Rain Shadow(43)

“Gunner doesn’t have what it takes, and you know it. Grandpa was prepping you for the role. Surely you know that.”

“No interest. This club is starting to feel like a vice around my chest. I can hardly breathe when I think of it. We’re all fucking prisoners, Evie, even you.”

“I’m not a prisoner, and I’m not part of the club. I’m just here out of circumstance, and I plan to change that.”

With the hailstorm of bullets quieted, Jericho sat up and leaned against the bed. I joined him. “After yesterday, when I refused to take you to the dungeon, it seemed as if Dreygon was done with me too. I’m just waiting until he sobers up. Not sure what he’s going to do next. But freedom from this place is starting to sound pretty good.”

I took hold of his arm. “Thank you for stepping in. I never thought anyone would have to protect me from my grandfather.” My eyes ached again. “Gracie’s gone, and the man I once knew as Grandpa has transformed into something monstrous. And Luke. . . “ I rested my head back and closed my eyes. My head throbbed with the grim truth of it all.





Chapter 19

Luke

I was still stiff from being crouched in a tree all night. Fatigue and hunger gnawed at my muscles. The sun was straight up in the sky, which meant I’d been traveling for a good five hours. The river and I had parted two hours earlier, but I’d continued along the same path. I had no idea if I was traveling in the right direction, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going in circles because the river never returned. Blood from my broken blisters made the inside of my shoes slippery and wet. But my throat was dry as cotton.

The foliage was slowly changing from evergreen to more deciduous, which meant I’d traveled to a lower elevation. And with everything else counting against me, I was at least relieved to be traveling down instead of up. My legs were so tired, they swung forward like loose pendulums, and I managed to wrench an ankle in every hole.

I’d been so focused on staying upright, I hadn’t noticed another abrupt change in landscape. I was out from under the tall trees completely and the shade was gone too. I was heading back into an area that was more desert than forest. Sagebrush popped up again, reminding me of the day that Angel had stumbled upon me. She was so amazing that I’d had to convince myself that she was real and not just the imaginary visions of a dying man. But now she’d become so profoundly real to me, she was all I could think about. She owned me. I’d already come to the conclusion that I would risk anything, even my job, to get her back.

Hours before, wedged into a hollowed out tree trunk, I’d had the cold to contend with. Now the sun was my enemy. I’d taken a good long drink before the river had left my sight, but I was thoroughly parched now. After traveling along a cool, clear rush of water for miles, I was now in a place that hadn’t seen a drip of moisture for weeks. It gave me hope that the road was not far off. My journey seemed endless, but I would find my way back to civilization. I had to. I had to get back to Angel.

***

A frigid, lonely dawn had turned to mid day heat and back to the cool, quiet of dusk. The landscape kept repeating itself, or at least it looked that way to my tired eyes. Without the river flowing in one distinct direction to guide me, it was far more likely that I was traveling in circles. Dehydration and hunger were taking their toll. At least the pain in my stomach had taken my mind off my feet. Blood now sloshed in my shoes, and my heels and toes were shredded.

It seemed I’d be spending another night in the wilderness. There were far less shelters in the low growing shrubs. I sat on a rock to rest my feet and scrubbed my face with my hands, realizing too late that I had a major sunburn. It was the first true moment of hopelessness I’d felt since Cash had thrown me into the truck.

I leaned my hands back on the rock and thought about Angel’s ‘rocks under the stars’, as she’d called them. Thinking about holding her, touching her and breathing in her sweet scent made my current state seem even more miserable. I needed to refocus. This time I would travel during the night. I had to. I had to find water soon and waiting out the night was too long. After all that had happened, it would just be too damn ironic to end up back where I’d begun, dying of thirst in the desert. Then a light appeared in the distance. It wasn’t a short spurt of energy like lightning. It was the wavering stream of a car’s headlights. The highway was in sight.

I moved in long painful strides in the direction of the lights. The asphalt would cool in the dark, and I counted on it being much easier to walk along than the mountains and the desert.