Page 29 of Reanimated Ruin (Hearts In Horror #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Cat

WHEN DOM AND I came out of the bedroom after finishing our talk, Jules was puttering around the kitchen, pretending to be super focused on checking the space out. Like he hadn’t most likely had an ear pressed to the wall listening to our conversation because he couldn’t stand to be left out of it. That fact became pretty clear the second he and Dom made eye contact. He broke out into a big grin and winked at him like a little shit.

“If you eavesdropped on the entire conversation, should I assume then that means we don’t have to fill you in?” I teased as I leaned over, resting my arms on the island counter.

“I would never do such a thing,” he gasped, placing a hand on his chest mockingly. “I can’t help it if this place has thin walls, and you guys were talking loud enough for me to hear.”

I just rolled my eyes playfully at him while Dom came up and stood beside me. He put a hand on the small of my back, his fingers tracing around lazily. It was a small gesture, but it made me happy that he was wasting no time in showing his affection for me. It was all about the little things with me. I didn’t need any grand gestures as a way for them to show their interest. I always knew it would be the casual touches, them simply not being able to resist having a point of contact when near you. That’s what would woo me.

Jules looked to the hand on my back, then to our faces, and his grin grew even wider. So I guess they had already spoken about it because he didn’t look surprised or upset in the slightest. He looked happy about it, in fact. He came over to us and I stood up straight, turning my body to face him so I could look up at him.

When I did that he took a few steps closer and backed me right up against Dom’s chest, who chuckled darkly, then grabbed my hips firmly and pulled me tighter against him. My head fell into the crook of his neck and shoulder as I leaned it back even further, straining to maintain eye contact with Jules this close because of his height.

“So you’re really ours now?” He asked me, a sultry darkness to him that I wasn’t used to experiencing.

I bit my lower lip and nodded, words drying up in my throat as I clamped my thighs together. He extended his hand out and caressed his thumb down my lip, tugging it out from between my teeth then leaning forward to take it between his. His hand fell to grip my chin as he nipped my lower lip himself, then released it to thrust his tongue into my mouth. I lapped back at it with my own, and a throaty moan slipped out of me. We moved back a few steps until I heard the rattling of cabinet doors behind Dom’s back and I was sandwiched securely between them.

Jules’s lips moved against mine while Dom’s came down to trail up my exposed neck. His hand came up from where it was grasping my hip to slip under my shirt before traveling even further up. Fingertips grazed my nipple, then tugged on it and my mouth fell open in a gasp. Jules swallowed the sound I made before it could tumble out of me.

I couldn’t think straight with both of their hands all over me. It was pure bliss. Jules’s hand came around my thigh as he hiked it up so he could slip between them, then ground his hips into mine. Dom groaned against my neck when the movement caused my ass to push harder against the bulge already rubbing against it.

“I’m glad to see everyone’s kissed and made up,” Sadie’s voice spoke out from the now open bathroom door, steam billowing out around her.

We scrambled to untangle our limbs and break apart, turning to find Sadie smirking at us from the doorway. We’d been so caught up in each other we hadn’t even heard the shower stop or the door open.

“Oh, come on, did you really think it was a secret?” She questioned cheekily. “Between all the lovers’ quarrels, angst and sexual tension thick enough to cut with a knife, it wasn’t that hard to figure out what was going on. I don’t need to know the exact history between you three to see what was going to happen. I’m just glad you guys are done being dumb and fighting it so hard.”

“Ugh,” I groaned with embarrassment. “I’m sorry if we made things awkward.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she chuckled, walking over to the island and sitting at one of the stools. “It was nothing compared to a single holiday dinner with my dad’s side of the family. No one got stabbed with a carving fork or had to spend a night in jail, so as far as I’m concerned, it was a walk in the park.”

Yikes, I thought to myself that in all this time, Sadie hadn’t really revealed much about her family. She’d told me she’d gone no contact a while back but didn’t really elaborate any further. I hoped she’d feel comfortable confiding in me if she ever needed to talk about it. I was definitely experienced when it came to getting shafted in the familial support department. I think deep down we could sense it about each other. People who grew up like we did just had a way of knowing when someone was like us.

“Still,” I replied. “We should have had our shit under better control. In the future, I’ll try my best not to make our drama your drama, too.”

“Hey, sometimes that’s just how it goes with family. Tu drama es mi drama. Besides, you’re gonna need someone on your side when these two gang up on you, like they already love to do.”

“Great,” Dom snarked. “Can’t wait.”

I playfully pinched his chest to silence him. After he looked down at me like I’d just kicked his puppy while tenderly rubbing the spot.

“I’m gonna go take my turn with the shower before we head down for dinner,” I interjected. “Can you guys keep an ear out for Rhi and try not to kill each other in the meantime?”

“No promises,” Sadie and Dom both said at the same time, staring each other down.

“Well, at least on the murdering Dom part, of course, we’ll listen out for Rhiannon. I just make no promises not to tease the boys when they make it so fun.”

When I shut the door to the bathroom, Dom and Sadie were still in the middle of a staring stand off in the kitchen. Her with a sarcastic smile on her face and him glaring back at her. I could see the amusement alight in his eyes though. He might pretend like she irritated him to no end, but he loves someone who takes his shit and throws it right back at him. He’d always been a ball buster by nature and I enjoyed seeing him meet his match. I had hope for our little family and for once I felt like it was full of people who loved me as unconditionally as I did them.

After everyone had taken a shower, I woke up Rhiannon and bathed her as well. I had no idea the last time she’d gotten clean, and the attic most certainly did not have a bathroom up there. I probably should have done it as soon as we got here, but she was sleeping so soundly finally after most likely not feeling comfortable enough to do so for days. She still hadn’t uttered a single word, the entire time just sitting there silently while the surrounding water took on a dingy brownish hue. It took everything in me to not tear up at imagining what she went through, what she’d experienced that stole her words away.

By the time I dried her off and got her dressed, Julia had shown back up to bring us down to dinner. When we began the trek, I tried to get Rhi to walk on her own, holding my hand next to me, but she began to panic and reach up for me. I bent down to pick her up, but Jules put his hand on my shoulder to stop me.

“Hey there, little buddy, do you want a piggyback ride? I used to give them to your big sister all the time when we were little like you.”

She looked up at me briefly, then nodded her head enthusiastically. He got down low so she could throw her little arms around his neck then lifted her up. I saw the hints of the first smile I’d seen on her face since pulling her out of that damn attic and once again I was choking back tears. It amazed me that she was so quick to trust my friends when she was still refusing to talk. It gave me hope that she’d get back there eventually after she realized she was safe here with us.

Sadie was up front, chatting away with Julia as we walked down the path to the cafeteria. Jules was behind them with Rhi still on his back, pointing at big fluffy clouds floating through the sky and calling out what they looked like while her head followed his finger. Dom had fallen back to walk beside me while I looked around at the campus surrounding us.

I felt his hand come out and brush against mine. When I didn’t move it away, he intertwined his fingers with mine. I peeked over at his face and there was a smug look of satisfaction across it, like he was proud to be openly displaying whatever we had going on between us.

We got to the doors of the first building, this time instead of going through the front, we took an entrance through the side that faced the courtyard. This door opened right into the cafeteria that was already bustling with people. It was a bright open space with large floor to ceiling windows lining an entire wall. There was plenty of seating, a bunch of long tables that looked like they’d fit at least twenty people each lined the room. Only about half of them were occupied, and I wondered if this was everyone.

“Right now we have a population of one hundred and eleven people here, including yourselves,” Julia said once we were all through the door. “We’re still under more than half capacity, with all the dorms here we could hold up to three hundred easy. That’s why I suggested we go out and look for more survivors. If we have the means to help others, we should. Breeds good karma and lord knows we can use every last drop we can get.”

The food was served to us like it was still a school and we were students. We went through the line and had our trays filled by a few older women while Julia explained kitchen duty was reserved for those who were less able-bodied. They were just beginning to dole out jobs. The first few days were chaotic, but the council took control pretty quickly and people were all too eager for someone to tell them what to do. When disaster hits, you learn pretty quickly who the leaders and followers are. More often than not, most people were followers.

We walked Julia to her table with Lukas, Elena, and Kaleb sitting at it. We thanked her for showing us around, then headed off to our own table. I wouldn’t have minded sitting with them, but Rhi was still acting pretty weary of people outside the family. I didn’t want her to feel so uncomfortable she’d refuse to eat. She further proved she was at least warming up to my found family pretty well because she climbed off Jules back into the seat between him and Sadie when he set her tray down.

It was nice to have some normalcy back. If you could forget that the dead were coming back to life and biting people beyond the wall, you could almost mistake the atmosphere for a restaurant or food court. It was nice to be around other people even if we were secluded over in our own little corner of the room. I could hear people conversing, even some joking around and laughing with one another. It felt good, something deep down in a human being’s nature craved community. We weren’t meant to be on our own.

After we’d finished eating and returned our trays, we headed out to the courtyard to enjoy some of the remaining warm weather. It was the tail end of summer, almost fall, so the days were beginning to shorten with the sun disappearing from the sky earlier and earlier each day. There were groups of people strewn about sitting in the grass. A few families were seated around one another, with a bunch of kids running about in the middle. Rhiannon looked at them, then up at me and I nudged her, trying to encourage her to go join them and play. She just clung onto my leg tight and shook her head.

I didn’t push it any further. I didn’t want to force her outside her comfort zone. It was our first night here. She would come around in her own time frame. Rhi was only four and had seen things no one her age should have ever had to endure. She watched the kids playing tag for a moment and I could see the wheels turning in her head. She then let go of my leg and hesitantly walked over to where Jules was standing. He watched her curiously as she approached, then she stood before him, tapped him on the leg and took off running.

“Oh yeah, I’m it?” He gasped playfully, then called out. “Nuh uh, no fair. Just wait, when I catch you and tag you, you’re sooo gonna be it!”

She looked over her shoulder at him chasing her with a smile, then let out a belly laugh as she tried to increase how fast her little legs were taking her. I stood with Dom and Sadie while we watched them dart around. All of us laughing when Jules would slow down so she could tag him and then she’d take off in the other direction, giggling like a madwoman. I was elated to hear her making any kind of sound. I was beginning to become scared she’d gone entirely mute on me.

While we were watching them, two women slowed as they passed by us when suddenly one of them made a high pitched unintelligible noise then started bounding towards us.

“Oh my god, Dom, is that you?!” She blubbered and threw herself into his arms.

He awkwardly held his arms out at the side, not hugging her back as she clutched at him desperately. It took me a second to register what was happening, but as I started digesting the scene in front of me, I realized I recognized the short brunette girl throwing herself all over one of my boyfriends. It was Cindy from the first quarantine zone. I looked from her to the other girl and yup, Rachel. I had absolutely no idea that my former tent mates knew my guys at all, let alone was close enough to Dom to be hanging off of him.

“Hey Cindy,” he said cooly as he peeled her arms from around his waist and eased her back a step.

“We were on our way to the concert when we got stopped by the military. They forced us to go to a quarantine zone at some stadium in Rotlington before it got overrun with infected. I tried to call you a bunch, but the phones were down already. We traveled back with a random group of people and ended up here. I thought I’d never see you again. Oh my goodness, I can’t tell you how relieved I am you found me! I can’t believe you came for me!”

“Uh,” he threw a nervous glance my way. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m super glad you’re okay and everything, but I had no idea you were here. I don’t want to sound like a total jerk cause I know we were supposed to meet up at the show and the world is fucked right now, but yeah, I didn’t come here specifically to try and find you.”

“That’s okay, all that matters is that we did find each other!” She squealed and tried to rush forward to hug him again, but he put his arm up to stop her.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, trying her best to give him puppy dog eyes while pouting. “Aren’t you happy to see me, too?”

His eyes darted to me once again, and she followed his gaze till her eyes fell on me with a glare.

“Who’s she?” She asked with disgust lacing her tone.

“You don’t recognize me?” I scoffed.

“No, should I?” She bobbled her head and gave me a look like I was the stupidest person she’d ever had the displeasure of talking to.

“My friend Sadie and I literally shared a tent with you and Rachel back at the first QZ.”

“Oh, I mean, I guess you do look a little familiar. How do you know Dom?” She questioned me, then turned back to him. “Who is she?”

“That’s Cat,” he sighed, then looked up at the sky, as if preparing himself.

For what exactly? I didn’t know, but Cindy’s mouth fell open.

“ That’s Cat? ” She asked incredulously. “You mean the Cat? The slut who ghosted you and broke your heart? Then years later you go out for a friend’s birthday to some seedy strip club in Rotlington only to find her dancing there? And then that very same night, you show up at my place crying and complaining about it so fucking wasted you couldn’t even keep your dick hard?”

Normally, I would be panicking over the fact that someone just revealed my previous work history for everyone to hear, but I was completely stunned. Dom knew? He’d found me by accident and I’d had absolutely no clue. How had I missed him? In the back of my mind then, I’d known once both their twenty-first birthdays had come and passed that it was a possibility that one of them could have walked through those doors. I’d had it planned out in my mind, an exit strategy, if you will. I’d never had to use it, though. I hadn’t seen him at all.

I tore my eyes from Cindy’s face to look at Dom, and he was looking back at me with a pained expression. He looked scared, like he wasn’t sure how I was handling all this information. He swallowed thickly, took a deep breath, then turned back to her.

“Yes, that Cat,” he gritted out and narrowed his eyes. “For the record, that wasn’t really your business to go blurting out.”

“Who cares?” She snapped back nastily. “If she’s trashy enough to take her clothes off for money in the first place, I don’t really think she’s all that concerned about her image.”

I bit my tongue as rage coursed through me. Who the fuck did this girl think she was? The old and new versions of myself were at war within me. Old Cat would have simply stood by and taken the abuse. New Cat was feeling awfully violent. I wracked my brain for the happy medium but it was hard when new Cat was currently winning the internal power struggle. The devil on Dom’s shoulder was clearly making a lot of good points too, because his face twisted in anger.

“You’d know a thing or two about trashy. The night we met, you had your tongue down your best friend’s boyfriend’s throat and then went home with me. Maybe I couldn’t keep it up cause my dick wasn’t satisfied with settling for a cheap knockoff version anymore,” he spat at her.

Her furious gaze shot back to me and she took me in from head to toe for the first time during the interaction. From the intensification of her anger, I don’t think it took her very long to realize the similarities between us. Besides our hair color and stature, we really didn’t look that much alike, but it was close enough that she got the message he after he called her a knockoff.

“Oh yeah? Well, you still asked me out again after, so you were clearly still interested. Even wanted me and Rachel to go to the stupid strip club with you after the concert. You wanted to show me off and make her jealous!”

“You got the make her jealous part right, but the me being interested in you part is way off,” he responded, as if she was now the stupid one.

“Whatever!” She whined like a spoiled brat not getting her way. “If you want to pick some stripper whore over me, then you’re dumber than I thought.”

Then she stormed off, making a dramatic exit before anything more could be said, with Rachel trailing behind her. Dom immediately rushed towards me and began trying to explain himself, but I held up a hand to cut him off.

“Not here, please,” I softly spoke.

I then turned to find Jules standing there with a shocked look on his face. Rhi was standing in front of him with his hands covering her ears, so she hadn’t heard any of what was said. Sadie was standing there scowling at Cindy’s retreating figure.

“Think they’d make us leave if I kicked her ass?” She asked me.

“Let’s just drop it for now and go back to the room,” I said and tried to avoid the gazes of everyone around us. “We’ve already put on enough of a show for one night.”

I took a deep breath and finally looked up at all the people staring at us. Most looked away once our eyes connected, but there was one person in particular who didn’t shy away. On the edge of the courtyard was a group of uniformed officers. All but one of them had their backs turned, oblivious to all the screeching that was happening just seconds ago.

Pretty overt display of disorderly conduct, if you ask me.

The officer that was holding my gaze didn’t look much older than myself. His piercing blue eyes were locked on mine, briefly flicking to Cindy halfway across the lawn, then back to me. His head ticked to the side inquisitively, like he was trying to study and figure me out on the spot. He didn’t look like your typical cop.

He had the tattoos and the haircut, but it wasn’t slicked back tightly, like the rest of the guys standing around him. It fell forward across his forehead in loose, dark golden waves. He didn’t have the air of arrogance they usually stood about with. He was standing there with his hands in his pockets and shoulders slumped forward. I don’t know if I would have noticed him if he wasn’t so tall. He was at least half a foot taller than everyone else, so he stood out, towering over them.

Usually a police officer staring me down would make me feel uncomfortable, but it didn’t necessarily feel foreboding. I told myself he was most likely just being nosy like everyone else was. I hoped everyone was thoroughly entertained at my expense. Dom was the one to piss her off, yet it was my dirty laundry being aired. Make it make sense. I didn’t do a single thing to the girl.

I walked over to Jules, scooped Rhi into my arms and began walking back towards our room. Neither of the guys fought me on carrying her this time. They knew it was best to just let me be. I was grateful for Jules preventing her from hearing any of that, though. While I’m sure she was too young to understand what my old job had entailed, Cindy had also decided to use some pretty fucking degrading words. Well, great, now the cat was out of the bag. No pun intended. I wasn’t ashamed of what I used to do, not really. I just really didn’t want to deal with how people tended to react when they found out. Everyone loves strippers until it’s someone they know doing it.

From the look on Jules’s face, that was his first time learning of it. Dom had known, though, and he’d kept it a secret. I thought we were done with that. Why didn’t he say anything, even now? I know we didn’t have the most amount of downtime in between fighting off the infected and just trying to survive, but he’d had opportunities.

He’d also had plans on the night the world fell apart to show up to the club with Jules and girls to try to make me jealous? I mean, I wouldn’t have been there, but still. The intention was there. We’d literally just got back on good terms and already we were going to have to have another serious discussion. Maybe I should be reconsidering this whole two boyfriends thing. While it was supposed to be two times the fun so far, it’d just proved to be two times the drama.