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A few rotters turn and hobble after the running women, but then gunfire erupts from within the building, unintentionally drawing the rotters back toward the building instead. I tip my head back and let out a laugh. This is so much fun.
Emily has fire in her eyes when we meet them on the other side of the building. The area here only has a few dead stragglers. All the rest are concentrated on the other side where the alarm blares the loudest. The stragglers are easy to take out, clearing the way to where we left the car. Emily looks like she wants to say something, probably yell, but it’s not safe enough for that yet. William keeps a hand wrapped around her arm, holding her close to his body while Buddy trots along on her other side.
We reach the car and there’s one rotter passing by. It’s slow moving, dragging the stump where its foot should be along the ground. It’s following the alarm, but then turns its rotting face toward us. Decaying skin hangs from the jaw, quite a grotesque sight. I take it out with a single swing from Debbie, then stop halfway through the second swing when I see Emily looking at me. She doesn’t have the look of awe and fascination that I hoped she would. It’s something else in those deep amber eyes. Something I can’t recall ever seeing before in my life. It’s not pity, that’s a look I’ve seen more than enough times. But this one, I think it’s something closer to understanding. I’ve never seen that look aimed at me before. From anyone. My guys understand me, but not like this.
She steps up to me with the little bag tucked under one arm, and I swallow hard, not sure what to make of this proximity. It’s different from yesterday when I pulled her close to me after a rotter grabbed her leg. This is more potent.
Lifting her hand, she runs her fingers through my bloody, ragged hair, and she looks at me. She really, really looks at me. As though she’s seeing me for the first time, and she’s not even horrified by what she sees, even though she absolutely should be. If she could see me right now, and I mean really see me, then she should run away in the other direction and never look back. And I would even let her go, too. But she parts her pretty pink lips and says words that shock me to my core.
“What they were saying back there, in that room…that really got to you.” It’s not a question. She knows it’s not a question.
“Yes,” I rasp out. “It did.”
“I won’t pry, but I’m here for you.” Her fingers untangle from my hair and slide down my face until they’re cupping my cheek. I lean into her palm and raise my arm to clasp her hand with my own, holding it there, relishing in her gentle touch.
The sentiment is sweet. Her words are heavier than she might realize. Being here for me means she won’t leave, even though she tries to run from us every chance she gets, and I encouraged it. But she says that she’s here for me. Then the strangest thing happens with an organ I didn’t realize still worked. My heart skips a beat.
12
EMILY
Griffin’s eyes squeeze shut, and I’d like to think that it’s because I’m hurting him when cleaning the cut on his leg, but it’s really because I’m annoying him. Which I suppose is equally satisfying.
“I don’t understand why you can’t tell us. How are we supposed to get you back to your friend when we finally find this medicine, if you don’t tell me where to drive?”
“Correction. I’m the one taking the insulin to her. This could be so much easier if you let me take the car.” I press the bandage over his thigh and sit back on my heels in the dirt. He spreads out his legs on either side of me while I work. It’s odd, a man with so much pent up rage putting himself in such a vulnerable position to someone who would gladly hurt him to get away.
He looks at me with an eyebrow raised. “With us inside of it?”
“I mean, you could ride in the trunk. Like I did. It’s poetic.”
“That is not poetic.”
I shrug. “Whatever, then. I can bring the car back to you. Now, which direction do I go to get back to where you took me? I can figure out the rest from there.”
Griffin stands up and then reaches down and pulls me to my feet. He holds onto my arm a little longer before he lets me pull away. “You don’t even have what you’re looking for yet, and you’re already trying to leave.”
I point my finger into the air as though making a point. “Detours, man. One of these millions of detours you’ve thrown upon me has to have it somewhere. I’ll find it on my way back if I have to.”
“How long have you been searching?”
“To be honest, I’ve lost track of the days.” He raises an eyebrow, and I huff. “I left Zoey two days before you found me, but that’s only because there wasn’t anything in the surrounding area and I was getting desperate.”
Griffin steps in close enough that I have to crane my head back to look up at him. He’s a freaking tree. “You’re not going out on your own.”
“Because I’ve put you guys in enough danger already. Your lives were peaceful before you met me. I understand.” Lowering my head, I start to turn and walk away. There’s no way I can ask them for this. They’ve already risked so much. I mean, yeah, I didn’t ask them to do any of this stuff. They volunteered and forced their way into my mission, but still.
He stops me with a finger to my chin, tilting my head back again so I’m looking into his eyes.
The gentleness of his touch surprises me. It doesn’t match the emptiness in his eyes. “Because you’re not going out there on your own. If you don’t want to take your captors directly to your friend, then that’s fine. We’ll take you as far as you’ll let us, but you’re not traveling the whole way alone.”
Water collects behind my eyes at his words and I strain to not let them show. I swallow hard, not breaking eye contact, even when a fire starts low in my belly. “Deal. Can we leave right now?”
“First thing tomorrow, princess. We’ll help you continue your search, and then I’ll take you back to the place you where you tried to summon an entire city of rotters straight to you.”
I roll my eyes. “I told you. I was driving them away from where I wanted to go. That was a burner car.”
One corner of his mouth turns up in a smirk. “I know.”
