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Chapter Fourteen
Adreax
I opened my eyes slowly, grimacing as the bright light burned my retinas and made my head spin. Eventually, I tried sitting up, but I barely lifted my head off the hard surface of the ground before realizing I could not sit up on my own. Looking down, I noticed the rough bandage wrapped around my mid-section, and the large red stain that had soaked all the way through to the outer layers.
That didn’t look good.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” Tayla said from somewhere off to my side. She did not sound happy about the announcement.
“What happened?” I managed, my throat dry and dusty. How long had I been out? How long had it been since I’d had food or drink?
“What happened is that you led the Patrol straight to my camp, and when they arrived, they took all of us hostage. That’s what happened.”
So she was mad at me. I made a mental note of that, but tried to ignore it. We needed to get out of here, all of us. I had no intention of letting the Patrol haul me in like this, and I definitely didn’t want to be responsible for whatever they did to Tayla.
Somewhere beyond my line of sight, I could hear Herod snoring, and I relaxed a little. At least he was here with me. The two of us had a long track record of escaping hairy situations, and I expected us to make it out of this one, too.
“We need… a plan,” I rasped.
Tayla stared at me with her mouth agape.
“A plan? Are you kidding? The plan is that when those guards come back, you are going to tell them the truth. You are going to tell them I had nothing to do with you and your little gun racket, and we are innocent. Once we are out of this cell, you two can come up with any plan you’d like. Although I doubt it will be good enough,” she added after a momentary pause, taking time to look around at the solid walls that pressed in on us.
“Innocent?” I said with a snort. “Who says you’re innocent?”
“You’ve got to be joking!”
I could tell she was growing more irritated with me by the second, but it didn’t matter. Whatever idea I had of us all escaping together flew out the window when she started demanding that I exonerate her. Tayla was a selfish being, and I was not in the habit of tolerating selfish demands from people who knew nothing about me or my life.
In fact, if she was too good to work with us on a plan, I might just leave her behind when Herod and I escaped. The thought of her being stuck here all on her own brought a rueful smile to my face. That would teach her a lesson.
“I’m afraid it’s not a joke,” I said, mock sorrow dripping from my words. “Last I remember you were harboring a fugitive of the law, and that makes you guilty in the Patrol’s eyes.”
“I was not harboring anyone!” she shrieked, and now her voice pitched so high it was nearly enough to make my ears bleed.
“Besides, it’s not like the Patrol gives much consideration to my words, anyway. They’ll probably keep you here for their own reasons, innocent or not. Think about that before you burn bridges.”
“I can’t believe I ever thought we could work together. You’re lucky you found Herod, because no woman would ever put up with you. I wouldn’t trust you to be my partner in a children’s board game, much less escaping from a prison.”
I lowered my head back to the ground with a smug smile and closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to look at her.
I had been stupid to think that there was an attraction between us. She and I were from two very different worlds. She could never understand the struggles that I faced every day. That momentary flicker of heat that I felt between us was merely a biological reaction to her feminine form, nothing more. And it was going to stay that way.
