The McClane Apocalypse Book Five (25 page)

“Yeah, I guess that would make sense. They
seem pretty innocent. It’s probably a good thing to keep them that
way.”

“Well, not Huntley. He’s been through a
lot. Remember? His father was one of the visitors. He was a
very
awful
man, the worst kind
possible,” Sam informs her with a shiver.

“Right. I remember,” Paige acknowledges.

“But you’ll have fun with Cory. Plus, it’s
good to get to know him. You’ll know more about the real Cory when
you get finished. Besides, I’ll be with you,” Sam tells her as they
drop their shoes on the back porch.

“You will?” she asks with confusion.

“Sure,” Sam says. “Simon ditched me off
today. He didn’t want me to go to the clinic, so he purposely
dragged Reagan there a lot earlier than usual to do his
research.”

She
air quotes on
‘research’ and rolls her bright blue eyes with
irritation.

“What do you mean? I thought he really did
have to do research on something.”

Paige is genuinely confused. Why would her
brother tell her a lie?

“Nah, he does most of his research here on
the farm. He was

just avoiding me. He’s been avoiding me, but
I’ve gotten used to it. It seems it’s his favorite trick
lately.”

With that statement, she goes inside and
allows the screen door to slam, which is unusual for her. Normally
she’s a quiet little thing who glides around all graceful and
delicate. Today, she seems feisty and genuinely pissed off, mostly
at Simon.

Some of the family are absent from
breakfast because they have gone with Simon and Reagan to the
clinic. Seating is condensed to allow room for a few of the younger
kids to sit at the adult table in the dining
room
. Somehow she finds herself stuck next to Cory.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that she has to spend part of her day
training with him.

The plans for the day are reviewed
during breakfast, but Paige can barely concentrate nor does she
even follow what they are talking about. CNG, gas, natural gas,
stealing trucks, whatever. She keeps finding herself staring down
at Cory’s
huge
thigh muscle
straining against his snug jeans. At least he has on a shirt this
morning. Although it seems as if the musculature beneath it is
about to rip it to shreds in an attempt to be free. The veins in
his thick wrists ripple under his skin as he scoops butter from the
dish with his knife and slathers it on his bread. He’s a big eater.
As a matter of fact, she thinks he probably eats enough for four
people. Of course, he is kind of large man like his big brother.
And she’d puked on him, all over him to be more precise. Her cheeks
flush just recalling that horrifyingly embarrassing night. Good
God, what a loser!

Someone asks her a question, and she
just nods. She wasn’t paying attention anyway. She probably just
signed on for cleaning out a horse stall or something equally
hideous. Paige pushes the grits and scrambled eggs around on her
plate and tries not to think about what a huge ass she’d been in
front of Cory of all people when she was drunk. He was gone the
next day, all day and then that night, as well. The family doesn’t
seem to say much about Cory disappearing when he does, which
seems
to be rather frequently. She’s not
sure if he was avoiding her or if he genuinely needed to do
something that kept him away, but she heard him come into the cabin
sometime in the middle of the next night. Neither of them
has
spoken of it since. However, it is
still there hovering
between
them
like a thick cloud of awkward smog.

There is ground-in dirt under some of
his closely-clipped fingernails. He’s such a heathen. His hair is
pulled back into its usual short black ponytail. Reagan frequently
calls him a
hippy
. He always
grins that ridiculously charming grin of his. He doesn’t seem to
care at all what people think of him. His forearm nearest her glows
with a sheen of perspiration even though she is chilly.

Suddenly, he bumps his thick leg against hers
and says, “Right, beanpole?”

“What?” she croaks.

“We’re ready to start your training.
Remember?” he asks.

He’s looking directly at her as if she’s a
loon. His brown eyes regard her keenly. Then he turns back to his
brother, with whom he must’ve been talking.

“We’re good to go,” he reassures Kelly. “I’ll
get her started right after breakfast. Better eat up,
beanpole.”

“I’ll go with you guys,” Sam jumps in with
enthusiasm.

“Sure, kid,” Cory replies and
gets
a wide
smile from Samantha.
“You can show her some of your knife tricks. You’re more proficient
with one than me.”

“Yeah, right!” Sam exclaims.

“You are,” he insists and keeps teasing with
Sam.

Paige blocks them out and bites her
lower lip instead. She has no wish to be in his company all damn
day long. Instead, she’d like to just hang out with Samantha. Or
Hannah. Or Sue. Or even the wild hooligans on the farm, otherwise
known as the kids. Arianna
nags
to tag along during the training, but her mother quickly
reminds her that she is to help clean out the goat pen after
breakfast. She spends the rest of her meal pouting.

The meal finishes and she tries to help with
the clearing of it and the dish duties, but Hannah will have none
of it. She gets tossed out the back door with Sam and him, whether
she wants to go or not.

She follows dutifully after him as Cory goes
to the med shed. He tells her and Sam to wait for him, but
reappears a moment later with an extra rifle and what looks like
two pistols of some kind.

“Let’s go,” he orders but not in a
domineering manner.

They follow along; Sam all lightness and
smiles, Paige all frowns and scowls of displeasure. When they come
to the horse barn, Paige butts in.

“Hey, wait a minute,” she protests. “I’m not
riding one of those damn horses.”

“You don’t have to. You can always walk,” he
replies over his shoulder with a grin.

“Fine, I will,” she says through gritted
teeth.

He just laughs loudly and tells her, “You’re
riding behind me, bony ass.”

She notices that when they aren’t around the
family, he takes more liberty with his choice of put-downs.

“That’s not nice, Cory,” Sam scolds him.
“I’ll get my mare.”

Paige stands rooted at the entrance to
the barn glaring daggers
at
his
back.

“You’re riding with me,” he calls over as he
sets the rifles against a stall door.

He slides open the door and leads his
crazy stallion out of it. There is no way in hell that she’s riding
that thing. She
will
just
walk.

“Come here,” he demands this time with more
dominance than before.

She unwillingly
steps
closer, but not too close. When she
apparently
doesn’t come as close as he’d
wanted, Cory motions to her with his hand before tying his stallion
to the rope coming out of the wall. She plants her feet. He motions
more impatiently this time, his mouth an irritated
frown.

“Now,” he insists and points to the ground
beside him.

Paige purses her lips angrily, squints her
eyes at him, and edges closer. When she’s within a few feet of the
big horse, Cory snatches her upper arm and pulls her right up
beside him.

“He’s not going to attack you,” he assures
her.

Paige doesn’t believe him for a minute. The
horse snorts through its wide nostrils as if his disdain for her is
equal to her own.

Cory chuckles at her and says, “Why don’t you
start with just a simple pet?”

“No thanks.”

He takes her hand in his, which is hot,
and lays it gently against the horse’s
huge
, muscular neck. It reminds her of Cory’s
neck.

“He’s not that bad, right?” he asks
rhetorically. “He’s really a puss if you get right down to it.”

“Yeah, sure,” Paige scoffs. The horse’s slick
fur is shiny and warm against her palm. She’s seen Cory working
with this horse every day since he’s come home. He babies it,
really. The animal’s grooming is meticulously maintained down to
the very last, long hair of its mane.

Within a few moments, he has the beast
saddled and bridled. And it must know they are leaving the farm
because the animal starts prancing in place once they go outside.
Samantha is already mounted up bareback. She’s like a tiny, horse
riding daredevil.

Cory swings into the saddle without using the
stirrup and reaches down for her. She glares up at him. Her legs
are quaking already.

“Come on. We’re burning daylight here,
woman,” he chides.

Paige looks once to the house, then at her
feet, and realizing she’s not getting out of it, reaches up for his
outstretched hand.

“Put your foot in the stirrup,” he
instructs.

Once she has that done, he tugs her right up
behind him as if she weighs twelve ounces.

“Whoa, he’s bigger than the other horses,”
she notes nervously and clutches onto Cory for dear life, sworn
enemy or no.

“He’s a stud. He’s supposed to be bigger than
the mares. Helps him get the job done,” he says.

Paige doesn’t think he’s talking about his
horse at all, especially not when he peers over his shoulder and
grins wickedly at her.

“Just hold onto my waist,” he
says softly
and turns back
around.

As if he needed to tell her that. Get real.
She’d rather just walk and catch up to wherever they are going.
They start off at a slow walking gate and increase to a trot, per
Sam’s request. Her black hair is the same color as Cory’s horse. It
flows out behind her in the wind, and she looks as happy as she
could be in this moment.

Once they clear the edge of the cattle
pasture and get the gate opened and reclosed, Sam shouts, “Come on,
Cory!”

Paige has no idea what she means, but Cory
seems to because he laughs heartily.

“Hold on,” he says quietly over his shoulder.
“I know you don’t like riding, but Sam does and she wants to
run.”

“What? No!” Paige barely gets out on a ragged
whisper.

“So does Jet,” he says
with
a chuckle.

“No, no, no,” Paige repeats as if she has a
severe stutter. His horse is prancing side to side and doing funny
little moves under them that aren’t funny at all to Paige.

“Just hold on,” he says softly and turns to
look directly into Paige’s eyes. “I won’t let you fall off.”

His left hand slides from the reins,
leaving only one controlling the beast. She’s about to yell at him
to keep both hands on the wheel, for God’s sake! Unfortunately, her
reply is cut off as his hand comes to rest on the top of her thigh.
He squeezes tightly, his long fingers going nearly all the way
around her leg. Her eyes widen, but she can’t respond because he
nods to Sam and lets his horse break free from his tight restraint.
And then they are flying, or at least that’s what it feels like to
Paige. Sam is flying, however. Her horse isn’t doing the
cantering
thing that Simon explained.
It’s galloping, and she’s laughing with pure joy. Cory’s horse is
smooth and rhythmic, not like the
mount
she rode with her brother which seemed like it was mostly
trying to bounce her off. It also covers a lot of ground without a
lot of effort. His horse reminds her of one of those big, brutal
battle horses that a knight would’ve rode into combat. The huffing
and harsh snorting of his breath reaches her ears even as far back
from his head as she is.

“Easy, bud,” Cory talks to him.

The beast snorts softly again as if
communicating with his master. And master he is. Cory controls the
animal with just a single hand and probably his legs. She’s never
seen anyone ride like he does. There is no fear, no holding back.
It’s just all control.

“Take
‘er
easy,” he coos.

His voice is deep and soothing,
apparently to the horse, as well, because his pace evens out to a
mellower
lope
. Sam races
ahead,
obviously
knowing their
destination. She even pushes her horse to jump right over a fallen
log in the way. Cory just steers his stallion around it. She’s
thankful that he didn’t try that with her on back of the
tall
stallion
. She’s not sure if
he would’ve taken the jump if she wasn’t with him. She knows
nothing about horses and even less about his. Perhaps it wouldn’t
have
jumped
the log. Of course,
as skillful a rider as he is, Paige is quite sure this horse
would’ve
jumped
that log if it
was on fire if Cory demanded it of him.

“Having fun yet?” he calls over his
shoulder.

“Is it over? Then, no!”

He just laughs at her and says, “Relax. You
might have fun. And you don’t have to hold on so tight with your
legs. You aren’t going anywhere. I told you I won’t let you fall
off. I always keep my word. Just relax.”

For some reason, his confidence in his own
conviction is reassuring to Paige. It’s not the most terrifying
experience, either. The way he manages the giant horse makes her
feel somewhat convinced that she isn’t about to take a full gainer
and break her neck. Or maybe it’s the firm grip he has on her upper
leg. She’s actually starting to enjoy herself. She’d still rather
be walking or jogging, but this isn’t horrible. She can’t believe
it, but she does feel safe with him, which barely makes sense.