Page 117 of Savagely Yours
Then, I burst out laughing.
As I laughed, I felt her watching me, and I wondered whether it was the same for her—whether a laugh like mine, as regular and normal as laughs came, could be a sound she enjoyed the way I did hers.
She slid her fingers between mine. “I’m looking forward to this life with you.”
“Me too.” I raised our joined hands and gave each of her knuckles a kiss. “The world might have ended, but our world is just beginning.”
She laughed again, this one softer, lighter, and just as sweet. “That was corny,” she teased.
“I know. But you liked it.”
“I really did.”
I set our joined hands on the middle console.
“Maybe you should keep both hands on the steering wheel,” she suggested. “I-95 is not what it used to be.”
“First of all, I successfully navigated us around that mini horde. Andyoureached formyhand.”
“You could have denied me.”
“When have I ever denied you anything, Mrs. Harding?”
Sighing, she faced forward, settling into her seat.
We continued on in silence, Tamra’s light snores intermittently rising above the lull of the tires moving over the road and the whir of the van’s motor.
None of us knew where we were headed.
We had a map that Dr. Okoro gave me when I went to pick up the items, and we knew it led to somewhere in South Carolina, but we had no idea what we would find there.
For what it was worth, however, the drive was better than I’d assumed it would be. The skies remained clear, and except for the mini horde, the only obstructions we came across were stalled vehicles, thankfully devoid of humans, dead or alive. I had no intention of adding to our convoy. In a world facing scarcity, trust would be even rarer than provisions.
Larke gently pulled her hand away to check the map. “This says we should be seeing the building soon.”
I nodded. “Good. Apparently, this camp was set up at an old agricultural college. According to Dr. Okoro, it was one of the first to be erected as a survivor’s base for people around the area seeking refuge.”
I didn’t add that it was sanctioned by the military. Totten hadn’t turned out to be the safe haven it claimed to be, and I didn’t want Larke to have doubts, especially since the closer we got, the morerightthis felt.
I still couldn’t explain it.
“Hopefully, they’re friendly,” she said. “Did Dr. Okoro tell you anything else about this Dr. Diaz?”
“No, but he’s only met her in passing. He said she’s brilliant, though, and she’s always come across as kind.”
“Brilliant and kind? Sounds like competition. Did he say if she was pretty? I might have to do my hair or something.”
“Babe, it doesn’t matter because…” I raised my voice to an objectively horrible falsetto and serenaded her with the hook from “I Only Have Eyes for You.”
She waved her hand like we were at a concert, holding up lights. “You bettersing,baby.”
Smiling, I shook my head.
“Dez!” She tapped my forearm at least ten times in under a second. “Baby, I think I see a gate.”
I probably would have spotted it at the same time, but I’d been too busy watching her.
“Dez, I think that’s it! I think that’s it! What do you think? Does it look like there are people?—”
