Page 17 of Redemption
Glorious carnage surrounds me when my own personal ghost of Christmas past edges through the broken doorway. Hiseyes slowly roam around the shambled remains of the room before landing on me, my arms still holding the bat in the air menacingly as I search for my next victim. He looks as if a bomb was about to explode right in his face and it’s too late to find cover.
Sounds about accurate. He should be wary.
“We should probably get going. It’s a long way and, if they took the tunnels, they’ve got a huge head start on us.” He tightens his lips, pulling them to the side, thinking a moment. “Actually, either way, they’ve got a pretty decent head start, even if they took a vehicle back. They prepped the roads to suit the encampment’s needs and, as such, for them it would be easy to navigate even with any unpredictable factors.”
“So, we’re fucked in the ass either way with no lube to ease the damage. Awesome.”
I side-eye myself before I latch onto a particularly intriguing nugget of information. “Uh... ex-squeeze-me? Tunnels?”
He sets his jaw and heads back out the door with a sweep of his hand, indicating for me to follow him over to the main house. Just before he reaches the steps, however, he turns right, jutting his jaw to the sidewall covered in climbing ivy. Lifting his weapon to the foliage, he says, “Move the leaves to the side.” He stands guard as I do so, moving the winding vines over until...
“There’s... a doorway?”
He nods. “Don’t open it. There are hidden doors all over the place that lead to the lower levels, including a few inside the palace itself. Those then lead to various tunnels that then lead to other places.
A memory slams into me from when we visited this place all those years ago. I remember the tour guide saying all sorts of stuff pertaining to the Masons who once resided here. Apparently, there are interconnected underground tunnel systems, passageways, and all kinds of secrets hidden right under everyone’s noses. It all makes complete sense now.
“That must be how they got the jump on us.”
He nods silently to my theory. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The only thing that would actually have a chance of taking Jax and the guys by surprise.
The reality of the situation hits me hard. If they’re using the tunnels, they’d be able to avoid the traffic barriers, the natural elements like foul weather, and even the zombie hordes with ease. Realistically, they’d be able to return to the encampment within hours.
And we can’t follow them using the same tunnel system because they might be down there waiting for us to do just that.
Fuck. I’m at a serious disadvantage here.
Without wanting to delay any longer, I harden my gaze, standing tall with my decision. “Let’s go then. If they have that much of a head start on us, we have no more time to waste.”
Chapter Eight
Dare
It’s one thing to be reunited with someone you haven’t seen in years, let alone thought was almost surely deceased. The moment should be surreal. Like a movie put into slow motion, the screen capturing all the subtle, skin-deep emotions just aching to be let free. The chemistry, the anguish, the relief. It’s another thing when they’ve turned into a fury-spewing, bat-wielding rage monkey determined to destroy every living thing within a twelve-foot radius.
It's definitely surreal. And there was relief, at least on my end, when I caught that first glimpse of her. I never thought I’d see the day when fate finally decided we were meant to be together again in some capacity, even though I dreamed of it just this morning. Her beautiful face filled my waking thoughts as it always does.
Perfect and serene.
A reunion such as ours could never be boring. No, “So, how about this weather, eh?”I knew there would be some sort of spark. Fireworks to rekindle our once epic love for one another... or a bomb to splatter me across the open field. It could’ve gone either way.
But as I watch her pacing in front of the gates, Alessandra’s emotions overflow from her petite little body, turning her into a growling, pacing, enraged woman who’s currently having the worst day ever.
She’s like a rabid little chipmunk—delightfully cute in her ferocity—but understandably so. She was just forcibly separated from her group and has no idea what their current status is. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I showed up out of the blue, throwing a wrench into her morning, being most definitely the last person on earth she wanted to see at the time.
But, at least I’m not what she’s currently focused on....
She swings the bat down once again, smashing it against what used to be a decorative wax myrtle bush. Now it’s just a lump of leaves and sticks. Regardless, I take another step back... just in case, preparing for the bomb scenario where I end up as human confetti decorating the lawn. She’s already got plenty of ammo regarding me to enrich her anger and I don’t need her swinging her fury frenzy in my direction.
“Those fucking douche canoes took them both?!”
Apparently, according to her pissed-off rambling that’s continued well over the past half-hour, her crew had stashed a couple of motorcycles in this general area when they first arrived. But, as I watch her behead yet another decorative bush—this one, a former azalea—I realize they have, in fact, gone missing since.
I don’t really see what the problem is, however. Sure, they would have made the journey back to town quicker and safer, but they’re loud as hell—not the best option for undercover work—and it’s not like she knows how to drive one. Or, at least, she didn’t when she was with me. But, then again, I’ve missed a lot.For all I know, she could’ve learned how to operate one in the years I was gone.
“I swear I’m going to castrate them all, and then I’m going to cut their dicks off and shove them right in their throats.”
That’s fucking adorable—coming from someone that barely comes up to my armpit—and, yet, equally terrifying because I know her. Or at least I knew who she was years ago and, back then, she never said anything she didn’t intend to follow through on. I will admit, however, that homicide via dick-memberment and subsequent phallic asphyxiation was not what I had on my roster for my ex-fiancée’s future hobbies but, at this point, I wouldn’t put it past her.
