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Chapter Six
Kade
Kade snapped awakethe moment the cot creaked. Even though it hardly made a noise, he was so on edge, even in his sleep that it woke him instantly. The past few nights Charlie had been so deeply asleep that she’d barely moved at all, and he’d gotten used to waking up several times each night and walking over to her, just to make sure she was still breathing.
He slept on the floor near her because he didn’t want to let her out of his sight. The wolves could come back any time for her, and when that happened, he was going to be there. And he was going to go down fighting.
Charlie sat up, slowly, a tiny noise of pain escaping from her throat, and Kade squeezed his eyes shut, forcing his breathing to slow. She couldn’t know that he was awake, or that he felt the pull to watch over her, day and night.
If she knew, she could use it against him, or worse, against Olivia.
Just because he wanted her didn’t mean he trusted her. She’d lied about what she was doing in the woods. She hadn’t realized that he saw her point a rifle at him, even if it had been a rifle loaded with a tranq dart.
With a deep breath and more creaking from the cot, Charlie stood slowly, wrapping Daniel’s bathrobe around her, wincing when she pulled the belt tight. Then she walked, very carefully, to the bathroom.
Kade pretended to be asleep again, but it wasn’t until after Charlie was safely in bed, her breathing even, that he actually fell asleep himself.
* * *
He snapped awake againthe moment the sun heaved itself over the horizon, just like he always did. Even though he couldn’t see it from where he lay, he knew, with some kind of finely-honed, animal instinct.
Kade was glad to be awake. He’d been having the dream again. It was the same every time: his armored truck rolling through the desert. Him jumping off, then jogging thirty yards to take a piss in the dust. The truck lurching forward, his crew teasing him, pretending they were going to leave him there. Him shouting and flipping them off, good-naturedly.
All of them in a great mood, because there was only a week left in their deployment.
Then the explosion, the truck flipping over and bursting into flame, the shockwave hitting Kade as he zipped his pants. It knocked him twelve yards backward.
In the dream, that was always where he woke up.
He lay perfectly still on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, and went through his mental calming checklist.
You are safe,it always started. You’re in the house that you and Daniel built. He is in the bedroom, probably still asleep, or maybe making coffee.
He sniffed the air. No coffee. Daniel was still asleep.
The doors are locked. The windows are locked.
On her cot, Charlie stirred gently, and he added a new item.
Charlie’s safe. You don’t know where Olivia is, but that’s nothing new.
Kade felt his heart slowing, the adrenaline fizzling out of his veins. After a few more moments, he tossed off the blanket and scratched his naked belly, walking to the kitchen to start the coffee as the sun just barely began to peek through the windows.
* * *
It wasn’tlike they had internet, and the newspaper sure didn’t deliver to their cabin, so most mornings, Kade drank his coffee naked and stared out the window, watching the forest slowly come alive. He found it very soothing: the garden that he and Daniel had grown, the birds who flew from tree to tree, the squirrels fighting for territory.
This morning it was a deer in that pink early-morning light. A doe, from the looks of it. She stepped gingerly out of the forest toward the garden, took a few sniffs, and retreated quickly.
Kade smiled.
I ought to bottle grizzly pee and sell it to farmers, he thought.
Actually, it wasn’t such a terrible idea.
“You might want pants,” Daniel said behind him.
Kade turned to see Daniel, wearing a simple pair of black cloth pants that hung loosely from his waist.
