Page 34 of Hell In A Handbasket
So I wait for him to stand and drag his arm over my shoulder. I treat him the way I would treat a scarf; draping myself in his limbs and curling close enough that I can barely tell where I end and he begins.
Exactly how I prefer it.
“Wanna come for a walk outside with me?”
He breathes out a soft laugh, pressing his hand to the side of my face and bringing me closer until his lips touch my temple and his warm breath bathes my skin. “It’s cute how you make it sound like a question and not a demand.”
“It’s good manners.” Grinning, I start forward, passing some of the others who decided to stay in the climate-controlled bus—Felix and Christabelle. Archer and Minka. Jen remains in her bed, but Corey went outside some time ago, and Spence’s long legs peek into view from the front of the bus, where the chairs are, instead of the beds.
I slow by Minka’s cubby and tap the wall with my finger, just two taps, before I tug the curtain aside and peek in to find the couple who simply… lie. Meditate, almost. Archer rests on his back, one arm behind his head, while the other hand draws rhythmic patterns against Minka’s shoulder. While Minka lays with her cheek on his chest, her leg draped over his thighs, and her eyes stare. But don’t see.
She’s hidden, deep within her psyche, while she heals from the arrows she took today.
“We’re heading outside for a bit.” I search her vacant eyes and smile when she comes back to us. When her trance-like state moves aside and her focus softens. Because dammit, she takes comfort in my smile. “Wanna come?”
“Cato’s been outside a while,” Tim rumbles. “He might’ve walked back to town like that Eliza chick was in heat.”
Finally, Minka snorts, her cheeks warming with a beautiful blush. “He hit the ground so friggin’ hard.”
“And he doesn’t even care,” Archer adds. “I’d be hiding away and licking my wounds if a chick slammed me like that. But he only wants more.”
“He’s incorrigible.” I reach across Archer, almost inappropriate in how I invade their personal space, but I lay my thumb over the line digging between Minka’s brows and flatten it out. “I know you’re really mad at Soph, but I feel obligated to tell you she had good intentions.” I pause before adding, “ish.”
She scoffs.
“I mean, she was a dick in how she did this, and she totally still wants me to wear the helmet thing. But she cares about you.”
“I thought you couldn’t read minds?” Ellie yanks her curtain open and digs her elbows into Romeo’s chest. “My sister isthemost caring person on the planet. She just really sucks at expressing those emotions in a healthy, non-toxic way. The fact you know that kinda proves you read minds, Doctor Emeri.”
“Your habit of intruding on private discussions proves you and Sophia may share that same toxic trait.” I grab her curtain and whip it back into place. Then I turn to Minka and raise a brow. “Come outside before all theseCheckmateears send me insane.”
The loudboomof a gunshot makes me jump, and the echo that pulses in the air makes my heart tremble. Then Tim whips his arm back and runs, shoving through the bus and slamming the door open, and because I’m still in the way, Archer crushes me against Ellie’s bed framing as he dives from his cubby and follows.
“Shit.” My stomach rebels and my palms sweat, but I leave Minka behind and stalk past Spence, who remains entirely too passive, then through the bus door until I’m greeted, once again, with… dirt and water and a bunch of trees in the distance.
A tumbleweed passes on the pathetic breeze, and when I scan left, I find Cato lying on his belly with his eye resting against the scope of a rifle and Micah and Jay standing over him.
One for protection. The other, for guidance, maybe.
Jay crouches and points into the distance. “You didn’t account for the wind, kid. You see the birds in the sky?”
Cato lifts just his head, glancing straight up.
“See their wings? If you pay attention, you’ll notice the wind they trap beneath them, which is how they turn so quickly. Learn to read the wind before you squeeze the trigger, because if you’re looking for a thousand-yard shot, it probably means you’re somewhere you really shouldn’t be, which means you getoneshot. Maybe two, if you’re quick enough. But the second will always be messier, because you lost the element of surprise.”
“He’s teaching him how to shoot?” Minka comes up on my right, folding her arms and stopping only when her shoulder brushes mine. She wants to hold on to her bad mood, but she still scans the beautiful lakeside area spreading out around us, stopping on Tim and Archer’s backs as they wander closer to the others.
They were the brothers who left.
Now, they’re the brothers who run toward the sound of a gunshot to make sure the others are okay.
“He’s the one who shot Boothe,” Minka murmurs. “And Rory.”
“Mmhm.”
“I suppose if a kid wants to learn, it’s probably best he learn from someone as skilled as Jay.”
“Look at you, softening up to the enemy,” I tease. “Proud of you.”
