Page 149 of Stone Cold Touch

He glanced up from whatever message he was texting on his phone. “You know, I don’t know who originally owned it, but it’s demon property these days. Sometimes I come here when I want to get away from the city. So does Cayman.”

A huge part of me didn’t want to know what had happened to the original owners. “Where are we?”

Tucking his phone into his pocket, he rubbed his hand across his bare chest. “We’re over the river—not near the compound. On the other side, into Maryland. We’re safe here. No Wardens will find us.”

Ugly and distressing thoughts crept into my head and I shook them out. “Where’s Bambi?”

“She’s currently wrapped around my leg. Thought you could use the space.”

“Oh.” I fiddled with the edge of the blanket. When I glanced up, he was watching me again. My breath caught.

Roth leaned over my legs. “The food will be here soon. Why don’t you rest for a little. I’ll wake you when it gets here.”

I was exhausted, but sleep would be evasive. “I can’t.”

He was quiet for a few moments. “What are you thinking?”

“Too many things,” I admitted, staring up at a ceiling. “I’m not going to be able to stay here.”

“You can stay here as long as you want.”

My lips pulled into a small smile. “Thank you, but you know...you know I can’t. I have to leave. I don’t know where, but I need to go somewhere...where I’m not around people or Wardens. At least until I figure out how I’m infecting people.”

“You tell me when and where you want to go, and we’ll go.”

My gaze swung to him. “You can’t go with me.”

Roth frowned. “And why not?”

“You’ve been ordered to take me out. If you leave with me, then wouldn’t that be putting a bull’s-eye on your back?”

He arched a brow. “Do I look like I care? Besides, I’m pretty sure I’ve already disobeyed direct orders from the Boss. And there’s no way I’m letting you run off by yourself. Hell no. You need someone with you. You need help.”

“Roth—”

“Look, you’re not doing any of this by yourself. The mess you’re in is partly my fault. I wasn’t up front with you about a lot of shit.” His jaw jutted out. “And I know things are...screwed up between us. I know that. Even if you tell me you’d rather hump a Nightcrawler’s leg than forgive me, I’m still going to be there with you.”

I pushed myself onto my elbows. “You’re going to go against Hell—against your boss?”

He grinned as he shrugged. “Yes.”

“Why would you risk that?”

His eyes met mine. “You know the reason. Deep down, you know.”

35

It took another day and a half for my body to get back to normal. During that time, Roth became a sidekick of sorts. As was Cayman. The two kept me entertained while forcing me to stay in the bed.

I ended up watching every Will Ferrell movie there was.

The three of us talked plans about where to go from here. From what we could gather, I had to have been repeatedly around those affected since I obviously hadn’t been kissing any of them. That made sense for those who’d passed already that we knew about—Dean, Gareth—but not as much when it came to the lady from the Palisades and those who were nameless and faceless to us. A lot didn’t make sense, but who could we ask?

It felt good—a relief—to have some sort of plan, even though it wasn’t the most detailed or thought-out, but in the quiet moments, when Roth was gone or Cayman was passed out in the recliner, I couldn’t help but think about all I had lost.

And I had lost a lot.

Even though the Wardens had turned on me in the end, they still had been my clan and the closest thing I’d ever had to a family. I’d lost Zayne, but if I were honest with myself, I knew that had happened long before the fateful kiss. In reality it occurred when I allowed a relationship between us to start, because I’d known how it would end. With Zayne getting hurt. And now our friendship and what we had between us that ran deeper were gone, and he must despise me since I’d fed off him. He had to be repulsed, because he’d trusted me and I had betrayed that trust on a level that went beyond kissing another boy.

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