It wouldn’t.
Which way do I go? Back the way she’d come was the most logical route. It was safer—physically and emotionally—but it would also prove Dani right. Lynn swallowed. Dani wasn’t right. Yes, she had planned to ditch her, but Dani was most certainly wrong about her personality. Then there was this morning’s realization too—that she needed someone.
After Dani, then.
And then what? Force herself upon her? Tell her she wasn’t leaving, and risk a spear to the gut? Lynn sighed.
She stood from her crouch and walked after Dani. Maybe she would just keep her distance for a while. She could always catch up with her when Dani made camp.
She looked up to the darkening sky. Or when the heavens open up.
Dani, of course, noticed her following almost right away.
She glanced back, then turned and walked backward a few paces before turning back around. After a few more steps, she came to a halt. She turned again and crossed her arms—and the length of the spear—in front of her chest as a barrier—or a warning.
Lynn stifled a sigh and crossed the distance with her head held high.
This time, Skeever stayed with her instead of trying his luck with Dani.
“What are you doing?” Dani arched a brow.
Lynn stared intently at her shoes. “I don’t exactly have a plan right now.”
“You’re following me, in the middle of nowhere, and you don’t know why?”
Lynn looked up to discover that Dani’s other eyebrow had joined her first, high on her forehead. “Pretty much.”
“You’re nuts.” There wasn’t as much loathing in Dani’s tone as Lynn had expected.
“Probably.” She took a breath. “You’re wrong about me—or at least I think you’re wrong. And I want to prove it.”
“Why?”
Lynn groaned and deflated a little. “Could you stop asking me all these questions I don’t have answers to?”
“No.” A tiny glimmer of amusement tugged at the corner of Dani’s mouth. “I think I’m entitled to some answers or at least to asking the questions that you should be able to answer.”
Lynn sighed and patted her thigh with her tomahawk. “I guess…” She thought about the why of it all. “Because of what I said before.” She shrugged. “I liked it better when we traveled together, which, I guess, means I like you. And I don’t want you to think of me like… that.”
“Like what?”
“You’re going to make me repeat it?”
“Damn right.”
Lynn groaned and threw up her arms. “Fine! Like… a selfish person. Like a predator.”
Dani’s shoulders sagged a little, which made her posture go from downright hostile to highly reserved. “Go on.”
Lynn frowned. What did I miss? Those were the big ones, right? She went through the whole conversation again. “I’m not a victim? And I should never have planned to get you stranded in the Wilds.”
Dani nodded slowly. “Are you just saying that because you think that’s what I want to hear, or do you mean it?”
Lynn hesitated. “I… don’t see myself the way you see me.” She diverted her gaze to find relief from Dani’s intense stare. “But if that’s the way you see me, that’s what I want to change. Maybe that means changing myself, or maybe it means proving myself to you. I don’t know. Either way, I need you present to do it.”
Dani inspected her again and waited to speak until Lynn met her eyes. “This is selfish again, you know? I have to stick around so you can feel better about yourself? Selfish.”
Lynn groaned. “Come on! Give me a break! That’s not fair! First you rip into me and then, when I try to make amends for all the stuff I did, you tell me it’s selfish? Don’t you want me to make it up to you even a little?”
Dani’s eyes, which had softened for a moment, closed off again. “I don’t see what the use is, Lynn. You messed up, but you don’t owe me anything. You never did. You owed something to human decency, maybe, but it’s not like I didn’t see your bullshit coming from a mile away. Yeah, I’m angry, and I’m also a little hurt, but mostly I’m just really done with you.”
Lynn flinched. The metaphorical knife Dani had previously thrust in her gut twisted to inflict more pain. She swallowed it down. “Fair enough.”
Dani sighed and checked around her before she took in Lynn again. “One night.”
“What?” Lynn frowned, but her heartbeat quickened.
“You have one night to prove to me you’re more than a predator. That storm is going to hit any moment now. If we both set up our own camp, we’d waste resources as well as the possibility of sleep, and that would be stupid. We’ll reevaluate in the morning.”
“Okay.” Lynn nodded quickly. “Okay, sounds good.”
“Ask me why you’re getting this shot.” Dani’s stoic face didn’t betray any of her emotions.
“Uhhh… why am I getting this shot?”
Dani licked her lips and glanced at her boots. “Because you sat with me in the car when I slept. I remembered grabbing your arm in the morning. I thought it was part of my dream, but then I found my knife on the ground and I kinda pieced together what’d happened. That was a selfless thing you did—pretty much the only selfless thing you’ve done so far—and if there is more of that person in there, maybe she’s worth getting to know.”
Dani’s soft brown eyes made Lynn feel a little wobbly. The words soothed the sting of her previous reprimands like Ren’s healing balm. She blushed. “Okay.”
Dani gave her the smallest of smiles. “Okay.” She glanced at the sky, then pointed to the left of the road. “There are some houses there. Let’s try to find somewhere with a roof.”
Lynn followed without comment, but with a head full of thoughts.
Lynn brought her tomahawk down on the goose’s spine. It cracked easily. With two more blows, she divided the carcass into four pieces. Its dark meat hung over a small fire Dani tended. The stripped bones were all that remained of the bird. Lynn chopped the ribs from the spine and cracked them once more.
Dani leaned against the wall next to the door and watched the rain come down in buckets.
Skeever, covered in the feathers he’d chased on the pre-storm winds, chewed contentedly on the head and neck of the goose. He’d taken up position on the threshold of the red brick house they’d chosen to occupy for the night.
Two cans of water came to a boil almost at the same time.
Lynn continued to chop the bones into smaller and smaller pieces.
They’d chosen this house because it was three stories high, so even if the roof was shot, the odds were good that they’d find somewhere dry downstairs. There were steps that led up to a plateau in front of the entrance, so they had an overview of the street and the 95 that ran parallel to it, separated from each other by only by a rusty chain-link fence and a patch of green they’d crossed an hour earlier.
Many of the buildings on the street offered protection from the rain through multiple levels and a vantage point by way of an elevated stoop, but none of the others boasted a heavily ornamented awning and low walls on either side that blocked both the rain and the wind and allowed them to make a fire to cook food. Much of the fire’s heat was blown away instantly.
Lynn had stocked up on layers of clothing to combat the severe temperature drop.
Dani had wrapped herself up in a blanket.
Lynn dropped as many of the bones as would fit in the boiling water and tossed the remainders to Skeever.