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“…he did?”
“The day we… the day he gave me back my car.”
I knew what day she was talking about, and I knew why she hadn’t finished her first sentence. I didn’t say anything, I just handed the phone to her.
She brought up her text messages, tapped the screen, and handed the cell back to me.
The phone rang several times. I thought maybe she was mistaken, but then the call went to Kade’s voicemail.
“Leave a message.”
Talkative guy.
“We made it,” I said. “I’m calling you from Fiona’s cell – mine’s toast. We’re almost to the highway. Call me back at this number.”
After I hung up, I turned to Fiona. “Keep the phone alive, or use the light as long as we can?”
She looked out at the darkness. “Keep it alive for as long as you can.”
I shut the light off and we picked our way through the scrub brush as best we could. It took us another half hour, but we finally got to the highway. In all that time, we never saw a pair of headlights go by, and we never got a call.
When we got within a hundred feet of the road, I pulled the phone out of my pocket.
Dead – and no amount of pushing on the side button could bring it back to life.
“Goddamn it,” I swore.
“It’s okay,” Fiona said.
“But he doesn’t know where to find us.”
“He will.”
I didn’t say what I was really thinking: I hope nothing happened to him.
I didn’t need to. Fiona picked up on it right away.
“He’s alright,” she said quietly. “If we made it out, he’ll be fine.”
I hugged her to my side. “You’re right.”
I hope.
We sat down on the ground, both to keep out of sight of any possible unfriendlies and to rest. After a three-hour hike through the hills, my legs were aching.
Fiona nestled up against me, and I put my arm around her. We sat like that for a couple of long minutes before she finally whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“For what? You saved my life back there,” I said, and immediately winced. I’d been doing good keeping up the story that she hadn’t hit Eyeball – until now. “I mean, distracting him like that with the phone call.”
She was quiet for a second, then she said, “I know I killed him.”
“You’re wrong.”
“No, I know I did… and it’s okay. I mean… I’ll be okay.”
I could tell from her voice that she’d accepted it. That there was no point in lying anymore.
“The first time, it’s… it’s hard,” I said, trying to comfort her.
