Read Online Dead Series (Book 3): A Little More Alive by Sean Thomas Fisher - Free Book Online Page A

will not take
it back! There is as much between us as there is between Rebecca and I. Which
is nothing!” He cringed with his rise in volume and lowered his voice. “You
just fucked up, big time, Wendy. You really did. That’s the equivalent to
murder.”
    Aghast, she
studied him for signs of deceit in the thunderstruck silence that came next,
bottom lip quivering like the fluorescent light above the sink. “If I would’ve
shot that guy, I would have hit her.”
    “Bullshit!” He
stormed across the kitchen, tucking the dead woman’s gun into the small of his
back and snatching a bottle of water. The gun strapped to his thigh banged
loudly against the edge of a metal counter as he rounded the corner and went
into the cafeteria. The mood darkened along with the lighting, slowing his footsteps
to a crawl. The heavy silence left a far-off ringing in his right ear that grew
steadily louder. His eyes snagged on Calvin, who was still sitting in the
corner holding his dead wife, painting her bloody face with salty tears – as if
they could magically bring her back to life like some childhood legend.
    Paul went closer,
ignoring the eyes on him as he crossed the room. His gaze flicked from Calvin
to the heavyset woman lying a few feet over. She was dead and bloated, her skin
stretching her fatigues.
    “I shot both of
them.”
    His eyes jerked to
Calvin.
    “I killed her.”
Stroking Maria’s blood matted hair, he forced a smile into his cheeks Paul
could never lift. “I killed my beautiful wife.”
    Crouching down,
Paul rested his arms on his knees and hung his head while Wendy and Stephanie
talked about something in hushed voices across the room. “I’m sorry, Calvin.”
Calvin stroked his wife’s hair, staring at her like Paul didn’t exist, tears
dripping from the bottom of his glasses onto the jagged hole in her face. “It
was an accident, Calvin, and nobody’s fault.”
    He finally looked
up, smeared lenses magnifying the anger in his eyes. “Don’t you do that. Don’t
you try to make me feel better right now because I don’t deserve that. She doesn’t deserve that.”
    Staring blankly
back, Paul dropped his head and blew out a frustrated breath. “I wish I had
time for a bigger speech but I don’t, so I’m going to get right to the point.”
    Calvin’s eyebrows
went down.
    “I’m going to need
you to come with us tomorrow.”
    He stopped
stroking Maria’s matted hair. “Please tell me you’re not serious right now.”
    Paul spoke slowly,
leaving zero room for misunderstanding. “I’m going to need you to get us into
that armory in one hour, and then I’m going to need you to help us save that
family in Colorado.”
    His face folded.
“I’m not leaving! Are you insane? I’m staying here with her.”
    Paul scanned
Maria’s ashen skin. She looked sound asleep and if she was lucky, she’d never
wake up again. “Maria’s gone and you damn well know she’d want you to help that
family.”
    “The hell I do,
man! I’m done helping people because I can’t even help my own fucking wife!”
    Wendy and
Stephanie stopped talking and Paul could hear his pulse banging away in the
hollow of his neck. He swallowed dryly. “I’m sorry about your wife. I really am
but this isn’t a request.”
    Calvin jerked his
chin to Paul’s coat lying on a nearby table, shaking more tears onto Maria’s
sleeping face. “You think that badge gives you any kind of power? It’s not even
real. I got news for you, Debbie Downer, you’re not a cop!”
    Paul flashed him a
tightlipped smile and stood up, knees cracking with the movement. “One hour,
Cal.” A loud thump drew his attention. Turning, he saw Rebecca lying face down on
the table with her arms hanging limply at her sides. Walking over, he pulled
the gun from the small of his back and sat down across from her, checking the
magazine and flipping the safety off. She didn’t open her eyes when he set the
gun between them on the table and that weighed heavily