“But you were distracted by me,” I whisper.
He was distracted by my crying, and then, by our kiss.
“It’s not your fault, Nicole.”
“I know,” I tell him.
This time, I do.
“What do we do?” I ask him.
“We? We don’t do anything. I’ll go assess the threat.”
“Lee, wait.”
“What is it, Nicole?” He peers at the cabin again.
“I’m here, Lee. I’m on your side. Let me...let me help, please,” I whisper.
Let me redeem myself.
Lee looks like he’s about to say no, about to refuse my request, but something shifts in him, and he nods. “Okay,” he says. “But you listen to my instructions precisely, okay?”
“Of course.”
A few minutes later, I run up to the cabin, careful to make plenty of noise as I do.
“Hey!” I bang on the door. “Hey! Is anyone here? Help! Help!” I knock frantically, loudly, and kick the door. I jingle the doorknob. “Can you hear me? Please! I need to talk to someone!”
After just a minute, I hear movement inside, and then the door cracks open.
“What do you-“
Her voice cuts off when our eyes meet, and she shifts from being annoyed to being pissed. Out of all of the people I expected to find holed up in Lee’s place, Bernie was the one I least expected.
“B-B-Bernie,” I say. “What are you doing here?”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” She glares at me. I don’t miss the way her eyes flick behind me, seeing if I’m alone. “How the hell did you find this place?”
“I could ask you the same question,” I ask. Lee is nearby, and he’s undoubtedly hearing this entire exchange. He can rush in at any minute, but I know that when he does, this is all going to be over, so I realize what I need to do. I need to get her talking as much as possible. I need to find out exactly what Bernie knows and how she knows it and why she’s here.
What does she want from these creatures?
“I live here,” Bernie says slowly. “This is my cabin.”
“Oh, wow,” I tell her. “That’s really interesting. I thought you lived in Havenworth.”
“I was ready for a change of pace. You know. After you shot me with that dart, I had a lot of time to think.”
“So you haven’t forgotten about that, huh?”
“Not at all.”
“What made you decide to come out here? It’s kind of close to shifters, isn’t it? I thought you didn’t like them.”
“Now why would you say that?” Her voice is sickly sweet. “I thought we were coming into the forest together to do some good: to help the shifters.”
“We both know that isn’t true, Bernie,” I lower my voice. “I tried to find you. Where did you go?”