Cora (Love in the Apocalypse #2)

17. Cora

Chapter seventeen

Cora

R age fuels my every move as I rush back downstairs to grab one of Daddy’s guns. Strangers are in my house and hurting one of my men. He may be acting like an asshole, but nobody has the right to touch what’s mine. I won’t tolerate it. I make sure the pistol is loaded and grab an extra magazine just in case I need it, not that I think I will.

I don’t fucking miss my target.

I rushed back upstairs, surprised not to find them in the living room anymore but in the kitchen. I take in the scene playing out in front of me with horror. They’re going to rape Remi! Bile threatens to fill my mouth, but I swallow it down and steel myself. I won’t let them fucking touch him. I see when Remi accepts his fate, and I crack the door open to let him know I’m here and have his back. The fear that fills his eyes as he tells me no enrages me even more. I shove open the door and fire the first shot into the head of the man closest to me. I fire the second shot between the eyes of the man on the other side of the table before the first man’s body hits the floor.

I sight my gun on the third man as Remi quickly scurries off the table. He raises his hands above his head in surrender.

“Aren’t you a pretty little thing? I’ll make you my Queen instead if you want.” My skin crawled at his words, and bile threatened to rise again.

“Shoot him, Cora!” Remi rasps as he wraps his arms around me and tries to take the gun. “Shoot him, or he’ll bring more people back with him.”

I huffed in annoyance as I rolled my eyes and shook Remi off of me. Of course I was going to shoot him, but there was no sense in painting the walls with any more blood if it could be avoided. I gestured for the would-be rapist and walking-dead man to move toward the door. I could see the relief on his face as he moved quickly. He ran outside and didn’t stop running. I hope he thought he had escaped. And I hoped he felt the gun as I aimed it at his head and heard the gunshot as I pulled the trigger seconds before the bullet exploded into the back of his skull. Realizing how close I was to the outside, I quickly stepped back and shut the door. I inspected it with an annoyed huff as it bounced back open. Isaac would have to reframe the door so that it latched again.

I found Remi on the kitchen floor, attempting to pull himself together. He tried to put on a brave face, but I could see that he was shaken and still in shock. I’m not sure how he will feel about being touched, so I kneel in front of him and open my arms, leaving the decision for comfort in his control. Remi wraps his arms around me with such force that it takes my breath away. He buries his face in my neck, and I wrap my arms around him and hold him as he cries.

Five minutes later, he releases me and wipes away his tears. A near-manic energy seizes him as he springs to his feet and starts trying to straighten himself. “I have to get cleaned up! The others will have heard the gunshots and will be home soon. They can’t see me like this!”

I placed my hands on his shoulders and used all my strength to push him into a kitchen chair. I held out my hand to tell him to stop, then breathed deeply and pointed at his chest. I held up my finger and ran to his room to grab a new pair of pants. Then, I detoured downstairs to grab my new iPad and a first aid kit. I went back upstairs and set everything down on the table.

“Pants first,” I typed. Remi looked at the new iPad with surprise, and I smirked when he looked up at me.

“Cora, I owe you the biggest fucking apology. I took my insecurities out on you, which was completely unfair. And then I broke your iPad, which... I’m so embarrassed by my behavior.”

I held up my hand to silence him, pointed at his pants, and then jerked my thumb toward the ceiling as I waved the new pair in his face. Maybe it was a little unfair after what he just went through to leave him flapping in the wind a little longer, but he broke my damn iPad and yelled at me.

Dejectedly, Remi stood and removed his ruined pants. I took them from him and tossed them through my door to make them disappear later. I helped him into the new pants and sat him back down. I hopped onto the table in front of him, resting my toes on the chair between his legs.

“It’s water under the bridge. Apology accepted.”

I tapped the iPad and set it aside as I opened the first aid kit. My kit wasn’t one you would have typically found in stores. Daddy curated our kits with the inaccessibility of modern medicine in mind. I took an alcohol wipe and started cleaning off the blood on his face so that I could see the extent of the cuts. They did a number on him, but except for a gash on his forehead, which I decided to glue rather than stitch, they were all minor.

“All set,” Siri said.

“Thanks, Cora,” Remi replied, resting his head on my thighs momentarily before looking at me pleadingly. “Do you think we could keep what almost happened to me between us?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I winked at him and tousled his hair.

“Thank you.”

I nodded in response. I heard a stampede moment before the front door slammed against the wall. I grabbed my gun and pointed it at whoever was busting through my door.

Today was not the day to fuck with me.