Renegade Runner Nicole Conway (christmas read aloud txt) 📖

or something.” My voice cracked as I choked on my own ragged breaths. “And it just makes it worse if you’re too nice to me. It makes it hurt more. And I can’t … I can’t take it. I can’t go through that again. So just don’t, okay?”

His brows lifted as he drew back slightly.

“And what sucks the most is you … you don’t even know! You keep doing stuff, trying to make sure we both live, but you don’t even get that I’m the reason Sienne keeps trying to kill us!”

Phox’s defined brows snapped together, his hand gradually pulling away from my face. “What are you talking about?”

My heart burned, tasting every word like acid as I scooted away and stumbled to my feet. “Don’t you get it? That Faulbender person is trying to kill me. Why else would Sienne go to so much trouble to hunt us down? And teaming up with brawlers? You’re telling me that’s something she—a repeat winner of the Renegade Run—always does?” I shut my eyes tightly, not wanting to see the look on his face. My head bowed lower as I backed away from him, making some of my grimy, long, gold hair spill forward onto my chest. “I … I heard those brawlers talking about him before, while I was hiding in the ship. They said he was the one who’d paid them to hunt me down—me, Phox!”

Silence.

Phox was still crouched before the seat, staring at me and not moving a muscle. Any moment now, I knew he’d probably snap. Maybe he would hurt me, after all. It’d solve all his problems, right? If I was gone, then he’d no longer be a target.

Even so, I couldn’t stop it. The dam broke, and everything poured out of me in a rush that left my body cold and my sanity hanging by a thread. “They knew I was human. They mentioned Sienne, too. I-I don’t even know why. I don’t understand any of it. I don’t know who Faulbender is or why he would want to—”

Phox sat up straight. His expression had gone dark and utterly cold, his keen eyes catching and reflecting the light like a beast on the hunt.

I cringed back as a bolt of terror shot through my body. Oh god, was this it? Was he going to kill me? Or just tie me up and toss me out at Sienne’s feet so she could? I’d never get to plead my case. I’d never even understand why.

Suddenly, his arms snagged around me and dragged me in, practically snatching me off my feet to hug my body against his. “Say it, Brinna,” he commanded.

“W-What?” I gasped.

“Say you trust me not to hurt you. And just so we’re on the same page, that includes letting anyone else hurt you, too.” He growled softly against my ear.

I opened my mouth. Nothing. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even think clearly. My mind was a spiral of bewildered doubt. Was he serious? He wasn’t going to turn me in? Didn’t he realize that might be his way out of this mess? He was a thief and a smuggler, after all. Money was money.

“B-But if you were to hand me over, Faulbender might pay you instead,” I reminded him.

“Faulbender is an asshole,” he snapped. “You saved my life, and you think I’d just leave? Or hand you over to save my own neck? I know I’ve done some shitty things in my life. I’m … I’m not a good person. And maybe I’m not even the kind of guy you should be putting any faith in at all, but I’m damn sure not about to turn around and sell you out to brawlers, Sienne, or Faulbender.”

Tears filled my vision until I couldn’t see anything anymore.

“So say it. I’m not letting you go until you do.”

“O-Okay.” I sobbed, laying my forehead against his shoulder and feeling every word like a sharp, ripping agony in my heart. “I-I … I trust you not to hurt me.”

It was going to hurt like hell.

Losing him—watching him walk away—was going to break me. I knew that. I hadn’t been this close to anyone except Mom in so long. Then she started to leave me, too.

But he wasn’t giving me any choice. And besides, it was already way too late.

Phox was already my friend.

“Y-You’re a really sucky criminal, by the way.” I sniffled. He totally was, though. Any decent, thieving, smuggling crook would’ve sold me out and danced away with enough money to set him up for life.

Good thing I’d wound up with this idiot.

Phox let me go slowly and cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t planning on making a career of it.” He avoided my eyes, rubbing the back of his neck as he jabbed a finger at me and then to the seat. I could’ve sworn his cheeks looked a little flushed. “Now sit your ass back down so I can fix your leg. We’ve got to make sure we’re ready for Sienne when the storm lifts.”

27

INTO THE EYE

We didn’t stand a chance. Not a snowflake’s chance in hell. But sitting there and doing nothing while waiting for the storm to pass so Sienne could blow us to kingdom come felt wrong. The alternative? Try to come up with another one of my classic insane plans to get us out of this mess.

Honestly, Phox really needed to start censoring me on these things. It was getting out of hand.

“So what happens if we actually manage to make it over the finish line?” I asked as I hobbled up to the cockpit and settled into my seat. He’d only given me a half-dose of the medications this time—enough to take the edge off while he ripped off the old bandage and resealed it. My head still spun a little whenever I stood up, though. Spots danced in my vision as I sank into the seat, and it still seemed like everything was sloshing back and forth if I