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Using a thick rope, Titus secures a few supplies we’ve stored in the back of the pickup truck, before making his way to the driver’s door.
I shove the satchel packed with a few, sharpened kitchen knives and packs of food onto the floor, tucking it beneath my feet.
“So, the plan will be to meet up with the women off the highway. Then you’ll pretend to be bringing all of us to the convent. Once inside, we’ll search for Atticus. As I understand, he’s kept in a lower level.”
“You won’t be coming with us, Thalia. I’m not taking a chance.”
With a frowning chuckle, I study his expression, to gauge whether, or not, he’s serious. “Uh. What?”
“I’m not willing to risk something happening to you.”
“I’m not letting you do this without me.”
“You don’t have a choice. I’ll bring Atticus back here. Then we’ll head to Szolen. But you’re staying.”
“I will not. Look, I don’t know how quickly they’ll be to take in a truck full of women, when they’ve no reason to trust you. But believe me when I say, Mother Chilson will be quite happy to entertain your offer, if I’m one of them. You can’t afford to risk them calling your bluff. Besides, do you really think it’s a good idea to leave me alone in a cabin, when there’s a massive reward for my capture?”
Brows furrowing, he stands outside of the truck, looking thoughtful for a moment. “All right. You can come. But you’re at my side at all times.”
“Or what? You’ll spank my ass? You’ve made it clear you won’t raise a hand to women.”
“I’d make an exception for you,” he grumbles, climbing into the driver’s seat.
The truck fires up on a roar of the engine. Most of the vehicles from before the Dredge sound tired and clunky, but it’s clear by the smooth hum of the motor that the man who owned this babied it.
The open land, pocked with the occasional mountain, passes my window as we drive toward the highway. In the distance, I watch pockets of Ragers race across the open fields toward us, no doubt in hopes of a meal, and I’m grateful to be sitting alongside Titus, in the safety of a moving vehicle. It’s hard for me to imagine that there are children and pregnant women living somewhere out there, among them. Vulnerable.
“What is it?”
The sound of Titus’s voice breaks my thoughts, and I turn with a smile. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
My eyes catch on the fading red mark across his throat, where the slave band used to be. “They’re not likely to mistake you for an Alpha now that you don’t wear their collar.”
The corner of his lips kicks up into a half smile. “Remind me to properly thank you for removing it after this is over.”
“As I recall, you did properly thank me. And have a few times since then.”
“My gratitude is endless.”
I chuckle at that and set my hand over his, resting against his thigh, and the tight band across my chest is my anxiety rearing its ugly face. If they do recognize him, they may try to use all force to keep him prisoner. Or worse, send him to Purgatory.
“Please be careful today.” I can’t say any more than that, for fear that, once my preoccupations are spoken, the universe will hear and tip the scales out of our favor.
Eyes on the road, he slides his hand from beneath mine and tenderly rubs his thumb over my skin. “You’re the most important thing to me now, Thalia. Nothing comes before you. Not even myself.”
At the top of the hill, he turns the truck onto a highway that’s little more a path now, almost entirely covered in sand. A few miles up the road, a caravan is parked off to the side. Two vehicles, and about thirty, or so, women standing outside of them, all armed with guns. Titus slows the car to a stop in front of Lilith, who’s stood out in the middle of the highway, her lip twitching with a smile.
“Hello again, Titus.” The flirtatious tone of her voice is like scraping my nails over jagged concrete, but thankfully, Titus seems as oblivious and impenetrable to her charms as if she were a Rager hissing outside the window.
“What’s the plan?” he asks, his voice thick with disinterest.
“There’s a long stretch of woods that surrounds the convent. We park the vehicles on the south side, out of sight from their guard towers, then we’ll all pile in the back of your truck and head to the main entrance on the east side of the property. The whole perimeter is heavily guarded, and they tend to use Ragers between stretches of guard posts. The guard will inquire why you’re there. I’ve observed the inquiry can last as long as a few minutes.”
I lean forward in a reminder that I’m sitting right here beside him. “Have they ever turned a truck carrying women away?”
“Once. I’m not sure the nature of it. But I’m guessing, if you sit in the front cab, they’ll likely entertain it. I’m sure every Legion officer knows your face.”
