And then, before I realized it, I was running again.
If I caught him before he reached his destination, it wasn’t the raiders he would need to worry about.
The problem was, Aubrey was fast. I’d learned it over the days we’d spent together working through the resort—I’d learned it the night he’d tried to run from me. If he hadn’t ducked into that building, there was every chance he would have been able to get away.
And now…
Now I was pretty sure he was running into a firefight that he had no hope of winning to prove some kind of point.
I knew he was into pain—fuck, I was pretty sure he was addicted to situations that could kill him.
But this was different.
It was different because I wasn’t there to make sure he made it out the other side.
The thought made me pump my legs harder, run until the theater finally came into view.
Aubrey wasn’t playing this smart, but the anger when he’d left told me that he’d never intended to. The fact that the front doors of the building were flung wide open proved it. He was completely capable of sneaking around, of getting a proper vantage point, but he’d gone in through the fucking front door like he wanted to make sure they saw him.
Maybe I hadn’t made it clear that the only thing that was allowed to hurt him now was me. The hurt I gave him was something he wanted, something his soul seemed to crave the same way his lungs demanded air.
This…
This wasn’t the same thing at all. This was suicide.
The thought made something in my chest spark, a strange agony at the prospect of Aubrey hurt in a way that I hadn’t caused—hurt because the thought of giving me a piece of himself was so impossible that he’d rather take on an entire group of raiders. It twisted in my chest and sent me crashing into the theater, chasing the familiar sound of a pistol firing.
It would have been a lie to say that seeing a pair of greeneyes flashing furiously at me from beneath a mask of blood didn’t bring about a wash of relief.
It was short-lived.
The theater had two levels, and most of the men on the ground floor with Aubrey were dead. He stood half hidden behind the corner of the stage, though the men on the balcony had the high ground.
It wasn’t a good position to be in.
Aubrey was hurt, that much was obvious from the blood streaking down the front of his shirt, across his brow. As another group of raiders rounded the corner and came after him, I noticed the way half the seats in the front row had been blown to pieces.
Who the fuck let raiders haveexplosives?
“Aubrey.” My voice was a sharp bark when I drew my axe up and came at the group around him at a run. I felt the blade sink home into a stomach, and the hot gush of fluid and thicker things told me the man wouldn’t be bothering us again. But that didn’t matter. This was…
Not an ideal situation.
There was a dark gash on Aubrey’s shoulder, tearing across his collarbone. One hand hung limp at his side, and the other held a pistol with fingers that shook. I didn’t know if the shaking was from blood loss or the emotions that had sent him fleeing from me to begin with coming back to the surface now that I was near him again.
“Get out of here!” He snarled the demand, but I could hear an edge of something other than anger beneath the cadence. His eyes flickered around the room.
Maybe he realized that this was more thanhe could handle on his own… more than we could both handle. That his impulsiveness had gotten us into a situation we might not come out of in one piece.
“Fuck that. I’m not leaving without you.”
Aubrey barely glanced at the man he shot, his eyes darting back to me in desperation.
“Get out of here before you get hurt, Phoenix.” He sounded so angry, but the keening edge of desperation chasing that heat tore through the air. Maybe he understood that I didn’t take orders, that I didn’t leave my people to die alone—and he wasmine.
“You can’t do this alone. We need to?—”
“Phoenix, get down.” I ducked without missing a beat, rolling forward as he unloaded the clip of his pistol over my head. I heard a body fall, and then another. My eyes stayed fixed on him.
