Page 60 of Ramshackle
“What? No! We’re not leaving without—Wait! Jack, put me down!”
Two short leaps and we’re on the broken window in my room, and then we’re airborne before I get a chance to do more than gasp and cling to his neck.
The agents who’d been outside are all lying on the ground, dead most likely, so there’s no one to slow us down as Jackson takes us into the woods.
“We’re not leaving him! Gordon just told me he’s planning to kill all of you. We can’t leave him alone with them!” I bang a fist against his chest. A flash of red makes me pause and stare at my hand. “Jack? Are you shot again?” I rub both of my hands over his black hoodie until I find what I’m looking for. He’s bleeding below his left shoulder.
“It’s nothing,” he murmurs.
“It’s not nothing. And I know your thigh is injured, too. We need to go back for Aiden so we can all go back to the bunker. Where are you taking us?”
We land on a wide branch high in a tree. Jack carefully sets me on my feet, where the limb meets with the trunk. “Stay here. Don’t move or let them see you if they search this far.”
“Are you going back for him? Take me with you. I can help.”
He brushes my hair aside and presses a chaste kiss to my forehead. “It’s you I’m worried about. I’ll be back.”
“Jack, wait—” He’s gone before I can stop him.
“Son of a…” I gripe, my nails digging into the hard grooves of bark as my body trembles at this height.
This is fine.
I’m only thirty feet off the ground, clinging to a tree with a bad knee.
Maybe sitting would be better.
I sink into a squat—that my kneehateswith a fiery passion—and lean into the trunk of the tree to give myself greater balance. I’m notthrilledthat I’m stuck in a tree, but as far as hidingplaces go without being too far from Old Red, I can see why he picked it.
Shifting one foot out to straddle the branch, it slips and sends me backward. I throw my weight forward, yanking my other foot out for counterbalance and slapping my hands around the trunk in a bear hug with a string of curses. I glance to the ground, and the world spins. Ohhhh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I squeeze my eyes shut and take a deep breath.
I’m okay. I didn’t fall.
There’s no way I’m getting down from here with my knee, which means I’m stuck waiting and hoping Jack and Aiden are okay.
Dammit, Jackson.
“I heard something over there!”
Panic clutches my chest, and I slow my breathing to listen. There’s no way…
Two GE agents search the woods.
Why are they all the way out here?
“I found her!” one of them yells, pointing directly at me.
Fuck me.
The two agents surround the base of the tree.
“Get her down.”
“You got her when she falls?”
“Yeah, as long as you make sure she’s asleep when you hit her. I’m not touching her while she’s awake.”
