In Her Company_A Reverse Harem Apocalyptic Romance Read online

  “Then let’s stop talking and start moving.” Cody wobbled and caught himself on Jack’s shoulder.

  “I got him.” Jack slid his arm under Cody’s and helped him walk.

  Austin held the door as they all filed into the hall. “Lead the way, Lieutenant.”

  The trip down the stairs went quickly, motivated by growing hope and dwindling time. Eli led them past the second floor, noting that eerie silence had replaced the pounding music of the previous night’s party. No one dared to speculate why. They exited the lobby onto the street, and Eli took a moment to get his bearings. “This way.”

  “Union Station?” Austin guessed at their destination.

  Eli shook his head. “No, too obvious. And too crowded. A likely target.”

  “The capital building.” Jack smiled.

  “Even more obvious.”

  Jack flipped him the bird.

  Eli chuckled, noticing a hot itch at the back of his throat. He swallowed past it and narrowed his eyes against the morning sun’s glare at the buildings lining the street. There it is. “Found it,” he announced as he marched forward.

  “The pot shop.” Cody crowed, having outsmarted them all. “Weed Whackers. I like that.”

  Jack growled at Eli. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “The building’s changed hands many times, but the government has always owned the land.” Eli pushed the door open. The shop had been robbed, probably more than once, and abandoned, but he had no interest in smoking anything. As expected, the door to the basement was locked. He and Austin kicked it open, then switched on a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Bugs scattered, and cobwebs clung to them as they descended.

  “This is the fucking Temple of Doom.” Austin brushed a spider from his shoulder.

  “I heard that,” Indie snapped as she stomped on something skittering across the floor. She found a working flashlight on a shelf and handed it to Eli.

  Eli shined the light around the room, recalling the intel he’d been privileged with. “This is the first level. There should be a sub-basement entrance…somewhere.”

  “And if there isn’t?” Austin glared at him.

  “I’m sure they made it hard to find.” Shit. Eli hoped it hadn’t been covered up in concrete. Metal rattled on stone as Indie stepped closer to the wall. Ah-ha. “There.” Eli gently pushed her aside and pulled up a manhole cover that, judging from the smell of mold and rotting rat, hadn’t been opened in some time.

  “I’ll go first.” Austin took the flashlight and stepped forward. A loud echo revealed that he’d dropped down a short distance. The flashlight shone up. “Jack, you next.” Indie followed, then Cody, and finally Eli.

  Austin handed him the flashlight, and Eli swept it around the cavernous room. “Good. This is what I expected to see.”

  “Nothing?” Jack blinked.

  “That’s right.” Eli searched the walls. If anyone had ever discovered this room, they’d have found nothing, but someone who knew what to look for… “Got it.” A small dial, barely discernable to the naked eye. Eli brushed years of dirt and grime away from the numbers then groaned as he forced the circle to turn. Four, thirty-nine, seventy-two, ten, twenty-one. Somewhere behind the wall, rarely used tumblers rumbled and banged. Then silence.

  “What now?” Cody stared up at the wall and nearly fell over backward.

  Austin knocked dirt to the floor. “Is this a handle?” He pulled. Jack joined him. Unseen hinged creaked and cracked. A door opened.

  Eli stepped through, turned the flashlight off, and slapped the wall beside him. Florescent lights flickered, blinding them momentarily. When his sight returned, he breathed a sigh of relief.

  Three white walls surrounded them, and on those walls hung shelves loaded with weapons. The fourth wall opened into a large stone tunnel carved into the bedrock beneath Denver, stretching into the dark with no apparent end. Five Humvees sat pointed toward the entrance.

  “Yeehaw,” Cody whispered.

  “Well done, Lieutenant.” Austin clapped him on the back. “Arm yourselves. Move out.”

  Indie kissed Eli on the cheek then grabbed a machine gun as long as her leg.

  Eli surveyed the conflicting image she presented. “It suits you, Dr. Jones.”

  They helped Cody into the back seat, Jack and Indie on either side of them. Eli got into the driver’s seat and Austin in the passenger side.

  “Does it have gas?” Austin leaned over to look at the gauges.

  “A full tank.” Eli started the engine. “Keys too.” He turned the headlights on high and stepped on the gas.

  The Humvee carried them swiftly through the tunnel without obstacles.

  “This is too easy.” Indie tensed behind Eli, nearly smacking him in the head with her weapon.

  “After what we’ve been through, we deserve a little easy.” Eli gripped the wheel tighter.

  Cody coughed. Jack did too. Austin tried to hide his, and Eli wiped sweat from his brow even as chills swept along his arm.

  “Is there a hospital at the end of this thing?” Indie peered over Eli’s seat.

  “Yes. The Air Force Academy has a medical unit.”

  Indie lowered her voice, her tone grave. “Then don’t waste time getting there.”

  Eli pushed the gas pedal to the floor. An hour slipped by, maybe more, as silence pursued them. Coughing increased, echoing through the tunnel. Eli guided the vehicle around a curve, and headlights blinded him. He stomped on the brakes, screeching to a halt.

  A command carried from the light. “Identify yourselves!”

  “Major Austin Tucker, Alpha Company, U.S. Army.”

  Panic from the back seat drowned out the reply. Cody crashed against Austin’s seat, seizing as Jack jumped from the vehicle, and Cody spilled out behind him, coughing blood onto the stone floor. Indie rushed to kneel at his side, crying his name, but armed men surrounded her, weapons pointed in her face.

  She stopped short and threw her hands in the air. “I’m Dr. Indiana Jones, and I have the cure!”

  Chapter 16

  INDIE

  “Dr. Jones?” A young woman lowered her machine gun and stepped forward. “Indie?”

  Indie blinked against the blinding light, staring up into familiar blue eyes. Caucasian, red hair, no bullshit demeanor. “Rebecca?” Her high school classmate. They’d worked on countless projects together, chased boys when they were so inclined, and led the soccer team. Indie had lost track of her after graduation.

  The Air Force lieutenant nodded. “What’s going on here?”

  Indie snapped from her reverie and stood. “These men have been exposed to the Scarlet Infection. I developed the cure, and we escaped the quarantine in Denver. But I need facilities and resources to make more of it.” Cody shuddered at her feet, and Indie dropped to press her palm to his hot, damp forehead. “Now.”

  Lieutenant Wallace shouted orders, but her men refused to move.

  A sergeant spoke up. “They’re all infected.” He eyed the Army soldiers with trepidation. “No one can cure this. What makes you think she can?”

  Lieutenant Wallace scowled, wrinkling the pale freckles on her nose. “She was my lab partner in high school. She’s brilliant. If she says she has the cure, I believe her. Move!”

  Air Force personnel leaped into action, donning hazmat suits and hospital carts while Indie fretted over her men. “Get them to a hospital.”

  Austin coughed. “Get her to a lab.”

  “No!” She couldn’t leave them. She’d left her mother and never seen her again. Her entire family had died while she was off…finding a cure. “Yes, get them out of here.” She clutched Austin’s hand for a moment before he was whisked away. Indie stepped back and allowed the airmen to take her men one at a time, kissing each of their cheeks and whispering words of comfort. She’d save them. This time she knew how.

  ***

  Dr. Indiana Jones inoculated herself first for two reasons. To make sure she’d remembered the fo
rmula correctly, and to make sure she no longer tested positive for carrying the virus. Then she made four doses of the cure and rushed to the intensive care unit where her men had been quarantined. She gave the first dose to Cody, barely conscious. Jack coughed and thanked her, managing a wink. Eli accepted his dose without comment, sweat glistening on his forehead.

  Austin, however, resisted. “Do I need this?”

  She grabbed his chart. The doctors had recorded all the common symptoms. “Yes, you do.”

  “But I don’t feel sick.”

  “You will.”

  His laugh turned into a cough, so he let her jab the needle in his arm. He drifted off to sleep while Indie pulled up a chair and waited.

  Sunset faded behind the mountains, and a biohazard-suited nurse came in to dim the lights and check their vital signs. No change in any of them except Austin. His condition had worsened. Damn it! Am I too late again?

  Indie dozed off and woke to another nurse—or it could’ve been the same one, hard to tell through the biohazard suit—came in to turn up the lights and check vitals. Sunrise stretched west, casting the hospital’s shadow across the mountains. Indie read Cody’s chart. His blood pressure and heartrate had improved, temperature down, but he still lay unconscious in the small bed.

  She checked Jack. Improvement there too, as well as Eli. But when Austin coughed, blood appeared on his lips.

  “How are they doing, Doctor?” He managed a grunt.

  She sat on his bed. “They’re getting better. You will too.” She brushed her hand across his clammy forehead.

  “This is better?” Cody moaned and rolled over. “I feel like grandpa’s pickled liver run over by that snowplow.”

  Jack grunted. “Cure’s worse than the disease.”

  Eli swore, probably, in a foreign language, then sat up and scowled at Austin. “What’s wrong with this slacker?”

  “He’s still fighting.” Indie laced her fingers with Austin’s as he closed his eyes.

  The sun rose higher in the sky. Air Force cadets milled about the academy grounds, having no idea the Scarlet Infection lurked nearby. The officer in charge put the medical staff to work making the cure in large quantities and developing a plan to distribute it.

  Cody sat up. “I need a drink.” A nurse brought them all ice chips.

  “Lame.” Jack tossed a handful in his mouth. “When we get out of here, I’m buying the first round.”

  “I want coffee.” Eli groaned and cast a glance at Austin. “Why isn’t he getting better?”

  Indie shook her head. “I don’t know.” She’d gone over the formula a hundred times in her mind, knew it in her sleep. Why hadn’t it helped Austin?

  Thunder cracked outside as storm clouds rolled in over the mountains. The sun set during the rain, and Indie’s men slept.

  When she woke, Cody, Jack, and Eli were gathered around Austin’s bed, holding her hand, holding her.

  “What are we going to do without him?”

  She shot a glare at Eli, who’d dared to utter those words. Then she followed his gaze and spotted the blood dripping from Austin’s eyes.

  “How long does it take to die from this?” Cody shifted, clutching the back of his hospital gown closed behind his ass.

  Jack sat on the bed across from Indie. “Big guy like the major will probably suffer longer than most.”

  “What is wrong with all of you?” Indie gasped, unable to believe the shit coming from their mouths. “He’s going to live, and we’re going to…” What? Go on their merry way? Which way was that?

  Jack raised an eyebrow. “Live happily ever after?”

  “The five of us?” Cody’s lips twisted.

  Impossible, probably immoral, and definitely difficult. No, they couldn’t. But… Damn it, she couldn’t give up any one of them. “Yes. All five of us.” Indie stood and glared at each of the men—the conscious ones, at least. “Happy or ever after, I don’t know, but there will be five, damn it.” Austin coughed, and her heart sank. “As long as we live.”

  “Nice fairytale, Doc.” Cody gave up his battle with the gown and let it billow open as he sat on the bed beside Jack. “Here’s the real deal. We’re gonna get through this—somehow.” He reached over and laced his fingers with hers.

  He hadn’t mentioned a number or any other specifics, but the strength of his conviction bolstered hers. His touch steadied her.

  Jack smiled. “Yep. That’s what the major would tell us. Somehow.”

  Eli shrugged. “I’ll work out the details later.”

  “How long are you pussies going to sit around and debate this?” Austin groaned, wincing as he shifted to sit up in his bed.

  “Don’t move.” Indie pressed her hand to his shoulder and yelled out the door. “Nurse!”

  He shrugged her off. “Five. I’m sticking around for this shitshow.”

  A nurse scrambled in without her biohazard suit and pressed her stethoscope to Austin’s chest then checked his temperature. “He’s recovering.” She stepped back and smiled.

  Indie breathed for the first time in days. She’d lost so much, family, her home, things that could never be replaced, but her men—all of them—would live. “Thank you.” She stood and hugged the nurse.

  Jack fixed a glare at the women. “Where’s your suit?”

  “Don’t need it.” The nurse smiled as she stepped back from Indie’s embrace. “I’ve been inoculated.” She picked up a remote and turned on the TV, flipping the channel to a news report. “The cure is working.” She checked Austin’s heart again, made a note in his chart, then left the room.

  Scenes of horror and destruction played across the TV screen. Residents inside the quarantine fought over who would get the cure first. National Guard troops rounded up those still living and escorted them to medical staff and triage units. Indie and her men watched in silence, hardly believing they’d been there.

  “We lived through that.” Cody shuddered.

  A reporter in a newsroom appeared on the screen. “The death count is now in the thousands, but stories of survival are coming from deep inside the quarantine zone. Survival and heroism. Dr. Julian Francis, the scientist who developed the cure while working closely with quarantined victims, has shown great compassion…”

  “Turn it off!” Austin grabbed the remote lying by his leg and mashed the power button.

  Jack growled. “Fucking asshole!”

  “That bastard’s taking credit for your work.” Eli brushed his hand over Indie’s shoulder, but she shook him off.

  “He always has.” She sighed, not surprised at all. What surprised her was how little she cared. “It doesn’t bother me.” She turned away from the TV and smiled at the four men blinking back at her. “We’re all here—together—and we’re going to live. Nothing else matters.”

  Austin reached out and drew her close. She leaned down to hold him, thrilled at his strong heartbeat under her cheek. Cody pressed his chest against her back, his heartbeat equally healthy, and they all piled on top of each other in a group hug as awkward as it was meaningful. She’d never let them go. Not for anything.

  “I love you all.” She squeezed Austin a little harder and wished for more arms.

  Jack brushed his lips on her ear. “We know.”

  Eli stroked her hair. “Ti amo.”

  “Was that Spanish?” Cody glanced at him.

  “Italian.” Eli shook his head. “Spanish is te quiero. Both mean I love you.”

  “I figured that out,” Cody snapped.

  “All this love and affection is smothering me.” Austin gasped. “Literally.”

  Indie pressed up on her hands, and everyone stood back.

  Austin pulled in a deep breath. “Where do we go from here?”

  “Not back to Denver, that’s for damn sure.” Jack winced.

  “Doesn’t matter as long as we’re five.” Indie held up her hand, fingers spread wide. The guys imitated her gesture, wrapping their hands around each other with hers in the middl
e. Strength upon strength. Love she’d never known before—nor had anyone else.

  “This is going to be a difficult mission,” Eli warned.

  Austin forced a grim smile. “That’s how we like it.”

  “Yeehaw!” Cody’s shout echoed down the hallway. He slipped his arm around Indie’s waist and jerked her close, kissing her soundly on the lips. “That’s how we say I love you in Texan.”

  Indie grinned at the reckless cowboy and brushed her nose on his. “I know.”

  Epilogue

  INDIE

  Three months later…

  Coughs followed Indie off the plane, sending shivers down her spine that were hard to dispel. The Scarlet Infection had been eradicated. She’d developed both the cure and an effective vaccine. The coughing on the plane was just a simple cold or flu virus, nothing more. She shook off her fears and caught up to Cody, slipping her hand in his and then Eli’s.

  Austin had stopped at a row of monitors to check their connecting flight’s status. “On time. Gate D20, Dallas to Cancun.” He glanced at Jack reading the same information on his phone.

  “Just a few gates over.” Jack hefted his backpack on his shoulder.

  They’d gotten on the plane in Denver despite Jack’s vow never to go back, returning to help with the recovery and cleanup operations, and by the time they finished, everyone in the world knew Dr. Indiana Jones had been the scientist who’d saved them all. She’d retreated from the praise. So many had died, including her family. Would they have applauded her? She hadn’t found Monte—or his body. She’d resume searching after taking some time to recuperate.

  “We earned this fucking vacation.” Cody slipped his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss on her cheek.

  Indie tensed slightly. They avoided public displays of affection as a rule, but Austin had declared no rules applied on their escape to the beach. She grabbed Cody’s collar and kissed him hard, while still holding Eli’s hand. “There’s going to be lots of fucking.” She breathed the words hot in his ear.

  His smile teased her as he slid his hand down to squeeze her butt cheek. “Yes, ma’am.”