The Lair by Emily McKay Page A

to watch you get shot. Jesus, do you have any idea what it was like for me watching you go down? It nearly killed me.”
    “It did?” she asked softly.
    Instantly, his posture relaxed. “Yeah,” he muttered. “It did.”
    Just like that, despite the trauma of the day, despite her pain and the grief and the fear, despite all that, she felt better. Yeah, Carter had told her he loved her before, but it wasn’t something he talked about often.
    She scooted closer to him and put a hand on his arm. “Well, now you know how I feel every time you go out on a supply raid.” He didn’t say anything and as the silence stretched taut between them, she changed the subject. “Well, they seemed . . .” But then she didn’t know what else to say so she tacked on a weak “. . . nice?”
    Carter didn’t take his eyes off the road, but he cursed. “Jesus, Lily, are you kidding me?”
    “Okay,” she admitted. “They don’t seem nice. They seem . . . prepared.”
    “If that’s the polite way of saying they’re effing crazy, then yes, they’re prepared .”
    “I’m not trying to pick a fight here.”
    “Then what’s your point?”
    “Obviously this wasn’t an ideal situation, but it’s not all bad, right? We can use all the allies we can get.”
    “Allies? Is that what you think? These gun-toting wack jobs are going to be our allies?”
    “They’re within easy driving distance. Surely there’s someone in town with a satellite phone. We should have given them our number.”
    “I’m not giving our number to the guy who shot you.”
    “Yeah, he shot me. But it’s barely a scratch.”
    “You were lucky. Eight inches to the right and you’d be dead.”
    “Yes, I was lucky, but think about it from his point of view. He thought his kid was in danger. Can you honestly say you wouldn’t do the same to protect your family?”
    “He shot you with a handgun, Lily. Have you thought about what that means? Anyone who’s lived this long knows that a pistol isn’t going to do jack to a Tick. A half-dozen bullets won’t do more than piss a Tick off. So if he had a pistol, it’s because he intended to shoot people. Humans, Lily. That’s the only thing a handgun is good for shooting. Think about that for a few minutes before you tell me you think we should make these people our allies.”
    “He was protecting his family.”
    “Jesus, Lily! Would you listen to yourself? Just for a minute? He shot you. Stop taking his goddamn side.”
    Lily blew out a slow breath. “You’re right. Everything you’ve said about him is right. But just hear me out, okay? I’m not saying we need to start a book club or anything. But think about the bigger picture. Just for a second. There’s a whole town there. A town that was hard hit, but a town, Carter. An honest-to-God town with close to two thousand people living in it, from what Dawn said. That’s the first sign we’ve had that there’s anything left other than Farms and Ticks. This is huge! This is good news!”
    “Seriously?”
    “Let’s forget for a moment that he shot me. For the first time, in, like, forever, you get to go back to Base Camp with good news. With hope. With potential allies. Just forget for a second whether or not these allies are ones we actually want. They’re human. That’s . . . a miracle.”
    Carter let out a curse and slowed the Hummer to a stop before turning to face her.
    “You’re right. I should be thrilled.” His voice was anguished. “And maybe, soon, I will be. But for now, I’m still a bit freaked that you nearly died out there today. And you know what’s worse than that? You getting shot wasn’t his fault, it was mine. I’m the one who charged in. I spooked him. If I hadn’t panicked, you wouldn’t have been shot.”
    She sat back against the door of the cab, all her anger slipping away. “Carter, I don’t blame you.”
    “ I blame me.”
    For a moment Lily just stared at him in shock. Then she said, “Carter,