AllFreeNovel
Share Us
22
River
“River.”
There’s a warm, soft voice in my ear, and for a second, I think it’s a part of the dream I’m having. Whatever it was slips through my fingers when I try to hold on to it, and the voice says my name again.
I open my eyes and realize it’s Priest, shaking me slightly, waking me up from my nap. We had another long day of driving, and after getting tired of playing car games with Ash—considering he makes up half the rules and cheats most of the time—napping seemed like the best way to pass the time.
But now the car is stopped, and Priest has a hand on my shoulder.
“What’s up?” I mumble, trying to wake myself up.
“We’re here,” he says.
I rub my eyes and stretch a little, peering out the window to see where we are.
“Here” is a cabin in the woods, pretty rustic and remote. It’s not fancy, but it offers a good view of the highway that passes by in the distance. We made it to the Ouachita Mountains.
We get out of the car, and I stretch gratefully. Even with more room for this leg of the drive, being in one spot for so long isn’t the most comfortable. It was just me, Priest, and Knox in this car, while Gage and Ash were in the other one.
We picked up a second car for a few grand in cash a few hours ago in a small town we passed through. Like the cabin, it’s nothing fancy. But it’s big and it’s got good pickup, and that’s what we need.
I stretch my legs, looking around at the remote mountainous area we’re in. It’s quieter than the city, that’s for sure, and all the sounds are animals in the trees and insects humming. There probably aren’t other people around for miles, and after the long drive, it’s a nice change of pace.
“Let’s get this stuff unpacked and set up before we lose the light,” Gage says, and we all spring into action, unloading the car.
We start bringing our bags into the cabin, and Knox takes the bag of surveillance stuff and starts setting that up. It’s not super sophisticated, just a scope on a tripod pretty much. With the vantage point of our cabin, we can get a good view of the highway we think the runner will be coming down. So we’ll stake out this spot, and then when we see him, we’ll be ready to spring into action. Since we made good time on the drive, we should have plenty of time for our plan to go off without a hitch. Hopefully.
“I’ll get dinner on,” Ash says, and he heads into the kitchen to start unloading the groceries we bought on the way up. Pretty soon we can all hear him humming as he chops veggies and starts onions and garlic sautéing in a pan.
The smell of that chases out the lingering scent of dust and disuse that was hovering in the air, and Gage and Priest get to going through all the equipment we brought with us, getting things ready.
I move between all of them, trying to help where I can and checking in with them.
Ash grins at me whenever I come into the kitchen, and he holds out a spoon of red sauce for me to taste.
“What do you think?” he asks.
“Mm, it’s good. Needs a little more salt though,” I tell him, licking my lips.
He licks a bit of sauce off the spoon thoughtfully, then nods. “Good call. Thanks, killer.”
“River, can you come hold this for a second?” Gage calls, and Ash shoos me out to go help them set up all of our shit.
After a little while, Ash calls us to the kitchen for dinner, and we all gather to eat. Someone has to stay on the scope at all times, so we plan to take turns with that. Knox says he’ll take the first watch, between big mouthfuls of the pasta Ash made.
It’s almost like being at home, sitting around the table with them, having a meal together, but there’s something different about it. Maybe the fact that I know we’re not in the city. That there aren’t cars going up and down the road every five minutes. Just peace and quiet and the sounds of nature.
“It’s nice up here,” I comment, feeling relaxed for the first time in a while. “I haven’t been out of the city in a long time.”
“We’ll take you on a real vacation,” Ash tells me. “When all this is over.”
I blink because that’s such a strange concept to me. The idea of having time, not grinding for some goal that needs to happen. Going on a vacation, just because I can, not because it ties in to a mission or a grudge or because I need to lie low for a while. But the idea of getting away with these four men and not having to constantly have my guard up sounds nice. It sounds like a good way to celebrate getting through this mess.
“You’d better,” I tell Ash, grinning at him from across the table.
* * *
