"What's your lucky number?" Cruz asked, shooting me a glance.
My heart was beating so fast I bordered on lightheaded, and I frowned in confusion. "Three?"
He headed for the third room on the right with me in tow. "Definitely lucky," he said, turning the handle and pushing to reveal a large office space. There was a desk with a solid front that reached down to the carpet, giving us a place to hide until the men were gone—if they came into the building to look for us in the first place.
We stepped inside, and Cruz locked the door behind us. I was about to rush over to the desk to get into position when he grabbed my elbow. "We don't need to hide, we just need to be quiet."
He pulled me beside him as he stood next to the door. I swallowed and looked up at him, wondering why he wouldn't want to stay out of sight. "Why?"
He kept his voice low as he explained. "If they go to the effort of kicking the door down, they're going to sweep the room and check under the desk, too. I don't want them between us and the exit if it comes to that. The second they come in, we start swinging."
I stared at him open-mouthed. "For future reference," I said in a heated whisper, "that's absolutelynotthe best way to keep me calm."
Cruz held my gaze for a moment, his eyes almost black in the low light. His mouth kicked up on one side and sent a rush of excitement through me. "Duly noted."
There was plenty of room for both of us in our spot beside the door. The space had to be at least a metre wide, but he stayed close, and whenever either of us moved slightly, his body brushed against mine and made me far too aware of him. We kept our weapons in hand—his hatchet, my tanto—and stood quietly in the darkness waiting to see what would happen next. I mentally pleaded for a reprieve, for the cars to bypass the building and keep going. If they found us here, it could change everything.
Perspiration trickled down the front of my shirt, and my muscles were tense and braced for action. Blood rushed in my ears. I gripped the handle of my sword, prepared to tackle whatever threats came our way. If we were forced to fight, we'd need to throw ourselves straight into it, just like Cruz had said. Take them by surprise and use every bit of strength against them.
My breaths came faster at the thought of the impending violence, but I was ready. I wouldn’t let him down.
“Easy,” he murmured in a warning tone, keeping his eyes on me.
“I’m fine,” I whispered back, wishing I had an outlet for all the adrenaline flooding my body.
“I can feel the tension coming off you,querida. You look like you’re ready to take down an entire fucking kingdom with your bare hands.Hold,” he said, like a commander directing his army of knights.
If anyone had told me I could have laughed during a moment like this, I would have thought they’d lost their mind—but here I was biting my lower lip to control myself. His eyes smiled at me in the shadowed room, and my gaze dropped to his mouth. I took in the dark whiskers surrounding his lips and lining his jaw, the slight indentation in his chin that made me want to press my fingertip there. He smelled like the scented body wash we'd both used during our separate bucket-bathing sessions in the bathroom that morning, and for one sweet, unguarded moment, I let myself focus on nothing but him.
When an engine rumbled to a stop outside the building, the connection between us abruptly ended. My stomach lurched, and I wished I had a clear view of what was going on out there so we’d know whether to brace ourselves for action.
Male voices broke the silence—three or four by my guess. The building's glass front doors had been smashed so badly that they were nothing more than metal frames, and with no other sounds to drown them out, every noise the men made seemed as if it was coming through a loudspeaker. Another car joined the original one and several doors slammed. When it sounded like they'd all exited their vehicles, I stared up at Cruz, wondering how many of them were out there. I figured there must have been around seven or eight. Far too many for us to face on our own.
He gave me a brief look, then stared off into the distance as he tuned into the activity outside.
“You see this shit?” one of them called out, presumably talking about our supplies.
They spent a minute or two discussing the items Cruz had piled up beside the car then their voices went quiet. I listened to them loading our belongings into their vehicles and tried to control my anger. It had takenmonthsfor me to build that collection. Countless hours of planning, thought, and research. Our remaining food would have lasted us two weeks—longer if we were careful. If they took everything we had out there, we'd be left with nothing but the supplies in our packs.
And it wasours,damn it.
Cruz clasped my shoulder and squeezed. He kept his hand there, rubbing his thumb back and forth to keep me focused on his touch. We both knew what would happen if the men found us. Cruz would likely end up seriously injured or dead, and since I'd only ever seen men in their crew, I’d be taken back to their base where I assumed they were keeping the women.
“You see that chick run off with the guy?” a man asked.
Their footsteps headed our way, and my stomach turned queasy with anticipation. This was it, the moment our lives would change forever.
I'd fought so many of the dead that I'd lost count, but their movements were slow, their abilities limited. Grown men were coming for us now.
“Yeah. Dunno if they came in here or next door, though,” another man answered.
“Was she young?” a different man asked, his footsteps joining the first two. He had a deeper voice than the other men. I pictured him as big and burly, and the image frightened me more. “Remember that girl I saw runnin' around here? Skinny. Brown hair? If we find her, she's mine.”
Someone laughed. "They packed the car like they were on their way out of here, Jacko. Doesn't look like you're getting a chance with her."
My stomach flipped with nerves. It had to be Jackson, the leader of their crew.
"We just took all their shit," he said. "They're not going anywhere for a while."
