He wondered about Cade. Had he fared any better? He had been shot and went down about the same time Blade had been hit himself.
Was Cade dead? A spear of bitter disappointment grabbed him. Cade’s five brothers would hurt with the loss, and Blade might have made a good solid friend in the guy if they both hadn’t been after Red.
Through the pounding pain knocking through his brain, he wanted to ask her about Cade, but a motionless figure lay on another cot directly on the other side of the potbelly woodstove. Relief whispered through him.
Outlaw was pale. Like death warmed over.
“Cade?” he muttered.
“He took a couple of bullets. One in his right shoulder, the other in his upper chest. You’ve got a head wound besides this one.” She nodded to his blood-soaked upper torso. “Cade is alive. For now.”
For now. The two words echoed through his splitting skull like a death chant.
By the time Red had him naked, he was quite aware of his swollen erection and the erotic way she licked her lips. Licking lips was a sure sign she wanted to have his cock thrusting into her mouth.
She lifted his legs and maneuvered him onto the bed. His arousal was quickly forgotten as he lay down and a wave of dizziness swept through him. He sank onto the warm, cozy mattress, his vision swimming. Despite the pain, he managed to free himself from it to whip her a teasing grin.
“I guess I’m at your mercy this time around, eh, Red?”
“You better keep that in mind and behave, Will. Because there really is no reason for me to keep you alive, is there?”
Her words penetrated his foggy brain with an icy fierceness that made him realize he just might not get out of this alive. With that knowledge taking hold inside him, her face floated away, fading into the dark pain until nothing else existed but blackness.
Chapter Six
It was way too warm in the cabin, but she’d forced herself to eat. Her throbbing headache and the nausea clutching at her belly went away and, as she resettled the gauze over the tender-looking bullet slash on Will’s right temple, she said another prayer of thanks. One of many prayers tonight as she’d patched up the two men.
The wounds on Will weren’t too bad. The one on his temple wasn’t deep. Just a flesh wound, but he’d still bled like a stuck pig. She considered him lucky. Extremely lucky.
His chest wound had been more serious. She’d dug out a bullet, but it hadn’t penetrated more than an inch. Hadn’t hit anything vital. On his chest, she’d placed a poultice with some herbs she carried with her—herbs that should attack any infection that might follow her digging around.
She was glad she’d made alternative medicine a part of mandatory first-aid training for all Resistance members. Not only did alternative medicines work, they were easier to obtain than traditional antibiotics. And in many cases, members were able to grow their own herbs in the meadows around the areas where they hid.
The sharp snap and crackle of wood brought her attention back to the high temperature. She couldn’t be sure if the heat was due to the X-virus kicking in and her need to orgasm or because she’d been stoking too much wood into the woodstove and the living room fireplace. Or if it was due to the fact she had two naked men lying on the cots she’d set up on each side of the stove.
Reena sighed and checked Cade’s forehead again. Hot. He stirred beneath her touch, mumbled something about a beauty and then smiled in his sleep, sending a wild fluttering deep inside her heart. She answered his smile while surveying the damp hair sweeping over his forehead and the long, dark lashes framing his cheeks, flushed pink with fever.
Luckily she’d been able to get him to sip a few spoonfuls of a special blend of tea the Resistance’s trusted doctor had given her before she left to come out here.
Medicine of any kind, whether naturopathic or synthetically produced, was extremely hard to acquire—not to mention expensive these days with the bad economy. But she’d vowed to the doctor she wouldn’t take any unless absolutely necessary. Well, easing the men’s discomfort seemed to be a necessity.
The tea was a potent drug. Only a few spoonfuls every four hours would help fight infection and a fever. Given in larger quantities, it also acted as a sedative, knocking out the recipients for hours and making them virtually helpless.
She yawned as she tucked the blankets back in around Cade’s scar-riddled body. He’d been careless or taken too many risks during the Wars. He had several bullet scars and healed-over knife wounds where he’d been stabbed. He also had a bad habit of thrashing around when he slept, and she certainly didn’t need any more glimpses of his long, thick shaft or those interesting-looking slash-like scars lacing his lower belly and onto his cock. She’d seen the scars when she’d gotten him out of his clothing and, oh boy, how her pussy had clenched at the sight of him. She’d longed to stroke his shaft and watch it come to life. To touch it. Feel it. Hold it. But she’d been in a hurry, cleaning his wounds, applying ointment and feeding him tea before getting back onto the snowmobile to rescue Will.
She’d also had to deal with Will’s wounds. He’d remained semi-conscious as she’d undressed him. She hadn’t been able to coax too much tea into him, but he’d taken enough to help with the fever starting inside him. And his cock…oh my. Just as big and a bit longer than Cade’s.
She blew out a tense breath and came around the stove. Checking Will’s forehead, she found him hot, but thankfully not as hot as Cade. A similar, wild stirring snapped through her lower belly—just as it had with Cade—when she gazed down at Will’s body. His hair spilled over his damp forehead, giving him an innocent, boyish look. But she knew better.
He was no innocent and no boy.
Yep, definitely getting too hot in here.
Despite the horrors of what had happened today and her mind wanting to shut down, the X-virus wasn’t going to give her body a break. She needed to orgasm and she needed to get outside and cool herself down. She headed over to the sofa bed, pulled it open and grabbed the thick vibrator wrapped in a clean towel she’d hidden under the blankets. The vandals hadn’t discovered her vibe and she cursed the bastards as she walked past the damaged satellite radio they’d left strewn on the floor. Those hunters hadn’t wanted her to call for help, but by tomorrow night the Resistance would know there was a problem because she’d have missed the scheduled check-in time. Unless, of course, they tried to contact her before then.
She doubted that scenario, though. Lately, from the way she’d been biting off people’s heads and being such a bitch, they were probably glad to be rid of her.
Oh well, at least she had her vibe for companionship. It was the only toy she’d allowed herself to buy. Because sex toys were forbidden for women to use, she could only secure one through the black market. Talk about expensive. Guilt assailed her when she thought how the money could have been spent in better ways, like on medicine or milk for the few babies the Resistance now took care of. But she’d needed something powerful and safe to give her some relief and this handy, big gadget did the trick most of the time.
