Fighting to Survive (As the World Dies #2)(44)

Jimmy looked at her sullenly, but nodded. “Yeah, I got it.”

“Good.” Nerit turned and walked out of the room, her job done.

Curtis shuffled after her. “That’s it?”

Nerit turned to face him. “That’s it. For now.”

Curtis stared at her, then stepped back. “Okay. Fine. Juan and Travis will not like this.”

“Then they can talk to me,” Nerit answered. She stepped into the elevator and hit the button.

The doors closed on Curtis frustrated features, Nerit sagged against the side of the elevator and sighed.





2. Drawing the Tower


The elevators slid open on the sixth floor. Juan and Jenni stepped out, arguing loudly in Spanish. Jenni was limping as she walked down the hall, her face a decoration of purple and green bruises. Waving her hand in frustration, she called Juan a few choice words in Spanish before knocking on Katie's door.

Juan tried to comfort Jenni, but she punched his arm, annoyed beyond words with him. He had ruined a perfectly nice morning by ranting on and on about how he was going to kick Jimmy's ass. All Jenni had wanted to do was strip him naked and have lots of sex once Jason had gone down to breakfast. Juan seemed to only want to devise ways of making Jimmy miserable.

“I just love you, okay, Loca,” Juan said, taking hold of her arms and pulling her close.

“Yeah, then show me. Don't talk about something that happened yesterday. I'm alive, okay?” Jenni frowned up at him.

Juan's curls fell around her face as he kissed her. A bit of her anger dissipated. But she pushed him away anyway and stuck out her tongue at him. Juan laughed and kissed her cheek.

Katie opened the bedroom door, clad in a tank top and pajama bottoms. She looked a little flushed and her skin had a light sheen of water on it. Behind her, Travis was in jeans, toweling off his chest, his hair still wet from a shower. Katie's own hair was in wet curls around her face.

“Damn,” Juan said in awe.

Jenni took a moment to admire Travis' very impressive chest, then looked at Juan. Lifting her eyebrows, she said, “See? They started off the morning right.”

Katie rolled her eyes. “What's up?”

“Juan is having a hissy fit,” Jenni answered.

“I am not,” Juan protested.

Travis pulled on his shirt and started to button it up. “What's up?”

“The situation with Jimmy,” Juan answered.

Travis made a face and sat on the bed. “I thought we talked about this last night?”

“Uh, we came to no conclusion,” Juan answered. He walked in and flopped onto a couch.

Jenni slid in and eyeballed Katie. Her friend looked back with an innocent smile that Jenni didn't buy for a moment.

“Didn't we agree that Nerit needed to deal with it?” Travis asked.

“No, we didn't. Curtis was all for finding a way to discipline him.”

“I don't know if we have to go that far,” Travis answered, his brow furrowing. He tugged on his socks one by one.

Jenni noted how very comfortable he was in Katie's room. Again, she looked at her friend and gave her a sly smile. Katie responded with a wide-eyed innocent look.

“He almost got Jenni killed!” Juan's anger was about to get the best of him again.

Jenni put her hand on his shoulder, but she could feel his Latin temper building up to an explosion. “He just freaked.”

“And almost got you killed!”

“Well, it was bizarre with that zombie having that big ol’metal thing in his head!”

“Again, he almost got you killed!”

Travis shook his head. “Juan, we need to drop this.”

“I'm not going to, Travis,” Juan answered firmly. “What if it had been Katie left alone in a room with three zombies? Huh?”

Travis looked toward Katie and his look said it all.

“Exactly,” Juan answered, and stood up. “You know what? I'm going to deal with this man to man. Fuck diplomacy.”

“Juan,” Travis said softly.

“No, f*ck it.” Juan walked out, and slammed the door behind him.

“He's having anger issues,” Jenni said.

“Obviously,” Travis responded. He stood and grabbed his new denim jacket. “I better go after him.”

Katie moved to his side. They shared a sweet little kiss that had Jenni grinning. It was good to see Katie and Travis together. She felt a little less guilty about moving on now that Katie had, too. She knew it had been much harder for Katie.

“See you later,” Travis said.

“Okay,” Katie answered, and walked him to the door.

Another soft kiss, then Travis was gone.

Jenni lifted her eyebrows at Katie as her friend shut the door.

“What?” Katie asked, then broke into a huge grin. Jenni tackled her.

Like schoolgirls, they hugged each other and jumped around laughing until they collapsed into a heap on the bed.

“You have FFG!”

“Do not!”

“Uh huh! Freshly f*cked glow!” Jenni howled with laugher, pointing at Katie’s flushed countenance.

Katie covered her face and laughed. “Oh, gawd...I do!”

For the first time, laughter filled their time together.