I exhaled slowly. “What makes your place safer than ours?”
“That’s a question we’ve never been asked before,” Henry said with a laugh. His eyes darted over to Clara, who smiled back at him. “We have everything you have and more, specifically, an army. We are already starting to rebuild. You’ll want to be there. All survivors will want to be there.”
“Okay.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“But to keep everyone safe, we need to move in very small groups,” Henry said. “We know the way. We’re good at avoiding what we need to.”
Clara leaned forward, clasping her hands together. “It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be great. After we rest up, we’ll be ready to go. Tomorrow, right, Henry?”
“That’s right,” Henry said smiling. “Tomorrow.”
13
Joss
I had to do something. There was no way I was going to let Ashton get away with what he was attempting to do. In fact, he had already gotten away with too much.
I sucked in a breath and raised my knee up sharply. Ashton grunted when I made contact with his groin. He doubled over.
His hands fell away and I had the chance to run. I took a step but stopped. I turned back, making a fist.
I threw my hand as hard as I could into his face. Time slowed down. It seemed his eyes widened in shock for a second before his head whipped to the side from the force of my blow.
I ran out of the alley and back to the sidewalk. My feet wouldn’t move fast enough.
“You’re going to regret that!” Ashton called out.
I glanced back to make sure he wasn’t chasing me. When I spun back around, I slammed into someone. I sucked in a breath so sharply I coughed to regain proper breathing.
“Joss,” Robby said looking at me with concern coating his face. “What are you doing out here?”
“I was just—”
“Jenna told me you were going to talk to Rex?” Robby interrupted. “Why would you do that?”
My hand was shaking as I brought it to my mouth. I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know how to tell them about what had just almost happened.
“What’s wrong?” Robby asked. His spine straightened and his eyes darted around. “Something happened. Tell me, Joss.”
“Please, get me home,” I said swallowing down my sobs, so he didn’t see them.
Robby looked angry, even though he didn’t know why. He placed his hand around my shoulders and led me back to the hotel.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I missed Caleb and figured I’d just quick tell Rex myself that you weren’t feeling well.”
“It’s fine. I’m not mad at you,” Robby said.
“You seem mad,” I muttered.
Robby shook his head. “I’m not mad at you. I just want to know what happened.”
“Took you long enough,” Jenna said without looking up.
The awkward silence must have been enough to force her to look away from the old magazine she was holding. “Oh, crap! Are you okay?”
I told them everything. Every last detail, even though it made my stomach turn.
“I’m going to kill him,” Robby said. His brow was wrinkled like a shirt that had been sitting in a laundry basket for days. “Which one is he again?”
I shook my head. “I don’t want you to kill him. I am worried about what he’s going to tell Rex.” My frown stretched my jaw muscles painfully. “I shouldn’t have punched him.”
“Yeah, you should have!” Jenna said enthusiastically. “I’m surprised you had it in you. If you asked me, he deserved much worse.”
“You won’t say that if they kick us out of here,” I said.
Jenna pressed her lips together. She turned to Robby. “Do you think they’d do that?”
“No, they won’t do that,” Robby said but the slight frown on his face revealed he wasn’t entirely certain. I wasn’t sure if Jenna was able to decipher the subtle differences in Robby’s expression. “Rex will understand.”
Robby paced by the window until Caleb arrived. He had been worried when Jenna hadn’t been in the room.
Robby was going to explain what happened but I didn’t want to hear it again. Jenna told him she’d fill him in on everything, which only brought me a small amount of relief.
“I really screwed things up, didn’t I?” I asked.
Robby wrapped his arms around me. “You didn’t. This isn’t your fault. This is Ashton’s fault.”
“What if he tells them I attacked him,” I said. “It’s my word against his and Rex has known Ashton a lot longer than he’s known us. And really, we’ve been nothing but trouble for him since we arrived.”
“Maybe he doesn’t look at it that way,” Robby said.
I snorted. “Right.”
“We’ll explain,” Robby said.
I shook my head. “He’s not going to care. I mean, really, what do we offer this place? Ashton helps out far more than I do.”
“We’ll just have to see how it plays out unless you have a better idea?” Robby asked.
All I could give him was a frown. “I wish I knew. The only thing I know is how important you are to me. I can’t handle this life without you.”
“Of course you could,” Robby said with a bright smile. “Maybe you wouldn’t want to but you could.”
“No,” I said shaking my head. “I really couldn’t. Hell, I can’t even go into town on my own.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Robby said lightly brushing my cheek with the side of his thumb. “I’ll talk to Rex and smooth things over if necessary.”
A quick sigh escaped from between my lips.
