"Then don't sunbathe in the nude where even Echo creatures could see you."
She scowls at me as she stalks past me down the hill.
I chuckle and follow her. She's hot when she gets mad.
We reach the shore, but it's too early to see low tide yet. So I decide to search the vicinity for anything out of the ordinary, though I have no idea what that might look like. What's ordinary these days? I suppose I'm searching for evidence of how Sarah got here, but that happened months ago. What are the odds I'll find anything?
Sarah refused to come with me on my perimeter search, but I keep an eye on her peripherally. She chose to stay on the beach where I can see her. Maybe she did that because I ordered her to do it, and I might've also snarled at her. But at least she complied. During my three years inside the Echo, I learned that you can't be sweet and nice, not if you want to survive. The Echo beings I'd befriended didn't follow my orders at first. I had to give them reason to do it, which meant getting tough with them. Becoming the general of our ragtag army saved lives—until the day it didn't anymore.
I need to convince Sarah to follow my orders, even if that means I have to get nasty with her. Noncompliance could get her killed. But I got my friends killed despite my orders. She might be safer back at Sanctuary.
After completing my perimeter search, I trek back down the hillside to the beach, heading for Sarah.
She's lying on the sand, fully clothed. The fact that she's dressed doesn't make her any less beautiful and sexy. She has one knee bent and her arms clasped above her head. The sunbeams down on her face. Her lips curl into a sweet little smile. I get a strange pang in my chest as I watch her. That doesn't mean I like the girl.
I will never care about her or anyone ever again.
Chapter Eight
Sarah
The sun feels so good that I could fall asleep, just lying here on the beach, and I could almost forget about the apocalypse. I think I understand why Gabriel keeps acting like a jerk, but losing his friends is no excuse for his behavior. I haven't done anything to warrant this kind of treatment. I convinced my friends to let me interrogate him, rather than Dax. That man knows how to scare people without even touching them, sometimes without even speaking.
I doubt Dax's red-hot glare would impress Gabriel.
Though I do not like him, I have to admit Gabriel is attractive and sexy, and sometimes he even does selfless things like taking a bolt of Echo lightning for me. But that incident confused me. Now, he wants to help me understand how and why I washed ashore here. Yeah, I'm totally confused now.
A shadow falls over me.
I crack one eye open. "Find anything, General Jackass?"
"No. Get up. This isn't a vacation."
"Really? I thought you were the hotel concierge coming to tell me my massage appointment is at ten o'clock."
"Just get up. The tide is receding. Might be low enough now that I can figure out where you washed ashore."
"Grant and Erin told you that already."
"I want to see it for myself."
What evidence does he think he'll find two months later? Sheesh, he's stubborn. But I might as well indulge his obsession with the tide. Just as I start to sit up, he offers me his hands. Tohelp me? I stare at his hands for a moment, while that idea sinks in, then I let him help me up.
"Thank you," I say. "But I could've gotten up on my own."
"And you think I'm rude. You could've stopped at 'thank you.' But no, you had to tack on some girl-power BS."
"You just have to be obnoxious, don't you? At least I was speaking in a pleasant tone, instead of growling like you do."
He stalks away from me, heading for the shoreline.
I follow him only because I want to do that, not because he silently ordered me to do it by walking away. Just to make sure he understands that, I walk beside him. That means I need to move fast to keep up with his longer strides, and I start to get short of breath.
"Slow down," I say. "What's the rush, anyway?"
He stops abruptly. "Show me the general vicinity where you think you washed ashore."
"I was unconscious at that point. Duh. I woke up when Grant and Erin found me."