A dry chuckle erupts from my lips, and I wish, for the millionth time, that I’d stolen a soldier’s phone and some water.
Of course, who knows if they had phones on them. They might have been trying to keep the place untraceable. I hadn’t seen vehicles outside when I emerged near dawn, so the van they’d brought me in must have dropped me off and retreated.
I would definitely have turned around to get car keys if there had been any.
A sigh works its way up my chest as I approach another meadow. This one is more well-kept than some of the others I’ve stomped through. Thank goodness. Dead, thigh-high grass can feel like razor blades when you’re wearing a skirt. Thismeadow was mowed for the fall. Maybe harvested. Perhaps I’m on a farm. It’s hard to tell. I’ve seen nothing but nature since my escape.
I start across the expanse, the mid-morning sun bright in my eyes. Bare trees stretch toward the sky like they are doing yoga. A few birds fly over, heading south. It would be utterly peaceful if I weren’t so hungry.
My thoughts fill with cream puffs and Caran’s lasagna until a rude noise interrupts my mental feast.
Whirring.
The strange mechanical noise, low and distant, but growing closer, prompts my feet to beat a hasty path toward the trees as my heart rate propels me into panic.
What is that? Who is it?
Neck whipping side to side, I search the tree line around me for any signs of what’s coming.
My first assumption is that it’s a drone, which drains all the heat from my cheeks. Compresses my chest until it feels like one of those pennies sent through a roller and squashed into elongated nothingness.
There’s no running from a drone.
The sound grows louder and lower, and I run, dodging through the naked trees, breath puffing, knowing it’s hopeless but still spurred by instinct.
I want to survive.
For the first time in years, I want a future.
There was a lengthy stretch where the betrayal I suffered seemed to define me and overshadowed everything else. A time dipped in shadowy misery and full of lamenting sobs. Where tomorrow only seemed like it would draw out the torment.
But not now.
Now reasons to live abound.
I need to hear Kylian’s bright laugh.
Need to see that glint in Luka’s eyes when he challenges me.
I need to wrap my arms around Ridge’s waist and ride behind him on his motorcycle, taking in a curving mountain road and the steady beat of his heart under my hands.
Need to see Colter’s face without his mask.
I desperately need to teach them all how to actually cook turkey.
A sound that’s half laugh, half sob erupts and shakes my entire torso. It sends me stumbling, and I don’t recover. I fall forward, and my gun accidentally discharges, shooting off into a nearby tree as my knees hit the ground and a rock gouges a hole in my skin.
FUCK.
I just gave away my location.
The sweat on my back instantly grows ice cold as the buzzing sound grows louder.
On my hands and knees, I lean up to spot the four tiny whizzing blades of the drone, which hovers just above the treetops, directly overhead. It’s like a black blot in the sky, the sun not even glinting off the paint—as though light can’t touch that evil.
Something on the lower half of the drone swivels. A camera? A gun?
Inhaling, I raise my weapon, taking careful aim, and pull the trigger.
