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Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Buddie walked into the cabin without knocking, dropping his bags by the bedroom door. He had stepped up to stay here and seemed the safer bet as far as Charlie getting exposed to anything R-rated. It wasn’t that Buddie was a saint, but he was discreet. Rastin, on the other hand, didn’t seem to think there was any problem with having a revolving line of women in and out of the cabin.

Buddie beelined it to the kitchen. “We got any snacks in here? I’m starving. What kind of stash do we have to work with?”

“I made you those.” I pointed to the basket of biscuits sitting on the table. Baking was becoming my go-to when I couldn’t sleep, which was a common occurrence lately.

“Oh, yeah. Okay,” he said, staring at the table as if afraid I’d make him eat one right now.

Buddie’s eyes lit up as Charlie walked out of the bedroom, as if his savior had just arrived. “There’s my little man.”

They did a fist bump, and then Charlie pointed to the cabinet above the fridge. “She keeps all the good stuff up there.”

Buddie opened it up and scanned the stash. “Little light on the cookies, no?”

“I completely agree,” Charlie said.

“Yeah, we’re going to have to make some changes until she gets back.” Buddie spoke softly, as if I weren’t there or couldn’t hear. Even my human senses would’ve heard him.

“I don’t want him eating nothing but garbage while I’m gone,” I said, trying to hobble over toward the kitchen as quickly as I could on my crutches.

“You better hope Evangeline doesn’t hear you calling her cookies garbage,” Buddie said, and then whistled. The two of them laughed.

Kicks walked in and then nodded toward the front, silently asking me if I was ready.

“Yeah, give me a minute.”

I took another hobbling step toward Charlie. Kicks wrapped an arm around my waist and carried me the last few steps, and then him and Buddie moved away, giving me some space. I wrapped my arms around Charlie, squeezing his little form.

“I’m going to miss you, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.” It wasn’t really a lie. If I could get back to him, I would. Nothing would stop me.

“I know,” he said, so sure.

Please, don’t let me disappoint him. Don’t let me turn into something so monstrous I’m afraid to come back.

And please let me hold it together until I get out of here.

I loosened my grip, letting the kid have some air. “Be good for Buddie, okay? I’ll bring you back something cool from Scotland.”

“I will,” Charlie said, and then looked over my shoulder and grinned. Buddie must’ve been signaling something. I didn’t care as long as he kept Charlie happy and safe. He could feed him cookies for breakfast every morning and I’d be okay with it as long as he kept him safe.

“Remember, don’t leave the pack territory by yourself, ever , and listen to whatever Buddie, Rastin, or Evangeline tell you.”

“I knoooow .”

I’d only told him fifty times in the last couple of days, so he should. I grabbed a nearby chair, using it to straighten up.

“Charlie, I nabbed some new games for us. Want to check ’em out?” Buddie said, grabbing something out of his bag. It was the one that Charlie had been dying to play for at least the last month. The entire pack had been looking for it whenever they ventured out. I couldn’t imagine where Buddie had found it, but he must have gone to the moon and back.

Thank you, I mouthed to him. He nodded and then headed toward Charlie’s room with a skipping kid beside him.

“He’ll be okay,” Kicks said.

“Yeah. I know.” I wasn’t sure I would be, but they’d take care of him.Kicks went to pick me up again, and I held up a hand. “I can do it if you can just carry my bag.” I grabbed my crutches.

“It would be easier if—”

“I can do it.” We were traveling to Georgia, and then across the ocean. I was not going to be dependent upon him every moment.

I made it out of the cabin and to the bike. Kicks kept watching me, slowing his pace and looking nearly pained at having to do it.

I stopped beside the bike, balancing on one leg, trying to figure out how we’d get my crutches on there as he strapped on my bag.

“It’s not happening,” he said. “There’s nowhere to put them.”

“Can’t we just…” Bikes weren’t meant for cargo, but there had to be a way.

“Can’t we just what?” He waved toward the back of the bike. “Show me.”

“How am I going to walk anywhere?”

“You’re not, if you can call what you’re doing walking anyway. I’m going to carry you. It’s going to be easier than this.” He gestured at my wobbling in place.

“I’ll hold them.”

I made it three hours before my hand slipped and the crutches became roadkill. From there on out, Kicks was carrying me into the woods to pee and then retrieving me a few minutes later. The situation was not going to work, at all.

This leg was either going to have to be used or I’d make it so bad she’d have to heal it. I was done with having to be carried around everywhere. When I couldn’t even hobble off and pee on my own, things had to change.

By the time we stopped for the night, I was so agitated I could barely speak.

I stood up, ignoring the pain when I walked on the injured leg. I took a step, another, and then paused to grip a tree before continuing on.“Heal, dammit.”

I could kill with a flick of my hand and yet I couldn’t walk? No. Not acceptable.

Kicks returned to camp with a pile of wood. He tossed it on the ground and then swung me off my feet. “What the hell is wrong with you? The doctor said you can’t put weight on it.” He placed me on a fallen tree near where he’d cleared a space for the fire.

“Why? It’ll either get better or bad enough she’ll have to fix it.” I was about to push up again, but he was hovering over me.

“She doesn’t have to do anything, as we both know and you constantly remind me. What if you end up in a situation where she wants to renegotiate? Then what?”

I hated when he made so much sense that it was impossible to argue. Still, I wanted to take a hacksaw to this cast and say the hell with it.

I was still in a snit as he went to work on a fire, piling up leaves and kindling.

“You have to admit this is a problem,” I said, stabbing my finger at the stupid cast.

“You’ll probably be able to walk on it by the time we set foot in Scotland.”

I nodded, not bothering to argue with him. He couldn’t understand what it was like to feel this weak or how much I wanted to strangle Death.

We finished eating and Kicks laid out the only bedding we had. We had limited supplies because of the bike and what we could carry, and we needed to bring options to pay off Captain Rod.

I got to my foot, a branch in my hand to use as a makeshift cane.

“Do you need—”

“Nope. I’m fine.” I’d pee in my pants before I had him carry me to the woods again. I hobbled off the best I could. By the time I made the trip back, I was wiped out.

I didn’t even try to argue when he picked me up and settled me down on the bedding we were going to share.

How was I going to travel with him for weeks when I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it a night? I turned on my side away from him, intent on pretending he wasn’t there. And then trying to pretend it wasn’t getting cold out now that the sun was going down.

He shifted, his front aligning to my back.

Is that…

“Shifting against me isn’t going to make the situation better, unless it’s not sleep you want,” he said.

“I wasn’t sure.”

“Yeah, you were,” he said, draping an arm around my waist and pulling me snug against him, as if he could sense this was as painful for me as him. He leaned closer until the roughness of his jaw grazed my neck. “You know I’m game if you are,” he said softly.

“I’m only lying next to you because it’s cold and we couldn’t fit more bedding.”

I didn’t fall asleep for at least an hour after him, and it was his fault. If he was seductive awake, he was even worse in sleep. I’d shifted to my back, trying to limit the contact to our sides, and being colder would be a better option. That didn’t last long, as his leg shifted on top of me, his hard, muscular thigh somehow in between my legs as his arm pulled me tighter against him.

If his breathing wasn’t so even, and his heartbeat so slow, I’d have thought he was awake and screwing with me. My mistake. His very existence was created to screw with me.

Just fuck him already, you prude, Death said.

I ignored her. I wasn’t risking a reply and waking up Kicks, especially when I was so close to doing exactly that.

I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the ache in my ankle and everything else unpleasant I could drum up.

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