Page 5 of Sanctuary

“I know you did,” he says, turning around toward me with his hands halfway up in a gesture of surrender.

“So you know I’ll shoot you if you don’t return those supplies to me. I’m not playing around here.” I move closer. I’m still panting for breath, but my hand doesn’t waver.

I never knew how to use a gun until Cole taught me and Del when he escorted us away from the eastern coastline more than three years ago. We didn’t own any weapons except knives, and we’d lived that long through the chaos after Impact by relying on the protection of other people. Since I couldn’t fight, I used my body in a different way to keep us safe.

Never again will I give what I don’t want to give merely because a man lays claim to it.

“So take those supplies out of your cart right now and lay them on the road. Then walk away and don’t turn back.”

“That’s not going to happen, love.”

“And stop calling me fucking love. I just told you I’ll shoot you.”

Aidan has unnervingly vivid green eyes. They stand out in his damp, dirty face, and they scan my face and body in a quick assessment.

I’m not sure what he reads in me, but it evidently makes his decision.

“You want to,” he says at last. “But you won’t.”

I shoot again, the bullet ruffling his hair as it whips by the side of his head.

He ignores it. He grips the handles of his cart and starts pushing. “Don’t point that thing if you’re not willing to use it. If you want to beat me, you’ll have to play to win. You’re too soft. If you want to be an asshole, you need to commit.”

My hand shakes on the trigger. My vision blurs over.

I want to shoot this man so badly I sway on my feet, but I can’t do it.

I can’t.

He’s right.

I’m still too soft.

I care about what’s right and what’s wrong.

I can’t bring myself to shoot a man in the back.

Even if it’s Aidan.

It’s two days later before I make it back to Monument and the small cottage I share with Del and Cole.

They’re happy to see me. And Del actually cries over the wedding dress.

Aidan beat me to the West Virginia town with his half of the supplies. I moved as fast as I could, but my legs are shorter than his, and he had a head start. There was no way I could overtake him.

When I arrived, I was relieved to discover they hadn’t given him the entire payment. He got three-quarters of the sack of flour, but they still had the wedding dress and a quarter of the flour for my haul.

They said they wanted to split the flour in half, but Aidan wouldn’t take the wedding dress, so he got more flour.

He wasn’t saving that dress for me to be nice. It simply wouldn’t be of any use to him.

At least I got something out of the job, but it doesn’t make me resent Aidan any less.

I take a bath after my long travels and wash and comb out my hair. Then I spend the evening by the fireplace with Del and Cole, talking about what happened and complaining about Aidan and his perfidy.

Del is sympathetic, but I know she doesn’t hate Aidan as much as I do, which is occasionally annoying.

“He shouldn’t have taken your stuff,” she says at last. We’re two years apart and don’t look alike. She’s smaller than me—shorter and less curvy—with wavy auburn hair and big brown eyes. She’s pretty in a delicate way with the graceful neck and shoulders of a ballerina. “But he was offered the job first, so I can understand why he was pissed.”

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