He chewed at his lips in indecision, clearly eager to be on his way down the mountain. “The lions will eat you, lady,” he explained as though speaking to a dimwit, his shoulders straightening and an invisible mantle of responsibility seeming to settle on them.
“Then let the damned lions eat me,” she snapped desperately. “Do you think I went to all the trouble to get into Sanctuary just so they could take both of us?”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re being melodramatic.”
Melodramatic? A freaking nine-year-old had just called her melodramatic?
“Excuse me here,” she snapped. “I’m stuck in the woods, I think I broke bones, and I’ve lost my shoes. This is not melodrama, kid. This is me getting ready to have a meltdown.”
He stared back at her with a patronizing, totally male gaze. Good God, this kid was a hazard to himself.
“Meltdown when we get home. Mom keeps chocolate for meltdowns. Daddy always has them when Uncle Jonas visits.” He frowned, glancing at the sky while he grabbed a handful of her sweats to steady her as she stumbled over something barky. A rotten piece of a tree maybe. She shuddered. Anything rotten should be kept well away from her.
“I don’t blame your daddy,” she muttered. “Jonas is a pain in the rear. Now run and tell him I said it. Go on.” She waved her hand imperatively. “Go.”
The kid shook his head.
“Uncle Jonas is cool. He knows neat stuff, like guns and knives and how to fight.”
“So does your daddy,” she reminded him impatiently. “Would you leave already?”
“But teaching hurts Daddy,” he sighed, ignoring her once again. “I can feel it. So I asked Uncle Jonas to help me, and Uncle Taber and Uncle Tanner. It hurts them too though, but not like it does Daddy.”
“It’s for your protection,” she pointed out.
“I know. I think that’s why it hurts them,” he shrugged. “It’s why I can’t go to the regular school or play baseball.”
There was a note of sadness in the boy’s voice, of loneliness. Hell, the Breeds were no freer now than they were in the labs; they just weren’t tortured. Unless they were caught.
“We have to move faster,” she muttered, trying to force her legs to obey her. It was obvious the kid wasn’t going anywhere without her. “We don’t have much time.”
She could hear something coming herself now, could feel the vibration of it.
“The lions are close.” David’s voice rose in excitement as they passed a thick growth of foliage. “All we have to do is get to the—”
Scheme stopped in shock as Tamber erupted from behind the brush and jerked David to the side, her pistol lying at his temple as his eyes widened in alarm and fear.
Blood smeared the other woman’s face and hands as she blinked several times to clear the sweat that dripped into her eyes.
“Oh man, Daddy’s going to be really mad now,” David mumbled.
“Brat.” The gun slapped the boy at the side of the head as Scheme flinched, reaching instinctively for him.
“You stupid bitch.” The weapon turned on her. “Your father said dead or alive. I’m just going to kill you and get it over with.”
“You kill her and I won’t be nice.” David struggled, though his eyes were a little dazed now, his face pale. “And my daddy is going to kill you.”
“Shut up, you little bastard.” She whacked him again, causing him to stumble as she dragged him closer to her.
“Stop hitting him.” It was hard to breathe for the pain in her ribs, the agony streaking up her arm and the fear she could feel crawling inside her. “You knock him out and he’s going to be dead weight.”
“So?” Tamber sneered, her plain face twisting into a grimace of anger. “Who really gives a f**k? He’s going to be wishing he were dead by the time General Tallant finishes the first stage of training. Let him get used to the pain now.”
There was a smug glint in her eye as her gaze flickered to David.
“Let him go,” Scheme whispered. “I have something more important than the kid. Something my father will want much more than he wants that child.” She waved her fingers toward him.
“There’s nothing you could have,” Tamber snapped.