Page 71 of Protected

There’s no reason not to tell her since I’ll never see her again after today. “I guess I… I was scared.”

“Of what? If he scares you, then you need to pick out a better man.”

“No, no. He doesn’t scare me. He never has. There is no better man than him. It’s just… I don’t know. It’s so different than it used to be. It’s not as easy as getting a boyfriend before Impact. It’s… bigger than that. The stakes feel a lot higher. It’s life and death. Who you choose and how it works out and where you end up if it ends. I mean, if it ends badly, then I could… I could lose everything that’s keeping me safe. So I guess it just felt safer to try to take care of myself.”

“No one can take care of themselves. Not anymore. We’ve got to have people, and we’ve got to hold on to them.”

A tear slips down my cheek. I swipe it away quicklyand stare down at my lap. “I should have done that. Now I might have lost them all for good.”

“I don’t know about that. How far ahead of you are they?”

“A few hours, I think. I’m not exactly sure.”

“Well, that’s not too far. You can make up some time with me and Jimmy. They’ll stop traveling in the evening, won’t they?”

“Yes.”

“See, then you’re fine. You can catch up with them then. I don’t like dropping you off on your own though. Maybe we can take you farther.” She glances at her son again.

Jimmy clears this throat. “We can keep goin’ awhile, but we gotta get home before dark too.”

“I know.” Greta sighs. “We’ve been trading with a community half a day east, but the others will send out a search party if we’re not home by dark.”

“Of course you need to get back home. If you can just take me until you’re turning off this road, it will be more than I could have hoped for.”

Greta tsks her tongue some more. It’s obvious she doesn’t like the idea of letting me off on my own, but what else can we do? I’m not too excited about being on my own again, but my only other choice is to give up on finding Deck and the others.

I’m not going to do that. They could be in danger from Trisha and her cohorts even now.

The thought drops into my gut. I want to urge Jimmy to pick up his speed, but of course I don’t. I sit tensely andtry to respond politely to Greta’s pleasant conversation for almost an hour, until Jimmy slows to a stop at the side of the road just before a smaller road turns off to the right.

“Here’s our turnoff,” Greta says. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”

“I really appreciate the thought, but my people are that way. I need to get to them.”

“And you’re sure they’re worth it?”

I gulp. Nod for a moment until I can get the words out. “Yeah. They’re worth it.”

I’ve opened the passenger door and have started to slide out onto the road when Jimmy says sharply, “Wait! Wait. Someone’s comin’.”

“Hold on, Lilah,” Greta adds, pulling a rifle up from the floor of the cab and handing it to Jimmy, who has rolled down his window and aims the rifle toward the road in front of us.

It takes a minute for the approaching vehicle to come into full view. And then a few more seconds before the sight processes in my head. Then I gasp. Stiffen. Swing the door open as I say sharply, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot him. That’s… that’s my man.”

Because itismy man.

It’s Deck. Big and rumpled and intimidating and beloved. Riding on one of the ATVs. He slows when he sees the truck, swerves off the road and onto the grass to give us a wide berth. He’s aiming his pistol at us when I scramble out of the pickup and wave both arms at him, calling, “Deck! Deck!”

He either sees or hears me. He jerks to a stop and jumps off the vehicle, heading toward me.

I’m running full speed now, and I don’t slow down as I get closer. I hurl myself at him, completely unaware of the soreness of my body and the still-intense pain in my shoulder.

He catches me. Swings me around and up into a tight hug. He’s shaking as much as I am as we gasp and whimper and cling to each other.

When he finally slides me back down to my feet, he frowns as he inspects my condition. He checks some of the scratches on my skin that have mostly stopped bleeding and then shifts to my injured shoulder.

“I’m okay,” I tell him, wiping away a few stray tears. “How are you even here?”

---