Revolution (Collide, #4)(6)

He slammed his mouth to mine and I felt the pleasurable hum all the way to the ends of my hair. I let my arms circle his neck and bring him closer to me. His hands pawed and pulled me so close and tight that it was hard to breathe.

Not that I was breathing anyway. I was too busy being breathless.

When my fingers weaved their way through his hair, he pulled back with a groan, grabbing my hands gently and pulling them to his mouth. He kissed them and exhaled his frustration in a warm puff against my fingers. "You can't do that," he chastised. "I'll never leave if you do."

I made mock pout lips which caused him to laugh in a rumble.

"Can't you stop being adorable for just two seconds?" he said wryly. He kissed my forehead, then my cheek, then my lips. He sat there with them pressed to mine, just absorbing and not moving, before pulling away with a puckering sound. I sniffed once more and let him set me to my feet. This was it. No more stalling.

"I love you, Finch."

"I love you, Sherry." I jolted a little. He hardly ever called me Sherry anymore…unless I was in trouble. It was always baby or honey or gorgeous. He laughed at my expression. "I miss saying your name sometimes. I know you hate it, but I love it. Your mother may not have named you Sherry for the right reasons, but I don't care. You're my Sherry."

"What do you mean 'the right reasons'?"

His lips twisted a little. "She refused all the girl names your father suggested. And on the way to the hospital she passed a graveyard at a stoplight. She picked the first female name she could find and…there you have it."

"What?" I said, disgusted. "How do you even know that? Danny didn't come along until later."

"She confessed it to your father once, when Danny was born. Your father was upset that he couldn't help name either of you and wondered where she got the names from. You were a graveyard, Danny was a burger place." I gave him a 'Huh?' look. "Danny Boy's Burgers on Fifth Street. True story."

I just shook my head. My mother was a psycho!

He pressed his mouth to my ear, wrapping me in a tight, final embrace. "I've got to go, baby."

"Be careful. And you better come back."

"Always," he promised.

With one last kiss that ached with sweetness, he went to Jeff and Miguel to plot our ambush of the Lighter's…ambush. Could this day be anymore screwed up?

I held in an explosive sigh and turned to Lily. She was playing with her doll, Joy's, hair. Twisting it into a messy braid that had no pattern or order. She was so innocent and yet, not. There was a new air about her, one that I didn't have time to think about. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and took a deep breath, holding it in so long it hurt before blowing it all out. When I opened my eyes, Lily was standing in front of me. I jumped and then laughed. "You scared me, bug."

"Sowwy. Are we gonna go hide in the closet again?"

I pressed my lips together. "Yeah. Probably. That ok?"

"Can Calvin and Fwankwin come, too?" she said and swung from side to side as if this all was no big deal.

"I think that's a good idea." I took another needed deep breath and prepared for Merrick's outrageous look at what I was about to say to everyone. "Ok, I think me and the kids and anyone else…Ellie, at least, need to come with me to the back room, right? We'll lock ourselves in."

True to my knowledge of him, Merrick's eyes bulged, and then his face softened into gratitude. He mouthed 'Thank you'. I nodded. I understood that he hated for me to fight him every time on whether I was going to fight or not. But as morbid as it sounded, I learned that stupid accidents and enemy attacks can happen right in our living room and he'd be safer not worrying about me and Lily. I almost smiled. I was making massive progress in my mind. It was hard - so, so hard - to let go of control.

Before I even realized it Merrick was nose to nose with me. I did smile then. He pressed his lips to mine before lifting Lily and giving her a stern look. "Stay with Mommy."

"Mmhmm." Then she gasped. "Oooh, let's bring snacks!"

Merrick guffawed at her before kissing her forehead. Then he kissed mine and went back to plotting. I went to gather a few snacks just in case we were bunkered down for a while and told Lily to get together some games or something. I heard them plotting. Miguel, Merrick, Cain and Jeff would lead the attack outside with a group and Pastor, Max and Daniel would lead the one at the door of the bunker in case anyone got passed, which they were thinking was likely since they were sending so many. And then Marissa, who agreed to hold down in the bunker, but refused to be locked in the backroom, along with a few others would be in the door waiting for anyone who got through, if that were to happen.

It was then that I realized how much this could affect us. This could be it for us. It made me feel strange to be so calm about it. We’d been through so much, not just lately, but for months. We'd fought so many Lighters and been locked up and beaten down…but we always came out on top. Was that why I felt this way? Did I have some cocky notion that we were unbeatable?

But when Pastor called everyone's attention and asked us to listen to him for a minute, the shakes started. This was real. This was happening. The Lighters were coming for us and they were bringing a new enemy we'd never seen. I knelt on the floor next to Merrick and decided not to hide how scared I'd all of a sudden become. But I knew this: if we died, we'd die together, a family, an army of resistance.