She’s silent for a minute, trudging beside me. The ground is so saturated that my boots fill with fresh water, every step a newmisery. My eyes drift to the skies. It’s not going to be long, and the beast will pass, and then they’ll be back to searching.
Which means the dogs will be back out, scent tracking. I need to be in a vehicle before it stops raining. I need to move faster.
“Does it hurt?” She grabs my attention, gesturing to my wound. “Your arm?”
I glare at her. “What the fuck do you think?”
She winces at that, and Ihatethe guilt more than the silence that follows.
We slog through the trees, the wind turning the trunks into a chorus of groans. Lightning comes in bursts, illuminating the world in brutal white. At any moment, some stubborn marshal could pop out of nowhere.
But the thought brings no anxiety.
My vision tunnels at the edges, every step sending a wave of lightness through my body, but I don’t stop—not even when she reaches for me.
“Here,” Rue whispers, her hand suddenly on my left side, warm and strong. She tries to slip under my arm, but I jerk away, almost losing my balance.
“Don’t touch me,” I spit.
“You’re going to fall,” she exasperates.
“Then let me fall.”
She stops dead, boots planted in the mud just as we reach the meadow, blocking me. “Why are you being like this?”
“Because you’re supposed to forget me,” I snap. “And now you’re here, getting caught up in my shit. It’s going to get you killed. So don’t help me. Don’t try to save me to make up foryourshitty choices. Just give me your keys and leave me the fuck alone. Tell the marshals some scary loser took them from you.”
“They think you’re dead. They already told the media you probably drowned. It’s basically body recovery right now.”
I stare at her. “Then why are there roadblocks?”
She shrugs. “I’m assuming there are still. There may not be. But if there are, you’ll get caught before you hit the highway.”
I take a step toward her, and she backs up, stumbling out of the tree line. “Youreallywant to do this, Rue?”
She opens her mouth, then shuts it. The muscles in her jaw jump. “I killed him. You paid the lifetime price of…this.” Rue gestures around her. “Let me come with you. It’s the least I can do. I still love you, Noah.”
You don’t even fucking know me.
Lightning flashes again, and for a second, I’m back at the dock, blood on the planks, sirens wailing in the distance. Then it’s gone, and all that’s left is the rain and the mess of us.
She holds my gaze and presses. “I’ll go inside, get the keys, the dog?—”
“No dog. He’s too old to make the trip.”
Her face falls. “I can’t leave him with my mom again.”
My mind tries to run the scenario of taking the menace of a beagle with us, and in no world does it make sense. There’s no way I can break the border with a geriatric canine.
I guess I can leave her with the dog before we make it. That would work. Then I won’t have to feel so bad that she’s left alone.
“Fine.” I nod to her. “I’ll wait in the car.”
4
RUE
He’s alive.He hates me. But he’s alive.
