Slow Burn: Bleed, Book 6 by Bobby Adair Page A

changes.”
    Gretchen asked, “Does anybody see anything yet?”
    Nobody did.
    “We’ll give it another few minutes, just to be sure.” She was sad about that.
    I wasn’t. It saved me the trouble of killing crazy-ass Jerry and dealing with the guilt I’d feel about it later.
    “If you’re going to kill me,” Gerald spat, “just do it.”
    Gretchen wasn’t impressed with Gerald’s machismo. “You watch too many movies. Nobody wants to kill anybody.”
    I said, “Hey, that chick out there looks like maybe she’s getting into trouble.”
    Dalhover looked. “Dammit.”
    From her side of the boat, Gretchen announced, “Jerry’s not here. Paul, will you come back here and drive the boat? We need to go get Melissa before she drowns.”
    Paul hurried back. Rachel followed and went down into the cabin.
    “Looks like crazy Jerry drowned himself.” I looked at the others for consensus on that.
    Gretchen shook her head. “I was hoping we could trade him for Steph.”
    Shit. She was right. We could have. I looked back at the water, hoping to see Jerry coming up for air.
    The cabin cruiser’s engine started and Paul steered it toward Melissa. Rachel came out of the cabin with a couple of life preservers. She tossed one in Gerald’s lap and moved to stand beside him. Paul was guiding the boat so that when we came up beside Melissa, she’d be on our side.
    I asked, “Gretchen, we can trade these two for Steph, right?”
    She shook her head. “I doubt it.”
    “Jay will go nuts when he finds out about Jerry,” Paul said. “He’ll want revenge.”
    “Are Steph and Amy in danger?”
    “Hurting them won’t make any sense.” Gretchen sat down in a seat by Paul. She reached out and took his hand in hers. “Jay is crazy, but he’s smart. The whole reason he kept Steph and Amy is because they’re nurses. They’re valuable.”
    I asked, “What about Megan?”
    “He won’t hurt a child.”
    I couldn’t tell if Gretchen was certain or whether she was hoping.
    Paul slowed the boat.
    Rachel tossed the life preserver to Melissa. “Grab it.”
    Melissa did, looking up at me with fear in her eyes.
    I shook my head. That was disappointing.
    Paul asked, “What do we do with them?”
    Gretchen’s mind was somewhere else by then. Maybe she was thinking about our chances of starting over somewhere safe. Maybe she was thinking about what might happen to Steph and Amy when Jay found out about Jerry.
    Rachel said, “They both have a life preserver. They can swim back from here.”
    Wow. She had a pragmatic edge, just like Murphy.
    She saw me looking at her and smiled. “They won’t drown.”
    I said, “I think we should take them back and try to trade them for Steph and Amy.”
    “No,” Gretchen answered. “That really won’t work. Honestly Zed, once Jay hears that Jerry is dead, he’ll stop being rational. He’ll want to kill us all. He won’t have any interest in negotiating.”
    “Well, I’m not leaving her there.” I looked at each of them and let them see my defiance.
    “Nobody says you have to,” Paul said. “Going there now won’t do anybody any good. That’s all we’re saying. But nobody’s your boss; you can do what you like.”
    Gretchen stood up. “We shouldn’t go back.” She pointed at Melissa. ‟Get her in the boat. We’ll skirt the shore until we see a canoe or something with none of the infected around. We’ll drop them off, and they can find their own way back.”
    Rachel put herself in charge of getting Melissa into the boat.

Chapter 15
    We found a kayak in a boathouse filled with somebody’s water toys on the north shore an hour after the sun came up. In that kayak, Melissa and Gerald were paddling away in the distance, and our cabin cruiser was drifting maybe a hundred feet from shore.
    With one problem solved to nobody’s satisfaction, I announced, “I don’t know what any of you guys have in mind, but I’m going to go get Steph, and Amy and Megan if they want to come