Inevitable

Book 3 of 'Still Breathing'

All Garland wants is to find her twin brother. All Nathan wants to do is keep his son safe.

They thought they would be safer by working together.

They're not. Not even close. They're about to find out the hard way there is no more safety in numbers.

There are far scarier things out there than the hungry dead.

The zombies aren't the only predators the living have to worry about.

~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~

“Good. You’re both awake.” The man glanced back and forth between the two, his eyes lingering on the woman. He was holding a gun but it was pointing down. He looked maybe a few years older than Cooper; messy light brown hair hung into his eyes. He was dressed in black, from his boots to his ratty shirt. There wasn’t anything truly remarkable about him other than the gun and the pair of dice tattooed on his right hand.

He barely looked at Nathan. The minute his eyes landed on Garland he did not look away. His attention was instantly lasered onto her.

Nathan’s frown grew more pronounced.

“Why the hell are you doing this?” He glared at the man as he slowly eyed Garland up and down. He ignored Nathan completely. “We didn’t do anything to you.”

“How’s your head, little lady?” The guy grinned at Garland as she shifted, her posture far more relaxed than Nathan’s. She was almost positive he was the one who had knocked her out. She hadn’t seen whoever had hit her but the guy’s voice had had a very distinctive twang. This guy had that same twang.

“It’s been better. I’ve got one hell of a headache but I think I’ll live. You wouldn’t happen to have an aspirin or ten, would you?”

It wasn’t just her posture that had changed. She was talking differently, too. Her voice was lighter, her tone more breathy. She sounded younger. Girlish.

The guy laughed and got a little closer to her before kneeling down in front of her. He slid his gun into the back of his jeans, not taking his eyes off of her. Her lips curled into a ghost of a smile as she watched him. Her eyes were on the blob that was his face. It was much easier to pretend to be interested in him without her glasses.

“I got somethin’ for ya, baby, but it ain’t an aspirin.”

She laughed, sounding completely delighted. Nathan’s teeth ground together. The guy was looking at Garland as if he had not seen a woman for weeks. Or months. Hell, he probably hadn’t.

She shifted again, her posture still relaxed. A lock of hair fell into her eyes and she absently blew at the strand, shaking her head a little. She kept her eyes locked onto the man.

“So. What’s going on here? Why are you guys treating us like this? We haven’t seen any other survivors in so long...It’s a shame that our first real encounter with other people has to be like this, don’t you think?”

Nathan held his breath as the guy inched closer to Garland. The bad feeling in his gut worsened. The slow sly way the guy moved closer to Garland reminded Nathan of a cat stalking a mouse. His eyes never left her. He couldn’t seem to figure out where to keep his gaze for too long; he kept looking down at her chest, her legs, back to her lips. Nathan wanted so badly to slam his fist into the guy’s face his hand almost hurt with the need.

If it bothered her that the stranger was getting closer to her she did not show even a hint of it. Her posture remained relaxed, the look on her face one of confused amusement. She raised an eyebrow as the man eased closer to her but did not seem too concerned with his nearness...