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Her sleeping position had given her a stiff neck that tiny fingers continued to massage during our long drive.
“Be careful not to bump your injury site,” I warned as she neared the butterfly stitch that sealed her skin after the tracker removal.
That thing was gone now, smashed to dust to ensure Rothbart wouldn’t find her.
A small—and paranoid—part of me wondered if he’d request my address from the head office. They weren’t given out freely. Even us monsters were protected. He’d have to have a good reason. But I guess breaking into his home and stealing his girls, dogs, and the lives of his family would be good enough reasons.
If my superior were anyone else, I’d have been executed long ago.
Thank God for Ollie and the shit he put up with because fuck, there were too many days that he felt like murdering me himself.
But, because he hadn’t, I was here now. Able to save Cat and give her a better life.
She sat in the passenger seat, wearing clothes of mine—again, which wasn’t necessary, as I’d asked her if she wanted me to swipe one of Jolie’s dresses. Apparently, she didn’t approve of theft and didn’t understand what I’d found funny when I started to laugh.
I’d literally stolen her, for fuck’s sake. Her body and her heart, somehow.
She looked kinda perfect, even with the fading bruises that made her look like an abused partner. The gray sweatshirt and matching bottoms she wore were gifts from Dec three Christmases ago. No idea who the fuck he had in mind when he bought them, as they were the perfect length for Cat, who was a good nine or ten inches shorter than me. But they were perfect for this moment, despite the waistband being too big for her malnourished frame. And then there was me, a man who’d walk around with my hood up and head down like the culprit who caused them.
The sights beyond the window fascinated her, those perfectly unique eyes taking them in and hopefully saving the pretty images to counteract all the bad ones in her head.
“You like the trees?” I dared a touch, my hand grazing over her thigh, which was almost painfully thin, even with the thickness of my pants.
“I do.” The smile on her face was genuine. “Which is surprising, isn’t it?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well…the culling. Llewrehtom made us run through them, hide in them.”
The culling made no sense to me. Unless…Pencil Dick had told them to do as they please, because of the upcoming show.
If I hadn’t gone there two days ago. If I hadn’t searched, Cat could be dead now. Stabbed or shot and left out in the field to become dog food.
She interrupted that dark image and shared my attention with the road.
“They’re dark and kinda scary, and bad things happened there with Joseph, but the trees were a chance to escape. A way out. And, if I were a little quicker, they’d have offered protection. So, even though they are dark and scary, they still bring me peace. Kinda like you.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. You’re tall, dark, and scary to most, I’d guess. But you bring me peace.” She shrugged, looking even smaller in my clothes. “Maybe that’s why I like you, too.”
“Maybe.” I winked at her, capturing how she looked in this moment.
In truth, I couldn’t imagine what she liked about me. I’d had her back two days, and I’d already made her cry.
My eyes drifted ahead to the stretch of road, crowded in the shadows of the trees that would break to give way to a town.
“How about some breakfast?”
“I don’t know what I like. Will they have potato salad?”
“Who knows.”
I couldn’t help but laugh because who in their right mind would want that for breakfast?
Only Cat.
“But it’s time for another coffee, and you can try everything.”
