by Joss Ware
“Maybe he could at least look at the DVD player. The one that’s broken? He might be able to fix it?”
“Maybe,” she said. Selena didn’t acknowledge Theo any further except to give him a warning glare as she started out of the room. The other boy whose name Theo was certain began with a T started after her, but Sam didn’t. He caught Theo’s eyes and positioned himself in front of him—not overtly threatening, but just enough that it was clear he meant to talk to him.
Theo had to give the kid credit. A lot of it. Despite the fact that Sam was a bit taller than he was, he was more slender and certainly not as solid as Theo.
“Look”—Sam said in a voice that sounded just a little breathless. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure his mom was gone—“I don’t know what’s going on with you. Last night you were all over Jennifer, and now you’re . . . uh . . . well, if you’re messing with my mom, well, I’m not going to be too happy about that.” His Adam’s apple bobbed a bit too much and Theo saw him folding his arms together over his chest as if to keep himself steady.
Theo nodded and held the young man’s eyes. Figuring honesty—without a lot of unnecessary details—was best, he kept his face serious and said, “I can see how you’d be upset. But I’m not into Jennifer, okay? That wasn’t gonna work. As for your mom . . . well, she’s pretty amazing” —he barely caught himself from saying hot— “and I’m not sure what’s going to happen. But I promise you that whatever happens, I’ll treat her with care and respect. Okay?”
Sam’s nervousness seemed to have eased a bit, but he wasn’t ready to give in. “You’re not from around here, and you’re not staying. I don’t want you getting her all happy or relying on you, and then up and leaving one day. You know?”
Theo blinked. Yeah. I’m not from here. But at the same time, the thought of leaving, even only after four days (which somehow seemed like a lifetime), was foreign and unpleasant. “I’m not planning on leaving any time soon, Sam,” he said. “Like it or not. And as I said, your mom is an amazing” —smart, sexy, fascinating, strong— “woman and I always treat women with respect.”
Sam was still looking at him, his head inclined slightly, and at last he gave a short nod of acknowledgment. “All right.” Then he glanced around furtively, and looked back at Theo. “And I’d really like to learn about these things,” he said, gesturing to the room. “Will you show me?”
Theo opened his mouth to agree, then stopped. Selena understood the same danger Frank had mentioned, but that was precisely the reason for the Resistance that he and Lou were building. Technology was powerful, and that was why the Elite wanted to suppress any knowledge or use of it. But until he had a chance to talk to Selena, he’d better resist the knee-jerk reaction to circumvent her wishes. “I’ll talk to your mom,” was all he said. “Now, let’s go find something to eat.”
The meal, though delicious, was excruciating.
Selena avoided his eyes so studiously that Theo figured she’d gone back to the whole ridiculous “I don’t want pity kisses” stance, which annoyed him no little bit and made his disappointment at their interruption even more acute. Sam’s attention shifted back and forth between them as if waiting for any sign of misbehavior. Vonnie, on the other hand, seemed to be watching both of them with barely concealed amusement. Frank couldn’t hear (or, more likely, pretended he couldn’t), so everything spoken at the table had to be shouted the first time if they didn’t want to have to repeat themselves.
And to top it all off, somehow Jennifer had arrived just in time for lunch, and although Theo barely managed to keep from sitting next to her, she’d positioned herself across the table from him. Between the long, hot looks she sent Theo, the constant references to last night’s horsemanship and the bang ink on his arm—not to mention the fact that Sam was hardly able to keep his eyes from straying to the way Jen filled out her tight white tank top—Theo felt as if he were in the midst of an episode of some family sitcom.
It didn’t help that he could hardly keep his own attention from Selena, especially now that he knew how she tasted, smelled, and felt all loose and aroused.
Sure, Jen was younger, very attractive, and certainly more overtly interested than Selena—plus she didn’t have a teenaged son—but Theo had no desire in picking up anything with her. It was Selena who’d captured his attention. She was easy to talk to, she was quick-witted, and she was a person who spent her life trying to make a difference in the world—besides trying to get herself killed hunting zombies. But even then, she was trying to make a difference in this fucked-up place. Just as he was.
He definitely intended to pick things up where they’d left off. And the one time he managed to catch her eye during the meal, he made his intentions blatantly clear. Her cheeks flushed and she turned away.
As he’d been trained by his mother, Theo helped clear the dishes after lunch, stacking them by size and type. Even though it had been a long time since he’d been in a kitchen and served a meal like this, old habits—and training—died hard.
But he kept his eye on Selena, who also made trips to the sink from the cozy round table in a space that was much too big to be called a breakfast nook; and the minute she headed for the door, he followed. Just outside the kitchen, she turned down a hall toward the back of the house.
“Hey,” he said, managing to snag her arm.
Selena looked up at him, lips slightly parted, cheeks flushing, and her thick hair a wild mess over her shoulders. It took everything he had not to pull her up against him for a kiss. Instead, he merely said, “That was disappointing.”
“It was?” she replied, a little smile playing over her lips. “I was thinking I got the good end of the deal.”
Ah. Relief swarmed him. She wasn’t going back to the pity-kisses game. “Not quite as good as I’d intended.” He let his smile fill with promise. “I was thinking we might want to pick up where we left off. Very soon.”
Her lips curved more, sending a shot of lust down through him. “That sounds like a really good idea. Maybe somewhere a little more comfortable?”
He moved then, with a quick glance to make certain no one had followed them, and eased her up against the wall, hands on her slender shoulders. “And a little more private.” He slid into her space, covering her lips with his . . . not in a raucous, lust-inducing kiss, but one of promise and anticipation. “My place isn’t very private,” he murmured against her mouth.
“Mine is,” she said, pressing her hips against his.
“I accept,” he said, slipping his tongue in to tangle with hers. “Tonight, then.”
“Mm . . . hmmm. . . . tonight,” she murmured, her hands resting on his chest, her breasts pressing into him. Then she pulled away. “No, wait . . . not tonight,” she said.
“What?” He pulled back now, too, but kept his hand playing with the ends of her hair. “Why not? After the kid’s in bed—”
“No, no, not tonight,” she repeated. Her face had changed from the soft, desire-filled one to something else. Something . . . reserved. Taut. Then she smiled again. “I don’t want to wait that long.”
Oh, really? Much as he liked that thought—and agreed with it—Theo wasn’t born yesterday. Definitely not yesterday. “Then when?”
“After dinner. Follow my cue,” she said, and her hands moved over his shoulders, back up into the hair at the nape of his neck and she pulled him down for a long, thorough kiss.
When she pulled away, Theo was breathing heavily and was trying to remember exactly why he couldn’t drag her into a deserted corner right this damn minute.
“Until then . . .” she said, easing away. Promise burned in her eyes.
“I’ll try to manage,” he replied jokingly. “But after that . . .”
She smiled hotter. “Just wait. We older women . . . we’re worth the wait.” And with that sultry curve to her lips, she slipped away.
Holy shit.
Theo turned and went back out, in the opposite direction, and nearly ran into Je
nnifer.
“Hey,” he said, trying to unclog his brain. And for the life of him, he couldn’t think of anything to say that couldn’t be interpreted as interest in her.
But Jen was looking at him, her eyes narrowed and a shocked expression on her face. “You and Selena?” she said, disbelief rising in her voice. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Do you know how old she is? Way too old for you.”
Fleeting thoughts about scorned women zipped through his mind and Theo forced a smile. “Believe it or not, I’m a lot older than I look.”
Jennifer looked at him, her lips flattened in disdain. “She’s old enough to be your mother. That’s just . . . busted. Totally rank.”
“Uh . . . well,” Theo said, struggling valiantly to find something to say that couldn’t be construed as offensive to said scorned woman.
“And what about last night?” she demanded. “You were all over me!” Her arms crossed under her breasts, lifting and jolting them, which did nothing to help the situation because his gaze dropped there automatically. Because he was a guy. Shit. He shifted his eyes away.
Theo’s brain just wouldn’t work and he couldn’t think of anything to say except, “I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression last night.” He forbore to point out that she had hung on him; she had thrown herself into his arms; and yeah, he’d kissed her . . . but only after she’d blatantly offered.
“Whatever,” Jennifer said, and spun around. She flounced away, her sun-streaked hair bouncing with annoyance.
Theo let out a sigh of relief. At least now she knew there was nothing on his end.
Now all he had to do was wait until after dinner to get his hands back on Selena.
And in the meantime, figure out what the hell she was planning tonight.
Lou adjusted the weight of his pack and gave one last glance behind him.
He could barely make out the tops of the buildings that remained on the Las Vegas Strip—or as it had been in 2010. From where he stood, in a sludgy puddle of water between two tall vacant buildings, two miles behind him, he caught sight of the rooftop of New York-New York. The bastion of civilization in this world.
I must be fucking crazy.
Lou looked back at New York-New York, where, far beneath the towers, Sage was likely just settling into place at one of the banks of computers. She wouldn’t realize he was gone until lunchtime . . . or later.
Yep. I’ve crossed the line. Definitely crazy.
He lifted his burning torch and a rat slinked into the shadows. The walls of Envy, built from old cars, billboards, semi-trailers, airplane wings, and whatever large pieces of rubble they could find, had been constructed fifty years ago to protect the residents from gangas and wild animals. Now they loomed above him as Lou started through the intricate secret tunnel through cars, culverts, and boxcars that led to the outside.
Moments later, he stood on the grass on the other side and snuffed his torch. He placed it against the wall next to one of the broken lights from a Bellagio billboard. It would be there on his return.
If he returned.
I’ll return. I haven’t lived this long by being stupid.
He wasn’t even certain of the last time he was outside the walls. And that was part of what had prompted him to leave now. Theo needed his help. He had to be sitting on a fucking gold mine of information about the Cult of Atlantis—not to mention other goodies that might be found at Brad Blizek’s—and while Theo was a hell of a gearhead, Lou was the better hacker. And . . . he was tired of being confined, of being treated like a decrepit old man. He was old, but he wasn’t by any stretch decrepit.
Besides all that, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—believe that Brad Blizek had been in the Cult of Atlantis.
He was fully aware of the dangers. A little more than a month ago, Vaughn Rogan, the mayor of Envy and Lou’s friend, had nearly died from a lion attack. For, not only did zombies lurk, but tigers, lions, wolves, feral cats, and even elephants lived in the former Nevadan desert. Now the terrain was lush and green, overgrown and practically tropical at times.
Part of the shift of the earth after all of the cataclysmic events.
“You’re a long damn way from your gadgets, old man.”
Lou nearly shot into the air. He whirled to see Zoë emerging from behind a crushed and overturned mail truck. The red-and-blue insignia was faded to gray.
“What the fuck?” he demanded, a hand clapped to his chest. It was going to be hours before he settled his seventy-eight-year-old heart. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
She had her quiver of arrows slung over a slender shoulder, and her short dark hair was winging every which way. Her look was withering. “If you didn’t hear me, then that’s even more damn cause for worry. I made enough fucking noise to bring the zombies out of their day sleep. How the hell do you think you’re going to get where-the-fuck-ever you’re going without getting ambushed?”
He stood up straighter and adjusted his pack. “No one’s going to ambush me but you. I’ve been living in this crazy world longer than you have. I’ve taken precautions.” He looked into the distance, into the direction he sensed that Theo was. “I’m traveling during the day and holing up at night where the zombies can’t get me. I’m going to be just fine.”
“Let me guess. You didn’t tell anyone, that’s why you had to sneak out the back-ass secret entrance.”
“They would’ve argued with me. Don’t even think about trying to stop me.” He glared.
Zoë smiled and leaned back against a tree. “You obviously don’t know me well enough, Lou. I’d be the last damned person to try and stop you. Even Quent knows better than to try and keep me penned up behind those fucking walls.”
Lou relaxed. “Good. That way I won’t have to hurt you.”
Their eyes met and they both laughed. Zoë was a crusty wench, but he liked her. It was hard not to, once you saw through her facade.
“You going after Theo?” she asked.
“Yep. He found some things I need to see. Computers and other stuff.”
“How the hell you going to find him?”
He shrugged. “It’s this twin thing. I can sort of sense him . . . I’m just going to follow that. I’m taking one of the Humvees.”
“They’re going to have a fucking zombie cow back there, you know.”
“Half of Envy already thinks I’m crazy.” His talk of the Strangers and their desire to control the remains of the human race, not to mention the abductions and massacres related to the zombies, had long been dismissed as the ravings of a senile old man.
“That’s a damn true statement,” Zoë said. “Fucking good thing we know you aren’t.”
“True.” Since no one paid attention to him, that made it easier for them to build the secret Resistance.
“Well, I’d go with you, but you’d just slow me the hell down,” Zoë told him, but there was worry in her eyes. “Remember to keep your hair covered, old man. Those ass-crap zombies like blondes.”
Lou chuckled. “Silver is a far cry from blond, but they sure as hell can’t tell the difference. Tell Sage I’ll be all right. She likes to worry.”
“She’s not the only one,” Zoë grumbled, glancing back toward Envy. “Quent is going to be one volcanic pimple on my ass.” She frowned, frustration emanating from her.
“You mean he isn’t already?” The arguments between Zoë and Quent had become legendary for their vociferousness, volume, and frequency. Of course, everyone knew that those battles were most often followed by very exuberant make-ups in their room afterward. And sometimes in the stairwells, as Lou knew from personal experience.
He was still trying to decide if he was embarrassed or delighted by that bit of a free show.
Zoë’s face darkened. “Hell, yeah. He couldn’t be a bigger pain, always trying to butt in on my hunts, telling me how to do it. Him and that fancy-ass bomb of his. But it’s going to get worse.” She flattened her lips, considering. “Hell, I might have four months . .
. if I find something loose to wear, dammit.”
It dawned. “You’re pregnant?” Then he started chuckling. The very thought . . . it was amusing and horrifying all at once.
“Shhhh!” she snapped, as if the trees could hear. “Don’t say it so loud or he’ll be locking me up tomorrow. It’ll be the last damn time he lets me out on my own.” She’d planted her hands on her hips. “Maybe I should go with you . . . I could come back after this is all the hell over. Then I wouldn’t have him breathing down my damn neck all the fucking time.”
Lou was laughing out loud now. Zoë, with a baby? He could only imagine. She’d probably strap the poor thing on her chest in a little pouch and take it hunting for zombies. “I don’t think so. I take it he doesn’t know?”
Her almond-shaped eyes grew wide. “What the hell? Do you think I’m fucking crazy? The minute he finds out, I won’t see a damn arrow for nine months. Or longer.” She moaned. “He’s going to go flipping crazy on me.”
“You—uh—don’t seem too happy about it,” Lou ventured.
“Well, yeah. It’s kind of unexpected, for fuck’s sake.”
His heart sank a little. He and Elsie . . . they’d been on their way to being parents, but everything went wrong when she tried to deliver. It was more than forty-nine years ago, but he still mourned them both. If he’d just had one of them . . .
“I mean, what the hell am I going to do—as a mom? I don’t know shit about nurturing and all that crap. But I think Quent . . . he’s going to be a hella good daddy,” Zoë said. And the smile on her face was just soft enough, just sheepish enough, to let him know that she was going to be okay with it. Once she got used to the idea.
“Congratulations,” Lou said. “And . . . stick near Envy. In case anything goes wrong. So Elliott can take care of things.”
Zoë huffed an exasperated puff of air up into her bangs. “Don’t you get started on me too. You’ve got places to go. What the hell are you waiting for?”
Lou saluted her and adjusted his pack. “Nothing.”
When he got back to the arcade late in the afternoon, Theo logged into his email to check on Lou’s reaction to what he’d learned about Brad Blizek and found three new messages. All from Sage. None from Lou.
