“Thisgoddamnmapis absolutely useless.”
I side-glanced at Agent Reyes who was scrutinizing the map of trails he’d snagged before we set off today with furrowed brows and a pinched pout.
“Probably wasn’t created with the intention of helping any dumbasses who went off the trails.”
“Don’t you mean off a cliff?” he muttered.
Surprise cocked my head to the side, and I almost stopped walking. Well–limping. “Was that humor, Agent?”
Reyes didn’t spare me a look nor a thought as he kept his focus tight on the map of weaving trails in front of him.
“No. That was stating a fact.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Still pretty funny.”
His eyes cut across to mine with black ice for pupils.
“You are the only woman who would ever think falling off of a cliff and having your shoulder dislocated was funny.”
“Not in the moment, but now? Yeah. That’s funny shit. I fell off of a fucking cliff.”
“And now we’re lost in the woods and the sun is already starting to set.”
Worry crinkled lines into his forehead, and a bloom of guilt tried to sprout life in my chest. I sucked back a deep breath to hold it down with until it stopped squirming and slithered back into the parts of myself I didn’t often touch.
I didn’t ask him to save me. I didn’t ask him to be here, so I shouldn’t feel bad for it.
“What happens if we’re still here when the sun sets? Will the wolves get us?” I humored.
“I know you’re making a joke, but actually, yes.” He abandoned the map, shoving it into his back pocket with a deep sigh. “That is a very high possibility if we don’t find the right place to stay for the night.”
After another hour of searching and watching the sky bleed orange and marigold before streaking a dusky red, that’s exactly what we did.
We searched through pockets of forest, swatting branches and tall weeds out of our way before settling on a flat patch of land dusted by a circle of high-rising trees. The ground was marked by modest tufts of grass, and where there wasn’t grass, there were slews of dead pine needles.
I parked myself against a thinner tree, hand splaying out against the rough bark as I eased my weight off of my bad foot with a cringe pulling back my lips.
The thing hurt like a bitch and had boiled down to a solid throbbing for the last hour of our walk, but I bit my lip all throughout the pain. I didn’t need Reyes’ help, and at this point, I wasn't sure he’d be offering anyhow.
Dude was pissed.
He held his phone up to the sky again, searching for bars we both knew wouldn’t be there. He still tried though, staring at his raised phone like he’d fucking light it on fire if it didn’t provide him with a usable signal.
When he didn’t get one, his arms came down by his sides with an exasperated scoff, and he shoved the phone back into his pocket.
“So we do a little impromptu camping,” I tried. “What’s the big deal?”
Agent Reyes ran those anxious hands of his back through his hair that had lost its composure hours ago. It was now a thick midnight-colored mess with one rogue strand that kept falling back against his forehead in a fish-hook curl.
That curl bounded against his forehead as he snapped the severe cut of his gaze over to me. “The big deal is that it’s dangerous for you, for me, for my fucking sanity.”
“So being stuck with me really is that bad, huh?”
Reyes groaned deep in his throat and stuck a dismissing hand out to me. “Don’t start, Scarlett.”
I pulled a smirk. “What happened to Queen of the Underworld?”
“That was before you got us lost.” Reyes' eyes rolled as he let his head touch back against a tree, staring up at the brimming silhouette of hanging leaves. “Before I was probably going to lose my job over this.”