Page 123 of Axe-ing for Trouble
“Love is an adventure,” he said a moment later, his words clear again. “Trusting your heart to someone else is one of the most dangerous things we will ever do in this life, but it’s by far the best one. So I get it.”
“Thank you.” He was right. Loving Mila felt a hell of a lot scarier than bad guys with guns. But together we could withstand any challenge.
“You do what you need to do. Stay out of the way and then call me. If you need me to send Finn, I will. Or I can drive out myself in one of the big trucks. Did you charge the satphone?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Love you, brother. Don’t fucking die.”
“Don’t plan on it.” With a shake of my head, I ended the call. Then I turned back to the cabin and took a mental snapshot of this place. With any luck, Mila and I would return under better circumstances one day. With any luck, this would be a wild story we could tell our grandkids decades from now.
But first we had to survive the day.
Chapter40
Mila
We dressed and packed up in silence, splitting a mug of instant coffee and a protein bar before loading our gear and the extra can of gas on the back of the ATV. There were no helmets, so our knit hats would have to do as protection from the elements. Speaking was impossible with the noise of the engine and the cold air whooshing past us. I was bundled up in almost every piece of clothing that had been packed for me. Jude was just as layered up. Freezing and exhausted, we made our way through the deep woods.
We stopped a couple of times for water and bathroom breaks and to stretch. Jude oriented himself with photos of the maps on his phone. We had no GPS out here, but he seemed to know exactly where we were going.
My shoulder ached fiercely as I clung to him, worrying I was wrong. Doubt had begun to seep in sometime in the middle of the night. And in the light of day, I was questioning everything. Had I missed important details? Was I drawing the wrong conclusions?
Jude pulled to the side of a wide gravel road and killed the engine. Then he hopped off and unlatched the gas can.
I stood to stretch as he topped off the tank.
“We’re on the river road.” He explained as he screwed the cap onto the can. “This is the border of the bat protection zone. Once we leave it, who knows what we’ll find.”
I blew out a long breath. This was it. We were going into enemy territory.
“Or,” he said with a small shrug. “We can take this east, meet the Golden Road and make it to one of our camps.”
He was giving me an out. A chance to change my mind.
While I appreciated it, it wasn’t happening.
“We’ve come this far,” I said.
He strapped the gas can back onto the ATV and stalked toward me, his eyes full of a mix of determination and dedication. As he approached, he pulled me into his arms and kissed the top of my head.
“I love you, Trouble.”
“Love you too,” I said, reveling in his warmth.
“Just like we planned, I’m going to circle around the old roads, see the condition. We do not get off the ATV unless we know it’s safe. We’re safer on this than we are on foot.”
I nodded, hit with a flood of memories of being chased through the woods.
“We stick together.”
“We go in together and we come out together,” I said, pulling him down for a kiss, trying to fake confidence.
We got our phones out and powered them on. Once we’d double-checked that they were on silent—not that it was likely we’d have a signal, but one could never be too careful—we stashed them in zippered pockets so they’d be handy. Jude would drive, and I would take as many photos as I could. The plan was to only get close enough to get the evidence we needed.
Back on the ATV, he revved the engine and patted my leg. Then we took off again, totally in the dark about what we might find.
We drove on narrow trails that were far more overgrown than any we’d been on yet. Jude had to navigate slowly around bulging tree roots and other debris as we made our way through. The canopy was so thick it blocked out almost all the sunlight, even though it was almost mid-day. About thirty minutes from the main road, as we approached what looked like a clearing, the sun started to peek through. But as we crested a small hill, it became clear that what we’d discovered was not a clearing at all.
