Chapter 3
NOAH
Holy fucking shit. She’s going to get us spotted.
I drag Rue back into the cover of the trees, gritting as my back slams against a trunk in the darkness. “What the hell were you thinking?” I snap at her in a rough whisper, my voice coarse and throat burning.
Her body goes rigid against mine, and she immediately starts to try and turn around in my arms, a muffled noise coming from her mouth and heating my freezing fingers. Carefully, I let her free.
I draw my hand away from her mouth last, her eyes blown wide, their jade hue sparkling even amidst the stormy night. She looks like she’s staring down a ghost.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” she mumbles, barely loud enough to hear over the rain. “How…” Her lower lip trembles. “How the fuck did you—”
“Don’t,” I cut her off, shaking my head. “I need your car.” I gesture toward the trail. “I don’t know how much time I have.”
She squints at me, her eyes dropping to my left arm. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m stealing your car,” I reiterate, my voice flat. “Hand the keys over.”
Her brows raise, the shock still etched in her pretty facial features. “You got shot…” She takes a step toward me.
And I take one back.
“Rue,” I warn her. “We’re not fucking lovers. We’re not even friends. We’re strangers who fucked in the woods a couple of times.” And the moment I dragged myself out of this fucking lake alive, I knew the only chance I had was a clean break for the border.
And she’s not coming.
“I don’t have my keys.” Rue’s plump lips press tightly together, her brows furrowed. She looks like a drowned rat, albeit a pretty one. Her hair is plastered against her face, and there are minor cuts where she probably ran blind through the woods.
She looks feral right now.
But as hard as it makes my dick and as much as I like seeing her, this won’t work. She needs to watch my taillights fade in the night and move on to have a normal life—or just one without me in it. I don’t need her to spend her life dedicated to me because she fucked me over. And speaking of…
“I don’t have fucking time for this,” I say, and then spin around and take off down the trail. My heart is racing in my chest, my body cold and strangely warm all at the same time. I think it’s hypothermia, but I am not going to fucking lie down and die here.
Not right now anyway. I need a car, and I need to shoot the gap Mother Nature blessed me with.
“Noah,” Rue chides me, her voice suddenly coming alive. “I just watched you freaking die,” she grabs for my good arm, which I promptly keep from her reach. “I’m not losing you a second time. We need to look at your arm. And you look… pale.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” I grit out, focusing only on putting one foot in front of the other. “It’s a flesh wound, and I was under less than a minute.”
But goddamn, walking is exhausting after that swim.
She jumps ahead of me and is suddenly in my face now, water streaming off her nose, and eyes raw with tears. “I was down there for you. I was the only one looking.”
“I think there were plenty of others looking,” I snort. I shove off a tree to gather momentum, fighting to keep my balance. “I don’t have time to soothe your guilty conscience. Go back to California and get some fucking therapy.”
She lets out something I miss over a crack of thunder, but keeps after me. “You’re in no shape to drive or travel. You’re about to fucking pass out.”
“I’m fine.” I mean, my arm’s useless, and my legs feel like… Well, actually, I can’t feel them. But I grit my teeth and keep moving, knowing I need to use the adrenaline as an advantage right now.
“There are roadblocks around the house. You’ll never drive out.”
“I…” I blink a few times, trying to piece together some sort of fucking plan. I hate that she’s right. And I hate that we both know what the best course of action is. “I’ll figure out a back way.”
“I’ll drive us out.”
Us. She’s still so fucking delusional. But… would it be the worst if she just got me through the roadblocks? Isn’t that the least she could do?
“Noah, let me help you,” she urges, her voice cracking. “I love you, and I want to be there for you. I was going to pick you up—”
“Okay,” I interrupt, just to make it stop.
She’s silent for a minute, trudging beside me. The ground is so saturated that my boots fill with fresh water, every step a new misery. My eyes drift to the skies. It’s not going to be long, and the beast will pass, and then they’ll be back to searching.
Which means the dogs will be back out, scent tracking. I need to be in a vehicle before it stops raining. I need to move faster.
“Does it hurt?” She grabs my attention, gesturing to my wound. “Your arm?”
I glare at her. “What the fuck do you think?”
She winces at that, and I hate the guilt more than the silence that follows.
We slog through the trees, the wind turning the trunks into a chorus of groans. Lightning comes in bursts, illuminating the world in brutal white. At any moment, some stubborn marshal could pop out of nowhere.
But the thought brings no anxiety.
My vision tunnels at the edges, every step sending a wave of lightness through my body, but I don’t stop—not even when she reaches for me.
“Here,” Rue whispers, her hand suddenly on my left side, warm and strong. She tries to slip under my arm, but I jerk away, almost losing my balance.
“Don’t touch me,” I spit.
“You’re going to fall,” she exasperates.
“Then let me fall.”
She stops dead, boots planted in the mud just as we reach the meadow, blocking me. “Why are you being like this?”
“Because you’re supposed to forget me,” I snap.
“And now you’re here, getting caught up in my shit.
It’s going to get you killed. So don’t help me.
Don’t try to save me to make up for your shitty choices.
Just give me your keys and leave me the fuck alone.
Tell the marshals some scary loser took them from you. ”
“They think you’re dead. They already told the media you probably drowned. It’s basically body recovery right now.”
I stare at her. “Then why are there roadblocks?”
She shrugs. “I’m assuming there are still. There may not be. But if there are, you’ll get caught before you hit the highway.”
I take a step toward her, and she backs up, stumbling out of the tree line. “You really want to do this, Rue?”
She opens her mouth, then shuts it. The muscles in her jaw jump. “I killed him. You paid the lifetime price of…this.” Rue gestures around her. “Let me come with you. It’s the least I can do. I still love you, Noah.”
You don’t even fucking know me.
Lightning flashes again, and for a second, I’m back at the dock, blood on the planks, sirens wailing in the distance. Then it’s gone, and all that’s left is the rain and the mess of us.
She holds my gaze and presses. “I’ll go inside, get the keys, the dog—”
“No dog. He’s too old to make the trip.”
Her face falls. “I can’t leave him with my mom again.”
My mind tries to run the scenario of taking the menace of a beagle with us, and in no world does it make sense. There’s no way I can break the border with a geriatric canine.
I guess I can leave her with the dog before we make it. That would work. Then I won’t have to feel so bad that she’s left alone.
“Fine.” I nod to her. “I’ll wait in the car.”