Page 121 of Bones
“You can’t—” I started to growl, but then we both heard footsteps approaching and I went silent.
The loggers grumbled to each other as they got the horses out and hitched them up. I stared at Trey, my brain spinning. When the sleigh jerked forward, I slid sideways, bumping right up against him with the movement. He reached out and caught my arm, but then he didn't let go. I glared at him as hard as I could, but he just studied my expression with a small smile creeping over his face.
“It’s ok,”he mouthed.
We heard the loggers greeting the guards at the watchtower and both tensed, but then the gate groaned open. The sleigh started moving again and I let out a tiny shaky breath. We’d made it through the gate. From what I’d gathered, the loggers were traveling to a spot about three days away. I planned on slipping out and disappearing when they stopped for the first night, but until then I had to wait.
It’s ok?Honestly, what the fuck was Trey thinking? What about Clarity? What about the kids at the clinic? What about Mac and the rest of the crew? Why would he leave all of them? He couldn’t come with me. He couldn’t be anywhere near me. The whole point of this escape was to get as far away from Trey and everyone else at the Vault as possible.
Even worse, a selfish part of me wanted to cry with relief that I didn’t have to leave him behind.
18
The hours dragged by. I wanted to get answers from Trey, but I didn't dare talk more than necessary. Every time I glared at him, he just met my angry gaze with his calm one, which made me want to throttle him. Eventually, I fell asleep, exhausted after my sleepless night of healing Nemo, but my dreams were full of blood and screams and the flash of Madame's knife. I jolted awake with a gasp when someone shook me and met Trey’s eyes. He held a finger up to his mouth and then slid closer to me, pressing his lips practically against my ear.
“You were starting to talk in your sleep,” he whispered.
I nodded to let him know I understood, my heart lurching. If he hadn’t been here, I could’ve easily given myself away. I started to shift away, but he slid an arm around my waist and pulled me against him. I looked up at him, startled, and he leaned forward to speak close to my ear again.
“You can go back to sleep,” he said softly. “I’ll wake you up if you start talking again.”
I lay there stiffly for a moment, knowing Ishouldshove him away, but instead, I found myself curling into his warmth.Just ’cause it’s cold. I lied to myself. My nose pressed against his neck and he rested his chin on top of my head. Every breath I took flooded me with his scent, the lavender soap from the clinic, the oil he used to clean his gun, and something just inexplicably Trey. It melted my angry defenses and I let out a shaky breath, my eyes prickling.
“It’s ok, darlin’,” he murmured in my ear. “I got you.”
Some final hardened part of me cracked in a way I knew I’d never be able to repair, that lonely garden in my chest stretching and growing and turning toward him like he was the godsdamned sun. If he noticed the tears that slid down my face, he didn’t say anything. He just held me until I fell asleep again.
* * *
Trey woke me up several times when my dreams made me start muttering or thrashing in my sleep, but I dozed on and off until nightfall. We both lay awake and alert in the darkness when the sleigh began to slow. The loggers complained about sore asses and having to go out again. Our sleigh held the logging equipment while the other sleigh held the tents and food supplies. I'd been banking on the hope that they wouldn't need anything from this sleigh until they arrived where they planned to harvest lumber. Trey seemed to have the same idea, but both of us were tense as we listened to the loggers make camp for the night. At one point someone flipped back the tarp of our sleigh and my heart lurched in terror, but they just grabbed a couple of axes near the back and then secured the tarp back down.
I released Trey's arm that I'd grasped and he let out a slow relieved breath. We waited until the noise died down and eventually, a single pair of boots crunched in the snow, and the sleigh seat creaked as the night watch guard settled in. I squinted at Trey's face, barely able to make out his features in the darkness.
“Ten more minutes,” he breathed in my ear.
I counted in my head and before I’d even reached six minutes, we heard the low snore of the guard. Trey grinned, his teeth flashing. He grabbed something beside him I couldn’t quite make out and led the way. We slithered on our bellies to the back of the sleigh, moving agonizingly slow to avoid knocking over any tools. Trey dropped down into the snow first. I waited until he signaled and then followed.
Together we crept toward the woods, but then I paused glancing back at the obvious footprints we left in the snow. I shrugged out of my jacket and backtracked so I could sweep it behind us to at least partially erase our tracks. When I reached Trey again, he gave me an approving nod. Once we reached the woods and traveled for a few minutes I shook the snow off my jacket and slipped it back on. Both of us stood for a few breaths just listening, but no sound came from the camp. Trey grinned, but I couldn’t return it. Our successful escape should have been a relief, but it made me feel uneasy.
“Here.” Trey held out the wooden thing he carried.
I took it but stared in confusion. It had a frame of two pieces of wood shaped like long ovals and some sort of leather latticework inside. Trey dropped his on the ground and set his foot on it, crouching to tie them onto his boot with the attached leather ties.
“Snowshoes,” he whispered.
I dropped mine into the snow, copying the direction his snowshoes pointed. Before I could bend to start tying them, Trey turned and started doing it for me. He tapped my boot with a gloved hand and I lifted it so he could access the ties, resting my hands on his broad shoulders for balance.
When he straightened, he gave me a warm grin. “Like this,” he whispered, showing me how to take wide strides to avoid stepping on the sides of the snowshoes.
I followed a bit awkwardly, but it wasn't hard to fall into a rhythm and the snowshoes kept us on top of the snow instead of sinking to our knees. It would have been hard, slow work to wade through the snow, especially with my sore back. Gods, why did he have to be so thoughtful? It made it a lot harder to stay mad. As we walked, I glanced back in the direction we'd come. I wanted to get a little farther away from the logger's camp before I lit into him. I wanted to?—
I got a glimpse of movement to my left and managed to half turn, my heart leaping into my throat before a hand grabbed my arm and jerked me against a massive body.
“Well, what have we here?” growled Zip.
My heart thundered in my throat, and I didn’t answer. He held me so my back pressed against his chest, and I couldn’t see his face. His arms pinned my arms to my sides like bands of steel. My snowshoes tangled on top of each other and one had been ripped partially off my boot. Trey had stopped a few steps away. He stood casually, but I could see his body coiled like a spring. He didn’t look at me, keeping his eyes fixed on Zip.
“Whatcha doing here, Bones?” Zip asked, his low voice rumbling through me.
