Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) Straight, Nancy (book club reads .TXT) 📖

no phone, no good idea of who I should contact, or how much would be safe for them to know. Our meeting tonight gave each one of them enough information to protect themselves and those closest to them. My inability to call and check in with everyone was a problem, but not one I had to remedy this evening.

After my purse incident at Joe’s house, I stopped carrying one. Now all my identification and plastic, as well as an emergency two hundred dollars were tucked safely in a pocket sized wallet. No matter what I wore or where I was, my wallet was always with me.

I looked in the shopping basket and had everything I needed to treat Max, plus a couple sodas and some snacks. They even had a meager selection of t-shirts and shorts stuffed in a clearance box at the front of the store. By the time I was crossing the street, I had everything we needed for the night. I finally caught my breath. I was appreciative of our good fortune, that I would finally be able to sleep knowing Max was okay. We would simply be together tonight.

I let myself into the room. Max hadn’t moved an inch since I left. I laid all of the items out on the night stand beside Max. I gently removed his shirt and my eyes drew to the large gaping hole in his shoulder, I couldn’t tell if he had been shot or punctured. If it was a bullet hole, the bullet had passed completely through him. I put a towel under his shoulder and poured peroxide into the wound. His body tensed but he kept his teeth gritted tight.

“I’m so sorry, I know it hurts. I need to get it cleaned up before it gets infected.”

Max kept his jaw locked tight and nodded his understanding. I continued cleaning it as fast as I could and wrapped it up. He needed to go to a doctor, but this would be good enough for tonight. He looked exhausted, filled with pain, and he didn’t say a word. I let him ease off to sleep. I could still hear Rewsna’s calling distantly in my mind, but whatever it was, it could wait until morning. I tuned her out and eased closer to Max. I didn’t want to take a chance of jarring him in the night, so I gave him plenty of room. We weren’t as close as I would have liked after so much time away from each other, but there would be plenty of time for that.

I shut off the lights and closed my eyes. That familiar tunnel appeared in front of me, but I didn’t want to look in on anyone anymore than I had wanted to converse with Rewsna. The tunnel didn’t disappear as quickly as normal when I opted not to step through it. I willed it away in favor of some much needed sleep.

****

The sun streaked in through the top and bottom of the curtain. I looked at the alarm clock; it was after nine, but I wasn’t in any huge hurry to start my day. Sometime in the night I had a small bit of clarity and knew Columbia wasn’t far enough away. I could hear the shower running. Max must be feeling better if he was up and moving already. I didn’t have unlimited funds, but if we were careful we could drop off the grid for a few months. Maybe California. I fell in love with Carlsbad Beach years ago and would love to go back. The weather’s decent enough, we could stay in national parks.

My stomach began to knot as I worried that Max might not want to disappear with me. Whatever the Beast did to him, Max might now think he had a score to settle. I knew last night he didn’t have the strength to answer any of my questions, so I didn’t ask anything, but the fact that he was able to escape at all was amazing.

All those talks with Rewsna about how special I was, maybe my gifts paled in comparison to Max’s? Maybe there was a reason I couldn’t be without him. I’ve known all along he was supposed to be in my life, but the feeling hit me that he might be more than moral support. After all, he was the one who made sure I knew how to shoot, he bought several guns for me, he got Peanut and helped me hide. After looking at his gunshot wound yesterday, I think I came pretty close to losing him. Rewsna told me the Beast would never attack me directly. The closer I kept Max to me, the safer I could keep him.

The shower shut off, and I leaped off the bed to take a quick look in the mirror. I ran my fingers through my hair, but there wasn’t much to be done for bed-head without a brush. I stepped back behind the wall just as the bathroom door opened.

As I watched him walk back toward the bed in a towel, my heart skipped a beat then began to speed out of control. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and undiluted fear took control of my body as I backed away, trying to melt into the wall.

He looked at me, but I wasn’t looking at Max’s eyes. His eyes understood in that moment that the truth was clear, and his initial greeting smile was replaced by a smug sinister smile. “My dear Lauren, I owe you my life. I would have surely perished last night if you hadn’t rushed me to safety and patched me up the way you did.”

He took a couple steps toward me, and a feral growl nearly crossed my lips. “Stay away from me. If you come any closer, I’ll kill you.”

His smugness didn’t evaporate and my threat was empty, worse - he knew that it was empty. “There is no need to be violent.