8. Kael
Mattie had her first nightmare somewhere around Boise. I’d been driving for six hours straight, and I was thankfully wide awake and wired after making the dumbest decision of my career to help her. I popped a fruit candy in my mouth as we passed by muted suburb lights off the highway and glanced her way. Even in the semi-darkness, I could tell she was restless. She’d been slumped over in the same position for hours, her head lolling to the side on her shoulder and her seat as far back as it would go. But then her posture changed, and she stiffened, her breathing picking up in pace.
I looked her over, swirling the candy around in my mouth. She curled onto her side, fighting against the seatbelt, and seemed to shrink in on herself. Mattie was tall for a woman, hitting me at chin height even with my six-three frame. But watching her curl up, I suddenly thought she looked small and vulnerable.
She made a sound of distress, and I spared another fast look down at her. Her downy blond hair slid around the angles of her face, and she whimpered. Frowning, I looked back at the interstate, and seeing plenty of light and a populated area ahead, I flicked on my blinker and took the nearest exit. In the two minutes it took me to exit and find a gas station, Mattie had gone from quiet distress to full-body panic.
She sucked in air, fast and erratic, and under the yellow overhead lights in the gas station, I made out a sheen of sweat along her smooth forehead. I unclicked my seatbelt, leaning over to gently grasp her arm. “Mattie.”
She woke immediately, eyes flying open and breath freezing in her lungs. Her nutmeg brown eyes flew to mine, stricken and confused. I coasted my hand up her arm, my fingers sliding over soft jersey material, and I pressed the backs of my fingers against her neck to feel her fever. She felt so hot, I wondered if the medicine had brought it down at all. “Hey,” I said with more nonchalance than I felt. “You get caught in MacGregor’s garden or something?”
Mattie blinked rapidly, and then with a rattling cough that I felt deep in my own chest, she sat up like her joints were sore. She folded her arms in front of her tightly. “Sorry.”
“No flippant remark?” I joked. “You really might have the plague.” She flashed me a middle finger, and I let out a short breath of relief.
“Can you turn up the heat?” she rasped.
I glanced at the dial that I had set to eighty-three. It was already broiling in the car, and I was in short sleeves. I gave her a concerned once-over. “I think you need to take off your hoodie, Mattie.”
She considered that for a moment, and then nodded with a sigh. “Right.”
“I mean, I’m no med school drop-out,” I went on blithely, shoving down my concern for her, “but I’m pretty sure bringing the fever down is the thing to do.”
Mattie glanced out the window at the frigid night beyond the halo of light at the gas pumps. The service station looked open, but the walk between here and the glass doors spanned a good thirty feet. “I have to pee.”
I reached over and brought up her hood to cover her hair, shimmying it around her face so it was snug. “I’ll go with you, then.”
Mattie gave me a suspicious glare. “You think I’m going to run?”
“Distinct possibility,” I confirmed.
Nodding again, she reached for the door. “He can be taught.”
I came around to her side, shivering momentarily at the nip in the October air, and I reached Mattie just as she stumbled out of the car. She looked horrible—pale lips, quivering body, and little purple lunulas under her eyes. She shut the car door and stared into the darkness. Whatever had frightened her in her nightmare, it had sucked the “Mattie” right out of her. We rotated our heads in tandem to survey the long, deep-shadowed length of asphalt between the well-lit pump area and the convenience store. I slanted a look down at her. “You going to make it?”
“I don’t know,” she said thinly.
“Do you know how many times I’ve had to carry you?” I accused, angling my body toward hers.
Shivering and standing with her arms folded tightly, she hooked a disgruntled look up to me. “About as many times as you illegally abducted me?”
“I don’t think there’s a legal kind of abduction,” I pointed out.
“Just don’t let me fall on my face,” she muttered, shuffling forward.
I took three strides forward, pivoted to face her, and then folded her over my shoulder like a sack of chicken feed. “If you give me a wedgie, I will retaliate,” I warned her. I turned again and headed to the convenience store with her furnace hot body draped over my shoulder.
Mattie went limp, and her hair nearly kissed the pavement it was so long. “This is not what I thought rock bottom would feel like.”
“What did you think it would feel like?”
“Less snot,” she grumbled.
When I reached the double glass doors that led inside, I set her down gently before opening one of them for her. “You have three minutes. We have a tight schedule to keep. Also, don’t run.”
Mattie coughed, hunching forward as she entered the small store packed with brightly packaged convenience foods. “I could still best you, even sick, you know.”
I walked with her, keeping a hand under her arm so she didn’t fall. “Yes, well, if you can’t beat ’em.” We reached the bathrooms at the back, and I released her. “Make ’em really ill and wear down their resolve.”
She gave me a distrustful look from under her too-large hood. “You being nice is freaking me out.”
“My new favorite hobby is freaking you out,” I replied gravely. She pulled a mildly disgusted look before pushing open the bathroom door. I tamped down another smile. I wasn’t sure what it was about Mattie, but she was massively entertaining. It was probably best not to examine that feeling too closely.
I wandered through the convenience store and found some ibuprofen, hair ties, and a package of jello and pudding. I added a couple bottles of water and a bag of fruit candy to the load in my arms and dropped it all in front of the bewildered store clerk. She looked me over, her dark eyes wary at first, and then softening with interest. “Hey,” she smiled. She had styled her hair in two low buns, and it made her look like a kindergarten student. Did we do away with child labor laws or something? Jesus.
I plucked a pack of bubblegum off the display at the counter, peering at it before I tossed it on top. The girl blinked up at me, ringing things up slowly, and I resisted the urge to sigh. There was no universe in which I would hook up with a Cabbage Patch doll. I texted Tabitha to see if she was still on schedule.
Picking up on my “no, thank you” vibe, the girl went sullen, rung everything up, and bagged it up with bored efficiency.
Mattie shuffled out of the bathroom, looking around like she wasn’t sure what dimension she was in. I met her halfway, gesturing for her to march back out the door. “Want a ride again?” I offered.
She held up her hands fast, eyes wide. “No. I feel better.” Her face looked dewy, like she’d slapped cold water on her cheeks, and it made the little waves around her temples stick to her skin in a way that was oddly tempting. Like the wisps were begging to be smoothed behind her ears.
Hey, Kael… what the fuck, buddy? Get it together. You aren’t even sure what you’re doing with this walking liability. But then my hand reached out and did just that, wiping some of the moisture away from her skin and curving a little piece of her hair behind her ear before fitting the hood around her head again. For fuck’s sake. What, am I not in control of my body anymore?
Mattie’s lips parted slightly, and she watched me quietly. For once, she didn’t have something smart to say. Interesting. I cleared my throat. “We have like six hours left. You going to make it?”
“I’ll live.”
I snorted softly. “I’m pretty sure you’d live through the actual bubonic plague just to spite me.”
Mattie took the bag from my hand and shot me a coy look before sauntering away. “My favorite hobby is spiting you.”
I believed it, at this point. Mattie never did what I wanted or expected, like she’d been created with the sole purpose of throwing me off-kilter. I followed behind her and reminded her to take off her sweatshirt in the car before I fueled up. By the time I slid back into the driver’s seat, she was already asleep again, the package of bubblegum clutched in her hand.
The box of ibuprofen was open on her lap, too, so I had to assume she’d taken a dose. I popped a strawberry candy in my mouth and slapped my face a few times for good measure. I doubted I would get tired, but I had noticed more and more that my seventeen years of unrelenting physical exertion were taking a toll on me. There were only so many years a person could push themselves past their physical limit before they broke down entirely.
That said, it wasn’t like driving in a luxury SUV through the night would kill me, so I didn’t plan on stopping again until we needed gas. Unfortunately, Mattie either slept like shit when she was sick, or she slept like shit just in general, and she derailed that plan completely. She had two more nightmares within three hours, and they caused her whole body to wrack with tremors. I pulled over on the side of the road twice, shaking her awake and making sure she pulled herself out of it. Each time, she glared at me like I was the problem, and then slunk back into a fitful sleep.
I knew when I had nightmares, I usually woke up disturbed and wanting to take a breather—to readjust and find my reality before moving on from it. But not Mattie. She blinked a few times, gave me a perfunctory glare, and then nestled back down under her sweatshirt to find sleep again. I got the feeling that these weren’t just fever dreams, that she had them quite often, and she had learned to live with them.
As I pulled away from the shoulder for the third time that night, I shot her a suspicious frown, my fingers gripping the steering wheel tighter than necessary. I had my own share of night terrors—flashing knives, searing pain, heart-clenching fear followed by the patter of gunfire. I knew what that felt like, and the idea that spunky, clever Mattie had anything remotely like that in her life sent a wave of fury through me.
Another emotion I was better off not analyzing too closely.
Thanks to Mattie’s frequent nightmares and my spinning thoughts, six hours felt like double that, and I found myself scrubbing my eyes wearily as we finally traversed the desolate desert landscapes and made our way into Salt Lake City. The sun had risen over the snow-tipped mountains, and a sepia glow suffused the sparse, Sunday morning traffic. Mattie had woken up for good, and she adjusted her seat upright with her eyes glued to the city. “I haven’t been here, yet,” she said faintly.
I reached behind me, and despite navigating the busy freeway toward I-80, I managed to find the thermometer. I aimed it at her forehead, and she turned to give me a bored blink. “You seem awfully worried I’ll keel over and die.”
The idea that a person wouldn’t be worried about Mattie in this condition only added to the stack of “what the hell is going on with this chick?” cards I was carefully balancing into a tower. The thermometer filled the car with annoying, blaring beeps to let me know she was still at 103. Sighing, I tossed it aside. “Your fever isn’t breaking.”
“It’s the first twenty-four hours,” she replied, clearly unconcerned. She returned her curious gaze to the city. “The febrile phase can last anywhere from hours to days. Just depends on the person’s immune system.”
“Well, your immune system blows. You should take vitamins.”
Her lips fought against a smile. “Is coffee a vitamin?”
I scratched above my mouth. “Oh, for sure. If you’re drinking inhuman amounts of coffee every day, then forget I said anything.”
Mattie rotated an amused look my way. “Science.”
“Science,” I agreed.
I followed my GPS to the waypoint Tabitha had sent me, but when we were five minutes out, a call came through my phone. I recognized the number and darted an uncertain glance at Mattie. She caught on immediately. “It’s them, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “I can ignore it.”
“No, answer,” she replied, her brows furrowed. “Ask them why they want me home. Why they really want me there. I want to hear what they say.”
Shrugging, I hit the green answer button. “Ghost.”
“Uh, h-hello,” Mr. Thorne said hesitantly. “Yes, hi. This is Augustus Thorne.”
Mattie stared at the phone with her lip curling faintly. I wished I could watch her more closely, but we were taking an exit and merging onto I-80. “Mr. Thorne,” I said. “What can I do for you?”
“We were just hoping to—that is, after your confirmation that you had found Mattie, we hadn’t heard anything more,” he replied tightly. For the first time, I heard the lash of anger in his tone. “Is everything… proceeding?”
Proceeding. Already, his verbiage to ask about the whereabouts of his daughter sounded more like that of a drug deal than someone bringing his baby girl home to him. “Certainly. Your daughter is psychotic and jumped into a freezing river to avoid me. I had to fish her out, and she got herself sick, so we’ve been delayed a bit.”
Silence followed that explanation. In my opinion, it was a little too long for a concerned parent. What kind of reaction was that? Finally, Augustus asked, “But you have her?”
“I do,” I replied with irritation grating on my nerves. Do I have her? Seriously? “But she isn’t in a good condition right now, so that might delay our progress.” All true.
“I see.” He sounded positively incensed. “And when will she be feeling up to the trip?”
I shrugged to make sure the gesture made it into my voice. “I’m not sure. A few days. A week at most. She’s worth two million dollars, after all,” I added callously. “Precious cargo.”
More silence. He didn’t even seem offended by my suggestion that Mattie had an actual dollar value. My eyes met with Mattie’s momentarily, and in hers, I saw the truth of what she’d told me. I matched it up with her father’s reactions and came to the only clear conclusion here: she was telling the truth.
Augustus cleared his throat, “Well, of course, we are eager to have her here as soon as possible.”
“Mr. Thorne,” I said, lacing my voice with a dollop of authority. “I’m afraid I must insist on knowing why you’d like Miss Thorne back home with you. Her desperation to escape capture is confusing me.”
“What has she told you?” he snapped. It was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Mild mannered, mousy Mr. Thorne wasn’t so passive after all.
“Nothing. As I said, she’s been sick. I’m just curious.”
“She’s important to us,” he replied, clearly trying to moderate his tone. “And, if you must know, to our company. That is all you need to know Mr… eh, Ghost.”
I smirked. I loved using a stupid code name. It tripped up the elite like nothing else when they didn’t have a surname to patronize me with. “Alright. Thank you for the information. I’ll be in touch.”
I hung up, and Mattie watched me intently. She’d balled her hands into fists, but it was the only indication that she was nervous. Her face was a mask of indifference and sharp watchfulness. I didn’t bother looking at her as I pulled the car off to a “viewing” area as the freeway headed into the mountains. “Yes, Miss Thorne, your dad is shady. I can’t deny that he proved your point admirably just there.”
Her shoulders sagged infinitesimally. “Right.”
“But I haven’t made any firm decisions,” I reminded her. “So, behave.”
That brought out a feline smile that spelled trouble. “Oh, sure. I always do that.”
I’d have to watch my words more closely with this girl. She was an expert at weaponizing everything around her like the MacGyver of snark.
I pulled the car to a stop behind a nondescript, black van parked along the viewing area, and Tabitha hopped out of the driver’s side. She waved at me, crossing the distance between us easily, and the morning light turned her light brown skin soft bronze. I got out of the car to meet her between the cars, looking left and right out of habit. Tabitha pulled off a pair of sunglasses as she flitted a look toward Mattie in the car. “You actually managed to hold onto her for more than thirty minutes. Love that for you.”
“I’ve had enough sass for a lifetime,” I glared. “None from you.”
“Ooh boy,” she grinned. She had her hair braided in two tight pigtails, and she wore a bright blue “Utah Jazz” ballcap to complete her “casual driver” look. “Sounds like you had a fun road trip. I’ve got the back stocked and ready. What do you need the med equipment for?”
“She’s sick,” I said simply. “Get the van started. I’ll get Mattie settled.”
Tabitha’s searching expression lingered on me a touch too long, like she was reading something I didn’t want read. But then she went back to the van, and I returned to Mattie with my sneakers crunching on loose gravel and eyes squinting against the garish morning light.
Mattie hauled herself out of the front seat with what looked like a painful effort. She had her sweatshirt back on, and she tried to disappear into it like an armadillo curling under its shell. I guided her toward the van with two hands on her upper arms. “I think you’ll hate me five percent less after you see this.”
“Not possible,” she returned immediately.
We reached the black van, and I slid the door aside. Inside, a tiny camper had been built into the cargo area, complete with cozy bed, itty bitty bathroom, and kitchenette with a coffeemaker already brewing the dark liquid. She whipped a surprised look up to me. “Wait, this is actually kind of nice.”
“Told you.”
“You were going to handcuff me to this bed?” she asked in sudden outrage.
I shrugged. “You’re a pain in the ass, Bunny. What do you expect?”
She muttered something under her breath before begrudgingly admitting, “It does look warm.”
“It is. And even better,” I said, stepping up and holding out a hand for her. “I’ll leave you alone while you sleep.” She accepted my hand, and I hefted her inside. She stumbled into my arms, and on instinct, I locked them around her. Her long body pressed against mine, fitting snug and shockingly gratifying. My nerves fired to life, electrifying with energy and zapping straight to my groin. I tightened my hold, suddenly entranced by the feel of her body in my arms.
I wondered, suddenly, what her body would feel like against mine without layers. What would she look like sprawled naked beneath me and spread wide for me to—
What. The fuck. I blinked hard, trying to erase the image that had been laser-etched in my brain. No, there was no unseeing that. Worse yet, there was no unwanting it. Fuck.
Mattie blinked up at me, and then her neck got suspiciously red. She cleared her throat and stepped away, looking around the van. “Two percent less,” she muttered.
“I’ll take it,” I replied faintly. I still couldn’t formulate anything intelligent to say after my body had gone rogue and decided it wanted to strip Mattie naked and make good use of the bed behind her.
She gestured to the coffee with her thumb and a familiar puckish smile lit her sharp features. “Hey look. Vitamins.”