AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He closes his eyes, and I imagine he’s picturing the gruesome scene in his mind during the moment he takes, before he gives me a nod.
“So, someone approached the town at night and dragged everyone out of bed,” I say, keeping my voice soft.
“Fuck.” Javier’s voice reaches us from the top of the stairs before we hear him hurry down the hallway, doors swung open as he goes. “Fuck. Fuck. Motherfuckers.”
Adams and I keep our guns at the ready while we hear him come back toward the stairway.
“Found some of the women,” he mutters as he brushes past us. The look on his face telling us everything we need to know. “We need to fucking figure out where these motherfuckers are heading.”
“On it,” Adams says, nodding to me before following Javier out.
I wasn’t raised particularly religious, but I pause and throw up a prayer at the thought of the women upstairs. And for the men and children massacred on the high school’s football field.
As I follow Javier and Adams out of the house, I realize it wasn’t so much a prayer as a promise to exact revenge if the opportunity crosses my path.
Maybe that makes me an Old Testament kind of man, but I’m willing to bet my soul that those that were dragged from their beds and died here, would put in a good word for me.
Chapter 5
Eddie - December
I’ll never tire of watching my daughter sleep. The more time we’ve had together, the less I’ve cared if she is actually my biological child. I just know she’s mine to love, protect, and raise.
I met her mom less than a year beforelights out, and while I enjoyed hooking up with her, I never gave her much thought during daylight hours. She could generally be found at whatever bar our motorcycle club turned up at.
Her end goal in life was to lock down a member of the MC I was patched with and when I didn’t show much interest after a month or so, she drifted away—until she realized she was pregnant and she insisted that I was the only possible father. We were never exclusive and I never cared enough to check up on who else she was sleeping with.
In the world before, a simple test would have answered the question of Sara’s paternity within hours of her birth, but the world has changed a lot over the past six months. Once Sara’s mom announced she was pregnant, none of the guys would ever admit to banging her.
What made me so angry before the solar flare no longer bothers me. Not when I know that this perfect little girl would probably have died without me. Even during the nights I thought we would die together, I knew she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
In my arms.
That Sara’s mom died giving birth to her, tears my gut up every time I think about Shelby being pregnant.
I’ve grudgingly come to like Aiden; the way he treats Shelby is night and day from how Jace did, so that alone makes me think she’s with the right man for her. Even if it isn’t me.
I’ve always been a day late and a dollar short when it comes to having a shot with that woman.
Sara lets out a weird grunt and stretches out her arms before I hear her fart. I grin the second I realize that she’s fine and lean back on my bed.
The news today of a nurse that could be here for Shelby was a huge relief for all of us; but especially me, as I know Elsbeth and Julia are completely winging it when it comes to Sara’s development.
Lifting my hands up, I start to sign the thoughts that are floating through my mind. Knowing I need to knock the dust off the only other language I know, before Dale makes it back up the mountain. Hopefully with the nurse in tow.
*
“That’s it?” Aiden asks in disbelief. “Really?”
“Unless you feel any desire to start building a fence along the parts of the property that run along ravines, cliffs, or mountain walls?” Mike’s trying to tap down on the smile that’s tugging on his mouth and keep a serious face, but it’s obvious he’s as excited as the rest of us.
The others have been working on the fence line since before I arrived, but the work has always seemed endless, so even my chest swells up with pride that we completed the task that Mike had planned out.
“The snow will help deter people from coming up this way,” Mike says after we all exchange grins, instead of pats on the back. “But it’s another reason why we have to work with Lee. We don’t know if there’ll be people coming over The Pass in the spring, as impossible as that might seem, you never know what people will do when they’re desperate enough. Therefore, I can’t count on the natural barriers between our land and the national forest to be enough and, at the end of the day, I do respect him enough to want him to be safe up there. Cantankerous old asshat that he is.”
I can’t help the laugh that wells out of me at that last statement. I’d only met Mike a couple times before making my way out here afterlights out, but I’ve never heard him say anything negative about anyone before. Which is impressive, considering that Jace used to be his son-in-law and is currently living under his roof with the rest of us.
Aiden’s smile has spread across his face, but he manages to smother his own laughter. Since Mike turned his narrowed eyes my way, I decide to go all in, disregarding Shelby’s advice not to bring it up and ask him what we’ve all been wondering.
