I rolled my eyes at her. “Am I going to get a history lesson, or are we going to plot our awesome escape?”
“I’m sorry, but seriously, who doesn’t like to read?”
“Me! Okay? I never read the required reading in school. I hate historical fiction. I don’t have a thing for Highlanders. And Fabio looks like a girl!”
She gasped in horror at the last comment. “Take it back.”
“I will not!”
“Take it back!” she said, even angrier than before. She rolled toward me, her feet kicking out as she tried to…well, I wasn’t sure what she was trying to do, but it wasn’t working.
“Hey! Have I said one word to you about how you don’t ride horses?”
“That’s a Western thing. Reading is universal,” she said angrily.
“That doesn’t mean everyone needs to like it!”
“I forbid you to say such a thing! Reading is life! Reading is portable magic! Reading is a gift you can open again and again!”
“Oh my God! Shut up!” I yelled. “No one cares about your stupid books!”
Again, she gasped, and then tears filled her eyes.
God, I was a crap person. Here she was, passionate about something, and I was shitting all over it. And for what? Because I was pissed and didn’t want to hear about the fascinating world she lived in? God, what her mind must be like, cluttered with all those stories.
But then again, her imagination ran rampant. She was singularly the most interesting person I’d ever come across, and not just because of the fact that her sex life was so much more interesting than mine.
Maybe I had this wrong. Maybe I really was boring and needed some adventure.
“You know what? Maybe my books are stupid to you. Maybe I am just some…some librarian with an overactive imagination. But at least I’m not a scobberlotcher!”
Then again, maybe this woman needed a lesson.
15
ROB
I tapped Derek’s shoulder,letting him know I was ready to move. He tapped Sinner’s shoulder, and Sinner kicked in the door, weapon raised as he stormed the building.
I was last through the door, turning to the right to clear the room. Storm rushed past me, his tail wagging as he looked for someone to take down. But just like the previous three buildings, it was completely empty. I made my way to the back of the building, checking the small offices, but came up empty.
Sighing, I walked back out where Sinner and Derek were gathered. “Nothing.”
“It’s a whole cluster of buildings. Something’s interfering with the tracking location,” Derek sighed. “They’re here somewhere. We just have to keep searching.”
“It’s gotta be a magnet.”
“Yeah, well, unless you know where that magnet is, our only choice is to keep searching. This was their last known location, so we clear every fucking building until we find them,” Derek snapped.
I stormed back to the entrance and flung the door open. I was pissed at myself. This was my thing, and yet, in the field, Ifelt absolutely useless. I didn’t have my equipment, and with this raging headache, the things I would normally think of were all squashed and mashed inside my brain.
Nothing was working as it should.
“We still have four more buildings to clear. They have to be in one of them,” Sinner said, clapping me on the shoulder.
I was tired of waiting. I stormed off to the next one, not even bothering to wait for my team to catch up. It was irrational and stupid, and I was bound to get someone killed, but I had to find her. Storm was in agreement, running along next to me as a low growl emanated from his throat. For a wild animal, he was pretty awesome at this whole military thing.
He was the only thing keeping me level right now. I had bonded with him in the forest, and with Krista already missing, I needed something familiar other than Derek and Sinner.