Shit. They literally had nothing but a selection of guns, a few knives and some ammunition. Plus the good old basic first-aid box. She wasn’t wearing shoes or a jacket and he wasn’t much better.
“Nick, we need to talk about this.”
“Not now.”
“Yes, now.” She positioned herself in his path, hands on hips and her mouth a determined line. “I need to explain.”
Every last bit of him rejected the idea. He had so much anger churning him up inside that he didn’t know what to do with it. He needed to hit something. A wall or the side of the truck would do. Just drive his fist into something solid that wouldn’t give a fuck for the abuse. He sure as hell did not want to open his mouth and say shit he couldn’t take back. And that was what would happen if she kept pushing it.
“Ros …”
“I was coming back,” she said.
“No.” He stepped back and shook his head, shoved a hand through his hair. Not wanting to hear a fucking thing she had to say. At least, not right then. But … “What? You were what?”
“Nick—”
“Did you say you were coming back?”
She wrung her hands in front of her. “I changed my mind. I got down to the road and I realized I couldn’t leave like that. I realized we needed to talk things out.”
His mind reeled. “You did?”
“Yes.”
He barked out a laugh. It was funny, but it wasn’t. Mostly it wasn’t. “You were coming back. Bloody hell, that’s great.”
Her features sharpened. Brows descended. And that was fine. Let her be pissed. Let her share the fun. “What did you expect, Nick? You’ve been keeping me chained. Of course my first instinct was to escape.”
“And you did. And now we’re fucked.”
“Which is not all my fault.”
“Did I say it was?” Of course he hadn’t. He’d been doing his best to keep his mouth shut to prevent exactly this sort of shit coming out. “Did I?”
“Close enough,” she said, voice rising. Because she never bloody learned.
“Keep. Your. Voice. Down.”
Her nostrils flared. “You put me in an impossible situation, Nick.”
“Was it worth it?”
“What?”
“Nearly getting killed,” he said. “You were about to be eaten alive by a pack of infected when I found you. So was it worth it, Ros? Do you feel better now? Work out whatever you needed to?”
“Oh, you asshole.”
“That was our home that just burned down. Our home. Do you get that? Is it sinking in?”
“Hard to think of it as home when you were keeping me prisoner.”
“I treated you so badly?” he asked. He took a step closer, forcing her to back up or have him right up in her face. She was right, he was an asshole. But he was so damn angry he didn’t care. She’d left him without a word. “Well? Is there anything I didn’t give you?”
“A gilded cage is still a cage, Nick.”
“You betrayed me.”
“You never trusted me, Nick, so how exactly did I betray you?” Roslyn looked away and sucked in a breath, shoulders hitching. “Look, let’s just stop. Let’s go back to the school and regroup.”
“They’re dead, Ros. Everyone at the school is dead.”
She stopped, stared. “You’re lying,” she whispered.
“Why would I?”
“To t-try and keep me.”
“No. It’s the truth. Your friends screwed up and let in an infected. Apparently your old friend Neil didn't secure the gates well enough after we left. I should have told you earlier. Maybe you would have thought twice about bolting.
“How do you know?” she asked.
“Janie was infected. I stayed with her …”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Probably because he was an idiot, just like she’d told him many, many times. An idiot to think it could work out between them. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t want to upset you. Stupid, huh? Me worrying about your delicate feelings. You have no fucking clue when it comes to life these days. Sheltering you was wrong.”
“But …” She just kept blinking at him. “They’re dead? All of them.”
“Yes.”
Silence. Her face blanked.
Oh, shit. Second thoughts filled him, along with third and fourth. Maybe he shouldn’t have told her like that, just blurted it out.
All he could think of was the infected clawing at her, about to bite her foot. She didn’t have a fucking clue how close she’d come to death. He wanted to howl every time he thought about it. The woman needed a dose of reality. Needed to know how serious things were, so hopefully she’d think before she acted. This couldn’t happen again; it would fucking kill him.