Page 17 of Escaped
“Eli.”Nausea was still lurking at the back of my throat, but there was nothing left to throw up anymore, only the legacy of dehydration and weariness remaining in its wake.“I need to stop.”
“Just a bit further, little girl.”He didn’t pause as he persuaded me on.“Even if there isn’t a garage, there’ll be somewhere up ahead we can rest, and—”
“No!”Lurching from his side, I staggered off in the opposite direction, disorientated as I stumbled and collapsed to the frozen ground.As my knees hit the earth, I suddenly remembered why my feet were so wet and cold.“My feet.”
Without boots, my socks had rapidly soaked up the freezing water until I could scarcely even feel my extremities.The cold was biting, numbing my nerves and fibers and making it painful to walk.
He was there with me in an instant, crouching behind me as he tugged my hair away from my face.My instinct was to push him away and stop his fussing, but closing my eyes, I realized his touch was insanely comforting.I wanted him, but I couldn’t bear the sight of him, loathed him, yet needed him in the most fundamental way.The paradox seemed set to suffocate me.
“No boots.”I pointed to my sodden socks as though he needed clarification.Somehow, in the haze of everything that had transpired, we’d both overlooked my lack of footwear.Crazy really, for a grown woman to run out into the cold without anything except socks on her feet, but that was who I was—a crazy woman.
“Christ.”He shook his head, furious emotion burning in his eyes.“I forgot.I’m sorry.Let me carry you.”
He reached for me then, tugging me closer as he prepared to lift me from the ground.
“No!”Much though I sought the solace of his body, the idea of leaving the ground seemed stifling.“I can’t… I can’t breathe!”
That was a lie.The air out there was the best I’d tasted for some time, but the weight of everything that had happened was starting to pulverize me, and I needed to stop, needed to think for just a moment longer.
“Let me look at you.”Tipping my chin in his direction, his concerned gray eyes assessed me as his free hand smoothed back the loose strands of my unruly mane.I tried not to linger on the fact that he’d been shot or the blood stains all over his hands.Hell, maybe I was covered in Hawkins’ blood too and I just hadn’t noticed.“You’re in shock.”
That was one way of putting it.
“I’ve never shot anyone before today.”My tone was almost whimsical as I tried not to dwell on how terrible the thought was.“But now I’ve shot two men and just left one of them to die.”
“He’dhave shot us.”There was no vindication in his voice as he defended my actions, no signs of triumph at our alleged victory, only a sense of certainty that he was right.If I hadn’t acted, one or both of us would have been dead.“Well, he’d have shot me, and I hate to think what he’d be doing with you.”
“Don’t.”I closed my eyes at the awful alternate reality.Hawkins had made his ill intentions clear enough.
“You did what needed to be done.”His thumb stroked the side of my face.“What I failed to do.You saved me, little girl.”
“You saved me many times before this.”I barely even recognized my voice as my eyes flickered open, but my sentiment was real.Eli had come along and changed everything.He had a power over me I couldn’t understand, but I no longer felt the need to fight.I’d seen a horrible glimpse of what the world looked like without him, and I didn’t care to witness it again.“You got yourself out of his custody, sir, and you got us out of there.”
“Baron.”His voice was soft as he presumably thought of his friend.“He was the one who got me out of that cell.”
“He’ll be okay.”Fresh trepidation twisted at the ambiguity of my statement.I didn’t know if Paul was all right.Neither of us did.For all we knew, he could have fared no better than Hawkins.“He said he’ll find us.”
A strained quiet stretched out on the icy breeze as it whipped past my shivering body.The lack of certainty seemed suddenly smothering.
“He can follow our tracks in the snow.”In the end, it was Eli who broke the silence, nodding to the markings our footsteps had left since we’d moved to walk on the grass.“They’ll guide him to us, but then, they can also show any of Hawkins’ men who are looking for us where we are.”
“We need to keep going.”
I vocalized what I suspected was on his mind, reaching for his forearm to steady me as I climbed unsteadily to my full height.My feet and shins were soaking with cold water from the icy ground, but rather than perturb me the way they should have, the frozen temperature only reminded me how lucky I was.I was alive and able to feel the numbing cold, unlike so many others we’d left inside.
“You read my mind.”Tugging me closer, he winced, reminding me again that he was also in pain.
“How is it?”I gestured to his injured shoulder.
“I told you, it’s just a flesh wound.”He shrugged, suppressing his flinch at the obvious pain.“I’ll live, but you’re not walking any more without boots.”
“But you can’t carry me if you’ve been shot!”What the hell was he thinking?
“I shall do just that.”Pressing himself against me, his eyebrow cocked in that way that begged me to defy him.“And you, little girl, will do as you’re told.”
He couldn’t be serious, could he?Is he truly playing the ‘Dominant’ card in the middle of this shitshow?
“I’m worried about you.”Lifting a hand to his injured shoulder, I skimmed the area lightly.
