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She smiled, her eyes locked on his. “Please don’t do anything to get yourself in trouble. I’ll try to come down tomorrow and see you.”
“Okay.”
He kissed her quickly, then turned and peered out the door. He didn’t see Tate anywhere, so he reached back and took her hand in his and pulled her from the container. He quickly ran with her to the edge of the road.
She squeezed his hand, then disappeared into the woods across the road. He couldn’t even hear her move.
Deflated, he swallowed the lump in his throat, then closed the container and pushed the lock closed. He glanced toward the woods once more, then strode across the construction site to the trailer. He evened his breathing as he walked and squeezed his stomach muscles and let them out to quell the roiling inside. He’d find a way to help her. There had to be a way.
Clomping up the metal steps to the trailer office, he pocketed Elena’s note, then took another breath before entering.
“There you are. Everything okay out there?”
“Yeah.” He pulled a bottle of water from the refrigerator. “I’ll go out again in an hour and do another check.”
“Okay.”
He sat heavily in a chair and watched Tate log on to the cameras. He’d need to remember that they could be seen on security footage. Maybe he’d find another place for them to meet.
Tate clicked through the cameras and watched the area for movement. Aidyn wanted to read Elena’s note, so he stood and went into the bathroom.
Quietly opening the paper, he read her note.
“Please be careful down there. Craig was pissed at Ramsay for the explosion last night but that doesn’t mean they won’t try again. Thank you for the cookies, they were delicious. I’ve never had a cookie, but I’ve looked in Lara’s bakery window and saw them. So sweet. Anything I bring up here needs to be hidden, so I can’t think of anything at the moment. Is there anything I can get for you? - E”
He folded her note and tucked it in his pocket. Flushed the toilet, then washed his hands. Or pretended to. He could still smell her hair on them and he didn’t want to wash that away.
ChapterSixteen
Elena slipped up the mountain and picked up her wash basin. Rounding the side of her cabin, she stepped to the door and entered quietly.
A quick glance to the back, she saw her mom breathing steadily, a slight snore coming from her. She should be exhausted but instead she was wired. She crept to the trunk she kept at the foot of her bed and silently lifted the lid. She pulled the spool of tanned hide rope from the corner and closed the lid.
Quietly moving a chair to the fire so she could see, she unspooled some of the leather and cut strips. Using a four-strand braiding method, she began braiding the leather strips together. At the halfway point, she added a pretty cat-eye bead she’d kept from an old dress of her grandmother’s. They kept everything up here. There would always be a day or a way to use it. Braiding the bead into the bracelet, she finished it with a secure knot and fashioned a loop. At the other end, she used the strands she had left to weave a button at the end so he could button the bracelet on and not have hanging strings. She’d done this for years.
When she’d finished Aidyn’s bracelet, she admired her work for a short time, then worked in some of the oil they kept to soften it. Once she was proud of her work, she tucked it into her blouse, hooking it to the strap of the tank top she wore underneath. There was a time she had a bra, but as she grew that one didn’t fit anymore, and they didn’t have a way to get her another one. Her mom made her tank tops out of some of her dad’s old shirts. She added a cinch just under her breasts to hold them in place better.
She’d sleep with it tonight, near her, against her skin. Tomorrow she’d sneak down the mountain and give it to Aidyn. Even if she had to leave it in the basket.
She stood and stretched her back, added a couple of logs to the fire and snuck back to bed. She undressed partially, taking her britches and overshirt off, then slid under the covers and laid her hand over Aidyn’s bracelet.
Her other hand, she lay over her lips, remembering his kiss. The way his lips felt against hers was something she just couldn’t imagine. She’d been kissed before. Not like Aidyn kissed her, though. When she was younger, there were about six other kids up here at the time, all around her same age, they experimented. The boys were especially interested in experimenting. They always wanted to touch the girls. There were three boys and three girls, and those boys were always trying to touch her breasts.
They were rough and not very romantic about any of it, though. Then one of the girls—Amelia, she was the girl Elena liked the best—giggled and lifted her shirt one night when the six of them were together. They were down by the stream where they had a little nook carved out for them to be unseen.
Oh, she’ll never forget the way those boys looked at Amelia. They touched her breasts and squeezed excitedly. One of the boys asked Amelia, “Can I kiss your titties?” Amelia had laughed and said, “Sure.” He did. He kissed her breasts and she said, “Oh, that feels good.” Then he sucked one in his mouth, and she moaned. Elena never forgot the sound she made. After that, Amelia took turns going to the nook alone with the boys. One at a time.
Amelia got pregnant by one of those boys. She didn’t know who. She was only fourteen years old, which up here wasn’t that young. They encouraged the girls to get pregnant and have babies. But it didn’t work that well for Amelia. She died having that baby and there was something wrong with the baby and it died about a week later.
About a year later, Elena’s hormones kicked in and she fancied one of the older boys up there. Davey. She was fifteen he was twenty. He had muscles and when he took his shirt off, he was fine. He saw her looking at him one day and walked over to her, his eyes never left hers. He was like a cat stalking prey.
“You like what you see, Elena?”
She could only whisper, “Yes.”
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly to his body. He barely kissed her. A couple of times on her lips, but it was hard and impersonal.
He half carried her, she half walked backwards, into the woods and he said, “You want to know what it feels like to have sex?”
