He nods. “It might come back. We can help patrol.”
I hesitate, because that would require giving them weapons. I’m not sure our truce is solid enough for that yet.
“Or not.” He shrugs. “But you took the shield down to help us, so it’s the least we can do.”
“We could use the help,” I admit.
“We can see better in the dark. We’ll ride the laundry bikes at night and patrol the camp.”
I consider. With all our people sleeping in the Sub, that might not be a bad idea.
“All we need is spears,” he says. “We can make them ourselves.”
“We have spears.”
I glance at Nova, who’s just a few feet away. She gives me a quick, slight nod.
“Okay, thank you,” I say. “We’ll take you up on that.”
“I’ll run it by Pax first.”
“Sure. Tell him to let me know either way.”
Everyone’s walking back to the central camp area, and Nova falls into step beside me.
“Can I talk to you?” she asks.
“Of course.”
“I’ll catch up with you later,” Amira says, walking toward Wyatt and Chance.
Nova is pensive for a few seconds.
“You okay?” I ask her.
“I’m worried about Ellison.”
I pinch my brows together. “Is she overdoing it? She has to eat and sleep.”
“It’s not that. She’s always overdoing it. There have been two times in the past few days where she’s told me she was going to be somewhere, but then she wasn’t there.”
“You know how it is for her, Nova. She’s always getting pulled in a thousand directions.”
She hums in agreement. “Right, but when I asked her later about the place she said she was going, she acted like she’d been there. She lied to me.”
Now I’m concerned, too. “That’s not like her.”
“No. I trust her, of course. I’m not suspicious of her. I’m just worried.”
“Yeah, I would be, too. But you know what my dad would say?”
She arches a brow, waiting for me to continue.
“He’d sayI trust youis a complete sentence. Once you add the wordbut, you change its entire meaning.”
A smile tugs on her lips. “Wise man, your dad.”
“He was.”
