stretched wide enough to make his jaw ache. “I still think George can protect us better than we can protect ourselves.”
“For now, though,” Lola said, “this world is dog-eat-dog. He’ll turn at some point. The sooner you realize that, the better.”
“But—”
“Go to bed, Eleven.”
“But—”
“Bed.”
“B—”
“Good night.”
Michael closed his eyes. His body ached, but his brain raced. Maybe they weren’t safe with George. Maybe she was right. “Lola.”
Nothing.
He wasn’t letting it go. He needed to tell her. “Lola.”
“What?”
“The men from the truck are the ones from the warehouse. I don’t ever want to see them again.” He shook as he lay there. “They used to catch boys on the street. Just boys; they rarely took anyone older than fourteen, and some were as young as six.”
The memory of wide and frightened eyes from those very young boys came flooding back and Michael winced. The grief inside of him tore at his throat. “They kept us all in a warehouse and…”
The words left him, cut short by a hot rush of grief. Would he ever be able to talk about what happened to those boys in that warehouse?
Watching Lola’s tense back, hunched over as she perched on the edge of the bed and smoked, he waited.
At least a minute passed with no reply. “Lola.”
“Just go to sleep.”
“But…” Michael watched her smoke and stare out of the window. Before long, he shook his head and drew a deep breath. He mouthed the words, One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four…
Looting
Other than the hum of the truck’s tires against the hard road and George’s heavy breathing, the drive was silent. Michael listened to the big man beside him; it sounded like the fire had caused permanent damage to his lungs as well as his body. He shouldn’t sound that way. He was a large man, sure, but not overweight. He was quite the opposite, in fact.
With George driving on one side of him and Lola staring out of the passenger window on the other, Michael watched the road ahead. One day he’d be able to sit in a car without having to be on high alert.
While rubbing his eyes, Michael briefly turned to Lola. Well, what he could see of Lola, anyway. She seemed so intent on staring out of her window that all Michael could see was the back of her head. Since they’d woken up that morning, she’d said very little.
“The weather looks like it’s turning,” George said, breaking the silence. “Hopefully that’s the end of this cold snap. I’m fed up with this fucking winter.”
“I hope so,” Michael said. “I’m sick of this weather too. I just want to feel warm.”
George smirked. “I bet you’ll be glad to get out of that outfit too, eh?”
Heat rushed to Michael’s cheeks, and he didn’t answer.
After a brief look at him, Lola returned to looking out of the window.
A quick glance in his mirrors and George pulled a hard turn. The sharpness of it threw Michael into Lola and Lola into the window she’d been staring out of. Michael only managed to pull away from her after George had turned into a small garage and stopped.
As George switched the engine off, Lola glared at Michael.
Before he could say anything, George clapped his hands together and rubbed them. “Right, let’s go looting.”
Lola finally spoke. “I’d rather go on my own. How about we meet back here in half an hour?”
It took a second or two before George replied. “Okay.”
What else could he say? Lola wanted nothing to do with him, and he had to accept that.
When Lola popped the door open and slipped out of the truck, Michael followed her. He caught up with her and said, “Lola, wait. Shouldn’t we stay together?”
“No.”
When she turned to walk off, Michael ran after her again. George may make him feel safe but not safe enough to stay with him on his own. He grabbed Lola’s shoulder. “We should stick together. George can look after us. He’ll protect us.”
“We did all right without him before.”
“We did, but I don’t want to be without him now. Please, Lola, give it a try. Please?”
Stepping back when Lola jabbed her finger at his face, Michael watched the angry girl speak to him through gritted teeth. “You can come with me, but if you do, you’d best be fucking quiet. You got that?”
Keeping his mouth firmly closed, Michael nodded.
After watching him for a second as if she was waiting for a reason to bitch at him again, Lola turned around and walked