Page 20 of Between Two Thorns

“Well, Mr. Medic.” Rose said, easily on her feet, metaphorically, as her wrapped ankle was still delicately sitting on the floorboard. “Even if you did have some huge-ass flashlights so we could get the gas…where would we even go?”

“And it’s fuckin’ freezing outside.” Del chimed in. “Drops like a rock. Can see your breath. Got two jackets between us.” He gestured to his side, where Rose was still wearing his zip-up hoodie.

Sam rubbed at his face and wished he had more of his beard to occupy his hands as he weighed all of those things in his mind. Del was right. He could almost see every breath each of them took… even inside the rig.

“Okay.” Sam brought his hands down onto his thighs, startling the other two out of their thoughts. “First things first, avoiding hypothermia, until morning.”

He faced forward as he thought it all out, though he could see Del shifting to face him, his hand on the back of the bench seat.

“We crank up the heat, then turn it off to save the battery.” Sam plotted out. “And we get under the shock blanket. To reflect heat back onto us.”

“All of us?”

Sam didn’t even know which one of them asked it in a small voice. He turned to his side, looking at the two younger passengers on this crazy ride.

“Yeah, the more body heat, the better.”

Sam saw a smirk break on the young woman’s face—which gave him a little bit of relief, he had to admit, that she wasn’t worried about being wedged between two strange men who knew each other.

“So whoever has their hand on my shoulder can keep it there.” She shrugged casually.

Sam almost joined her smirk—until he saw the confusion on Del’s face.

He wasn’t touching Rose…and if Sam wasn’t either…

“¡Ay—” Sam jerked forward, grabbing his steel water bottle from the dashboard cupholder. “Stay still.”

Rose froze, and her eyes clenched tight. Good, because she didn’t want to see what he was swinging at.

The disembodied, green arm went flying off her with a metallic thud. Before it hit the back windows of the ambulance with a distinctive crunch.

Rose was gasping, turning around in her seat to stare in horror, turning a bit green herself.

But Del was already on the move.

He grabbed the back of the bench seat and launched himself over it with just a whiff of her hair.

He jerked one of the back doors open, kicked the hand out with his heavy, steel-toed boot, and slamming the bus shut again.

A thick silence fell between all of them. For just a painful heartbeat. While it seemed they were all waiting for another shoe to fall.

Or another hand.

A Little Handsy

Roseletoutashriek. She felt a shivering jerk of disgust, and she scrabbled her hands over her neck.

“Ewww! Oh my God, it was touching me. Oh, my God.”

“Ms. Woods.”

Sam was trying to get her attention, but she was not paying him even a lick.

“Rose—”

The redhead was too busy freaking out to be calmed down by Sam’s sweet voice. She was reviled. How had she not noticed that cold, creepy, undead flesh pressed against her skin??

Because she had been hoping it was one of the guys’ hands on her.

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