The McClane Apocalypse Book Five (19 page)

“Wanna’
dance
, sis?” Simon comes over and asks.

Paige immediately looks to Sam, whose lovely
face falls. The young woman quickly glances in another direction to
hide what looks like disappointment.

“Um… wouldn’t you rather…?”

Her brother doesn’t give her a chance to
answer but instead tugs her to her feet and drags her to the middle
of the dance floor. John starts another song, but this time it is a
blues tune with long guitar slides and a slow cadence. A man from
town on a fiddle joins in, picking up on the pace of the song. She
dances with her brother but scans the crowd.

“Who are you looking for?” Simon asks, his
blue gaze intense.

“What? Oh, nothing, nobody,” she deflects
furtively. He must not believe her because he raises his right
eyebrow sardonically. “Just admiring the decorations
and…stuff.”

“Yeah, they did a good job. This is almost
like a real wedding reception.”

“Remember some of the ones we had to go to
with mom and dad?” she asks, distracting him.

He gives her a big, dramatic roll of his
eyes. They’d been dragged to all types of hoity-toity engagements
since their father was a senator. Mostly they were in gated
community golf resorts and tropical island locations, once even in
a castle in France.

“Those were the worst,” he remarks.

“They probably got divorced, most of them,”
she agrees with a nod.

“No kidding,” he says with a nod. “This is
better. It’s more real, ya’ know?”

Paige understands what he’s getting at. She
nods with a smile, “Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m glad Talia
found Chet. He’s a good man. I think he’ll take good care of
her.”

Cory taps Simon on the shoulder. He’s dancing
with Sam, who looks like a tiny kid next to Cory.

“Cut in, bro?” he suggests.

Paige would like to say, “hell no!” but
refrains, barely. Simon opens his mouth to say something, but Cory
gives him a deadly glare.

“Sure,” Simon says tightly.

Her brother’s body posture has stiffened, and
he seems reluctant to leave her. They switch partners, and Paige is
so distracted by watching her brother with Sam that it takes a
moment to realize that Cory is leading her farther away from
them.

“Hey,” she objects, coming to a stop.

“Let them have some privacy,” he says
quietly, pulling her closer. “They’ve got some shit to work
out.”

His arm tightens around the small of
her back. His right hand squeezes hers gently but firmly. Suddenly
the giant barn feels like too small of a space. He leans closer,
his head coming to rest near the side of hers. He actually smells
good. Cory doesn’t look like he ever
smells
good. Most of the time he’s covered in
grime. One time when he’d come home at dawn, she’d caught him
washing what looked like blood off of his hands at the outdoor
spigot at their cabin. He’s usually sweaty and dirty. He isn’t
either now. He’s freshly shaven, clean and surprisingly smells like
the soap they make mixed with other
scents
that stir her senses.

“What…what do you mean?”

“I think they’ve been fighting about
something. Probably nothing serious, but they need to work it out.
She needs Simon, whether he wants her to or not,” Cory says.

He is more perceptive than she has
given him credit for being. Guttural grunts and smartass comments
are what she usually gets from him. His breath tickles
against
her ear.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” she agrees and
turns her head just slightly, which stupidly causes her cheek to
brush against his. She turns quickly back, staring straight ahead.
God, she must be lonely as hell to find this Neanderthal
attractive. Unfortunately this causes her to stare at the black
cord at his neck, twined with that feminine gold chain. He’s
unbuttoned a few of the buttons at his neck, exposing a several
inches of his thick neck and a tuft of dark hair on his chest. He’s
also rolled up his shirt sleeves. He must be hot. She’s not. She’s
already pulled on her borrowed cardigan sweater and until this
dance was pretty chilly. “They seem to be in discord over
something, but I’m not sure what’s going on.”

“Discord,” he repeats softly, tufting her
hair with his breath. “Seems to be a lot of that going around.”

Paige can feel him smile against the side of
her head. His hand leaves her back for just a second. Then she
feels his fingers pulling gently at the tips of her hair that hang
almost to her waist. She keeps meaning to have Sue help her cut it
but forgets to ask because there is so much else to work on. She
sucks in a breath at the strange sensation of him touching her
hair. It causes a chill to ripple through her. She releases her
breath slowly when he places his hot hand at her lower back
again.

“Song’s over,” she says and steps away
abruptly.

Paige blinks rapidly and looks up at Cory.
He’s just smirking as usual.

“Is it?”

“Yep!” she replies and spins on the ball of
her foot, almost taking down a running child in the process. She
skirts around the kids and makes a mad dash for the end of the
barn.

What the hell was that all about?
Ridiculous. She has zero or even less than zero romantic interest
in Cory. He’s a big, irritating pain in her ass who’d
threatened
to kill her when they first
met. She digs her nails into the palm of her tightly fisted hand
until it hurts. Get a grip!

She just needs some fresh air. Paige
heads out of the barn as the first gurgle of thunder rolls through
the valley. She tugs her cardigan closer against the wind gusts and
plods down around to the bottom of the bank barn where huge
sandstones frame up the foundation and lend support to the massive
structure. The feminine giggle of coyness permeates her thoughts as
Paige runs her hand over one of those
giant
stones. The
low
murmur of a husky male voice filters through the
lower
level of the barn next.

She tiptoes through the middle
aisle,
scaring
two of the dairy
cows in the process. More laughing following by more talking gains
her attention and she turns left to follow the sounds. Perhaps it
is Simon and Sam and they’ve mended their rift. She’d like nothing
better than to hang out with them for a short time before returning
to the party.

When she gets to the other end of the barn,
she plasters on a happy smile of greeting and steps around the
corner. What she finds there is not her small group of friends.
Jason is there, and he is not alone. The feminine giggling was from
Jackie. However, they are no longer laughing. His hands are under
the woman’s shirt, and he’s kissing her neck passionately. Neither
of them have spotted her. She slides back around the corner and
stands there stunned for a moment.

So much for ‘Jason is a good guy.’ He’s a
rat. He’s a rat like so many others she’s known. Paige fast walks,
rounds the corner and rams right into Cory’s chest. He’s with her
brother and Sam.

“Hey!” he exclaims with surprise, grabbing
her shoulders. “Careful. Are you ok?”

There are unshed tears in her eyes. Her hands
are shaking. She feels like she might pass out from anger and
betrayal and disgust.

“What are you doing down here, Paige?” Simon
asks.

“Is everything all right?” Sam blurts.

Paige doesn’t quite know how to answer that.
She shakes her head, pulls back from Cory and replies, “I guess
some things never change, not even after the world goes to hell.
Excuse me.”

She slides past Cory and runs from the
barn. When she gets outside, it has finally started raining in
earnest. The heavens have opened up and allowed the lightning,
thunder and rain to free itself from their bonds of imprisonment.
She doesn’t rejoin the party. The rain feels refreshing,
cleansing
even,
as if she needs
it to
clear
her thoughts from
what she’s seen.

Paige lifts her face to the sky and closes
her eyes, letting the rain sluice down over her features. The idea
of going back inside now that she’s completely soaked through, to
face Jason and Jackie and their newfound love is not something she
wishes to do. There is plenty enough light to make her way back to
the McClane farm. She’s needed a long run for some time. She takes
off at a slow jog but eventually speeds up until she is sprinting,
mindless of the muddy rain water splashing her bare calves. She
hadn’t realized how much she’s missed running since she came to
their farm. She has more than needed this. Running is how she used
to stay in shape, fight off stress and deal with life. It’s always
been a cathartic form of relief. Staying in shape now seems to be a
good idea anyway since she’s never sure what life is going to hand
her. She just hadn’t thought she’d be running from her problems.
She thought her problems were finally over. Six months ago, her
only problem was staying alive. Now she’s right back in the real
world where human interaction causes more problems than finding a
small amount of food for the day. She’d rather be back out there
worrying about her next meal.

Chapter Nine

Cory

He spends about an hour
shooting the shit with his brother and Paul from the condo
community about security and the new patrol teams in town before he
realizes that he hasn’t seen Simon’s sister in a while, not since
they found her in the basement of the barn.
He had
assumed that she returned to the party. Cory extracts himself from
his group and searches out Simon.

He’d tried to warn Paige about Jason,
but like the hard-head she is, she wouldn’t listen. Cory knew about
Jackie’s attraction to Jason. He’d gone to town a few weeks ago to
break it off with her, to let her down gently. Her group told him
that Jackie had gone over to the home of the vet’s son to help him
on a project. She’d greeted him at Jason’s front door with a smile
and Jason’s t-shirt and nothing else. He wasn’t mad. They had a
mutual understanding that their relationship wasn’t going anywhere.
He didn’t and doesn’t want a serious relationship with a woman. But
his feelings toward the vet’s son had also been cemented that
afternoon. He doesn’t like or trust him. He’s seen him in town
talking to Paige,
obviously
leading her on. He’s seen him chatting up other women in
town, too. Jason’s a dick. He really should beat the tar out of
him.

“Have you seen Paige?” he asks his friend
when he finds Simon at a table in a far corner of the barn talking
with Doc and some of the others from town. They’re discussing
medicinal herbs.

“No, I thought she came up here,” Simon says,
half rising out of his chair.

Cory stays Simon with a hand to his shoulder.
“I think she was pissed because of that dick Jason. I bet she went
back to the farm.”

“I’ll go and check,” Simon adds with
concern.

“Nah, I’m whooped,” Cory lies
smoothly
. “I’ll go. I was leaving
anyway. You stay and talk. I’m sure she just went back. If I don’t
find her, I’ll come right back to get you. She looked tired, so
I’m
positive
she just went home.
Sue and Derek already left, too.”

Simon nods reluctantly but remains
seated.

“You gonna make sure Sam gets home safe?”
Cory asks and glances across the room where Samantha is sitting
with Reagan and Hannie. He noticed at different times throughout
the night that men from town asked her to dance. She’d declined
them all with a pleasant smile, but Cory knows that her reason for
rejecting them is because she carries with her a heavy distrust of
men.

“Of course I will,” Simon
hisses
through his teeth as if Cory’s
question has pissed him off.

“Easy, man,” Cory chuckles with a grin. “I’m
just double checking.”

Simon scowls at him but turns back to the
conversation at the table. Cory smirks. His friend’s anger isn’t
really aimed at him. Simon is just upset over this rift between him
and Samantha. Cory’s not getting involved. He’s not exactly great
with offering advice for that sort of shit. He’s heard that sex can
be a useful make-up tool, but if Simon’s in charge of initiating
that, then they’ll all die of old age waiting for those two to
patch it up.

He gets detained twice while trying to
leave which delays him another twenty minutes. Some of his friends
from town want to know more about where he went during his
travels.
Finally,
he makes it out
of the barn and starts jogging for the cabin. It doesn’t take long
to
make out
the pale amber glow
coming from there. She’s
obviously
made it back safely, but he’s still pissed at her for leaving
and taking that kind of risk. Everyone went to the wedding with the
understanding that no one would try to make the trek home alone. He
feels slightly better knowing that Derek came back quite a while
ago with his family so that they could get their three kids to bed.
He knows because Ari was pissed. She had trailed him around the
barn all night and had even snookered him into dancing with her
four times. Then she’d informed him that she was going to marry him
someday. Poor kid. He wouldn’t wish that on anyone. And now he’s
the one who is pissed. He’s angry that Simon’s sister didn’t at
least tell someone that she was leaving.

A thin tendril of gray smoke wafts up from
their narrow chimney pipe. It pushes its way heavenward through the
blinding rain. She’s apparently lit a fire in the wood-burning
stove.