It’s not a slight, but spoken reverently like she’s an avenging angel who unshackled him herself. That’s not at all how it was. “Doesn’t mean we don’t need to be careful. Or that he’s getting away with any of this, but it does mean that we’re safe here. No one’s coming for us.”
“We moved a lot,” Wade says suddenly. “More often the past few months. Always a new place. Always in the middle of the night. So much arguing outside the cell…thought they were running from something. Someone. Didn’t know who, but it was you that whole time? You did that all by yourself?”
She doesn’t know how to answer. Nothing she’s done feels heroic. She has accumulated many sins during her search that have left their mark. There’s an accurate running tally in her mind of how many lives she’s taken on her quest. Some things she may never be able to confess to him. In a way, her choices were even selfish. She couldn’t go on without knowing she’d overturned every rock and checked every corner. Couldn’t sleep at night if she moved on, hoping one day he’d show up on his own or accepting him gone for good.
He never would have stopped looking for her. So she got up every morning and crafted a new plan to find him each day. Would have done that until her last breath if he wasn’t in front of her right now.
Pressure builds behind her eyes that she persistently fights, tucking both legs up in the chair with a defeated sigh. “I feltso close so many times, and then you were just gone again. He was always one step ahead. Silas has been a thorn in the side of every community for a hundred miles or more. Him and his men siphon out resources they haven’t earned, like the mob asking for a monthly payment. They kill without remorse. They’ll do even worse given the chance. I only found out he had you a couple of years ago. Always knew they kept captives, but could never be sure you were one of them until a defector offered up details of what really goes on.”
She blew through anyone left in her path if they refused to point her in the right direction. Silas’s army was large, but she did her best to pick off who she could in her search, never imagining it would be enough to persuade him to release Wade. Their numbers must be reduced even more than she realized.
“I knew you wouldn’t give up,” he whispers. “I’m only here now because of you.”
It’s so easy to feel like she hadn’t done enough. She let this continue for years while terrible things were happening to him, but he’s not looking at her like she failed, and for a moment, she indulges in the smooth cadence of his words and the meaning behind them.
Wants more than anything to crawl into his lap, feel that clean skin pressed warm to her own, and nuzzle her face into his neck. She settles for letting her eyes roam just enough to be satisfying, imagining what it might feel like to be close again.
“What?”
“Nothing, you just look good,” she admits, even as he doubts her.
“Dunno about that, but you do. I like your hair. Suits you.”
“You do?” Her surprised grin is quick. All it takes is the smallest hint of a compliment from him, and everything feels right with the world again, if only for the moment.
“Letting it grow didn’t work out so well for me,” he runs a hand over his own head, attempting his first joke since he appeared in her life again.
“I might be fond of the shaggy look. I can help you with that later if you want, though. When you’re ready.”
“Maybe someday.” Is all he says, clearly doubting that she’ll ever get close enough to cut it for him.
It’s then that she notices something brand new. “Hey, you’re hearing me better. I’m across the room.”
“Little bit. Still kinda underwater, but think it’s getting better.”
“Good. That’s good. I, um, probably should wait to ask you this, but I’ve been wanting to for so long.”
“Go ahead.”
“Do you remember anything from before we got separated? That night we spent in my apartment, right after the turn, you told me we were meeting up with Cole. That the two of you had plans to head somewhere safe, but we hadn’t discussed the details yet. You said you never told him it was me you were coming to look for. He would have said going that far into the city was too big a risk. Only told him you had to ‘go check on a girl’ and would be right back.”
“I barely remember what happened last week,” he replies sadly. “I’ve had a lot of concussions. Things from long before the turn are easier to see. But everything around the time we got separated, and everything right after, is full of holes now. I was meeting up with Cole? Is he okay?”
Her heart sinks at knowing she may never find the answers she hopes to get. “I dunno. I never saw him after you were gone. I looked, but we must have split off in different directions. It’s okay. All that matters now is there you’re here with me.”
“I can’t remember how me and you got separated.”
“There was a group of men, and they took you right in front of me. I couldn’t do anything. I was fighting off rotters. You were just gone.”
“They thought I was someone else.”
He doesn’t elaborate and she can see the exhaustion on his face, so she doesn’t push. Yet.
Chapter 8
“How did you get that?” Wade points to the scar that runs along her collarbone and down past her shirt. She’s hidden it well until now, but he can see it peeking out where the button on her top has popped open.
“Silas.”
