That Page wasn’t out there.
And that Hendrix had come for me.
Kane’s harsh curse behind me propelled me into action. I ripped myself from his hold and felt my willpower, my common sense and every discerning instinct flood my blood again. I was a smart girl- it’s what had kept me alive for two years.
I might not have had the genius capacity Haley did, but I possessed the kind of intelligence that kept me breathing- something equivalent to street smarts.
My alarm bells were firmly back in place. I’d let the very thing I didn’t want to happen… happen. Trust between Kane and me. The unbreakable bond that was created between us when he saved my life and I saved his, when we’d suffered through these uncertain hours of our dark hell and I faced some of my deepest, most acute fears.
A sick sensation of dread and forewarning settled in my stomach and I closed my eyes against the ferocity of feeling. My mind screamed at me with warnings of Hendrix’s safety, of my own- beyond the threat of what Feeders could do to us and into the realm of what Kane looked like as an ominous threat to our lives. My blood raced and rushed for different reasons now.
Kane stayed still as I scrambled forward and slammed my back against the hard wall. I couldn’t make out his expression clearly now that the lantern had slipped from my fingers and lay on its side on the floor, but I felt the intensity of his gaze and it only grew this new anxiety inside me.
“They came for you,” he stated matter of fact.
“I knew they would.”
He took a step forward and nodded. “My father arrives soon. He might already be here, my sense of time is off.” I shook my head in agreement and pressed my lips together. “How much do you care for my sister?”
Confused by his question, I admitted honestly, “Like she’s part of my own family.”
“And Miller?”
“Same.”
“If my father finds them he might be angry enough to kill them. At the very least he’ll take them
home with him. And it will not end well there. Do you understand? He can’t find them.”
“Are you protecting them?” I asked skeptically.
“Gage will probably be smart enough to keep them hidden. He’s an asshole, but he’s a smart asshole.”
I hoped Kane was right about that.
“But what about the Parkers? How are you going to keep them safe, Reagan?”
My throat dried up immediately and I struggled to find words to speak through the closing tightness.
“You should think about that. You should think about how you’re going to protect them.” He was so cautiously controlled and calm that I knew the monster was lurking just under his surface. This was the Kane I was afraid of. This was the Kane that was my biggest threat.
There were things I should say, warnings I should make, weapons I should find and use on this cold, frightening psychopath that was threatening me.
And he was being as careful as always. There were no exact words said or plans confessed, but I felt the immediate danger as heavily as I had the silence and the noise. The Parkers were in peril and it was because of this man.
“Reagan!” Hendrix called from the other side of the door. The sound of his voice released the vice grip on my chest and tears started to fall again, fast and wet on my cheeks. “Reagan! Open the door!” His voice broke as emotion overtook him, “
Please
, open the door!”
And I did.
He fell through it, bloody and filthy from battle. He righted himself and we stood there as everything else disappeared. Sounds of gunfire still resounded through the early morning light filtering into the dark bunker. His face was cut, his clothes ripped and covered in blood. His skin was black from dirt or death or worse.
But he was alive.
And so was I.
There was nothing else more important than that.
Chapter Two
The tears started to fall faster and harder. Hendrix’s own eyes glistened with the same kind of relief and intense gratitude that we were once again standing in the same room together. Alive.
He shook his head at me, a fierce protective expression hardening his eyes until they were angry and wild. He lunged forward, pulling me roughly- almost painfully- against his firm chest. The breath whooshed from my lungs as our bodies collided. His arms wrapped around me in a stronghold of possessiveness. I heard his empty gun drop to the floor as he freed his hands so they could press against my back and push me impossibly closer to him.
“Never…” he started on a severe growl, but I couldn’t let him say another word without confessing the most important thing I would ever say to him.
“I love you,” I blurted with a coarse, emotional voice. His body tensed further against me and I felt his confusion as it rivaled with his acceptance of hearing me say those precious words. “I love you, Hendrix. I should have let you say it before. I should have never made you wait. I just needed you to know that….”
This time it was him that cut me off. His mouth crashed against mine with the fervency that the moment demanded. He devoured me in a consuming kiss that pushed every rational and cohesive thought from my head. He tasted like sweat, dirt and metal.
And like him.
Like the man I loved.
His fingers dug under the big, flannel shirt I’d found in one of the drawers here and gripped my hips with feral possession. His body pressed into mine until I was sure that without his hands holding me in place I would tip over from his weight. His lips moved over mine, savoring me, tasting me, claiming me.
My tears mingled with the evidence that he had risked his life to get to me and I wrapped my arms around his neck, determined to never let him go. My heart ached with the tenderness and poignancy of the moment. I felt too much for him, too much for my own sanity.
I knew that I loved him. I’d made that revelation yesterday. But truthfully, even if I hadn’t, it would have been here, in this moment; in this beautiful reunion I would have given him my heart completely. He came for me and whatever depth of emotion for him that owned my soul was echoed and replicated in him. I felt his love for me in every breath he took, in every sweet kiss and primal touch. He was as lost to me as I was to him.
And for this first time in my life I knew true love. I knew what it was to love with everything I was made of, every part, piece and molecule. And I knew what it was like to be loved in that same way because it was how Hendrix loved me, how it radiated off of him and became everything everywhere in every moment.
This was what it meant to be in love.
Quarterback Chris was like an obsession with the high school boy six-pack and the social desperation for popular-crowd companionship. Plus there was the whole… he was a quarterback, I was a cheerleader thing. No wonder he’d never gotten past third base and some semi-kinky after prom action.
He just never had it in him to make me fall this deep.
Chris’s interests included making out, watching ESPN and spending way too much time trying to convince me to text him dirty pictures- obviously, before Zombies I wasn’t as savvy as I was now,
but
I did know better than that. Sexting never worked out for anyone. Ever.
At least not when eighteen year old boys were involved.
But Hendrix was so much more than hormones and the need to fit in. He was beyond anything I could have ever imagined, especially at the end of the world. And I couldn’t believe that I found him. I couldn’t believe that we found each other.
Hendrix pulled away and cupped my face with both his hands. “I love you too,” he whispered harshly against my lips. “Reagan, I love you more than all.”
“More than all?” I asked with a smile- it was just so… poetic.
I felt Hendrix’s lips smile in return and he gave me a quick kiss before he explained, “It’s what my mom used to say to my dad. I love you more than all and to the end.”
My chin trembled remembering Hendrix’s parents and their tragic story. I had these made up mental images of an older version of Page, deathly ill and in a hospital bed while a replica of Vaughan tended to her with the utmost devotion and care.
I love you more than all and to the end.
How perfect were those words.
“I like that,” I grinned, leaning up to kiss his scruffy chin.
“And I love you,” he smiled down at me.
“Alright, that’s all I can stomach,” Kane drawled and I suddenly remembered that he was in the room. Oops. “Do you mind if I just….? I’m assuming the coast is clear?”
Hendrix scowled immediately and pulled me against his body again. He did move me out of the way so Kane could walk by, but mostly I could tell he was just being possessive- which I did not mind one bit.
I smiled like an idiot against his chest and unzipped his blood-caked hoody so I could bury my face in his clean, clean-ish…. cleaner t-shirt.
Kane reached out on his way and ruffled my hair playfully. He chuckled lightly and then- because he wanted me to murder him- said, “I’m glad you took my advice, Reagan. You’re welcome Hendrix. I know she was having a little trouble saying those three special words.”
Son of a bitch.
At least he’d had the decency to put on a shirt- an identical flannel to mine.
Hendrix tensed immediately and I could almost feel the rage steaming out of his ears. I winced out of instinct and took a step back. Kane left us alone, and walked into the remains of a battle that was almost over.
Instead of Zombie groans, now human voices could be heard- Gage barking out orders, Vaughan organizing clean-up efforts, men I didn’t recognize as they worked to build a funeral pyre for the legion of dead Feeders we would burn. The sounds of humanity were like balm on my soul. I was alive.
I was safe again.
I was about to have the biggest fight with Hendrix to date.
Oh, boy.
“You talked to Kane about us?” His words were like bricks being dropped on pavement from fifty feet in the air. With each new syllable spoken my heart jumped in my chest and my breathing became shorter. “You didn’t want to say…”
“Stop,” I pleaded with him, placing my fingertips over his lips. He glowered at me, but let me talk. “Please see what Kane is trying to do. He’s just causing problems to get us to fight with each other. Hear me out first and then decide if you want to stay mad or not.” Hendrix’s eyes narrowed and I didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad sign. “Alright?”
“Alright,” he mumbled against my hand. I took a breath and then another one when I watched his shoulders relax a little.
“I was never scared to tell you that I love you. Maybe at first. And maybe I didn’t realize I did love you right away. But I do.”
“Reagan, I know you love me. I never doubted that you would say it to me.”
Yeesh! Arrogant boy.
“Oh,” I said, feeling like my argument was taken away from me.
Hendrix relaxed a little more and pulled me back against him. He rested his chin on the top of my head and I felt each of his vibrations as he talked. “Why did you tell Kane first though? Why did he get to hear how you felt about me before I did?”
I pressed my lips together in order to suppress a smile. “Hendrix how long was I trapped in here?”
“Fifteen hours,” he winced.
“That’s a lot of time to fill,” I admitted.
“What does that mean?” he demanded, hugging me tighter.
“It means, we…. talked. We talked about a lot of things. And yes, I told him I loved you, but it wasn’t because I was afraid to tell you. More like, he was here and I needed to talk to
someone
. And I probably had a little case of overshare going on… but it was dark, and I was scared. Again, he just happened to be here. If I had been trapped with anyone else, I would have done the same thing.”
“Not anyone else,” he murmured with his lips brushing against my temple.
“Oh, yeah?”
“I’m pretty sure I would have found other ways to occupy fifteen hours of time in a sealed off bunker with a bed.”
My heart thudded in my chest and my stomach flip-flopped. I gulped. “So you wouldn’t have tried to psychoanalyze me for hours on end?”
He chuckled in my ear. “No. Your
mental
stamina would have been the last thing on my mind.”
“You’re such a dirty boy,” I teased.
“You have no idea.”
I probably forgot to breathe just then.
“You’re making me nervous,” I whispered against his collar bone.
He let out a growl of desire and nibbled on my earlobe just to drive me absolutely crazy. I jerked from the sensual feel and leaned into him so that I couldn’t feel anything but him.
He eventually pulled back and grinned down at me, full of smug knowledge of just exactly how much he affected me. His eyes stayed hooded though and dark with his own desire.
But still he asked, “What advice did Kane give you?”
“He didn’t exactly give me advice. He just reminded me how dangerous this world is. It wasn’t anything I didn’t already know. But he said you would be beating yourself up because I talked you into waiting to tell me that you loved me and then I disappeared and could have been dead.” And standing here with Hendrix, his arms wrapped around me, his need for me radiating off him and his body covered in blood from the effort to get to me…. I knew Kane had been right. And I had been an idiot to act so high maintenance.