Page 58 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

“Stop.” Gage’s authority tears my attention away from the body. “He used his gun for intimidation and all but said the actual words that he planned on raping you. It was him or us, and no matter what happens to me, it’ll never be you.”

How does he know what I’m thinking at every turn?

And he’s right.

“I love you, Gage.”

“Always yours, Liv. Love you, too.” He slides his hand around to cup the side of my head and pull me close enough to drop a kiss to my hair. “Grab waters. I got the jerky. Then we gotta jet. No way of knowing if he’s expecting company.”

As directed, I grab up a couple of water bottles, but without pants, so lacking pockets, Gage plucks them from my hand before we make the descent down the ladder to stow in his waistband. Rustling from behind the trees brings our decline to an abrupt halt. Scavengers. Probably wolves. They’ve sniffed him out already.

I see their beady eyes follow our every movement and it’s unnerving to feel stalked. I mean, I never knew Michael was there until he was. But this, I can feel it. And it gives me major willies.

Gage helps me off the ladder so not to end up barefooted in blood. The scavengers begin to inch closer. Definitely wolves. He divests the man of his rifle since he no longer needs it. He searches his pockets until he finds the sat phone and lastly, removes the man’s boots.

“They’ll be huge on you,” Gage says as he slips the first one on my foot. It’s covered in blood spatter. I have to look away, to swallow hard, reminding myself to keep breathing so I don’t end up vomiting all over Gage. “But you won’t be running around the forest barefoot.”

Once the second boot is tied, we back away from the direction of the scavengers. “Have at it,” Gage offers, gesturing them toward the body with a wave of his hand. Though we don’t wait around to watch the carnage.

Far enough away, we pause for Gage to get a lock on our geographic coordinates, then he pulls up the map so we know where we’re headed. Phone to ear, he places a call next. “It’s Gage,” he says into the receiver. Several head nods, as if whomever he’s talking to can see him. Then there’s a “Shit.”

Well, that doesn’t sound real promising. What now?

“Making plans, then?” he asks. “We’ll call for a pickup when we hit civilization. Oh, and we’ll need a cleanup.” Pause then, “Yeah, I’ll text you the coordinates. Wait ’till we’re with you before you call someone in.”

And that’s it.

When he grabs my hand to continue walking, at least I feel like we have a real direction now and aren’t just wandering around waiting for Houdini to find us. It gets darker in the thick of trees before it gets lighter and I know we’re getting close to something. Wearing the boots has helped our speed, makes it easier for me to get around.

Since we left the lookout, something has been weighing on my mind pretty heavily. When finally I can’t take it any longer, I tug on Gage’s hand to get him to slow.

“Whatcha need, baby?” he asks.

“You asked for a cleanup.” It’s a statement more than a question.

“I did,” he replies. Gage uses his boot to kick a broken tree branch that’s fallen to the ground out of our path so I don’t trip on it.

“We have his phone. Can’t they—that is, what if he’s reported missing? Won’t they check his phone records? Can’t they trace the call you made back to us?”

“Mm…” he says, but keeps us walking. “They could. But you know I carry a burner phone, right?”

I nod. “Yes.”

“All the brothers do. We each have at least one brother’s burner phone number memorized. I memorized Boss’s. Once they pick us up, he’ll discard that phone for a new one. Then I’ll have to memorize that number or someone else’s.”

“That seems like a lot of work.”

“Yeah, it is. But you know we take care of our own. Sometimes that means being on the wrong side of the law. This provides us a little peace of mind.”

Well, I can’t argue with that logic. I should know better than to question him by now. He takes care of me. He always takes care of me, I mean, when I don’t do stupid thing to sabotage his care. Prison would definitely get in the way of his ability to do so.

I lean in to kiss his cheek, and let the subject go.

Hours must pass, or at least it feels like hours before we see the first break in the trees and a road. A road. Not made of dirt, but an actual paved two-lane road.

“Hallelujah,” I whisper and watch as Gage turns his face toward me wearing an endearing half-smile. Here we are, running from Houdini, we took the life of a potential rapist—and yet he’s still able to smile. He’s still able to get my heart beating.

When I have the chance to catch my breath, it’ll all probably come crashing down on me. The kidnapping, abuse, torture. But I vow,vowto get help this time, even if I don’t feel like I need it.

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