Domik? Hesitant? Since when?
“Let’s get out of here first, OK?” She patted his arm in what she hoped was a friendly manner and, keeping the headlights off, started the truck, the electric engine almost silent in the still night.
Thank fuck it’s not a gas-powered truck.
She stole a look at Domik, his bruised face in profile as he shifted on the seat beside her, his thick thigh pushing against hers on the bench seat. CJ sent a prayer of thanks to a god she had long stopped believing in, patting the steering wheel before easing off the handbrake. She shifted the truck into drive and eased it down the road.
With nervous glances in the rearview mirrors, the farm buildings gradually became smaller and smaller until, when the long driveway finally reached the main highway, CJ turned the truck toward their destination.
She hadn’t dared to speak until they had passed through the gates and onto the main highway once more.
Feeling a weight shift, she cleared her throat, now able to ask what had been bugging her. “What did they do to you?” She asked, glancing from the darkened road to Domik and back. If his face looked this battered in the cab's dark, then they must have really worked him over. She winced in sympathy.
“Nothing that hasn’t been done before.” His voice was rough, and he broke into a coughing fit, wincing as he held his side.
“Ribs?” she asked, knuckles tightening on the steering wheel. “There’s water in the bag behind the seat.”
If I had just five minutes with those cowardly assholes.
Shocked at the vehemence of her thoughts, she sat up straight in the seat and blinked.
Domik nodded, gasping for breath and holding his sides. “The medi-wand?”
“It’s in my backpack, but it’s not working. It ran out of charge.” How she lamented the loss of what she had previously considered such an insignificant piece of kit. She had become so used to the advanced Taurean technology that something as life-changing as a medi-wand was now a tool that she would kill for.
Is it any wonder the humans so readily agreed to the alliance?
She sighed. It wasn’t as simple as that. And since when had she started considering herself Taurean?
The night stretched out before them, the road long and empty. Soon they would be at the base and life would go back to… normal? She sighed. It wasn’t as if this hadn’t been coming.
“Can you sleep?” she asked Domik.
“I can try. I suppose you don’t need me,” he said, looking down at his hands that were piled in his lap.
What was that supposed to mean?
“What?” She glanced from Domik to the road and back.
Dom shook his head, still looking down. “I was meant to keep you safe, Clodagh.” His eyes were stricken as they met hers.
“We were meant to keep each other safe.” A note of steel entered her voice.
“I’m a genius, right?” Domik pressed on, shaking his head. “And a Taurean warrior, strong and dependable.” He looked away, out the window. “And I wasn’t even useful to you as that.”
CJ’s eyebrows shot up. “Dom, you let yourself be captured so I could escape. What else could you have done?”
He didn’t answer, just shook his head and kept looking out the window. Surely he wasn’t suggesting that she was so shallow that she only wanted him for his ability to act as a bodyguard?
He’s tired and has just been through a lot, that’s all. It means nothing.
But a little niggling thought pushed back.
Are you so sure he’s that different? Everyone leaves you behind. What’s to say he won’t too?
She pushed the doubts aside, focusing on the dark road in front of them. “Get some sleep.”
He sighed, turning away from her and laying his arm against the glass of the window and resting his head. He was quickly asleep, his face younger in repose. Long, dark lashes swept down over his cheeks, his mouth slightly open, chest rising and falling.
