Chapter 9

Trevor crawled into the tent turned and looked at Slate. “Isn’t he coming in with us?”

Chloe shook her head and smiled. “No, he doesn’t like the tent, too small I guess. He’ll lie right outside and guard the door. He does the same thing when I go hunting. Big Alpha wolf.” She gave Trevor a wink.

He chuckled. “Works for me I guess. He has the teeth, you have the gun, I’m good with that. Makes me feel safe. Useless, but safe.” He grimaced at his own words.

“Oh stop, I’m sure you aren’t useless,” Chloe chided him.

“Actually, I’m pretty certain that I am. It’s just a feeling mind you, but I think that I’ve pretty much been pampered my entire life. I don’t think I could load and fire a gun if my life depended on it. And this whole survival thing, you’re right, I have no idea how I made it cross-country to your cabin. It’s probably a small miracle that I’m not dead.”

Chloe settled into her sleeping bag, unsure how to comfort him. She lay back, folding her arms beneath her head. “If it weren’t for my dad, I’d been just as useless. It’s only because of him that I have the skills that I do. He took me on all those camping trips, taught me to hunt and skin animals and to do all that stuff. When he came and told me one day that he was going to teach me how to survive like the pioneers, I thought it was cool that he knew that stuff.”

Trevor smiled at her. “It is cool.”

She rolled onto her side, putting an arm beneath her cheek and smiling at him. “I didn’t find out until later that he’d gone on the Internet and looked it all up. That he’d learned how to do all that stuff for me. Just for me. He knew that because of my curse I would never be able to live in a normal house. That was why he was going to by that piece of land up on the mountain for me, and build a house there. For me. He knew. Knew that up there would be where I’d have to go someday. And he wanted to teach me how to live there. He was preparing me for it.

 “That’s kind of sweet,” Trevor said.

She smiled. “It was. I miss him.”

He saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes and wanted nothing more than to comfort her, he wasn’t certain how to go about doing that. He had no experience with comfort of any sort. Comfort wasn’t something he received on a regular basis. His brow scrunched into a frown. How had he known that?

“You okay, Trevor?” she asked as she reached out and brushed her fingertips over his brow in an attempt to smooth it.

He caught her hand in his, gave it a little squeeze, and released it. “Fine. Just trying to remember, that’s all.”

“I understand. Sorry, all my reminiscing must be driving you crazy trying to remember your own parents.”

He didn’t want to tell her that he didn’t think he really wanted to remember his parents. The more feelings he had, the more he thought that perhaps his life wasn’t really worth remembering at all. “We had better get some sleep; we’ve got a lot of walking to do.”

In answer, she yawned and closed her eyes.

Trevor lay there, watching her sleep for a long while. He slipped his hand into hers, felt the immediate tingle of the electric surge that passed between their bodies and smiled. His eyes slid closed and he was finally able to forgo searching for memories that were out of reach and sleep.

 

Chloe’s eyes flickered open and for a moment she couldn’t figure out why her body felt as if, it was alive, humming. Then she looked over and her eyes connected with Trevor’s face across the small space of the tent. She realized her fingers were linked with his and frowned. When had that happened? Carefully she extracted her hand from his and made her way out of the tent.

Slate looked up at her. She leaned over and gave him a pat on the head. “Morning boy.”

He slipped past her and slunk into the tent. Chloe stuck her tongue out at his retreating tail. Mumbled the word traitor and turned her back on the dog. A minute later, she heard Trevor’s laughter from inside the tent, followed by his loud complaints and he tried to get Slate to stop slobbering on him.

She grinned and set about getting breakfast made.

By the time, Trevor emerged from the tent she had coffee brewing and had started on breakfast. His hair was mussed and he had morning stubble on his cheeks, she watched as he rubbed at his eyes. When he dropped his hands and grinned at her she turned quickly away, not wanting to get caught staring.

“Morning, there’s coffee waiting,” she told him quickly.

“Sounds like heaven.” He reached for the pot sitting near the edge of the fire.

“No!” She jumped up and slapped at his hand, scowling at him. “You ever been camping?”

He stared at her with wide eyes. “Not that I remember.”

She shook her head, grabbed the edge of her shirt, wrapped it around the metal handle of the coffee pot, and poured him a cup. “Metal pot sitting in the coals of a fire, do not grab it or you will get burned.”

“Right. Got ya. I’m really starting to feel like a complete idiot.” He sat down on a rock and stared down into his cup.

Chloe set aside the food and went to sit beside him. “I’m sorry Trevor; I didn’t mean to make you feel inferior.”

He shook his head. “Not your fault.”

Funny, it felt like it was. “Have you remembered anything at all?”

“No not really, it’s more like feelings. I know that I never really went out much.” He stared steadily into the cup of coffee. His brows drew together. “That’s not quite right. I think it’s more like, I was watched when I went out. Hovered over.”

“You mentioned that you were pampered.”

“In a way. I was important to my parents, I think, for some reason I was their source of income so they treated me fairly good. Well enough that I stayed at least.” After a moment, he handed her the cup of coffee. “I’m not very hungry. I don’t think I feel much like eating.”

“All right. I’ll just clean this up and we’ll get moving.” She stood and grabbed the pan she’d set aside, finished cooking the biscuits she’d been working on, fed a couple of them to Slate and wrapped the rest up for later.

After she washed the dishes in a small stream that was near the camp and packed everything up, they started walking again. Chloe sent a sidelong glance at Trevor; he was favoring his right leg. Her eyes flicked around the area as they walked, she leaned down and grabbed a branch up off the ground.

Humming, she pulled her knife from the sheath on her hip and began shaving away at the bark on branch.

“What are you doing?”

She glanced at Trevor. “You’ll see.” She could feel his eyes on her as they walked, she ignored him and continued to whittle away at the branch. When she had it exactly how she wanted it, she sheathed the knife at her waist, halted and turned to him with a grin.

He blinked at her. “What?”

She held out the branch to him. “For you. It’s a walking stick; take some of that weight of your right leg. If you come up lame, we won’t be going anywhere.”

“Wow, thanks. Truth is it hurts a lot. No clue what I did to it.”

She nodded and watched as he tried a couple of steps with the stick. “Looks good. Let’s move.”

He smiled and began walking.

Chloe fell into step beside him. She didn’t know what had happened to his ankle either, but if she had to take a guess, she’d guess that someone had tried to stab him in the ankle or at least take a chunk out of his flesh.

“You’re lucky it didn’t get infected. It looks like someone tried to take a giant bite out of your leg with a knife.”

“You think?”

“Looked like a stab wound to me when I treated it. Used a knife plenty of times myself to know one,” she answered with a shrug.

“Probably that guard that grabbed my leg as I went over the fence at that facility where they were holding me. I remember a sharp pain before I kicked at him, got him to release me so I could get over the fence and when I hit the ground on the other side my ankle gave out, I was too concerned with getting the hell out of there to worry about why it hurt at the time to look at it. They were holding me, they wanted me to�"” he stopped talking abruptly and rubbed at his temples.

“Are you okay?” Chloe asked him.

“I had it d****t! I had a clear memory there for a minute and then it disappeared! I wish it hadn’t disappeared before I remembered what they had brought me to that place for, why they brought me there!”

“Hey don’t push it, all of it will come back when it’s ready to, don’t worry. Come on, let’s keep moving we’ve got to keep going if we want to put a lot of space between us and your friend Brooks.”

They walked on in silence for a long while, pushing through the trees. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, for which Chloe was glad. She enjoyed Trevor’s company a great deal. As ever, she was surprised by that. Being with someone else, besides her father, had always made her wary and uncomfortable. Even James and Ellie had put her on edge, she’d always been afraid they’d find out her secret and then they’d shun her because of it.

She’d never had a true friend. Her father was the only one who had ever really been there for her.

She looked over at Trevor from beneath her lashes. His brow was furrowed and his lips moved silently as if he were trying to work something out inside his head, she grinned and nudged him with her elbow. “You okay?”

Startled from his thoughts, he looked over at her. “What? Oh, yeah I was just trying to work through the twisted mess inside my head, but it’s sort of, like the thoughts are … I don’t know, fluid, I guess. They move and flow and the minute I try to get a grasp on them they rush through my grasp like water. God that probably makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.”

She smiled and gave her head a small shake. “No, it makes perfect sense. It’s like when you’re walking and you swear you see something out of the corner of your eye and you turn, but it’s gone. But you know that it was there and as you’re walking you keep seeing it, just out of reach, just out of sight. Yet, no matter how quickly you turn, you never catch sight of it.”

His hand reached out and his fingers twined with hers, giving them a tiny squeeze. “I think that you are the only person who has ever understood me, ever.”

“Same here. Except for my father, but he was my father, fathers don’t count because they have to love and understand their kids.” Her face scrunched up. “But you’d think that would be the same for mothers too, wouldn’t you? But my mother never understood me, she hated me.” She went quiet.

“I am fairly certain my parents never understood me either, nor did they love me. It is more like they loved what I could do for them.”

She could detect the bitterness in his voice. Despite the fact that their lives seemed so similar. That they both seemed to have the same experiences with loneliness, she had a feeling they were very different people in many ways.

“Yet they took very good care of you even though they didn’t understand you. They must have cared for you in some way,” Chloe said gently.

He gave a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know.”

“At least you lived normally, not alone in the woods.”

He gave her hand a little tug, bringing her close and wrapping her in his arms, hugging her tightly. “I’m sorry that you ended up there, Chloe. That you were alone. You aren’t alone now.”

She smiled up at him. “Thank you Trevor.”

“You’re welcome.” He would have kissed her again, but once more Slate interrupted. He came charging up, barking madly. Trevor looked down at him. “What is it?

Slate led them a short distance, looking proud as he parked his rump at the edge of the blacktop, staring out over the highway.

Chloe smiled broadly. “Well, this is promising. I think it’s the highway that runs through the mountain. Not sure how we ended up finding it.”

“Promising how exactly?” he asked her.

“We can hitch a ride out of Nevada, that is how,” she replied as she looked up and down the deserted road.

“Hitchhike? Are you insane! We could end up dead and left in a ditch somewhere!”

“Trevor, calm down. Slate wouldn’t let that happen.”

The dog looked up and he swore the thing rolled its eyes.

Chloe stepped closer to the edge of the pavement as a semi came barreling around the curve down the way. She looked down at Slate. “You behave, act adorable and nonthreatening, got it?”

Slate let his tongue loll out, his ears drop slightly, and he gave a little woof.

Chloe looked at Trevor. “And you lean a little more on that walking stick and try not to look so, so, you.”

“I beg your pardon?”

She waved a hand at the walking stick, unsure how exactly to explain to him that he looked too handsome when he was sleep rumpled and unshaven. He shook his head and leaned on his makeshift crutch. He grinned at her and seemed to be wondering what she’d meant by her remark.

The truck slowed to a stop near them, the driver killed the rumbling engine to speak to them. Chloe jumped lightly up the steps and opened the door to talk to the driver, she knew from the experience with Trevor’s iPad that as soon as he touched the truck after her it would work again or at least she hoped that it would. “Hey, would you mind a few passengers?”

The man gave a bright laugh. “Don’t mind a bit little lady. Where you headed?”

“Wherever you are. We aren’t picky. We’re kinda nomads. Just going anywhere and everywhere.”

“Well, I’m heading into Utah, you’re welcome to hitch a ride,” the driver told her.

“Thanks so much! I’m Chloe and this is my husband Trevor and our dog Slate.”

“Welcome aboard.”

Chloe stepped into the back and Trevor let Slate climb in first. Slate jumped in, stopped, and licked the man’s face. The trucker chuckled and gave the dog a pat. Trevor struggled a bit with his ankle as he climbed up, but finally made it, before slamming the door shut.

“Ankle trouble son?” the trucker asked him.

“A bit, Slate decided to come at me full run, knocked me on my a*s down a little hill. Busted it up pretty good. It’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Twisted, cut, not pretty. But you can’t stay mad at him, he apologizes fairly well.” Trevor reached over and gave the big dog a scratch.

The trucker gave a nod and thrust out his hand. “Name’s Billy Dawg, good to meet you folks.”

Trevor shook his hand. “Good to meet you as well, Billy.”

Billy gave a nod and pulled the big rig away from the side of the road. “You folks out here camping?”

Chloe answered from her spot in back. “Squatting, really I suppose you could say. Haven’t really been doing much of anything lately. But we got sick of staying out here in the wilderness, thought we’d take a stab at civilization again for a bit.”

Billy gave a hoot of laughter. “Well, reality has its drawbacks, but I’m sure you folks know that.”

Trevor grinned over at him. “Course we do. You know anyplace in Utah where we can get work?”

“How are ya with manual labor?”

“I’m pretty good with electronics, well anything electrical really,” Trevor, told him. Billy didn’t seem to notice the slight frown that followed Trevor’s statement, almost as if he weren’t quite certain where those words had sprung up from.

“Hmm, well I know a couple that runs a small resort type place they might need a maintenance man.” Billy looked over at him.

“Not so hot with painting and stuff of that sort.”

Billy shrugged. “Ava’s boys can teach you the rest; her boys aren’t so good with the electrical things. I’m sure some of the air conditioning units have been suffering for it.”

Trevor nodded slowly as if considering it. “I suppose we could at least talk with her. How would she be with, you know, paying someone under the table.”

Billy sent Trevor a sidelong glance, his bushy eyebrows bunched into a deep V. “You been hiding in them woods for a reason son?”

Trevor rubbed at the back of his neck, but it was Chloe who answered from her seat in the back. “You could say that the two of us and Big Brother don’t exactly mesh well.”

That sent Billy into gales of laughter. When he calmed, he rubbed a bit at a couple of tears that had sprung from his eyes. “Ah, well, I’ve had a few run-ins with law enforcement in my day, so I can sympathize with you there. We can talk with Ava and see what she can do; she and her husband are good people. Her boys as well.”

“Thanks Billy,” Chloe said.

They drove, talking and getting to know one another. Laughing and enjoying the ride. Late in the day, they stopped to eat. Billy paid when he discovered how little money they actually had. He even purchased a burger and fries for a grateful Slate, who gobbled his food enthusiastically.

Billy seemed to enjoy having Slate along for the ride. As they neared the Utah boarder late that evening, Billy smiled and said as much.

“Miss having a dog in the truck.”

Chloe grinned at him. “You had a dog?”

“Big black monster. A lot like your Slate. Part wolf is he?” Billy asked.

“Yeah. Though you can’t tell most of the time, big pup that he is,” she giggled as she glanced back to where Slate and Trevor slept. The two crammed together on the bunk in back.

“Mine was the same. But whooee, piss him off and the teeth came out!”

“Slate’s the same. He protects me something fierce. Reason I didn’t mind living up at the cabin alone. I knew Slate would look after me.” She glanced back at Slate and Trevor again.

Billy’s brows rose. “And now?”

She sent him a questioning look. “Now?”

“With your husband around.”

“Oh, right.” She laughed. “Still need Slate. Trevor’s never used a gun or anything like that. But I wouldn’t trade Trevor for anything, ever.” She stared into the back compartment, watching Trevor sleep. When she turned back to the front, she caught Billy watching her silently and blushed, looking away quickly.

“We should hit the border in a couple of hours,” he told her with a fat grin.