Page 83 of Healing Conviction
“Pix, I’m gonna need you to shut that pretty mouth of yours up before I give it something to do. I’m thinking.”
The thought of being on her knees for him again would’ve been an instant panty dampener if she weren’t freaking the underworld out. Outwardly, she rolled her eyes and scoffed before putting the security jammer into her bag. “I’ll have you know, I’ve been working on those lyrics ever since I came up with this plan.”
“It might be the most thought-out thing about this.”
She scoffed and flew her hand to her chest. “Okay, Rudy Trudy, you don’t have to get all bent out of shape about it. It’ll be fine. And if it’s not. Then it won’t be. Easy as pie.” Her shrug turned into a shiver and she crossed her arms, making sure her smile was as infectious as possible for him.
He tied off the bag with the tent inside and hid it under a tree before facing her with a pointed look. His toothpick rolled in his mouth thoughtfully before stuffing it in the trash bag. She analyzed the way his brows furrowed in the center and he rolled his shoulders to slide his own backpack on. He was more anxious than annoyed, and when his eyes softened, she realized her feelings must be showing through, too. Taking one of her hands in his, he used the other to brush the shell of her ear, traveling down until his fingers were around her neck and his thumb was brushing her cheek.
“You’re right, Pix. It’ll be fine.We’llbe fine.”
An immediate sense of security flowed over her. He’d basically repeated back to her the words she’d said to get him to chill out, but hearing it from him in his calm, deep voice relaxed her more than her nervous energy babbling ever did.
She exhaled and nodded. “Yeah… exactly.”
“You want to go over the plan again?”
A small chuckle bubbled up from inside her. “How’d you know?”
His mouth tipped up as he lifted a shoulder. “Snake’s the same way. He likes to go over the plan a million times without taking a breath. You guys really are like siblings, aren’t you?”
She snorted. “I’m the sister he never wanted, and he’s the brother I’ve always wanted to annoy the sanity out of. It’s totes a symbiotic relationship, I swear.”
He huffed a laugh before facing the direction they’d mapped out for their quest. “Go over the plan for me then, little pixie.”
“Well, we do literally cross the river. Then, using the cover of nightfall, we traverse through the grassy plain and I render their security useless with a mere push of a button.”
“You make this sound so much more fun than it’s gonna be.” Draco chuckled as he pulled back a branch, not taking into account that she could totally walk under it.
“What can I say? Dissociative humor and storytelling are some of my perks. Sorry if it’s annoying. It’s not for everyone, I know.”
He grunted. His minimal response sent her into an abrupt tailspin of panic about oversharing. She opened her mouth to move on, make a joke, or take it back, but he interrupted her.
“I like all your perks, Pix. Perks, flaws. All of you.”
The metal zippers on his backpack gleamed in the moonlight shimmering through the trees. It took her a moment before she realized she’d stopped to gawk at him. The thick air in her chest finally released like a balloon and she hastened her steps to catch back up to him.
They continued to walk in silence until they got to the river. Nora checked to make sure the moon wasn’t glinting off some camera they hadn’t seen earlier that day. She pulled out the black jammer box and ran a scan. It didn’t reveal any available systems to jam yet, so she pushed it back into her bag and handed the pack to Drake.
“Here ya go, handsome. This’ll be safer with a man the size of a tree rather than lil’ ol’ me,” she whispered.
Taking the bag without question, he hooked it to his. He held both up in the sky, readying to cross the water. The point in the river was the smallest they could find closest to their camp. The alternative, way more desirable option, was to use the one lane road only about a half mile away from the campsite, with a bridge over the moat.
Unfortunately, the road had blind spots, and would be impossible to pass if someone were to drive over it at the wrong time. They couldn’t chance it. Walking all the way around the facility and right up to the front door didn’t seem plausible, either. Instead, they’d opted for the shortest distance over the grassy plain between the moat and the fence, thanks to a log that had fallen more than three-quarters of the way across.
“Me first, remember?” Draco didn’t need to remind her, but she liked it anyway and nodded.
Holding the bags over his head, he walked the length of fallen tree trunk. When he reached the end, he tossed their bags onto the mound of grass. Then, taking barely a lengthy stride, he crossed over the remainder of the river, landing with only a stutter step on the other side.
Nora pursed her lips as she assessed the log, bending over to touch the bark. It was much wider for her than it had been compared to Drake, and the wood was even dry since the moat was basically stagnant.
“You’ve got this, Pix. The log’s not that hard to cross and I’ll catch you.”
At Drake’s whisper, she glared up at him, hoping he could feel her sass even if he couldn’t see it. “Easy for you to say. You’re a freakin’ tree all by yourself andyoudon’t have to deal with low-key, paralysis-inducing acrophobia.”
“Acro… what?”
She waved him away, trying to concentrate as she took her first steps. Once she got the hang of it, it was indeed fairly simple, and she inwardly chastised herself for making such a big deal out of it. When she reached the edge of the tree and stared at the huge mound of dirt she had to land on, she still felt a rush of confidence and took the biggest jump of her life.
