Shattered World (Broken World Book 2) (11 page)

I swim to the edge of the pool and climb out, laying on the lounge chair so I can watch Axl better.

“Done already?” he asks.

“Disappointed?”

“Whatever. Long as you don’t put clothes on, I’m good.”

He swims to the edge, clean, and climbs out. His eyes move up my body as he walks over, sending a little thrill down my spine. What he said to me in the car comes screaming back, and that thrill turns into an ache. For as long as I live, I will never be able to forget how I felt when I thought I was saying goodbye to him.

He sits in the chair next to mine. I stand up, and he scoots over so I can sit with him. His eyes are serious. Like he can read my mind. It wouldn’t really surprise me. He always seems to know what I’m thinking.

“What you said in the car—” The words catch in my throat. I have to pause so I can pull myself together. Facing death isn’t an easy thing to talk about, but I need to sort out how I feel about him. And how he feels about me.

He purses his lips, and a storm like I’ve never seen before rages in his eyes. “I meant it.”

I swallow and force the words out. “Me too. Axl, I—” Once again they stick.

Before I have a chance to try again, Axl grabs me and pulls me to him. He presses his mouth to mine, and all the air leaves my lungs. I run my hand through his wet hair and pull myself closer as his tongue explores my mouth. His hands run down my back, burning my skin. They stops at my hips and he lifts me up, moving me over so I’m on top. Straddling him. When he kisses me again, it’s more passionate than before, more urgent. Every nerve in my body comes alive. Tingling, begging for more.

I move my hands over his chest, exploring every muscle and dip. My lips brush against the scar on his chin, then move lower. His neck, his collar, his chest, his stomach. Teasing his skin with my tongue. He groans and pulls me up. His tongue moves down my neck to my chest, and his mouth closes over my right breast. I moan when his tongue flicks the small ring that pierces my nipple.

I lose all sense of time as we kiss. Everything fades away. The dead aren’t walking the streets, we’re not trapped on the roof of this casino. The only things that exist are Axl’s hands and mouth on my body and the pleasure he’s giving me. All I can focus on are the two of us together and the fact that somewhere between Route 66 and here, I fell in love with Axl. I never even saw it coming.

We’re both breathing heavily, and I’m once again covered in a layer of sweat. His skin is warm and moist against mine. My hand creeps down his stomach. Under the waistband of his boxers. I tug on them, trying to remove the last bit of clothing that either one of us is wearing. But his hand pushes me back and he pulls away.

Seriously? He’s stopping me? After all this he’s going to stop? “What are you doing?”

He sits up and runs his hand through his hair. “No condoms.”

Thank you, Hadley!

“Is that so?” I say, flashing him a mischievous smile.

“You plan ahead?”

My jeans are crumpled on the floor next to the lounge chair. I scoop them up and dig in the back pocket. Hopefully it didn’t fall out somewhere between Sam’s Club and here. My fingers brush against plastic and my grin widens. I got lucky, for once. I pull the condom out and flash it at Axl. His smile gets so big it makes him look five years younger.

He snatches it out of my hand and pulls me down on top of him. His mouth covers mine, and heat moves through me. I reach for the waistband of his boxers while he rips the foil packet open. I can’t get his clothes off fast enough.

I toss his boxers aside, and he slides the condom on. His eyes search my face. “You’re sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. If we die tomorrow, I know I’ll die happy because I had you.”

He pushes me onto my back and leans over me. His lips move against mine as he slides inside me, and I raise my hips to meet his. I dig my nails into his back as he pushes deeper.

“We ain’t gonna die tomorrow,” he says against my lips.

11

AXL AND I HUDDLE TOGETHER in a cabana as darkness descends on Vegas. With the sun no longer up, the air has turned chilly, and my body is covered in goose bumps. We’ve gathered every hotel towel we could find to try and keep warm, but it isn’t working. I shiver so hard my teeth rattle together.

Axl wraps his arms around me and pulls me against his chest. “We gotta get you a sweatshirt.”

“C-caesar’s P-palace, p-please.” The words shake like someone put them in one of those old scrambler rides you used to find at state fairs. I press my teeth together to try and stop them from clattering. My jaw still quivers.

He chuckles and rubs my arms. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Now that the euphoria from sex has worn off, reality has come crashing down on me. It was an amazing distraction while it lasted. It’s just too bad it couldn’t be forever. The jar of cherries is gone and so are the olives. All we have left to eat is a handful of nuts. I’m not dressed for cool weather, and we’re pretty exposed to the sun during the day. We lost almost all our weapons in the car. Things are not looking good.

Who knows how long we’ll be stuck in Vegas.

It’s eerily quiet on the roof of the hotel, and being up here makes it seem like Axl and I are the last two people on the planet. Of course, that would probably be a welcome alternative to what’s really happening. The undead walking the streets below us is much more terrifying than Axl and I being alone for all of eternity.

I shiver, but this time it’s not because I’m cold. “All those bodies walking all over the city, maybe forever. It’s so depressing.”

Axl presses his lips to my forehead. I sigh when his warm breath caresses my hair. “You never call ‘em zombies. Just bodies or the dead.”

My chest tightens. He’s right. I try to keep myself from even thinking the word. It’s too scary.

“The word’s just too crazy. I can’t even bring myself to think it, let alone say it. Like saying it will make it more real or something.” I sigh and lean my head against his shoulder. “I don’t want all this to be real.”

“It’s plenty real without sayin’ the word.”

“True.” I whisper, shivering again. “When do you think Angus will show up?”

He sighs, and I can picture him pursing his lips. I’ve gotten to know him so well. It’s like we’ve been together for years, not weeks. “He probably wanted to run out soon as they got back without us. He ain’t one to really think things through. If I had to guess, I’d say Winston or somebody talked some sense into him. Got him to agree to go in the mornin’ so they had time to plan. We’ll just have to keep our ears open come sunup. They’ll come back to the casino to look for us, I’m sure of it.”

My chest is tight. They have no idea where we are, and the Strip is huge. What if they can’t find us? What do we do then? “How do you know they’ll come here?”

“‘Cause it’s what I’d do. If Winston was the one who got left behind, I woulda come right back to the last place I saw him. Me an’ him seem to think alike, so that’s what I’d put my money on.”

My lips curl into a smile despite the tension in my body. Who knows if Axl ever harbored the same racist feelings as his brother, but if he did, they seem to be wiped away now. I have a feeling he didn’t feel that way, though. Maybe he thought he did, but I doubt it was real. Axl’s too good to take any of that shit seriously.

I snuggle closer, and his arms tighten around me. I’ve never felt as safe and secure as I do in his arms. Never had anyone treat me as good as he does either. I dated a lot of assholes, and most ended up being just like my dad. They liked to slap me around when they got mad. Not Axl, though.

Being left behind isn’t ideal, but being here with Axl is kind of nice. “Morning, then,” I whisper.

“Mornin’,” he says, kissing the top of my head.

A cool breeze whips across the roof and seems to blow straight into the cabana. I shiver and scoot closer to Axl. My backside is pressed up against his crotch. 

“So we just have to try and stay warm between now and then.” I can think of a few ways to achieve that.

Axl chuckles, and his lips brush against my neck. Shivers of pleasure shoot through my body. I wiggle against him, and he groans. He grabs my hips and pulls me closer. He’s hard again.

“I hear body heat’s good for that,” he says against the sensitive skin on my neck.

I twist to face him, and his lips find mine. He pulls my body against his. Within seconds, the shivers are gone and the goose bumps have disappeared. His tongue brushes against my lips, and my blood heats up. It’s like he’s my own personal electric blanket. Body heat definitely works. Not only am I no longer cold, I’m on fire.

He runs his hand down my neck and over my chest, between my breasts. He pauses just long enough to tease me before moving to the button on my pants.

It takes every ounce of willpower inside me to pull away, and my body is cursing me for doing it. “We can’t. I only had one condom, and I don’t want to risk it. Not without protection.”

“Shit,” he mutters.

His hand moves over my back to my ass, and he pulls me closer. I moan when he grinds against me. “What are you doing?” My voice sounds tortured. I feel tortured with him moving against me like that, knowing that I can’t do anything about it.

His lips move over my neck to my chest. He pulls my shirt over my head, and his tongue runs over bare skin. I never put my bra back on.

“We can’t,” I whisper. “I want to, but we can’t.”

“Don’t need a condom.” It’s too dark to get a good look at him, but the teasing in his voice is obvious. “You got a mouth, don’t ya?”

I laugh and shove him playfully. “So do you.”

He pauses and pulls away. His eyes glint in the dark cabana. “Damn right I do,” he growls.

He flips me onto my back, and before I have a chance to react, my pants are a tangled mess on the floor of the cabana. His hands move up the inside of my thighs, and his lips are right behind them. I throw my head back and close my eyes, tangling my hands in his hair while his tongue moves over my skin.

***

My eyes fly open, and the sun is so bright that I’m pretty sure my corneas are toast. I squeeze them shut and cover my face with my arm, trying to register what’s going on. There’s a shrill howl in the distance. It’s vaguely familiar, but I can’t focus. My brain is too fuzzy.

Axl bolts out of the lounge chair and I go flying. Our bodies were so tangled that I end up on the floor. On my ass. I crack one eye and rub my throbbing right cheek. That’s going to leave a mark.

The cement is cold under my bare butt, but I don’t move. Axl stumbles out of the chair, just as naked as I am, and a big grin spreads across his face. My brain finally starts working, and my hand stops moving mid-rub. A car alarm. That’s what that sound is. Hallelujah we are saved!

“That’s gotta be him.” Axl pulls his shirt on while sweeping his boxers off the floor. He darts out of the cabana, still naked from the waist down.

I scramble around on my hands and knees in search of my clothes. My underwear is MIA, so I pull my jeans on without them. My bra’s laying at my feet, but who gives a shit about that. I want to get the hell out of this city. I yank my shirt on and run after Axl, grabbing his pants on my way out.

“Fuck yeah!” he yells. He squeezes through the small opening between the cabanas and runs back toward me with a huge grin on his face. “It’s Angus! Knew that son of a bitch would be here.”

He yanks his pants out of my hand and pulls them on. He doesn’t even bother to button them before he heads over to get his shoes.

I’m still groggy and having a hard time focusing on what I should be doing. Yeah, shoes would be a good idea. Axl is waiting for me by the time I’m done. He already has his backpack on and he holds mine out for me to take. I grab it as we head toward the door, yanking out my knife and throwing the pack over my shoulder without missing a step.

We start pulling chairs away from the door. We’ve gotten down to the final two when an explosion just like the one from the day before shatters the silence on the roof.

Axl’s eyes get big, and we turn to see a huge cloud of smoke float into the air. It’s close. Maybe only one street over. It looks pitch black against the clear blue sky

“Angus?” I ask.

Axl flashes me a grin. There’s an admiration in his eyes that Angus in no way deserves. He gives his brother too much credit. “Bastard never does anythin’ half-assed.”

I have a difficult time maintaining my smile.

I pull the last chair away and motion toward the door. “Well, between the car alarm and the explosion, we should be in the clear.”

“Let’s hope so,” Axl says as yanks the door open.

We rush into the stairwell without pausing, and I pray it’s as clear as it was the day before. It smells okay, which is a pretty good indication the dead aren’t around, so I try to control my pounding heart as we run through the darkness. An impossible task, really.

When we reach the first floor, Axl shoves the door open and we stumble into the casino. The building is stuffy, and the air reeks of rotten flesh. My heart goes into triple time. If I’m not careful, I’m going to have a heart attack one of these days.

We pause just outside the door and look around. The moans of the dead float back to us from somewhere inside the building, but at the moment, no bodies are in sight. We might be okay. What are the odds that we can make it to the Strip without running into any of the dead? Pretty slim, but then again, crazier things have happened. Like a zombie apocalypse.

“Stay close,” Axl says. He grabs my hand and pulls me forward.

My calves burn as we rush through the hotel, and my heart beats a million miles a minute. I grip my knife so tight I can practically feel callouses forming on my palm. The moans get louder, but we still haven’t seen a single body. The rooms are so empty that it makes my legs shake. Where the hell are they? It’s nerve-wracking, waiting for them to show up. We pass the casino, just as dark as yesterday, and head toward the front. The floors and walls are marble and ornate, but dirty from neglect. Splatters of blood add a foreboding feeling to the room.

I glance into the bar as we pass it, and my legs stop moving. There’s a lone woman in the room, and she’s surrounded by bodies. Seven or eight of them moan and howl as they try to get at her. They can’t quite reach her, though. She’s behind a grand piano, wedged between it and the wall holding an aluminum baseball bat. She swings it at them, warding them off. Her face is red and streaked with dirt, and her bleached blonde hair is a tangled mess. Her brown eyes are huge and wild with fear. My heart pounds, and I blink a few times. My eyes are playing tricks on me. They have to be.

But they aren’t. She’s ten years older than the last time I saw her and looks every day of it, but I’d recognize that face anywhere. My dad never got rid of her pictures when she ran off. I looked at her face every day of my young life. Missing her at first and cursing her later.

My hand tightens around Axl’s.

“We gonna help her?” he asks. It makes me jump.

He’s breathing heavily, and when his eyes focus on me, he frowns. He isn’t thrilled about the idea of running to her rescue. I pull my pack up higher on my shoulder. It’s weighed down from the water bottles we took and getting heavier by the second. Plus, Angus is outside waiting for us and we have a very short window of opportunity. It’d be a tough decision to make, even if it wasn’t the mother who abandoned me.

She makes a face as she swings the bat. Her mouth scrunches up and her eyes grow hard. It transports me back in time and almost knocks me on my ass. That’s exactly how she looked when she’d tell me to get lost. My heart turns to stone. Just like it did when she ran out on me.

Bitterness fills my mouth, so intense I have to fight the urge to spit. I shake my head and turn away from her. “There are too many. It’s a lost cause.”

Axl nods and pulls me toward the exit. Away from my mother and my past.