Alive (The Crave) (17 page)

She took his hand, warm against her own and followed him back to his car. In her mind, she pretended like they were on a date when he opened the car door for her and she climbed in, sliding soundlessly across the polished leather seats.

And then he was there next to her, driving her home, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Like he hadn’t been ignoring her for weeks. Her backpack sat at her feet and she clutched her hands in her lap, as best as her cast would permit, wishing her mom had let her buy that purse at the mall last year so she would have something to occupy her hands with. She tried to look at everything but him and failed. The drive to her house wasn’t far and she didn’t want to miss a moment of being with Gage, even if it was only for a car ride.

The blank look he wore outside of the car was gone, at least it appeared that way from what she could tell of the right side of his face. He wore a black football champion shirt that everyone in the student body owned, since they had won the championship last year. His right arm was muscular, and sat atop the steering wheel with a big, jeweled ring on his ring finger. The State ring. He’d been voted most valuable player. His other arm rested on a blue-jean clad thigh.

The radio played in the background quietly, a song she didn’t know, though that didn’t say much, considering she never listened to the radio. She watched his lips move, and realized he was singing along to the song playing.

“I like this song.” The words escaped her lips involuntarily.

He glanced at her and gave her that lazy smile she’d coveted for weeks. “Oh, yeah?” He reached over and turned the little black knob, increasing the volume. “I do too, but”—he put a single finger to his lips—“shh, don’t tell anyone.” He picked up his iPhone and clicked on the screen with his thumb. The song started over.

“Why not?”

“I don’t want the whole school to know I dig British boy bands.”

“Oh.”

“Have you heard the song before?”

She shook her head no.

“It’s called Meet You There by Busted. It’s pretty freakin’ awesome.” He smiled again and looked back at the road. The sounds of an acoustic guitar filled the car. Eve looked out the window and let the voice of the singer wash over her.

It’s written all over your face

Such a painful thing to waste

Tell me now, where do we go?

She sucked in a breath and looked at Gage again. He wasn’t looking at her. His gaze remained on the road, his hand lounging on the steering wheel. His lips moved with words, singing to the dirt road, not to Eve.
Not to me.

Now the future’s not so clear

I can’t believe we’ve ended here

Where’s the world that doesn’t care?

Maybe I can meet you there

The song was just any other song to Gage, who sang the rest of the way home, but it became Eve’s favorite song. The words speaking to her like it was hand written for her by Gage himself, about the relationship she wished they could have, the words she wished he would say to her.

“Just drop me off here.”

Gage pulled the car to a stop at the end of her street. He turned the radio down, muting the song. “I can take you down to your house. It’s no big deal.”

“That’s okay!” she said the words too loudly. She jerked the door open and climbed out. “I really like the walk,” she added lamely. She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t want him to see her house, though she knew he had probably already seen it, but pulling up with him would be mortifying. Not to mention the fear of what her dad would do to her if he saw her in the car with a boy.

She pulled her backpack on trying not to look awkward as she struggled with getting her cast through the strap.

“Thanks for the ride.” She closed the door.
Well, that went perfect.

She turned and the window rolled down.

“Eve.”

Her heart fluttered in her chest. She swallowed. “Yes?”

“Do you walk home every Thursday?”

Her head moved of its own accord, nodding.

Gage smiled. “Cool.” And he drove off.

Chapter Twenty-One

Olive sat in a chair inside the old diner they’d come across. The sun had long since set on the broken down building that sat in the middle of no-where, or at least it was no-where for everyone else. Olive had been to this diner before, though not in the before. Eve and her had spent the night inside the old building some three and half years ago after they’d left home. At the time, she had slept on the yellow tile floor, terrified for her life while Eve stayed up and kept watch.

She remembered it like it was yesterday, how her body shivered against the cold tile, though not just because she was cold. Her body ached and her skin crawled from what she’d been through the day before, the hell that her and Eve had finally escaped from.

“Are you having any pain?”

Olive was jerked from her thoughts by the sound of Laney speaking to Rose across the room. It turned out that the woman’s water hadn’t broken—a false alarm. The baby had apparently kicked Rose’s bladder causing her to pee on herself, though they hadn’t been sure until hours later when they finally stopped somewhere. The rest of their walk had been hell on earth, both Laney and Rose pleading with Reno to stop for the night and prepare for the baby.

Olive didn’t say a word. A first in her book. She usually had plenty of choice words to bring to the table when it came to her opinions and beliefs, but not this time. Maybe it was only because Reno was in agreement with her own thoughts, not that he consciously knew it.

He didn’t want to stop. Refused to even consider such a proposition. Rose potentially being in labor was not something that he wanted to hold him back, though what he was being held back from was a mystery to her. In all actuality, she didn’t care if they stopped early on, she wanted to, because her back still ached. But she would rather break her back than watch Reno fawn over the woman and baby her over the potential that she was about to give birth.

Laney had become furious over the situation and marched right up to Reno, telling him that they were “damn-well going to stop”. That was when he slapped her. The sound that rent the air was like a bone cracking in half. So quick that she questioned if she even heard it, but so loud that she knew she did. A sound she knew well. She’d heard her daddy break her sisters arm once.

Olive almost felt bad for Laney, but she didn’t. Her and Rose had both been with him longer than she had, both knew their place and yet they continuously challenged it. The fight had gone out of her after that. Laney fell back and took the dead jenks from Rose and pulled them along with all of the other things she was carrying. Olive didn’t have to look back to know they were glaring at her. The hatred of their gazes bored into her back for the rest of the day.

Even now, in the dark diner, she didn’t hear whether or not Rose responded to Laney. She must not have, because no sound permeated the dense silence that engulfed the room. Reno was stretched out on the floor to her left, asleep no doubt.
What I should be doing.
She couldn’t though. Couldn’t bring herself to lay down on the mustard colored tile.

Not when she was so close to home.
Home? Your home is gone.
She bit down on her tongue at the memory of her childhood house going up in flames with her family inside. Nothing would ever eradicate that from her memory.
Nothing.

Olive sensed movement in front of her, several feet away. She couldn’t see who moved but she could hear the sound of their feet on the tile.
Who’s up?
She considered calling out, but thought better of it. If it wasn’t Reno, she didn’t want to risk waking him. He didn’t take well to being awoken in the middle of the night and someone’s head would spin. Especially after today’s incident with Laney. He had been in a bad mood for the rest of the day, walking faster than normal, forcing them all to sprint to keep up. When they ate dinner—berries and some other greens Rose had picked the day before—he shared very little, giving them each only a couple of berries to eat. Olive’s stomach rumbled at the thought.

She caught a movement out of her peripheral vision. Her eyes were fully adjusted in the darkness and she could see the person moving a couple of feet away from her. There was no mistaking the pale blond of Laney’s hair.

Olive furrowed her brow. “Laney, what are you doing?”

Laney stopped her movement and Olive could feel the weight of the woman’s stare. “I’m doing what I should have done a long time ago.” Her words were a whisper as she held up her hand displaying a thin object, it was small and Olive couldn’t see it properly, but a sick feeling punched her in the gut.

She thought Laney was going to come at her, but she changed her direction and dove on top of Reno.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Eve stretched as she stepped out into the murky light of the new morning. She didn’t feel refreshed like she should have. She’d spent the entire night tossing and turning.

“You ready?”

Eve nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Joseph’s voice. She turned and gazed into his brown eyes that twinkled with amusement. Her gaze didn’t linger long, but flitted down to his bare chest. She sucked in a breath at the huge tattoo that covered his surprisingly muscular torso. It was a large white owl shrouded under a dark night sky. The stars were so detailed behind the big bird, they seemed to twinkle, like a clear night sky.

“You like it?”

Her eyes found his again. He ran a hand over his beard that was a shade lighter than the brown locks on top of his head.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen a tattoo quite so detailed.”

“Yeah, well, it was my thing in the before. When I wasn’t saving lives or being a dad, I was getting tattoos.” He turned around to reveal that his back was covered as well, with the same picture only from behind, the owl landing in the night, the white feathers on its back ruffled by a breeze that existed only inside the night scene of the tattoo.

“Wow.”

He turned back around and flashed her a grin, before pulling his shirt over his head, covering the beautiful scene. “How’s the stitches?” He came forward and rested his hand on Eve’s shoulder. The tenderness in his eyes nearly consumed her.

“Feels fine.” Eve didn’t want to admit that thing still stung like a bitch, not to mention that she was tired from getting no sleep after leaving Gage alone in the bedroom. The living room had offered little comfort. Getting away from him seemed like the perfect way to clear her head, only it hadn’t. It had made her realize just how lonely she had been all this time, even before her and Olive split up. Gage seemed to fill a gap, which made no sense. She pushed it back to the fact that he was the first person that she had seen in years whom she knew and didn’t mistrust.
Wait a second. I
trust
him?

The realization came like a slap in the face. He was the last person who deserved her trust.

“I think we should put some more of that salve on it before we head out. I’ll go grab the first aid kit. I need to wake up Maddie anyway. It’s not often she gets to sleep somewhere that feels halfway peaceful.”

Eve didn’t say anything as he went back in the house. She looked around her and breathed in the fresh air, which still smelled like impending rain. It hadn’t rained during the night, though judging by the dark clouds overhead, they would be getting wet today. The rain scent reminded her that the air was bleach-rot free. Weird. It was nice that the jenks were AWOL, but she still didn’t like it. Something was off.

Joseph had just finished putting the cream on her wound when Gage emerged from the house. He didn’t even spare her a glance as he stormed past them and into the yard.

“Where are you going?” Eve called after him.

He swung around with a quick jerk, his angry gaze meeting hers, causing her to suck in a deep breath in alarm. “To take a piss, sweetheart. That okay?”

“I was just wondering,” she mumbled, trying not to yell back at him.
What the hell is his problem anyway?

“Why you wanna come hold my dick for me?” he said the words teasingly, but Eve could hear the hard edge in his voice and his face showed no hint of a joke.

“Seriously, dude?” Joseph narrowed his gaze and glanced back at Maddie who had just stepped out onto the porch.

Gage had the decency to look half-ashamed when he glanced at the little red head. “Sorry,” he mumbled and stormed off into the trees.

Eve stood up and rotated her shoulder.

“So, what’s going on with you and that guy?”

Eve glanced over to where Joseph was putting the cream back into his first aid kit. Maddie stood next to him, watching her dad’s every movement, as if she was memorizing it for future use. Eve looked back at the tree-line where Gage had just disappeared.
What is going on with Gage and I?
She closed her eyes and remembered the feel of his hands on her, the way he said the word “mine” against her lips. The thought jolted her back to the present. Remembering the first time he had made a claim like that years ago, with his body hot against her skin.

“Nothing.” She looked away from the trees and back at Joseph who was now brushing Maddie’s hair. “He’s just some guy I met on the road the other day.”

Olive couldn’t believe it. She honestly couldn’t comprehend the situation she was currently in. Laney’s actions the night before had drastically changed everything that she had come to know as normal in her little world with Reno and the two women. She played the events of the night back over in her brain, though it didn’t seem real, even now as she walked down the broken, overgrown road that would lead into the town where she had lived her entire life.

The walk toward Sunder wasn’t what made her reel with disbelief. No, the walk toward something familiar was the only comforting thing about the day. She tried to wriggle her fingers, but they were numb from the ropes that bound her hands behind her back. She glanced behind her at Rose, who stumbled along at a snail’s pace, her large belly protruding from the shirt that was too small for her altered form.