“You sure?”
She looked at Asher and nodded. “Yeah, I’m not an invalid. I can bash a few skulls in if I need to.” That had Asher smirking and Mason scowling deeper. God, that man had a serious bug up his ass. “You need a good cleansing.” She hadn’t meant to say that aloud, and when the words spilled from her mouth, it had Mason narrowing his eyes.
“What?”
“Never mind, I won’t get in your way. Now, come on and let’s quit wasting time. This place creeps me out.” Before he could say another nasty remark, she was moving down the center aisles. Shelves were turned over, and empty boxes of food littered the ground, but there were some cans with missing labels amidst the rubble. She shoved them in her pack and kept searching. After finding three dusty water bottles, a few half-broken and crushed chocolate bars, and a box of pasta, she stopped in front of the beauty shelf. There were some pink razors, a dented bottle of shaving cream, some brushes and combs, and even a small bottle of off-brand perfume.
She picked up the perfume, opened the bottle, and brought it to her nose. The light, floral yet sweet scent had her closing her eyes and reminding her of a very different life. She tucked the perfume in her bag, grabbed some razors and the cream, and even a bottle of lotion that she found under a pile of papers. She kicked away a few empty boxes and saw the small first aid kit. It wasn’t anything big, but it did have things they might need at some point. Looking up, she saw Mason and Asher scanning the aisles and shoving things into their packs. But it was the sight of several circular racks in the corner by the storage door that had her growing excited. Clothes. Clean clothes. After finding a couple more cans and boxes of food, she moved over to the racks at the same time Mason and Asher did.
“God, I hope they have my size,” she mumbled to herself. Over the past few months, obviously food had been scarce, when she could find it. She had gone from a healthy size sixteen to a size twelve in just that short amount of time, and the clothing she had on hung from her body. She wasn’t as big as before, but she certainly wasn’t a twig. She quickly went through the rack of jeans, and even though they certainly weren’t anything designer label and were totally off brand, they were like freaking gold to Sparrow.
She found a few in her size, and more in a fourteen, but she took them all and shoved them in her already full bag. They had packs of plain T-shirts on the ground, and she grabbed a couple packs in a size large. She was a little thinner, but her breasts were still large, and a bigger sized T-shirt would be far more comfortable. Movement to her right had her lifting her head and her heart stalling as she watched Asher peel off his grungy shirt and tear into a pack of clean ones. His chest was hard and defined. Mason gripped the edge of his own shirt, but right before he took it off, he lifted his head and stared right at her. Sparrow quickly looked away and scanned a tipped-over shelf with underwear.
Apparently, McMillian’s was a one-stop place to get everything. She found a pack in her size, and when she stood and turned around, it was to see Mason and Asher right behind her and dressed in clean shirts. Their packs were all but bursting at the seams with the food and clothes they had gotten, and there was a nice feeling at having the little things once again, even if it was things like clean underwear and razors.
“All right, I’ll go first. It’s going to be pretty fucking dark back there, but we scored on batteries and flashlights in the hardware section.” Asher lifted up a yellow flashlight and clicked in on. He tilted his head toward the supply door, and they moved closer to it. Mason stayed close to her, and the feel of his body heat had everything inside her rising to a scorching level. There was something about him that turned her on. Maybe she was a masochist for wanting someone that clearly didn’t like her, but dammit he was so attractive, and the way he was so aloof shouldn’t have her wanting him as much as she did. Pushing all of that aside, she held her breath and wrapped both her hands tightly around the pipe.
Asher placed the flat of his hand on the door and pushed it open. It was dark, too dark to see, but the stench that came from the darkness had Sparrow gagging and quickly covering her mouth and nose. Obviously, something was rotting back there, hidden behind the shadows. Asher clicked on the flashlight and pointed it in front of him.