Page 128 of Bound in Ashes

I remembered when Uncle Levi had strode—firm, heel to toe, heel to toe.

Now, the man shuffling toward Jack lacked that grace, that spirit.

I glanced at Jack, noticing he stared directly at me, refusing to look at Uncle Levi, either.

“I think you leaving here is foolishness,” Uncle Levi said.

He paused, waiting for Jack, who said nothing.

“But your choice. But you got my girl here to me, and that means I’m going to owe you forever.”

Uncle Levi lifted his arm, then met Jack’s gaze.

“So take the fucking gun, son,” Uncle Levi said.

I inhaled sharply.

I never heard Uncle Levi swear. But when I looked at him now, I saw that he was serious, that he meant every word. His shoulders stooped, were thinner than they should have been. Even his little gut had started to deflate. Those eyes—the same ones that had burned fiercely when I arrived, the ones that burned with sincerity when he told me that he loved me and that Aunt Kathleen had been proud to call me daughter.

No, the look in his eyes now was the look of a man who had faced down every challenge and walked through them. Like a man who was ready to face one more if it came to that.

“You need it here. Take care, sir.”

Uncle Levi clapped Jack on the shoulder, giving him as tight a squeeze as he could muster, and it wasn’t lost on me how similar that was to Jack’s own affection with Miles.

I shifted, swiping carelessly at my hair, but then finally looked away.

“Day’s going. I better get a move on,” Jack said.

He stepped off the porch, his strides confident, smooth—so Jack.

I watched as he walked, getting smaller as the sun got brighter.

Waited for him to look back.

He didn’t.

TWENTY-FOUR

Jack

“Yeah, walk in the middle of the street, why don’t you asshole?”

I kicked at an empty dog food can that was on the road, the grating scrape against the asphalt just the kind of dissonance I needed.

I was here, but I wasn’t.

The wind gusted against my chest and I thought of her.

Of course I thought of her.

What was she if not the wind coming to blow a soft breeze my way?

More like a hurricane ready to rip me into a thousand pieces.

I squeezed the straps on the ridiculous fucking backpack and walked double time.

Still had a lot of road between here and Nebraska, and hoped to find a vehicle.