Page 48 of Claimed By Ruin

“You keep moving around. How can I tell if something’s out there if you’re making so much noise?”

“You do realize that by telling me to be quiet, you’re making more noise than I ever did,” Jack said.

I closed my mouth to keep the words that were burning on the tip of my tongue to myself.

What sense would it make to tell him that he shouldn’t have been here in the first place? And there was no way I’d confess that I wouldn’t be this agitated if he wasn’t.

So I kept my mouth shut, reminding myself that my dentist was probably a reanimated corpse so the teeth grinding had to stop. Which was nearly impossible given my current location.

Jack was about one and a quarter inch away from me, and every time he breathed or I breathed, his shoulder brushed mine. His hard thigh was pressed against my leg, and the heat of Jack’s body radiated off him, keeping me warm in the slight chill of the night. Every breath, every motion, was a reminder of his presence—and a reminder of the pain of his absence.

That was exactly the reason I’d told him I could handle watch. Jack just nodded and waited until I got so pissed, I climbed the ladder and tried to pretend he hadn’t followed.

I peeked at him from the corner of my eye and glared at his stupid chiseled jaw that I wanted to kiss, then slap, then kiss again.

I didn’t do any of them.

Instead, I peered out into the darkness from my perch at the top of the world, hoping I didn’t see anything.

Maybe if I just did what he asked…I shut that thought off quickly.

Jack had some nerve, telling me I shouldn’t keep watch. Like I hadn’t been doing it for weeks at this point. Like he had the right…

Nope. Wouldn’t go down that line of thinking either.

Better to focus on how fucking annoying he was. How he never let anything go. How he insisted—insisted—that he join me for the overnight watch shift like I was incapable of handling it myself.

He just didn’t⁠—

Snap.

I was alert, and didn’t even have to glance at Jack to know that he was, too. Two of his thick fingers pressed against my wrist, and I hated how good that made me feel.

I swallowed that feeling down. “What was that?” I asked.

He gave a quarter turn of his head, and lifted a finger to his lips.

I got his message loud and clear and heeded his warning.

I looked through the binoculars, a nice night-vision pair that Miles had found in Uncle Levi’s stash.

I searched, saw the scurrying rodents in the field, making a mental note to think about how to get rid of them. Tomorrow.

Assuming there was a tomorrow.

I froze when I spotted the white blob in the binoculars.

Too big to be a rodent.

Too coordinated to be a zombie.

“Intruder. Fields. Southwest,” I said to Jack.

I didn’t look at him, but I felt his curt nod, and then we moved.

“Stay in your spot. I need eyes on,” he said.

“No. I’m coming,” I responded.