Page 59 of Heart of the Sun

He did look up at me then, his gaze assessing. “If you want to make yourself useful, you could sharpen some sticks.”

We roasted the rabbit on sticks over the fire and ate it sitting under the low light of the lavender sunset. And though the meat wasn’t nearly plentiful enough, it remedied the ache of hunger that had burned since we’d eaten hours and hours earlier that day.

I looked over at Charlie sitting next to me, dragging his teeth along the stick in an attempt to get every last piece of meat on the skewer. In the glow of the fire, and with the addition of the stubble on his jaw, he looked like he was playing the part of a sexy mountain man. And I had the feeling I was watching him on a screen, some act that was in no way part of who he really was. Maybe I’d look down and see a bucket of popcorn in my lap, and when I left the theater, I’d think about how incredible it would be if I ever met Charlie Cannon and how I’d die if he even spared me a glance.

And I knew in that moment, I didn’t want to be with him anymore.

Because Charlie Cannon was in no way the dream I’d imagined him to be, and if I’d ever really been attracted to him, it’d been a version of him that he could only maintain under certain conditions.

Ironically enough, the lights went out, and I finally saw Charlie Cannon clearly. He was an actor through and through, and he relied on a specific set to be the person he’d decided to play.

When the set went away, so too did his role, and Charlie no longer knew who to be.

Maybe every man I’d ever cared for was destined to show their true colors eventually.

But that thought was interrupted when the form of a man staggered from the trees.

chaptertwenty-five

Tuck

At the look of alarm on Emily’s face as she stared over my shoulder, I grabbed the gun next to me, stood, and whirled around to face whatever threat she’d obviously seen. A man had just stepped through the trees and was heading toward us, his gait slightly staggered as he held his arm across his chest. “Stop!” I shouted. “I have a gun and I’ll shoot.”

The man did, raising one arm. “I’m injured,” he shouted back. “I’m n-not armed. I don’t mean you any harm. I just need to get w-warm. Please. I saw the fire…”

“Tell him to fuck off,” Charlie hissed.

“He’s hurt,” Emily said. “He needs help.”

“So he says,” I muttered. Or it was a tactic to get us to trust him and let him get close. “Walk slowly and keep your arm raised. Spread the fingers of your other hand.”

The man did as I asked, spreading his fingers but keeping his obviously injured arm bent across his chest. He had something wrapped around it and a pack hanging on his shoulder. “Stop,” I commanded when he got close enough that I could see him well. He looked to be in his twenties, his clothes filthy, feet clad in muddy running shoes.

“I was sh-shot.”

“Show me.”

“Tuck…” I heard Emily say from behind me, but I gestured my hand low to tell her to shush. She might think I was being harsh to an injured man looking for help, but I wasn’t going to take chances.

The man hesitated but then lowered his arm slowly and unwrapped whatever fabric he’d used as a bandage, showing me the bloody portions of material underneath, and then exposing the wound in his bicep.

“Where are you coming from?” I asked.

A shiver racked the man. “St. L-Louis. It was hell t-trying to get out.” The man was shivering so badly, he was having trouble speaking. I lowered the gun.

“Come on over and get warm,” I said. I had no way of reading his mind to know his intentions, but it was clear he was weak and freezing, at the very least, and posed little physical threat. Plus, he’d come from St. Louis. He’d have some information. “What’s your name?”

“Isaac.”

“I’m Tuck. And that’s Charlie and Emily.” I moved aside as he stumbled forward, the sole of one shoe flapping, each step making a squelching sound so that it was obvious his foot was soaking wet. He sagged down on the crate I’d been sitting on. I moved around the fire and pulled another one over and set it next to Emily. She and Charlie had stood as I’d had the exchange with the man, but now they were seated again too.

We waited a few minutes as the man reached his good arm out to the fire, his shoulders lowering as the warmth calmed his shivers.After a minute he closed his eyes and exhaled a breath. “Thank you,” he said weakly.

“You need to get those wet shoes off,” I told him. “Let them dry before you start walking again. Where are you headed anyway?”

“No fuckin’ clue,” he said. “I just fuckin’…ran. Lots of people did. I was walking with several others for a while but… I don’t know, we got split up. I hitched a ride yesterday and then walked some more… It’s just, a blur.”

“I wish I could offer you some food—”

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