The man nodded. She closed the laptop withher right hand. Now Victor could see and hear her, but not viceversa. Training the gun on the woman, she then used her free handto open the faux leather satchel and slipped the laptop inside.Luckily for this starved and dehydrated bunch, the bag had morethan weapons in it. She took two bottles of water and two proteinbars out of it. It was all she had on her. “Woman, you may reachfor one water bottle at a time.” When the man looked ready tospeak, Veronica forestalled him. “Woman will open the first bottleand give it to man. Then woman will open the second bottle andshare it with child.”
The dirt-caked woman nodded. She removed herhands from around the child’s middle and took one bottle of waterat a time. Once all Veronica’s instructions had been met, thedehydrated trio charted chugging.
“Don’t drink it all,” Veronica warned. “I’mgoing to give you two protein bars to split and you’ll needsomething to wash them down with.”
The next few minutes contained a lot ofchewing and gulping. Thankfully, the family finished just as thebroken down cars on the interstate drastically lowered in number.The clearing the man had spoken of was very close now. She foundthat happenstance oddly suspicious. Shouldn’t the number of deadvehicles grown thicker the closer they got to Cleveland?
The growling and hissing echoes of eaterspierced the quiet. The sounds were coming from just off theinterstate where the traffic thinned out; the pack was no doubtpreparing to head them off and close them in. Had those thingsmoved the missing dead cars? Were they becoming that smart? Therewas no time to worry about her misgivings.
“Drive fast,” she told the man. “Go! Now!And watch for booby traps on the road.”
He broke out into a sweat, obviouslyterrified, his breathing getting heavier. He nodded as he flooredthe vehicle. The electric car practically flew off its wheels,causing her adrenaline to spike too. The man’s relief matched herown as they whizzed by the clearing where the eaters were enteringthe interstate even now.
Everyone in the car was quiet for a coupleof minutes as the vehicle rolled onward, leaving the infected wellbehind. Eventually the man broke the silence. “What are we doingonce we get to the docks?” he asked.
Veronica hesitated, but ultimately answeredhim. “I’m getting on a boat. You’re going as fast and as far asthis car can take you.”
“Really?” The trio perked up, their eyesrounding. “You’re giving us a vehicle that is almost fullycharged?” the woman rasped out.
“I am.”
“Thank you,” the man interjected, obviousrelief flooding his worn down features. “We’ve been trying to makeit to Pennsylvania. It’s been slow going until now.”
“You got family there?” she heard herselfask. Why was she wanting to know anything about them? She knewbetter than to care. “A place to go?”
“Yeah,” the man offered. “Both. It’s alwaysjust been a matter of getting there.”
“I’ll leave you with one gun too,” she said,her gaze flicking toward the little girl before going back to theman. “It has a silencer.”
He seemed a little emotional. “You’repointing a gun at me, yet you’re the nicest person we’ve met sincethis whole thing began.”
Her heart panged just a little. Howdifficult things must have been for them with a child to worryabout. It had been a living hell for Veronica and she had been allby herself. “I wish I had more food and water to give you, butthat’s all I had on me,” she grumbled. There was food on the boat,but she had no idea where yet.
“We’re grateful,” the woman said, her throatsounding a little less dehydrated. “But we will be fine now. Foodand water is only about an hour away for us once you give us thecar.”
For some reason that knowledge made Veronicafeel better, like she wasn’t abandoning helpless survivors. Thatdidn’t mean her guard would go down. Having been fooled byseemingly good people in past encounters, she kept the gun aimed atthe man. “It’s almost yours. The docks are close.”
“At this point they are very close,” heresponded. “At least the non-commercial part of them are.”
She nodded, already knowing that. Some ofher favorite childhood memories were on or near the docks. Herparents had owned a small boat and rented a slip back before theirchildren were grown. She knew the docks well, though likely not asthoroughly as a man who used to work on them. “All of us will getwhat we want shortly. Just keep driving and this will be oversoon.”
Chapter Seven
Victor translated everything that hadhappened. Lachlan dinna ken whether he should admire the wench’sbravery for saving a family or admonish her o’er his knee when atlast she came to him. The only thing he understood in truth was hewould get no rest until Veronica was safely on the boat, her onlycompanion the open sea.
“There’s something I should probably tellyou,” Victor said quietly. He turned to look at Lachlan, hisdemeanor nervous.
“Aye?”
“Well the thing of it is…”
The laird would have rolled his eyes were hegiven to such mannerisms. “What is this aboot?” he rumbled outinstead. “Just say it.”
Victor inhaled deeply and all but trippedo’er his words. “I-know-you-want-my-sister-as-your-wife,” herushed out, “but-I-can’t-just-give-her-to-you.”
Lachlan stilled. His dark gaze narrowed. Hewanted to throttle the mon where he sat, but decided such a deedwould mayhap set his intended against him. His muscles tensedinstead as he fisted and unfisted his hands at his sides. “What?”he ground out. He glared at Finn and Ramsay who had the gall tolook amused.
“I…It…It just doesn’t work like that in thefuture!”
