Page 83 of Bunker Down, Baby

Evan exhales through his nose. “Guess we’re not going back to work next week.”

Maple doesn’t say anything. She’s just watching us. Like she’s waiting to see what we’ll do now that the fantasy’s dead and the bunker is the only reality left.

And I know what I’m gonna do.

I set my cue down, cross the room, and press a kiss to her temple, same spot Wade kissed earlier. “You’ve got us,” I say quietly. “All of us.”

She blinks up at me. And for once, Maple Monroe, Queen of Crazytown, Duchess of Prepping, Empress of the Apocalypse, looks surprised. “You mean that?” she whispers.

“Baby,” Wade says, stepping up beside me, voice soft but steady, “You got my damn tractor and livestock here in one trip. You think I’m not all in?”

“I was all in the second I realized you already knew my toothpaste brand,” Evan mutters. Then adds, deadpan, “And I’m not sharing it with any of these bastards.”

Brock is the last one to move. He steps forward. Slow. Heavy boots on concrete. Then he nods once. “If anyone tries to take this from us,” he says, voice low and calm, “I’ll bury them.”

It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.

Maple makes this tiny sound, half laugh, half breathless moan, and I know she’s probably thinking about blowing us all in a line like it’s a team-building exercise.

I reach out, take her hand, and squeeze it.

“I’m gonna build you the best fucking panic room in this place,” I say. “Steel, reinforced. Custom bed. Soundproof walls. The works.”

“Why soundproof?” she asks, lips twitching.

I grin. “So no one hears you when you scream my name and gets jealous.”

She grins back, and just like that, just like that, the moment softens.

But underneath it? We’re not just five lunatics in a bunker anymore. We’re a family.

And the world outside? It can fucking burn.

Just when I think the evening’s finally settled into its natural rhythm of horny nonsense and pool-based foreplay Holden’s voice booms down the hallway. “You’re all fucking feral!”

Everyone freezes.

Then Holden speaks again, growling like a man who’s been listening to five idiots flirt through a concrete wall for too long. “You think any of you actually know what to do with a woman like her? Or a bunker like this? You’re all just playing house in a powder keg.”

Maple lifts her head, eyes wide, lips parting like oh my God. “Is that…” she breathes.

Wade smirks. “Sounds like someone’s jealous.”

Evan doesn’t even look up. “He’s not invited to group play until he’s housebroken and declawed.”

Maple hops down from the table, giggling. “I’m gonna go see if Daddy Holden wants to join game night.”

I call after her, “Tell him there’s room on the table if he wants to stop growling and start grinding!”

Wade laughs. Evan sighs.

I watch her hips sway down the hallway like trouble incarnate and think this is the best ‘end of the world’ kidnapping ever.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Maple

I’m still floating when I reach his door. Still in one sock. Still dressed in Evan’s shirt, which barely covers my ass. Still glowing from the way my boys promised me the world and meant it.

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