Being Emerald (24 page)

Laila was on her knees next to Garret, presumably telling him the same thing. Sydney caught his attention as she advanced toward them, looking at Laila with contempt.

The best way to play this scene out was to leave. Nothing else could be said between them with Sydney present. He glanced at Garret and knew he would protect Laila from any aggressiveness on Sydney’s part. He also knew it was better if Sydney thought he and Laila hated each other, so he turned from where Laila sat next to Garret on the pavement and strode away.

When Rock looked over his shoulder to assess the situation before he disappeared out of sight, Laila stood there, jaw dropped, staring at him while Sydney helped Garret from the ground.

He gave Laila the signal to hold and kept walking.

They’d lingered in their temporary encampment in front of the capitol for fifteen days, the last of them spent in a state of tense give and take between all the members of the team. Now, several days out from the incident between him and Garret, Rock was relieved to be heading back. He’d have to tolerate very little of the two Guards during these last hours of driving before he walked away. Even though he and Garret were on the same side, there was still no love lost between them. He wanted to flay Garret alive for leading Laila into dangerous missions while they were still in New Atlanta. His heartbeat thundered, raising his blood pressure. “Fucker,” he mumbled under his breath.

In an effort to fill up Sydney and Garret’s truck, Laila hurriedly readied a few items not on her original list for travel. He was happy for her. She considered the mission a success with the retrieval of eleven items from her recovery list. An hour later, Rock’s dour mood only intensified the pall cloaking their departure. The interior of the cab was thick with unexpressed conflict. Laila looked out the passenger side window. The slant of the morning sunlight set her aglow as they pulled away. She was beautiful even with sadness shadowing her features. As the miles from DC accumulated behind them, the words left unsaid between them hung in the air of the cab. It was a familiar, melancholy silence. One of missing and loving, and of reassurances they would see each other again. Rock didn’t even have the strength to pull her out of the funk settling around them. He was too deep in it himself.

If things went as expected, they’d say goodbye to each other tomorrow. They’d avoided the topic since the blow-up when he’d made his final decision to leave Laila in New Atlanta. He’d spent most of his days shielding his own devastating emotions so they wouldn’t send her plummeting into a more serious depression. But now, in the privacy of the cab, they could speak freely without having to worry about being overheard. “I’m taking you back to New Atlanta.”

“I know,” she said, still watching the world go by. “You’ve been shielding your emotions from me. It tipped your hand.”

“It’s only for a few months.”

“Okay.” Her slumped shoulders and sad eyes made him want to make it all go away. “If you don’t come back, I won’t even know what happened to you.”

“Yes, baby, you would. Because if I don’t come back for you, I’m dead. And if that happens, Laila—” He reached over and grabbed her forearm, getting her attention. Her gorgeous brown eyes were filled with tears. “If that happens, you’ll move on. Find someone who will love you and make you happy. I want you to have a happy life, with or without me.”

She didn’t acknowledge his words, just broke eye contact and stared out the window again. They sat as if they were already separated, everything having been said. The misery-lined silence choked the small space.

He squeezed the little fingers lying limply in his hand. “It will be okay.”

She didn’t acknowledge the statement, just laid her head back on the headrest.

The brake lights on the truck in front of them flicked on. As soon as Rock got a glimpse of the roadblock ahead, he switched into survival mode.

“Laila!”

She snapped alive.

He slammed on the brakes. “Ditch on your side.” She met his gaze, and he saw her confusion. “When I say go, jump out. Don’t hesitate. You understand? Keep your legs bent and roll with your momentum.”

She popped the door open, looked down, and froze.

Gunfire rang out.

“Go, go, go!” he shouted a split second later. His heartbeat thundered as she tumbled into the dense vegetation clogging the side of the road. An instant later, he did the same.

As he jumped, an explosion sounded.

He found Laila quickly and pulled her to her feet. “Are you hurt?”

She looked down at herself, taking stock. “I think I’m okay.”

He took her hand. Together, they ran into the dense overgrowth.

“Was that our truck that exploded?”

He gave her the signal for silence and led the way as they continued to run through the forest skirting the road. Their clothes pulled at them, snagging on branches and thickets, slowing them as they tried to maneuver.

Laila tripped over a fallen tree and face-planted into the forest floor, almost taking him with her. In an instant, he caught her by her flak jacket and lifted her onto her feet again. “Let’s find our pace, peanut. We need to be miles away from here.” He slowed until they found their rhythm, weaving and jumping over fallen trees and rocks in the shade of the woods.

“I’m out of breath. I can’t go anymore,” she wheezed after thirty minutes.

“Yes, you can.” He snatched her hand and continued to drag her through the brush grabbing at them. “Just a little while longer.”

He slowed their pace as they neared a clearing. A suburban neighborhood with tightly packed identical houses spread out in a shallow valley below them. Rock stopped at the edge and surveyed the wide-open space. The houses were half hidden by overgrown weeds, making them look like gigantic turtles sunning themselves in tall grass. The air was choked with humidity and the rolling rumble of thunder sounded far in the distance.

He turned to Laila. She was red-faced from the run in the increasing afternoon heat. “We can’t go down there. It’s not safe.”

“Why not?”

“See the paths?” He pointed. “There and there.” Her gaze locked on the worn trails cutting through the tall grasses and weeds to the front doors of three of the houses. “Might be where the attackers live.” Rock took her hand again and shepherded her back through the tangle of vegetation.

They walked through the densest areas of the woods, using the brush as cover, keeping parallel to the road. Thunder boomed, vibrating his chest with the force of it. Laila glanced up as if to check the sky. “It’s much closer.” Under the dense canopy, they couldn’t see the encroaching storm, but the forest grew increasingly dark and eerie. The birds quieted and the only sounds were the crunch of their steps on the forest floor. The wind picked up, whipping her ponytail to the side. A deluge of bucket-sized drops fell loudly through the leaves. Within minutes, they were soaked to the bone. Still, they walked, keeping a steady pace.

The substantial downpour lasted an hour, and when it finally stopped, the air was cooler. Soon after, Laila’s teeth were chattering. Her eyes met his and she flashed him a radiant, blue-lipped smile. Her wet hair stuck to the sides of her face, and her saturated clothes hung heavy on her frame. In the excitement, she’d lost her sadness, and her beautiful, teeth-chattering grin melted him. It said more about her character than any word or action he’d seen since their first day together.

Rock stopped and pulled her to him. Their flak jackets emitted a soft, bubbled squish as he hugged her. She shivered in the circle of his arms. “Can you keep going?”

She kicked up her chin. “Yes.”

“Good girl. We have to get as much distance as possible between us and them. In about an hour, I’ll start looking for a place to stop.”

“I’m getting hungry.”

“It shouldn’t be too hard to find something to eat after we find a safe place to spend the night.”

She looked up at him with her enormous trusting eyes. “Okay.”

He took her chilled hand in his and squeezed it. “Everything will be all right.” Rock kissed her and started walking again.

A misty drizzle settled over the forest. There were no wild places like this in New Atlanta and even after a year of missions in the Onyx Zone, the atmosphere was a little spooky and a bit unnerving. Just as Rock was beginning to wonder if they’d find a place to rest, they walked up on a hole-in-the-wall truck stop and diner. He tried opening the heavy glass door guarding the store and registers. It was locked. He unsheathed his knife and broke the glass with the hilt then pulled Laila inside.

“This area should be safe. Nobody’s been in here since the pandemic.”

They split up, looking through the little store filled with dusty aisles of candy and still-bloated bags of chips.

“Here.” Rock grabbed a pink oversized T-shirt with a cartoon cat and
I’m not rude. I have catitude
scrawled underneath and tossed it to her. He picked one with a blue UNC Tarheels logo on the front for himself.

“Take your clothes off. We’ll hang them to dry.” He stripped off his wet clothes.

She watched him undress with admiring eyes and a tilted head, just like she did when looking at the art she loved so much. He leaned, lowering his head so it was in her line of sight to snap her out of it. “Strip.” He pulled the dry T-shirt over his head and hung his wet clothing off the side of the checkout counter, listening to the splat of Laila’s hitting the floor.

“Come here.” He held out his arms, and she stepped into him, folding her arms between them and nuzzling her cheek into his chest. To him, she was as small as a child with her dainty form completely surrounded by his body. “You did good today.” His voice was husky, revealing the emotion he finally allowed himself to feel.

She nodded, saying nothing. He knew his girl. She was feeling him, maybe trying to gauge where he was emotionally so she would know how much trouble they were in. “We’re not in trouble here, baby. Everything’s going to be okay.” He squeezed her tighter and stooped a bit to meet her gaze. “Okay?”

“How are we going to travel? We don’t have any additive for gas.”

“I’ll go back tomorrow and check if they left any additive in the trucks. If they didn’t, we’ll ride bikes, or walk. It’s easily doable.” He lifted her chin so their gazes met. “I don’t want you to worry.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

He released her, and she sat cross-legged on the tile floor, pulling the over-sized T-shirt down and stretching it around her knees.

He went about finding food.

After a quick scan of the aisles, he returned with an armful of cans he let tumble to the floor.

“How you going to open them?”

He shrugged, looking around, and her eyes sparkled. She seemed amused he hadn’t thought of it. It was nice to see her old self in there.

He grinned at her and pulled a can opener from behind his back. “Aisle two.”

Her smile faded. “Darn. I was hoping to see you bully those cans into submission. Is any of that stuff going to be okay to eat?”

“Yep. All of it, probably.” He worked at opening the cans of fruit cocktail and corned beef hash.

“Maybe not Emerald quality food, but edible.” He handed her a plastic fork. “Dig in.”

They ate like rabid animals, and when their bellies were full, Rock pulled Laila onto his lap. “You okay?”

She sighed. “Yeah. More than okay. It’s nice to be able to be ourselves again. No more pretending.”

“Never again, peanut.” They sat there, glued together, for a long time while he warmed her with his body and assessed the contents of the store for something soft to sleep on. There wasn’t much. A shelf contained packages of diapers, toilet paper and paper towels.

When he finally let her go, he gathered a two-pack of paper towels, tossed it on the floor, and kneed the package until the rolls were flattened. He lay down, using the towels as a pillow.

Rock caught her wrist and Laila giggled then squealed as he pulled her on top of him. It took only a moment for her to settle in.

He was content, lying there stomach to stomach, their breaths synced. He rubbed her back. “Sleep on me tonight. I’ll keep you warm.”

“And you’re softer than the floor.” She sighed. The sound of it made him smile even though he was drained past the point of exhaustion.

His eyelids were heavy. “Tired, baby,” he whispered.

“Then sleep. I’ll be right here.”

He tightened his grip around Laila and dropped into oblivion.

A feeling of distress grabbed Laila and pulled her out of her sound slumber. Her attempts at pushing up from her hunky mattress were met with resistance. Rock’s heavy arms constricted her movement and held her snugly against him.

She knew something was wrong before she was able to fully untangle herself and get a good look at him. He was on fire. A sheen of perspiration coated the parts of her body that had been touching his. His cheeks were flushed a frightening shade of crimson, and his hair was wet with sweat.

She knelt beside him, and shook him. “Rock.”

No response.

“Rock? Wake up.” She lowered her lips to his ear. “Open your eyes so I know you’re with me.”

Nothing.

Laila stood and dressed in her damp clothes and holstered her firearm. Hands on her hips, she scanned the store and then walked through the broken glass in the entryway. She cleared their immediate area as she’d been taught, making sure they were safe before she returned to Rock.

Past where he lay on the floor, there was a short, back hallway. Rock had explored there the night before, but she hadn’t. She entered the room marked
Employees Only
. It was a tiny, windowless break room, containing a folding table and chairs, sink, and a little fridge. The bulletin board was full of work schedules and signs warning employees to wash their hands and another illustrating the correct way to lift a box. Laila pushed the table to the side.

They’d be better concealed in there.

Returning to the store area, she found some aspirin and crushed them with the side of her knife blade. Then, a little at a time, she sprinkled the white grit past Rock’s slightly parted lips.