AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Whoa. So much for letting him emote and commune with the trees. “It’s inside, in the safe,” I told him.
He sharpened right up at the prospect of a firearm. I opened the small wall safe behind a cheesy wall-hanging, and handed the Glock 19 to him. His face got sharply focused as soon as he had a gun in his hands. He slid in the full magazine into it with a soft click, and glanced at me with a frown. “Do your thing, Red. I’ll be outside.”
Well, well. Look who just put himself in charge like he was born to it. But it seemed ungracious to complain, considering, so I snapped right to it.
I opened up the box of clothes I’d left on the bedroom floor. One had summer clothing, another had winter stuff. I pulled out a few items that looked just right. Dark colored, comfortable, durable, oh God, yes. I brought the clothes into the bathroom, and took a few moments to swab off the raccoon mask with makeup wipes, a truly magnificent invention. I was one of those lazy bitches who took off makeup with a pack of wipes while lying in bed. If I took it off at all.
My hair was a snarled mess, but no time to fuss with it. I twisted it up into a knot and showered just long enough to rinse away the sticky smears of Shane’s blood.
I tossed the ball gown and underwear into the corner, pulled on my fresh clothes. Ahhhh. When I was dressed, I looked out the front door. He stood there like a sentinel. Prehistoric man, listening with all his keen senses for some approaching predator.
“Shane?”
He jerked his head around, eyes questioning.
“Want some bathroom time? I have antibiotic soap in the first aid box. You should wash those wounds on your neck in the shower, and I’ll put some disinfectant on them. I think I have some bandages in there, too.”
“You’ll keep watch?” he asked.
I nodded, and he handed me the gun. I’d learned to use it, at my mother’s insistence, but I’d never enjoyed it. Still, I was grateful we had it now.
We? I was thinking ‘we.’ That was very dangerous. It would be better to think of him, and me. Absolutely separate. I had to keep that very clear in my head. Shane was an unknown quality, with an unknown agenda. In spite of that phone call, and, well… everything.
Until I saw Reggie safe and well, the vote wasn’t in on Shane Masters.
I’m sure he expected me to stand outside scowling at the world with the gun clutched in both hands, but we didn’t have time. I checked the go-bag for my essentials. Thirty thousand in small bills, a car title for the Jeep registered to Layla Stearns. Layla also had a credit card, a driver’s license and a voter’s registration card. I hadn’t bothered to stock the pantry, but there was a box on the kitchen counter. I tore into it and pulled out wrapped items with more or less nutritional value. Candy, nuts, protein bars, and the like. I tossed a handful of them into the go bag.
That was the extent of my culinary talents, as Reggie could attest. I was the queen of takeout, in normal times. Reggie was a good sport about it, thank God.
“Why aren’t you outside keeping watch?”
I jumped at his disapproving tone, and then gasped.
It never ceased to amaze me. Freshly showered, still toweling off, wearing only the blood-spotted jersey sweat pants. Naked chest, cut, lean, powerful. His oh-my-freaking-God stunning good looks on full display again. His eyes looked laser sharp.
But oh God, his neck. It looked like raw meat. That must hurt so freaking much.
I focused on that, to keep myself honest. “Ah… your neck. Let’s work on it.”
“That soap stung like a motherfucker. I might have screamed a little bit.”
“I didn’t hear you, so it doesn’t count,” I told him. “Let me put some stuff on it.”
“Later for that. We’re in a rush.”
“No,” I said. “You can’t leave that wound exposed. It needs disinfectant, a bandage, and a doctor, in that order. Let me medicate your neck. This fucking instant.”
He gave me a brief, amused smile. “Fine, if you insist. But be quick.”
I followed him with the first aid box into the bathroom, and he sat down on the closed toilet to let me do as I pleased. It was disconcerting, being so close to him. He winced as I smeared the ointment over those raw sores. It was worse on the front of his neck, from all the wire cuts, but it was red and angry and inflamed all the way around.
I wound some gauze bandages gently around it, and tied it off. “There. That’ll have to do until you get to a doctor.”
He stood up, and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. “Very stylish,” he said. “I should tie a silk scarf around it.”
His skin was goose-bumped from the chill, and his lips were pale and bluish. He needed to warm up, and that windbreaker just wasn’t going to cut it.
I had a sudden idea. “Come into the bedroom,” I said. “I have a long sweater. It might look a little weird on you, but you’d be warmer, and it’s just until we get someplace safe.”
