Page 76 of Leave Me Behind
“Would you kill me? If I took Jenkins from you? Tell me you would and I’ll give you what you want, Bun. But don’t you dare fucking lie to me. Would you watch the light leave my flesh? Would you send the devil back to hell?” His gaze is smooth and doesn’t falter. He searches my eyes for the truth.
My chin tilts up with my reluctance.
“Never. I could never. Not you.”Because you make me feel things I’ve never experienced before. I could never hurt you. I could never let you go.
He pulls the blade away slowly, letting it glide across my face before sheathing it. Our eyes don’t bend away from each other once.
“I’m so mad at you, Bun, but if you think I’d ever risk losing you…” He shakes his head and pulls me in tightly, wrapping those corded arms around me and squeezing tight. He holds me like every fiber of his being relies on it. His hands tenderlysmooth over my skin and draw fire over the bruises around my throat.
“What have we let the world do to us, Bun?” he murmurs in a low, heady voice. It slips into my veins and I let the softness of it comfort me.
“We let them make monsters of us. Stolen vices.”
He pulls me back and stares into my eyes. His hot breath plumes around us in the cold air. “I don’t think I can keep doing this,” he says slowly. My brows pinch together. “I don’t think I can continue being Bones. Because Bones is heartless and ruthless. But ever since meeting you, I’ve been anything but those things. When I look at you, I feel like my thoughts are no longer blurry. This dark underworld I reign in doesn’t have to be the one I die in.”
He feels that way?My eyes lower and linger on his lips.Even after the things I’ve done.
“I want a world with you.”
I flinch and pull back until we’re staring into each other’s eyes.
“When I saw you wearing that dress it broke my heart. I saw what you could’ve been. I want you to wear whatever the fuck you want and be a normal person. Not out here, with bullets flying between us. I want us to be out there in the real world.” Bradshaw brushes the wild strands of hair behind my ear.
“Do you think we could make it out?” My voice is quiet, but his sad, boyish smile melts the ice around my soul.
“Together, our broken pieces can do anything.”
By the time we get to the bunker coordinates, the sun is already starting to come back up over the far mountains. I hold onto the hope that there will be a shower inside and a few beds.
My eyes are heavy when they lift to Bradshaw as he tries a few different codes on the bunker hatch. It’s a partially hidden metal door that’s camouflaged to match the dark green underbrush. The mountains crowd this area and make it inconspicuous. A river can be seen down in the valley below, giving me a sense of where we are geographically. I memorized the map Eren showed us, the rivers were the key to most of the landmarks.
We haven’t spoken in hours.
There really isn’t anything to say. We’ve both done terrible things for awful people. And that darkness consumes the air between us.
The latch finally beeps and Bradshaw lets out a relieved sigh as the door unlocks. He lifts the hatch and hesitates before he looks up at me.
He opens his mouth to say something but closes it just as quickly before looking away. It’s almost like we don’t know how to talk to each other anymore.
I close the distance between us and take the steps down the long ladder. It’s dark for the first five steps and then a sensor picks up my motion and fluorescent lights flicker on slowly.
The ladder leads into a large open area. The walls are made up of big white metal slats with bolts engineered into the edges, keeping them all lined up. Cots fill the sleeping side, enough for six people, and only one door lies at the end of the space—I’m assuming it’s a bathroom. Opposite of the cots are small cabinets and a black table. It’s simple and bare minimum for a bunker.I hope there’s food in the cupboards.
Being in this confined space makes my chest constrict. There’s only one way in or out of this bunker. My eyes lift toBradshaw as he closes the hatch and locks it. There’s a keypad on the inside as well, but he’s the only one who knows the password.
Shit, maybe I should’ve been paying more attention when he was inputting codes.I watch him descend the ladder and he takes in the space like I did.
“How did Eren know these were here?” I ask.
His jaw ticks as he notices nothing about this bunker is military-grade. It was put here for hiding purposes by someone powerful and well-prepared. Someone paranoid. The Ghosts, I’m sure.
He turns and looks over his shoulder at me. “I don’t know.”
“At least tell me what the code was.” It’s not like I actually expect him to tell me, but the long frown he gives me still burns.
“You don’t need to know it,” he mutters.
“And why’s that?” I eye him callously.
