The Girl Who Kicked Ass (Death Fields 3)

He looks at his watch, the face glowing green. “Davis should be here in twenty minutes, after that, the war continues.” His jaw tenses. “Out there you belong to someone else. Someone I call a friend.”

Ouch.

Make that a double punch in the gut.

“What about in here?”

“In here you’re injured and you need someone to take care of you.” He shifts and moves so that my back is flush against his chest. I feel his heartbeat pulse in tandem to mine. “Right now, I’m all you’ve got.”

r /> I can’t argue with that or the way he feels next to me. The way my body curls into his.

"Rest,” he says. “They’ll be here soon.”

I start to tell him to piss off, that I can take care of myself, but I feel his fingers graze my arms and I grow sleepy again. I look up at his face, tanned from the sun. His broad brow is etched with lines created by wars. I see the man who has risked so much to protect me. I may not exactly know where his heart lies and I may never will, but if I’ve learned anything today it’s that I can trust him—that Wyatt Faraday is on my side, which means we may have a chance to win this thing.

Chapter 13

Davis locates us as predicted but it’s another thirty minutes before they extract us safely. While I’m caught in a web of emotions from Wyatt’s revelations, he makes like a ninja, disappearing the instant we’re free. I’m sure Davis sees him take off, but there’s a dozen soldiers helping me get clear of the shaky structure before it collapses on all of us. Wyatt simply fades into the dark, like he’d never been here at all.

“Alex!” I hear my name and turn to find Cole waiting for me. He’s got a medical kit in his hand and a hard, angry expression on his face.

Add guilt to my web of emotions.

“I’m so sorry. Jude said he left you under that alcove and then the rocket hit and it took us hours to clear the area. You must have been terrified.” He peers around the side of my head, looking at the dried blood of my wound.

Yeah, terrified didn’t make the list. It’s hard to be scared when Wyatt’s around. Well, at least scared of my surroundings.

“I’m okay. Just tired and my head is killing me.”

“Come over here and let me take a look at it.”

We walk through the rubble and Erwin’s men. Two large buses idle in the driveway and a line of survivors waits to fill each one. I see dust-coated children standing along men and women of all ages. Wyatt told me that the Eater attack may have been a surprise blessing. It will keep the size of the assault by the Resistance from Jane for a bit longer. “So despite everything, we actually accomplished our mission?”

Cole gestures for me to sit on the tailgate of a truck. He removes a bottle of rubbing alcohol and cotton balls from inside his kit. I turn and face the wreckage of the building and fight a hiss when he carefully cleans my hair and wound. “Our team made it out safely, but some of Erwin’s unit suffered casualties. Mostly from the beginning of the fight—the sheer number of Eaters was more than they could handle. Others were bitten or had minor scrapes or scratches, but it seems like the vaccine is working. Just like with Parker.”

“Good.”

He finishes up with the back of my head and moves his hand under my chin. He grazes his thumb just under my mouth and says, “Your skin is irritated. It must have happened during the explosion.”

The soft stroke of his finger feels the opposite of the Wyatt’s calloused ones and I turn away. “I blacked out. I don’t remember much at all, other than coming in and out some.”

“You were lucky.”

Like I had a fairy godmother out here or something, I want to say, but I swallow back the words. We watch two Fighters carry a dead soldier’s body in a sheet, the weight forcing it to sway back and forth like a hammock. We’ll bury him back at Arnold. I search the area. “You said everyone else from the team is okay?”

“Yep. Jude and Paul are down with the survivor transport. Davis should be finishing up.” He packs up his supplies and hops off the back of the truck. “Here, let me help you into the truck. You’re looking a little green.”

He wraps his arm around me for support and I lean into him, feeling warmth and safety; like I truly have someone out here in this crazy mess. Sure I know Wyatt has my back, but Cole, despite his grief and guilt, is still with me. In this moment I think maybe it’s possible for us to beat back the challenges that face two people at the end of modern civilization. This world, the one out here that everyone can see, is real. Our feelings and actions are real. They’re not cloaked under darkness and opportunity.

Cole, with his intense brain and kind heart, is still with me.

I ease into my seat and my muscles cry in relief. I smile at Cole. “Thanks for not giving up on me.”

“Never,” he says, squeezing my hand, giving me a glimpse of the man I’ve come to know. “I’m sorry I’ve been moody and distant lately. I’m just having a hard time reconciling the reality of our situation, you know?”

“I definitely know. I won’t give up on you if you won’t give up on me. You come to me when you’re having a problem, deal?”

“Deal.” He presses his lips to mine, sealing the pact. I won’t give up on Cole any more than I’ll stop my fight against Jane and her army. I’ll just have to find a balance between the two, for his sanity and my own.