Page 20 of Shadow of Death

“Can’t we just what?” He waved toward the back of the bike. “Show me.”

“How am I going to walk anywhere?”

“You’re not, if you can call what you’re doing walking anyway. I’m going to carry you. It’s going to be easier than this.” He gestured at my wobbling in place.

“I’ll hold them.”

I made it three hours before my hand slipped and the crutches became roadkill. From there on out, Kicks was carrying me into the woods to pee and then retrieving me a few minutes later. The situation was not going to work, at all.

This leg was either going to have to be used or I’d make it so bad she’dhaveto heal it. I was done with having to be carried around everywhere. When I couldn’t even hobble off and pee on my own, things had to change.

By the time we stopped for the night, I was so agitated I could barely speak.

I stood up, ignoring the pain when I walked on the injured leg. I took a step, another, and then paused to grip a tree before continuing on.“Heal, dammit.”

I could kill with a flick of my hand and yet I couldn’t walk? No. Not acceptable.

Kicks returned to camp with a pile of wood. He tossed it on the ground and then swung me off my feet. “What the hell is wrong with you? The doctor said you can’t put weight on it.” He placed me on a fallen tree near where he’d cleared a space for the fire.

“Why? It’ll either get better or bad enough she’llhaveto fix it.” I was about to push up again, but he was hovering over me.

“She doesn’thaveto do anything, as we both know and you constantly remind me. What if you end up in a situation where she wants to renegotiate? Then what?”

I hated when he made so much sense that it was impossible to argue. Still, I wanted to take a hacksaw to this cast and say the hell with it.

I was still in a snit as he went to work on a fire, piling up leaves and kindling.

“You have to admit this is a problem,” I said, stabbing my finger at the stupid cast.

“You’ll probably be able to walk on it by the time we set foot in Scotland.”

I nodded, not bothering to argue with him. He couldn’t understand what it was like to feel this weak or how much I wanted to strangle Death.

We finished eating and Kicks laid out the only bedding we had. We had limited supplies because of the bike and what we could carry, and we needed to bring options to pay off Captain Rod.

I got to my foot, a branch in my hand to use as a makeshift cane.

“Do you need—”

“Nope. I’m fine.” I’d pee in my pants before I had him carry me to the woods again. I hobbled off the best I could. By the time I made the trip back, I was wiped out.

I didn’t even try to argue when he picked me up and settled me down on the bedding we were going to share.

How was I going to travel with him for weeks when I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it a night? I turned on my side away from him, intent on pretending he wasn’t there. And then trying to pretend it wasn’t getting cold out now that the sun was going down.

He shifted, his front aligning to my back.

Is that…

“Shifting against me isn’t going to make the situation better, unless it’s not sleep you want,” he said.

“I wasn’t sure.”

“Yeah, you were,” he said, draping an arm around my waist and pulling me snug against him, as if he could sense this wasas painful for me as him. He leaned closer until the roughness of his jaw grazed my neck. “You know I’m game if you are,” he said softly.

“I’m only lying next to you because it’s cold and we couldn’t fit more bedding.”

I didn’t fall asleep for at least an hour after him, and it was his fault. If he was seductive awake, he was even worse in sleep. I’d shifted to my back, trying to limit the contact to our sides, and being colder would be a better option. That didn’t last long, as his leg shifted on top of me, his hard, muscular thigh somehow in between my legs as his arm pulled me tighter against him.

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