Page 19 of Glass Rose (Where Roses Rot #1)

THIRTEEN

SOFIA

He shoves me behind a fallen log, his body covering mine. Through a gap in the rotting wood, I spot three infected stumbling between trees, their movements jerky and uncoordinated. One wears the tattered remains of a park ranger uniform.

“Don’t move,” he breathes against my ear.

His weight forces me into the damp earth, one hand braced beside my head, the other on his belt. I feel every inch where our bodies connect—his chest against my back, hips against my ass, thighs against mine.

“This position—” I whisper.

“Shut up.” But I feel his smile against my hair. “And wait here.”

He unsheathes his machete and flows between the trees until he’s directly behind them. With a few swift strikes, he severs their heads from their bodies, the machete slicing through flesh and bone with terrifying ease. The corpses drop, twitching briefly before going still.

Gavin turns to me, machete dripping crimson onto the forest floor. “You okay? ”

A gurgling beside me raises the hair on my arms. I spin to face another infected, its female form lurching toward me from between the trees.

No time to think. No time for fear. Pure instinct.

I dodge the creature’s grasping hands, pivot on my heel, and drive my father’s knife upward through its chin.

The blade scrapes against bone, sliding home with that sickening give. The creature stiffens, a final hiss escaping its rotting mouth before it slumps against me, deadweight, and I shove it away, yanking my knife free.

“That’s four.” I wipe the blade on my pant leg, leaving a dark smear. “Getting better at this.”

Gavin’s by my side in three long strides, eyes scanning me for injuries. “You didn’t hesitate.”

“Can’t afford to. Not anymore.”

His gaze lingers on my hands. They’re steady. No trembling. Not like two weeks ago when I’d thrown up afterward, heaving until there was nothing left but bile and self-loathing. I’m not sure what that says about me anymore.

“You’re getting good at this.” He sounds almost disappointed?

“Don’t sound so thrilled about it. What did you expect? Me scrambling and dying?” Although to be fair, it wouldn’t be unlikely.

“I—”

“Expected me to keep needing you to save me?” I step over the corpse. “Sorry to disappoint.”

He catches my wrist, stopping me. “That’s not it.”

“Then what?”

“I liked…” He drops my arm. “Forget it.”

“No. Say it.”

“I liked being needed.” The confession comes out rough, like it’s being dragged from somewhere deep. “By you. ”

Oh. Oh… “You think I don’t need you anymore because I can kill these things?”

He shrugs, eyes on the forest floor.

A distant crack echoes through the trees. Branch breaking? Footstep?

Gavin tenses, head cocked. “At least five, coming from the east.”

“How can you—” I stop myself. Enhanced senses.

Two other men in park ranger uniforms, a woman in bloodied business attire, a teenage boy with half his face missing, and something that might have once been a child but now moves on all fours like an animal, emerge from the treeline in a staggered group.

I clutch the knife handle harder.

“Back to back.” Gavin positions himself against me. “Remember what I taught you. Brain stem or through the eye. Nothing else stops them.”

The infected advance, drawn by our movement, our scent, our life.

Or worse… just mine.

The woman reaches us first, and Gavin’s machete takes her head in one clean stroke. The teenage boy comes for me, and I sidestep, driving my knife into the soft spot at the base of his skull. He drops like a stone.

The park rangers converge on Gavin. Normally, they’d ignore him… It seems like they attack him if he shows hostility. Do they?—

The child-thing scuttles toward me unnaturally fast. I slash at it, missing as it darts between my legs.

Sharp teeth sink into my boot, tearing at the leather but, luckily, not reaching flesh.

I kick hard, sending it tumbling back, then pounce, pinning its writhing form with my knee as I thrust my knife through its temple.

I turn to see Gavin grappling with one ranger, the other dead, and another appearing out of nowhere, circling behind him, jaws snapping.

Without thinking, I throw myself between Gavin and the approaching infected, my knife slashing across its throat. Black blood sprays across my face, hot and viscous. The creature stumbles but doesn’t fall.

Shit.

Throat wounds don’t kill them, only slow them down.

Zombie 101.

The infected tackles me, its weight driving me to the ground.

Rotting teeth snap inches from my face, held at bay only by my forearm against its slit throat.

With my free hand, I fumble for the knife that fell during the impact, fingers closing around the handle just as the creature’s strength begins to overpower mine.

The blade enters under its chin, driving upward into the brain. Its body convulses once, twice, then goes still.

I shove the corpse off, gasping for breath. Gavin stands over the other ranger’s bodies, his expression thunderous.

He stalks toward me. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

I climb to my feet, wiping blood from my face with my sleeve. “You’re welcome.”

“That was reckless and stupid.” He grabs my arms, eyes blazing. “It could have bitten you.”

“It didn’t.” I meet his glare with my own. “And I wasn’t going to stand there and watch it take a chunk out of your back.”

“I can handle myself.”

“So can I.” I shrug out of his grip. “And I’m not going to apologize for protecting you, just like you wouldn’t apologize for protecting me.”

“It’s different.”

“How? Because you’re some enhanced super-soldier, and I’m just a scientist?

” My voice rises despite the danger of noise.

“ I’m not going to be a burden, Gavin. I’m not going to hide in the warehouse while you risk your life.

If that’s what you want, then you picked the wrong fucking woman to share your bed with. ”

His eyes flick between mine. “I don’t want you hurt.”

“And I don’t want you hurt either.” I drop the bloody knife back into its place on my thigh. “That’s kind of the whole point. We watch each other’s backs. We protect each other. That’s how this works. And not only that. I need—I want you in ways that have nothing to do with survival.”

His stare lingers, something shifting in his expression. Then, one of his hands cups the back of my neck, hauling me in for a brutal kiss.

Adrenaline mixed with fear and something deeper neither of us is ready to name fuels the desperation of it.

The rotting corpses, the danger, everything but the heat of his body against mine fades. His hand tangles in my hair, tilting my head back as his tongue sweeps inside, claiming me with a ferocity that makes my knees weak. I moan into his mouth, nestling closer, wanting to crawl inside him.

His free hand slides down my back, gripping my ass and hauling me up. I wrap my legs around his waist as he pins me against the rough bark of a nearby tree.

“Thank you,” he murmurs against my lips.

My fingers curl into the fabric of his shirt. “For what?”

“For giving a shit whether I live or die.”

I kiss him again, softer this time. “I’m tired of the distance. Of waking up alone. Of this wall between us.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Everything’s complicated now.” I glance around at the corpses littering the forest floor. “Doesn’t mean we have to make it harder.”

The radio at Gavin’s hip crackles to life. “Eastern perimeter clear,” John’s voice reports. “Three down. Heading back. Report status.”

Gavin puts me down and unclips the radio. “Northeast secure. Ten neutralized. Returning to base.”

“Copy that,” John answers. “Good work.”

Gavin clips the radio back to his belt, turning his attention back to me. My heart pounds with something dangerously close to hope.

“Let’s go back.” He offers his hand.

It’s a small gesture, but in this blood-soaked world, it’s monumental.

I interlace our fingers and let him guide me.

After a few minutes, he clears his throat. “Military brat wasn’t the whole truth.”

I glance sideways at him, careful not to break whatever spell has him talking. “No?”

“Foster care, mostly. Bounced around until I was sixteen, then enlisted.” He crosses over a fallen log, helping me across. “Army first, then private security. Black-Ops-type shit.”

“That’s how you ended up investigating Green?”

“Started as a standard corporate espionage gig. Some whistleblowers claimed they were developing illegal bioweapons.”

“They were.” I kick a pine cone, watching it tumble across the forest floor. “Though compliance tech was the primary goal.”

His laugh carries venom. “Found that out the hard way.”

“These blackouts you have. Are they from Green or?”

Gavin’s stride falters, almost imperceptible.

I step in front of him, blocking his path. “Three nights ago, you zoned out for five full minutes while sharpening that knife. Yesterday, during dinner, you disappeared somewhere in your head when John mentioned the military checkpoints. And?— ”

“Sofia—”

“I know what dissociation looks like.” I place my palm over his heart. “Some things fester if you ignore them. What happens during these episodes? Do you remember anything?”

He looks past me toward the warehouse. “Fragments. Flashbacks to what they did to me. Injections. Surgeries. Broken bones to see how fast they’d heal. Sensory deprivation until I couldn’t tell if I was awake or dreaming. Other times… nothing. Just blank spaces.”

“Does it scare you?”

“Only what happens if I lose control. If it takes over, and I’m just living on borrowed time.”

I peer at our interlocked hands. “You told me once to put you down if you became dangerous. Remember? But how am I supposed to know where Gavin ends and whatever they created begins if you won’t let me in?”

His fingers twitch against mine. “Chili.”

I tilt my face up. “What?”

“I like my pizza spicy. With Chili.” His lips curve into a beautiful, genuine smile. “And dogs. Had a German Shepherd named Rex growing up at the compound we lived. And I do have people I want to check on. My team.”