There’s a part of me, reckless now that we’re dancing close to death, that wants to say to hell with these fucking rules.
The sign for the interstate looms ahead. I take the turn.
“I’ve got a place,” I say. “I’ll keep you looped in.”
Lifting my hand from Tallulah’s, I cut the call before Jack can argue.
Her eyes burn into the side of my face. “What are you doing, Bran?”
“Do you trust me?” I ask.
She hesitates. One, two, three heartbeats. Then she nods, a short, jerky movement of her head.
“Good,” I say, finding her hand again and giving it a squeeze. “I’ll keep you safe.”
It’s a promise I have no business making—not with Henry in the wind, not with Kael’s warning ringing in my ears—but I make it anyway.
Because the alternative is unthinkable.
Sometimesthingsarebetterin theory than in reality.
As I pull the truck into a narrow driveway designed for Matchbox cars instead of big trucks, I eye the tiny cabin and admit this might be one of those things.
The place is fuckingsmall. It can’t be much bigger than Tallulah’s shoebox apartment in Lucy Falls, and I’d already been crawling the walls there. Now, after a four-plus-hour drive where every passing mile held me hostage to Tallulah’s voice, Tallulah’s eyes, Tallulah’s scent…yeah. I’m not sure I have it in me to keep tiptoeing around her.
“What is this place?” she asks, voice rough with sleep.
She’s been in and out for the last hour, nodding off against the seatbelt, jerking awake every time a semi passed us with toomuch noise. Easy to see where her brain goes when she closes her eyes.
“Safe house,” I mutter, killing the engine. “Come on, let’s get you inside and settled.”
She pushes the door open and climbs out, standing for a moment in the cold mountain air, taking in the dark bulk of the little house and the mass of trees standing sentinel behind and around it. The moon throws faint light over distant peaks and the rooflines of other cabins scattered across the hillside.
“Okay,” she says slowly. “Where is this place?”
I punch in the security code on the keypad by the door and push it open, alarm system chirping once before going quiet. “Vacation community in Tennessee. I bought the house as an investment a few years ago and rent it through the tourist season. It doesn’t get a lot of traffic in winter.”
“Tennessee?” She follows me into the dim entryway. “Don’t you think that’s a little excessive?”
I spear her with a look as I close and lock the door behind us. “My job is to keep you safe. I’ll do whatever it takes to do that.”
“Mm.” She drifts past me into the open space, hugging her arms around herself as she looks around.
It’s simple but decent—a single big room with a small kitchen on one side, a table and four chairs, and a great room dominated by a river rock fireplace whose chimney climbs to the vaultedceiling. Leather couch, two chairs, throw blankets in muted colors. Cabin porn, basically. Kael called it “Instagram-bait” when I showed him the listing.
“It’s pretty,” she says softly.
I grunt, move through flipping on lights. “Bathroom.” I jerk my chin toward the door on the right and open the other, the only bedroom. “Bed. Couch is a pull-out; I’ll take that.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she says immediately. “I’ll take the couch—”
“Tallulah.” I step closer, crowding into her space just enough that she has to tip her head back to meet my eyes. “If someone manages to find us and get through that door, I want the first thing they come in contact with to be me. You take the bed.”
“I—” Her lashes flutter against her cheeks as she drops her gaze. I don’t know why I’ve never reallynoticedthem before. Or the way her skin looks thinned and pale over the sharp lines of her cheekbones when she’s exhausted. “I just don’t want you to be uncomfortable,” she finishes.
I huff a grim laugh and turn away, discreetly adjusting myself once I’m out of her line of sight. “I’ll be fine,” I mutter, heading for the storage chest where I keep spare linens. “It’s late. Let’s get some sleep.”
She hovers in the doorway between kitchen and living room, one hand cupping the elbow of her opposite arm. Her shoulders are tight. The tremor in her fingers is back.
