heart was already aching at the news I was afraid to hear.
I pulled open the door, and instead of running to him, my feet stopped working. Bronx took a step forward, his arms loose at his sides. He was staring at me as if he wasn’t sure of what he was seeing.
His lips moved, and even though I couldn’t hear him, it looked as though he’d mouthed my name. My body felt as though it was crumbling into little pieces. If I didn’t figure out how to make my feet work again, Danny would be sweeping up what was left of me with the kitchen broom.
“Gwen!” Bronx said, his voice cutting through the ringing in my ears. Hearing him say my name was enough to get my feet moving.
I moved across the front lawn so fast it felt like I was flying. Bronx’s arms were stretched out ready to catch me and when I smacked into his body, the feeling that coursed throughout my body was indescribable.
It felt like there were little sparks singeing my skin, but it also felt like safety and a warm blanket… almost like home.
Bronx cupped my face with his hands and stared into my eyes. “It’s really you.”
“Yeah,” I said, my eyes welling up with tears.
“It’s really fucking good to see you,” Bronx said with a chuckle before pulling me into his arms again.
“Yeah, you too,” I said letting myself fall away from him. My eyes shifted over his shoulder to the two people standing there watching us. “Who are they?”
Bronx ran his hand through his hair. “This your grandma’s place then?”
“Yes.”
“Can we go inside?”
I nodded and almost turned right into Danny who apparently had been standing right behind me. Danny stuck out his hand and Bronx shook it.
“How’s it going, man?” Bronx asked.
Danny sighed. “It could be better. Where’s Nick? Blair?”
Bronx looked over his shoulder and gestured at the woman and child. “We’ll talk inside.”
Chapter 3
Bronx looked around the living room as he paced back and forth. Danny stood at the window with his arms crossed, looking back and forth between the curtains and what was going on inside the living room.
I couldn’t take my eyes of the wide-eyed woman, and the child I assumed was her son.
“She wasn’t here, huh?” Bronx asked.
I shook my head as he looked up the stairs. Somehow, I knew what he was about to ask as his eyes moved around the living room. I could feel it in my stomach.
“Where’s Nick?” I said before he could ask me about Jamie. “Is he…?”
“No, he’s fine. I mean his leg is a little messed up, but he insisted we go ahead. He was worried about you. We didn’t know what happened. You guys were just gone.”
I swallowed hard. “We didn’t want to leave.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so, but Nick wondered if maybe you got mad because of what he suggested. I told him it didn’t make sense. But he said sometimes you don’t make sense because of how much you hate him.”
“I don’t hate him,” I said feeling a weird bubble at the back of my throat. It was strange to say it out loud after all this time thinking that I did.
“I was worried for a while there I was lost. Wasn’t sure I’d see any of you again,” Bronx said, his lip curling up at one end as if the thought were amusing which it most definitely was not. “So, what happened to you guys?” His eyes shot up toward the top of the staircase again. “I’m kind of afraid to ask—”
“Then don’t,” I said, and Bronx snapped his mouth closed. He stared into my eyes so hard it felt as though he was able to read my thoughts. After a long moment, he bravely opened his mouth again. “Nick’s leg is better, mostly healed, but he’s probably always going to have a limp. He can go a mile or two before it starts to bug him. Probably because he started walking before he was ready, or maybe there was some serious damage to his muscle.”
“That sounds like Nick,” I said. “Pushing himself before he was ready.”
Bronx hesitated and then leaned closer. His voice was low, but I was certain everyone could hear him. “You’re going to have to tell me sooner or later what happened.”
“Who are they?” I asked ignoring his comment. I hoped that Danny would be able to explain it and leave me out of it.
“Nina and Milo. They were running from bad guys they told us when we found them,” Bronx said, clearing his throat. “We don’t need to worry about them.”
I looked across the room, and my eyes met Danny’s. After what we’d been through, it would be hard to be trusting but based on the details we had, it sounded as if they might have been in a similar situation. Danny held my gaze long enough that I could tell he had the same thought. Perhaps Nina and Milo had managed to escape from Tom’s base, just as we had.
The boy looked up at me through his long, shaggy bangs. After a long moment of studying me, he smiled.
“We’re really sorry to intrude on you like this,” Nina said in a small mouse-like voice that matched her thin, bony frame, and her scraggly light brown, shoulder-length hair. “We’d probably be dead if it hadn’t been for your friends.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Oh, it was pretty traumatic for Milo, well okay, and me too. We had to run for our lives from some really bad men. We’re fortunate we weren’t gunned down,” Nina said as she turned and smiled at Bronx. “They saved us… took care of us.”
I flashed her a tight-lipped smile. “Who were you running from?”
Nina frowned. “Don’t know. They were trying to take us from our home.”
“I’m glad you got away from them,” I said before turning to Bronx. “Our situation was quite similar. We were taken from the gas station… led away. We were lucky to get away from the men that took us.”
Bronx nodded. He wasn’t going to ask questions at the moment, but I knew that eventually, he would.
I hadn’t noticed at first, but Bronx was carrying a backpack with a flashlight hanging off the side. “Were you guys walking last night?”
“Yeah,” Bronx said looking at his dirty shoes. “I thought I heard something and got nervous. I was worried we’d walk right past this place in the dark even with the flashlight.”
“Nick must have given you really good directions,” I said.
“He did.” Bronx smiled as if he was thinking back to the memory. “He told us if we hit a lake we’d gone too far. Otherwise, he gave us road names, things to look for, the address. He was thorough.” Bronx frowned and shook his head before meeting my eyes. “I didn’t want to leave him, but your brother can be very persuasive.”
I chuckled. “How far back are they?”
“Few days… maybe a week. It all depends on how much his leg bothers him,” Bronx said with a shrug. “Not that he really ever admits there is anything wrong with it.”
“We’ve got food, and water,” I said looking at Nina and Milo. “Can I get you anything?”
Danny looked at me as if he had no idea who I was. I offered him a shrug, but he just smiled and shook his head.
“We just had something from the pack for breakfast, but thank you,” Nina said clasping her hands tightly in her lap. “I’m sorry,” she said shaking her head, “it’s so weird being in someone else’s house.”
“Make yourself at home,” I said automatically.
I wondered if she could sense that I was simply saying the words. Maybe she
didn’t trust us any more than I would be able to trust her.
“If you’re worried, they’re unarmed,” Bronx said, and I could feel heat rising to my cheeks. “We were nervous at first too, but they’re just trying to survive like we are.”
I nodded avoiding Nina’s eyes. The air in the room seemed to drop in temperature.
“Hey, Bronx,” Danny said turning as he let out a breath. “Can I see you in the kitchen for a moment?”
“Yeah, sure man,” Bronx said.
“This way,” Danny said gesturing toward the short hallway that would take them to the kitchen.
Bronx turned to Nina and Milo and flashed them a smile. “I’ll be right back.”
“No problem,” Nina said giving him a nervous smile back.
I moved over to the hall, hoping to hear them talking. It reminded me of what I did when I wanted to hear what my mom and grandma were saying when they wanted privacy.
My grandma was usually asking my mom if she was still taking her medicine. And my mom was usually getting angry at her for asking. It always turned into an argument, but it always ended with a hug.
“They can’t stay in the house,” Danny said.
His voice had been soft, but I wasn’t sure if Nina and Milo had been able to hear him where they were sitting. They didn’t react to his words. Milo rested his head on his mom’s shoulder, and she squeezed him closer.
“They’re harmless,” Bronx said. That word again. Harmless. That was the same thing Nick had said about the women that dragged Jamie into the storm. They’d been dangerous. A loose cannon.
I stared at Nina and Milo wondering if they could be just as dangerous. They looked frightened. Uneasy. Worried.
I listened as Danny detailed what had happened to us. He reminded Bronx about the women dragging Jamie into the storm, and then he told him what had happened to Jamie.
I sharply sniffed back my tears, refusing to let them fall with Nina and Milo in the room. Bronx wasn’t saying anything.
My feet moved across the floor over to the window. I didn’t want to hear any more of whatever they were going to talk about. I didn’t want my guests to see me crumble into a pile of tears that Danny would have to mop up.
The Red Sky Series Box Set Page 32
