“You’re welcome,” Logan told her. “Is Elena awake?”
“Yes. You can go and join her; I have a couple of friends coming over soon.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Go on; my daughter is waiting for you.”
Logan bowed his head, squeezed her arm, and walked away. He liked Rosa and hated her sadness, but she was coping the best she could and trying to stay busy.
He strode through the small living room with its gray couches, family photos, and curtain-covered windows. Shelves of books lined two of the walls, and there was no TV. Alejandro’s pipe sat on the table beside his recliner.
He left the living room for the enclosed hall with more pictures on the walls. Some of these pictures were drawings Elena did as a child. He stopped outside of the closed door at the end of the hall. He knocked on it, and it opened a few seconds later.
He smiled at her as he carried the tray inside and set it on top of the dresser. Originally a guestroom, the room was starting to hold more touches of Elena as she hung more things on the wall and set them out on the furniture. She’d also added a couple of plants from her apartment. It was still too impersonal, but at least it didn’t feel as cold anymore.
“Sticky buns,” she said as she licked her lips. “Thank you.”
“I figured it might be a two-bun kind of day.”
“You figured right.”
When he first came here, he suggested eating in the kitchen, but she declined. They always ate in her room; he suspected it was because she needed a break from her mother’s grief. She was with the woman throughout the day and night; she required this time to brace herself for what was to come.
She sat on the green armchair she’d moved over to the corner, near the window. No curtains framed the window, and the comforter was a gray color he didn’t associate with Elena. It was the color the hunter women used to wear. She’d grown up a hunter, but she’d never really been one of them.
This room and place would never be her; she was too feisty for it, too independent and proud.
Elena peeled away a piece of bun and placed it in her mouth. Her eyes rolled back, and she released a small sound of pleasure as she savored the food.
“They’re going to hold the execution this afternoon,” she said.
It was the first time they’d discussed something serious while he was here, and he hadn’t been expecting it. Sitting in the matching green chair across from her, he positioned himself so he could look out at the compound. Much like his compound back home, the sound of children’s laughter floated on the air as they chased each other around the large yard.
The adults were all somber as they stood on their porches watching the kids, but the solemn air hanging over the compound couldn’t stop the children from playing. Their laughter was brighter than the sun beating down on the land. All of the adults and children wore black mourning clothes, as did Elena and her mother.
When they first returned with Mateo and the others, many of the hunters were skeptical and standoffish around them, but they’d become a lot more welcoming after the truth came out in the trial. Most of them seemed to have forgiven her past transgression of running away too.
She’d come to suspect that Mateo was the one fanning those flames of distrust and resentment. Now, without him to fuel the fire and hearing the truth about him at the trial, the others were realizing she’d gotten lucky when she ran away and were far kinder to her.
“Are you still going to be on the firing squad?” he asked.
“Yes. I hope I get one of the guns with real bullets in it.”
“You’ll never know.”
“I don’t care. I’m choosing to believemybullet will be the one to kill Mateo.”
Logan didn’t say anything as one of the little boys tripped and fell into the grass. When he started to cry, a young girl ran up to him and helped him to his feet. Together, they wiped the grass and dirt from his knees.
He couldn’t stop watching them as he pondered her words. He hoped she didn’t end up regretting her decision, but everyone needed someone at some point in time, and right now, Elena needed him.
“I’ll be there with you,” he said.
“You can’t fire a gun. If you kill someone, you’ll know as it will push you toward becoming a Savage.”
“I know. But I’ll be there with you. Is your mother going?”
“She said yes last night, but she might have changed her mind by now.”
