Born to Fight

Page 17

Will frowns after a second, "They will try to take you and Anna and Megs for sure."
I stop and think, "We dress Megs and Sarah like boys, it's blood work, they aren’t checking gender are they?"
He sighs, "I don’t know. We need a solid plan though."
I grin, "It's a long walk, we can plan along the way."
He looks like he might strangle me, "When have we heard that before?"
I sneer, "Well, it's what's happening. We sleep tonight and leave tomorrow morning."
He nods, "I'll tell the savages that I am taking you out of here. We leave at sunrise."
It hits me, "You acted like you weren’t on my side!"
He licks his lips, "I needed answers. Better for them to think I was with them." He turns and walks away. I don’t like that.
Jake hugs me tighter, "We need to get outta here, Em. We should leave tonight."
I pull away, looking up into his beautiful blue eyes, "You don’t trust him do you?"
He swallows hard and twitches his head back and forth, "He isn’t the same guy he used to be. They did something to him, they broke him somewhere along the line. He went crazy on Marshall and he's been weird about you. He built these places with Marshall."
I don’t like that either. "Shit," I mutter, "I don’t know what to do."
He looks down at Leo, "Will, will be fine if we leave him here. We need to get the heck out of dodge. You and the girls need to leave now. I can come back for Will when we get settled and safe somewhere."
He's right. I hate it but he is. My nerves are back as I stand out of his grip and look at Leo, "Stay here and guard the path. Don’t let them come down to the water and surprise us."
Jake nods, not realizing I'm talking to the wolf. Leo stands and walks to the path where I'm pointing. Jake follows him, making me smile past the millions of things flying through my mind.
I can't help but see the similarities in the romance novels Granny had. The bad hot guy was always really bad, and the girl always missed it, somehow. I hate that I kissed him and that he made my heart pitter-patter. I want to hate him. I realize I'm muttering to myself when I meet Mary on the trail. She snickers, "You okay?"
I frown, "No. You need to tell me how bad we're talking."
She looks back and shakes her head, "I was leaving in a couple days with Megs and Sarah and my boy. I wasn’t staying here, no way. We'd be safer in a town."
I scowl, "Come with us." I don’t trust her enough to give details.
She nods, "When?"
I shake my head, "Talk to Will. He's working out the details."
I am testing her and I see the team she's on when her eyes flash, "You can't trust him. He's still in charge of this camp and those people who hate you. This isn’t that kind of world; you can't trust people. I know you think he’s going to save you, but you’re one girl, and this is an easy life here. He isn’t going to trade the easy life for traveling and being on the run with you. He's not that one-woman kind of guy."
"Be ready then and I will signal you to make a run for it."
She smiles, "Okay. Who is coming?"
I shake my head, still watching her face, "I don’t know. Us girls."
She seems satisfied. I'm terrified she isn’t real either. My stomach is screaming to run from her too. I nod toward the pool of water, "I'll get them and put them to bed in a tent, we can see about leaving tomorrow in the morning, before daylight."
She scowls, "That’s early in the summer."
I nod once, "Okay. That’s the plan then." I turn and hurry to the water. We're leaving now. I don’t know what's up, but the magic in my belly is telling me we gotta leave now.
Meg sees me first, "Get them out." I say. She hears the panic and waves at Anna and Sarah. They swim over. Anna sees my face and grabs Sarah's hand. She drags her to the edge of the water and pulls her up onto the flat rock.
"We are leaving now."
They look at me. I don’t need to explain.
Anna hauls her clothes on as I hold up Sarah's shirt for her. Meg is dressed and on the path. We run up the hill to see Leo and Jake there. Jake is petting him and acting nonchalant.
I don’t hear anything else. No birds, no noises, no people. I sneak up on Jake and whisper, "What's going on?"
He jumps, looking shocked, "Dude."
I frown. He shakes his head, "No one came."
I look past him; it's quiet in the camp. I point to the left, "We go that way, run for the opposite side of the hill."
He looks stunned, "We're leaving now?"
I nod.
"What about Mary? She said she was coming tomorrow."
I want to slap him in the head, "No. We leave now. We have enough people to be responsible for." I look back, "Anna get Sarah down the left side of the mountain. Meg, go steal some food, knives, and water. We have the rifle and the bow. I'll get Jake down the side over here, he's too big to go that way with you. Meet at the bottom of the second big hill." I remember getting arrows down that way.
Anna grabs Sarah's hand and they're gone before I even turn to face Meg. She grins and vanishes amongst the tents and trees. I grab Jake's hand and pull him. He crunches and plods along. I grip my bow and hold my breath, so I don’t snap at him. Leo scouts ahead. The guys in the trees aren’t back up yet. If we hurry they won't even notice us leaving. We're still hungry and cold and wet; even in the hot summer sun, the forest is cool and damp.
"I don’t understand why he came all that way to get me back with you and Anna if he was just going to betray me here," I mutter and continue dragging his huge ass down the hill.
"I don’t know if he will betray you, but I don’t trust him," he huffs and puffs behind me.
I look back, "You seemed pretty sure a few minutes ago."
He shrugs and climbs over a fallen log, "He's acting weird, Em. What do you want me to say? He isn’t the same person he used to be. His moods are weird. He was insane when we were looking for you—insane. Then we found you and he seemed like a psycho, all angry and pissed. He beat Marshall to near death. He screamed at Anna when she found us and had you in the woods. He shook her so hard. I don’t trust him. He was desperate to get here, now they don’t want us. He loves this camp. He's lost his damned mind. We can come back for him. We know where he is."
I break into a sprint when we hit a flat area. Jake is close to me; he's huffing but keeping up. We make it to the bottom of the huge hill. I point to a bush, "In there."
We run for the bush and jump into it. Leo lays next to me, in the ready crouch. Jake is bent, trying to catch his breath. There is no movement I can see in the woods. The slope makes it impossible to not be seen, there are no trees that are big enough for them to hide behind. I point to the right, "I'm going to find Anna and Sarah."
I hear a twig and look over to see them creeping up to us, "You don’t have to," Anna smiles.
I laugh. I know she heard Jake coming down the hill.
We hide in the bush and wait. My guts hurt. They always hurt. Our little band of us feels huge and weak compared to the rest of the world.
"Where's Will?" Anna whispers.
I look at her and shake my head, "He's staying, I think."
Jake nods, "He's losing it, dude."
She opens her mouth to get angry, but we hear Meg. We both look up to the hill to see her trudging down with a small sack and a boy. I sigh, "What is that?"
"That’s her boyfriend," Sarah says in her little voice. I feel my face tighten, "Shit." Sarah smiles, "His name is Ron. He's pretty nice. He's sixteen."
I roll my eyes and look at Leo, "At least he's not thirty." I put a hand out, "You stay." Leo sits but his eyes never leave Ron. I watch the hillside behind them and pull an arrow. "Anna, if I have to fire, you know to run. This is the same valley you would have come up through to stalk Leo and me before. Go to the house and hide in the trees, I'll find you. We're close to the cabin so make sure Jake doesn’t fall in the hole." I give her a look. She nods and smiles at Jake. He rolls his eyes and sighs, "It was one time."
I sneak from the bush with the arrow tight. There is nothing coming down the hill but Meg who grins when she sees me. "This is Ron, he's sixteen so if you're gonna beat his ass, just know he's some loony religion that doesn’t believe in sex before marriage." Coming from the only one of us who believes completely in God, it's weird she says the religion is loony.
I scoff, "Get behind the bush and shut up." Ron, a boy with shaggy dark-blond hair and a cute face, grins some crooked teeth at me. He gives a slight wave. I scowl and watch the hill. Nothing moves, but that means nothing. We are dealing with Will. He's sneaky and mean. Holding the arrow tight, I know I can't shoot him. He makes my heart rate go nuts and my insides hurt, but I can't shoot him."
I see something; my animal eyes pick it up. I look back, "Run! The cabin is up the hill on the far side. Anna you know the way…." They're already running before I have a chance to finish the sentence. We are close to the side of the hill where the hole is. I've hunted the mountain on the other side of the valley we are in. It's actually a miracle I never stumbled upon the camp. It's one mountain away from my cabin.
Leo creeps up next to me and crouches.
I focus my eyes again. I see the blond head of the little boy and the shiny brown hair of Mary after a second. I groan and look at Leo. He makes a face and I nod, "I know." Will is walking with them. The three of them are all I see. I relax the bow and feel like I'm about to have a hissy fit. I rub my eyes and wait for it.
"WOLFIE!" he shrieks across the valley when they're close enough to see us. Leo lowers to the ground.