Page 70 of Pretty Lethal
I gulp down more painful oxygen, and we walk in silence until I finally feel as though I can talk without sounding like a chain-smoker in the middle of an asthma attack. “How many miles do you normally do?”
I notice Kai shrug out of the corner of my eye, and when he doesn’t answer me, I glance away from the sidewalk to look at him. His lips purse and I can tell he’s reluctant to answer my question. A stone sinks in my stomach.
“Five miles?” I ask in a hopeful voice.
He laughs under his breath. “A little more than that.”
“Ten?”
“If I have to be at the office early, yeah.”
My eyes widen in horror. Ten miles is ashortrun for him. God, I really am unfit. I decide I don’t want to know what he does on a normal day.
“Oh.”
“Blackbird, you have to remember I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager. Even before I joined the Marines, I ran drills and worked out regularly for football. Not to mention all that running up and down the field on game day.” He chuckles to himself at some memory. “I thought I was going to die after my first training session after I joined the Marines.”
“Really?” I question, perking up.
“Oh, yeah. I thought I’d fly through the physical training, what with being a football player and all, but by the time they were done with us, I could hardly lift my feet off the ground. I remember collapsing in my bunk afterward, not even bothering to shower off the muck covering every inch of me.”
I laugh, unable to imagine Kai being that exhausted. He always gives me the impression he could keep going and going. That nothing could ever drain him of energy.
“It takes time and a regular commitment to build up your stamina, but I promise you, if you come out here with me every day, you’ll start to see an improvement quicker than you might think.”
Despite this being as horrific as I knew it would be, I find myself agreeing. “Okay. We’ll do this together, every day… assuming you’re okay with that. I don’t think I’ll be running ten-plus miles any time soon, though.”
He grins down at me, sliding his hand into mine. “I’d much rather be here to help you, and if learning to run and defend yourself is what you need to do to get over what happened, then we will be by your side, guiding you every step of the way.”
* * *
“Hasanyone seen my birth control pills?” I ask as I enter the kitchen later that morning, freshly showered and only feeling a little weary in my legs. I managed what must be the world record for the slowest jog on earth for another mile before my body decided anything faster than a snail's-pace walk was too much.
“Nope,” Hawk says from the island, where he’s sipping on a cup of coffee while he reads the news on his iPad.
“When did you last see them?” Kai asks, flipping a pancake in the air and catching it with the pan before tossing it onto the top of the pancake tower on the plate beside him.
“Emm…” I wrack my brain as I try to remember. “It’s been a while. I couldn’t find it for a few days, and then I completely forgot about it after…” I wave my hand in the air as I mentally gloss over the night of horrors in the woods.
Kai turns to look at me with a frown on his face. “So you haven’t taken your pill in like a week?”
I rapidly count back the days, my eyes widening as I realize he’s right. The last time I remember taking it was before our date day last weekend. “Yes,” I squeak in an unnaturally high voice as I recall all the dirty things the three of them did to me last night.
My hand moves to rest over my stomach as I try to recall how long you have to be off the pill before you can get pregnant.
Is it possible that I could be pregnant right now?
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that. Anxious, scared, terrified, but also a little excited about the possibility.
“Wilder, have you seen them?” Kai asks, turning on him.
He’s been unusually silent as he taps away on his phone, seemingly oblivious to our conversation.
“Huh?” He barely glances up from the screen. “Uhh, would that be the circular pink thing you keep in your bathroom?”
My eyes narrow in suspicion as I cautiously say, “Yes. That would be the one.”
“Last time I saw it was in the trash.” He’s still staring at his phone, even as I drill holes into the side of his head with my eyes.
