The Fortunates (Unfortunate #2) - Skyla Madi Page 0,80

nice to spend a day doing something normal together. I’m not opposed to picnics and sight-seeing. I’ve rarely spent time in the town and I haven’t seen any of the farms, factories, or animals. Funnily enough, I miss the days when I was his Unfortunate. Despite the drama, life seemed so simple and I hope, in my lifetime, it can be both equal and simple again.

∞ Kade ∞

The clocks ticked away the remaining hour as the sun began to set. There was a fierce nausea in his stomach, threatening to rip it apart. He’d have thrown up if he had anything in there to dispel. Kade launched himself out of bed just after Oliver left. It wasn’t fair that Anna had to deal with everything on her own. The time for grieving a lost friend had come and gone. Now he had to make both Anna and Portia proud or die trying.

Kade kissed Anna on the mouth before hitting the shower. She sat back in her seat, watching him as he zipped around the room packing things into a large, black bag. He didn’t say much to her the past few hours because he was focused on making sure he packed as much as he could carry.

He bent low and scooped up a brand new pair of runners. He didn’t know if they were her size, but they were better than nothing.

“Sneakers will be better for you to run in, yeah?”

She didn’t answer. Kade lifted his stare to Anna, who eyed the rifles on the bed. They were cleaned and loaded, raring to go. She looked like she was going to puke.

“Nine?”

Snapping her stare to him, she frowned. Kade couldn’t even remember the last time he called her Nine. She told him not to, but to be honest, he missed it. He missed her, her weaknesses, her minor worries and insecurities, but he missed saying her name the most.

“Anna…” he clarified, nervously clenching the lip of the shoe. “Do you want me to pack you a pair of sneakers?”

She glanced down at her bare feet. How far did she have to run? Thankfully, she nodded, keeping her eyes on her toes.

“I can’t do this,” she whispered and he dropped her shoes to the floor. “These people are following me to certain death—even Oliver knows that and he started this stupid thing.”

“Fuck Oliver,” Kade stated, tossing the clean black shirt he had resting on his shoulder on the couch. “He’s scared.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

He shook his head as he crossed the room and circled her desk to stand in front of her. She glanced down at her hands and refused to look at him. For three weeks he’d ignored her, wallowing in his own self-pity. He couldn’t help it. He tried not to, but losing Portia was like losing a limb. It was as though he couldn’t function. Since he was younger, she’d been there every morning making breakfast while his parents were gone. He hadn’t realised how attached he’d grown to her face. Losing her was like losing an older sister, or a mother. He was certain he could give her the freedom she deserved…

But he couldn’t…and now he never could.

“Is it too late to back out?” Anna asked, lifting her welling stare to his. “Is it too late to take you up on your offer? I can be your wife and we can live in your house. We can go to the city together, stay there as long as we need to—”

Kade took her hand in his and pulled her to her feet. Shifting, he dropped into the seat and pulled her into his lap. He tipped her head back, resting it where his neck sloped into his shoulder. Her hands trembled in his as she curled up on his lap.

“We’re going to go to war,” he muttered, stroking his thumb over the back of her hand. “We’re going to fix everything that is broken and then we’re going to live out the rest of our lives happy. Truly happy.”

“And if we die?”

Kade scoffed. “Since when were you afraid of death?”

“I wasn’t…until today.”

“You have every right to be nervous. Today we’re going to make history. Together.” Releasing her hand, he swiped his index finger along her jaw, tilting her chin up. “I can’t think of a better person to go down in history with.”

Anna’s pink lips twitched at the corners and she bit her plump lower lip. It wasn’t often that he was able to suppress her anxiety,