“I bet it was. How long did it take him to get free?”
“Three hours, and he never kissed my girlfriend again.”
“That taught him.”
“It sure did.”
When Gus turned down another road, a small town came into view. They drove past small brick buildings and people strolling the sidewalks. Many of the people waved and called greetings to Gus.
Declan hadn’t seen a town this small in years.
“Where are we in Vermont?” Declan inquired
“Culver,” Gus replied. “You two sure covered a lot of ground if you came here from Maine. I don’t know how you survived out there.”
“Luck,” Willow said. “We did have supplies with us in the beginning, and we were close to the border of New Hampshire when we started.”
That wasn’t true, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. She still didn’t know how much time it would take for someone to cross through New Hampshire and into Vermont, but it had to be less time than from where they were in Maine.
“How long were you lost out there?” Gus inquired.
“I’m not sure,” Willow said. “What’s today’s date?”
“May twentieth.”
Willow tried to figure out how long it would take for a human to cover the same distance they had, but in the end, she decided to play it safe. “Almost three weeks.”
She was really only in the woods for six days, but it seemed more like three weeks. If her guess was way off, it didn’t matter, they could change Gus’s memories, but she didn’t like the idea of screwing with the mind of the man who was helping them.
Gus let out a low whistle. “You’re lucky.”
“We are.”
She glanced at Declan, whose eyebrows were knit together over the top of his elegant nose as he watched the town like it was a shark about to devour them. The sun played over the elegant planes of his face and brought out the red in his hair.
The set of his full lips indicated irritation, but as she gazed around the quaint town and friendly residents, she didn’t understand what could make him so unhappy. She was thinking about moving here as Gus waved at another woman before making a right-hand turn.
Since joining the Alliance, she’d spent most of her time training at the compound, but once her training was complete, she went out to hunt Savages. Most of the missions were in Boston, and though she enjoyed the vibrant pulse of the city, she’d grown up in the country, and it was where she felt most at home.
When Gus turned onto another street, they passed a series of small, well-maintained, and in some cases, adorable homes. It was still early in the season, but many of the yards had flowers in pots or beds around their trees and porches.
All the yards were so neatly manicured that she would bet all the neighbors started their Saturdays by mowing their yards. This was the type of town where if a neighbor couldn’t take care of their yard for some reason, the whole street volunteered to help them.
Gus pulled into the driveway of a pretty, double-story home with cheery yellow paint and blue shutters. Like most of the other yards, it was recently mowed. A couple of brightly colored pots, full of pansies, led up the three stairs to the front porch and wooden front door with a glass window in the center.
“Home sweet home,” Gus said, and the hinges creaked as he pushed open his door and hopped out. He closed the door behind him.
Declan rested his hand on the door handle but didn’t open it. He’d never been around humans for an extended period. Once he walked into that house, it would be like entering a whole new environment, and he wasn’t sure he could handle it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“What’s the matter?”Willow asked him.
“I’ve never been around humans before.”
“Of course you have.”
Declan sighed. “Yes, of course I have. I didn’t mean that I’veneverbeen around them, but I’m not used to being in their dwellings, and isn’t Gus a little too friendly?”
