Rescuing Liberty: Perseverance Book 1 (8 page)

‘
No, Jacob, don’t ask this
of me.’

Ashley moved. Connor
couldn’t open his eyes; didn’t want to see her walking away from
him again.
She hates me.

“
I’m sorry.” He muttered the words for
the hundredth time, even though he knew she wouldn’t hear him. When
he finally got up the courage to open his eyes, she was
gone.

He picked up his pack and, with his
head hanging in defeat and self-loathing, headed for the
stream.

Liberty’s shoes appeared in his
view.

Great.
He moved to walk around her, but she blocked him. Sensing the
inevitable, he stopped and looked up at her face. Her expression
was different, confused. She studied Connor in the same way he used
to size up new clients; evaluating their honesty, determining their
level of commitment.

“
Connor, look—”

He held up a hand, stopping whatever
pity-filled drivel was about to drip from her lips. He didn’t need
her sympathy. He just needed her to get out of the way so he could
refill his water. “Look, can I just get some water and get out of
here? Shouldn’t you be chasing down Ashley?” He pulled more empty
bottles out of his pack and brushed past her.

“
Ash won’t go far. She doesn’t want to
be alone,” Liberty said. Then she held out her hand to
him.

Connor’s brows knit
together.

She sighed. “Hand me a couple of the
bottles. I’ll help.”

“
What?” he asked.

She snatched two bottles from his
hands and headed for the stream, stopping when he didn’t follow.
“They aren’t gonna fill themselves, you know? You should probably
follow me.”

He didn’t really want the company of a
bossy psycho, but the determined way Liberty’s jaw jutted out told
him he wouldn’t be able to shake her, so he followed her to the
water.

“
Um, I may have been a bit harsh back
at the safe,” Liberty admitted as she filled up one of the bottles,
screwed on the lid, and handed it to him. “You helped me, fed me
and let me rest and in return I … well, I wasn’t very kind to you.
It’s just that Ashley—” she shrugged. “she’s really hurting about
whatever happened to her parents and I can’t handle a hurt kid.
Kinda gives me this crazy-protective vibe.” She filled the second
bottle.

Crazy’s definitely
accurate.

Connor stuffed both bottles in his bag
and bent down to fill another. “She never gave me the chance to
explain. Every time I’d try, she’d stick her fingers in her ears
and start singing.”

Why am I telling her
this?
he wondered, but that didn’t stop his
lips from flapping.

“
I’m just so … I don’t know what to
do.” He twisted the plastic lid too tightly and it cracked. “Damn
it!”

Liberty’s stare was uncomfortably
intense, like her wild green eyes were trying to penetrate his soul
or something ridiculous like that. Then she whispered, “You cannot
be rebuilt, until you are destroyed.”

What the—? How can
she—?

The bottle slipped out of Connor’s
hand. He reached for it, but just swatted it further away. It
plopped into the water and the fast current swept it away.
Disregarding the lost bottle, he stared at Liberty in disbelief,
wondering how she could possibly know the words his brother had
told him so many times. He had to have misheard her. “What did you
just say?” he asked.

She bit her lip and looked down into the
water.

Did she know Jacob? Is
there some kind of book they get this crap out of?

“
Nothing. Never mind.” She handed him
the last full bottle, stood and raised an eyebrow at him in
question. “Why did you do it?” Connor opened his mouth to reply,
but she interrupted him. “No. On second thought, you can explain it
to both of us.”

He let out an exasperated breath.
“Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said? I’ve tried to talk to Ashley.
She won’t listen.”

“
Then you haven’t tried hard
enough.”

There were so many thoughts jumbled in
his mind that he couldn’t force any of them through his
lips.

Liberty rolled her eyes.
“Eat with us. You get
one chance
to plead your case, counselor.” She narrowed her
eyes. “And if you mess with me, or hurt that little girl, I swear
I’ll cut out your spleen.”

“
Why my spleen?” Connor
asked.

“
Because—” A vicious
smile spread across her face. “You
could
live without it.”

* * *

By the time Connor replenished his
water supply and washed up, the girls had the fire out and were
ready to go. Ashley kept glaring in Connor’s direction, but Liberty
seemed unaffected. She gave them each a fish and motioned for them
to follow her.

Crispy skin and flaky meat danced over
Connor’s tongue as he walked beside Liberty. The crazy woman had
selected the smallest fish for herself and finished it quickly. She
handed the fourth fish to Ashley then licked her fingers clean.
Ashley broke the fish and handed half of it back to
Liberty.

“
You’re a good kid, Ash.” Liberty
mussed up the girl’s hair. Ashley giggled and swatted her hand
away, which turned into a wrestling match and ended with each
wiping greasy hands on the other. Connor watched, wondering what
had transpired to make them so chummy.

Liberty split the remaining half of
the fish, handing part of it to Connor.

He looked over her bony figure. “Keep
it. You need it worse than I do.”

“
What’s that supposed to mean?” She
was paying more attention to Connor than where she was going and
stumbled. Out of habit he reached for her, but she steadied herself
and eyed his hand.

“
You’re nothing but skin and bones,”
he answered.

A smile spread across Liberty’s face
that lit up her eyes and showed off her cheek bones. “I think
that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me,” she replied. “Now take
the damn thing. If I end up any more in your debt I’m going to
throw myself from a cliff.”

Connor chuckled and took the fish,
afraid she’d shove it down his throat if he didn’t.

* * *

The trio walked in silence until the
sky darkened. Connor had tried to get Ashley to hear him out for so
long that he was oddly nervous about it. He wondered what he could
say, and then questioned whether or not it would make a difference.
No amount of talking would undo what he’d done, and he didn’t want
to take the chance that the explanation would make things even
worse between them. The unsaid words hung over their heads like a
dark cloud; ominous and foreboding.

“
Look.” Liberty stopped and stood
beside Connor. “I’m so not comfortable with this situation. We made
a deal.” She crossed her arms. “Start talking.”

He held up his arms in surrender, and
then collapsed on the ground. “Okay, okay.”

A bone-deep exhaustion overcame him,
liquefying his body and mind. Liberty slunk down across from him
looking just as tired. She pulled Ashley down next to her. The girl
leaned against Liberty, looking everywhere except at
Connor.

He pulled up a handful of grass and
broke the blades into small sections as he recounted the events
that led up to the death of his brother. “Jacob was diagnosed with
type-one diabetes when he was young. Since then, he’s been insulin
dependent, but the doctors have never really been able to control
his blood sugars. His levels spiked and plummeted
often.”

Liberty whispered to Ashley and the girl
nodded.

“
We needed some clean clothes and
supplies, so Jacob and I decided to head to the house leaving Cathy
with Ashley in the safe. Soon after we arrived, Jacob became
disoriented and shaky. I’d seen the signs before, and knew he
needed sugar, but I thought we had more time. I went upstairs and
had just stepped into Ashley’s room when I heard several loud
thumps. I ran to the top of the stairs and found Jacob lying at the
bottom; having a seizure.”

Liberty’s hand went to her mouth. “A
boy I played softball with had a seizure on the pitching mound
during one of our games. It was … intense.”

Intense is right.
Connor watched Liberty, anxious to see how she’d
judge him for what he’d done. He needed to win her over, but he
didn’t know how, especially since he couldn’t even win himself
over. “As if the seizure wasn’t enough, he broke his leg in the
fall.” Connor closed his eyes and remembered his brother; every
muscle contracting, jerking on the floor. His eyes had rolled back
in his head and his lips were turning blue.

Not wanting to replay that horrific
scene, Connor’s eyes sprung open. “It was a struggle to move him to
the bed, but I did. I set the bone, but couldn’t do much else. He
came out of the seizure, but was still shaking, sweating and
unresponsive. I’d just elevated his leg when Cathy showed up. We’d
been gone too long, and she and Ashley had gotten worried. She’d
talked Ashley into staying behind, but none of us knew how long
that would last. We never should have given Ash the
code.”

Liberty squeezed Ashley’s shoulders,
but the kid continued to stare into the distance. He wondered what
was going through her mind. It had to be difficult for her to hear,
but this was his one chance. He had to tell it.

“
There was no food left in their
house, so Cathy insisted on running to the neighbor’s to see if she
could find any. I told her it was too dangerous, but she wouldn’t
listen.” Connor paused and recalled the sounds outside the house;
gunshots, shouts, crying. “People were already acting crazy. The
city sounded like a warzone. But once Cathy made up her mind about
something, there was no changing it. Jacob started talking to me,
finally sounding lucid, right before Cathy came stumbling back into
the room. She was holding her side, and her shirt and jeans were
soaked in blood—too much blood. I tried to get a look at the wound,
but she pushed my hands away, and staggered into bed, wrapping
herself in Jacob’s arms.”

“
She was bleeding?” Liberty looked
confused. “What happened to her?”

Connor shrugged. “I don’t know. Shot?
Stabbed? She’d gotten away somehow. There wasn’t time to get the
details. The commotion outside sounded like it was closing in on
us. They’d seen her run into the house and ...”

“
So you killed them to save your own
skin?” Liberty shook her head.

“
No!” Connor broke all the blades of
grass remaining in his hand then tossed them aside and pulled up
some more. He took another deep breath and picked up where he left
off. “My brother asked me to kill him and his wife.” His voice
cracked, and he cleared his throat. “And when I declined, he begged
me.”

Jacob’s request still haunted
him.

‘
You must. It’s the only
way.’

‘
No Jacob, don’t ask this
of me. I can’t kill you!’

‘
Yes you can. You have to.
Ashley’s life depends on it.’

Liberty reached out her hand, placing
it on Connor’s shoulder.

“
Liar,” Ashley spat, pushing herself
to her feet. “You lie! They would never leave me! They wouldn’t
just give up. Mom always said you were a good liar.”

Yes, I’m a great liar. But
not this time.

Liberty stood and went to Ashley,
wrapping her arms around the girl.

Connor watched them, jealous of the
relationship they’d developed so quickly. “I didn’t know what to
do.” Hopeless tears slid down his cheeks, all the while Ashley
glared at him with pure hatred in her eyes. He stared at her and
continued, “Jacob was right. We were out of options. Cathy was
dying. And even if he would have left her behind, there was no way
I could’ve gotten him back to the safe with his broken
leg.”

Ashley seethed. Her shoulders rose and
fell with the sobs she held back.

“
More than even their own lives, they
wanted you to survive,” Connor told her. “They loved you so much,
that they never even hesitated.”

Her small frame shook and she broke.
She covered her mouth and turned away so he couldn’t see her. He
could still hear her sadness though.

Liberty ran her fingers through
Ashley’s hair while watching Connor. Her expression was haunted and
her eyes flooded with unshed tears.

‘
Please, Con, kill me. Save
her.’

Connor’s chest
constricted.
‘No, Jacob, don’t ask this of
me.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

“ASH, I’M SO sorry.” I squeezed her
shoulders as the child mourned for her parents. I wanted to fix the
situation—to fix her—but there was nothing I could do. But then an
idea hit me. I couldn’t fix her, but I could give her something to
help comfort her. “Hey, I have a present for you,” I said. Then I
pulled Frog out of my pack, dusted him off and presented him to
Ashley. Frog stared at her with his one glossy, black eye; begging
to be accepted.

“
Frog, this is Ashley,” I introduced
them. “Frog once belonged to someone dear to me. He hates being
locked away in my smelly pack and complains continuously. I’d
really appreciate it if you took him off my hands.”