The truck made the trip back to the ocean fly by. Even so, my energy was depleted when Luke pulled onto a familiar road a few hours later, the afternoon sun slanting through the windows. He hadn’t pulled a single detail concerning Laiken out of me, and I had grown tired of his endless questions and defaulted to giving him the silent treatment, meaning that his new goal was to get as much of a single word out of me—a mission that failed spectacularly. 

“You’re no fun,” he grumbled, barely audible over the rock music blasting from the speakers. The glovebox was chocked full of CDs from the pre-Virus days, and Luke had admitted that sometimes he went on road trips just to burn gas and drown out his thoughts with the tunes. At the moment he had a Blue Öyster Cult disc in, and even I had to admit the songs weren’t half-bad. “I’m starting to think this whole girlfriend thing is a ploy.”

“Yes,” I deadpanned. “This was all an elaborate scheme to lure you into the wastelands and murder you.”

Luke grinned as he put the truck into park. “That is concerning, but at least I got you to talk again.”

I rolled my eyes as I threw open my door. Our house was still a little ways away, but the road was so cracked and uneven that Luke refused to drive his truck over it. It annoyed me, but I couldn’t blame him, not when he had dedicated so much time to keeping his vehicles in shape.

Luke blatantly studied the street as we walked. It felt strange to have him here. Not just because this was our first interaction as two soldiers, not inmate and prison guard, but because this was my sacred place. Aside from the Vipers’ initial attacks on us, Laiken and I hadn’t seen another soul out this way. The ocean house and the surrounding area were ours—somehow separate from the rest of the wastelands, our secluded haven in a crumbling world.

We topped the hill, the house already in view. The sight eased something in my chest. I broke into a jog, heart thrumming as I burst through the front door.

Laiken wasn’t in the living room or kitchen. I checked the bedroom, expecting her to be curled up under the covers with her sketchbook, but she wasn’t there.

I went through the entire house, a sinking feeling settling into my stomach as I realized Laiken was nowhere to be found.

“Something wrong?” Luke asked, hovering in the threshold, the front door hanging open.

I ignored him. “Laiken? Are you here?”

“Laiken?” he asked excitedly. “Is that her name?”

I pushed past him to check the kitchen again. A familiar sketchbook laid on the counter next to a plastic case brimming with markers and colored pencils. Laiken blew through sketchbooks faster than anything—she had a purple one when we met, which was filled and replaced by a black one, then a neon orange one she’d despised the color of. Now she was halfway through a pink-and-white striped book. I’d found a blue sketchbook on our last trip to Freeport and tucked it away with the intention to give it to her for Christmas.

I picked up the book on the counter. Laiken wouldn’t have gone far without it—she even tucked her book into her backpack whenever we went to Freeport on the off chance we got stranded and she found herself with time to draw.

My shoulders relaxed a little. “I think she went on a walk,” I said to Luke, who had followed me into the kitchen with an apprehensive look. Laiken enjoyed doing that. My paranoia didn’t let her go too far without me by her side, but she had a route through the woods she went on just about every day. “We’ll wait for her to come back.”

He shrugged off his pack. “So her name is Laiken?”

I groaned. “Let it rest. You’re about to meet her, so what’s the point in all these questions?”

“I want to be prepared! In case you haven’t noticed, you’re a scary son of a bitch. I’m very worried that any girl who found it in herself to like you is also scary.”

I frowned. “Laiken isn’t scary.” I waved a hand. “She’s a people person that wasn’t around people for a long time, so she took it out on me.” I winced. “And it worked.”

Luke considered that for a moment. I angled my head at him and asked, “You really think I’m scary?”

“Dude, I never would have approached you if you hadn’t been behind bars.”

“Thanks,” I said dryly.

“I mean it!” He waved a hand at me. “You’re tall. And mean. The reason I talked to you for the first time is because I was bored out of my mind playing prison guard and you looked like you could use someone to play cards with. And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it all worked out, but come on, Ethan, you intimidate everyone without even trying.”

I laughed under my breath. “At least you’re honest.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Did you just laugh?”

“I am capable of that, you know.”

“Robots don’t laugh.”

“This one does.”

“The girlfriend has softened you,” Luke announced, following me into the basement. “You almost smiled yesterday and I thought that was a fluke, but laughing today?” He shook his head. “She has to be magic if she’s thawed you out.”

I flipped on my flashlight as I descended the stairs, not bothering to respond to Luke. He was right; Laiken had softened me, but I liked to think it was in a good way. 

It isn’t good to be so callous all the time, she always said. It hurts you as much as it does those around you.

After a while, I believed her.

Luke let out a whistle as I swept the flashlight beam over the supplies. Everything from Laiken’s church and the Vipers’ base and our numerous trips to Freeport had been stashed down here. We’d gone through quite a bit of it in the last few months, but we still had enough to get us through the winter.

“You guys are loaded,” Luke said, not bothering to hide the admiration in his voice.

I frowned. Most of this wasn’t even our doing. Laiken had stumbled across the church by pure accident. I supposed I had earned the stuff we took from the Vipers, but we hadn’t actually scavenged it. The two of us were lucky, all in all.

I pulled a box towards me and sorted through it. “Take whatever you need. We’ve got plenty.”

We spent half an hour sorting through supplies, replenishing our stocks and setting aside what we thought we would need for the trip. I didn’t want to arrive at the Guardians’ camp looking overly stocked, making them wonder where we’d gotten it all, but I wanted enough to last us for a good while in case the Guardians weren’t keen on sharing resources with strangers. We carried everything upstairs. I left Luke to organize his pack in the living room while I ducked into the bedroom to pull on a fresh change of clothes.

I paused when I saw Laiken’s stuff. I hadn’t even stopped to consider if she was coming with us—hell, she didn’t even know about the mission yet. It didn’t feel right to ask her to come. I couldn’t see Laiken being on board with such a mission. Besides, this was my problem to deal with—the reward was the pardon I needed to erase the history of assassinations I’d left in my wake. It wasn’t Laiken’s mess to clean up.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the front door opening. I heard Luke in the other room say a greeting, but he cut himself short with a howl of pain that had me bursting into a sprint.

I skidded to a stop in the living room, blinking at the scene in front of me. Laiken stood in front of the open door, her pistol pointed at Luke, who was doubled over and holding his bleeding nose. Laiken blinked at me. “Bull! You’re back!”

I stared at Luke. “What happened?”

“The blue gremlin pistol-whipped me,” Luke gasped, straightening up.

“Her name is Laiken,” I growled.

He raised his brows as he took in Laiken, who wore a jacket over her t-shirt and leggings, her broken heart necklace shining in the sunlight, her hair loose and left to fall down to her waist in a curtain of blue. “That’s your girlfriend? Goddammit, she packs a punch.”

Laiken’s eyes narrowed, as she clocked him in the face with the gun again, eliciting another string of curses from him.

“What was that for?” he cried.

“Thou shall not take the Lord’s name in vain,” Laiken recited solemnly. 

I eased in between them and pried the gun out of Laiken’s fingers. “He’s a friend,” I said quietly.

She arched a brow. “You have friends?”

“Acquaintance,” I amended.

Luke scowled as he wiped the blood off his face. Nothing looked broken, but he’d have one hell of a bruise. “First of all, ouch.” He turned to Laiken. “Second of all, it is very nice to meet you, Laiken, because I too am surprised that someone as unfriendly as this asshole managed to make not one, but two friends.”

The words were teasing, as was the playful glare he sent in my direction. Laiken’s shoulders relaxed as she shook his outstretched hand. 

“I’m sorry for hitting you,” she said, a bit sheepish. “I thought you were an intruder. You deserved it the second time, though.”

“Fair enough.” Luke cocked his head at me. “I guess you weren’t lying about the blue hair, after all.”

“I told you it was the truth,” I said dryly.

Laiken’s gaze then shifted to me, a wide grin spreading over her face. I smiled back—to Luke’s surprise, if his raised brows were any indication—and swept her into a bone-crushing hug. She pressed her face into my chest, holding me as tightly as I held her.

“I’ve been so worried about you,” she whispered. She pulled back. “What happened? What did they want with you?”

I glanced at Luke, then back at Laiken, panic seizing my chest for a brief moment.

“It’s a lot to explain,” I said, fumbling the words. I grimaced at Luke. “We’ll be right back.”