Page 111 of Bound in Ashes

“Because having those qualities meant you’d be effective but it was no guarantee you’d use them for good. I wanted to make sure you did. Kathleen finally told me it wasn’t my choice. I could’ve shown you the way, but you had to make your own choices. That kept me up for more than a few nights.”

He leaned back against the pillows.

“You tired?” I asked.

“Yeah, more than I thought. I think I’ll try for that nap again,” he whispered.

I kept my gaze on Uncle Levi, Jack, Travis, everything else fading into the background.

He lay down, his movements simultaneously weak and jerky.

Wrong.

Just like everything else.

I sat with Uncle Levi until I was brave enough or worn down enough to talk to Jack.

I found him in the storage shed he’d claimed as his own.

He spent most nights in my room, but he came here often to grab a few precious minutes of solitude.

I wasn’t sure, but I thought I was the only one who dared enter when Jack was here.

Maybe everyone else was too afraid.

He and Miles disposed of Travis.

Didn’t even bury him, just dumped him in the pit we used to burn zombies and trash.

Now, he had Travis’s pillow case and returned the stolen canned goods to their rightful place.

His hands didn’t shake.

His chest rose in calm, even breaths.

Some people were good at pretending to be unaffected, but my years in the courtroom had taught me to see through bravado.

Jack wasn’t pretending.

He cared nothing for Travis’s life.

Besides irritation, the stupidity that led to him getting caught and the inconvenience of having to deal with his corpse, Jack wouldn’t think of the man again at all.

I stared at him, letting that realization sink in.

Let my gaze trace the slope of his broad shoulders.

Watched muscle play under the thin fabric of his T-shirt.

Waited for the revulsion.

The fear.

Waited for anything but the want that gripped me every time I looked at him.

It didn’t come.

But what did come was that anticipation, the way my skin prickled, ready for—needing—his touch.