Page 53 of Exit Strategy
“What’s the difference between them and you?” she asked.
“They failed because they didn’t believe. I will not fail. I will find Calanthe and Kurt, and I will bring them both back.” Do you remember, Kurt? Do you remember telling me about the mountains, and the cabin off the grid? About your pals in Indigo City? You did drink a lot that night, before you left with the woman with the tattooed sleeve on her right arm. The one I thought looked like a piece of shit, but you decided was good enough to take back to her place.
I pulled out my phone and sent him an email.
Kurt
I’ll see you soon.
You better have a goddamn good explanation for this.
If she’s harmed, it will be bad for you.
If you shoot at me, it will be very bad for you.
Love
Madeleine
Sent.
I sighed and put the phone back in my pocket. The chances of him checking his email were slim, and if he did, he was smart enough to either use a burner phone, or an encrypted one. I didn’t really want to surprise him. That would be a good way to end up dead. I didn’t want him to know I was coming either, but he had to know. He had to know that I wouldn’t let him go, and I would certainly not let Calanthe go.
I would march into Hell itself to bring her back.
I might have to do just that.
17
Callie…
“Mmm.” I smiled and shifted against the mattress and the crisp sheets on the bed, Kurt’s familiar hard weight beside me though he was sitting up by now. I pushed myself into a similar position beside him and turned to look at him as he scowled at his phone’s screen. My heart instantly dropped into the pit of my stomach at his expression.
“Kurt, is everything okay?” I asked hesitantly, my voice soft.
Apprehension filled me as he glanced up from the phone screen and squinted off into space for a moment before setting the device aside and turning to me with a reassuring smile.
“Everything’s fine, Love.”
I didn’t believe him, but I wasn’t about to let on about that.
“Okay,” I murmured, and he smiled, reaching for me. I didn’t flinch. I was proud of myself for that, but I did stiffen a bit until his touch fell gentle around me, pulling me into the side of his chest as he lay back with me.
He pressed his lips to my forehead, and I closed my eyes, cuddling close.
“How far have we got left?” I asked, hopeful that today would be the final day of travel. I needed to be still for a while.
He caressed the side of my face with his thumb gently and my eyes slipped closed in pleasure, some of the tension in my body easing as I melted further into his side.
“Not far, Love. We’ve one stop the other side of the bay from Indigo City, then we leave for the cabin.”
“Yeah?” I asked, vaguely disappointed that we had yet one more stop to make.
“Yeah,” he murmured and pressed another kiss to the top of my head, and I admit to soaking up his affections like a sponge. I was starved for it, and I realized with what wits Arik hadn’t beaten out of me yet, just how pathetic that probably made me – which made me angry to a degree.
Sure, I was angry with Arik, but not nearly as much as I was with myself. I mean, I had been a clever girl, top of my class –first daughter, and yet, I still let this happen to me. I tried to work within the proverbial system and while I had rebelled in small ways, I had never tried toescape.I was so very sick and tired of beingafraidall of the time… and yet… and yet as smart as I was and as smart as I probably still could be, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what to do about it.
“Callie?”
