Stoking the Fire (Salus Security #1) - Teodora Kostova Page 0,61

night at another motel. Sensing my mood, Alec lets me re-bandage his arm without much fuss. I examine the wound which, thankfully, looks good, and we settle in for the night with a reality TV show in the background and the pizza we picked up on the way.

Despite being tired, I can’t sleep much. I keep tossing and turning, drifting off only to come awake with a jolt. In the end, I give up. Getting up to use the bathroom, I notice Alec sitting in the armchair next to the window, his gun on the table in front of him.

“Everything all right?” I ask.

He turns his head to look at me, and I’m shocked at how drawn and tired his face is. He has dark circles under his eyes that look like bruises. In hindsight, I’m not sure he slept the previous night either. When I woke up, he was sitting in a similar position facing the window, but I assumed he got up before me and was killing time.

“It’s fine,” he says, his usually deep voice even raspier. “You should get some sleep.”

“Look who’s talking.”

I walk over to him and sit in the chair opposite. There’s a certain serenity that comes from sitting in a dark, quiet motel room, staring outside at the parking lot, the street lamp flickering every so often. The moon’s nearly full, and looks so big, it’s mesmerizing in the dark sky.

“I can’t sleep. I tried,” I says, leaning back in the chair. “You should lie down for a bit.”

He’s shaking his head before I even finish the sentence.

I ignore him. “We’re safe here, Alec. I’ll keep watch and wake you if as much as a squirrel runs through the lot.” Tired eyes flicker in my direction and then at the bed. “Look, I know you didn’t sleep last night either.” He doesn’t correct me, so my educated guess pays off. “You’ll be in no shape to drive today if you haven’t slept for forty-eight hours. It’s not safe.” Another longing glance at the bed. “Go. I’ll be right here.”

I don’t actually believe it’ll work. Alec’s the most stubborn man I’ve ever met, and his principles are unshakeable. But the fact that he gets up and shuffles to the bed, flopping down and starting to snore a few seconds later, shows that maybe I’m not the only one who’s changed in the past three years.

Chapter twenty-four

When the cabin comes into view, it’s like a mirage in the bone-dry desert. We’ve been on the road for what seems like weeks, the last few hours especially nauseating as we drove on weaving, back roads. Every turn made my stomach roil.

“Is that it?” I ask, trying to restrain the hopeful note in my voice but failing miserably.

Alec nods, his tired eyes not leaving the road.

After I made him lie down this morning, he managed a couple of hours of sleep. When he woke, the shadows under his eyes were just as vivid, the lines of his body just as stiff. I didn’t manage to doze off in the armchair, so I was equally tired and cranky.

Trees surround the cabin, making it impossible to spot until you reach it. I notice several cameras high in the trees as we drive past them, and I wonder if they actually work, or if they’re just a decoy. Knowing Alec, they probably work just fine.

The cabin’s small, made entirely of dark wood, including the roof. It looks like nobody’s been here in ages—the grass is overgrown, the weeds taking over the path to the door; the potted plants on either side of the door are an alarming shade of yellow. Even through the car window, I can see the spiderwebs on the porch.

And yet, as the sunset casts its orange rays over the roof, the light spreads and twinkles over every surface like a magic cloak. The grass and blooming weeds sway in the breeze, as if playing with the light. It’s mesmerizing, in a very dystopian kind of way. I already feel like we’re right at the edge of the world, the only two people left who survived the apocalypse.

Or maybe I’m just too tired.

I don’t even notice the car stopping and Alec getting out until he slams his door shut. I follow suit, taking my bag from the trunk and trailing behind Alec as he unlocks the door.

“Make yourself at home,” he says when we enter.

The inside of the house is even more surprising. The walls are bare wood, exposed