“Maybe. We’ll play it by ear. We’ll be heading into more populated areas over the next few days, so I’m hoping there’ll be an opportunity to purchase some necessities. I have a little bit of cash in my wallet.”

Charlie still had his wallet, but probably didn’t have a lot of cash as he always used credit. The thought of cash made me picture the baggies of drugs that had rained down on the plane when I’d discovered Tuck’s illegal activity. I supposed because cash had been the point of it.

At the memory of that moment, emptiness gaped, but so did a niggling feeling that something was off. Or maybe it was just that today, more than ever, it hadn’t only felt like we were a team, but it’d felt like he was my old friend. And though I couldn’t deny the passion that had sparked to life between us, it was probably a momentary reaction born entirely from the wild circumstances. It would be wise for me to remember that to Tuck, this was a job. I should stop thinking of him as my old friend, or even a savior who would have done what he was doing now for any reasons other than at least some amount of decency, and loyalty to my parents. That was what I found so confusing, and why I kept stumbling emotionally when it came to him. There were parts of him I still recognized, even if, otherwise, he was completely different. “Right,” I said. “Yes.”

He did look up at me then, his gaze assessing. “If you want to make yourself useful, you could sharpen some sticks.”

We roasted the rabbit on sticks over the fire and ate it sitting under the low light of the lavender sunset. And though the meat wasn’t nearly plentiful enough, it remedied the ache of hunger that had burned since we’d eaten hours and hours earlier that day.

I looked over at Charlie sitting next to me, dragging his teeth along the stick in an attempt to get every last piece of meat on the skewer. In the glow of the fire, and with the addition of the stubble on his jaw, he looked like he was playing the part of a sexy mountain man. And I had the feeling I was watching him on a screen, some act that was in no way part of who he really was. Maybe I’d look down and see a bucket of popcorn in my lap, and when I left the theater, I’d think about how incredible it would be if I ever met Charlie Cannon and how I’d die if he even spared me a glance.

And I knew in that moment, I didn’t want to be with him anymore.