Shattered World (Broken World Book 2) (4 page)

Angus mutters something under his breath and stomps off. I’m not sure where he’s going and I don’t care even a little bit, because right now I’m in a safe shelter and Axl is in front of me. I’m half-naked—more than half, really—and it’s obvious by the desire in his eyes that he only has one thing on his mind. Lucky for me, I’m thinking the same thing.

The corner of his mouth pulls up a little more, and he tilts his head to the side. “So, you was interested in usin’ them condoms?”

My body ignites from that grin, and his words make the fire rage even stronger. I return his smile and try desperately to hide my eagerness. To play it cool. He can tell, though. I know he can because he takes a step closer to me.

“I was thinking of some place a little more private.” I lean forward and my chest grazes his, sending a shiver down my spine. But I don’t want to rush things. I want to draw out the anticipation and have him begging for it before I give in. We’ve waited too long and been through too much to rush through this. We need to savor it.

His shoulders stiffen at the contact. And probably other things too. “We got lots of privacy now.”

I bite my lip in what I imagine to be a very sexy way and move just a tad closer. The heat between us is intense, and all I can think about is closing the gap so I can drape my entire body over his. Giving him every last inch of me.

“We do,” I whisper. “Your place or mine?”

I expect him to jump at the invitation. What man wouldn’t? Even if the world hadn’t gone to shit and I wasn’t mostly naked. But he stays as calm as ever. “You know everybody can see them nipple rings through that fabric?”

I almost laugh, but I bite it back. Maybe he has the same idea about drawing it out as I do. Maybe he wants me to grab him and pull him toward the elevator. To take control.

But I don’t want to do that.

“I was going to hit the sauna.” I give him a little smile, then walk toward the back of the room without a backward glance.

The sauna is empty when I open the door, just like I was hoping. I step in, and the air is thick. It makes it difficult to breathe. I lower myself onto the hard bench right across from the door and wait for him. He’d be a fool not to come, and Axl is no fool.

Less than a minute later, he’s standing in the doorway. The steam rises up around him, and a thrill shoots through my body when he shuts the door and walks toward me.

“Never understood saunas,” he says as he takes a seat next to me.

I ignore his comment because I can’t think of a damn thing to say. Axl sits
so
close to me. The heat between us has nothing to do with the steamy room. All I want is to touch him. To think of a legitimate reason to have my hands on his body. He’s still wearing his shirt, which gives me the excuse I’m looking for.

I get to my feet and stand in front of him. “Getting rid of this will help,” I say, grabbing the hem of his shirt.

I pull it over his head and his eyes follow my every move. When I toss it aside, he’s just as calm and relaxed as always. Sitting there in the steamy room, staring up at me with what can only be described as a steamy expression on his face. I take the initiative and step forward, standing above him with one leg on either side of him. Straddling him.

The corner of his mouth pulls up ever so slightly. Desire and lust surge through me, and I can’t hold back any longer. I grab his face between my hands and press my lips to his. Gently at first, waiting to see how he’s going to respond. Then his hands move up my thighs, sliding over my ass to my hips, and I lose control. The kiss deepens, and he pulls me onto his lap. He forces his tongue into my mouth in a powerful, sexy way. A surge of desire shoots through me, swirling around in my stomach for a few seconds before moving lower. I pull him closer and press my body against his. His hardness rubs against me, and desire ignites in my veins. I moan against his lips. He makes a sound that’s somewhere between a groan and a growl, and kisses his way down my neck. To my chest. His hands are still on my ass, and he pulls me closer. He grips the small triangle of fabric with his teeth and yanks it aside, taking my nipple in his mouth. I cry out when his tongue flicks against my nipple ring. I rake my fingers down his back just as the door to the sauna opens.

4

“FUCK,” ANGUS GROWLS. “We got a room, you know.”

Axl pulls away from my breast and replaces the swimsuit so fast that if it wasn’t for the wetness between my legs and the pounding of my heart, I might think I imagined the whole thing. He climbs to his feet, taking me with him, and absentmindedly rearranges himself as he faces his brother.

“You need somthin’?” His tone is rough. I’ve never heard him speak to Angus like that before, but I guess I can’t fault him for that.

“We got a problem,” Angus says, jerking his head toward the door.

Axl sighs but walks to the door anyway. He grabs my hand almost as an afterthought. I’m hot and so horny that there’s a part of me that doesn’t give a shit if everything on the surface has suddenly been blown to a million pieces. All I want is for Axl to throw me down and ravage me. But the rational part of my brain knows I need to find out what’s going on. So, I do the right thing and follow the brothers, checking to make sure I’m properly covered as I go.

We head back out to the pool, where everyone is standing around looking terrified and worried and even furious. Joshua, who wasn’t here a few minutes ago, stands in the center of the group. His expression is darker than I’ve ever seen. There’s talking, but it’s scattered. Clipped and anxious, angry but quiet. Everyone is tense. So tense that my heart suddenly starts pounding for reasons that have nothing to do with Axl’s body being so close to mine.

“What’s wrong?” Axl asks before I have a chance.

The muscles in Joshua’s face tighten, and he runs his hand through his hair already messy hair. “I was in the clinic. I wanted to check things out, see if there were prenatal vitamins for Sophia and what kind of meds they had stocked the place with. But I couldn’t find anything. Not even a bottle of Tylenol.”

I want to shrug his words off. Tell him it’s okay because we took all that stuff from Walmart before the dead even came back. But I can’t, because it’s obvious by the expression on his face more is coming. And it’s worse than a few missing drugs. Axl’s body tenses, and he squeezes my hand so tight I wince. I want to tell him to stop, but I’m afraid if he does I’ll start to panic.

“What else?” Axl asks. He must realize more bad news is coming, too.

Joshua sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose like he has a headache or something. His shoulders slump, and it makes him look shorter than his actual six foot seven inches. “It got me thinking. The cabinet I got food out of in my kitchen this morning only had a few meals in it. I figured it was no big deal, that there were more in a pantry or closet, or in a storage area in another part of the shelter.” He shakes his head, and my heart almost stops. “I searched the entire condo and then went down to the storage area on the bottom level. Nothing. No extras anywhere. So I came down here to check with everyone else and found out the other condos are all the same. Almost no food.”

“He’s right,” Sophia says. “I noticed it this morning when I grabbed one of the prepackaged meals for breakfast.”

My stomach tightens, and I grip Axl’s hand harder. “How much do we have?” I manage to get out. I’m sure they’ve talked this through before Axl and I got here, but I need to know how long we have before we starve.

“If we gather all the packaged food and ration it, cutting down to one or two meals a day, we’ll have enough for about two weeks.” Joshua can’t even look anyone in the eye when he says it, as if it’s somehow his fault.

“Okay, but we still have the gardens,” Hadley says calmly. “At least we’ll have some fresh fruit and vegetables.”

Joshua nods but his face is still tense. He’s still having trouble meeting our eyes, and my stomach sinks even lower. All the way to the bottom level of the shelter like it’s trying to reach the pits of hell. That’s stupid though, because I’m pretty sure this is hell. Or something like it, at least.

Axl purses his lips, then lets out a deep breath. “But there’s more?”

This time I’m the one squeezing his hand so hard that I grind the bones together. Of course there’s more bad news. Why wouldn’t there be?

“The fuel for the generator.” Joshua keeps his eyes on his feet. “I don’t know without looking at it closely, but there’s no way it’s enough for five years.”

“What about the wind turbine?” Anne asks.

We all saw it when we arrived at the concrete building above ground. A huge, white wind turbine about a football field’s length away from the fence. It has to be for the shelter. There’s nothing else out here.

Joshua shakes his head and finally looks up. “No idea. I don’t know enough about this thing to even venture a guess, but I do know that the diesel is low. I mean really low.”

“Fuck!” My whole body jerks when Angus yells. His voice echoes through the room. He picks up a lounge chair and hurls it through the air, right into the pool.

Little Ava squeals, and Jake holds onto Anne. The echo of the splash takes over as Angus’s curse fades away.

When Axl lets go of my hand, hurt and disappointment twist at my already ravaged insides. But he puts his arm around my waist and pulls me close. It isn’t like him, showing affection in front of all these people, but I guess after the sauna the secret is out. And I’m thankful for it, because right now I’m pretty sure I’d fall to pieces if I didn’t have someone to lean on.

“Where’s that guy?” Jessica asks. Just like the little kids, she seems to be clinging to her dad—not that I have any room to talk.

Winston rubs her back absentmindedly and nods. “Yeah. The one who worked for the company.”

Joshua sighs and shakes his head. He acts so guilty. Like all of this is his fault. He takes too much responsibility for things he has no control over. If he’s not careful, he’s going to end up with an ulcer. “Couldn’t find him. He’s not in his condo or the common area. I have no idea where he is.”

“Did you check the control room?” Hadley asks. Her features are relaxed, unlike everyone else. But she
is
an actress. Anything could be going through her head. “That’s where he usually hangs out. I think it’s a comfort to him, feeling like he still has a job to do.”

Joshua shakes his head, and people immediately head to the elevator. But we can’t all fit. Only six or seven of us will be able to squeeze in there at a time. We’re twelve levels down and I don’t want to take the stairs. Or get left behind. I pull away from Axl and grab his hand so we get to the elevator at the front of the pack.

We make it in, and I find myself squeezed in the back corner with Axl pressed firmly against me. Angus is here, along with Hadley, Winston, and Joshua. None of us talk as the elevator moves up. I’m not even positive any of us are breathing.

We find James in the control room with his eyes focused on the screens. There are bodies outside still, hanging around the fence. They aren’t shaking it anymore, but they haven’t given up completely. Their presence suddenly makes me feel even more claustrophobic than being twelve stories underground did.

James turns when we walk in. It must feel like a mob descending on him, the way we all rush into the room. Angry and terrified. But he doesn’t seem concerned, and he doesn’t even look surprised to see us. He simply pushes his chair away from the desk and leans back. He crosses his arms over his chest and stares at us silently. Waiting.

“What the fuck is goin’ on here?” Angus growls before anyone has a chance to ask a reasonable question.

I’m all prepared to tell Angus to shut up so someone with a little sense can get a word in, but James seems to understand. He sighs and shakes his head, then glances at the monitor before turning back to us. “I was waiting for this. Obviously, I knew it wouldn’t be long before you all noticed things weren’t quite right.”

He’s so calm and laid-back, which blows me away. We’re facing starvation and being trapped underground with no power, but he doesn’t even seem worried about it. Maybe he’s already dealt with it. Already faced the fact that this is the end for him. It sure was nice of him to let us in on the secret. I hate that I got my hopes up for nothing. Seems luck will never be on my side.

Winston walks forward, actually daring to step in front of Angus. He always seems to be the voice of reason. “You think you can tell us what exactly is going on here? Give us some clue as to where we might find more provisions?”

James shakes his head and lets out a long breath that sends my stomach plummeting all over again. “You can’t. They’re long gone.”

“What do you mean, ‘long gone?’” Winston asks between clenched teeth.

“The people who started this company were members of a society that believed the world was actually going to end on December 21, 2012,” James answers calmly.

Joshua sighs and slumps against the wall like he knows what James is talking about and where this whole thing is going. I have no clue what’s going on, though. I catch his eye and shake my head slightly.

“The Mayan calendar,” he says before James can speak again. “It ended on December 21, 2012, so a lot of people thought the world was going to end that day.”

That’s right. It inspired a crappy movie, and there was a bunch of stuff on the news about it that December. I’d forgotten all about it. I’m still not sure what any of this has to do with the lack of supplies, so I look back at James and wait for an explanation.

“Yeah,” James says with another big sigh. Bigger than the one before. “Well, these guys were fanatics. They preached it like it was the Bible and recruited members and built these shelters and filled them with all the people they talked into believing that nonsense. They were all here that day. Sitting in their condos, waiting for the world above them to come to an end in a big fiery ball.”

“But it didn’t,” Winston says. He sounds defeated and tired. I can’t blame him, because we all know where this story goes and what it means for us.

“No, it didn’t. Unfortunately, the company was in the middle of renovating a fourth silo shelter. When the world didn’t end, a lot of their investors pulled out of the project. People who had been talked into spending millions on a shelter filed a lawsuit, and the company started to struggle financially.

“The lawsuits had no basis, everyone knew that. No one forced these people to purchase condos. But fighting it cost money, and things were already tight.” James stops talking and studies the back of his hand intently. Like there’s something on it he’s never seen before.

“So they sold off the supplies?” Hadley asks.

James sighs again and flexes his fingers. “That’s what I heard.” He looks up and shakes his head a little. “I’m nobody important, so I don’t know all the details. I only know what I overheard, really. From what I understand, the medical supplies went first. They knew the condo residents would be less likely to notice that, and they were really hoping that would be all they had to sell. That things would get better and they’d be able to replace them. They started talking about global warming in their sales pitches, changed the websites, and kept moving forward. Things got a little better, but not enough. So they started selling off other things.”

“Let’s just get down to it,” Winston finally says. “What are we looking at here? We already know we’re low on prepackaged food, but we have the gardens.”

James laughs and finally looks up, narrowing his eyes on Winston. “Have you been to that floor? Have you really looked things over?”

My stomach lurches, and I’m suddenly in real danger of hurling. Which would suck, because I can’t afford to lose any nourishment. Food is going to be tough to come by real soon here. I swallow and glance around the room. Everyone is shaking their heads. Of course no one has been down to check out the gardens. Why would we?

“So you’re saying there are no gardens?” I manage to get out. It isn’t easy. There’s a lump the size of Mount Everest in my throat.

“There are, but maintaining gardens takes money. It hasn’t actually been a priority on the company’s list. You may be able to find some vegetables and fruits that are salvageable, but probably not much. The good news is, if you work at it, things are set up so they will grow. It’s just going to take time.”

“So we gotta get us some food in the meantime?” Axl says out of nowhere, making me jump.

He’s right next to me, but he’s been so silent this entire time I had actually forgotten he was here. I glance at him now. He’s just as calm as ever, which I just can’t comprehend. Even he has to be worried.

James nods, but he’s still frowning. “And fuel. They sold most of that off too, as I’m sure you’ve already discovered.”

“What about the wind turbine?” Winston asks. “How much power can we reasonably get from that?”

James shrugs, and he suddenly looks tired. I’m not sure how old he is. Thirty-five, forty maybe. But at the moment he appears ten years older. The bags under his eyes are so prominent it’s all I can look at. He’s had this weighing on him since he got here, waiting for all of us to figure out that we’re not as safe as promised.

“Look, I don’t know a lot about the power grid. I’ve been looking through things and studying the manuals, but I’m still not sure. We get wind out here, so that’s good. But there’s one wind turbine, and this is a big facility. It isn’t going to provide enough energy to power the whole thing. The diesel we have now will be good for three weeks, maybe a month with the whole structure running the way it is. If we cut power on certain levels, we could make it stretch. After that, the wind turbine will be enough to run emergency lighting and the air filtration system.”