Page 49 of What Doesn't Kill Her

At about an hour, Rae had apparently forgotten all about the guys who had stood outside their huckleberry thicket and talked with apparent pleasure about killing them.

Kellen wished she could forget. The way that man sounded—he wanted the head, and he wanted to hurt them even more.

Oh, Max, I’m so sorry.By now he knew Rae had stowed away. By now he’d spoken to Nils. He must be worried to death.

Rae was bored with hiking. She wanted to stop and play in the stream, build a dam, fall in again and get cold, wet and covered with dirt.

Kellen wanted to keep moving, avoid being captured and stay alive. Trying to explainwhymade no impression on Rae, and Kellen knew it behooved her to keep her child entertained and walking. After all, Kellen was the adult, the mature human being, the parent. She knew without a doubt Max could do it. How hard could it be? All she needed to do was talk to Rae about something that interested Rae, preferably something that wasn’t loud enough to attract the attention of the headhunters or the Mercenaries. Even better, she wanted to talk about something that didn’t involve chanting, “Groin, groin, groin,” like a primitive song from an early Star Trek episode.

Cheerfully, Kellen asked, “What do you think you could find out here and use for a weapon?”

“A weapon?” Rae sat down on a log. “I don’t want to wear my boots anymore.”

“Okay. Take off your boots.” Kellen already knew who was going to have to carry them. “If someone was hurting you, what could you grab real fast and use to hurt them back?”

One boot half off, Rae looked up at Kellen in dismay. “Everybody likes me!”

“That’s true.” Kellen took the first boot. “Everybody who knows you likes you. But maybe someone is on drugs and sees you as a threat. You know about people on drugs, right?”

“They taught us in school.” Rae got very solemn. “Drugs make people do bad things.”

“Right. Some people have problems in their minds, even without drugs, and they might be afraid of you and strike out.”

Rae frowned at Kellen. “Like in baseball?”

“No, I mean hit you.” Kellen accepted the second boot and used a nylon zip tie to fasten them to her backpack. “Grab you and try to take you somewhere you don’t want to go. What could you do to get away?”

“Run?” Rae jumped to her feet.

“That is a great answer!” Kellen took Rae’s athletic shoes out of the bag and knelt down beside her. She straightened Rae’s socks, made sure her athletic shoes were tied tight, and while she did, she listened to the sounds of the forest. Birds chirped. Small creatures scurried. An occasional breeze made the high branches creak. To her, it sounded normal, without threat or ambush.

She knew better now.

Again she thought,Oh, Max, I’m so sorry.Max took responsibility for the safety of everyone in his family. She remembered when she had saved his niece from kidnapping, everyone in the Di Luca family had toasted her, but it was Max who swore his allegiance to her. Even if they had never become lovers, she still had no doubt he would have protected and cared for her.

What would he do to keep his daughter safe?

“Come on,” she said to Rae. “Let’s keep walkin’ and talkin’.”

Rae put her hand in Kellen’s. “I like talking with you, Mommy.”

“I like talking with you, too, Rae.” Kellen looked at the little hand in hers. How did the child get so grubby so fast? “How about this? Let’s say someone knocked you down and sat on you and you couldn’t kick them. Do you see anything around here you could grab to poke in their eye?”

“A stick!” Rae yelled and broke away to grab a broken branch off the forest floor.

“Good girl.”

“I’m going to use this as a walking stick. It’s too long. I’m going to break it. Wait, Mommy.” Rae swung the branch as hard as she could against the trunk of a tree, missed and whacked Kellen across the thighs.

“Ouch!” Kellen said.

Rae’s eyes filled with mortified tears.

No. No crying. Kellen was proud of her calm when she said, “That didn’t work too well to break the stick, but it would hurt an attacker.” She rubbed her leg. She could feel the bruise rising. “Try again and hit the trunk this time.”

Rae did. The end broke off. She said, “Mommy, I’m sorry.”

“I know. You’ll be more careful in the future. Now you have a great walking stick and you can hike even faster!”

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