CHAPTER 13

I jumped from the roof and hit the ground just a few feet between the boy who was beating at the door and the zombie who had just come around the corner of the church. My landing was a little harder than I anticipated, and my right ankle twisted, causing a sharp twinge of pain as I fell to one knee and dropped my shotgun in the process.

By now, the zombie was dangerously close; I reached for my handgun, knowing all the while that I might not have time. As I pulled the gun from its holster, a loud shot rang out, and the zombie fell back against the side of the church before slowly sliding to the ground, leaving a gory smear of blood and brains across the side of the building.

Next to the child zombies, I've always found this type (freshly turned) of zombie to be more than a little unsettling. Besides looking a little more pale than usual, they could easily be mistaken for a normal person as they hadn't had time to start the slow process of decomposing. But one glance into their dead eyes was usually enough to cue you in.

I shuddered and scooted away from the now-dead zombie that had fallen about a foot away from me. His eyes were wide open and seemingly fixed on me, but the top of his head was completely blown away with brain matter all over the ground and the side of the building behind him.

Looking up, I saw that same horseman that I'd saved from the zombie a few minutes ago had now repaid me in kind. I tried to stand up, but as soon as any weight was put on my ankle, it threatened to give way.

"Here, let me help you," he said and swiftly dismounted before extending a hand to help me stand and hobble over to a stone bench. I gave a faint sigh of relief as he gently slid my boot off my slightly puffy ankle.

"It's just a slight sprain," he said. "I think that if you try and stay off it for a day or so, it'll be completely fine."

"Thanks for the help," I replied. Looking into his deep blue eyes, I mused that he was probably the most handsome man I'd ever seen. And quite a bit younger than I'd first thought. While it's true that I don't get out as much as some people, he was still a very striking looking man, tall and lean yet muscular with chiseled features and an air of authority that seemed older than his years.

"I'm Kaley Black," I said, extending my hand. And then he opened his mouth, after that, my hero became the most annoyingly difficult person that I'd ever had the misfortune to meet!

"I'm Captain Nick Monroe; in the future, I would advise you to leave the zombie fighting to the professionals. Jumping off the roof like that put your life as well as that boy's life at risk."

Angrily, I yanked my hand back, " If I hadn't helped you a few minutes ago, you wouldn't even be here right now."

"I had things under control," he replied evenly.

"Oh, really, well from where I was standing, it looked as if you were about to become that zombie's dinner." With that, I grabbed my boot from his hand and, unwilling to force my still aching foot back into it, gingerly walked barefoot over to the door, all the while praying that my ankle wouldn't give out on me and ruin my dignified exit.

"You really shouldn't be walking on that," he called after me with a hint of laughter in his voice that made me even more annoyed.

* * *

Early the next morning, I was woken by the sound of horses whinnying and the clop of hooves in the courtyard. Climbing out of bed, I peered out the window to see several horsemen milling around outside. One of the men dismounted and gave his reins to another who led the horse around back while he walked up to the kitchen door.

"Oh great," I groaned and headed for the door with Moose at my heels. I'd just finally got him trained to sleep through the night without having to go outside, and here we were again, up at the crack of dawn.

"What do you want," I said rudely when I opened the door to come face-to-face with an equally surprised Nick Monroe.

"I'm here to see Celeste LeBlanc-" he started to say.

"She's not up yet; come back in an hour." I snapped and closed the door in his face. Sure it was petty of me, but something about him got under my skin like nobody else. I yawned and briefly considered crawling back into my warm bed when Moose whined, looking at the door. "Oh, all right, let's go for a walk," I grumbled and walked out barefoot into the garden as I didn't want to go all the way back upstairs for my boots. Luckily, I'd already grabbed my handgun and holster before leaving my room as I vowed never to be caught unarmed again.

I sat down beside the fountain and yawned as Moose noosed around the rocks trying to catch a large toad that had jumped into the water to escape him. I couldn't help but laugh when he stuck his whole head into the fountain only to come back up snorting with a leaf instead of the toad in his mouth.

Hearing a laugh behind me, I turned to see that Nick had managed to walk up without my noticing.

"Your dog is quite a character," he remarked.

"Moose is still a pup," I answered carefully, waiting for his next snarky comment, which surprisingly never came.

" As large as he is I bet he probably eats a lot," he said while letting Moose sniff his hands before the pup flopped down on the ground and started chewing on a stick.

"He does, but he's worth it," I replied, wondering how long this awkward conversation was going to last.

After several moments of uneasy silence, Nick cleared his throat, "I feel like we've got off on the wrong foot in some way."

I gave a sarcastic laugh, " that might have something with you feeling the need to lecture me."

"Well, if you hadn't messed up, I wouldn't have felt the need to lecture you, and like it or not, if I hadn't come along when I did, your carelessness would have gotten you killed."

"That's it," I snapped and jumped to my feet. "It's way too early in the morning for me to have to put up with you!" With that, I walked into the kitchen, leaving him out in the rose garden. But not for long as he followed me inside.

"Why are you still here?" I asked, feeling more irritated by the minute as I slammed down a tray of sweet rolls on the table.

Nick closed the door behind Moose and took a seat in a chair beside the fireplace before bothering to answer. "You might as well get used to having me around."

I looked at him in silence, waiting for him to elaborate, but of course, he made me ask, "what exactly does that mean?"

"We've been assigned for the immediate time being as protection to the LeBlanc household."

"What!"

"Because of possible stalking and some vandalism that occurred the other day when someone tried to take out the generator -"

"Wait, someone tried to take out the generator?" I interrupted, but he kept talking as if I'd never interrupted.

"Celeste sent word to my commander that she needed protection."

I frowned in surprise, "I know that we thought someone was watching us a couple of times, but we didn't actually know for sure."

Nick picked up a sweet roll taking a large bite, and I waited impatiently for him to swallow before answering me. "Hey, these are great! You wouldn't happen to have any coffee, would you?"

I rolled my eyes, "If I make some coffee, will you please answer my questions?"

"As long as there's cream and sugar, you can ask me anything," he said with a grin as he helped himself to another sweet roll.

"What makes you think that someone is stalking us?" I asked while setting out the cream and sugar for him to help himself.

Nick took a sip of coffee, "If you know what to look for, there are plenty of signs that this household has been under surveillance at least since you arrived here and possibly before."

Stunned, I stared at him in silence for a moment, trying to process it all, "what do you think that they want?"

"I have no idea, but we're here to make sure that they don't get it," he answered.

* * *

Things didn't change all that much over the next couple of days except for the fact that every time I turned around, the infuriating Nick Monroe seemed to be there. And we no longer had as much freedom as before. Now any time one of us left the house, we had to have either Nick or one of the other soldiers with us as protection. Which is something that didn't go over all that well with me at the time. After being cooped up in the house for several days, I was dying to get out; it also didn't help that I was getting more and more frustrated about not being able to do anything about finding my twin.

So early one morning, I decided to take Moose for a run and get some fresh air. We both enjoyed running but hadn't been able to do so for a while, and this seemed like the perfect time when most everyone else was still inside sleeping. There is always something so peaceful about early morning runs that I enjoy.

We'd probably only ran about a quarter of a mile when I became aware that someone was following us. I slipped my weapon from its holster and turned to see Nick just coming around the corner on the trail.

"Why are you following me?" I snapped.

He stopped a couple of feet away, and I was amused to see that his breathing wasn't quite as even as he might have wanted.

"Nobody leaves the property without an escort," he replied calmly.

I sighed loudly, "I don't need an escort; I can take care of myself just fine."

"I don't make the rules; I just enforce them."

"Ok, fine," I replied coldly. " I just hope that you can keep up with us."

I was amazed to see that he did manage to keep up reasonably well, but he was breathing pretty heavy by the time we got back to the house.

"I like to run every morning, so I guess we'll see you again at 6:00 in the morning," I said sweetly.

"I'll be looking forward to it," he replied with an infuriating smile that I just wanted to slap off his face. I'm not usually prone to violence, and I'm definitely not one of those silly girls who live to stir up drama. Still, this man could get under my skin like nobody else.

I stormed into the kitchen, and Celeste, who was up making coffee, smiled in sympathy. "Men can be annoying at the best of times, dear, but he means well."

"I know," I grumbled. "But every time he opens his mouth, I end up wanting to kill him."

Norah, who had come in the room in time to hear the last of my sentence, burst out laughing, "I bet I know who you're talking about."

"Who else," I said and mixed a little chocolate into my coffee, which was, I'd decided the only way to drink it.

"I've known Nick all of my life, and if you give him a chance, he's a pretty nice guy," Norah said, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice.

"I still think that he's a jerk," I huffed and felt my face flush in shame when I saw Nick standing in the doorway.

"That just means I'm doing my job," he answered with no expression as he helped himself to the coffee.