“I can take her,” I offered.
Freak’s jaw tightened.“You did enough.You don’t need to be a babysitter.”
“It’s hardly babysitting,” I said evenly.
Wrecker leaned forward.“Clove’s going to need someone with her twenty-four-seven until we get these guys.”
He looked around the table.
“They were after Star, but now that Clove got away from them, she could be a target again.”
My stomach twisted.
“Ender can be with her.”
Carnie and Freak exchanged a look.
“Basil could be assigned to Clove,” Freak said.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Clove shot back immediately.“I do not want to spend days with Basil.We’ll end up killing each other.”
“She ain’t wrong,” Alice muttered.
Laughter broke out again, easier this time.
“I really don’t mind staying with Clove,” I said.And it was the truth.“At all.”
It wasn’t a burden.It wasn’t an obligation.Something had shifted between us, and I needed to understand it.
Wrecker nodded.“Ender is with Clove.”He looked at Freak.“You good with that?”
“I’m twenty-one years old,” Clove said flatly.“Shouldn’t you be asking me if that’s okay?”
Wrecker raised his hands in surrender.“You’re right, sunshine.Forgot how grown you kids are now.”He looked at her.“You good with Ender protecting you?”
Clove glanced at me.Really looked at me and nodded.“I’m more than okay with that.”
Chapter Fifteen
Clove
The room felt too quiet after Ender left.
Just… off.
Ender had been called for church.He’d hesitated before leaving, like he wasn’t sure if he should go at all, but Wrecker’s voice hollering down the hallway hadn’t left room for argument.The guys needed to talk.About the men who took me.About what came next.
About vengeance.
The last two days had been a blur.A strange mix of exhaustion and comfort, fear and relief.Ender had been the constant thread through all of it.When my thoughts spiraled, he was there.When my body shook, he grounded me.Yesterday, he’d taken me back to the house to grab some clothes, my toothbrush, things that made me feel human again.I’d barely made it through the front door before the exhaustion slammed into me.
He’d said my body finally knew it was safe.
That it could rest now.
I believed him.
But I also knew something else.