Page 30 of Protecting the Flame

Chapter 9

“Hey.”Wrench in his left hand, Will turned as she peeled back the plastic and wriggled inside on a raft of cold air. “Thought you got lost.”

“What are you doing?” He was sweating again. His eyes, shiny with pain, seemed to have sunk back into his skull, and the smudges beneath them were the color of old coffee. Those pills had either worn off or not done much to begin with. “Why aren’t you resting?” she snapped.

“I’m okay.”

“Like hell you are.” She heard the quaver. “You need to be careful.”

“Take it easy.” He gave her a close look. “Did something happen?”

“No. Why should anything happen?” She cast around for something to say that wasn’t a retort. “I checked the antenna. As far as I can tell, it’s fine.”

“What about the unit that powers it? It would be located inside the tail.”

“I don’t know. The panel’s locked. Were there keys in Burke’s stash?” When he shook his head, she said, “Then I guess we take it on faith, unless you want to take a rock to it or something.”

He opened his mouth to say something else, but she was saved by Mattie. “Will made hot chocolate. We saved you a cup.” Carefully pouring from Will’s Jetboil, the girl held out a blue-enameled mug. “You should drink it. Will wanted to wait to eat something until you got back.”

“Okay. Thanks.” She almost groaned when the chocolate washed over her tongue, the taste was so good. She had to calm down.

“Everything okay?” Will asked.

“Isn’t that just another way of asking if something happened?” Draining her cocoa, she gestured at the wrench with her mug. “What’s with the wrench?”

“Seeing if I can get a couple of these bolts loose. If we can move the seats, we’ll have more room to—” He stopped talking as she plucked the wrench from his hand. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What does it look like? You need to stop. You’re hurt. You should rest. I can do this, and I will,” she added as he opened his mouth.

“I wasn’t going to fight you about it. You’re right. What I was going to suggest is that we eat something. What do you say we did into those sandwiches you bought? I’ve got an apple, too, and we can all have tea. We’ll all feel better.”

“Is that a promise?” Because she sincerely doubted it.

“No.” He gave her a lopsided grin that showed off his dimple. “But there’s no harm in finding out, is there?”

She fired up Will’s Jetboil and they ate by flashlight. It was almost cozy, like camping minus the fire. Emma took small bites and chewed carefully as she waited for her stomach to rebel. It didn’t. Perhaps even it understood she needed fuel. As they shared a mug of tea, Will said, “I still need to check you out.”

“I’m fine,” she said then yelped when he poked a finger into her left side. “Stop that!”

“Right. Fine.” Will tipped Mattie a wink. “Does she sound fine to you?”

“No,” Mattie deadpanned.

Emma scowled. “Whose side are you on?”

“Mine. I suppose it’s too much to ask if there’s dessert. Because when we were going through the packs, I saw this, like, really nice Almond Joy bar.”

“Touch that, and you’re a dead woman.” Digging through the nylon carry sack into which Will and Mattie had pooled their food, Emma unearthed her Almond Joy and reached to tuck it back into her own pack for safekeeping. “We can have it when we’re rescued.”

“And I suppose you can be trusted.”

She really was starting to like this kid. “I resemble that remark.”

“Thank you, Curly,” Will said. His color was better…well, through the bruises and swelling. They all looked pretty gruesome.

“You guys.” Mattie executed an impressive eyeroll. “What does that even mean?”

“Three Stooges,”they said at the same time.

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