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  “Yeah. Exactly. I play football. Doesn’t mean I like to run.”

  “Right.”

  “Anyway, Parker wasn’t there. His wife or whatever she is…”

  “Companion.” Sue Bowman had been with Parker since Blue could remember. Years.

  “Right. She was there. Covered up. But Parker wasn’t there.”

  Strange. Parker was gone? Where would he go? The recluse spent the majority of his time holed up in his home library, reading and writing. He’d retired to Raton to write his manifesto or something like that. Bottom line, he didn’t go anywhere. That he was missing was odd.

  Seth’s brow furrowed. “Did it look like there had been a struggle? Place a mess?”

  “No. Looked the same as the last time I’d been there.” The corner of Jack’s mouth tilted up. “Five years ago, selling chocolate for Boy Scouts.”

  Awkwardness settled over them. Blue turned to Luke. “What are you guys doing here?”

  “Trying to get away from helicopters and out of Glory. Like you guys, I bet. Jack heard you and came to check it out.” He smiled and shrugged. She smiled back. It might be impossible not to smile back at Luke. With his glasses, shaggy hair, and warm brown eyes, he was like those singers in sensitive boy bands. Approachable.

  “I thought you were in trouble.” Jack glared at them.

  That was almost nice. At least she would have thought so if it wasn’t coming from Jack. “Where were you going?”

  “My aunt lives in Trinidad.” Jack nodded to the north. “I was going there. Luke decided to tag along.”

  “Seemed the thing to do.” Luke shrugged. “Didn’t want to stay home. My dad…”

  He didn’t go on, but he didn’t have to. His dad was gone. The whole group lapsed into silence, and Blue couldn’t meet any of their eyes.

  Now, farther from Glory with a little bit of time under their belts, the horror of it all was catching up with her. So many people dead. Jack had lost his entire family, as had Kitty. Luke’s parents were divorced, she thought, but he’d still lost his father. And Gran…

  All she wanted to do was hide, to get away from all of these people and be alone.

  But she couldn’t. It wouldn’t be safe to be alone, and she knew that. Not now. Not with people searching for them.

  After they were away, she’d decide where to go. Somewhere she might be able to breathe again.

  She wrapped her arms around her waist and shivered.

  “It’s late,” Seth finally said, breaking the silence, his eyes on her as if he’d been watching. “We should stay here for the night, like we’d discussed.” As if it was all decided, he turned to his ATV and pulled the Laughtons’ tent off the back. Moving off to the side, he unzipped the bag and began unloading the tent pieces.

  The rest of them stared at each other. Blue looked at Kitty, who was gazing up at the sky.

  “I’m not sleeping out here when I could sleep inside at my aunt’s.” Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “You losers feel free to camp with the coyotes. Me, I’m moving on. I’m following the creek into town.”

  Kitty didn’t look at him when she responded. “Seth’s all right, Jack. You should give him a chance.” Her words were a suggestion, but they also held resignation. She knew as well as Blue did that Jack would do what he wanted. He always had.

  True to character, Jack didn’t even acknowledge her. “I’m out of here.” He paused at the edge of the trees. “Luke?”

  Luke shook his head, hands still in pockets, looking a little like he wanted to rub his toe in the dirt. “Nah, man. It’s dark. Maybe we should stay.”

  Jack stared at him, then at Blue and Kitty, before shaking his head. “Fine.” He turned and slipped into the trees without looking back.

  Kitty took a few steps after him. “He’s upset. He shouldn’t be alone.” Her eyes flitted around the forest, as if she didn’t know what to do. Which she probably didn’t. Blue didn’t envy her the ability to hear what they were all thinking.

  “He didn’t have to leave,” she pointed out. “That was his decision.” She tried to sound like she didn’t care. But silently she cursed him out. Why did he have to be stubborn? Now they’d have to worry about him.

  “You guys,” Kitty pressed. “Jack lost his whole family. The girls.” Her voice cracked, and Blue didn’t doubt she was close to breaking down.

  “I know, Kit. We all lost our families.” Blue squeezed the other girl’s arm. “But the rest of us are smart enough to know we shouldn’t go anywhere alone in the dark.” She handed Kitty a bottle of water from her pack. “Jack’s a big boy. And you know him. If he wanted to go, he was going to go. We couldn’t have stopped him.”

  Kitty stared at her. In the near darkness, her eyes flitted around, not resting on anything in particular, as if in panic. Or, more likely, listening to all of their thoughts. No wonder she was freaking out. Finally, she grabbed the water out of Blue’s hand and opened it, turning her back on them.

  “He’ll be all right,” Luke piped up as she propped her hands on her ATV and her head drooped. “It’s Jack. He thinks he’s invincible.”

  He meant it to sound comforting. But the comment only highlighted that Jack wasn’t actually invincible. Even with his new powers.

  Kitty began to unload, grabbing her sleeping bag, ignoring them. She slung the thing onto her back and headed over to help Seth.

  When she was far enough away, Luke whispered, “What’s up with her?”

  “You probably don’t have to whisper.” Blue unhooked the bag of extra clothes. “She’ll hear you anyway.” At his quizzical look, she tapped the side of her head. “She can hear your thoughts.”

  His look of horror would have been comical at a different time. “No.”

  “Yes.” She sighed. “And I can do this.” With a nod of her head, she lifted his glasses off his face and sent them winging into her hand.

  He stumbled backward. “My God.”

  “Yeah. Thanks to that flu or whatever it was.” She held his glasses out to him. When he didn’t take them, she laughed, trying to lighten the mood but sounding awkward even to her ears. “Crazy, right?”

  She placed his glasses on the ATV and turned away, not wanting to see any more of his reaction. Would she ever get used to people thinking she was a freak? Probably not any sooner than she’d get used to being a freak.

  She tried to change the subject. “I’m sorry about your dad, Luke.”

  It took him a long moment to respond. “Yeah. Thanks.” He leaned on his hands on the ATV. “Where are you guys going, anyway?”

  Where were they going? “I don’t know. Right now? Away.” Away from Goldstone and Glory and everything that had happened.

  He nodded.

  At the tent, Seth and Kitty worked side by side, saying nothing. She didn’t want to join them—neither seemed in a friendly mood and she would prefer solitude—but she needed some sleep. Gran used to say that everything would look better in the morning.

  Blue sure hoped so. Because things looked pretty shitty right now.

  As she slung the backpack over her shoulder, she reached for the food bag. It levitated next to her.

  She stilled with her hand over the bag, not touching it, and addressed Luke. “Please tell me that’s you, because it’s definitely not me.”

  “I didn’t know I could do that.” He looked as stunned as he sounded. He could move things like her. She wanted to grin, the relief was so intense. It wasn’t only her. Not that she’d wish this on anyone else. But it was nice to not be alone with her weirdness.

  Luke didn’t seem as thrilled. She answered mildly, “Yeah. Sick, right?”

  The bag dropped to the forest floor. He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. “Yeah. I guess.”

  She remembered her first reactions. The shock. The revulsion. The fear. She felt for him, she really did. But she was too tired to be supportive right now.

  Together they carried or moved Blue’s supplies to the tent.

 
; Since Kitty and Seth weren’t being chatty, she and Luke lapsed into silence, too. It was hard going, assembling the tent in the dark, but Seth didn’t want to start a fire and alert the helicopters. Kitty took the lead putting the tent together, as she’d done it before. She dropped her silent treatment and offered instructions from memory.

  Blue hunched down next to where Seth knelt, fiddling with the tent anchoring system, offering him two pegs she’d located in the darkness. “Here. I found these over there.”

  He didn’t look up. “We’re friends now?”

  That wasn’t fair. She scowled at his bent head. “I guess.”

  “Friends trust each other.”

  “Well, most of my friends don’t kill people.”

  He sighed beside her, glancing sideways. “Right. Hey, I said I was sorry. Okay? I didn’t think you’d be so opposed to me stopping people who wanted to kill us.”

  She handed him the hammer next to her, and he used it to pound in the anchor. “They didn’t want to kill us.”

  “They had knives and guns, Blue. I didn’t know they didn’t want to kill us.”

  He had a point. None of them would know that if they didn’t have Kitty along, listening in on everyone’s thoughts.

  She paused, studying him in the darkness. He looked pissed, irritated with her. And she tried to see it from his perspective. He’d gone into that helicopter assuming the men inside were trying to kill him. And he’d done it to keep her and Kitty safe.

  Why? She got the impression that if it was only him, alone, he would have made other choices. But he seemed to have needed to protect them.

  She was equally angry and touched.

  “You’re right. You didn’t know.” She sighed, suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion. “And maybe you’re trained to kill people if needed, but I’m not. I don’t even eat meat, for Christ’s sake.”

  “You’re a vegetarian?” He snorted. “Figures.”

  She glared at him. “Now what the hell does that mean?”

  “Nothing. Listen, I’m sorry. I was…I don’t know. Afraid for us, I guess. And mad.”

  “You were mad so you killed some people? Remind me not to piss you off.” She took one of the other stakes to the other side of the tent, wiggling it into the ground. His hand on her arm stopped her. This close, her heart picked up, and her breath caught. His fingers felt warm on her arm, and she found his grip much too comforting. Why was he so attractive?

  In the dark, she could barely make out his pleading eyes. “I’m serious, Blue. I thought they were here to kill us. Christ, they killed your whole town. How was I supposed to know they weren’t trying to kill us, too?” He sighed, obviously exasperated. “I don’t want to die. And I didn’t what you two to die, either. Even if they aren’t trying to kill us, they’re trying to take us hostage. Who knows what they plan to do with us? I won’t be someone’s prisoner. And I can’t think of anything happening to you. Or to Kitty.”

  Her throat tightened; she swallowed hard, held captive in his gaze. It had been so long since someone had taken care of her, she didn’t know what to say. But she knew one thing for certain. He was right.

  She wasn’t being fair. He wasn’t the bad guy. She was taking their circumstances out on him. But before she could acknowledge that, his face closed and he dropped his hand. “I wish you’d trust me. You trust those guys.” He nudged his head toward Luke and Kitty. “You even trusted that jerk-off.” She didn’t have to ask who he meant. She recognized Jack when he was described to her.

  She wanted to tell him she trusted him, but the words stuck in her throat.

  “I trust that you’ll get us out of here.” That meant something, right?

  “I mean me. As a person. I wish you’d trust me.”

  She sighed. “I’ve known them a long time. That’s all.”

  “So, time wins you over.” He tightened a rope with a tug.

  She considered. Not time, necessarily. More like familiarity. After all, she didn’t like Jack. Never had. But she knew him. And the longer she knew someone, the more predictable their behavior became. She didn’t like not knowing how people would react.

  Seth? He didn’t seem untrustworthy. If anything, her instincts told her she could trust him completely. But stuff like that scared her. She didn’t have a history to prove that. In her life, she banked on predictable. After her father died, her mom had gone off the deep end. By the time Gran stepped in and pressed for custody, Blue had spent five years flitting from one commune to another, exposed to things a six-year-old shouldn’t see. Gran had brought order to Blue’s life, and she’d come to depend on it. She didn’t like to be surprised. Seth could surprise her. And she didn’t like that one bit.

  “I need to know you better, that’s all.”

  “That’s bullshit, and you know it.” He looked up then, their eyes meeting in the dim moonlight. They were so close, their noses almost touched. She held her breath, her stomach tightening. She felt every inch of her skin. “You’re scared. I’m not sure what you’re afraid of, but that’s what this is.”

  “Am not.” But her voice sounded small and breathy.

  His mouth tilted up on one side. In the moonlight, she could see that understanding again, in his eyes. “You can tell yourself that, but I don’t believe you.”

  It should bother her more, how much he seemed to see through her. Usually, when people came too close, she bolted. But right now, all she could do was stare at his mouth. He had a great mouth, a great peak on his top lip and a full lower lip. Completely kissable.

  She leaned closer, their mouths only a breath apart.

  “I’ll keep you safe. I promise.” The vow fanned her face, and she closed her eyes.

  He was asking her to believe in him. She didn’t know if she could. Not yet.

  But part of her really wanted to.

  She jerked back, away from that thought and from him, lost her balance, and fell onto her backside in the underbrush.

  “You okay?” He leaned over her, concern in his eyes.

  Good thing it was mostly dark. Stupid fair complexion, she could never pass off a blush. “Yeah. Fine.”

  She got to her feet quickly.

  “Blue…” he said, calling for her. But she moved away quickly, joining the others. Trying to forget Seth’s mouth and avoid Kitty’s eyes. Did she think she was being stupid, too?

  Blue threw herself into setup—anything to distract herself.

  By the time they finally had the tent up, the night air had chilled. They bundled in extra layers, sharing with Luke. The tent was made for three—the Laughtons never camped with anyone else—but they managed to squeeze in anyway.

  When Seth zippered the flap closed, the inside was snug. As their resident military and survival guru, he arranged them in the best configuration possible based on their body sizes and varied heights.

  It was only then that she realized she would be sleeping pressed up next to Seth.

  Luckily, it was the back of him. When he lay beside her, she tensed, sure she’d never be able to relax. The minutes dragged on as she listened and felt the steady rise and fall of his breath. He was warm and smelled wonderful. How’d he manage that after a day of running and two fights? But he did. Still musky and fresh. As if the laws of sweating didn’t apply to him.

  Thanks to his heat and her exhaustion, her body gave out on her, and she dozed off.

  Sometime later, though, she woke screaming with dreams of blood-trailed faces and helicopters full of guns. Then, in the dead of night, she knew it was his hands that soothed her, and she calmed.

  She drifted back to sleep, her fingers still tangled with his.

  Chapter Six

  Someone was in the woods.

  Not three or four hours after falling asleep, Seth awoke, instantly alert. He knew it had only been a few hours because his body still ached with exhaustion. He’d functioned before on much less sleep. You didn’t survive Afghanistan if you couldn’t learn how to forget you were tired. So,
as always, he pushed his discomfort aside and focused on the noise outside.

  Only, the noise wasn’t close. Whoever was coming through the trees was probably still a half a mile away.

  Apparently he had some new super hearing, too.

  And whoever was coming needed some stealth training. They couldn’t have made more noise if they tried.

  He still held Blue’s hand. She’d whimpered, crying out, about an hour ago. After the day they’d had, he figured she was entitled to her nightmares. He’d soothed her the best he could, and she’d softened again, groggy with sleep, and curled back into him. As she fell asleep, the press of her against his back had kept him awake for long minutes afterward.

  “Blue,” he whispered, shaking the hand he still held. “You awake?”

  “No,” she grumbled. “Go away.”

  “Morning person. I like that.”

  “I am a morning person. It’s not morning.”

  He chuckled. “Right. We’re about to get company.”

  He’d said it as lightly as he could. He hadn’t wanted to scare them. It might be a hiker. A fisherman. Someone completely innocent.

  His attempt to sound casual didn’t work. Blue shot up. The movement woke Luke and Kitty.

  “Quiet.” What a bunch of amateurs. He rolled his eyes. “Listen, why don’t you guys stay here? I’ll go see what’s going on.”

  He got to his knees when a hand rested on his forearm.

  “Do you want me to come?” Blue asked, her voice all throaty with sleep. The rasp of it killed him.

  He studied her in the darkness, the tightness of her body. Now that she was awake, he could feel her indecision. She wanted to stay. After all that had happened yesterday, she was anxious. Afraid. But she also didn’t want him to go out by himself.

  Her concern touched him. When was the last time anyone had really cared what happened to him? Oh, his teammates cared. But it was different.

  “Would you like to come?” He offered her the chance to back out.

  In dark silhouette, her head tilted to the side before she nodded. “I think I should.”