Chapter 32
Best Laid Plans
Alex
Nerves are getting the better of Ollie.
She can barely stay still next to me, tapping her fingers on her thighs or bouncing on her feet as we crouch in the woods opposite the front gate to the camp.
Several metres to our right, Bean munches contentedly, not at all fussed by the tension in the air.
Harlow, however, is just as anxious as Ollie, panting beside us as she paces back and forth.
“Don’t you think they should have sent us the signal by now?” Ollie asks, her voice wavering with concern.
“We still have at least ten more minutes before we need to worry,” I say, trying to stay calm for the both of us, even though my guts are in knots and I’m sick to my stomach.
Ollie huffs next to me, not happy with my answer. “Sure, but what if something happened to them?” She nibbles on her lower lip as she taps her fingers on her thighs in a pattern only she seems to understand.
“Then we help them in ten minutes.”
“But what if ten minutes is too late?”
It better fucking not be. I sigh and turn to face her. “Ollie, there’s no point in lingering on what ifs. You’ll only drive yourself mad.”
“But—”
I place my hands on her shoulders and cut her off. “But, nothing. Rhys is a highly trained ex-SAS officer, and Theo has been in his fair share of rough situations. They’ll be fine.” At least, I hope they are. “We need to stick with the plan and trust that they’ll do their part so we can do ours.”
She blows out a long breath, still not happy about having to sit here and wait, but she nods and relaxes in my hold. “If they still haven’t signalled in ten minutes, we go down and get them.”
I nod even though I have no intention of letting her go anywhere near the camp until I know for sure that we have the prisoners on our side. I don’t care if Ollie hates me for stopping her. Hell, I’ll even tie her to a fucking tree if I have to. Her safety is my number one priority.
We fall into a strained silence as the clock ticks down.
Ollie still isn’t any calmer, bouncing on the balls of her feet, and I wonder if something else is bothering her. She’s been like this since this morning and has all but avoided me all day. Just like she did the night I jerked off in front of her.
I frown. Did something happen last night? “What’s actually bothering you?” I ask her after another strained minute of watching her fiddle with the straps tying her quiver to her hip.
She wrenches her head toward me, eyes wide. “Why are you asking me that? There’s nothing bothering me besides the obvious.” She inclines her head toward the guarded gate.
I cock an eyebrow and stare at her, unconvinced.
She wilts under the gaze, guilt shining in her emerald eyes as she nibbles on her lower lip. “Theo finger fucked me last night.” The words come out in a rush and she claps a hand over her mouth, looking horrified.
Jealousy and rage explode inside me. “What?” That motherfucker.
She winces. “I’m sorry, it just kind of happened.”
Bloody hell, is this happening again? Is she choosing Theo over me, just like Willow did?
Pain cracks across my chest as I rub my sternum.
“So this is it? You’ve chosen him?” The words taste like bitter ash in my mouth.
I thought I’d have more time to prove myself to her and show her I can be the man for her. Apparently I’ve failed.
Fuck!
Ollie shakes her head. “No, this isn’t me choosing. I told you before; I don’t want to ruin your friendship.”
Her words offer no relief against the pain slicing through my heart. “Then why…” I can’t even finish the sentence. It seems no matter what I do, I’m always going to come second to Theo.
She grabs my hand and squeezes it. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I…” She hesitates and flicks her eyes to mine.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping, mostly because of nightmares and panic attacks, and they’ve been getting worse.
” She swallows hard, looking so vulnerable that it makes my heart ache.
I squeeze her hand back and she offers me a small, sad smile.
“Theo always has this sixth sense about when I’m struggling the most. He’ll come over and we’ll talk about shit to get my mind off it. Last night, I was really struggling and, well… one thing led to another and he made me come.”
“And it helped?” I ask through gritted teeth.
She nods. “It’s the best sleep I’ve had in years.”
I have to tramp down on the searing jealousy rising inside me and bite back a growl of frustration.
Mostly at the fact that Theo was there for her and I wasn’t.
But even through my anger and envy, there’s a small spark of arousal and gratefulness that Theo could help her when I couldn’t.
It’s the same thing I experienced when we were with Willow; the happiness that at least one of us was giving her what she needed.
My cock stirs in my trousers at the thought of Theo sliding his fingers into Ollie’s sweet pussy. Fuck, I can just imagine how wet she’d be and the noises she’d make as she soaked his hand with her cum…
Shit.
I’m not an idiot. I understand where Theo is coming from when he talks about sharing Ollie. It makes sense; all three of us are interested in her and she’s interested in all of us. Plus, in a world as dangerous as this, having three men looking out for her would make her so much safer.
But with that understanding comes the bone deep terror that I’d be open to being hurt again.
Ollie could easily cast me aside and tear my heart from my chest, just like Willow did.
I know Ollie isn’t Willow, but it’s hard to let go of past pain, especially when I can feel the echoes of it in my heart.
“Oh fuck,” Ollie hisses, her voice wobbling with fear.
My brow furrows in confusion, my spiralling thoughts forgotten. “What’s wrong?”
Her eyes are wide with fear as she stares behind us but doesn’t answer, instead pointing toward where she’s looking. I follow her gaze and almost choke as a bolt of terror races through me.
“Bloody hell, that’s not good.” Understatement of the century.
There are several zombies hobbling in our direction, their alien eyes too bright in the darkness.
Thankfully, they haven’t noticed us yet.
But it’s only a matter of time and there’s too many of them for us to take out, even if we didn’t have to worry about alerting the guards.
“We need to move,” I tell Ollie as I grab her shoulder, intending to pull her into motion.
She resists and shakes her head. “We can use this—use them—to take out the guards and even the odds since we still haven’t heard from the guys.”
“What? This isn’t part of the plan, Ollie.
You know how deadly they are during the night and there’s at least eight of them!
” I snap and shake her, hoping she’ll see sense, but she’s not even listening to me.
No, she has that calculating look in her eyes I saw before she started pushing cars in order to save Theo and Rhys from the horde on the road.
Bloody hell.
She’s going to do something stupid and incredibly dangerous.
And there’s not a damn thing I can do to stop her aside from physically restraining her.
The idea sounds tempting, but I shove it aside.
I won’t manhandle her just because I don’t like that she’s putting herself in danger. No matter how much I want to.
“I think if we can get the guards to fire their guns, that should be enough to draw the attention of the zombies and then we mop up whoever’s survived,” she says with a firm nod, as if she’s agreeing with herself.
“Okay...” I say slowly. “How are we going to do that?”
She grimaces at me and I just know I’m going to hate whatever she’s about to say. “We give them something to shoot at. Like me.”
Yep. I was right. I bloody detest it. “No. Absolutely not.”
She huffs and rolls her eyes like I’m the one being unreasonable when she’s telling me she’s going to goad the guards into shooting at her. “Look, those zombies are going to notice us soon, and this is our best chance of survival. I’ll be careful, I promise.”
I shake my head. Bloody woman is going to be the death of me. “Ollie, it doesn’t have to be you. It could be me or hell, even Harlow.” Not that I’d ever allow Harlow in the line of fire like that.
Her expression turns thunderous at the mention of putting her dog in danger.
“Fuck no,” she snarls, her emerald eyes flashing with anger.
“There’s no way I’m putting Harlow in that situation, if they even decide to shoot at her.
And I’m much harder to hit than you will be, big guy.
” She pats my arm, and it’s all I can do not to growl at her.
“This is fucking stupid—”
“But what choice do we have?”
I grind my teeth together and tug at my hair, resisting the urge to rip it out. Fuck, fuck, fuck! I glance back to where the zombies are bearing down on us, shuffling ever closer. We have maybe a few minutes before they scent us and then they’ll be on us in seconds.
“Alex...”
My eyes snap back to Ollie at the soft plea in her voice. She looks resigned but determined, and I know this wonderfully stubborn woman won’t back down. I close my eyes and sigh heavily, my stomach feeling like it’s filled with rocks as I reluctantly nod.
Ollie breathes out her own sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
I open my eyes and cup the sides of her head with my hands, forcing her to look at me. “Don’t you dare die,” I order her. “Or I’ll find a way to resurrect you just so I can punish you.” I don’t know how I’ll punish her, but that isn’t important right now.
Her eyes widen at my words, but I don’t give her a chance to reply.
I take her lips with mine, consuming her with a kiss filled with all the pent-up emotions I’ve had yet to put into words.
By the time I pull back, she’s breathing hard, her lips are swollen and her pupils are blown with desire.
It’s a fantastic look on her. One I plan to put on her again, although with fewer clothes and more orgasms.