As the World Ends (10 page)

What a selfish bastard Rob was, keeping her to himself. Honestly, he would have done the same thing if Lauren was his wife. The bastard made her dress. It didn’t matter that she was covering them. Those breasts of hers would be imprinted on his brain forever. Closing his eyes, he could almost feel the contours of them in his hands and the curve of her hips as he ran them down the length of her. My God, that ass of hers was as firm as he had pictured. Rock hard, he needed relief. This wasn’t the time or place to jerk-off. If he showed himself now, Rob would definitely kill him, knowing he’d been spying on them. Settled on his fate he waited them out. It gave him more time to study them as a couple. Watching them together cemented his plan. Though it wouldn’t be easy, he definitely needed to divide and conquer.

Rob and Lauren packed up their belongings to head back to their cave. On the way Lauren broached the subject again of going home.

“Rob, I think it’s time to head off the mountain and see what’s going on down below.”

“Why?”

“Why? I don’t know about you, but since you said that part about being watched, I’m really scuzzed out. Yesterday, I felt like he was undressing me with his eyes.”

“He was. I wanted to rip his fucking eyes out. It was only a feeling though. I didn’t see anybody at the spring. I don’t want to rush down off the mountain because of the bastard ogling you.”

“It’s not only that…”

“What then?”

“Rob, we have families down there. I don’t know about you, but I have to know what happened to them. It can’t be anymore dangerous than it is here with Roan. No one and let me repeat that, no one knows we’re up here.”

The silence filled the air. Lauren knew Rob was considering her words, so she waited him out.

“You’re right. Let’s head back and pack up what we’ll need for the trip down.”

Roan listened as their voices floated up to him.
Son of a bitch, they can’t head out now, he’s blowing my whole plan
. He would have to move up his timetable and hope it worked. Lauren was not getting away from him.
Scuzzed her out, do I? I’ll show her. She’ll be begging me for forgiveness when I’m through with her
.

Fifteen minutes later he climbed down the tree. First he needed to find their vehicle. As a precaution he placed markers along the trail. When he saw his own markers, he realized he was going around in circles. Roan decided to wait outside their cave instead of disabling their vehicle as he had originally planned. Planning out his ambush, he headed over there and took up his position in the bushes. If he was going to take Rob down on his own turf, he had to be prepared to do the most damage. Once in the bushes, he palmed his knife and waited.

There wasn’t a lot to pack up. Lauren had put her stuff into the SUV before they took the hike to the path yesterday and never retrieved any of it. She made sure they had their sweaters because last night was so cold they’d shared a sleeping bag to keep warm. She made sandwiches, handing one to Rob, she bit into hers.

“This meat’s getting a little funky, Lauren. Throw it out for the animals.”

“I know, but it’s all we have unless you want to kill lunch for us.” She laughed.

Rob noticed her mood had lifted. “Lauren, don’t get your hopes up. We don’t know what we’ll find when we come off the mountain.” He put his gun in his belt.

“I know, Rob. I’ll just be glad to be around more people.”

He didn’t mention that he thought there wouldn’t be more people down there, but they would find out together.

“Okay, are you just about set?” he said, picking up his duffle bag and hoisting it over his shoulder.

“Almost, aren’t you taking the cooler?”

“No, leave it in case we need to come back.”

“Come back for what?” she screeched.

He looked at her and knew instantly she wouldn’t come back here. “Lauren we might not be able to stay down there.”

“That’s fine, Rob. You’ll have to find someplace else for us to go. I’m not going to stay within ten miles of that guy.”

He watched as she squared her shoulders, something she did habitually when they fought.

“Okay, babe, let’s head out.” He reached down balancing his duffel bag on his shoulder and grabbed the sleeping bags.

“Give me the sleeping bag and you take the cooler,” Lauren said, reaching for the bag.

“Lauren, push the strap to my duffel further up on my shoulder please.” After she fixed his strap, Rob lifted the cooler and they left the cave with him in the lead.

Roan waited for twenty minutes, just about to give up when Rob and Lauren exited the cave.
Showtime.
He grinned.

He watched Rob come out loaded down with the cooler and his bag. He spotted the gun in Rob’s belt. Lauren came out next, carrying a sleeping bag and a grocery bag. He wanted the element of surprise, so he sat and waited until they got closer to him. Disarming Rob would be his priority. Concentrating hard on Rob, he didn’t notice if Lauren had a gun, he’d have to take his chances.

Roan sucked in his breath. Thirty more yards and Rob would be close enough to jump. Twenty more yards. Sweating, Roan counted off ten yards then five yards in his mind. At less then one yard Roan jumped from the bush and tackled Rob. Lauren’s screams pierced his ear drums. Ignoring her, he concentrated on Rob. The bastard was even stronger than he looked. Roan took a full fist to the jaw and his head snapped back, pain exploding in his neck and traveling up to his head. As he recovered, Rob landed another punch to his face, square on his nose. Bones crushed as waves of nausea rolled through his body. Swinging wildly, Roan landed a couple of lucky punches to Rob’s gut. Blood dripped in eyes, blinding him as waves of pain continued to crash through his system. Unable to catch his breath…

Rolling around together on the ground, Rob pounded his fists into Roan’s face. Satisfied when he felt Roan’s nose break under his fist. Not giving Roan a chance to respond, he hit him harder. The guy had to be nuts to attack him like he did. Unable to get to his gun, Rob made sure Roan couldn’t reach it either. He brought his knee up connecting dead center with Roan’s groin. Roan moaned, recovered quickly, threw a punch that connected with Rob’s shoulder. Somewhere deep in his brain Rob heard Lauren scream and then start to cry. Ignoring her, he concentrated his mind and strength on Roan. His gut vibrated where Roan had landed a punch. Rob flexed his stomach muscles and held them taut before Roan landed his next one. Satisfied when Roan cursed, bruising his hand, he grabbed Roan’s ears and pounded his head into the ground, only stopping when Roan’s body stilled. Pushing off of Roan he cocked his gun, pointing it at Roan’s head. Rob cursed. Damn, he should have never let his guard down. Roan never should’ve been able to get this close to them. Especially after he had promised Lauren he’d protect her.

“What are you doing, Rob…” Lauren held her breath as Rob moved his pointed gun to Roan’s leg.

“Making sure this idiot stays down,” Rob replied, almost too nonchalantly.

Lauren knew better, her husband was wired. What she saw in his eyes scared her. They were dilated and glossy. His clothes disheveled after rolling around on the ground. A wild look about him look made him look uncivilized.

“Rob, you’re not going to shoot him…are you?” Lauren reached for Rob’s arm and rested her hand on his forearm. He shook it off. Stunned, she reached again, but his look stopped her in her tracks.

“Lauren, step back now. Make sure to stay behind me.”

“Rob, you’re scaring me. You’re not going to kill him, are you?” Her voice shaking, Lauren bit her bottom lip.

Though she couldn’t be sure, she didn’t think Rob recognized her in that moment. Had it come to this, her gentle, loving husband turning into a killer for them to survive? Under these circumstances did she want to survive?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Rob half turned toward her until he had her in his sights, never letting his full attention wavier from Roan’s body. The fear he saw in Lauren’s eyes barely registered. When she cowered as he crossed toward her, it pulled him up short. He forgot he still had the gun in his hand aimed waist high. Dropping his arm he pointed the gun at the ground.

“Lauren, I’m not going to shoot him while he’s unconscious. I’m going to talk to him. Find out what he was thinking. If I don’t like his answers and I think him crazy, then I’m going to shoot him,” Rob explained.