Page 6 of Bitten By Zombie

“You can help me by ordering your primate boyfriend to release me.”

Then she laughed.

What the fuck was so funny?

Was this a game to everyone but her?

“He’s not my anything, and he doesn’t take orders well, but if you promise not to hurt me or yourself, I will see if he’ll step aside while I have a look at you, and we talk.”

“I won’t hurt you or myself, however, I will not extend that promise to him or his goon friends.”

Again, with the laughing. This time, it was both of them.

He released her, and she immediately regretted not being prepared. The weight she’d been holding off her foot caused her to almost fall when she put it down to support her.

“Name’s Zombie, by the way.” He caught her and set her on the bed before stepping away. “Primate and head goon at your service.” He sketched a rough bow and stepped back.

“Zombie’s not a name. It’s an animated corpse who craves human flesh.”

“Ha, sounds about right, sweetheart,” he uttered as he stepped away.

“What’s your name, hon?” Joanie asked.

Heidi raised an eyebrow at the woman and debated if she should answer or not. However, if Stan had given her to them, the men likely already knew it. If they didn’t, there were merits to withholding and offering.

On one hand, offering, if they didn’t already know, they could exploit that to earn favor with Stan. On the other hand, they could be potential allies. The problem was her brain still felt not one hundred percent, so she couldn’t reason it all out.

Heidi allowed her gaze to drift to Zombie. He was wearing one of the motorcycle gang vests, so he definitely didn’t travel in the same circles as Stan. Maybe first names wouldn’t hurt. Besides, she wasn’t sure she was even in Provo anymore. Who knew how long she’d been in that trunk.

“Heidi. Can you tell me where I am and when I can leave?”

“Heidi, can we talk about what you took first? I’d really like to make sure you’re okay, and then Zombie can answer all your questions. I’ll also look at your foot if you’ll let me.”

“I didn’t take anything. I’m not an addict like the…Zombie over there thinks. I don’t even take prescription pain meds if I can help it. Someone shoved a handful of pills down my throat and held my nose and mouth until I swallowed. That’s all I remember.” She remembered a bit more than that, but why tell them more than was necessary?

“Can I leave now?”

Joanie put a stethoscope in her ears. “May I?”

Heidi shrugged. Might as well let her do her thing. If she was a legit nurse, it couldn’t hurt. If she wasn’t, well, what’s the worst she could do with a stethoscope?

After listening to her heart, Joanie turned her attention to her ankle. “I noticed you favoring it. What happened?”

Heidi glared at Zombie, who was smirking. “Stepped on something wrong, I think.”

He smiled, and her breath hitched. His smile was disarming. Tender and light. It radiated genuine amusement. Not the fake smiles everyone seemed to offer up freely.

It was such a contradiction to the rest of what she could see. Unshaven, brown hair highlighted by the sun that just kissed his collar. Tattoos on tanned skin, skin that appeared to have spent more time out of doors more than inside. And rough, working man hands just barely tucked into faded jean pockets.

Most of all, she noticed that when he smiled, his chocolate-brown eyes smiled too.

Joanie interrupted her visual inventory of her maybe captor. “Well, it seems fine. Looks more like you maybe bruised the arch of your foot.” Heidi snapped her eyes back to Joanie, but not before the woman noticed she’d been staring at the man in the corner.

“I have to ask, other than the pills and your foot, do you have any, um, invisible injuries?”

What did she… “Oh, um, no. I was not assaulted in any other way, if that’s what you mean.”

Zombie let out a breath that drew her attention. He was relieved? Why? Didn’t like damaged property?

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