Page 44 of Leave Me Behind
His brow raises with interest. “You’ve earned your cards?”
I swallow. I’m not supposed to tell anyone that the general was going to sneak me out of the dark forces after Riøt’s demise. But I refused it. I shake my head.
“No, I’m just saying I can’t go back.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Nell. You’re more than a weapon.” His words don’t reach me in the way he intends.
“No, I’m not, Sarge.”
He stares at me momentarily before pushing the door open.
“I’ll come get you in an hour for your new room assignment. Have your things packed.”
The squad is lounging in our barrack. Each one of them is spread out in their bed relaxing. It was a grueling month and seeing them in street clothes rather than their tactical uniforms makes them seem like completely different people.
Their eyes all move in my direction, making me feel misplaced in my T-shirt and leggings. I keep my eyes forward asI strut confidently across the cement room toward the last bunk. My bag is right where I left it on the top bed. I grab it, thankful that I didn’t unpack anything before we left.
Bradshaw doesn’t bother looking up at me. I let my eyes fall to him once more before we part ways. The next time I see him, it better be through a scope as I’m shooting a mock bullet at his fucking face.
He has a fresh mask on. The black is darker on this one, with gray stripes that run through it vertically. His lashes flutter against his skin, alluding that he’s very much awake and choosing to ignore me. Such beauty is wasted on him, but still, I stare longer than I should. At the redness of the thin scar that curves beneath his left eye. At the grooves in the fabric over his lips as he draws breath. At my bite that drew his blood last night.
Without parting words, I walk back the way I came.
“Bye-bye,Bunny.”
The muscles in my legs lock at the sound of his voice and I stop at the door, turning my head enough to look over my shoulder at Bradshaw. He’s now standing at the other end of the room, his men between us, with his fists clenched and a sinister grin pulling at his mask.
“Eat shit,” I say simply, as if I’m unbothered by this entire fiasco. I knew all his soft touches yesterday were empty, but his cruelness still hurts.
Rage flashes across his gaze and something about that small victory fuels me.
I turn my back to them and wait for Eren down the hallway. He arrives right on the dot, rounding the corner with a light smile.
I swipe my hair back behind my ear—wearing it down for the first time all week feels good. The dark strands are wavy down to my mid back.
“You clean up nicely,” Eren mutters, winking at me.
I give him a weary smile. “Sergeant, you shouldn’t compliment your subordinates and wink at them. We aren’t in the club anymore.”
He throws his head back and laughs.
“Sorry, Bunny. I’m so used to seeing grumpy men. I forget sometimes when I look at you because we met on a plane and it’s all so unfair, isn’t it?” Eren motions for me to follow him and I breathe out a sigh of gratitude that I’m not staying with Malum for the time being.
“Unfair how?”
His grin is contagious as he looks down at me. There’s more warmth in his eyes than usual. No one looks at me with kindness anymore. Funny, I can’t seem to place the last time anyone had. Perhaps it was Jenkins, with his dying light.
“Unfair that we’re both in this line of work.”
“How else would you have liked it?” I pry, and it earns me a hearty laugh. My cheeks warm and for a moment it doesn’t feel like I’m in a cement grave anymore.
Eren glances behind us. Curiosity draws my eyes to follow. Pete and Jefferson are standing in the doorway watching us. It seems odd that they would do so, but I try to ignore them.
“I would have preferred if Abrahm had not died. We’d all be in different predicaments now,” he says thoughtfully as we continue down the hall and turn the corner to another section of the barracks’ wing.
Abrahm. How is it that the death of one man can change the lives of so many?
“What would your predicament have been?”
