Page 19 of Bitten By Zombie

“I love my life. Or at least I did until, well, until a short time before you found me.”

And just like that, the ease they’d manage to grasp slipped away. But this was the meat and potatoes of the situation they needed to address. The sooner he knew, the sooner his club knew, and they could form a plan to get the life she loved back. And maybe, just maybe, he could convince her to let him be a part of it.

Earlier, he’d told Outlaw that she wasn’t for the club life. Shit, was he wrong. She would fit in seamlessly. Hell, as soon as Hook and Squatch found out she could weld, they might just beg to hire her on at the yard. They didn’t own a garage per se, but they did fix cars for certain people and having a welder would come in pretty handy.

His weird thoughts of blissful domesticity and keeping her around fluttered away when she took a fortifying breath.

“But it turns out that all this time, Stan wasn’t as digested by the prospect of a twelve-year-old being a gift wife as he’d let on. It was more aboutmebeing a gift wife to the old prophet.”

Zombie’s heart started to beat out of his chest. He didn’t know how he knew, but he just did. He wished like hell he was wrong and the next words out of her mouth would not be what he thought they were going to be.

What’s the saying? Wish in one hand, shit in the other, and see which one fills up first.

“He wanted me pure to become the God wife to the next prophet instead…him.”

And there it was. Those words out there like feathers in a tornado. No matter how much he wanted to grab ’em and rip ’em to shreds, there was no way to do that. They swirled around the now silent room.

Haunting it.

Haunting him.

It was all he could do not to throw up. He swallowed convulsively from the effort. Heidi lost the battle and ran to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Zombie got up and scooted to the door. More than willing to hold her hair back if that’s what she needed. Instead, she’d begged him not to open the door. And as much as it was killing him to do so, he respected her wishes. Slinking back under the covers, he waited. He heard her rinse her mouth and brush her teeth.

The second she opened the door, he threw back the covers in invitation.

She didn’t hesitate. She climbed right in and snuggled up on his chest.

“Thank you for sharing with me, Heidi. I know it wasn’t easy, but you are so brave and strong. I’m in awe of you.” That was all he said. He kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes.

She burrowed deeper against him, proving that much like him, she hated to be perceived as weak, so his words did the job he’d intended for them.

Sleep wasn’t what he sought as he listened to Heidi succumb to it. No. He was plotting and planning.

The words Heidi said were bad, but so were the words she didn’t say. If Stan was a prophet, he’d take gift wives too. Zombie already knew that as fact. Lily told them as much after she was rescued from their retreat center, Stan had personally abused her too. She’d told them a lot, like how Stan was planning to kill the old prophet so he could fill his shoes early.

Sure enough, the old prophet ends up dead. Stan ends up a new prophet, and Heidi lands in the trunk of a car.

Yes, Zombie knew who the bastard was, and the bastard knew him. Stan was trying to take over all the dead prophet’s properties, including, but not limited to, his gift wives.

That explains the timing of Heidi ending up in the trunk. As the new prophet, he wouldn’t be able to keep it from his sister that he was still a member. Plus, he wanted her for his wife.

“Over my dead fucking corpse, you son of a bitch,” he growled into the dark of the room.

Zombie was hard to kill. He didn’t just get his road name by accident. Nope, he’d actually fucking died…twice, yet he still walked the earth.

I’m coming for you, motherfucker.

CHAPTERSIX

HEIDI

As she slowly came awake, her eyes felt scratchy and her throat raw as if she…

She literally had stayed up all night talking, and if she were honest, a little crying. A little. She’d quit shedding copious amounts of tears over people who didn’t deserve it a long time ago.

Crying was useless in changing your circumstances. She’d bawled her eyes out when her mother explained herGodly dutyto her. She’d bawled even heavier when her mother told her she’d burn in Hell and no longer be her daughter if she didn’t do it.

---