Mountain Man - 01 (28 page)

“What kind of gun is that?”

“Flare gun.”

“Flare gun.” Gus had thought it was a wicked blast laser or some other kind of mass effect weapon. Shaking his head in sad amusement, he looked back at the road.

“Scared you, did it?” Roxanne asked, a smile in her question.

“Damn right it did,” Gus muttered.

He settled back into his seat and looked at the street rushing by, the skeletal trees reaching for Heaven.

The beast rumbled out of the city with smoke spilling from its exhaust. They linked up with the main highway and began the long, but comforting drive home. Roxanne remained quiet, and the two men left her alone.

When they came to the place where Gus had put down the two corpses, Scott slowed and leaned over the steering wheel. “See that?”

Gus saw. “Yep.” The bodies lay where they had left them.

“What is it?” Roxanne asked.

“Nothin’,” Gus answered. “Just an experiment.”

Scott drove by, leaving the unmoving dead behind.

It was almost dark by the time they got back. They slowed to the gate on the road, the camouflage looking dead and thin. Gus got out and pulled open the latticed gate. He waved them through. The van stopped just inside, and Gus put the gate back in place, opened the door, and jumped aboard.

“You guys live up here?” Roxanne asked.

“Yeah,” Gus answered. “We do. Doin’ pretty good, too, except for the days we have to head into the city.”

Roxanne nodded and removed her white toque. She shook out her hair, and the scene struck Gus so very much like a scene from
Tarzan
that he looked away before making the mistake of staring. That was all she needed right now, he figured, after what she’d been through.

“You have to head down there often?” she asked.

Gus nodded, watching the dirt road ahead as the van travelled over the winding slope. Scott kept the headlights off as they approached the wall. “Snow will be down soon, though. Won’t be able to get down there at all. That’s why we were in your part of the woods today. Pickin’ up supplies.”

Beyond the tall stone wall, the dark peaks of the house rose up. The van came to a stop.

“Home again, home again, jiggity jig,” Gus said, and got out. He went to the gate, a shadow among shadows, and opened it for the van. Scott drove through, heading toward the open garage. Gus closed and reinforced the gate, wondering how he had gotten all the shitty jobs. Once done bracing the gate, he half-jogged back to the garage.

Inside, he cranked down the door. Scott had backed the van in and opened the rear doors. He was eyeing Roxanne as he stripped off his firefighter gear. Gus joined them and started disrobing. Roxanne turned around so she wasn’t looking at them.

“Don’t worry. We wear clothes underneath,” Gus told her.

“I’m not worried,” she said. “So, how long have you guys been up here?”

“About two years for me,” Gus answered.

“Couple of months here.” Scott tossed his Nomex coat, pants, and fire boots off to one side of an open locker.

“We might stink a little, but it’s a small price to pay for being safe,” Gus said. “You want, you can get that can of fruit cocktail now.”

That got her attention, but she remained cool as she climbed back into the van and got out three cans of fruit.

“Can I have the peaches, too?”

“Sure,” Gus said, hoping his little smile was hidden by his beard. He turned to Scott. “I’ll take her into the kitchen.”

Scott nodded indifferently.

Gus walked into the house, and Roxanne followed like a deer wary of stepping into the sights of a hunter’s rifle.

“My God,” she said, glancing left and right at the kitchen area and the living room. “This is paradise.”

Gus faced her from behind the island in the kitchen, spreading his hands on the black marble counter surface. He watched her size up the furniture and then the kitchen. A smile spread across her face, and her eyes lit up. She shrugged off her coat, and Gus couldn’t help but take in her slim figure and the swell of her breasts covered by a black sweater.

“See anything you like?” Roxanne asked with a scowl.

Blinking and suddenly embarrassed, Gus diverted his gaze to the countertop and then the cupboards. “Ah, sorry. Uh… you can bring those cans over here. The fruit… I mean.” He winced and shook his head, feeling the blood rise to his cheeks.

Roxanne came to the island and sat at one of the stools. Keeping an eye on Gus, she laid out the three cans.

“You got a can opener for these things?”

Nodding, Gus got her a plastic bowl and a spoon. “If you can wait, I’ll put on some soup for you.”

“Soup?”

“Soup,” Scott said as he emerged from the hallway. He walked around Roxanne and sat down at the end of the island, placing both elbows on the counter and his chin in his hands.

“You forgetting something?” he asked Gus.

“Huh? What?”

Scott squinted at him, but Gus still didn’t catch on. “Back home drinks?”

“Oh.” Gus went to the kitchen table and got the two bottles of Canadian Club they’d been working on. He gave Scott his and returned to the other side of the island.

“We have this thing we do when we get back. In one piece.”

“You drink?” Roxanne asked.

“I drink,” Scott said. “He gets smashed.”

Gus frowned at Scott and shrugged at Roxanne.

“So where’s mine then? Or don’t I get one?”

“You got fruit cocktail,” Scott pointed out.

“Course you can,” Gus quickly spoke. He looked around. “Uh, you want a glass?”

“You got those, too?”

“Yeah,” Gus managed, getting a plastic one from a cupboard. “We’ve got pretty much everything here.”

“Is that why it’s warm in here?”

“Solar power,” Gus said and poured her a shot from his bottle.

“My God. It’s too cloudy for that, isn’t it?”

“Sun’s still up there. Okay, then. Cheers.” Gus held up his bottle. Scott held up his, but Roxanne didn’t share in the toast.

“And you’re welcome,” Scott said as he took a shot.

“What for? For bringin’ me here?” Roxanne said with a hint of petulance in her voice.

“Yeah. That, and for savin’ your ass,” Scott reminded her.

Gus watched the exchange between the two and felt a little tongue-tied. He took a sip from his bottle and placed it on the island’s surface. The burn of the whiskey still in his mouth and throat, he realized darkly that he felt something else as well, something he hadn’t felt for a very long time, but recognized it as clear as daylight. Insecurity. Around
her
.

Well, shit.

“You were about to shoot my ass, if I remember it correctly,” Roxanne said to Scott.

“Oh, I would’ve shot it. Guaranteed.” Scott nodded, keeping his eyes downcast. “But you were smart about it. Right, Gus?”

“Um…” Gus cleared his throat. “That’s right. You did the smart thing there.”

“Thanks. Both of you,” she added, with another glance at Scott.

Each time she looked at Scott, something in Gus
willed
her to look his way instead.

“If you like,” Gus plunged on, “you can stay here.”

Scott’s eyes flicked up at Gus before he turned back to regard Roxanne.

“I just got here,” Roxanne said. “Let me think about it.”

Scott snorted a chuckle. He rubbed his blond beard and shooed his hand in a gesture telling them to ignore his little outburst.

Gus had to smile himself. “Sure. Go right ahead. When you want to leave, just say the word. We’ll drop you off wherever you want to go.”

“I thought you were going to make some soup.”

“Hungry myself,” Scott threw in.

Gus got a large pot and opened up three cans of it filled with preserved vegetables and chunks of chicken. He emptied all three into the pot and fired up a burner.

“Dig in with the fruit,” Gus said. “This’ll take a few minutes.”

She opened one of the fruit cocktails. “Oh, God. This is so good.”

Gus watched her from the stove. He glanced over at Scott, who shook his head at him while hiding a little smile with his hand. Gus inquired with a look, but Scott responded by turning away.

Roxanne finished her food and wiped her mouth with her hand. “Oh, God, that was delicious. I haven’t eaten anything like that for years. Even before everything went to hell. You don’t know how hard it is to find anything out west. Most food was taken by the army or police or gangs.”

“We’ve got plenty of food here,” Gus informed her.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, we’re pretty self-sufficient.” Gus went on to explain about the well and electricity, as well as the food and drink in the basement. He finished cooking the soup and portioned it out in bowls that Scott got from the cupboard. They ate then, and the silence filled with the sounds of supper. Roxanne bolted hers down and eyed the pot on the stove.

“More?” Gus asked.

“Yes, if you can spare it.”

Gus poured the last bit into her bowl.

“You have any bread or crackers?”

“Ah, no, sorry. We’re well off, but we don’t have everything.”

“So you were just talkin’ out of your ass a few minutes ago.” Roxanne crossed her arms.

“Ah,” Gus began, looking at Scott.

Scott didn’t appear too pleased with Roxanne. “I think you should be a little more thankful for what we—more exactly, Gus––did for you today.”

“How thankful I gotta be?” Roxanne fired at him.

“What the hell is this? Gus, I do believe you’ve let a bitch into the house.”

“Fuck you,” Roxanne shot back.

“No, fuck
you
,” Scott said, squaring her with an incredulous expression.

“Hey, relax,” Gus asked them both and, to his surprise, got it. “Look, Roxanne. We’re goin’ to do a little drinkin’ here, me and Scott. I think you should just maybe relax. I got some extra clothes that’ll fit you, and you can take a hot bath, okay?”

Roxanne’s jaw dropped. “A hot bath?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, shit, you want that blowjob now or later?”

Gus blinked, not knowing quite how to react.

“That was a joke. And I don’t remember offering it to
you
.” She directed the last at Scott.

The blond man shook his head in wonder.

“Well, boys, I’m going to finish my lovely soup here, and when I do, maybe one of you can direct me to that bath? And a razor, too, if you can spare it. I haven’t had either for a while.”

“A razor?” Gus asked in confusion.

Roxanne cocked an eyebrow. “You want to know what I’m goin’ to shave?”

After supper, Gus took it upon himself to show Roxanne the bathroom and what would be her bedroom, next to Scott’s. He tuned on the water, letting it run, and took her some clean sweatpants, a T-shirt, a sweater, and a disposable razor.

“Shampoo and soap are in there.” He pointed to a cabinet as the flowing hot water steamed up the room.

“My God.” She sighed.

“We’ll be downstairs.” Gus turned to leave.

“Hey,” Roxanne said. “Thank you. For everything. There’s nothing like this out there anymore. Nothing that we could find, and we were looking. I mean, solar panels? Not everyone can afford them and, really, who has the room?”

Gus nodded. He left her and walked downstairs to the den. Like always, they left only one light on, keeping the room in perpetual shadow.

Scott was in the recliner, his bottle of whiskey in his lap. “She in the tub?”

“Just about.” Gus sat on the sofa.

“Why aren’t you with her?” Scott gave him an evil smile.

“Huh?”

Scott shook his head. “Oh, man. If I can see it, you can sure as shit know
she
can.”

“See what?” Gus asked in a defensive tone.

“You, around her. She’s only been here what? An hour? And you’re already
smitten
.” He emphasized the last word with a horrified expression.

“You got an issue with that?”

“Gus, you listenin’ to yourself?”

“Hey, I asked you a question.”

Scott regarded him. “All right. Listen. You listenin’? I’ll say this once, and that’s it. You’re welcome to her. I ain’t interested.”

Gus stared at him. “Why? You’re not gay, are you?”

“What?” Scott rolled his eyes. “No, I’m not gay, you twat.” He shook his head and took another shot of whiskey. “I’m not interested in her because I was married once. Remember?” He scratched at the space between his eyes. “Before all of this. Wife and daughter. They got infected and died.”

“Sorry, man.”

“Look, I didn’t say this before. Hell, I didn’t even tell Teddy or Lea. I… I had to kill them both.”