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“Get out of here. She reaches to the nightstand between our beds and grabs a hairbrush, tossing it at me. “Go be with your outlaw.” Her mouth creases into a slight smile.
“You’re the best.” I kiss her cheek and rush for the door, checking the coast is clear before I head up the bank to the tree line.
My uncle must be in his cabin because I see no sign of him, and there are only a few villagers scattered around, either locking up their animals or sitting around the fire. The atmosphere is still heavy since the attack, but I know that once our village is out of danger it’ll go back to the way things were.
When I reach the trees I hear a noise come from the dark, I check over my shoulder, unsure where it’s coming from but no one’s there.
“Gotcha!” Strong arms wrap around my waist and Troj pulls me tight against his hard body, his lips touching against the skin on the crook of my neck and making me shiver.
“You made me jump out of my skin.” I slap his chest hard, and enjoy the sound of his throaty laugh.
“Thought I’d come meet you.” He throws an arm over my shoulder and starts walking us toward the cabins, then I’m a little surprised when he walks us toward his bike and taps the saddle.
“I thought we were going to go to your cabin?” I try not to sound disappointed.
“There’s time for that later. I thought I could take you on a proper ride.”
“Like off the compound?” I check.
“Yeah. We don’t have to go far, there are some decent views out at Pikes peak though.”
“I’d love to.” I jump on the saddle behind him and hold tight as he starts the engine and pulls off.
I don’t know how long it takes us to get there but we make it just before sunset, and Troj maneuvers me so I’m sitting on the front of his bike straddling his waist.
“It’s beautiful up here,” I tell him, looking out at the views surrounding us.
“Yep.” Troj isn’t looking out over the mountains when I turn back to face him.
“It makes me realize what I’ve been missing out on for all these years.” I don’t want to spoil this moment with tears, but I can’t help feeling emotional.
“What's the deal with your uncle? You know there are other reservations close by, I don’t know if your beliefs and traditions are the same, but they aren’t so strict.”
“Yeah, we know about them, and we lost a lot of our people to those after my grandfather died. He was a good man. He wanted to move the village forward, make life easier for us. He understood that we weren’t losing ourselves by adapting to the modern world.
I know you think my uncle’s a bad man but in reality, he’s just scared of what’s out here,” I try to explain.
“I get that.” Troj nods like he understands. “But he can still be a leader without holding people back. He could learn a lot from Prez.”
“I hope so.”
“I have commitments with the club that I can’t turn my back on, but I’m gonna show you things. I’m gonna take you places and show you everything you’ve been missing out on,” he promises, his thumb and finger rubbing over my mother's ring.
“It was my mother’s, she never took it off, I think my father must have given it to her. Guess I’ll never know.” I smile sadly, and Troj hooks his finger to lift up my chin.
“We can’t know everything.” He kisses my lips, and I feel myself actually fall harder for him as the sky around me turns a burnt shade of orange.
“You think we could go see the ocean?” I ask him hopefully.
“Sure we can,” he nods back at me. “I’ll take you wherever you wanna go.”
“And I could visit the library in town whenever I want to?” I check.
“Shan, you're a free person, you can go wherever you want to go.” He laughs at me.
“I’ve never really been free,” I tell him, realizing how sad that is. I consider telling him about what I saw in town the night Tawk lied to my uncle so I could go to the library for a few hours, but this moment is too perfect to blacken with those thoughts.
“Free, but still all mine.” He digs his fingers into my ribs and makes me giggle, and I kiss him again before we lose the light of the sun behind the mountain.
