Page 3 of Sanctuary

“Now you do.”

In a different situation with a different man, I might have felt bad about accidentally undercutting someone else. But this is Aidan. And he’s standing there all arrogant and pleased with himself, assuming I’ll fold to his claim.

I don’t fold. Not anymore.

“Well, I’m sorry if they changed their mind, but I talked to them yesterday afternoon, and we worked out our deal. I’m sureyou were asking more in trade than I was, so they took the offer that worked best for them.”

“Not very professional of you to snatch a job from someone else.”

“I didn’t snatch it away from you on purpose. I didn’t even know. But the issue is decided now. They chose to work with me.”

“If I’m the one who arrives with their supplies, do you genuinely believe they’ll refuse to pay me?”

My cheeks are getting hot from anger, and the most frustrating thing is I know he’ll be able to see it. It’s the curse of pale skin and freckles. I flush way too easily, and it’s a clue to emotions I’d rather keep hidden. “Why bother? I get you thought the job was yours, but I actually need it. They’re giving me a wedding dress for Del, and I can’t get that from anyone else. Surely you’ve got enough work without making a fuss about this one.”

His eyebrows lift slightly. His face is damp with effort—he really must have been booking it to get here before I was done—but his manner is cool and disinterested, like none of this is of any importance to him. “This is my territory. This is my job.”

“You don’t get to claim territory purely because you want it. Every town you’ve set foot in doesn’t automatically belong to you. There are plenty of jobs for both of us.”

He gives a huff of dry amusement. “You say that immediately after you’ve taken a job from me.”

“That’s only happened once. If you want, I can start checking to make sure folks aren’t playing both of us to get the best deal. But it’s not my fault you got undercut this time. You probably asked for too much.”

“I ask for what I’m worth, love. With more experience, you’ll be able to ask for more too.” His voice is pitched intentionally to sound as condescending as possible.

He’s always obnoxious, but he’s not normally so patronizing. He’s doing it on purpose, trying to make me mad. And it’s working. I desperately want to scratch off this infuriating man’s skin. Who the hell does he think he is?

But the last thing I’ll ever do is give Aidan what he’s looking for. So I narrow my eyes and restrain my emotional reaction. “I understand you’re pissy about losing the job, but that’s not my worry. Take it up with the people responsible.”

He doesn’t answer. Just laughs again, cool and bitter. And then—the most galling thing he could have done—he holsters his weapon.

As if I will never be a threat to him.

He reaches for the handles of his cart and starts pushing it again. Clearly, he’s planning to proceed with the job that’s supposed to be mine.

He’s going to have a lot of trouble getting that cart up on the mountain on the hazardous road, but I don’t give him any warning about that. I slide my own pistol into my holster and then start running up the mountain.

I don’t have my cart with me. I pass him easily and am soon out of sight.

I’ll beat him to the school, but there I’ll have to move quickly to gather enough supplies, hide them somewhere, and then carry them down load-by-load to my cart. Aidan isn’t as huge and muscular as my sister’s man, Cole, but he’s definitely bigger and stronger than me. He might be able to force his cart up the mountain when I couldn’t.

My speed accelerates to a run at the thought.

There’s no way in hell I’m going to let that man win.

My lungs and thigh muscles burn when I reach the school, but I don’t take the time to rest. One wing of the building has completely caved in, so I hurry to the other side, kicking in a door to enter.

It’s dark and wet and disgusting inside. With the roof and most windows busted, the weather and wildlife have crept inside. There are birds’ nests. Animal droppings. Dirt and spider webs and a shuffling sound I’m pretty sure is from rodents.

I ignore the automatic shudder that runs down my spine and start checking rooms. The classrooms were along the outside of the building. They all had windows, and so everything inside is water-logged, disintegrated, or completely unusable. After three classrooms, I stop checking them. They’re all going to be the same.

Instead, I explore the rooms in the interior of the structure. There’s a cafeteria and a nurse’s office, but both of those have been raided and emptied a long time ago since the supplies kept there would be considered essential.

The next door I open leads into a storage room with a huge copy machine. I have to turn on my flashlight to see. There are no windows in this room, so the contents haven’t been damaged. And since nothing in here is necessary for survival, it’s been overlooked by earlier scavengers.

This room contains the entire haul for this job.

I open the large empty pack I brought with me and, after a quick scan, start emptying bins of small calculators, protractors, scissors, pens, markers, and pencils into it. I pack it as full as possible. It’s incredibly heavy after I zip it, but I manage to heft it up and hook the straps onto my shoulders so I can carry the supplies on my back.

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