“Were you just teasing me?”
“Yes.”
I grinned.
“You’re lucky I’m not like Eden or Hannah. If I were, I’d try to bite you in retribution.”
“You should try. I might like it. Your blunt, little teeth aren’t meant to bring pain.”
I snorted against his chest, knowing he was fully teasing me now, and went ahead and playfully nipped him. It wasn’t easy to find anything to nip. Not only was his shirt tight, everything underneath it was too. I ended up mouthing him more than biting. His arms twitched around me, and I immediately apologized.
“That didn’t work well.”
The rumble of his laughter shook through me.
“You may try that again later,” he said, playfully tugging my hair.
I rolled my eyes and kept my face buried until he jumped over Tenacity’s wall. Matt was already there waiting for us along with a very small group of people.
“Good morning,” he called to Ryan as Tor set me down.
“We want to know where we’re going today before we commit to a run,” one of the men shouted. The tension in Matt’s face tightened as he shook Ryan’s hand. I couldn’t hear what he said to Mya’s brother but did see his lips move and the way that Ryan’s gaze swept to the waiting people.
“We’re going to press closer to Columbia again. From the north this time. We’re not expecting any more infected than usual. Depending on the number of people who decide to go, we can change up the size of the groups. I swear we won’t take any unnecessary risks.”
“We don’t want to go to the city. We want to search houses.”
“I understand. We can go back to some of the neighborhoods we’ve already hit, but we’re likely to hit more infected and traps than we can deal with. If I had more fey, maybe I’d be willing to take that risk. You know what happened when we went back to the distribution center. They were waiting. It’s better to avoid repeats. And as far as hitting somewhere new, we’ve tapped out everything that’s close. We can go farther out, but we run a higher risk of being out after dark.
“This is the world we live in now. There are risks. We need to accept that. I’m studying the maps at night and doing my best to keep our supply runs as random as possible in case the infected are smart enough to see patterns. I’m also gambling on what cities have and haven’t been bombed. Anyone who wants to take over leading supply runs is more than welcome to it. I’d be happy to hand over the maps. And the fey are more than willing to work with someone new.”
No one volunteered. Two men walked away, leaving less than a dozen volunteers.
“All right then. If we’re ready, let’s load up.”
“June,” Matt called when I would have turned to follow everyone.
I paused as Matt jogged toward me.
“I wanted to check on you. How are you doing? How’s Adam?” He said it perfectly loud enough to be overheard but not so loud as to be obvious.
“Adam can’t walk, Matt. How do you think he’s doing?”
Matt grew serious.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
I nodded as an engine started.
“Good luck out there,” he said. “If you ever feel like rejoining Tenacity, we could use the help.”
I made a disbelieving face, shook my head, and turned on my heel, walking away without a word. At least two people witnessed it.
That was good. I wanted word to spread that Adam was hurt, and I was carrying a grudge about it. It would make it a little easier to convince them I had a chip on my shoulder when I moved back.
Instead of leading me to the back of the truck, Tor led me to the cab of one where Richard waited. In the passenger seat.
“Hi, June. Looks like I’ll be your copilot today, if you’re willing?”