“I don’t know if I can do it.” Dani’s tone was soft and her voice fragile.
Lynn finally looked up.
Dani sat on the floor, arms locked around her drawn-up leg. She rested her chin on her knee as she stared at the cart’s frame.
“Can’t do what?” The cart was almost done; surely they would figure this wheel problem out soon.
“Dig him up.” Dani glanced at her from under her long lashes. Her eyes were moist again.
“Oh?” Lynn sat back on her heels, all thoughts of construction gone. Had Dani changed her mind? Was she satisfied with his burial site? “You want to leave him here?”
“No, that’s not—” Dani took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut. A tear slid down her cheek, and she wiped it away hastily. “No.” She shook her head. “I need to bring him home, but I don’t think I can. I keep thinking of the people we found in the woods, the ones the family buried. I can’t get the stench out of my nose and the… the sight out of my mind.” She sniffed and straightened. “I need—” She faltered. “I need you to do it.”
“Oh.” Lynn felt a little disappointed, but of course Dani wasn’t going to abandon the quest now. She should have known that.
Dani glanced up at her, seemingly gauging her reaction. “I know I don’t have the right to ask. You didn’t come along to dig him up, just to show me where he is. I just… He was my friend. I can’t see him like that.” The tears started falling again.
Lynn nodded slowly. This morning’s unexpected find was still fresh in her mind as well. She knew how bad this was going to be. If the plea had come from anyone else, she would have flat out refused to dig up what was undoubtedly going to be a bloated, maggot-infested, partially decomposed corpse. She shuddered visibly. But this was Dani.
Dani still looked at her expectantly. Anxiety read clearly in her eyes, and Lynn felt sure she wasn’t faking any of this; she was truly horrified at the prospect. Who wouldn’t be?
Lynn held out her hand.
Dani took it without a hint of hesitation.
“I get it.” Lynn squeezed the calloused hand in hers. Deep breath. “I’ll get it done. Just help me with this.” She nodded at the stretcher. “And help me find some place I can wash up after, and I’ll do the digging.”
“S-Sure?”
Lynn nodded. She felt those sparks dance along her skin again. “Yeah. I get it.”
Renewed tears shone in Dani’s eyes. She hurried to close the divide between them and wrapped Lynn up in another hug. “Thank you.”
Dani’s compact body pressed into her, and hot breath tickled Lynn’s skin again. Her brain refused to cooperate and form words. She liberated an arm that had gotten trapped between their bodies and wrapped it around Dani’s back. After a moment of hesitation, she brought the other arm up as well. “D-Don’t worry about it.” She pushed a ball of nerves and worry down and pressed Dani’s body a little more tightly against hers.
“Thank you.” Dani’s repeated words were softer this time, but her hold was still tight. She wasn’t stroking now, just holding on to Lynn’s neck and shoulders.
“No problem.” How is it not a problem? You just volunteered to dig up a dead guy you don’t know! Lynn leaned the side of her head against Dani’s. She listened to her sniffing instead of her own brain anxiously trying to get her to back out of this commitment. In the grand scheme of things, digging up Richard wasn’t such a huge sacrifice, and it would make Dani happy. That made it no longer a problem.
Dani sniffed once more, then pulled back. She wiped her eyes and chuckled humorlessly. “So, um, have you found a solution for the wheels yet?” Her voice was barely more than a rasp.
Lynn let her have her emotional space. “Yeah, I think we can use strips of leather to make a holder on both sides of the handlebars at the height where we want the wheels to be—probably all the way in the back because the angle will be pretty steep even now that we’ve switched to the bike tires. That way, when we put the branch through, it can rotate freely. We’ll nail the wheels to the branch, and they’ll be able to turn.” The idea came to her as she spoke.
“Then we’ll do that.” Dani gave a weak little smile and got to work.
Lynn woke up with the day’s daunting task clear in mind. She postponed the inevitable digging by lingering in bed and pondering Dani. They hadn’t slept in the same bed last night; Lynn hadn’t known how to bring it up, and Dani hadn’t asked. That led Lynn to wonder if sleeping together the night before last had been a one-time thing, and if it was, how she felt about that. If she was completely truthful with herself, she had to admit she’d missed Dani’s presence last night, and she hadn’t slept nearly as well as when they had shared a bed. It was a little worrying how easy it was to get used to having Dani around.
Lynn listened for sounds of her presence but heard nothing, neither in the bedroom nor in the adjacent showroom. Her bed was empty, and Skeever was gone. That probably meant Dani was outside already. With a groan, she threw off her blanket and sat up. Yesterday’s grave-digging efforts had already left her sore. She could only imagine how her shoulders and arms would feel tomorrow morning—tonight even. Once she’d put on her boots and secured her weapons, she made her way out of the office opposite the one Richard had died in. Neither had felt comfortable bunking down there.
The showroom was deserted, but the large glass windows revealed Dani and Skeever beside a fire in the parking lot. It was an overcast, dreary day. Her mood probably didn’t make the outside world seem any happier. She checked to make sure there wasn’t any danger, pulled her tomahawk from her belt, and walked out. “Morning.”
Dani looked up and smiled. “Morning. I made breakfast.” She pointed to two tins and a plate. “Tea, oatmeal, and some fruit.”
Lynn sat and eyed the meal. Her stomach rumbled. Still, she hesitated. “I’m afraid I’ll just end up throwing it all up.”
Dani tensed. “Yeah. I figured if we sat for a while, it would be okay.”
Lynn hummed noncommittally but took the tin of oatmeal after testing its heat. “Thanks for this.”
“It’s the least I can do.”
Skeever made his way over and lay by her feet.
She stroked his flank and belly before patting him and returning to her meal. Dani had added apple to the mixture. Lynn watched the apple pieces appear and submerge as she stirred, then spooned the gooey mixture up gratefully; she shouldn’t work on an empty stomach, after all.
The cart had survived the night. It sat against the side of the building, handlebars resting on the ground. Hauling it along was going to be rough; the branches weren’t entirely straight, so the wheel axle was slightly out of alignment, but they’d both tried pulling it and had managed. They had also found a little creek nearby. It was shallow, but when Dani had gone down to fill their emptied bottles, the water was clear. Everything was ready—everything but Lynn herself.
“Can I, um… Is there any way I can help?” Dani stirred her own oatmeal.
“It’s okay. Just get ready to leave.”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” Dani fell silent until Lynn prompted her to go on. “Well, I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but say you get done by noon. Even if you’re not too tired to head out, we can’t make good ground. We’ll need to stop earlier because we’ll need to find places to camp that are solidly fortified and where we can separate ourselves from th—from Richard.” She winced. “At best, we’d get a few hours of travel time, and you’d be worse for wear. Maybe it’s best if we stayed here one more night and start fresh early tomorrow morning?” She glanced up again.