Page 166 of At the Edge of Surrender

Unease slithered through him.

Last thing he needed was to be noticed. For these assholes to know he was completely alone.

“Just leave me alone, man,” he grumbled, figuring they’d either take off or do what they’d come here to do.

“Now why would I want to do that?”

Dread twisted Kane’s stomach.

“Come on, Theo, stop fuckin’ with the poor kid.” The guy to his right shook his head and cut Kane a glance.

He had light brown hair and bright blue eyes and a giant smile on his face. “You got a place?” he asked.

Kane almost scoffed. The only thing he had were the few possessions stuffed in the backpack attached to his shoulders.

He didn’t respond.

“Not safe out here on your own,” the one on his left said, “and it’s clear you don’t have a fuckin’ clue how to survive it.”

Kane’s attention swung that way. “What the fuck do you care?”

The guy’s brown eyes were intense. Swimming with demons, Kane guessed. The guy gave a slight shrug. “Maybe I know exactly what you’re feeling right now.”

Did he?

Could anyone feel even an ounce of the devastation?

His jaw clenched in distrust. Why the fuck would these guys help him?

“Hey, man,” the one on the other side of him said. “We just saw you wandering and got the sense you had nowhere to go, and we find things go a whole lot better for us if we stick together. Figured we’d extend that hand to you.”

Kane almost scoffed.

Why would they trusthim? He could be some psycho mass murderer for all they knew. Hunting for his next prey.

Though he figured the trembling of his limbs gave him away.

The gaunt hunger on his face.

The desolation in his eyes.

The amusement drained from the one who was still walking backward. “Know you don’t know us, and we don’t know you, but we’ve seen you a bunch of times, and we’re pretty sure we’re gonna find you dead in a ditch if we don’t intervene. We have a place we stay. It’s nothing to write home about…”

His voice went ironic before it dipped back into sincerity. “But at least it’s a roof over our heads. My name’s Theo, and this is Cash.” He gestured to the one at Kane’s left before angling his head to the guy on the other side. “And that’s Otto. We’ve been out here a bit and know the run of things. You wanna stay alive, you stick with us.”

Kane stopped walking.

“You just…want to take me in?” Incredulity rolled out with the words.

Theo smirked. “Let’s just say we have a feeling about you.”

They say the deepest bonds are forged in the fire.

In trials and tribulations.

Kane had never thought he’d care about another person after he lost his mother. He thought his hate and grief would prevail. The only emotion he could experience since it’d obliterated everything else.

And that hate and the grief, it was still there.

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