Page 37 of A Wrench in the Plan
They heaved me up and tossed me back into the back of the truck. Then they did the same to Cat, cackling as she landed on top of me. While I was glad I could be there to break her fall, I was not feeling all that great. My thigh was on fire. My back was all torn up from when they’d raked me over the gravel the first time, stinging like a million paper cuts. My stomach was probably one big bruise at this point. Now my head was starting to pound. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had some internal bleeding to go along with everything else.
Cat scrambled off of me quickly. Probably ’cause I let out a moan like I was dying.
The rolling door went down and we became clouded in near darkness since the sun had started to set. Not even the hints of light that seeped in through the cracks were enough to properly see.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Cat after the truck started moving. My eyes were so heavy, I couldn’t keep them open. So I stop fighting to do just that.
“It’s not your fault,” she told me softly. “We’ve got to stop the bleeding on your leg. It looks really bad.”
I snorted, half delusional at this point.
“How we gonna do that?” I asked because we both still didn’t have use of our hands.
Her soft body was there, moving to press against mine. Her leg flush against mine, her thigh doing its best to apply pressure against my wound. I didn’t really see how this was going to help, but I didn’t say anything.
“It’s not working. The truck is moving too much.” She huffed out an annoyed breath. “This might not be comfortable, but it will be better.”
She slid her leg between mine, then my thigh was slotted in places it should not have been slotted in. I clenched my jaw, trying not to think about how she was bare under that skirt that was now caught between her legs, or how that happened in the first place. She wrapped her legs around mine, holding me taught against that place that I should never have been close to. Especially not given what she’d just gone through.
Comfortable or not, my thoughts were going to places they had no right to go to.
That asshole’s words stuck out in my mind.
I hadn’t missed any of that. I just hadn’t had a moment to process it, is all.
But now my brain thought it was the perfect time, while my body didn’t get the hint that all of this was wrong.
When I felt her forehead gently tap mine, I forced my lids open.
I could barely make out the blue of her eyes as she stared at me.
“We can’t give up,” she said softly, but she sounded determined. Made me not want to give up, even though my body was telling me it wasn’t sure how much more it had left in it.
“Cat,” I whispered, soaking in her warmth. Her sweetness. All the while, trying my hardest to ignore the heat between her thighs, and failing miserably.
This was so fucked.
So much had been opened up to me about Cat in the last twenty-four hours. It started with the talk on the beach. Talking to her, I’d learned how strong she was. Learned that there was this whole side of things that I didn’t think of. And Cat was right in the middle of it, holding down the damn fort while we were gone. Dealing with that fear and anxiety of us being away. Then, as much as I hated who’d it had come from and the reasons why he’d said it, I’d learned things about Cat I had no clue about. It wasn’t just that I hadn’t thought about them before, it was that I had been blind to it. Had been fuckin’ clueless.
She cared about me.
She’d been saving herself for me.
And I’d been fucking her best friend this whole time. Well, maybe not the whole time, seeing as I wasn’t sure how long she’d felt this way.
If we were going to die, I didn’t want the last memory she had to be of that fucker putting his hands all over her.
God, I hated thinking that way.
I’d done some fucked up shit as of recently, but what I was about to do might top even that.
“Cat.” I whispered her name again, only this time, I tilted my head and let my lips brush against hers.
I didn’t miss the way she gasped. Or the way she didn’t pull back. Sure as hell didn’t miss the feel of her tongue darting out to wet those lips I was about to kiss.
She deserved more. Deserved better than this. But given the situation, it was all I had to give her.
If the last thing she got to remember was me kissing her, then it was a memory we both were going to die with.
