Page 60 of Dozer

"I'm fine."

"I know. Look at me."

She looks at me. I keep my hand around her wrist. Her pulse beats fast beneath my thumb.

"You don't have to be fine yet." I tell her. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

Something changes in her face. The fight goes out of her shoulders by half an inch. "I hate this part."

"The shaking?"

"The part where my body realizes what happened before my brain does."

"I know."

Her eyes stay on mine. "Do you?"

"Yeah."

I turn her hand over and lace my fingers through hers. It's not tactical. It's not necessary. It's just the only thing that feels right. She looks down at our joined hands, then back at me.

"We're in the woods," she says quietly, "with no car, no phones, no backup, and people actively trying to kill us."

"Correct."

"And you're holding my hand."

"Also correct."

"You're weird."

"So I've been told recently."

She almost laughs. It comes out shaky, but it's real. I squeeze her hand once.

"We'll figure it out."

"Those are some strange words to bet our lives on."

"It's the only ones I’ve got."

She studies me for a second. Then her fingers tighten around mine.

"Okay." I release her hand reluctantly and look toward the dark beyond the trees. "Which way?" she asks.

I pick a direction. She falls in beside me without argument. For once, I don't walk ahead of her. I keep pace. Shoulder to shoulder. Close enough that our hands brush every few steps.

The evidence case is the only thing we've managed to save. But as I look at the woman walking beside me, I know the truth. The case matters. The evidence matters. The people in those files matter. But somewhere along the way, protecting Kenzi stopped being just part of the mission.

Now she's part of what I'm trying to get home because I want her to be my home.

And that makes everything ahead of us considerably more dangerous. Because, I’ll kill anyone who threatens my home.

CHAPTER 20

Kenzi

We walk for almost two hours before Dozer finds somewhere he is willing to stop, a hunting cabin, half-collapsed and clearly unused for at least a season, but with four walls and a roof that holds, which at this point qualifies as luxury accommodations by any reasonable standard.