She cared about me—no doubt more than she’d expected to after the way we started. The thought of being needed by someone for the first time in so long made my stomach clench. “I won’t.”
Fuck it.I couldn’t walk away from her without showing her at least a glimpse of what she meant to me.
“Let’s go,” Laura ordered, striding across the foyer with Tim.
We hadn’t even talked tactics yet, and the woman was ready to bust some heads.
“Two more seconds,” I called back.
With the hammer gripped in one hand, I clasped Sadie’s chin and touched my lips to hers.
Her mouth gave way beneath mine, and a long breath left me. Her lips were soft and warm, her body swaying toward me as if out of her control. If we’d had more time, I would have taken it deeper, slower. Kissed her again and again. But I made myself pull back a fraction, then murmured against her lips, “We’ll talk about this later.”
The door rattled with another attack, and she flinched, forcing a small smile. “Make sure you’re alive to keep that promise.”
Twenty-Two
sadie
With the memory of Theo’s kiss still fresh on my lips, I rapped my knuckles on the glass and grabbed the rotting man’s attention. His torn cheek smacked into the door and dragged across the surface, revealing a tiny scrap of fabric caught in his tooth.
Bile crawled up my throat, but I made myself keep looking. This used to be a person. Someone’s son. The glint of gold on his ring finger caught my attention, and I swallowed. Someone’s husband.
I stood in the centre of the entrance doors, with Owen covering the left side and Varesh monitoring the right. Our reflections stared back at us from the patches we’d cleared in the glass, mine superimposed with the infected man’s image.
Owen had sent the girls back up to their apartment for this part. They’d begged to stick around and watch, but it was a relief seeing them trudge up the stairs out of harm’s way.
“Can you see anyone yet?” I asked, my vision obscured by the man.
“Tim’s just appeared.” Varesh adjusted his glasses, sparing me a glance. “Coming around wide.”
“What about Laura and Theo?”
The infected man threw his shoulder into the glass.Hard. My heart leapt into my throat, and I jumped back, the air reeking of death as I found my balance again.
“Coming into view now.” Owen lifted his brows. “You good?”
I nodded sharply and moved to the side, watching the men flanking Laura. With her brow pinched in concentration and the maul steady at her side, she looked focused and ready.
Less than a dozen steps from the entrance.
A queasy feeling stirred in my gut, and I tapped the window, avoiding the cloudy eyes staring back at me. The man’s blood would be splattered all over the glass in under a minute.
“Here we go,” Owen murmured. “Come on, honey.”
The danger suddenly hit home. The mother of his children was out there risking her life with Theo and Tim.
What if one of them didn’t make it back inside?
Theo’s eyes flicked to mine as he stepped onto the footpath, jaw locked in place. My stomach tightened, and I begged for our first kiss not to be our last.
I couldn’t even fathom life without him now, not when my sister’s absence still weighed so heavily on me. I wanted to run outside. Stay close and make sure he didn’t get hurt.
I froze mid-frown, and my thoughts slowed as something moved behind the wheelie bins again. My mouth parted, and the world around me narrowed to a single, terrifying space. A shadow rose in slow motion, stilted and drenched in blood. The image slammed into me, and my pulse shot into overdrive.
No. No.
A dead woman straightened to her full height, her dark hair plastered to her cheek, and her neck torn open from ear toshoulder. She twisted her head from side-to-side, working her jaw as she shuffled around the bins and headed for the road.
