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“Christ, Sparrow?” Asher’s voice had everything in her stilling. Relief filled her when she realized it was really him. She squinted, and finally her vision became clearer and she saw Asher holding up Mason, who even from the distance was as white as a ghost. Darkness spread from his shoulder and dripped down his bicep and forearm.
“Oh my God. Was he…?”
“No, he was shot, not bitten,” he explained, and she exhaled. “Sparrow, sweetheart, can you please lower the gun? I don’t want to have to drag my shot-up ass and Mason’s back to the cabin.” Suddenly, her arm felt far too heavy, and she lowered it to the side but kept her finger on the trigger. She didn’t know if more of the sick would come, or if Collin would deliver on his promise and find her.
“We came back for you. We came back for you, but you were gone.” Mason’s voice was low but deep. “You were fucking gone, and then all hell broke loose.” She also heard a slight slur mixed with his words, distorting them.
She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even think.
“Sparrow? Are you okay?” Both he and Mason moved toward her, but she could see how much work it took for Mason to stay upright. Seeing him wounded snapped something inside her, and she tucked her gun at the small of her back and rushed toward them. Taking the other half of his weight, she heard Mason sigh and felt him lean into her.
“You said something about a cabin?” She addressed Asher but was looking Mason over. The nurse in her kicked in when she got a look at the wound on his shoulder. Holding onto his waist a little tighter, she finally looked up at Asher. He watched her intently. “What?” He didn’t seem the least bit worried about Mason, which made her feel slightly better, but not by much.
“You’re worried about him?”
“Of course I’m worried about him. He was shot, and the longer we sit here and talk about it, the more he bleeds.”
Asher grew serious and nodded. “You’re right, but he’ll be fine. We’ve been in worse shape than this.”
“It’s true, little bird.” She snapped her eyes to Mason, and her pulse sped up at the endearment that came from him. He tilted his head to the side, just enough that he could look at her, and gave her a smile that looked slightly drunk. “Much worse.”
“Come on, he’s going to pass out soon, and I want to get this cleaned up.” Shit, if she still had her bag, she would have been able to use the first aid supplies she grabbed back at the pharmacy. “I wish I had my bag.”
“Here.” She looked up at Asher and saw him holding her backpack. “Mason grabbed it before we left.”
Her chest squeezed tight, and she realized that although it had only been four days she’d been with these men, she cared for them. It wasn’t love, and although she found them both immensely attractive and wanted them, she couldn’t even say the reason she cared for them was because of lust.
She cared for them as humans, as two men who helped when she had been in trouble, and men who shared their food and water with her when she had nothing. They hadn’t killed her and taken what little she had like others would have. She had never felt safer than she did with them, and that was saying a lot. A hell of a lot. When everything was going on and she had been hit by Fat Ass in McMillian’s, and all the way up until she was here with them right now, all she had thought about was them, even when she thought they wouldn’t come for her. They had gotten hurt for her, trying to save her, and tears of gratitude filled her eyes, but she couldn’t deal with that right now. She needed to make sure Mason was okay.
“Yeah, I saw a cabin about half a mile north. Not sure the state of it, but it’s our best bet for shelter for tonight.” There was a hardness in Mason’s voice, and she knew he was trying his damnedest not to show that he was in pain.
“Well let’s stop talking and get there before…” She saw the way Asher looked over at her, and then saw the crease formed between Mason’s eyes. “Let’s just get there before anymore of the infected show up.” What she wasn’t saying was they needed to get the fuck out of there, because Collin might show up, and if he did, she knew there would be another fight between her two guys and that asshole. The state Mason was in wouldn’t bode well for them.
Chapter Eleven
Fortunately, when they reached the cabin, it was vacant. Mason had seen the cabin when he had been hiking a few times with... when he had hiked, but he had never known who lived there.
Apparently, the owner had gotten out in a hurry, because when they went inside and a sweep had been done to make sure the cabin didn’t have any unexpected inhabitants, they noticed the opened drawers, the cupboard doors that hung open, and the bleakness in the cabin. It also smelled musky, and it was clear from the boarded-up windows that it had been closed off since the infection hit.
He didn’t know what happened to the owners, but it didn’t really matter now. Either way, it was empty now. Mason was laid up in the master bedroom with Sparrow hovering over him. He had taken off his bloodied shirt, and he didn’t miss the way she looked at his chest.
But he also noticed the way she eyed the tattoo on his side for a very long time. The questions were in her eyes, but she hadn’t said a word and instead had been minding the bullet hole in his shoulder. Luckily, she had the supplies from the pharmacy.
“You sure you’re doing okay and you’re not in any pain?”
He smiled and shook his head. “I’m fine.”
Of course she didn’t believe him, and that was clear by the way she looked at him, but he had been in a lot worse pain than this. After his tour with the Navy SEALs ended a few years back, he still couldn’t get rid of the images of the bodies surrounding his feet, the screams of help that filled his ears, or even the way the smoke and blood thickened the air so much he choked on the shit with every inhale.
But even those nightmare images weren’t enough to erase the one picture that would forever be ingrained in his head or the pain he felt in his chest on a daily basis.
She cleaned the wound once more, smeared some kind of cream on it, and then grabbed squares of thick gauze to cover the entrance and exit. “You have a very gentle touch.” She lifted just her eyes to his, and he felt her touch still. “You really do, Sparrow.” The way her cheeks turned pink had him smiling. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. It feels like forever since I’ve felt a touch so soft.” She cleared her throat, and he knew he should just shut the fuck up. He rested his head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling.
Maybe it was the pain and blood loss that was making the wall he erected for his emotions slowly chip away? Or maybe he was just really falling for this woman, and that it had felt like an eternity since the world fucking ended and the life he once knew was just now a distant memory?
Being with Asher was different, sort of. Where Ash was hard and rough, speaking his mind and calling Mason on his shit, Sparrow had this delicate look in her eyes, even when she was arguing with him.
Asher could handle himself, had proven that on more than one occasion. But Sparrow was so small compared to them, and although he knew she was tough or she wouldn’t have lasted this long, he couldn’t help the male surge that filled him at the need to protect her. But there was a lot of shit he never told her, and he knew she most likely wouldn’t be all about being with two men.
