Page 51 of Obey

I can’t help but snort. “You’re welcome to give yourself a handjob,” I say dryly. Neither of us is in the mood for anything remotely resembling sex right now, but it’s the only amusing thing that’s happened in the past day.

“I don’t even know that I’d be able to undo my jeans at this point.” Knives uncaps the water bottle and takes a small sip before handing it to me.

Even though I could easily drink all of it in one go, I only take a few sips. I don’t know how long it’ll have to last us, but it doesn’t look good.

Of course, dehydration might kill us faster than the bugs and the gators—of both kinds—if we don’t figure out where we are and how to get back to civilization.

“At least it’s cooling off a little,” I say, fumbling for something to say that isn’t just more negativity.

“I hope this isn’t one of those places that gets so cold at night we have to worry about hypothermia.” Knives starts to scratch his beard, then grimaces. “Fuck. I’m going to need twenty showers to get clean.”

Motion catches my attention out of the corner of my eye, and I jolt upright fast enough to make my shoulder scream with pain.

“What is it?” Knives asks, tensing up.

“I have no idea,” I say, “but I don’t think it’s an alligator.” No, it’s something the size of a giant rat, but it skitters off when it seems to realize we’re there.

Fuck.

Great. So now we don’t just have to worry about alligators, mosquitos, gnats, the heat, drowning, and dehydration. We have to worry about other animals too.

“You think it’s edible?” Knives snorts in amusement. “Like I could manage to kill, skin, and cook anything. The killing, maybe. But I don’t want to guess how messy skinning would be, and I sure as fuck can’t start a fire in a swamp.”

“And I’m not eating anything from here raw,” I say, revolted at the thought alone. “It’s probably all diseased anyway.”

“Or it’s got parasites. We’ll end up with giant worms in our guts,” Knives suggests. “Happened to a buddy in jail. He said he’d gone to Mexico on a drug run and had street tacos. That’s how they caught him—he had to go to the hospital for the pain, and the cops got alerted…”

“That’s not helping,” I tell him.

Neither is the mention of pain, which brings my awareness to the fact that my shoulder really is fucking hurting. If it’s not infected by now, it’s going to be soon.

I don’t want to think about what will happen if we don’t get somewhere safe soon. Knives might really end up dragging along a dead body behind him, or at least a delirious and very sick body.

“We should try to sleep,” Knives says. “We’re both exhausted.”

I shake my head. “One of us needs to keep watch.”

“There’s no way we’ll manage to do that.” Knives sighs. “Let’s be realistic here. We’re tired, hungry, thirsty, stuck in the middle of literally nowhere. Even if one of us tries to stay awake, we’ll end up nodding off. We can’t even move around to get the blood pumping thanks to the chain.”

He’s not wrong.

“Okay,” I say grudgingly. “I guess no one’s going to find us at night, anyway. They’d be stupid to come out here in the dark. Right?”

“They’d be pretty stupid,” Knives agrees.

I figure that’s the end of the conversation. I close my eyes to let exhaustion take me.

Unfortunately, the pain is only getting worse. The tree branches and roots underneath us are a far cry from even the lumpiest of mattresses, and it’s so fucking loud. The insects didn’t get quieter just because it’s dark.

“You think Silvano did this on purpose?” Knives suddenly asks.

I open my eyes again. “On purpose?”

Knives shrugs, a movement I feel against my shoulder. “Maybe he doesn’t care about the shipment. Maybe he just wants us dead.”

A chill runs through me. “Yeah,” I say, swallowing around the lump in my throat. “Guess it would be an easy way to get rid of us without any of the evidence. Just send us down to the swamp, outnumbered and out of our element, then leave us to die.” I laugh. “He wouldn’t even have to arrange for cleanup. Some wild animal will take care of that for him.”

But I don’t want to believe that.

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