Page 87 of Chasing Paradise

Vi took my offered hand, but as soon as her legs took her full weight, they buckled.

I pulled her up against me, letting her hold onto me as her legs adjusted. I hoped. Otherwise, our movement would be even slower if I had to have her piggyback or pull her.

Slowly but surely, though, she took more of her own weight until, finally, she was standing on her own.

“This has been a crazy twenty-four hours,” she declared as she reached upward, feeling my head. “You have a giant goose egg.”

“It’ll be fine. The nausea is better, and the dizziness is only when I move my head too fast.”

“And it’s not like there’s much we can do anyway,” she said, sighing.

“We’re almost out of here. I can feel it.”

“Let’s hope. We should get moving, right? Those guys weren’t far behind before the storm. And getting that limb off of me…”

“Yeah,” I agreed, hating that I couldn’t give her more time to rest and recover. But I would hate it a lot more if she ended up shot, so I sighed and started walking.

Hopefully, that was our three things.

And everything else would be smooth sailing from here on out…

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Violet

We were slow-moving through the greenery that was, at times, claustrophobically thick. My thighs were aching, slowing our pace considerably. I figured that was a good thing, since I wasn’t convinced Wick’s concussion was as mild as he wanted me to believe.

“I can’t believe people do this for fun,” I grumbled, ripping vines out of my way so we could keep moving forward.

“In their defense, they know where they are and how quickly they can get home to a nice, comfortable bed, cooked food, and electricity.”

“True,” I agreed, mouth watering at the idea of anything to eat that wasn’t fruit. I’d be happy with a damn salad. With kale. And I had strong feelings about kale. None of those feelings were positive.

“I think we should probably find a place to camp soon. The sun is starting to go down.”

“I never thought I would be looking forward to sleeping in a hammock. But here we—“

My sentence fell away as there was a distinct bang, then a ping as a bullet lodged in the tree right next to my damn head.

There was no hesitation.

We linked hands and ran.

“Weave,” I said when Wick pulled against my hold as I tried to. “Hard to hit a moving target,” I explained before saving my breath so we could push harder and faster.

Even at my full force, I was two steps behind Wick, who was practically dragging me with him.

I thought we were making progress.

Until I heard several rapid-fire rounds.

My stomach twisted as my body automatically ducked.

Wick pulled harder, forcing me to keep moving.

The ground beneath our feet was thick, sucking our shoes in with each step.

Then my foot must have found a low-lying area of mud. And when it sucked my foot in, it pulled my damn shoe off.

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