Authors: Cat Phoenix
We
relaxed and followed him until we came to a clearing and a wooden cabin.
Spencer produced a key and unlocked the front door's deadbolt and doorknob
lock. We walked in and were instantly ambushed by the group. I was squeezed
and hugged and squealed at by the others. They were apparently happy to see
us. It felt good, not going to lie about that. I couldn't stop the exhausted
smile on my face if I tried. Which I didn't.
"Okay,
let them breathe. Come on, give them some space," Brooks said with a
smile from his space at the counter. He walked over to us and stood in front
of Ethan and me. "Took you long enough," he said.
"Sorry
Dad, is it past curfew already?" I asked. "You know how I like to
take my time finishing off my enemies. It isn't satisfying if it's too
easy," I quipped.
He
made a face at me and then sobered when he looked toward Ethan. "It was not
my intention to leave you behind, but we were stalled on the way to your room
and I had to get the kids out safely. I knew you could handle yourself, but
I'm not making excuses. I just wanted you to know that we didn't forget about
you."
Ethan
nodded and looked at me when he said, "I know."
"Could
you point me in the direction of a bed? Or a bath? Or oh, look at that, a
space heater!" I called out excitedly.
In
front of the empty fire place, there set a heater already pumping at full
power. I perched on the ledge in front of it and held my hands out to warm
them, running them up and down my arms fervently to transfer the heat. It was
the next best thing to a fire that we could afford to use. The smoke from a
fire would give away our location, as we weren't terribly far from the
compound.
The
rest of the kids sunk down on the surrounding couches, looking ready to pass
out. I raised my body temperature and we all talked for a few minutes while I
took in my new temporary home.
It
was pretty much an open floor plan, with the kitchen and living room (including
the fireplace) splitting the front half of the house. That fed into a hallway
that had doors down both sides, which led to bedrooms and a bathroom. There
were stairs at the right wall that led to a second story of more bedrooms and
bathrooms. The cabin looked to have been made to hold several people
comfortably at once.
Did Brooks have this place made specifically for this circumstance?
I
lapsed into silence, staring at nothing particular in contemplation as Ethan
came and sat down beside me on the ledge. Brooks sat in the closest arm
chair. The rest of the kids talked among themselves or were already falling
asleep.
"So
the guy we got said there were ten of them all together, and they were supposed
to capture who they could and kill who they had to," Ethan reported
quietly.
Brooks
nodded his head in consideration and said, "That sounds about right. I
knew there was at least two in the control room."
"How
long did it take you guys to get out? The hallways were littered with bodies.
Did any of the kids fight or get hurt?" Ethan asked.
Brooks
looked perplexed. "What bodies? Bodies,
plural
?"
Ethan
squinted his eyes in blossoming confusion. "Yeah, at least six. nine, if
you count the ones Alex and I ran into together."
Brooks
raised his eyebrows and said, "The kids and I didn't fight anyone, I just
wanted to get them out safely. The only other survivors in the building were
you and Alex. How many did you take out alone?"
"Two."
Both
men widened their eyes and glanced in my direction. Ethan and I locked eyes
and he seemed to be looking at me disbelieving, with his brow furrowed and his
head tilted slightly to the side. I shrugged at him; I did what I had to do to
get to him. His shock at my apparent success rate was really boosting my
confidence. I would have said as much, but I was too exhausted for sarcasm. I
looked away from him, lost in my thoughts again, wondering how long we could stay
at the cabin before we had to leave.
I
heard Ethan ask about sleeping arrangements and then he was slipping his hand
into mine and pulling both of us up from the ledge and towing me toward the
stairs. At the top of the landing, he started opening doors until he found a
bathroom. He led me inside and turned to face me, placing my bag that I didn't
realize he was carrying on the counter.
"Shower?"
he asked.
I
tipped my head back and moaned, "God, yes." I straightened my neck
to find him staring at me with a dark, almost predatory look in his eyes.
Never
having him direct that look at me, I felt a shiver shake my frame.
"What?" I asked defensively.
He
squeezed my hand and opened his mouth, but changed his mind and shook his
head. He left and closed the door behind him.
Well,
all right then.
I
hopped in the shower. Heavenly. Absolutely amazing. I stood stock still in
the cascading warmth for a few minutes before I activated my brain to clean my
hair and body. I wasn't feeling like a brand new person, but I did feel
better, which is saying something. I dried off and slipped into clean charcoal
gray sweat pants and a black racerback tank top. I lazily combed through my
hair and brushed my teeth, then I tucked everything back into my bag, looking to
blissfully fall onto a vacant bed.
I
opened the door and almost walked smack into Ethan's back. He was leaning
against the door frame with wet hair and wearing different clothes. He turned
around when I opened the door. He looked at me and shuffled me backward into
the steamy room. He placed both of his hands on my hips and lifted me up onto
the counter by the sink.
"What
are you doing?" I squeaked in alarm.
"Playing
nurse," he said soberly, recalling what I said earlier to him.
He
laid a first-aid kid on the counter and opened it to lay out the things he
would need. He placed his hands on my knees and spread them apart to step
inside, so my knees were pressed against his hips. If I scooted forward, we
would be touching everywhere important. And I do mean
everywhere
. My
heart rate was stumbling on itself because uh, this was Ethan and this felt
kind of intimate.
I
was stunned into silence by his extremely close proximity as he lifted my hands
tenderly in his and examined the broken skin of my knuckles. My gaze diverted
to his chest and arms, watching his muscles ripple under the movement. He was
wearing another black t-shirt that hugged him in all the right places, which
was just about everywhere. I've admired his physique before, of course, but
never quite this close up. It was like a whole new, riveting experience. I
also gratefully soaked up the warmth his body was radiating.
He
produced a wet cloth and gently wiped away the dried blood that I missed in the
shower, and cleaned the cuts before applying triple-antibiotic ointment and
bandages. I calmed down some as his soothing fingers caressed over my knuckles
with care. He finished up with them, and I prepared to jump down from the
counter and give a light hearted thanks, but he didn't step back. He picked up
the cloth again and turned on the faucet to rinse it out and lean into me
again. He angled his face closer and I had an instant flash back to when he
looked at my nose the first time, earlier. My breath quickened a little in excited
anticipation or apprehension, or both.
He
ghosted his index finger over the bridge of my nose and said, "Not
broken."
I
shook my head in the negative and he began wiping the blood away from the skin
around my nose. With his face so dangerously close to mine, my mind whirled
through countless thoughts but mainly it kept flashing the word
escape
over
and over again.
I
brought my hand up to cover his and said, "I can do that."
He
paused and removed my hand from his without commenting and continued working
like I hadn't just said anything. Okay, sure, at first this was sweet, but
seriously, I could take care of myself.
I
leaned my head back and said, "Really, I'm fine."
He
hooked a hand around my neck and slowly drew me back in. "I'm doing this
for you," he said slowly, "and you're going to let me." I
opened my mouth to argue but he tapped his fingers against my temple and said,
"Turn it off."
I
exhaled sharply and sat still, settling for glaring at him. Damn man knew me
pretty well. I fought my instinct to push him away and told myself,
Just
don't say anything, that's all you have to do
.
He
cleaned up my nose and leaned away, putting a healthy distance between us but
staying inside the cage of my legs. He looked down and folded the cloth into a
tiny square while he asked quietly, "How many died?"
I
stopped glaring at him and said, "None." His eyes snapped back to
mine. "Knocked them unconscious," I explained.
He
chewed on that for a minute and I didn't know what he was thinking, so I waited
silently.
"Why
did you come back for me?" he finally asked with a hard edge to his voice.
I
narrowed my eyes on his and said in a stronger voice, "Because I couldn't
very well leave you in there alone."
"You
know I can take care of myself," he spat at me, growing angry.
"I
don't know why you're mad but hell, Ethan, I couldn't just
leave
you
there," I reiterated, exasperated in my own growing anger. "There
were ten of them!"
"Yeah,
and you managed to take out seven."
"Only
because they weren't grouped together all at once!" I fired back.
"They were all on their way to your room. What if they had you
surrounded? Sure, I got lucky and picked them off one or two at a time, but it
could have been much worse for you if they all made it to you," I pushed
adamantly.
"You
know I would have escaped and found you again," he said firmly.
"I
don't
know that. You could have been taken or killed."
"You
put yourself in danger, and we both could have been taken or killed.
Reckless."
"Worth
it," I insisted hotly.
"Alex."
"Ethan!
Trade places with me and tell me what you would choose to do! Tell me you
wouldn't have done exactly what I did." He paused at that and I felt like
a fool, realizing that he may have chosen to leave me behind.
He
ground his teeth together and said, "Yes, I would have went back for you
but --"
"Then
what's the problem?"
He
grimaced at me and said, "Let me finish. You could have been killed or
taken because you came back for me
.
What if I had kept fighting my way
out and came across your body in the hallway? What if I got out and stumbled
upon the tunnel and ended up here without you, only to realize that you were
taken and I wasn't?"
I
pulled my eyebrows together and said, "That didn't happen."
"But
it's all I can think about," he said rigidly.
"Yeah
well, all I could think about was if that happened to you if I
didn't
go
back for you. You can play the
what if
game all you want, but it
doesn't change anything. I couldn't leave you behind any more than I could
have left any of the others behind. You know that."
"Do
I?" he asked, somewhat cryptically.
"You
should," I said firmly.
"Why?"
he asked hotly.
"You're
smart. You figure it out."
He
placed his clenched fists on the counter by my hips and leaned in an inch.
"Alex," he growled at me. Actually
growled
.
That
was just great, because I was irritated again, and I wanted to do more than
just growl at him.
"You
know, it's a little disconcerting how little faith you have in me. You were
surprised when you found out I took them out all by myself," I accused
him. He shook his head but I beat him to the punch. "No, no! Don't try
to deny it. Your face was pretty expressive downstairs, and I read you like a
book. You taught me over half the shit I know, but you're shocked to discover
that oh wow, she can actually put it to good use and not be so easily beaten
--"
"Babe,
you're the most perceptive person I know, but you gotta know, sometimes you're
wrong," he said vehemently.
That
gave me pause for two reasons. One, he called me babe, which I loved but was
not eager to share with the class and two, I was wrong?
Say what
?
"Yes,
I was surprised." I glared at him and he said, "But not because I
don't believe in your ability." When he didn't continue right away, I
raised my eyebrows in question, resisting the urge to be snotty and say,
I'm
waiting
. "It was that you took that big of a risk and worked that
hard to get to
me
. I'm not worth it."
I
closed my eyes and took a deep breath, fighting my instinct to go off on him
because this was apparently a rare sharing moment where we talked about
us
.
And he looked a bit vulnerable, which I thought he didn't know the meaning of.