Nothing.
“Baby, please. We have to go. Right now.”
She blinks slowly, but there’s still zero recognition in her eyes.
“Hey, guess what?” I announce in a loud, cheery voice.
Haven flinches.
“We’re gonna play a game, Miss H! Would you like that?”
“A game?” she says in a distant, dreamy voice.
“Yeah! Let’s play Columbus and Jane.”
Haven gives a half-hearted shrug.
“I’m Columbus…” I touch my fingertips to my chest, and then gently touch her chest in the same way. “You’re Jane, okay?”
“Jane,” she repeats slowly.
“Yeah, and we’re on the run from cannibals!” I drop my voice. “Ooh, scary!”
She shudders, and reaches up to touch her face. Then holds out her hands to study the blood coating her skin. “Can-bals,” she slurs.
“You got it, Miss H!”
I grab the back of the nearest chair and haul myself up, biting back a scream when my wounded leg takes my weight. The bleeding hasn’t stopped. I need to do something about that, need to get us both out of here, need to?—
I nearly skid in all the blood.
Okay. One thing at a time.
“Come on.” I grab her under the arm, tugging her up. “Up you get.”
She nods and stands, docile as a child.
I crouch down, ignoring the pounding ache in my leg, and let Haven climb onto my back. Her arms wrap around my neck, her legs around my waist—just like when we were kids.
“Hold tight, Jane,” I tell her.
Her grip tightens as she melts against me. “Don’t let them get me, Columbus,” she whispers.
I have to swallow past the lump in my throat as I limp for the back door, leaving bloody footprints in my wake.
“No one’s gonna get you, baby,” I murmur. “No one ever again.”
Chapter 46
Haven
This isn’t how we’re supposed to play the game.
We never play when it’s this dark. Kai’s supposed to be home for dinner already, and I always sneak back into the trailer before the spotlights come on.
But it’s so dark I can hardly make out the trees.
And Kai’s limping under me.
