“Okay! I’ll be right back!” Yolanda rushed out of the hotel, her heart pounding. Lenore followed and together they hurried to Peggy’s old office in city hall.
“Is he going to die?” Lenore asked as Yolanda flipped on the lamp on Peggy’s desk.
“I hope not, Lenore. I hope not,” she answered the frightened young woman. “You did real good getting him downstairs as fast as you did.” Pulling open a drawer, Yolanda pulled out the inventory list and scanned through the pharmaceutical section.
“I just don’t like seeing people sick. My grandma had real bad blood pressure problems. She died three days before we got rescued. She almost made it here. I just don’t want to see someone else die,” Lenore said. “Too much death around here as it is.”
“I am so sorry for your loss, hon,” Yolanda said, reaching out to clasp Lenore’s hand.
Lenore’s somber expression did not change, but she lightly squeezed Yolanda’s fingers briefly before letting go.
Yolanda returned her gaze to the inventory, her finger sliding down the list, reading quickly. “We have some! Three bottles! C’mon!”
Kate and Travis sat in the back of the room, listening as the strain and terror of the last four months spilled out of their fellow survivors. It became apparent that people were very aware of the fragility of their new existence and wanted to be assured that life would continue in safety. Making rules about their society was something that most people didn’t want to deal with—and they were increasingly unhappy about the mayor’s lateness.
Eric scurried across the room and leaned over their table. “Manny is missing.”
“What do you mean he’s missing?” Katie blinked in surprise.
Beside her, Travis straightened in his seat. “Are you sure?”
“The Vigilante?” Katie queried, but she couldn’t see how that could be the case. It didn’t make any sense.
“I don’t know, Travis. He’s not in his room and Yolanda is worried that his heart is acting up. Apparently, he has a heart problem.” Eric kept his voice low, but people were already turning in their seats.
Travis got to his feet. “I better go check on this.” Without a word, Katie rose and went with him, her fingers entwined with his. What else, she wondered, could possibly go wrong?
One look at the group gathered around Manny told her that things were rapidly going from bad to worse. The Manns stood near the couch while Peggy fussed over the mayor.
“If he dies,” Blanche asked, “who’s going to be in charge?”
“What’s wrong?” Travis asked.
“He has a bad heart,” Ken explained.
“And the bastard didn’t tell me about it,” Peggy griped. Despite her tone, her expression was stricken.
“Lenore and Yolanda went to look for his pills,” Ken continued.
Steven took a seat across from Manny, his expression one of genuine concern. “I didn’t know. He never said anything.”
Blanche sat next to her husband, on his chair’s armrest. “Well, a mayor with a bad heart is just not electable.”
“Blanche, be quiet,” Steven said sternly.
Startled, she clamped her mouth shut.
Katie leaned over to check Manny’s pulse. His skin felt clammy and cool. It took her a few seconds to find the right spot. Then she said, “He has an irregular heartbeat.”
“He’s been without his pills,” Peggy explained. “I don’t know why he didn’t tell me.”
Travis rubbed Peggy’s shoulders lightly, comforting her. “Men sometimes have problems fessing up about illness, Peggy. I’m sure it wasn’t personal.”
People were beginning to drift into the lobby to see what was going on. Katie was relieved when Bill showed up and asked people to give the mayor some room. Gently, Katie smoothed Manny’s thinning hair back from his face, fear gnawing on her nerves.
“I have it! I have it!” Yolanda pushed her way through the onlookers, brandishing a small bottle in one hand.
“Oh, thank God!” Peggy cried out.
Katie drew back and Travis joined her as Peggy and Yolanda worked together to get the pill under Manny’s tongue. Holding on to Travis’s hand, Katie prayed silently and hoped for the best. She could tell from his worried expression that Steven felt much the same; it was a side of him she hadn’t known existed. In contrast, Blanche’s gaze seemed cool.
Lenore stood beside Katie, breathing a little heavily. She looked somber and Katie patted her back lightly. “He’s a good man,” Lenore declared. “Don’t want to see a good man die.”
“He won’t die,” Peggy said crossly. “You hear that, Manny?”
3.
Haunted
After Manny, feeling better, was returned to his room under Yolanda’s watchful eye, the meeting in the dining room reconvened. Though the Vigilante and the fates of Philip and Shane were discussed, the true concern was for the mayor and the leadership of the fort.
Juan was not surprised when people called for an election. He was also not surprised by the first nomination: Blanche swiftly nominated her husband. As Calhoun circled the room, filming every moment, Juan nominated Travis. The expression on his buddy’s face was priceless, but Juan believed Travis was the right man for the job. There were no other nominations and it didn’t take long for an election date to be set.
Once that was over, Juan and the others took some pains to get out of the room and away from Calhoun and his camera. At last, they made it into the elevator with Jenni and Katie.
“You’re gonna get elected,” Juan repeated for the umpteenth time.
“You say that again and I’m going to deck you.” Travis scowled. “And thanks for nominating me. That’s just great.”
“Play nice, boys.” Katie ran a hand over Travis’s curls to soothe him.
“You’re the right man for the job,” Juan reiterated.
Travis scowled some more.
“I’m just telling the truth,” Juan said, shrugging.
“Which he obviously doesn’t want to hear,” Katie answered. Juan thought his buddy was being a big baby about the whole thing. He was amused as hell about the idea of Travis becoming mayor. Besides, giving Travis shit was alleviating the tension he felt from Jenni’s silence. Juan watched the numbers over the door light up. Just a few more floors and he could find out what was wrong with Jenni. She had been putting him off all night.
The elevator arrived at the next floor and chimed. Travis slid his arm around Katie’s waist as the doors opened.
Juan took hold of his shoulder. “You’ll win because you’re the best man for the job, Travis.”
Travis opted not to punch Juan’s lights out. “We’ll see.”
With that, the couple walked away and the elevator doors shut.
Juan smiled at Jenni, but either she didn’t see him or she was ignoring him. She stared into nothingness, her arms folded over her breasts. He loved her, but at times like this, when he could feel her emotions churning just beneath the surface of her eerily detached expression, he felt powerless and incompetent.
Tentatively, Juan reached out and touched her arm. She glanced at him. Her focus appeared to return to the here and now. She stepped closer and he slung an arm over her shoulders and tried to pull her close, but she held herself stiffly away from him. He kissed her cheek, trying to soothe her.
It didn’t work.
She continued to stare ahead.
At their floor, Jenni briskly walked out of the elevator and out of his grasp. With a sigh, Juan followed, his tired, battered fingers searching in his pocket for the room key. She stood impatiently at the door as he unlocked it. Unlike other times, when she was flirting and anxious to get him alone, she avoided looking at him and was silent. He had a feeling her lack of patience had nothing to do with sex, but something unpleasant.
When they entered the small suite, Juan glanced around for Jason. A closed door with music loudly thumping behind it let him know where the teenager was. The dog was probably in there, too.
The kid and the dog were pretty much inseparable.
“I’m going to bed,” Jenni stated.
“You don’t want to talk about whatever it is that is making you like this?” He already knew the answer, but he had to ask.
“No.”
“Why not?” He couldn’t help himself. He wanted to know what was wrong.
“It’s not important.”
“If it wasn’t important, you wouldn’t be flipping out.”
“I’m just tired.”
“You’re lying.”
“Fuck you!”
“Whoa! Where did that come from?”
“I told you it’s not important!” Jenni’s dark eyes were full of indignation.
“Then why are you acting loca, Loca?” Juan felt his temper rising. He loved her madly, but she was getting on his last nerve.
“Maybe because I am! You knew that when we got together!” Hands on her hips, her jaw set in a defiant line, she seemed to dare him to push the topic further.
He wanted answers and wasn’t about to back down. “Something happened out there. I have a right to know what is going on in that loca head of yours. I love you.”
She stared at him for a few beats of his worried heart, then simply walked out the door.
“Hey! Hey! Hey!” He rushed after her. Their room was close enough to the elevator that by the time he got into the hall, she was already getting into a car. His anger told him to follow her, confront her, make her tell him what was going on, but his love told him not to be a selfish bastard. Struggling to rein in his emotions, he stepped back into their suite.
Taking off his cowboy hat, he ran his hand over his long curls. Loca was nuts, but she wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t rush off and do anything stupid. Suddenly he knew exactly where she was going. Snatching up the phone, he dialed Katie’s room.
“Hello?” Katie’s voice said when she picked up.
“Katie, Loca just blew out of here.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was acting all weird—”
“I noticed.”
“—and was not telling me what was up—”
“She tends to do that.”
“—and I basically ordered her to tell me—”
“A very stupid move on your part.”
“—and out the door she went. I think she’s headed your way. You’re not naked and doing anything sweaty with Travis right now, are you? ’Cause Loca will need you to calm her ass down.”
“I’m not naked or doing anything sweaty with Travis. He’s actually about to head out and check on Manny.”
“Will you take care of my girl?”
“Absolutely,” Katie answered.
Hanging up, Juan closed his eyes and rubbed his eyelids. His eyes felt like salt had been poured into them. Jenni not being with him was disconcerting. He felt lost without her. The pounding music from Jason’s room did nothing to calm his nerves.
Juan sighed. Loca would be okay. He knew it. She was too tough to let anything drag her down. He just had to wait for her to come back.
It would be okay.
Katie hung up the phone and stared at it, deep in thought.
“What’s wrong?” Travis emerged from the bathroom, his face and hair a little damp. He was feeling tired, but splashing cold water on his face had him looking more alert.
“Jenni is probably on her way here. Juan says she walked out in the middle of an argument.” Katie folded her arms over her breasts. “I noticed she was quiet tonight, but I thought she was just tired.”
Travis walked over and kissed her cheek. “If anyone can help her, it’s you. It’ll be fine.”
“If she talks to me,” Katie grumbled. “She’s been evasive on a lot of stuff lately.”
“She’s haunted. You know better than most of us why—you were with her practically from the very beginning.” Travis rubbed Katie’s shoulders. “I better go before she lands on our doorstep.”
Katie’s fingers brushed over his hand and she gave him an apprehensive smile. She was naturally worried about Jenni. She remembered the near-catatonic woman in her truck on that first day. No one in the fort had ever seen Jenni that way; Katie alone knew just how fragile Jenni had been.
Travis pressed a kiss to her lips, then moved toward the door. “See you at breakfast.”
“I’ll miss you,” Katie said with a slight smile.
As Travis touched the doorknob, there was a sharp rap on the door.
“I think she’s here,” Travis said. He opened the door. Jenni stood in the hall, hands on her hips, head down, her face obscured by her hair.
“Hey, Jenni,” Travis said, and brushed past her quickly.
Katie could tell he did not want to upset Jenni any more than she already was. Another reason why she adored him so. He always was considerate of others.
Jenni stepped into the room and slammed the door behind her.
“Jenni?”
Her friend looked up, her face streaked with tears. With a small cry of despair, Jenni launched herself into Katie’s arms.
“Oh, Jenni! What is it? What’s wrong?”
“He can’t see me like this! He can’t! He doesn’t know how I used to be!”
Holding her, Katie could feel her friend trembling violently. “Jenni, what is it? What is it?” Jenni’s tears were soaking her neck and shoulder. Katie stroked Jenni’s dark hair soothingly with one hand.
For a minute or two, Jenni wept. Then she raised her head and wiped at her wet cheeks. Struggling to regain her composure, she said, “I think Lloyd is haunting me.”
About to reach for the tissues, Katie stopped in midmotion, blinked, and ran Jenni’s words through her mind a second time. They still didn’t make sense. “Huh?”
“I think Lloyd is haunting me and trying to kill me.” Jenni’s dark lashes glittered with tears and she stared at Katie defiantly. “And I’m not joking!”
Katie could see the anger, desperation, and fear in Jenni’s face. She was not about to argue with her. She had suffered her own struggles with the past and couldn’t judge her. “Why do you think that? What happened?”
In a voice that trembled with emotion, Jenni explained the events of the day. Katie listened in silence. It was obvious that the seal that Jenni kept clamped over her past had been ripped off. She was trembling and afraid. Instead of looking like her usual rough and tough self, she appeared emotionally shattered. She resembled the woman Katie had first seen standing on the front porch of her home in her pink bathrobe, watching tiny dead fingers pressed under the door.
“Juan cannot see me like this! He can’t! He loves the new Jenni, not the old one. I hate being the old Jenni! I hate it! I don’t like feeling this way! I don’t like being weak! I thought I was past this!” Jenni flung herself onto Katie’s bed in a dramatic finish.
Katie slid onto the bed and soothingly rubbed Jenni’s back. “It’s okay, Jenni. It’s okay to have a bad day. We all have them. It doesn’t mean you’re the old Jenni. It just means that something happened today that really upset you. We all struggle with reminders of what happened in those first days. When I see in the zombies the people they used to be, I struggle with the knowledge that I did not kill the thing Lydia became. Hell, I struggle with the guilt that I did not put your children and Lloyd out of their misery.”
Jenni threw a fierce look over her shoulder. “I don’t give a shit if Lloyd wanders out there forever. I hope he rots slowly and that his soul is still in his body! I hope he’s aware of every single moment of his decay. Fuck him!”
Katie smiled slightly at this tirade, which sounded more like “new” Jenni. “Okay. So if you feel that way, why let his memory—”
“His ghost,” Jenni corrected.
“Okay, his ghost. Why let his ghost upset you like this? Why let him make you weak and scared? You know that … .” Katie hesitated, then plunged on. “You know that Benji couldn’t get out of the house. It wasn’t possible for him to be there today. Lloyd and M
ikey are hundreds of miles away. Even if Lloyd’s ghost is here, he can’t hurt you.”
Jenni sat up, her dark eyes burning with raw emotion as she stared into Katie’s eyes. “He wants me to die so I will be in his power again.”
Taking Jenni’s hand gently in hers, Katie said gently, “You don’t have to let him. You have a new life here with Juan. You have Jason and Jack. You have friends. You have so much.”
“He wants to take it all away,” Jenni whispered, and fresh tears fell.
“You can’t let him, Jenni. You can’t let him have power over you from beyond death. He never valued you for who and what you really are. He never deserved you. You know that, right?”
“He said I should die and be with the boys,” Jenni finally said.
Katie heard the awful pain and guilt in Jenni’s voice. “It’s not your fault that they died.”
Jenni looked away. Katie could almost see the invisible walls sliding back up around her. Jenni couldn’t deal with her children’s deaths right now, Katie could tell. It would have to wait for another time.
“Fuck Lloyd,” Jenni said at last, straightening and turning back to face Katie. “Fuck him. I’m not going down without a fight.”
Katie kissed her cheek. “That’s my girl.”
Jenni’s lips quirked slightly upward and she raised a trembling hand to wipe away her tears. “I don’t want Juan to see me like this.”
“He doesn’t have to. Stay here tonight.” Katie hesitated a moment before saying, “He called me before. He knew you would come here.”
“I’m that predictable, huh?” Jenni giggled, her fingers playing with the tips of her hair.
“He knows we’re tight. He knows that if you’re not with him, you’re gonna be here with me. We’re kinda like Thelma and Louise.”
“Meets the zombies,” Jenni added with a soggy grin.
Katie laughed. “Yeah.”
“I’m not driving off a cliff with you,” Jenni said firmly.
Katie embraced the morbid humor that kept them from falling into the darkest of emotions. “But we can run over zombies together.”
“Totally!” Jenni lay down and tucked a pillow under her head. She stared at Katie thoughtfully, her tears finally abating. “I’m not crazy,” she said seriously. “It really is Lloyd’s ghost trying to kill me.”
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 55
