“Now what?”
I studied the blockage and tried to contain my annoyance. It would take forever to clear the stairwell, and who knew what we would find on the other side? “We could go through an apartment and hop down to the fire escape,” I suggested.
Emery looked at the apartment doors. “Would it be this one?”
“Let’s find out.” I went to the door and tried to turn the knob. To my surprise, it was unlocked. I pushed the door open, but the security chain stopped it. “Hello? I called through the crack in the door. We need to access the fire escape. We aren’t here to hurt you.”
“Maybe they went out the fire escape, too?” Emery asked.
“Could have. Back up, I’m going to kick it in.” We both stepped back, and just as I prepared to kick the door in, Emery stopped me.
“Wait! Look!”
Dead fingers curled around the door seconds before we heard the telltale sounds of a zombie. Well, that answered that question. The zombie’s whole arm squeezed through the crack in the door as its face and gnashing teeth appeared.
“Do you think there could be more than one in there? Maybe we should try the stairs?” I asked.
The ruckus the zombie was making echoed through the silent building, but it didn’t stay quiet for long as zombies past the barricade answered its call.
“There’s no telling how many zombies might be down those stairs,” Emery replied. We both looked at the stairwell in alarm when we heard some of the furniture moving around.
“Right, apartment it is. You ready for this?”
Emery raised her bat over her shoulder and nodded. With one swift kick, the door exploded open, knocking the zombie to the ground. Emery darted inside and planted her bat into its head before it could get back up. I quickly closed the door behind us, and then we both paused and held our breath as we waited for more zombies to attack.
“Looks like it was just this one,” I finally said.
“We should look for anything useful to take with us before we leave,” Emery replied, already heading toward the kitchen. I searched the bedroom and the closets and found rope and a couple of bags to carry our treasures in. While I packed up the non-perishable food Emery had collected, she packed the other bag with blankets and clothes we might need. Once we were ready to go, I opened the window above the fire escape and looked down. By my estimation, it was about a ten-foot drop. It could be worse, like a small platform to land on. We lucked out with this fire escape.
“Ok, I’ll jump down first, then you can toss the bags to me and jump.”
“Do you want to use the rope you found?”
I shook my head. “Not necessary.” I climbed onto the windowsill and glanced back at Emery. “Geronimo,” I said with a wink before pushing away from the window. The metal grate of the platform came flying toward me far faster than I expected, and I landed hard, the momentum nearly taking me over the railing. I gripped it tightly as I regained my balance and prayedthe force didn’t pull the rest of the escape from the building. When I didn’t plummet to my death, I turned back to Emery, looking at me from the window above with worry. “See, easy.”
She rolled her eyes at me, a move that made my palm itch to turn her ass red, and tossed the first bag to me. I threw it down the stairs to get it out of the way and did the same with the second one. Now it was Emery’s turn to jump from the window, and I could see the nervousness she was trying to hide in her eyes as she chewed on her lip.
“I’ve got you, Em,” I assured her.
“You better,” she replied.
I was going to suggest we count to three when she closed her eyes and pushed away from the window. I braced myself and caught her easily, holding her tightly in my arms. I didn’t release her right away as our eyes met. I felt her breath quicken and her heart racing against my chest. What the hell, it’s the end of the world, why should I hold back? I dipped my head to press my lips against hers tentatively. I wanted to give her the choice to pull away or participate. When her hands fisted in my shirt, I took it as a sign to deepen the kiss, teasing the seam of her lips with my tongue to request access.
Her lips parted, and I tasted her for the first time as I dipped my tongue inside to tangle with hers. I pulled Emery tighter against me, hiking one of her legs around my hip to press my hardening cock against her. Emery stiffened, as if she suddenly remembered where we were and who I was, and broke the kiss. She was panting slightly as she pushed me away and raised her hand to slap me.
I caught her wrist before she could and brought her hand to my lips to nip her palm. “Be mad all you want, Princess, but you aren’t going to strike me. You should ask yourself what you’re more mad about: the fact that I kissed you or that you liked it and kissed me back.”
Emery scowled at me as I heard a familiar whistle and looked down to see our entire group watching us from below. I chuckled when I saw how angry Justin was. Good. Now he knew that Emery wasn’t his, because whether she knew it or not, Emery belonged to us.
She always had.
Chapter ten
Emery
Seeing everyone below us, clearly having witnessed the kiss between me and Nico, had me flustered. I wasn’t going to admit that the kiss itself had me flustered. I pulled my wrist free from his hand, my palm still stinging from where he’d nipped me. I headed down the fire escape, grabbing one of the bags on my way. I hadn’t expected Nico to kiss me, and I certainly hadn’t expected to like it. Nico’s words tumbled around in my reeling brain as I made my way down. Was I mad that he’d kissed me, or that I’d liked it? Nico, Luis, and Miguel were supposed to be the enemy, but I didn’t see them like that anymore.
I’m not sure exactly when that changed, but fighting for our lives together had softened my opinion of them. My change in feelings explained the panic I felt seeing Nico trapped on the pigeon coop. I couldn’t bear to watch him die and acted without thinking about what I was doing. Not that I’d ever admit it to Nico, but running across that ladder like that had been risky. Thankfully, I survived, but it was a close call.
