Page 78 of Survival

“I can see that,” he replied with a smirk. Idecided it was time to change the subject.

“How come you didn’t show me this during thetour?” I asked him as I looked around.

“I guess I forgot about it.” He shrugged ashe looked down at me.

“How could you forget about a place likethis? It’s beautiful.”

He shrugged again. “This is where I wastutored as a boy. Once I went to college, I didn’t have much usefor it. Books aren’t my thing. The only person who liked coming inhere was my mother. Pretty sure it was her favorite place tobe.”

“I can imagine why,” I replied.

“Don't tell me you're a bookworm, too.”

“I might be.” I eyed him with a smirk. Icould enjoy a good book every once in a while. He rolled his eyesat me and took my hand in his. Thankfully, not the one with thebusted nail I was hiding from him.

“Come on. I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh, joy,” I said as he tugged me along likeusual.

ChapterTwenty-Two

Spill

Darren pulled me outside toward the woods,and we walked onto a path that led us deeper into the trees. I wassuper excited to get to explore some more of the estate, but assoon as we came to the edge of the trees, I got worried. But again,I relied on the trust I had that Darren would not lead me to adeliberate electrocution.

As we got deeper into the woods, I couldhear the sound of a river nearby, and sure enough, it was just ahundred feet ahead of us. As we came to the bank, I noticed therewas a rather large hammock hanging between two trees. Darren led usover to the hammock, and he laid down on it before gesturing for meto climb on top of him.

“Are you sure it’ll hold us both?”

Darren sighed and rolled his eyes. “When areyou going to learn to stop questioning me?” he asked sternly.

“When you stop bending my trust,” I saidwithout even thinking about it. I kept telling myself he wantedhonesty.

“Get over here,” he ordered, pointing at hischest. “Now.”

I sighed in defeat, careful not to roll myeyes, and gently climbed on top of him as he directed me to lay myhead down in the middle of his chest. To my surprise, even thoughhe was solid as a rock, he was actually quite comfy. I kept mybustedfingernailhidden in myclosed fist and curledintomyside, away from Darren’s prying eyes.

“You need to stop testing me, little girl.It’s really starting to piss me off, and I am in no mood to bechallenged today.”

“I’m sorry,” I said softly, nudging my faceto his chest. Maybe he would react better to cutenessratherthan aggression. I had some experimenting to do.

He released a bigsighand curled his arms around me, his hands rubbing myshoulders.

“How was your workout?” he asked laxly.

“It was good. Thank you, but …”

“But what?”

I hesitated a bit, suddenly afraid to askhim for something for some reason.

“I’d really like a pair of gloves and wrapsfor the heavy bag … if that’s okay.”

“What do you need those for?” he askedalmost too innocently.

“So I can hit the bag without injuring myhands?”

“I’m not so sure I need you focused ontrying to hit anything at the moment,” he said. I knew he wasmessing with me, but he almost sounded too serious.