Running with Rogues

CHAPTER 42 - OPPOSITE OF TRESPASS

HEY EVERYONE!! HOW'S IT GOING? A BUNCH OF YOU GUYS ARE NEW SO WELCOME TO THE BOOK :) IT'S SUCH A WONDERFUL AND HAPPY PLACE TO BE. YEAH. GET SUPER ATTACHED TO THE CHARACTERS. I DARE YOU.

"It's still raining," Liam said around lunchtime. "If it keeps going, we could ... you know."

I chewed on my lip, hardly daring to breathe. The rest of his patrol was in earshot, so we needed to be careful about this. "You think?"

He nodded. "I'm got another patrol to run, and then I'm off. Your shift ends at three, right? We'd be back before supper - no one would notice we were gone."

"Seth might. I'm technically supposed to be on-call."

"You didn't admit anything to him, did you?" Liam asked. He was looking at the doctor with a wary scowl on his face. I'd told him everything, naturally. We were still doing that whole 'communication' thing, and it seemed to be working.

"No," I said. "Course not. But he's pretty sure, and I dunno ... I don't think he'd go snitching to anyone. He seems decent ... y'know, for a flockie."

"He is. That doesn't mean I trust him. And I want to know who his friends are before we go anywhere near them."

"I don't think he's going to tell me. Seems like they're real cagey about this, and can you blame them?"

He shrugged. He knew as well as I did that unpleasant things would happen if Mason ever caught wind of their little rebel group. He looked at Seth for a long moment, the muscles in his jaw writhing and popping.

"If it's still raining at three," he said, "I'll come find you."

After a moment's hesitation, I nodded. And I leaned over to kiss his cheek, just in case anyone was watching. Liam was looking at me funny when I pulled away again, his nose wrinkled up like he'd caught a scent. "This is awkward, but has anyone told you-"

I started picking myself up. "That I'm on the burner? Yeah. Your brother did, only he wasn't so polite about it."

That got his attention. "Which brother?"

I nodded towards Micah, who was lording it over a group of recruits to our left. Liam followed my gaze, his face hardening almost beyond recognition.

"Stay away from him, Eva. Please. He's all kinds of screwed up."

I gave him a very half-hearted smile. "I'm trying."

It was still raining at one, and at two, and at three, although the downpour had worsened by then. It was torrential. That was fine for our purposes, and Liam met me after work with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

We caught a ride to the border on the patrol bus, as usual, but instead of running back to the pack house, we lingered there until the patrol was a mile away. Better safe than dead, after all.

The border was a mess of brambles and barbed wire. In some places, the bone fence had been swallowed entirely by the mess of thorns. We picked a place where the ground was thick with leaves, so we'd leave no footprints, and then we stepped over the fence. The only evidence was a scent trail, and the rain had washed that away before we got ten paces.

We weren't going for a run. We weren't even going for a jog. Liam and I walked for about ten minutes to reach a certain layby on the south side of the pack. Nia had planned it all quite thoroughly.

I wasn't dressed for the woods. My flockie shoes were soon caked with mud, my socks soaked with rainwater, and the brambles tore holes in my jeans. I was starting to shiver by the time we glimpsed tarmac.

We had to walk a few hundred metres up the road before we rounded a bend. There, parked haphazardly on the verge, was a silver Fiat. The occupants had been sheltering from the rain, but they saw us coming and got out of the car. Two people - both climbing out of the drivers' side door, for some inexplicable reason.