CHAPTER 3
Dallas sat on the couch tapping his fingers on the hunting rifle lying crosswise on his lap, watching out the big window. In the dim light outside when the moon managed to peek out between clouds, three people moved through the yard. They stumbled a lot, and if he hadn’t known everybody was sick, he’d have taken them for drunk. He was pretty sure they were the neighbors next door, but in the dark and so far away, it wasn’t easy to tell. Also, old Charlie had always been clean-shaven and this guy had a good beard starting. Well…he counted off on his fingers…he guessed a week without shaving might do that.
He’d been reviewing their “shopping” list for tomorrow after Jinx had quit fighting her sleepiness and agreed to turn in. Once he’d heard her settle into the guest bed, he’d felt twitchy and unsettled despite the bone-deep exhaustion. So he’d postponed going to bed by staring at her handwriting on his mom’s shopping list notepad. But instead of really reading the words, he’d been thinking about what a bonehead he was for kissing Jinx in the middle of her crying jag.
The inhuman racket outside had sent him into a cold sweat as he turned off the lantern and scrambled to grab the gun from the front closet.
The three made a beeline—which meant they tripped through the outdoor fire pit and trampled the corner of Mom’s garden—for the compost pile where he’d dumped all the bad food from the fridge and freezer earlier. Gross. They settled in like pigs at a trough, rooting and gorging. He never would’ve guessed the smell of rotting food would draw any of them in. Should’ve buried it.
Jinx’s snores carried down the hall to him. Made him smile despite the disgusting show he watched. She really had a snore on her! Christ, if she kept that up, the dudes outside would be able to hear it. Shit. He’d heard her slide the window open in her room. They probably would hear her. Keeping his gun at his side, he got up as fast and quiet as he could and hurried down the hall to her room. Yep. Open window. He tiptoed around the bed to the window, glad he’d taken off his boots while they were making their plans for tomorrow. As he slid it shut, the damn thing squealed. All three slop-eaters in the yard turned their heads his way. He locked the window, then pulled the curtain closed in case they got any ideas in their sick heads about peeking in at her. Snoring had quit when the window squeaked, but her breathing was deep and regular, so he snuck back to the living room.
He sat on the couch again, but pressed into a corner, not the middle. Only one guy still pigged out at the slop pile. One ambled toward the house. Shit. Where’d the other go?
“Why’d you shut the—”
“Shhh!” He stopped Jinx’s question, turned to find her at the end of the hallway. “Stay put.”
She froze with squawky “eek,” which probably meant she’d seen their visitor. Thank God she hadn’t used a light to find her way.
The guy outside—Charlie, he was pretty sure—put his hands on the window and smashed his face to the glass. If it wasn’t so awful, it’d be comical. There’d be big slimy smears tomorrow. Hopefully he and Jinx would be alive and able to see it.
“Pretty sure it’s the neighbors,” he whispered. “They smelled the food I dumped out there.”
“Or they smelled our dinner,” she whispered back. “Or…they heard us drive in, after dark, and just made it over here.”
All possibilities. He hoped if he buried the spoils tomorrow, they wouldn’t be back. As it was, he couldn’t imagine trying to sleep now, wondering if more would show up and how he’d keep them out of the house if they decided to come in.
The intruder moved to another spot on the window and turned his head to each side, still trying to see in. As long as the moon kept shining, he’d have trouble seeing into the house because it was darker than outside.
“Think they have better night vision with their pupils dilated like that?” Dallas wondered.
“You’d hope. But humans got a raw deal with sight, smell, and hearing, compared to animals. Maybe, though…I’ve heard about people who lose one sense and another gets better.”
He’d heard those stories too. “Seems like their smell must’ve improved, if they could pick that up over at their house. It’s a good quarter-mile away.”
“Plus, we probably sounded like an entire circus showing up in that truck and trailer after nobody’s been driving for days. After dark, when they’d probably come out of houses. Do you think they hide in the dark during the daytime?”
Another peeping pig joined the first guy, pressed his face to the window briefly, boxed the first guy upside the ear and turned away. First guy—had to be Charlie. Had to!—let out a growl and followed his companion, cuffing the back of his head as he passed him on the way to the food.
“Violent tendencies,” Dallas muttered.
“What?” Jinx slid onto the couch next to him.
He moved the rifle to his other side, against the cushioned arm. “Something I heard on the radio. It’s part of the disease.” Along with increased sex drive, so he was relieved they hadn’t been able to see her.
She breathed fast next to him, shivering. “Um. Dallas?”
“Yeah?”
Her chilled arms wrapped around his bicep and he tipped his head down to hers on his shoulder, without taking his eyes off the action outside.
“Do you think…if we have to shoot any of them…it’d be murder? Or self-defense? Because I mean, we have the Make My Day Law, right, so if they come onto your property and you’re afraid of them you can defend yourself.”
She sure could talk a lot when she was scared. But he’d been wondering some of that same stuff himself. When it came down to the nitty-gritty, though, it didn’t seem like there’d be anybody around to explain such a “murder” to—he’d driven past the police station and it had been as deserted as the rest of town. Not that he was keen on shooting a human. “Guess we’ll do what we have to, if the time comes. If they start coming around here more at night, we might have to do some reinforcing around the house, or hell, maybe around the whole property. Pretty soon I’ll have to bring the cattle home for winter, and that’ll draw them in.” What kind of fence could they build to keep humans out? And how much time could he dedicate to the cattle when they needed more wood for heat? Not to mention hunting for meat and drying it, a smell which would bring in the creeps even more. They had other supplies to get, too, like a stash of gasoline and all the things they’d put on the lists tonight and—
“Hey.” Jinx squeezed his arm. “You okay?”
Not so much, not at all. “Sure.”
“Sure,” she repeated. “Knock-knock.”
“Who’s there?” Really, she was gonna try to distract him with a joke?
“Shirley.”
“Shirley Who?”
“Shirley you don’t expect me to know an actual knock-knock joke.”
He rubbed his eyes and groaned. “Why would you do that?”
She giggled quietly. “Because I can, and you can’t stop me. When we go to Walmart tomorrow, I’m finding a joke book. We can each tell a joke from it every day. We’ll choose chapters and only look at our own—no peeking into the other person’s.”
Back to the nervous talking. Between the two of them, they shouldn’t have a problem staying awake all night.
* * * *
Dallas realized he had no idea what Jinx was saying, when her words went to mumbles and then deep, slow breaths. She’d curled up at the opposite end of the couch from him, where she’d moved once the sickies outside had left. They’d talked, which meant mostly her jabbering, to stay awake. And now…soft snores. Well, it was getting light outside and they hadn’t seen or heard anything else out there all night. Maybe he’d catch forty winks too…
He stood next to the food and drink table, taking long, bored drinks from a bottle of water. Sort of looking for one of his friends to hang out with. Except they were all busy dancing with their dates, because their dates hadn’t ditched them as soon as they got to Prom. Stinking Leanne. He should’ve known she was using him. If he’d been smart, he’d have skipped the thing altogether, and her underclassman ass could’ve stayed home—or conned some other senior into taking her to a nice dinner, buying her flowers and a ticket to the dance.
Dammit. She’d spent most of the night with her cult of mean-girl friends. When she wasn’t dancing with popular guys, anyway. Showing up in that down-to-there dress had been a sure way to get guys’ attention. Now he knew why she’d had him pick her up at her BFF’s. No way her parents would’ve let her out of the house in that.
He could leave, let her find her own way home.
Hell. He’d blown the money on the tux. Might as well stick around and people-watch.
Jinx Petersen eased her way along the edge of the gym, in a wildly different dress—something old, he could tell—looking completely out of place and…beautiful. Like somebody-should-make-a-statue beautiful. Shit. When had that happened? How had he missed it?
An eruption of laughter loud enough to be heard over the Kanye song came from—where else?—Leanne and Crew. And they were looking right at Jinx, not even trying to hide that they were talking about her. Jinx noticed, too. Blushed, but kept on working her way along the gym wall. Alone. She’d had the nerve to go stag. Now she’d stand there most of the night waiting for somebody to dance with her. School dances were lame. Give him a barn dance in the arena after bull-riding. Now, those people were there to dance, and that’s what they did. None of this holding up the wall BS.
Some fast song by Lady Gaga came on, and Leanne headed to the floor with Chad Reingold. Figured. Third time she’d danced with him. Not that he cared—much. Sucked being ditched at Prom, but Chad could have her. Leanne wasn’t his type.
He slam-dunked the empty water bottle in the trash can and made for Jinx.
“Hey,” she said when he got to her.
“Hey. Pretty dress.”
She looked down, fluffed it, and he noticed she had on the fancy boots she wore in rodeos. Nice touch. “It’s a loaner from Jolene.” The lady who sometimes coached her on barrel racing. “It’s a Gunne Sax dress.”
“A gunny sack?” He’d never seen one with lace or ruffles.
She laughed. “No, it’s vintage. Which is girl for ‘old’ but still cool. I guess. Some designer lady named Jessica McClintock. I didn’t really like the ones in stores, and I didn’t have two hundred bucks to spend on one. So I wasn’t coming, but… Well. Jolene.” That lady was pretty bossy, alright. “So now I’m borrowing a two-hundred-dollar dress. Stupid things society expects of us, right?”
Didn’t he know it. If his mom hadn’t hounded him about coming, he could have that hundred-fifty he’d dropped on this idiot penguin suit.
“Nice tux. What is it they say? You clean up good,” Jinx said with a smirk and a wink.
“You wanta dance?” he blurted. Bruno Mars was coming on.
“Um. Sure.” She looked around the room, gave Leanne’s Crew the side-eye.
He took her hand and led her to the floor. Wow. Her hair was mostly up, but the part she’d left down flipped around her face when she moved—kinda hot, though he couldn’t say why—and she didn’t seem so nervous anymore. That dress might be old, but it could’ve been made for her, it fit so well. She looked amazing. That Jessica designer woman should have Jinx model for her.
When Bruno ended and the first notes of “Cruise” came on, he grabbed her wrist before she could ditch him.
She let him lift her arms over his shoulders and he pulled her close. Damn. No other girl in their school was as tall as her and he was about the tallest guy. They fit. Just right. She relaxed against him as they swayed.
“So, you and Leanne are…not a thing?” She glanced toward the Cluster of Venom again.
“Only if you consider me being her ticket to Prom a ‘thing’,” he answered. And didn’t even sound salty about it.
“Sounds about right.”
Man, he liked the feel of her against him. Liked the smell of her hair, the perfume coming from her warm skin. “Um.” He figured he should talk, or else his dick might take command of his brain. “You and Joel?”
“Not a thing anymore.” She’d tensed at mention of her douchey boyfriend’s name. Ex-boyfriend, sounded like.
“That sucks.” It actually seemed like good news to him. “I hadn’t heard.”
“Yeah, well. I doubt he’s told anybody. We had different ideas about…sex.”
Oh. He’d called it, alright. Joel was a douche. “It’s good you stood up for yourself and didn’t let him pressure you.”
She blushed; her skin went a pretty peachy shade, which made her eyes even bluer. “What makes you so sure he was the one pushing? For all you know, I’m an animal and can’t get it enough ways in enough places.”
An animal. She wasn’t. He scoffed. Then thought about it. Jinx? She had definitely filled out and those curves were made for one thing. But…a sex-starved animal?
She laughed low and sexy in his ear. “Just kidding,” she said in a teasing voice. Was she? His head spun a little, so he held her tighter. He had to admit, he liked this new grownup version of Jinx he’d somehow been blind to until tonight.
The song ended and he didn’t let her go.
“Again?” she asked, a laugh in her voice, a little breathless. But she didn’t try to move away.
The new song was “Say Something”, even slower than the last, which he liked. More reason to hang on and be close. They might not have gone to the dance together, but they could dance the rest of the songs.
As the song wound down and he tried to think of something to say, since the song was about “saying something,” Christy Moran walked up and grabbed Jinx by the elbow. “Jinx, c’mon. You’ve gotta come get your picture done!”
Jinx had that doe-in-the-headlights look, but she shrugged away from him and followed Christy. Which left him feeling a chill where her arms had been. Matter of fact, he felt a chill about the whole situation. Christy had headed the Prom committee and might have some special part in the photo backdrop, but she was definitely a member of the Mean Girls Club.
He left the dance floor and found a spot against the gym wall where he could see when Jinx finished with her pictures. Except, they didn’t go to the photo backdrop; they went past it and down the hall toward the cafeteria.
Hmm. He followed, figured if anybody questioned him he’d ask for a picture with Jinx.
As he turned down the hall, he got a whiff of something familiar…toxic? What the blue hell? Around another corner, he saw a line of girls with Jinx in the middle, Leanne several feet away taking pictures with her phone. Huh. Seemed legit. Except for Leanne being involved.
Each girl had her arms over the shoulders of the girls next to her, one big happy group of goofy. A group Jinx didn’t fit into at all. Leanne shooed them to back up, and the girls coaxed Jinx back, back…what was shiny on the floor? Back…right where they were hustling Jinx to stand.
Adhesive. He knew the smell from Art class. Dammit. “Hey!”
The Crew girls to Jinx’s left broke their hold on her, but Leanne motioned for the one on the right to stay put.
“Hey!” he yelled again. “Jinx! Step forward!”
Too late, she tried to pick up her foot and pitched to the front then the back, and had just righted herself when he made it to her, grabbing her waist, careful to keep his feet away. The girls to her right moved away.
“What the…” Confused, Jinx kept trying to move her feet.
“Goddammit, Leanne. You and your Band of Bitches!” He steadied Jinx while she tried to get her boots free.
A chorus of “Heys” and “Fuck you, Dallas” broke out. Leanne sneered. “That’s what she gets for trying to steal my date.”
“I was never your damn date. I was your ride here. Guess what? You can find your own fucking ride home.”
“Watch your mouth, Mr. Miller!” the band teacher yelled down the hall. “Everybody out of here and back to the dance. You all know better!”
The Rotten-to-the-Cores disappeared down the hall.
“They’re totally stuck,” Jinx said, tears in her voice. “I’ve gotta leave them here.”
“I know. Let me help.” Together, they got her out of her boots.
“I’m just gonna go now.” She motioned to the outside door at the end of the hall. At the door, she stopped and looked back sadly at her boots standing there in the middle of the floor. “My ass is grass Monday.” She lifted the bottom of her dress so it wouldn’t drag when she went outside.
Oh, geez. “Um, Jinx? The back…” He motioned for her to see the smears of adhesive along the bottom lace of the dress.
“Oh God. That’s not gonna come out. It’s permanent, I bet. Right? Or do you think it will?” Fat tears ran over her lashes and down her face, smearing makeup along the way.
“I don’t…know.” He was pretty sure the dress was ruined. “Hey, let me drive you home.”
“I’ve got it,” she answered miserably.
“No, really—”
“Dallas. Seriously. I can drive with no shoes. Anyway, then my car would be here and I’d have to explain in the morning—”
“And you’ll tell your parents what happened, which they’ll tell the school Monday morning. Right?”
“My dad,” she said with emphasis, reminding him—ah, shit. Her mom died ten years ago. He was such an asswipe! “Doesn’t need to know. It’ll only upset him and then he’ll get pissed about me borrowing a dress worth so much. It’s just not worth it. Not. Worth. It.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault my mom died and not your fault Leanne’s a shit.”
She opened the door and the chilly air hit his hot face. What a mess. Not the way he’d been thinking their night would end. Not at all. “Here. Let me get you to the car.” He picked her up no problem, but she squealed in shock and acted like he’d drop her or something.
“You’re gonna get that stuff on your tux and have to pay damages,” she warned, wiping her face dry.
“No. It’s dry by now. Trust me.” Bitch or no, Leanne knew her glue. This was the quick-setting type.
At Jinx’s little red car, he set her down, slow and easy.
“Thanks.” She pulled the door open. Must’ve left her keys inside, which would’ve made her car an easy target for the Bitch Brigade. “And, um. Thanks for dancing with me.”
Jesus. She’d been the prettiest girl there, and she was thanking him? “Jinx.”
She looked up at him, her door between them.
He leaned over it, did the unimaginable…what he’d been imagining since that slow dance. A soft kiss, a twist to the side, a quick catch of tongue because he wanted her to know he knew what he was doing.
She made a little kitten-sound. He liked it. His pulse thundered in his ears and his dick was like concrete.
Somebody whistled from the front door of the school. Hell.
They broke apart and she touched her fingers to her lips. With a half-smile, she said, “Thanks for that, too.”
“Anytime, beautiful. Anytime.” Oh, smooth. When’d he get so cool with the ladies?
She raised one brow, waved one hand, gathered her dress and settled into her car.
He shut the door and stepped back, then watched her drive away.
Little Miss Leanne would pay. He’d get the money out of her for Jinx’s dress and her boots, too. Or else.
Dallas jerked awake. Jinx snored loud and hard on the couch, her feet in his lap. He rubbed his hands over his eyes, looked at the time on the wall clock. Nine. “Time to rise and shine, beautiful.” Good thing Jinx had been the girl to survive the End of It All, because if it had been Leanne, he wasn’t so sure he’d have rescued her.