Heartsong (Green Creek 3)

“Yes. I often find that saying what you mean is easier than saying what you don’t.”

“Fine.”

“Good,” she said cheerfully. “But I think I’ll keep the hose at the ready, just to be safe. It’s gotten more of a reaction out of you than almost anything other than Kelly. I’ll be sure to let everyone know that. We have many hoses for reasons I don’t quite understand.” She turned toward the door and raised her voice. “Jessie! Robbie has seen fit to grant us his company. Could you come down and let him out?”

Jessie appeared in the doorway a moment later. “Why is there a hose on the—oh my god.”

Her eyes widened as I glared at her, arms across my wet chest.

And then she laughed. She laughed so hard that she bent over, clutching at her sides.

Elizabeth grinned at her. “Quite the sight, isn’t he? And look. He’s pouting.”

“I am not!” I snarled.

“You kind of are,” Jessie said. She pulled out her phone and pointed it at me. I heard a shutter sound as she took my picture. She showed it to Elizabeth, and that set them both off again. Jessie was still laughing when she came over and broke the line of silver.

I stood.

The women didn’t act like I was a threat.

They should have been scared of me.

They weren’t.

Jessie leaned against Elizabeth, elbow propped on her shoulder as she shoved her phone back into her pocket. “You know I’ll just kick your ass again, right? I mean, if you want to go for it, then let’s do it. I could use the workout.”

I walked across the line, keeping my head down, grinding my teeth.

“Good puppy,” Jessie said, patting me on the shoulder. She didn’t even flinch when I snapped my teeth at her.

“There,” Elizabeth said. “Was that so hard? Next time just do what I ask and we can avoid all of this. Come, now. We have a big day ahead of us.”

She pointed me toward a door down the hall. “Get cleaned up. Meet me in the kitchen.”

And then she left, humming under her breath.

“Most everyone is outside,” Jessie said as I looked toward a window. “Just in case you were thinking about trying to run again.”

“I wasn’t,” I muttered.

“Sure you weren’t. But even if you were, we’d chase you and drag you back, and then where would we be?”

“You could just let me go,” I told her hopefully.

She cocked her head. “Why? You have nowhere else to go.”

And that hit me harder than I expected, hearing it so bluntly. She was right. Where would I go? Caswell? Back to Ezra and Michelle? Even if I chose to disbelieve everything I’d been told si

nce coming to Green Creek, it wouldn’t explain away everything that had happened in the compound. What I’d seen. What I’d heard. All the things I couldn’t remember. Tony—the little cub—asking me what it’d been like when I’d been in Caswell before, and why I always felt blue.

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I looked up.

Jessie wasn’t smiling. She was hurting too. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Yeah, I think you did. And it’s not like you’re wrong.”