Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 37824 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37824 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
“It won’t hurt you.” He shoots me a smile, but it never reaches his eyes.
I can tell he’s angry. My father had the same reaction around the prophet when he didn’t agree with what he might be doing. He’d paste a smile on, but it was fake and for show. That wasn’t often, but my father wasn’t keen on being bossed around. He took pleasure in controlling everyone else.
I hate him so much. I can still see him on the ground, so helpless. I’ll never forget that. All my life, he’s been so powerful. This one time I got to see that he isn’t. He just picked on people he was bigger than. People he knew he could win against.
“What is it?” I ask.
“It’s a drone.”
“A drone,” I repeat. I have never heard the word before. “You called it Short.”
"The technology within it is called Short Circuit. He’s in a lot of my gadgets. He only responds to my brother and me." The mention of him having a brother makes me think of Winter.
“My sister?” How had I forgotten her for even a second?
I guess I could cut myself some slack; the world has been blowing up around me. I bet people back at the compound think it's the Second Coming. They'll make up some nonsense like that to scare everyone into submission. Fear is their most used weapon.
“She's fine. We have her,” he tells me again. “I’ll send my brother a message so they know I have you. We’ll wait till we’re back at my place before we call them.”
His place? I guess I thought I'd be going straight to my sister. He suddenly turns off the road going up a small hill and back down it. We’re almost to the tree line when he stops.
“We’re switching vehicles.” He takes the drone control back from me and clicks it a few times. “Stay put.” He hops out of the truck before I can ask anything. I watch him come around. He moves through the thick snow like it’s nothing. I would have tripped a million times. It would have been rough if he'd done as I suggested earlier, but he has a plan of his own. One that is working out well.
He opens the door for me. I stiffen when he lifts me into his arms. “Won’t hurt you, Libby.” His voice softens. I just nod and wrap my arms around him. He takes off on a run like he’s not carrying a whole person. I never believed in the whole prophet thing that they taught us in Heaven’s Temple, but I might have if they were like this man. He came in saving the day like a true avenging angel.
“Come on, babe. You can cling to me later. I need to get you out of the cold.” Lost in my thoughts, I lift my head.
It’s something I do often, and it drives my parents crazy. Not Winter, though. She’s always wondering what I'm thinking or dreaming about. Often, while we were lying in bed, I would conjure up entire stories. They were our own books, but all inside my head.
I see a big black truck with a layer of snow over it. He puts me down in the seat before shutting the door and going around to the other side. He gets in, starting it up. The heat blasts out rather quickly. He messes with the drone control before putting it in the center console between us and pulling out a phone next.
“My sister?”
"Yeah.” He taps away on the screen before putting it up too. “Seat belt.” I start to reach for it, but he beats me to it. His arm brushes against my chest as he fastens it. I suck in a breath. “Sorry,” he mutters. “We’re almost out of here.”
This time, when he floors it, the truck really takes off. It’s not shocking. I’m not sure I could have climbed into it without his help.
When he pulls back on the road, I feel a sense of relief. We really made it out of there. I turn to look back in the direction we came, but there's nothing. A huge sense of relief fills me that there is no one trailing us. The snow is still falling so heavily that it is impossible to see far.
"Promise, Libby, you’ll never go back.” He reaches over and puts his hand on my thigh, giving it a squeeze. I tense up. “Shit, sorry.” He jerks his hand back. I want to tell him it’s okay. That my reaction wasn't because of his touch. It's primarily about how I react to men. They always make me tense. I can’t help it. But I hate that I did it to him. The man saved me.
“I’m sorry, I can be jumpy. It’s not you.” I felt the need to clarify that.