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“Finally,” Hammer grumbled simply. She nearly fell to her knees, not sure if she wanted to laugh or cry first. God, she was almost home.
“What are you going to do first?” she demanded giddily, an almost hysteric tone to her excited voice. “The first chance I get, I’m going to sleep for an entire weekend. Just lay in bed for like twenty-seven hours and not even move. Maybe I can convince myself this was all a bad dream.”
Hammer chuckled dryly. He looked mildly amused but remained stoic, doing a better job of containing his emotions than her. She knew he was excited to get out of there, too, but no one would have ever guessed by the look on his face.
It was all so typically Hammer of him. She looked at him expectantly, fully knowing he’d just continue to stare back at her exactly like he was. She wouldn’t expect anything different, not from him.
“I hope you’re going to take a shower first,” he finally remarked. He still hadn’t answered her question, but she wasn’t surprised. She laughed, recognizing it was one of the first things he had said to her.
She grinned back at him, feeling her heart lighten. The initial sense of dizzying relief and overwhelming grief for everything she had been through started to fade. He had a way of doing that, of cutting through all the other bullshit and bringing her back to what mattered right now.
She could appreciate that about him, especially because it was a job that she really needed someone to do. She had never noticed just how much she needed it until he had popped into her life by surprise. They made a good team, and they were lucky for that. Because she couldn’t imagine either of them would have made it out of this alive otherwise.
The exchange, pleasant and calming as it was, made her notice there was another feeling bubbling under the surface. This one was even more complicated and confusing than the initial emotions that had nearly incapacitated her just a few moments before. It wasn’t as demanding, and it wasn’t until the curious mixture of fear and relief subsided that she noticed it at all.
A part of her didn’t want to leave because leaving meant not being with Hammer.
That was an absurd thought, and she tried to banish it from her mind. Charlie certainly had no intentions ofnotgoing home. That wasn’t even on the table.
Charlie was an academic, for Christ’s sake. A student. A scholar. She read books and studied, and though she didn’t mind getting dirty, she wasn’t afighter.All she had been doing since the day her life went sideways, and the sky fell wasfighting.Fighting for her life. And God, she was tired.
She didn’t want to fight. She wanted to go home.
Still, she was going to miss Hammer. She’d grown used to having him around, even liking it, and that was something she hadn’t thought was possible in the beginning.
Not that there was anything wrong with Hammer, of course. It was just that the world was such a dirty place, and people were rotten, and she was tired of that too. Maybe not the bone-tired way she was sick of fighting but tired enough.
She had given up on people, on relationships, and on all of it. It was too much work and too much heartache. Everyone was always so quick to throw each other under the bus if it meant the bus stopped long enough for them to get a free ride. Charlie had been certain she was done with all of that.
Hammer had proven there were still good people out there. People who meant what they said and did what they meant. She hadn’t realized how badly her heart needed that. And she was a little bit scared that when they went home, she’d forget.
She wasn’t ready to lose him. But more importantly, she wasn’t ready to lose the person she had become with him around. Of course, she was more scared they were still going to die in this godforsaken place, waiting for rescue.
“Do you hear that?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts. She hadn’t, and she just gave him a quizzical look. He cocked his head to the side, listening. She looked around, trying to figure out what he was talking about.
“Hear what?” she finally asked. The stern look he gave her that wordlessly demanded silence made her blood run cold. It began to sink in that he wasn’t making conversation.
Something was wrong.
He started to pace like an animal in a cage. She couldn’t tell if he was looking for something or just working off his nervous energy. She chewed at her lip, waiting anxiously for him to explain himself.
And then she heard it too.
“Shit,” she breathed. “Well, why aren’t they picking us up? Hurry up, assholes. Fuck.”
But even as the words came out of her mouth, she knew it was an exercise in futility. Their ride out of this hellhole wasn’t going to magically appear out of nowhere. A genie wasn’t going to blink them away in the nick of time.
The bad guys were right around the corner. They were here, and their ride was not.
She and Hammer couldn’t have made it this far just to hit a brick wall now! Could they? Suddenly it all felt so unbearably unfair. It was as if they had already won the game and were being robbed of the victory.
It was all supposed to be over. They got here, the finish line! Why wasn’t it finished?
Her heart felt like a rock in her chest, painfully heavy. She didn’t want to fight anymore. She just wanted to go home, dammit.
That obviously wasn’t a choice on the menu, though. So, she was going to do what she had been doing all along. Whatever she had to do to stay alive.
She just really hoped that she wouldn’t have to keep fighting so damn hard soon. She wanted to go home and take that twenty-seven-hour nap. Maybe after this, it would be twenty-eight.
