She needed him. Desperately. But sooner or later she was going to have to break that bond. Maybe sooner was better than later.
She nodded and went into her room. Standing on just the other side of the closed door, she waited for the sound of his door shutting.
He wasn’t wrong in the things he’d said at the fire tonight. In fact, he was spot on. It just meant she was going to have to do some serious planning before she left.
Chapter Twenty-Four
In all the craziness of her abduction, Fiona didn’t even realize that Zavi’s tutor had started until she ran into her in the hallway the second day she was home. She liked her right away. And she could tell Zavi was enthralled with his new teacher.
“Have you seen my classroom, Fee?” he asked.
“I haven’t.”
He took her hand and led her back to the classroom. He walked her around the whole room, pointing out what everything was.
Fiona smiled at Wynn. “I’m sorry I didn’t know you were here.”
“Oh, please, don’t worry about it. You’ve had enough on your mind! Besides, I haven’t been at breakfast and you haven’t been at the other meals.”
Fiona gave a small smile. “I’ve been hiding.”
“Why were you hiding?” Zavi looked up at her.
She ruffled his hair. “I’ve just been in a mood, that’s all.”
Wynn smiled. “And that’s understandable.”
“Zavi seems pretty happy you’re here.”
“That makes two of us!” Wynn said.
“Well, I don’t mean to keep you. Have a wonderful day studying, Zavi.”
“We will!”
Fiona wandered outside after that. She sat on the stone wall of the steps that led down to the lower lawn. There had been a frost overnight, but that had burned off a while ago. It would be hot later, but the morning was wonderfully crisp and fresh, the sky brilliantly blue. Fiona pulled the quilt she’d brought out with her tighter about herself.
Everyone seemed to have something to do. Mandy had her horses. Eden her dogs. Hope was working on the team’s vehicles. Remi was back at the university. Ivy was no doubt at the diner, catching up with work that had been put on hold during Fiona’s ordeal. Even the kids were occupied: Casey at school, Zavi with Wynn. The guys and Selena were down in the bunker. Kathy was busy in the kitchen cooking up a big meal—something she hadn’t been able to do while the team was spread out, searching for Fiona. And Dennis, her husband, was prepping Ty’s property for the change in seasons.
Everyone had something they needed to do. Everyone but her. It was Monday. She could have gone back to class. She hadn’t decided yet what to do about that.
King was such a madman that there was no telling what he would do next. She couldn’t continue to endanger her fellow students at the university. She couldn’t take a job for the same reason.
Would this nightmare ever end? She bent her head, blocking the happy blue sky from her eyes. After a while, she heard someone approaching. Not Kelan—she recognized Angel’s cheery whistling. He could whistle entire tunes the way some people hummed them.
He sat on the opposite side of the stairs from her, his back straight, his hands folded in his lap, his attention entirely on her. She tried to ignore him but should have known better than to think that was possible.
“Missed you at practice today.” He cut into the silence she’d been enjoying.
She shrugged, still facing away from him. “It’s not like it did me much good when it came time to use it.”
“Yeah. Sometimes shit’s just stacked against us. Did you know that there were thirty-five men arrested from the silo who were on King’s guard corps? Even Kelan was overwhelmed by them.”
Fiona didn’t answer him.
“I heard you fought back at the shack you were kept in.” He grinned at her. “From what Kelan says, you were fucking epic.”
Fiona tilted her head and looked at him. “They weren’t expecting that. Took four guys to get me.” She rubbed her nose. “But it didn’t change my fate. They still took me. And my resistance didn’t do anything for the girls whose only way out of the house was into the jaws of dogs trained to kill them.”
“We’ve talked about fighting. You know that leaving the situation is always your first best option. You run from an assailant when possible, fight when it’s not. Self-defense is a tool, like anything else available to us. You used it in the ways you were taught.”
“But it did no good.”
Angel shrugged. “Maybe. You don’t know that. The girls you were locked in there with, I bet they’d never had another person—much less a female—fight for them before. What courage did your bravery inspire in them?”
Fiona’s eyes watered. She squeezed them shut. “I can’t see an end to it, Angel. I can only see the dark.”
They sat in silence for a while. It was uncomfortable and long, and Fiona really just wished Angel would go away. As if he heard her thoughts, he stood. “I want to see you at practice tomorrow. It’s good for the body and mind, even if it’s useless in real life.”
He started up the steps. She felt bad hurting his feelings. All she’d done was pass her hurt on to him. Really, he should have left her alone.
He paused at the top step. “Fee, maybe you should talk to Rocco. He’s lived in the dark a lot longer than you. He might know some things he can share.”
Fiona thought about that. Yeah, maybe it would help. “Where is he?”
Angel’s lips folded against his teeth as he looked off into the distance beyond the house. “He’s working on something in the bunker for now. Later you might find him over at Mandy’s. Sometimes he likes to hang out in her old barn.” He lowered his head, then looked back at her. “If you go there, make some noise so he knows you’re there.”
Like the whistling Angel had done as he approached. Fiona’s eyes watered again. She nodded. “Thanks, Angel.”
*