Page 45 of Marc
No. If I was honest, I’d always known. Just as I knew that he wasn’t the relationship kind of guy.
Still, I wasn’t sure where this was headed. Was he just after a few hot nights? Was it just a reaction to the dangerous situation?
My stomach soured. Maybe he wanted sex, then he’d saunter off with a smile. The idea of watching him flirt with some woman at the bar cut me deeply.
But he’d been so…worried about me yesterday. Mad that I’d taken a risk and not listened to him. Those reactions had to be fueled by more than just desire.
Ugh. I was twisting myself up thinking about all of this.
“Colbie?” He stroked my hair. “Time to wake up.”
I sat up. My braid had come loose during the night and I pushed my hair out of my face. “What time is it?”
“Four AM. We need to get moving.” He smiled at me. He had a great smile.
“Hey,” I murmured.
He tucked my hair behind my ear. “You snore.”
I gasped. “I do not.”
“You do. Cute, snuffling snoring.”
I shot him a hot look and rose. I realized that I was still sticky between my legs, and I tried not to feel self-conscious about that. “Are we heading back up the ladder?”
He rose too. “No. The rendezvous point is north of here. The ladder is in the wrong direction. Our best bet is to cross through the base, then head outside where the aliens blew a huge hole in the place. We’ve flown over it a few times. It’ll be easy for us to get out that way, and we’ll be close to the pickup point.”
“I’mreallyready to go home.”
He grabbed my hand. “Me too. Let’s pack up.”
I watched him head over to where he’d plugged the old carbine in to charge. I pulled my boots back on. Actually, a small part of me would be sad to leave this little, safe space.
“Carbine, good?” I started re-braiding my hair.
He lifted his chin. “Fully charged.”
Once we were ready, he shoved the bunk out of the way and wedged the door open. I set my shoulders back.Right. We had to get out of here, cross through a base filled with monsters, and get to an evacuation point in a forest filled with even more monsters.
Easy-peasy.
Marc looked focused, alert. “You see any monsters, you runawayfrom them, got it?”
I rolled my eyes.
He always used charm and a joke to keep people relaxed.
To keep people from seeing the real Marc.
We started down the corridor.
“We’ll have to go through the dining area, and avoid the old hangar,” he said.
“Right.” Avoid the cocoons and that monster-wolf thing.
We moved swiftly and quietly through the corridors. Most of the areas were filled with rubble. Mixed in were remnants of former lives. Books, tools, knives and forks. The ones that got me were the kids’ toys, abandoned and broken. My gaze snagged onan old, ragged teddy bear. My heart skipped a beat at the sight, and I desperately hoped that whoever it had belonged to had made it out alive.
“This way,” Marc said.
