Chapter 120: She Couldn’t Buy Her Way Out of This One

Edrik reversed into the access drive of a road-maintenance hut above the ditch and parked behind its trees. They could retreat along that drive if they had to. For now, the concrete hut offered better cover than sitting in a cab beside men guarding a roadblock.

Inside, one room held shelves, a workbench, and a door facing away from the road. Edrik checked the rear while Thorne brought their food and bedding from the pickup. Both stayed human-shaped, dressed and ready.

Dove slept badly, but she slept. By Day Sixty’s morning wash, she had decided that being afraid was exhausting enough without adding hunger to it. Breakfast meant thick egg sandwiches, fruit, and hot coffee from their retained bottle. Both men ate while she checked Sprout’s tasks.

Five packs of electrolyte drink mix had arrived, each making several large bottles. Sprout wanted four sold. Dove closed the water-carrier offer and checked the road instead. There weren’t any customers she trusted out there. The extra drinks task could wait too. She wasn’t walking up to armed strangers with a cheerful little beverage menu.

"Nine hundred for the footwork manual?" she asked, though she knew the answer.

"The price remains unchanged."

She still had five hundred eighty-eight Favor. Dove asked whether Sprout could tell her how many men were behind the van, since it was so good at noticing when one found her attractive.

"Your system is not a road-surveillance service."

"Right. Murderers are outside your department, but a man taking his shirt off gets immediate attention. Helpful."

She closed the manual. The missing coins weren’t coming from wishing, and she’d rather spend the time learning something Edrik could actually teach her.

Dove put the stock aside and asked Edrik to practice the escape step with her. He cleared a patch beside the workbench and used slow reaches, letting her set her feet before increasing the pace. She stumbled once, swore, and tried again without waiting to be told.

"Better," he said when she turned clear. "You stayed balanced enough to move afterward."

"Try sounding less surprised."

"I was admiring the language. Very motivating."

Thorne handed her water and looked far too pleased. "My wife can threaten you while improving. She’s talented."

She told them both to stop enjoying themselves, which naturally made it worse. Sprout finished her Favor target and active minutes. The sale stock stayed untouched. She would deal with the leftover fees when they were somewhere safer, preferably sitting down with nobody watching the road for movement behind a van.

While Thorne watched outside, Edrik checked the recovered handgun against the ammunition in her stored bin. He found a matching supply and loaded six rounds after inspecting the weapon. Dove left the gun in experienced hands.

Edrik packed the matching spare rounds where he could reach them and handed back the other boxes. Dove kept her slingshot and checked the pouch of stones at her hip. She’d practiced with it. She knew how to use it. Taking a gun she hadn’t learned to handle would give Edrik another problem, not another fighter.

By late morning they could watch the road from behind the hut’s tree line. The van sat across the pavement thirty yards below them, its nose against the steep bank. A narrow gap remained by its rear, but the ditch beside it would trap their truck. Two men stood near the doors, one carrying a handgun and the other a long blade.

A third man paced between the van and a pile of travel bags. As Dove watched, he stopped a passing driver and tore a bag out of his hands. The gunman lifted his weapon when the driver protested. Dove’s stomach tightened. The man backed away, staring at his stolen supplies, then turned and hurried down the road.

Edrik watched the men rather than the bags. Thorne pointed out a metal road sign lying near the ditch, large enough to cover Dove if they could reach it. Beyond the van, the paved shoulder widened beside another maintenance access.

"Can we go around the other way?" she asked.

"On foot, perhaps," Edrik said. "Not with the pickup through that ditch. We could turn back, but I want to know whether they have someone watching behind us first."

Giving up their supplies wouldn’t guarantee these men left them alone. Dove checked the route back to cover.

"If they come toward us, I stay behind the wall," she said, pointing back at the hut. "I can distract someone who shows his face. I don’t run toward the van to steal a bag."

Thorne nodded. Edrik walked the short path back to the hut with her, scuffing dirt away from a root that could catch her boot. From the concrete corner, she could see the road without stepping into the gap. Dove tried raising her slingshot there, then lowered it. Her hand was shaking, but at least she knew where she was going.

"If I fall over, we’re calling it a distraction," she told Edrik. He smiled faintly and told her to stay down so he could use it. Dove laughed despite herself, then checked the path again.

Thorne crouched beside her. She brushed silver hair away from his scar, needing something familiar beneath her fingers before they moved.

"You don’t have to impress me," he told her.

"I was hoping to impress myself a little."

He touched his forehead to hers and stayed there. Edrik watched the road, giving them that quiet moment without making her feel she had left him out. When they stood, she reached for his hand too.

Back at the hut, Dove heated beef, rice, and vegetables on their stove beside the open doorway. Flies found the food almost immediately. She covered the pot between servings and watched brown meltwater carry old leaves and trash past the driveway.

"I was promised a nice thaw," she complained when Thorne brought his bowl. "This one comes with bugs and men who need shooting."

"Who promised you?" he asked, settling beside her while Edrik watched the bend.

"Me, apparently. I’m terrible at this." He kissed her temple and stayed until she’d eaten, then traded places with Edrik. She saved the bear the biggest serving and pretended she hadn’t.

After lunch, Dove searched the hut’s open shelves and found sealed shop cloths, a sound funnel, and work gloves. She touched each before storing it. Sprout marked the road task complete. She kept searching and recovered two sound canvas tool bags from beneath the bench, stopping only when Edrik signaled from the doorway. The little room smelled of warm beef and dust, and she was trying to listen past it to the trees.

A stone shifted outside the rear wall. Edrik turned first, raising a hand for silence. Dove set down her empty bowl and moved behind the concrete corner they’d chosen.

A man stood at the edge of the trees, close enough to see her blonde ears before Thorne blocked his view. His gaze moved past the men toward the parked pickup, then back to Dove.

"Bring the woman out," he called. "We can all save ourselves some trouble."