“I’ve often done that,” he said, “but I still learn in the process.”
What could she say to that? He drove another ten to fifteen miles and then pulled into what looked like a community shopping mall. She tucked her hair inside her jacket and followed him into the grocery store. He grabbed a shopping cart and proceeded to put loads of fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat into it. She added a jug of milk, so she could have tea the way she loved it, and some cheese. When she stopped at the apples, she frowned.
He asked, “What kind do you like?”
“Galas are my favorite—or pink lady’s.”
He chuckled and said, “Let’s grab both.” And he quickly bagged up a few of each.
She looked at the growing pile of groceries in the cart and said, “How will you pay for this?”
“Money,” he said easily.
“But I don’t have any.”
“No worries,” he said. “I have plenty.”
“Good for you,” she said, “because I’m broke.”
“Of course you are,” he said, “but the fact that you even survived these last few years is amazing.”
“I had a job,” she said. “It was enough.”
On the road again, he said, “We’ll have another hour or so on the road, if you want to sleep.”
“I don’t sleep much,” she said, studying the road as it disappeared.
He nodded. “We could talk.”
“I don’t want to talk.”
He gave a bark of laughter. “Not a whole lot you do want to do then, is there?”
“I want to live my life without this added weight,” she said. Surely he could understand that, at least she hoped he could. She sighed and said, “It’s not your fault. I’m not angry at you.”
“Aren’t you?”
She shook her head. “I’m not, not really. I’m just, I don’t want this for my life.”
“What will you do about it?”
“Well, that’s the trick, isn’t it? If I don’t do something, this will continue. I can hide my head in the sand as long as I want, but it won’t change anything. I thought I was safe, thought they’d given up. But they hadn’t.”
He winced. “And I’m sorry for that. Living on the run is no fun. I’d like to see these guys caught and jailed.”
“I would too. I would too,” she said, staring out at the darkness and the trees all around them. A question burned on the back of her mind. “How long have you known Stefan?”
“A decade,” he said simply. “Plus.”
She nodded, yet frowned. “And you’ve worked with him that long?”
“Off and on. What you probably don’t know is that Stefan has a whole team of gifted people like us.”
“Like us?” she said, questioning.
“Energy workers.”
She studied him. “So, what do you do that is special?”
“I don’t do anything,” he said, “and I especially don’t do parlor tricks.”
She nodded. “I figured that would get to you.”
“Well, hardly the nicest question.”
“Maybe not,” she said, “but it does tell you what people are like.”
“Maybe,” he said in a noncommittal voice. “But to answer the question you didn’t ask, I’m a good hunter.”
“Meaning that you can follow energy.”
“Sure, but lots of people can do that.” He shrugged, showed his teeth.
She studied him and said, “A lot more to you than that.”
“Maybe,” he said. “A lot more to you than what you’re showing us too.”
“Sure,” she said, “but I don’t know what there is.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I spent so much time being tested and used to test others, that I don’t know the full extent of what I can do.”
“And you’ve never had to test the limits of your abilities?”
“Nope, not at all,” she said. “Maybe it’d be better if I did.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said. “Life is tough enough without coming up with answers for everything.”
She burst out laughing. “Wouldn’t it be nice if there were any answers for us?”
“True,” he said, with a smile, “but obviously that’s not happening.”
“No.” She leaned back, closed her eyes, and said, “I’ll just rest.”
“Is that different than sleeping?”
Her eyes flew open, and she said, “I rarely sleep,” she said, in a dark tone. “Best you remember that.”
With that, she closed her eyes and zoned him out.
*
Hunter had never met anybody as prickly, as cantankerous, and as hard to get along with as Beth was. Did she really not sleep? He wondered about that because she had surely slept at Stefan’s before. But maybe that was because she was injured and so badly overwhelmed by everything. That was certainly possible, though it didn’t say a whole lot about her body’s ability to function if she couldn’t sleep because it also meant a lack of trust. But then she’d probably been sleeping with one eye open all this time, and that’s more likely what she meant.
He kept driving, ignoring his passenger, as he tried to remember the pathway from this road. He’d taken a different entrance, avoiding all the main routes to keep them a little bit hidden. He also had managed to make a couple contacts and to send a few texts before he left. One to Stefan to let him know what they were doing and another to a friend, hoping that the cabin would have heat and power by the time he got there, as well as a stash of weapons he could utilize. Not everybody did this same type of work, but Hunter had enough friends in the private sector that he could get what he needed, when he needed it.
Finally he took the turnoff onto the road he wanted and drove down the rough gravel for a good ten to fifteen minutes. He wasn’t at all surprised when he looked over to see her studying the area with interest. “The cabin’s up there.”
She didn’t say anything, but she did sit up and pull her jacket a little closer around her.
“It will be colder just because we’re at the lake, and the weather isn’t supposed to be all that great for the next few days,” he said.
She just nodded.
He frowned. “You don’t have to go out of your way to be cranky, you know?”
“I’m like this all the time.”
He shook his head and said, “Interesting way to get along with life.”
“I don’t plan on getting along with anybody,” she said. Then she looked at him and added, “You don’t have to stay at the cabin. You know that, right?”
He shrugged and said, “Let’s get you healed up, get your energy back to normal, and then see how you’re doing.”
“And you won’t hold me captive?”
“No,” he said, “I won’t hold you captive.”
She studied him intently, then turned and completely ignored him again.
He pulled up in front of the cabin, happy to see that lights were on at several other cabins around.