Saints and Assassins (The Sentinels) (13 page)

“You’re not leaving without me,” he
growled
.
The effort of climbing and pulling her back almost did him in, but t
here was no way that she was getting out of his sights now. He had invested too much of his life into watching over her
and
he
was not
going to let her dismiss him like a dog.

Eve
tried
to push away from him
and s
he looked away from him as she struggled
.
He tried to get her to stop writhing because he
knew that if their eyes met that it would be over.

“Let go of me!”
she screamed. But Adam wouldn’t release her.

Twisting in his arms, she managed to swing a punch at him. It landed square on his jaw.

“Fuck
!” He let her go and staggered back. She packed one hell of a punch, but he had
definitely
had worse. His eyes refocused just in time to see her turn and start up the hill again.

Adam smiled inside. If she wanted to play
badass,
she picked the wrong guy. He knew he
would not
hurt her, but he was definitely going to stop her.
Adam took two long strides and lunged himself at her.

With a loud grunt, Eve succumbed to his weight and they tumbled to the ground. Adam enveloped her with one arm around her torso and the other holding her head as they rolled down the slight hill back to the plateau they had started at minutes earlier.

Out of breath, but still reeling, their bodies stopped.

“E
ve,” he whispered. She turned to look at him.
Her
eyes were wild looking and her
pupils were larger than ever, making the
green
all but disappear. He moved his arm from her waist and placed his hand along her cheek.

“Please don’t leave me,” he
pleads
quietly. H
er
eyes shifted b
ack and forth across his
face.
Then without
warning,
they
fluttered shut and she
lay limp in his arms.

Adam dropped
his head against her.
She had passed out and he couldn’t have thought of a better thing to happen right then. He waited a few minutes to catch his breath before he scooped Eve up and carried her to rest beneath a tree with him. He
did not
expect her to be out very long, but wanted her to be in the shade and comfortable.
             

“Are you hurt?” With a quick but thorough examination, he
had not
seen anything wrong with her, but wanted to make sure he hadn’t harmed her.

Eve shook her head and looked up at him through hooded eyes. Those green eyes haunted his dreams almost every night.  Clearing his
throat,
he waited anxiously to see what her next move would be.

“
Please tell me that you didn’t hurt
yourself
moving me?”

“No, I think I’ll li
ve,” he replied smiling
.
He still
did not
understand how she could have any concern over him.

“Oh good.” Eve moved to stand up. Adam
rose too
.

“I hope you’re not going to try and run again. I truly am exhausted and will probably just have to let you go even though you shouldn’t.” Adam knew he was babbling, but he hoped that if he kept her talking she
might not
run.

“L
et me check
your shoulder
for bleeding.”
Adam nodded and watched her.
Gently, she pulled the bandage away.

“Why did you say that? Why did you say
don’t leave me
?”
Her timing was impeccable. She waited unt
il she had her fingers around his
gunshot wound
in order to
discuss
his feelings.

“I was just trying to get you to calm down,” he said turning away from her. He wanted to tell her the truth but he knew she wouldn’t understand
. The last thing he wanted was to send her into a hysterical fit again.

“Where did you learn to throw a punch?” Adam kept the venom out of his tone as he rubbed his jaw. It didn’t hurt much anymore, but damn she’d knocked him off balance.

Horror blanketed her face. “I’m so sorry.” Eve immediately reached up to touch his jaw, but Adam took a step back.

“It’s fine, but you didn’t answer my question.
” The last thing he needed was to have her touching his face. It would be his undoing.

“Jason. He’s a great trainer. In fact, he was just teaching me how to kick before I left.” Adam watched her eyes sadden as she came back to the reality of their situation.
She might be able to defend herself some if the need presented itself.

“So what do we do now?”
Her tone had mellowed and she sounded rational. Almost too rational, he thought.
He had
never seen her in these types of mood swings. Maybe they were the result
of the situation or maybe
him.

“I was thinking that we continue this way and head back toward th
e car. We’ll be able to
see if there is anyone waiting for us before we’re close enough to be spotted.”

“Okay, shall we?”

Adam
reached back for her hand, he watched
as their hands slid together, and
led the way up the hill
.
He hadn’t seen anything better in his life than their hands intertwined. At the same
time,
he also felt great relief that
Eve had retained her composure, but he feared the onslaught of another meltdown. He would have to be prepared for it so she
wouldn’t
run away.

T
he
y
had been walking for a while
when Eve spoke.
“How much further do you think it is before we get back to the car?”

“It shouldn’t be too much longer
. A
h look!” Adam exclaimed as he pointed ahead.

“Oh it’s amazing.” They approached a clearing where a waterfall ran down into the body of water that lay in front of them.
The water glistened in the sun.
Walking through the forest under different circumstances would have been more fun
that is
for sure.  The beauty around them was amazingly breathtaking but they didn’t have time to stop. So they continued across the hillside, occasionally seeing birds or other small animals.

The terrain changed
, it was getting less dense.  Before
long,
the ocean came into view. As they descended the hillside they could see the beac
h, and then he saw his car and only his car. The beach
was
evacuated and upon further
inspection,
he saw the
police had taped off the area
.

This might be a problem. “I wonder?” he said quietly
.
He pulled the car remote from his pocket and pushed the unlock button twice.

A bright flash and an explosion threw them backward, and Adam instinctively cradled Eve’s body against his. It was so loud and violent that it shook the ground and sent debris flying in every direction. If they had been standing by the
car,
they would be dead right now. Eve gasped as the vibrations still rippled through the ground. A cloud of black smoke blew through the air as the car burned. The air smelled of a bad combination of electrical, rubber and paint.

“Eve!” he exclaimed. Grabbing her, Adam took inventory of Eve’s body. He quickly ran his hands down her head and neck and over her shoulders in the cloud of smoke. He could see her face enough to know that she appeared
all right
physically, but he worried that she would be terrified.

Once the smoke settled enough that they could see, Adam grasped her hand and pulled her up.

“Adam?” Eve said his name more as a question of what had just happened. He understood what she wanted to know.

“We can’t recant right now. We have to move.” Adam had barked the words at her and instantly regretted it. His only recourse was to gently squeeze her hand and nudge her on. Moments later
,
they were
running through the forest and
headed the opposite direction that they had been earlier in the afternoon. The terrain on this side of the hill
was not
as easy to maneuver through, there were more rocks than dirt, but they managed. Still not having had any food they were both a little bit weak and Adam’s shoulder hurt from the gunshot wound. He was more pissed a
bout his car though than the injury
. He hadn’t even broken a thousand miles on the car yet. Adam slowed the running and brought their jaunt to a halt.

“How do you feel about an afternoon stroll through the forest?” he asked smiling.
He only wanted to lighten the mood, but could see that she was thoroughly confused.

“Huh?
We just did that.
”

“Let’s go back to the waterfall, there’s a spot there where we can re
st, maybe find something to eat while we wait for reinforcements.
” Adam looked at her hoping that he wasn’t scaring her
and to his surprise he didn’t see or sense any fear from Eve.

“Reinforcements?” Eve asked.

“Someone will meet us at the road, but it will take him a while to get across the island.” Adam knew Koa would be coming since
the car’s tracking device was
obliterated
in the explosion.
The device was set up to automatically alarm Koa.

They arrived
at the waterfall
in just a few minutes time
. Adam
felt overly
tired and wanted to lie down, so they found a spot on the mossy green forest floor that he could rest on.
While the last thing he wanted to do was go to
sleep,
he knew it would be inevitable at this point.

“
I’ve got to rest
so
I’m going to leave the gun here, but wake me up if you hear anything. Okay?” Adam hated to leave her remotely vu
lnerable, but he didn’t have any choice. If he could
just get a quick nap in he might
be
all right
. Adam imagined his arms wrapped around Eve as he drifted off to sleep. He wished it was that simple to keep her safe, but knew
that
at the end of the day
they would have to fight for their lives.

****

Eve sat
down next to
him
and
watched Adam’s eyes clo
s
e
moments after he had spoken. He
had not
lost an excessive amount of blood, but enough that he would be tired. She didn’t know how he had
managed to
stay awake this long, but he had. I
n just a f
ew
minutes,
Adam’s breathing had changed and she could tell he had fallen into a deep sleep.

Her brain
ran
far too fa
st for her body to feel tired. The weight of the day had her mind
reeling
. Who wanted her dead? What could she possibly have know
n
? And even more importantly, would they live through this?

While Adam could answer some of her questions, he had no way of knowing if they would live through the ordeal.
With that
thought,
she decided to go for a swim to try
to
relax.

She walked around the pool of water toward the waterfall and started
to undress. The water was clear and she could see the
fish swimming here and there.
Slowly, s
he
stepped into the pool.
The water felt so good with the temperature being just right, it wasn’t too cool.
Eve
swam around
watching
the fish and birds around her
and
definitely did not want to go back to Chicago after thi
s. The summers there were
crappy compared t
o the weather and the nature
on the island.

She swam for quite some time before she decided to get ou
t. A
s she swam to one edge
looking for a good spot to step up
,
she saw Adam.