Page 10 of The Last True Hero
Four
"WANNA HAND?"
Mia crouched in front of the small fire she was trying to light with her flint. She knew who it was. She just wasn't entirely certain she wanted company. "No. I'm fine."
McClain dumped an armful of small sticks and twigs at her feet. Mia kept striking the flint, waiting for a spark to feed. One latched on to her tinder and she scrambled to her hands and knees and blew on it, until she had a nice flame glowing there. The task was simple, and it kept her mind busy.
McClain had spent most of the day scouting ahead, whilst she rode in Thwaites’s jeep. It was hard travel over barren plains and rocky gravel, and sometimes she had to wonder if McClain was just seeing things when he said there were tracks. Even Jake looked hard at the ground and chewed on his lip, though he didn't disagree.
"How far ahead do you think they are?" Mia asked, staring into the flames. Night meant that they had to stop, but night also meant the reivers would be making camp, and that meant they'd want to celebrate what they'd captured.
Don't think about that.Mia snapped a twig in half and fed it into the flames. Ever since she lost the baby, Sage had been prone to bouts of moodiness and depression. The simple fact of the matter was that Mia feared for her baby sister's state of mind, and she'd give anything to trade places with her right now.
"About four hours still," he replied. "We lost a lot of time getting supplies and making sure Thwaites and his men were ready to ride out, but we're moving faster than they are. Here." He broke a piece of hardtack and handed it to her.
Mia shook her head. "I'm not hungry."
"You need to keep your strength up," he replied.
"I feel sick," she shot back, sinking both her hands into her hair. "I couldn't possibly eat. What about my sister? Do you think she's eating right now? Or do you think...." She couldn't say the words.
Putting the hardtack away, McClain hauled a stump closer to her and sat beside her. "Mia, if you start thinking about the what-ifs and the could-bes, then you might as well turn back now. Stick to the facts. Face them as they come at you. Focus on the plan."
"She's my baby sister," she whispered. "She's strong, but she's always had that softer side I could never manage. What if they break her?"
"You might be surprised." The fire crackled as he fed it. "People sometimes find a kind of strength in hard situations that you'd never believe they owned. Maybe she's never had to be fearless, because you were there beside her? Or maybe she knows that her sister would shift hell and high water to get her back? Maybe that's her strength, right now, knowing that you're coming for her."
That gave her some hope. If there was one thing that Sage would believe in, it was that her sister would come for her. And her husband, Mia had to reluctantly admit. "I'm scared."
"I know you are. I would be too, if that was my sister out there."
Mia glanced toward him. "You have a sister?"
"Baby sister," he said, "though she'd take affront at that. So I can guess at how you're feeling. There's five years between me and Eden. She's always been mine to protect, but it's as though she grew up when I blinked, and it took me far too long to realize that." His smile faded. "It's not easy to let them be grown-ups, but I kind of figure she's twenty-nine now, with her own life and her own destiny. Hell, she's a doctor who's patched me up more times than I can tell, so maybe she's been the one looking after me? It's not easy to admit that though, especially when you're the type of man who likes to protect. I've been told I'm... overbearing."
"And who told you that? Your sister?" There was something in his voice though, that hinted at the answer.
"No." He met her gaze. "There was a woman. Once."
Mia looked back into the flames. He'd spent a month drowning himself in her bar. In that time he'd flirted with her, butted heads with her, and outright driven her crazy. There'd never been a promise of more though, even if his words sent an odd twinge through her. "What happened? To the woman?"
McClain sighed. "She fell in love with the man who was once my best friend."
"He took her from you?"
"No. It's complicated. Luc and I weren't friends toward the end, though that had little to do with Riley." McClain moved slowly, taking over her fire and setting out a small pan and some tins of beans. He set them to broiling, then poured water from his canteen into a pot. "I never had her, Mia. She was never mine, and I didn't even know what really made her tick. I wanted the promise of her. I liked her hard head even though it drove me crazy, but I never really understood her. I asked her once, why him? And do you know what she said?"
"What?"
"She said that he let her stand at his side, while I tried to hide her behind me. He trusted her to guard his back, while I tried to force her to stay out of danger. He let her be who she was, and even though I was attracted to her attitude and personality, a part of me tried to change her." McClain stirred his beans. "Maybe I learned a little bit from her. I'm not going to lie and say that I like the idea of you riding along with us, or the other women—I've always been a bit old-fashioned like that—but I'm not going to stop you. You deserve to be here, and I hope we can stand side by side when this shit with the reivers goes down."
It explained a lot. Mia drew her knees up, watching him over the top of them. "Sometimes you drive me crazy too."
He laughed, though it was never the type of laugh that overtook his face. More like a faint sign of humor that he couldn't stop from escaping.
"And if you tried to stop me," she told him, "you'd end up wearing that fork you're stirring the beans with, in your thigh."
The faintest hint of a smile curled his mouth up. "The strangest thing is that hearing words like that gets me all hot and bothered." Glancing up at her from underneath the brim of his hat, he kept stirring the beans but his focus was 100 percent locked on her.
