Page 38 of Four Calling Birds

“Keep them safe,” he commanded, looking at Goose.

“I should go with you,” Goose started getting up but Mack raised a hand to him.

“Stay,” Mack said. “At this point, we only have you and VD able to pull security. I’d rather keep you here.”

We never presume that dead bodies remain dead. We had all lived through enough combat to know that not all dropped enemy stay down. The number of times a dead body rose, with a last, violent throw of life was… more than once. That’s why event the dead got zip tied before we ever loaded them into our vehicles.

“Stay,” I tried to get to my feet. “Or let me go with you.”

“Sit down,” Mack pushed me back to the ground, pulling the jacket around me again, tucking me in like a kid at bedtime. “I’ll be back soon.”

He kissed my nose. Jesus, I was shaking so hard, it madehisteeth rattle.

“Don’t leave me,” I whispered, leaning my forehead into his hand, rubbing my skin against his palm. Then he ran his fingers through my hair, his amber eyes were liquid in the moonlight as he stared at my face for just a second. Just one brief moment.

“I’m not, baby,” he promised. “I’ll be back. I’m always coming back to you.”

He kissed the top of my head.

“I love you,” I whispered. Had I said that to him recently? I felt the need to let him know. To tell him. Nothing was more important in that moment than him knowing that I was his faithful, loving wife. “I don’t think you should go.”

“I love you, wife.” He kissed me again. “Trust me. Just this once. Take me at my word.”

That was the moment. Right there. That was the test, wasn’t it? The words that would stop me in my tracks. I hadn’t trusted him before, and almost destroyed our marriage because of it. A simple clerical error and a forgotten signature had been our saving grace.

“Okay,” I said. Because I had no choice. I would trust him because he asked me to. Because it was the least that I owed him.

I committed his face to memory. The amber eyes, the slight curl of a loving smile beneath a close-cut beard. The roughness of his eyebrows, and the way the strands of silver in his hair caught the moonlight.

“I’ll be back soon,” he promised. It sounded like a vow.

I didn’t feel good about this. Not at all. I didn’t want him out of my sight. There was something in my gut that told me Mack leaving was wrong. He needed to stay with me. Beside me. If he was out of my sight, something bad would happen.

I wouldn’t be able to get him back again.

He turned and ran into the woods, back towards the house. The steady rhythm of his feet on the fallen leaves faded in the distance, growing fainter among the cover of trees.

He had called me “wife”. My husband had called me his wife, and that was a reason to stay alive. To not give into the cold and the despair. So, I sat down, and watched him run into the shadow of the trees, out of my sight.

“He’s gonna be okay, Momma Mack,” Veder said, taking a knee beside me, his back towards the rest of us as his eyes surveyed the trees. “He never breaks a vow.”

“No, that’s what he’s got you for, doesn’t he?” Griff huffed from the floor.

Taz pinched at his thigh, and he flinched and growled at the pain she inflicted. Taz’s eyes went wide and she hissed, “Asshole.”

“Fuck you, psycho,” Griff send, gritting his teeth.

“You’re not my type, emo.”

There was a smirk that came on Griff’s lips. A strange, cruel smirk as if he knew something that no one else did. Taz kept her eyes off of him, even though I detected a slight reddening of her cheeks. It wasn’t so much that I saw the color, but the signs of how she hunched into her shoulders, as if she was embarrassed and trying to hide from his view.

Veder looked defeated. His eyes still scanned around us, but his jaw ticked with tension, as if he was holding words in his mouth that wanted to escape. Something had happened between everyone. Something had happened that I hadn’t been around for. I just knew it.

“What the hell happened?” I asked the kids, looking from Griff, to Taz, then to the back of Veder’s head. “What’s going on between you three?”

I looked at Goose, wondering if he’d be willing to fill me in. He caught my eye, then emphatically shook his head. “I refuse to get involved.”

“Does anyone want to tell me what happened?” I chided. If I had the strength, and warmth, to get up and put my hands on my hips, I would have. But I was stuck on the damp ground, trying to look intimidating. But I couldn’t.

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