Page 76 of Reckless Wolf

West it was. West and hope for the best. West and maybe some rest.

Or I could call it all off and go back to Atlas.

It was so barren out here, the flatlands littered with a sprinkling of trees that made little cover for a girl in hiding. It gave me no choice but to keep moving.

Toward what? Another town? What the hell had I envisioned, exactly? I couldn’t remember anymore.

Someone ran up beside me, and I almost jumped out of my skin.

“You’re Dahlia, right?”

“Bianca,” I answered automatically.

The exhaustion and terror were making me behave irrationally now. My named died on my lips as I whipped my head toward the speaker. I didn’t recognize the young man, but he grinned charmingly at me.

He had no reason to be here. Where the hell had he come from?

“I’m Joey. We went to grade school together. Remember?”

“No,” I said flatly. “Please. I have somewhere to be.”

“Over here?” he asked curiously. “There’s nothing for at least twenty miles or more.”

“Yep.”

I quickened my pace, but Joey kept his stride.

“You know, I always liked you. Better than your sister,” he confessed. “You were spunkier.”

Abruptly, I stopped walking and looked at him.

“If there’s nothing out here, Joey, what are you doing here?”

His grin faded.

“I just saw you walking—” he sputtered.

His alarm was all the answer I needed. My hand slipped into my back pocket for the knife I had tucked there. Joey raised his hands.

“Don’t do it, Bianca,” he begged. “I’m not a fighter. Just come back with me, and Jesse promised he won’t hurt you.”

“You’re disgusting,” I spat.

“He says he doesn’t care that you’re not a virgin,” Joey added brightly. “As long as you bring your sister, too.”

I pulled out the knife, and Joey balked.

“Okay, okay. I know you know how to use that. We really did go to school together. You almost killed Jeffry Kilkenny in third grade because he kissed your sister.”

My lips twitched into a smirk. I did remember that, even if I didn’t remember Joey.

“My precision has improved with age,” I reassured him.

“I believe it,” he replied, backing off. “But if I were you, I would come back to the compound. Jesse has scouts looking for you two everywhere.”

“I wish him the best of luck with that,” I retorted, flipping open the blade. “Get lost, Joey.”

He didn’t need to be told again. He rushed off in the direction from which he’d come, leaving me with my heart pounding.

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