“Rebel, Rebel, wake up. I see something.”

“Oh,” Rebel groaned, wiping drool off the corner of her mouth. “Whut?”

She pushed away from Krissy, groggy and disoriented, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Both of them had been sitting on the floor, their backs propped against the wall. Rebel had fallen asleep on her cousin’s shoulder.

There was a wet spot on Krissy’s sleeve. Rebel’s face heated. “Sorry.”

Krissy shrugged. “Drool is the least of my worries right now.”

“Rebel, come here, you’ve got to see this,” Kati whispered urgently, pointing out the window.

Krissy helped Rebel to stand and they stumbled over. Tiana joined them. They crowded around and looked out the open window.

Rebel gasped, her fingers covering her lips. “Trevor.”

“Can you believe it?” Kati chortled. She swept a lock of her wavy brown hair over her ear. Her green eyes sparkled. “He just drove up to the front entrance, plain as can be on that Harley of his, like he owned the place.”

“Where’s everyone else?” Tiana asked. “Did you see Adam or Christian?”

“No. I don’t know where they are,” Kati shrugged. “I only see Trevor.”

“Quiet,” Krissy ordered. “He’s talking to those two enforcer guys who walked up. Those are those same guys who beat up Justin.”

“I can’t hear them,” Kati groused.

“I can, and I could hear them better if you’d shut up,” Krissy said.

They were all quiet for a few minutes. Rebel stood with her fingers digging into her palms, her eyes on the man who was the most important person to her in this new world, the man she’d dumped four days ago. His beard was thicker. He’d shaved the sides of his hair, over his ears, leaving the rest of it longer. He was wearing a black T shirt and jeans, similar to what he’d been wearing that first day she’d met him in Casa de Fruta. And he was just as handsome. Actually, more handsome. She stared at him like he was dessert at Christmas and she was a spoon. Her heart still bled for this man and she wanted him as much as ever.

Damn him.

Why did he have to be a former drug dealer?

And a criminal? A murderer?

Why?

“Oh wow,” Krissy said, her voice full of wonder. “You know what? I think Trevor’s here to try and save us.”

Right then the double doors to the kitchen burst open and two cooks returned along with another bulky biker. Luckily none of them were Smith.

“Oh hell,” Tiana whispered under her breath.

“Okay, time for all of you to get out of here so we can get back to work,” the gruffest of the two cooks announced. He tilted his head toward the new guy, a towering blond viking who was wearing some sort of leather motorcycle vest with patches on it and enough tats to make Trevor look like an amateur. “You’re leaving with him.”

“With this guy? To where?” Rebel asked. “Where are you taking us?”

“Name is Raider,” the new biker guy rumbled. “I’m your babysitter. Smith said you could hang with that black guy we beat up. Then I’m coming back to pick you up and give you rooms to sleep in. Tomorrow morning we’ll have a ceremony and Smith will give you away, deciding which of us gets to keep each of you.”

“Oh hell,” Tiana whispered again.

Raider cracked his knuckles. “You girls come with me and make this easy and it’ll be easy. You make it hard and I promise it’ll be hard.”

They stared at him, quiet.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“I think you should give Trevor another chance,” Krissy whispered as she glanced back at the door to Justin’s spacious room. The door was open a crack and their bodyguard, Raider, was standing in the hallway.

“What the hell for?” Rebel whispered back. She put her fork down. All of them were holding plates piled high with surprisingly good food. Even Justin, who was sitting up in the spacious bed, with cuts on his face and a bandage around his torso, had a plate on his lap. Cloth napkins and drinks were on hand. Again, this compound ran smoothly for a place that was organized by what she considered to be “the antagonists.” Too bad these men couldn’t learn to use their powers for good, because damn, they were winning at this surviving the apocalypse crap. “Don’t you remember that you were the one who told me to watch out for him? I can’t just forgive him that easily. I see him through a window for a minute and all is forgiven? That’s crazy talk. Why would I do that?”

Although she did want to do that. She wanted that so bad—to her eternal shame.

“Are you blind? Because he’s hot and he loves you, Rebel, that’s why. I totally take back everything I said. He’s here and the only reason why would be because Spike got to him and he’s let himself be captured by them so he can somehow get us the hell out of here. The others must be nearby, with some sort of escape plan.”

“Yes, it’s pretty amazing that he’s here, I think it’s true that Spike got to them. I agree the others must be here somewhere, too. And, of course he’s hot, but I don’t know that he loves me. He’s probably just here because he wants to save all of us.”

“Oh, he loves you,” Justin grumbled.

“What?” Rebel gasped. “You…you’re saying that?”

Krissy cocked her head. “See? Even the skeptic notices. It’s just that freaking obvious, you idiot. I was watching Trevor and heard what he said out there. He told the enforcers that he was there because he’d heard they had Rebel Case, the movie star and a few other women and he wanted in on that so was hoping to join their group. He mentioned you first. I swear I thought I heard his voice hitch when he said your name.”

Rebel frowned, not wanting to allow a ray of hope into her heart. It was too painful. “I just want to remind you two that both of you told me to dump him in the first place.”

Justin swallowed the food in his mouth and wiped his face with a white cloth napkin. “Everything I said was true at the time…But, now I think you need to give the guy another chance,” he sighed. “He loves you. He came back to save you. He’s here, so it shows he’s willing to risk his life to save yours…”

“Rebel, he’s the shit,” Kati cut in. “And by the way, this potato salad is fantastic. I love the pickles. Am I right? This is fabulous.”

Tiana let out a deep throated laugh, her black eyes sparkling. “I know! And these beans are like something my Grandma used to make. I can’t believe this. This is the best meal I’ve had since—”

“But…but he was a drug dealer, a murderer,” Rebel cried, trying to keep the conversation on track. “Justin, you said not to trust him, that he’s dangerous. Remember the long lectures you gave me?”

Justin sighed again, put his plate down on this lap and ran his fingers over his short, black hair. “People change. I guess the end of the world gave him the opportunity to start over, and he did. Look, after Krissy came in and explained the conversation she heard earlier, I’ve been sitting here thinking about it and what I’m telling you is, I was wrong about him. Krissy and I, we were both wrong about him. With all those tats he looks like an asshole murderer. Well, he was an asshole murderer, the kind of guy I would’ve been busy chasing down and throwing behind bars, but he’s changed. I didn’t think someone like him, someone I considered to be one step above a rabid animal, that he could change. But he did. Adam, Christian, Sebastian and the other women there, they treat him like a peer, like a man they trust. If they trust him, well, hell, I guess I trust him too.”

“I’m willing to give him another chance too,” Tiana scraped her plate clean with her fork, licked her utensil, and kept talking, “If I look back on it, he never treated me any different than anyone else. He’s nothing like these assholes up here who’re planning on sharing me out. I heard these motherfuckers talking about their plans for me, starting back when we were first in that parking lot. They’ve been referring to me as…well, I won’t even repeat that shit. What I’m saying is being here helps to show how different Trevor is from these animals. He used to be a drug dealer, which fucking sucks, that’s the lowest of the low. But, he’s clean now. It’s not like he’s trying to start that shit up again. And I mean yeah, he’s kinda full of himself and is quick with the stinging comebacks. But hey, no one’s perfect, right? And he’s some serious eye candy. I say give him another chance, too. He loves you in his own biker dude way.”

“What Tiana said,” Kati exclaimed.

“Yeah, me too,” Krissy said.

Justin nodded.

Rebel took a deep breath. “Oh shoot, now I have to find a way to get to him and tell him I love him, too.”