Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
But I was on top of him.
Lifting my head was hard, and speaking was too. Tilting it, I met the smooth skin on his neck and cheeks and pushed the words out, ignoring the dryness and the burn in my throat as I said, “Did I die?”
“No.” His head dropped into my view, eyes on me. “Your fever is lower,” he said in almost a whisper. “You still sound like the Cookie Monster.”
“I know.”
Those dark purple eyes narrowed, and I didn’t want to imagine what I looked like right then, especially so close. “I’ve waited long enough,” he told me solemnly.
He’d waited long enough? To what? Leave? He was leaving me here now?
Before I could say a word, Alexander shook his head.
I was never going to get over knowing his real name. Never.
“No,” he grumbled almost gently, so different from the way he’d been talking to me before. “I’m not leaving you, Gracie. Stop doing that. If you’d listen—”
“I’m listening,” I tried to say.
He scowled. “If you would listen, I can explain our plan.”
Our plan?
Almost like he could read my mind, he barreled forward. “Drink water and eat a nutrition bar. We’re leaving after that.”
I opened my mouth to tell him I really didn’t think I was going to be able to follow, at least not any time this year, but he raised his eyebrows and somehow told me to shush without actually saying it out loud.
“We’re going together.” His face was oddly even, gaze intense. “I’ll carry you.”
He would? I gulped, and somehow his scowl got worse.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Doing what?” I could barely get out.
Those purple eyes zeroed in, and I didn’t even realize my bottom lip had started trembling, like I was getting ready to cry.
Oh. “Because.”
“No ‘because’. No.” A grumble built in his throat that I felt along my head. “Don’t do it.”
I turned my cheek into his shoulder, like I had a right to. Like I wasn’t being a complete inconvenience and this shit wasn’t totally my fault. It was needy and unnecessary, but he was being so nice—in his own way—and it’d been a long, long time since I’d been held.
If I hadn’t used up my one tear already, I would have cried.
What might have been a few minutes later, a big hand nudged at my knee. “Get up, eat your bar, drink water, and use the bathroom,” he said above my head. “We need to go.”
We need to go.
Because he hadn’t left me even though he easily could have.
I wouldn’t forget this. I would never forget this. I took in the crabby man’s jaw and swore to myself right then that I owed him my life. That I would stand by him for the rest of mine in any way I could.
Slowly, I rolled off his thighs, accidentally balancing myself on one of them, noticing just how hard it was. I counted to three, then tucked my feet under me and tried to get up.
My thighs said no.
Taking a deep breath, I planted my feet and tried again.
A push on my butt had me standing up straight.
My legs shook, everything hurt, and suddenly the urge to pee was a punch to my stomach that had me waddling straight for the toilet, ignoring every urge in my body that had me wanting to be shy about going in front of him now that he was awake. But what the hell did I have to be embarrassed about? He’d already seen everything, hadn’t he? And that’s why I dropped my pants and took the absolute longest pee of my life.
And I was in the middle of releasing half my bodyweight in fluid when a huff had me lifting my gaze to the man still up against the wall. He was focused on the ceiling.
Was he smirking?
“What?” I asked as loudly as I could, in basically still a whisper.
Alexander started shaking his head slowly, looking… amazed? “How do you still have anything left in you?”
I was still going. I tried to smile. “At least my organs aren’t failing.”
A solid five seconds more had my body continuing to release at least another half-gallon of pee before it was finally over.
With a sigh, I winced at the lack of toilet paper and waited before pulling up my sleep pants.
With any luck, we’d be out of here soon, and I’d have access to a shower and toilet paper. Real food and—
“Would you hurry up?” the impatient voice across the room asked.
I guess some things hadn’t changed.
I was weak, and we both knew it.
But I’d done the best I could and eaten a nutrition bar slowly and drank as much water as possible despite my wrecked throat.
I could tell he was antsy to get out of there, and I was too. He knew things I didn’t and didn’t feel up to asking about.