Here Comes the Rainne Again (Invertary 6)

Okay, so she didn’t have the skills for this particular situation, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have options. She’d just do what she normally did when she was stuck and terrified—she asked herself what Lake would do. Suddenly things were clearer.

“We need to get out of the truck. We need to get out of the snow. Warm up. Patch you up. Get help.” The words came out in a rush, tumbling over each other before Alastair could tell her the plan was stupid.

She frowned. He wouldn’t do that. He wasn’t her parents. Being back in Invertary was making it hard not to slip into old habits. Into old thinking.

He didn’t move for a minute, and she thought he’d lost consciousness again. At last his eyes opened and he stared up at her.

“You’re right. Can you unlatch the seatbelt? And I’ll try to make sure I don’t fall when you do. Not sure the ribs will take it.”

“I can do that.” She put her thumb on the release button. “Ready?”

“Aye.”

“Okay, releasing, now.” She pushed. The seatbelt sprang free and Alastair toppled against his door with a thud and a grunt.

Rainne waited, itching to do something, anything to help him while he lay there breathing heavily.

“Alastair? What can I do?”

“I’m going to push myself up and out of here. You climb out to give me some space.”

“I can pull you, help you.”

He froze her in place with his stare. “Out, Rainne. I don’t need help. I’ve got this.”

“I can—”

“Rainne.” His tone was icy cold. “I need space to move.”

Rainne crumpled under his steely gaze. “Okay, but tell me if you need me.”

She scrambled back out of the passenger door.

“I won’t,” she heard Alastair say behind her.

Of course he wouldn’t. He’d made that clear earlier. He wanted nothing to do with her. Things between them really were unfixable. She should never have come back to Invertary. She should never have tried to come back to Alastair.

Rainne wrapped her arms around herself as she waited for him to climb out into the darkness. The snowflakes fell silently around her. Huge thumb-sized flakes. A thick sheet of them, reducing visibility to a couple of feet in all directions. Soft, fluffy snow built up fast around her feet. Making her think that if she stood still long enough it would cover her completely, wiping out all traces of Rainne Benson from the earth.

There was a time she would have thought that was a good thing.

Now she knew it wasn’t.

“Okay,” Alastair said tightly as he stood in front

of her. “I have a plan.”

Rainne lifted her chin as she looked him in the eye. “So do I.”

“Aye, but I’m pretty sure I have a plan that will work. Just follow me and everything will be fine.”

Three years ago she would have done as she was told. That was before she’d learned that her thoughts and opinions had value too. Guess Alastair really hadn’t listened when she’d told him she’d changed. He was about to get a reminder.

Rainne stuck her hands in her pockets. “Let’s hear it, then.”

“We don’t have time for that. Best if you just follow me. I know what I’m doing.”

“Tell me your plan.” She ground her teeth as she waited.