Page 60 of Bound in Ashes

The kind I’d only seen seconds before someone died.

I slid in quickly, looking at him.

He was going to fight me, but I begged with my eyes.

Tried to tell him that Christopher would open up to me if we were alone.

The set of his body was rigid, his jaw clenched.

I put my hand against his chest, his heart beat strong under my palm.

We had an audience, but Jack didn’t care, and I couldn’t afford to.

The seconds slid by, his jaw ticking with the time.

He relented. “Fifteen minutes. Not a second more.”

He looked absolutely murderous, but I moved before he changed his mind, Christopher in tow.

Felt his gaze at my back boring into my back, feeling the possession in it even as I tried to focus on savaging.

The search was remarkably fruitful.

I found canned goods, and even treats, some clothes and shoes that would work for Miles, along with some graphic novels and a handheld video game and portable charger.

I also stuck a tube of lipstick in my pocket, excited for Bridget’s reaction when I gave it to her.

In less than a quarter of an hour, we had picked the subdivision clean.

And then all hell broke loose.

Jack

Focus.

I whispered the word in my brain and felt myself snapping to attention.

I shouldn’t have let her go.

Focus, asshole!

I thought I was.

But, like always, she was there in the back of my head.

I had a weapon in one hand, my eyes trained forward as I searched another house. Familiar.

Light work.

Zombies didn’t really change things all that much.

But she did.

I turned a corner, doing a quick sweep. Grabbed a half-empty box of nine millimeter shells. Threw two cans of green beans in a bag.

She should have stayed back at the farm.

I should have made her.