Page 52 of Wolf's Chance

We wait and then we leave.

Grabbing the notepad and pencil off him, I scribbled,What is out there?

When he didn’t take the notebook off me, I shoved it into his chest. With a sigh, Caleb took the pencil off me.

Danger.

Wide-eyed, I looked up at him. Was he serious?Thatwas his answer and nothing else? He gave me a look of impatience, and I didn’t move away when he placed his arm around my shoulders. Was he trying to comfort me?

I should have trusted my instincts and moved away.

He wasn’t a comforting man.

When I felt the sharp pain from his hand, I tried to jerk away, but instead, blackness swallowed me whole.

I wokeup in the back of the truck, disoriented and slightly alarmed, scared to move.

“It’s me,” he spoke from the front, and I was at once both relieved and pissed off.

“You knocked me out?”

“You fainted.”

“You’re so full of shit,” I grumbled, sitting up and looking around. “You did some Vulcan trick on me.”

He looked at me, using the rearview mirror. “I did what?”

Rubbing the back of my neck and trying to stretch my legs, which had been curled up in the back seat, I still managed to glare at him. “Spock. He used to knock people out with his thumb.” The fact he looked at me as if I was an idiot only cemented the fact I knew he had knocked me out. “You can look at me all wide-eyed innocence or confusion all you like, mister. I may know little about you, but I know you’re a shady shit and you knocked me out.”

Caleb grinned at me. “It’s a simple process of knowing the right pressure points.”

“It’s dangerous. It’s not good for a person, and you could mess up and kill me!” Ugh, I needed to walk around. My legs ached.

He gave me a flat stare. “Trust me, if I kill you, it won’t be with my thumb.”

Shaking my head, I leaned forward and hit him on the shoulder. “You think saying crap like that is reassuring?IfI kill you? Seriously?”

“Did you have a good sleep?”

Oh my God, at this rate, I was going to killhim. “You knocked me out. It’s not the same.”

“Willow, I put you in the truck last night. You’ve been asleep for most of the journey. You came to after I put you in the truck, told me I’d be sorry, and then slept for eight hours.”

When he saw I didn’t believe him, he checked his mirrors and pulled over to the side of the road. Caleb got out of the truck and opened the back door.

“Come on, stretch your legs.”

Unfamiliar trees were behind him, but they were still woods, and all of a sudden, I didn’t want to get out of the truck.

“I won’t hurt you,” he grumbled. “Come on, out. You’re going to need to pee, I expect.”

His tone was so matter-of-fact that I felt stupid for the internal cringe I’d had when he said it. Slowly, I got out of the truck. Caleb caught me and steadied me when I landed on the ground.

“Last night?” It felt about right. My body felt groggy. But also…what the fuck? “How long are you planning on being away? This isn’t my truck, Caleb!”

“I may have exaggerated. Day and a half almost.” He saw my incredulous look, completely ignoring everything else I had said. “You woke up twice. You were definitely out of it, but the last sleep was a deep healing one. I could tell.”

As he spoke, I remembered fragments of conversations, darkness, moving, Caleb telling me I was okay, he had me. Those I pushed far away.

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