Adam fought back a smile at the not-so-distant memory of how Ellie had stitched up his hand with a flask of cask strength hooch and a scavenged needle.At least this stuff was all sterile—and he was actually capable of stitching in a straight line.
He flexed his hand, smiling at the crooked scar on his palm.“Good point,” he agreed and doused her leg with alcohol.
Ellie hissed between her teeth.
Threading his needle, Adam gave the first wound a careful study.He set the point against her flesh.
A low, angry voice snapped from behind him.“You’re messing everything up!”
Adam glanced over his shoulder.Vanika leaned against one of the trees behind him, her skinny arms crossed over her chest.
“Look away!”she hissed.
Adam turned back to meet Ellie’s surprised stare.
Borthwick’s soldiers were clustered several yards away, taking a tea break.None of them paid Adam any mind.Jacobs and Dawson were still gone.
Borthwick was nowhere to be seen.
Vanika’s voice was tight with irritation.“I have aplan.I am going to lead the colonel into the forest and leave him where it will take him at least a week to find his way out again.”
“You’re in over your head, kid.”It took effort for Adam not to turn around and punctuate the remark with a stern glare.
“This is my forest!”Vanika snapped back.“You are the one who is in over your head.You nearly got yourself eaten by a bodh!”
Adam had to give her that one.
“I have the situation under control,” Vanika asserted.
“Jacobs knows you’re lying,” Adam warned her tightly.
“How can you be sure of that?”
Adam put all the certainty into his words that he could muster.“I know.”
Vanika went quiet.He hated that he couldn’t look at her—but the kid was right.The sepoys were bound to notice iftheir unexpected guest suddenly started chatting with the twelve-year-old villager who had attached herself to their party.
“I don’t need to be rescued,” Vanika spat out.“Stay out of my way.”
Footsteps crunched as she stalked away.
Adam’s grip on the needle tensed with worry and frustration.
She was just a kid.
“That could have gone better,” Ellie commented in a low voice.
“Yeah,” Adam agreed through gritted teeth.
Her leg still bled sluggishly.He needed to focus on taking care of her—but he also had to warn her about another pit looming before them, one that made his stomach tie into knots.
“Borthwick knows my father.”
Ellie’s brow furrowed with mild confusion.“I think that’s what’s keeping us alive at the moment.”
“That’s not what I mean.”Desperation roughened Adam’s voice.He fought for the words that would make her understand what that entailed—what he would need to do in order to keep them all alive.
The notion left him feeling queasier than a ride in a hot air balloon.
