Page 11 of Redemption in the Dark (The Righteous 5)
“I’m sorry, man, I had to take cover and ended up weaving my way through the battle and didn’t see anyone. I definitely haven’t seen Duke.”
“Fuck.” Jimmy laid his head back on the broken wall, his eyes filling up with tears.
“I’m sorry, man, but I have to reset your shoulder. I’m pretty sure it’s cutting off blood supply to your hand.”
“Just do what you have to.” Jimmy closed his eyes.
Wolf felt along the line of his arm and then handed Jimmy the strap from his pack to bite down on while he set it.
“Don’t yell,” he said.
Jimmy nodded, and Wolf pulled hard on his arm. Jimmy bit down hard, his yell coming out muffled. A sickening popping sound was loud as his shoulder snapped back into place.
“Shit.” Jimmy panted as he spat out the pack strap. “Join the army, they said. It will be an adventure, they said…it would be nice if they promoted the real shit. The shit that keeps you awake at night, like that fucking kid blowing himself up a couple of weeks ago for a cause that he doesn’t even understand yet.” He shook his head. “I don’t get it. This place…it warps you, Wolf. How do you do it?”
“Do what,” he asked as he created a sling for Jimmy’s arm.
“Stay so calm, focused and positive, stay so you. How do you still see the best in people? Take your pick, man. You’re like a fucking saint. I thought I was one of those people that wouldn’t be affected, that I was above it, but I don’t see the best in anyone anymore. All I see is walking bombs on every corner and death with every gust of wind.” A tear trickled down his cheek. “And now Duke. I can’t stay out here anymore. I want to put a gun in my mouth every fucking day.”
Wolf grabbed Jimmy by his face and made him look at him. “Don’t say that. We’re going to get out of here, and you’re going to go home to your girlfriend and never have to come back. I’m going to get you out of here, Jimmy. Do you hear me?”
He let go of Jimmy’s face as a shadow moved, and he reached for his gun when Duke came leaping over the low broken wall. With a whine and a wag of his tail, he crawled on Jimmy licking his face.
“Duke, you fucker, you’re still alive,” Jimmy said as he smiled wide at the dog’s assault.
Wolf shuffled back on his ass to give the man and his dog room to reunite. Jimmy had raised the Malinois since he was twelve weeks old, and the two of them had been inseparable.
Jimmy’s eyes found his, a glimmer of hope shining in his eyes. “Okay, let’s get the fuck out of here, man.”
He lookedup as the feel of a warm muzzle touched his neck.
“What do you think, Viho? It looks like a bad storm is coming,” he said, reaching back to lay his hand on the stallion’s leg.
The first fat droplets of rain hit his head, and all he could think about was Maeve out there alone. Why it bothered him? Well, he hadn’t figured that out yet because it was beyond normal reasoning.
Maeve put a little more of the toothpaste in her mouth and swallowed it down. She only ate a little, since the shit was poisonous in large amounts, but it gave her stomach something to gnaw on. Her stomach growled with the meager offering, but the sharp hunger pangs eased. If she were going to be stuck out here for days, she’d have to figure out what she could eat. As the fat raindrops fell, she ran through the list of items that were safe to ingest in the area. Listing the items helped her feel calmer and less alone.
She tucked herself deeper into the sweater she stole from Wolf and hated the fact that it smelled so damn good. A U.S. Marshal shouldn’t smell good. They should have a warning smell like chicken shit, black licorice, or something equally disgusting. At least the shower curtain was doing its job and keeping her dry. She looked up at the tiny makeshift tent and sighed. The hot Vegas club with the foam and naked people sounded really good right about now, but that was also how she got into this mess.
“Fuck, I should’ve just gone straight to Morry’s.” She’d been playing her own real-life game of Monopoly, and she just landed on the go-straight-to-jail square. “What had you been thinking, Maeve,” she asked out loud like that might give her the keys to her own crazy mind.
She laid her cheek on her knees and tried to stop fantasizing about the all-too-sexy Marshal. That shoulder-length black hair had been so tempting. She’d wanted to run her fingers through it. And those liquid brandy eyes of his suited him and the animal he was named after too well. They were intense and piercing. She shivered again but not from the cold.
Maeve slipped the massive hoodie over her knees and tied the hood into place as she curled up into as tight of a ball as she could on the wide fallen log she’d found.
She’d truly become the proverbial bump on a log.
Her stomach growled again. What she wouldn’t give for a burger, fries, and a damn cell phone right about now. The wilderness had never been her thing, but she’d learned to respect it and appreciate it when she lived in the middle of the desert with Morry. Also, she’d learned to ride a horse even though it had completely terrified her to get on the large beast, and she’d been given the chore of cleaning and feeding the chickens. Those creatures were seriously the devil’s pets—horrible pecking and flapping animals.
As the rhythmic thrumming of the rain pelted the top of her little shower curtain tent, she could feel her eyes getting heavy. Unable to hold them open any longer, they fluttered closed.
“Rememberyou can’t tell anyone about this,” he said and trailed a finger down the side of her face. “This is our little secret.”
The man’s breath stank, and she had to work hard to keep the look of ‘ick’ off her face. She’d gotten really good at pretending a lot since coming here.
He stood next to her small bed and began pulling on his pants.
“Why,” she asked, her voice a whisper.
