“Thank God,” Lola hissed when they stepped out of the truck. She was as white as a sheet of paper.

Sky had expected her sister to put up more of a fight, but Arnie began to gas them and Lola was too busy fanning herself to notice much of what was going on around her. The customized Mad Max cars at the meeting point. The livestock hauler. The gear. The craziness. All in all, it had been for the best that Arnie kept Lola half in coma.

“You feeling better?” Sky asked after her sister took in several deep breaths of fresh air.

“Still a bit dizzy,” Lola replied. She was going to say something else, but a sneeze interrupted her. Then another and another. “Damn dog allergies.”

Crap. Sky glanced around. No pandemic squad in sight. Thank God. They better have antihistamines along with the fish antibiotics down in the bunker, or her sister was going to end up quarantined.

“What the hell are you feeding Arnie?” Lola asked after she got her sneezing under control.

“Your fault,” Sky said, tugging Arnie away from her sister. “We told you to dab the cream under your nostrils.”

Lola took her aside. “Sure, because any sane El Barrio girl would have no issues using something a guy called Alchemist offered her.”

She had a point there.

“Logan is a chemist, and not in a Breaking Bad kind of way. He held an executive position in a pharmaceutical company before he moved here.”

Lola looked around and then back at her. She threw her arms up. “And what the heck happened? He got caught embezzling and he’s hiding in an episode of Duck Dynasty?”

“He quit. He wanted to do something that mattered.” No way was Sky explaining the details. Lola would never believe the mushroom slash diaper thingy.

“You guys gonna be okay?” Logan asked, handing Sky her bug-out bag. “I have to help Alec unload.”

Sky nodded and kissed him. “Go. We’ll be fine. We’ll stay put.” Her sister loved the outdoors about as much as Sky used to. In those heels, Lola was going nowhere. And if this drill was like the other Sky had taken part in, there would be checkpoints at the entries. No one in, no one out.

“Speak for yourself,” Lola muttered under her breath. “I’m not going down quietly. Where are we?”

“Not sure. In the forest somewhere. This is their…” Compound sounded so Waco. Lola would freak again. “It’s where they train. Listen,” Sky said, forestalling her sister’s interruption. “It was very nice of you to come here to rescue me, but there’s no need. Really. This is not a doomsday cult and they haven’t brainwashed me. They prep.”

“Prep? For what? Really, Celeste Macarena, are you speaking English? Because I don’t even understand you anymore.”

Sky could tell her sister was getting aggravated. Lola only used Sky’s full name when she was really pissed.

“All sorts of catastrophes. Pandemics. Natural disasters. The collapse of the economic system. Terrorist attack. Zombies. Invasions. You name it, they prepare for it.”

Lola tsked. “No need to worry about invasions, alien or otherwise. Any moron stupid enough to come this far would run at the sight of these guys.”

That was probably the idea.

“Why didn’t you tell me before that you were staying with a bunch of wackos?” Lola demanded.

“I told you they were peculiar.”

“Cough-drop-flavored Kit Kat bars are peculiar. Meatball-scented candles are peculiar. This is downright whacked. And what’s that?” Lola asked, indicating Sky’s backpack.

“This is a bug-out bag. All you need to survive the first seventy-two hours after a disaster.”

Lola didn’t seem impressed. “Why is everyone staring at me?”

“You’re new and unprepared. Big minus.” Lola’s clothes were a dead giveaway. She looked like she was about to step into a salsa club. Then again, Sky had been wearing a bunny hat when she first landed in NoName, Minnesota, so who was she to judge?

“Unprepared? They haven’t seen my purse,” Lola said, lifting her ten-pound shoulder bag.

“You’re prepared for a broken heel. A wine stain on your skirt. Not to fend off zombies.”

Lola glared defiantly. “You haven’t been much out lately, have you? After two a.m., all the men in New York are zombies.”

True again.

“Are we prisoners?”

“No, of course not,” Sky said, trying to appease her. “We brought you along because we were on the clock. They time the drills. Whenever they’re done, we’ll go back to town.”

“Or we can steal that truck and drive nonstop until we hit the state line. You got the transfer to France, sis. Why didn’t you answer my calls? Last I heard, you were saying some nonsense about not being sure, and then the connection cut out.”

“There’s poor reception in town. Besides, this Friday I’ll be in New York. I thought we could talk then.”

“You were coming to New York and you’re just telling me?” Lola shrieked. Then she lifted her hands and drew in a calming breath. “It doesn’t matter now. Let’s go back together.”

Right. “You know,” Sky said, “when the school here found out about the summer semester in France, they offered to extend my internship in Minnesota.”

Lola’s laugh was dry. “I guess you told them to forget about it unless the internship came with a paycheck that had seven figures in it.”

“Not exactly.” Sky took a deep breath. “I’ve decided to turn down France. I’m staying.”

Silence.

“What do you mean, you’re staying?” Lola looked around again. “Voluntarily?”

Sky smiled. She herself must have had that same expression her first days in town. “Of course voluntarily.”

“What about Paris? The real Paris, I mean. What about your career in fashion? If I recall correctly, all this teaching English to foreigners was a way to get to Europe and have your basic expenses covered.”

“I like teaching English.” She wasn’t only good at it, she loved it. She might even have found her major. After all these years, a trip to Minnesota had cured her of being a permanent student. Go figure.

“You can teach English in New York too. You can teach it in France. You can teach it anywhere in the world. You know what you can’t do anywhere? Be a retail buyer for an internationally acclaimed department store.”

“Logan doesn’t live anywhere in the world. He lives here.”

Lola crossed her arms. “So it all boils down to a man.”

Basically. Sky didn’t dare look Lola in the eye. After all, Sky had spent half her life criticizing her sister for basing life-altering decisions on men. “I’m happy here, sis. Logan makes me happy. I actually look forward to waking up so I can see him.”

Lola’s brows rose disbelievingly. “You look forward to waking up?”

“I still have my moments. I had a rough couple of weeks. But yes, I love being with him. I… love him.”

Lola’s tone softened. “I understand the appeal. He’s gorgeous. But come on. A couple of months here and you’ll go stir crazy.”

She’d already been in Minnesota for longer than that, and so far so good. “I want to give this a go.”

“Come,” Lola ordered, grabbing her by the lapels and staring into her eyes. “Your pupils seem normal. Have you eaten anything suspicious that these people gave you? Beverages, candies? You feeling disoriented? Difficulty thinking straight?”

Sky chuckled. Lola couldn’t even begin to imagine the amount of suspicious shit Sky had eaten since her arrival. “I’m not under the influence of any drug. I want to stay with Logan.”

“And what does he say?”

“I haven’t said anything to him yet.”

“Said what to whom?” Megan asked, approaching.

Sky paused for a long instant. If she uttered those words now, there would be no taking them back. They would be out there, for better or worse. Still. She’d never been more sure of anything in her life. It felt right. He was the one. It wasn’t indigestion. “I’ve gotten approval for a summer semester in France, but I’ve decided to stay in town. They offered to extend my internship.”

Megan smiled wide and hugged her. “That’s fantastic. Logan will be so pleased.”

“Don’t mention it to him. I haven’t told him yet.”

“What haven’t you told him—that you’re staying or that you love him?”

“Either,” Sky confessed. Then she stopped abruptly. “Wait, how did you know about that last part?” Megan hadn’t been around when Sky told Lola.

Megan gave her a glare. “Was it supposed to be a secret? I can see the way you look at my brother.”

Sky blushed. “Please don’t say anything. I’m waiting until the award dinner.”

“Why?”

“One big step at a time.” She was feeling dizzy already.

“Hold on a second,” Megan said, frowning. “If you’re staying, why don’t you want to give up Mrs. Rantala’s unit?”

Sky was taken aback. “You know about that too?”

“Logan told me. I think it bothers him.”

“I was afraid that if he got tired of me, he wouldn’t say a word unless I had another place to stay. You know what I mean?” She didn’t want to impose. Didn’t want him to have to put up with her just because she didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Megan snorted. “Got tired of you? Not happening, believe me. He wants you living with him. He loves you.”

“He told you that?” Sky asked, hating that she sounded as insecure as she felt.

“He doesn’t have to.”

Actually, he had to. They’d never spoken about the future, the assumption being that they had none. And they hadn’t said much about feelings either, the assumption being that there was no point in having them.

“People,” Lola interrupted, “aren’t we forgetting something?”

“Right. Lola, this is Meg, Logan’s sister. Megan, this is my sister Lola.”

“I didn’t mean—”

But Megan hugged a surprised Lola. “Very nice to meet you. Let’s go inside and I’ll introduce you to the rest. Sky promised us a crash course about how to avoid frizzy hair. Better get it in before the scheduled drills. God knows how we’ll look after them.”

“This is not what I meant!” Lola whispered to her sister.

Oh, Sky knew. She knew it very well.

* * *

After helping Alec with the data collection, Logan spotted Sky alone by the grill, piling up wood, Arnie by her side. He approached her from behind, hugging her as he reached her. She jumped, startled, but melted into his embrace the second she recognized him. He smirked at her but kept quiet.

“What? Spill!” she finally said.

“Celeste Macarena?” Logan murmured, trying to contain his amusement. “Macarena like that tacky dance craze?”

She turned to him. “Macarena like the Virgin Esperanza Macarena from Seville, Spain. She has lots of worshippers in Colombia, where she’s also the patron saint of bullfighters. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Didn’t know you were so religious.”

“I’m not, but my grandma and my mother were. For almost three decades, in the Hispanic Society of America in New York, there was a picture of this virgin on display. In the nineties, it disappeared. I have a strong feeling it’s in storage at home.”

Logan chuckled against her neck. “You’re shitting me.”

“No. My grandma swore right to her death that they stole it from her to begin with.”

“How did Celeste Macarena become Sky?”

“Have you ever met a Celeste Macarena Gonzalez who didn’t speak Spanish? Besides, I needed a shorter name if I didn’t want to waste half my life introducing myself.”

“Must have been lonely not understanding those around you.”

“Not really. My grandmother was always busy working. My mother was busy dying and I was busy staying away. Talk about dysfunctional, huh?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s water under the bridge now.” She paused, then asked abruptly, “What’s your damage?”

“No damage. My parents are still together and healthy.” Nagging at each other and at Megan and at him, but together.

She lifted her brows. “Really? No damage? And this phobia about commitment?” At his frown, she continued, “Remember the first time we hooked up?”

“When you came on to me in the living room and the whole pandemic squad was in the yard, wrapping the house in plastic?”

She smiled. “Yes. Do you remember your first question to me?”

“Not exactly, no. I remember how hot your pussy felt on my cock, how hard your nipples were, tenting that flimsy camisole with every one of your breaths. I remember how soft your hands felt when you were running your fingers through my hair. I remember—”

“You asked what I expected to get out of the sex,” she said. “You didn’t seem to believe I only wanted orgasms.”

He pondered for a second. Yeah, maybe he had some damage too. “Manipulative ex. Although I would remind you that I’m the one who’s been insisting on you living with me while you’ve been dragging your feet.” She had needed the convincing, not him.

She was about to say something, but at that moment the door of the main building opened and a muttering Lola came out. She stomped into the clearing. With what looked like a cell phone in hand, she raised her arm and began walking left and right, searching for a signal.

Shaking her head, Sky let out a soft snort. “Innocent soul.”

Yep. Lola continued her pointless endeavor, moving her device close to her face and then far away, squinting.

“I don’t know why she even bothers,” Sky said. “She doesn’t see squat without glasses. Even if she got a signal, she wouldn’t be able to type or read anything.”

Lola stepped into something and her heels sank in the mud. They didn’t need to know Spanish to understand she was swearing like a sailor.

“Quite fluent, her Spanish,” Logan observed.

“You bet. Grandma raised Lola. And Grandma never left El Barrio. Lola loves the neighborhood. It’s her heritage.”

“You don’t? It’s your heritage too.” And she wasn’t an angry teenager anymore.

She shrugged. “I’m part of a culture that I can’t represent because I don’t know it. It’s an awkward place to be, you know what I mean?”

Logan remained quiet for a long while. “Is your sister going to be okay, or should we worry there’s going to be an arrest warrant against me for kidnapping her and you?”

Sky smiled. “She’ll be fine, I think. Can’t promise about the warrants. As a matter of fact, her latest plan was to hotwire Alec’s truck and make a run for it.”

Alec’s truck was unstealable. Then again, a sneak attack would be a good test of these people’s readiness. “You told her the preppers aren’t dangerous or holding anyone against their will, right?”

“Uh-huh. It would have been more credible if they hadn’t scheduled a POW protocol training at the compound. Or if Pam hadn’t insisted on showing her the bunker and the food supplies.”

True. As botched first impressions went, this one took the cake. “What’s she doing in Minnesota?”

“I fell off the grid for several days. She was afraid we were about to ingest cyanide and join our leader in the mothership coming for us before the end of the world.”

“Why didn’t you answer her calls?”

“We kept missing each other,” she said, obviously lying. “By the way, how did we do in the bug-out evaluation?”

She was hiding something, but he let it slide. “We brought a hostile hostage with us and Arnie is an uncontrolled lethal weapon, gassing friends and foes indiscriminately. Take a wild guess.”

* * *

“You sure you don’t want to stay and travel to New York with us on Friday?” Sky asked as she walked her sister to the rental car.

If looks could kill, Lola would have incinerated her on the spot. “Forty-eight hours was enough, thank you very much. I’m running away while I can, before they barricade the town and proclaim an independent republic or some shit like that.”

Sky grimaced. “You’ve been unlucky. They’re normally less… active.”

“Less crazy, you mean?”

That too. Lola had caught the emergency drill, the POW protocol training in the compound, and the survival exercises in the forest. Once at home, they’d invited her to the best-and-only restaurant in town so she could relax, and—surprise, surprise—it had rained.

Lola hadn’t been amused.

At all.

Sky should have called Elias and taken Lola to whatever club he was playing at. That would have mellowed her sister out. Too bad Sky hadn’t thought of it.

“It was a pleasure to have you with us,” Logan said, offering her his hand.

Lola smiled tightly. Translation: “I wish I could say the same.”

“See you on Friday?” Sky asked, hugging her sister.

“You bet.”

Sky wouldn’t be surprised if, once she was in New York, her sister kidnapped her to make sure Sky wasn’t going back to Minnesota.

“Can she see enough to drive?” Logan asked as they watched Lola speed away.

Sky lifted her shoulders. “She can’t see the numbers on the speedometer. But then again, she can’t see the numbers on the road signs either, so it’s just as well.”

Logan shook his head and called Arnie, who was sniffing around in the yard. “Come on, boy. Let’s go home.”

Arnie ran to them—and climbed the porch steps. Then he jumped down and climbed them again, barking for attention and looking at them smugly.

“The rascal is trying to impress you,” Logan said, opening the front door. “Okay, show-off, let’s see if you can climb all eighteen steps to the second floor.”

As if he’d understood the challenge, Arnie ran inside. Last time his resolution had faltered halfway up. Not now. Now he managed the stairs all on his own. A bit shaky in the last stretch, but he succeeded. He trotted down, looking so happy and pleased with himself, Sky’s heart swelled. She went on her knees and embraced her beloved beast.

“Seems it will stick,” Logan said, petting Arnie’s head. “Thank fucking God we can stop giving him those treats. Cows have nothing on him. He’s solely responsible for Minnesota’s net methane emissions.”

“You did this. Thank you for not giving up on him.”

“Well, we don’t give up on the people we love, no matter what, right? That’s your mantra.”

The words clenched in Sky’s chest. “Not really,” she whispered, turning around. She sat on the sofa. Got up again.

“What?”

“I abandoned my mother. I’m a hypocrite.” She tried very hard to steady her voice, but she didn’t succeed. It broke. “I totally gave up on her. More than that—I bitched at her and criticized her. Accused her of not trying. I couldn’t stand to look at her. So eventually I didn’t. I stayed away as much as I could during her last years. I was fresh out of compassion and deep into rage territory. She disgusted me. I yelled and screamed, but I didn’t get a reaction.” Fat tears were rolling down her face. “There was always that sadness in her eyes, Logan. Despair. She was defeated and trapped. Lost. And I was unable to find it in me to accept her and help her without judging her.”

He gathered her in his arms. “I’m sorry, baby.”

She’d love to say she had tried her best, but she hadn’t. She’d run away and stayed away because she couldn’t watch her mother decay any longer. Impotence had turned into fury and disdain.

“I tried to fix her for so many years. Make things better for her, get her back to the land of the living. But I couldn’t snap her out of it. It made me so angry. At the end, her physical state caught up with her mental one. She had the beginnings of renal failure, diabetes, and osteoporosis. She had no muscle mass whatsoever, and her pulmonary capacity was very reduced. She only ate, slept, and watched TV. Her teeth were all but gone, and she was wearing diapers because she wasn’t fast enough to make it to the bathroom. Barely sixty, Logan.”

“You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved, Butterfly.”

She looked up and wiped her tears with the palm of her hand. “So I’ve heard. How much of that statement is true, and how much is letting yourself off the hook?” She didn’t know anymore. “Lola handled it much better than I did. With acceptance. She came to visit as often as she could. She would wash my mother’s hair and dye it. Give her a salon day, so to speak, even if Mom stayed in her pajamas. Lola treated her like a human being. It was hard for her to watch Mom in that state, but she did the best she could for my mother. I didn’t.”

“So when Arnie came to you with baggage…”

“There was no way in hell I was going to give up on him, whether he got over his shit or not.” After her mother died, it had taken months for Sky to see clearly past the pain and hurt. When she did, the horror of her behavior had hit her like a ton of bricks. How little compassion she’d shown. How intolerant she’d been.

“That’s why accepting Arnie’s weaknesses and helping him are so important?”

She nodded, new tears rolling down. “I abandoned my mom, but I’ll be damned if I abandon him. Even if tomorrow he forgets how to climb stairs and I have to frigging carry him everywhere for the rest of my life, I will. I’m not giving up on him. On anybody, ever again.”

Logan tucked her hair behind her ears and kissed her. “I know, babe. That’s why you weren’t trying to teach him. He’s your penance.”

“Love should be unconditional. I learned the hard way. When it was too late.”

“He’s very lucky to have you.”

Sky glanced at her dog, sitting by her feet. Looking worried and distressed as he always did when she cried. She petted his head reassuringly. “He sometimes disagrees.”

Logan chuckled. “He gets frustrated, but he’d go to hell and back for you. I know the feeling.”

“You do?”

“Sure. I get frustrated with you all the time.”

Even in this situation, Logan managed to make her smile. “Not that. I mean the going to hell and back part.”

He nodded.

Sky couldn’t move her gaze away from him. Those gorgeous eyes, that rough face. Jesus, she loved this man so much. He meant the world to her.

“Having your sister around was fun, but I’m glad she’s gone,” he said. “Not being able to make love to my woman in my own house... Don’t misunderstand me. Fucking you in the bathroom, with the shower on full force to muffle your moans—that blew me away. But I like hearing you scream.”

His woman. She loved the sound of that too. “Make me scream now,” she whispered.

“My pleasure.” Whistling, Logan turned to Arnie and motioned toward the kitchen. Arnie huffed but obeyed, leaving them alone.

“That’s impressive, Alchemist.”

“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Her man was macho tripping again. Good.