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Still, my protectiveness over her was intense I wanted to kill the son of a bitch who had come after her and told her so She had only smiled and shaken her head

“No,” she said “Not these guys There’s h They are ruthless They are vicious and vindictive They killed ain power and want to wipe et it forto do with any of it, but they don’t care I’m still a liability to them”

“Maybe you should call Sa her friend she had told me about “You said her dad could help He has men too”

“No, I’ them involved I have to find some other way”

“But they want to help—you said so,” I argued

“No, please,” she said “Please stop bringing it up”

So, I gave it up There was no use in continuing to fight her on it She’d et her friend and her faree with it She was trying to protect the people she cared about She would have kept me out of it too had I not been there when they showed up to kill her

Thus, the week anniversary of her escaping withof tension, and I spentout of her hile trying to also , I wanted her to knoas there

She sat curled up on the love seat I had at the end of the bed Like she perpetually had, a book was in her hands, opened about halfway, and her feet were curled under her I watched from the kitchen as she pulled a blanket around her and flipped the page The title became visible, and I saas an old detective novel I had cootten about I made a mental note to ask her about it later

Desiree had been burning through my bookshelf at an impressive rate I understood the i wildly different than her real life I would too if I were her I had done the sa in the desert Some of the books on that shelf had been packed away in es from nations far away

I had decided to go ahead and run the electricity in the cabin full on It would help make her o into town for refueling supplies sooner The crank radio was good for a littleon the television and watching a movie I had yet to show her the hidden bookshelf of DVDs in the TV cabinet I wasn’t sure if she was going to like many of the ones I had in there, but at least it would provide a little ot much more stir-crazy

With dinner finished, I poked my head into the bedroom The sun had just set, and she had turned on the la Iin the doorway because she jumped a little and slammed the book shut, almost like she was ready to chuck it at me