“Ros …”

“I was coming back,” she said.

“No.” He stepped back and shook his head, shoved a hand through his hair. Not wanting to hear a f**king thing she had to say. At least, not right then. But … “What? You were what?”

“Nick—”

“Did you say you were coming back?”

She wrung her hands in front of her. “I changed my mind. I got down to the road and I realized I couldn’t leave like that. I realized we needed to talk things out.”

His mind reeled. “You did?”

“Yes.”

He barked out a laugh. It was funny, but it wasn’t. Mostly it wasn’t. “You were coming back. Bloody hell, that’s great.”

Her features sharpened. Brows descended. And that was fine. Let her be pissed. Let her share the fun. “What did you expect, Nick? You’ve been keeping me chained. Of course my first instinct was to escape.”

“And you did. And now we’re f**ked.”

“Which is not all my fault.”

“Did I say it was?” Of course he hadn’t. He’d been doing his best to keep his mouth shut to prevent exactly this sort of shit coming out. “Did I?”

“Close enough,” she said, voice rising. Because she never bloody learned.

“Keep. Your. Voice. Down.”

Her nostrils flared. “You put me in an impossible situation, Nick.”

“Was it worth it?”

“What?”

“Nearly getting killed,” he said. “You were about to be eaten alive by a pack of infected when I found you. So was it worth it, Ros? Do you feel better now? Work out whatever you needed to?”

“Oh, you ass**le.”

“That was our home that just burned down. Our home. Do you get that? Is it sinking in?”

“Hard to think of it as home when you were keeping me prisoner.”

“I treated you so badly?” he asked. He took a step closer, forcing her to back up or have him right up in her face. She was right, he was an ass**le. But he was so damn angry he didn’t care. She’d left him without a word. “Well? Is there anything I didn’t give you?”

“A gilded cage is still a cage, Nick.”

“You betrayed me.”

“You never trusted me, Nick, so how exactly did I betray you?” Roslyn looked away and sucked in a breath, shoulders hitching. “Look, let’s just stop. Let’s go back to the school and regroup.”

“They’re dead, Ros. Everyone at the school is dead.”

She stopped, stared. “You’re lying,” she whispered.

“Why would I?”

“To t-try and keep me.”

“No. It’s the truth. Your friends screwed up and let in an infected. Apparently your old friend Neil didn't secure the gates well enough after we left. I should have told you earlier. Maybe you would have thought twice about bolting.

“How do you know?” she asked.

“Janie was infected. I stayed with her …”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Probably because he was an idiot, just like she’d told him many, many times. An idiot to think it could work out between them. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t want to upset you. Stupid, huh? Me worrying about your delicate feelings. You have no f**king clue when it comes to life these days. Sheltering you was wrong.”

“But …” She just kept blinking at him. “They’re dead? All of them.”

“Yes.”

Silence. Her face blanked.

Oh, shit. Second thoughts filled him, along with third and fourth. Maybe he shouldn’t have told her like that, just blurted it out.

All he could think of was the infected clawing at her, about to bite her foot. She didn’t have a f**king clue how close she’d come to death. He wanted to howl every time he thought about it. The woman needed a dose of reality. Needed to know how serious things were, so hopefully she’d think before she acted. This couldn’t happen again; it would f**king kill him.

“Roslyn.”

She shook her head, turned and walked away.

Fine. They both needed time. They also needed blankets or they were going to freeze their asses off. He set about searching the rows of shelving lining the walls. No comment from her. Not a peep.

He was not the bad guy here. He wasn’t. He’d done every-fucking-thing he could to please her.

Some crappy old camping gear stood in a corner. A moth-eaten canvas tent and a sleeping bag that had seen better days. A ratty-looking tarp with a couple of burn marks. A moth took flight when he nudged the tarp. He shook the sleeping bag out and clouds of dust filled the air. Quickly, he turned his face away before he copped a lungful of it. Roslyn stood by the pickup with her arms wrapped around herself.

The infected’s mouth had been bare centimeters off sinking its teeth into her toes. Its filthy fingers had been clawing at her legs. If she hadn’t been wearing jeans, if he hadn’t woken when he did and heard her screaming. If he’d been a second later, just one second, it would have been too late. He couldn’t think about it. Couldn’t stand it, but it wouldn’t stop repeating inside his head.

If he’d lost her … No.

Nick cracked his jaw and bundled up the tarp, took it and the sleeping bag over to the vehicle. It should be enough to keep them warm at least. He doubled the tarp over the ratty old mattress and placed the sleeping bag between the layers. “We’ll sleep up here. Come on.”