Love and Decay, Episode Ten

  We all nodded in quiet agreement when we saw what it cost him to give this information up.

  Settling down a little bit, Gage said, “We could send you there. Nobody knows about it, not even Clara. You’d be out of sight. Kane would have no idea where you went and Matthias wouldn’t even know to look for you. It will be cramped, but you can hide out there until I come and get you after Matthias is gone. Then you come back to the complex, we’ll set you up in a few units. Matthias and Kane continue their search everywhere else but here.”

  “Will you let Matthias search here?” Tyler had loosened up just enough to use her weak voice again.

  “Sure,” Gage shrugged. “No doubt, he’ll want a tour anyway. I’ll let him go wherever he wants. The bunker won’t be on the tour list, obviously, and the woods behind the property are thick enough and teaming with enough Feeders that he’ll be hesitant to search beyond the back wall. But even if he wanted to see, there’s nothing back there. The bunker is far enough away to be completely hidden and it’s camouflaged into a rock wall. You’ll be safe.”

  “And Kane?” Hendrix asked on a fierce growl. Clearly he didn’t think a full pardon was justified.

  “We have to let him go. If I kept him and Matthias found out… it might as well be war, Hendrix. He has to go back to his dad, back to The Colony. And he has to go back in relatively good condition.” Gage crossed his arms and met Hendrix’s intimidating stare with confidence.

  Good for Gage.

  I would have been cowering under the desk by now if I were him.

  “But hopefully if he tries to find Reagan again he’ll follow the trail you lead him in,” Vaughan explained in a pacifying tone meant for his brother.

  “Exactly,” Gage nodded. “It might not be a permanent solution, but my largest concern is avoiding war and protecting the people under my care. Once Kane and his father are outside our walls and back home, there’s not this pressing concern to appease them. I have too many innocents and people that don’t know how to use guns to worry about upsetting them while they’re here. One thing at a time. We worry about their permanent threat later. Let’s just get through the next couple of days.”

  Tyler nodded slowly while I ran through every single thing that could go wrong with this plan.

  “And you’re absolutely sure the bunker is safer from Feeders?” Hendrix put two strong hands on my shoulders and I felt the vibrations of his words against my back. This seemed like a great plan, but we’d all become wary of everything that sounded too good to be true.

  In fact, I found it hard to trust good things even a little bit.

  Just ask Hendrix.

  Gage nodded, “Yes, I’m sure.”

  “What do you think, Tyler?” Vaughan asked gently. “Do you think this sounds safe enough?”

  Tyler shuddered and hugged her arms tighter around her body. “Nothing sounds safe enough when it comes to my dad.” She lifted her eyes to meet Gage’s and then mine, and then Vaughan’s. Finally, after a full minute of reflection, she said, “But it’s our best option. Even if we go back on the road, once he knows we’re not too far ahead, he’ll find us. Gage should have given us more time to think this over and plan.”

  Instead of getting offended, Gage chuckled and explained. “Truthfully, I forgot about this. With you guys showing up, keeping Kane on lock down and about a hundred other things, your dad’s visit was the furthest thing from my mind. I only remembered now because one of my proxy groups returned from their latest Colony run. They had a message from Matthias reminding me.”

  Tyler didn’t seem convinced. I wondered what Hendrix and Vaughan thought about his explanation because Tyler was right. Gage should have warned us sooner. Gage should have had this conversation with us a week ago. Could we even trust him now? Was there really a bunker?

  There was a lot to think about and we had an entire day to come up with a plan b.

  Not very much time.

  A hundred questions flitted through my head, but Tyler voiced the most important. Sometimes her southern sass was enough to drive me crazy. Sometimes, I could just kiss her.

  “What’s your angle, Gage? Are you trying to keep us here for you or for my father?”

  “Tyler….” Gage shot forward in his chair, but she wasn’t finished.

  “Either you want us trapped close by with the threat of my daddy showing up because you want us to join your settlement. Or because you’re planning to hand us over to him when he arrives. It’s too late for us either way now, but I’d like to know which of these manipulative plans you have in store for us so I can be…. emotionally prepared.” She stared down Gage with a predatory ferociousness that was a bit frightening.

  “Tyler, don’t start with me,” he drawled, seeming to rearrange his approach from defensive to cynical. “What happened is what I said happened. Fine, I messed up and forgot. But I also have a plan that ensures your safety. I’m not trying to keep you here; I’m just trying to keep you alive. If you want to take off after your dad leaves, that’s fine with me. And I sure as hell am not planning on handing you over to the sadistic asshole you call daddy.”

  Tyler bristled next to me, but it was Vaughan who spoke up. “We’ll stick with your plan, Gage.”

  “Vaughan!” Tyler whirled around so that she kneeled on her chair facing Vaughan. “But…”

  “But nothing, Tyler. You might not trust Gage, but don’t you trust me?” He held her gaze with an intensity that bordered on seductive and his hand had somehow made it to her waist.

  This was the exact reason I ever started to fall for Vaughan before. Not that I was in danger of saying the L word to him anytime soon, but if Tyler didn’t have butterflies assaulting her stomach right this second I was going to question her humanity.

  Have her checked for the infection.

  She worked to swallow against Vaughan’s hypnotizing gaze and whispered, “I trust you.”

  Vaughan grinned at her, and then squeezed her side. “I know.”

  Gage cleared his throat and our attention swung back to him, “Now that we have that settled…. Are we good?”

  “We’re good,” Tyler threw casually over her shoulder.

  The three of them were like a soap opera, I couldn’t stop watching them. This was so much better than TV.

  Wait; was this what it had been like for Haley?

  That was slightly embarrassing.

  Tyler and I stood up to leave and Hendrix moved toward the door.

  “Hang back, a sec, Ty,” Gage called.

  Instead of acknowledging Gage, Tyler looked at me. “Stay with me?”

  I pressed my lips together to hide my smile. More soap-opery goodness!

  “Sure,” I smiled at her and then turned back to Hendrix. “I’ll catch up with you in a bit?”

  He didn’t look very excited about that and his normal intense scowl turned into a deeper glower with wrinkles in his forehead. I reached up and smoothed them out with my fingertips.

  “I’ll only be a few minutes behind you,” I promised.

  Hendrix gave Gage an appraising look and then grabbed the sides of my t-shirt and dragged me into his chest. His lips crashed down on mine in a possessive kiss that swept me away with its hungry concentration. His hands moved from my shirt to my bare waist where he yanked me tighter against him. He was so good at kissing. It didn’t seem fair.

  “Come right back to me,” he growled when he finally released me. “I’ve got something planned for later.”

  “Uh, huh,” I heard myself agree dreamily. I shook my head out and forced my brain to function again. “Wait, what do you have planned?”

  He shrugged and gave me a devilish smirk. “I’ve been on a scavenger hunt all week.”

  I narrowed my eyes on him, suddenly so nervous I forgot how to breathe- it wasn’t that I couldn’t breathe or that I stopped breathing, I literally forgot how.

  Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

  His smirk grew to a grin while he watched me freak out. “Y
ou gave me a list, Reagan.”

  “And you found it all?” I squeaked.

  “Guess we’ll find out.” He shrugged and then followed his brother out to the hall.

  “What was that about?” Tyler asked with a sort of sick amusement- probably the same kind I felt whenever she interacted with Vaughan or Gage.

  “Ugh,” I groaned. “Commitment.”

  Tyler laughed even though I was sure she didn’t fully understand and Gage just looked at us like

  we were aliens.

  “It’s probably good that you stuck around, Reagan. This concerns you, too.” Gage sat forward in his chair and rested his folded hands on the desk.

  “Oh, yeah?” I sat back down and shot Tyler a curious look. She shook her head and returned her attention to Gage.

  “It’s Kane,” he finally sighed. “I can’t, uh, he’s a mess. He hasn’t had a bath since he’s been here. He’s covered in old blood. He smells bad. I mean, it’s going to be hard enough explaining why he’s been locked up for the last week. But I can’t give him back to your dad the way he is. Someone has to clean him up.”

  “So what does that have to do with us?” Tyler bit out, slamming a hand on her hip.

  I glared at Gage, hating what he was about to ask us.

  “He won’t let anyone else touch him,” Gage grimaced. “Believe me, I tried. He kicked one of my guys in the face, broke his nose and managed to get a gun from another.” We gaped at him, so he continued, “He was kind enough to return the weapon, but he made his point. He wants you, Reagan.”

  “And when were you going to tell me?” I snarled, harsher than I intended. It wasn’t Gage’s fault, I knew that. But he was the only one here I could take all my frustration out on.

  “I was going to make Tyler do it.” He at least had the grace to look sheepish.

  I grunted in return.

  “There’s more,” Tyler pushed.

  “Damn it, Tyler, we haven’t seen each other in an entire year!” Gage laughed. “You’re superhuman.”

  “It’s the Allen curse.” She slammed back in her chair and crossed her arms. “And I’ve known you my whole life, Gage. Just because you’ve been gone awhile, doesn’t mean I don’t remember all your tricks.”

  Gage’s smile melted into pure sex, “That so?”

  “Oh, god.” Tyler rolled her eyes. “Would you just get on with it?”

  I snorted a laugh. I hadn’t seen Gage outright flirt with Tyler before and I was a little staggered by it. He was a good looking guy; I mean, not Parker brother standards, but the sexy grin definitely gave him a few more points.

  He ran a hand through his short blond hair and met our eyes with some obvious reluctance. “I need you to clean him up, Reagan. Otherwise we’re in deep shit. Matthias was not receptive to my team. Basically bullied them until they gave him everything he wanted with little return on his end. He’s becoming more aggressive with each of our interactions. And while I’m not afraid of him, I don’t have the means necessary to go to war with him. At least not yet.”

  “War?” Tyler scoffed. “Daddy’s crazy, but he’s not going to go to war with you.”

  “Tyler, he’s wanted me dead ever since the day I left his colony. We formed a precarious alliance based on necessity, but he’s growing. My resources aren’t as valuable as they used to be. And he knows that. He will take any opportunity he can to put a bullet in between my eyes and absorb my complex into his colony.”

  Gage suddenly appeared in a different light. He was only a year older than me, Tyler’s age, probably twenty-one… maybe twenty-two. And yet, he carried this complex on his back. He was responsible for two hundred lives and not just in the life or death way, but in their well-being too. He had to provide for them, make this community as humane as possible and keep everyone from going crazy or killing each other. And probably hardest of all, he had to keep his own humanity, walking the hard balance between being a strong, capable leader and turning into Matthias Allen.

  Tyler seemed to take in all this information with a new sense of suspicion. Her expression scrunched distastefully and she asked a surprising question- at least to me. “Why did daddy let you go in the first place, Gage? In all that time, you are the only person he ever willingly let walk away. Why?”

  Gage’s expression flashed with shame so fast I wondered if I misinterpreted it. But then he couldn’t look Tyler in the eyes and I knew I’d seen it, self-disgust and misery so strong it turned my stomach.

  “Gage?” Tyler whispered. “What did you do?”

  “He never liked me,” Gage mumbled. “He never wanted me there anyway.”

  “He didn’t like you,” Tyler agreed. “But he didn’t feel strongly enough to let you go. I know that. What did you have on him? I’ll help you, but only if you’re honest with me.”

  Gage’s attention turned back to the candles flickering on his file cabinet. They were burned low and dripped wax down the tan metal side. I knew the drawers to the cabinet would be full of replacement candles because every single unit had the same feature.

  “A threat,” he finally confessed with his thick southern accent. His simple word twisted in my chest as I waited for the shameful truth he was about to spill. “After Logan, I knew I had to leave and I wasn’t going to risk what Logan did. So, I went to your dad and told him about my uncle and his set up here. I offered a partnership, a barter system of goods. My parents wanted no part in my plan, so I promised it would only be me leaving as long as he let me go.” He let out a heavy sigh. “I told him, if he didn’t let me go, I was going to take you with me, Tyler.”

  She flinched as if he’d slapped her. “But Logan tried that. What made him believe you could do that after what he did to Logan?”

  Gage sat in silence as Tyler put the pieces together. “He believed you. He knew you would succeed where Logan failed.” The words grated against my soul as I felt how painful they were for Tyler to say out loud. “What made him think I would go with you? Why didn’t he just kill you right then and there?”

  “I hadn’t done anything wrong yet,” Gage shrugged. “The town was still upset over Logan; you know they wouldn’t have taken my death well. I wasn’t just some random kid.” Gage looked at me. “I’d led them to three State basketball championships and my dad was the mayor before Matthias took over. Matthias would have lost the town. He would have lost his support.”

  “And me?” Tyler whispered.

  “He knew you’d go with me Ty,” he sounded apologetic, but his fierce gaze ate her up in the dark.

  And that’s when my suspicions were confirmed. Gage had it bad for Tyler Allen. Apparently, popularity wasn’t the only thing Logan and him competed over.

  “Fine,” Tyler shook out her dark hair and leveled her gaze with steely composure. “Good for you. You found a way out. You should be proud of that, you should be-“

  “I should have taken you with me,” he spit out bitterly. “I shouldn’t have used you as leverage, Ty. I should have gotten you the hell out of that town and away from your son of a bitch father.”

  Tyler pressed her lips together and shook her head violently. “It doesn’t matter,” she argued. “I wouldn’t have gone with you anyway- not so soon after Logan died. You did the right-“

  “Ty,” Gage cut in, “we both know you would have.”

  Ringing silence met Gage’s forward statement, which I guessed spoke for itself. I immediately

  reached for Tyler’s hand and held it in mine. She trembled in my grasp. I could feel how shook up she was, how desperate to get out of here. I just wanted to fix this for her. My heart ached in my chest and all I wanted to do was protect her from this.

  I didn’t exactly blame Gage for the emotional trauma Tyler was going through- she was a little bit fragile to begin with. And she had pressed him to tell her the truth. But, it was up to me at this point to pick her up and help her escape.

  “Just tell me what to do, Gage.” I patted Tyler’s hand and waited for my community
service to be handed out.

  Gage’s grateful gaze met mine and I had to assume he was thankful to have the conversation moving again. “I need you to get him washed and looking as human as possible; clean him up. His injuries are still pretty bad, so he’s going to need help with…. everything. Make him look and presentable and then give him a convincing goodbye speech.”

  “Why can’t this wait until tomorrow?” I groaned.

  “You’re going to the bunker tomorrow. This has to be done today,” Gage sighed.

  Ugh, he was right.

  This was officially horrible. But the good news was, I just had to get through today and then Kane Allen would be out of my life forever.

  “I hate this, you know that, right?”

  “I’d kick you out if you actually liked it,” Gage grunted.

  “I’m sorry, Reagan,” Tyler whispered on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry my brother’s making you do this.”