Dead Series (Book 2): A Little More Dead: Gunfire & Sunshine Read Online Free

and
we can beat it. But I have to hear
you say it.”
    He sharpened his
gaze, Dan flittering through his weary mind. This wasn’t the first time someone
had this talk with him and, suddenly, he felt ashamed by the developing pattern
in his behavior. Wendy was right. It was time to piss or get off the pot. As
ridiculous as it sounded, if something was keeping them alive, he owed it to
these people to take advantage of it and put up a fight. At this point, the
only thing he had left to lose was his life, which wasn’t worth two-shits.
Pulling his hand from hers, Paul wiped sweat from his brow and exhaled into the
wind. “I’m in.”
    A faint smile
crept back into the lines of her mouth. The horses whinnied and Curtis yelled
something before more glass broke upstairs.
    Wendy leaned back
and spread her palms. “So do you want to go surfing or what?”
    Tipping his head
down, he peered at her over the top of his shades. “Not a chance.”
    ☠
    Paul popped back
up and pounded the water with his fists. “Sonofabitch!”
    Wendy laughed out
loud, straddling a surfboard with her legs dangling in the water. “You almost
had that one!” Her smile morphed into an all business look as another wave slowly
built behind her. Sliding to her stomach and paddling with it, she sprang to
her feet when the water crested and rode the curl with her arms out and knees
bent. A high-pitched cry shot from her as she zipped past Paul, spraying him
with a quick turn of the board. He shook his head and watched her jump back into
the water, grumbling beneath his breath. When she paddled back out, an
unmistakable glow lit up her face.
    “How do you do
that?” he asked, straddling his board.
    Her smile was
unbreakable. “Beginners luck!”
    “Okay, I think I’m
done. This water is freezing and kicking my ass.” His thin gaze drifted back to
the house. “We should go check on Troy.”
    “Oh come on,” she
said, grabbing his hand and checking his watch. “You said a half hour.”
    His eyes slid to
the handguns lying on some brightly colored beach towels in the sand before
sweeping back to the house where a gloomy outcome lingered like the smell of
burnt toast. “I want to make sure everything is okay.”
    “He was fine when
we left.” Her lips pressed into a disappointed line. “Just one more. Pleeeease?”
    He watched her bob
on the surface with the sunlight sparkling in her eyes. “One more and that’s
it,” he said, sliding to his stomach.
    Shedding an impish
grin, she paddled alongside him. “Isn’t this fun?”
    “Yeah, until a
riptide pulls us out to sea.”
    “Paul Hessler, you
say the sweetest things.”
    He smiled at her
and a high-pitched shriek went off in the distance, drawing his gaze to the shoreline.
“Oh shit!” Clumsily turning in the water, Paul paddled hard for the beach where
two people were running like hell toward the beach towels and guns. “Company!”
he cried, trying to catch a wave back to shore that rolled under him and
carried on alone. He paddled faster, water getting in his eyes and blurring the
sprinting bodies into blurry dots zipping across the sand. It was a race to the
guns, one that would undoubtedly come down to the wire.
    Wendy blazed past on
her surfboard, crouching low with a determined look on her face. But it was too
late. She stopped and screamed when a tall man in jeans and a button down
rushed into the water after her. He had to be at least 6’4” and over three
hundred pounds with blood running from his nose and mouth in gooey globs. There
was a patch of hair missing from the left side of his head and his female
sidekick wasn’t in much better shape. Nose bitten off, one eye dangled from a
bloody socket that reminded Paul of Dan. Wendy dodged the tall man’s scraping claws
with a shriek and jumped off the board, swimming back to Paul. The man snatched
the surfboard and yanked, towing her back to him by the ankle strap. She
screamed just before dipping beneath the water.
    Shaking