Instead of nodding like I originally intended, I surprised myself by shaking my head.
The corner of his mouth kicked up. “I don’t want you to go either.”
He rose and lifted the edge of the blanket, encouraging me to lie down again. Without a word of protest, I resumed my previous position and let him tuck me in.
“If you’re staying overnight,” he said, “I’ll take the couch from now on. Do you want to try eating more now or later?”
He’d spoon-feed me if necessary. There were no limits with this man.
“Later.” I reached around him and grabbed the remote from the coffee table. “I want to catch up on the news. You haven’t said a word about the virus, or anything else that’s happened in the building. I’m finding the silence suspicious.”
Theo took the remote off me and wandered to the other end of the couch, lifting my ankles as he sank down onto the cushion. “I didn’t want to dump everything on you the second you opened your eyes.” He rested my feet in his lap and turned on the TV, wrapping his hand around my foot. “Seemed like enough just bringing you up to date on your sister.”
“I can handle more. Did you find anything good in the empty apartments?”
He slid me a sidelong glance and pressed his thumb into my arch. I gasped, and a small smile played on his lips. “We haven't been through them yet,” he said. “It slipped by the wayside with everything else going on.”
“Why don’t you tell me what’s been happening?”
He started off with Dustin, carefully explaining the surveillance and stolen underwear, as if he didn’t want to upset me. My blood chilled, and my eyes darted around the room, searching for more hidden cameras even after he’d assured me we were safe.
When he mentioned the articles about missing or murdered women taped on Dustin’s bedroom wall, I shuddered and remembered all the times I’d gone up to the rooftop only to have him appear minutes later.
He’d been watching me. Waiting for me to leave my apartment.
“Who knows what could have happened if you hadn’t got hold of the keys,” I said.
Theo regarded me, his expression serious. “We still don’t know what he’s capable of. We only found out what he’s done, not what he’s planning.”
A shiver stole down my spine. What if he tried something? I was in no condition to defend myself. “Where is he?”
“Still here. He’s been told not to come upstairs—and the others have broken his door, so he can’t lock us out anymore.”
“That’s something. He deserves so much more.”
Theo stared at the TV, lost somewhere in his thoughts. “We’re working on it.”
“What else don’t I know?”
“Ultimus symptoms are changing again,” he said quietly. “Rage is the latest one. The rioting you saw before you got sick reached other areas. Not just here, but all over the world.”
I closed my eyes and digested the information, remembering how calm Brynn had been just before she died. That was less than a week ago. My pulse thundered, and a strange feeling swirled in the pit of my stomach.
“Look.” Theo squeezed my foot and nodded at the TV.
I opened my eyes just as anotherBreaking Newsbanner stretched across the bottom of the screen, the anchor crossing to a man in full PPE standing outside the newly established Australian CDC in Canberra. The reporter spoke in a solemn tone as he dropped one bomb after another.
Infection rates skyrocketing. Incubation period shortening to what amounted to half a day. Symptoms so ferocious they could take victims within hours.
“Did I just scrape through before it took a turn?” I asked, my chest suddenly tight.
“Try not to think about it.”
Theo’s foot massage did little to take the edge off my tension. The report switched to infection rates from around the world, but the virus was moving too fast to accurately track numbers.
The relief of knowing Ava was almost back on home soil hit me, followed by the realisation that she’d have to dodge riots and more and more sick people on her way south.
Another thought occurred to me, and my gaze snapped in Theo’s direction. “What about the roadblocks? Are they still in place?”
