Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(105)

A moment later we were on a new road, safe and sound, our speed matching that of even the smallest cars around us. I wondered if it was smart or safe for us to be going this quickly in such a large vehicle. Then I thought that it would be even less safe to be caught by the Authority, who might be behind us right now.

Henry must have noticed my increased tension, because he slanted me a glance. “It’s okay, Robin. I know you’ve put your life in my hands here, and I’m going to do everything I can to get you to safety. I’m taking alternative routes that I think will make it harder on the Authority.”

I sat back, heart racing. Maybe I should just trust him, believe that he knew what he was doing. He’d been driving for… well, at least long enough to get his driver’s license for a truck like this, and he was getting us out of the area as quickly as he could—just like I’d asked him to. He was taking us on a route that would evidently be unexpected. He knew the Authority was after us.

He’d never let me get in trouble before. Well, until we went to my parents. And I wasn’t sure I could really blame him for that.

Needing a distraction, I got up and stumbled toward the back, finding walking very difficult in a vehicle that bounced this much. Jackie had asked for me, Jace had said. But I figured that she could wait for a moment longer. I stared quickly from one end of the bedroom to the other and found Jace in the pilot chair in the corner. Facing the corner. His shoulders were hunched over as if to protect himself, and his chin rested on his hands. His face was within inches of the wall, and though I reached for him, my heart shouting at me to go and make amends somehow, I felt another hand grasp my arm to get my attention.

I turned to see that it was Jackie, reaching out to me from the bed on which Ant had laid her.

“Leave him for a moment,” she whispered, her voice raspy. “He doesn’t think anyone else can see how upset he is, and he won’t thank you for drawing attention to it.” She glanced at me and gave me a healthy eye roll—her specialty. “Boys. They expect you to take care of their hearts, but God forbid you actually make them admit that they have feelings! He’ll come to you when he’s ready to be taken care of. Count on it.”

I sighed at that and dropped to my knees, hoping she was right. I didn’t have enough experience with men to know one way or the other. I’d only ever had two romantic interests in my life.

And I was somehow stuck in a truck with both of them. Go figure.

I turned my thoughts to Jackie just to escape the irony of that and scooted closer to her.

“How are you feeling?” I whispered.

She snorted right back at me. “What the hell did you guys do, put me on some kind of bouncy ride?” she asked hoarsely.

I smiled and put a hand to her forehead. Burning up. I had no idea what that meant, but it didn’t seem like a good sign. Then again, at least she was still warm. I supposed that was pretty much the best I could hope for, given the situation.

“We’re getting you out of Trenton and to a place where you’ll be safe,” I murmured. “And that has better medical facilities than the forest.”

“Wouldn’t be tough,” she said with a cough. “I’d also like better nurses, please. Maybe even a real live doctor.”

I did laugh, then, and drew back a bit. “We’re going to get you all of that. But rest for now. I’m guessing you have some time to sleep before we start moving you around again.”

“So full of mystery,” she said sarcastically. But her eyes drifted shut, and I could see that she was thankful for the prompt to sleep.

Whatever was going on inside her body, it had to be stripping her of whatever energy and nutrients she had, and we hadn’t exactly had a lot to eat over the last couple of days. The more rest she got, the better. With luck, we’d have her to the convent before she woke up again.

I got to my feet and headed for the others, who were sitting in a group on the floor. I dropped down next to them, my head hurting with the stress of the last hour. The stress of the last week.

“What’s our plan once we get there?” I asked.

I noticed that Jace wasn’t looking at me, and my heart twinged a bit at that, but I put it to the side for the moment and looked around at everyone else. I wanted to have a plan figured out well before we got to where we’d left the airship, so we could hit the ground running. This was no time to play things by ear.

“We have to get the truck close enough to the airship itself to run a hose from the tanker to the fuel tank on the ship,” Nelson said. “We aren’t going to have time to ferry gasoline by some small carrier. The ship will drain half of this tanker if it’s empty enough.”

I nodded. “Makes sense. Henry?” I called toward the driver’s seat. “Can this thing go off-road? Will we be able to drive it to where we left our next… vehicle?”

There was a brief pause, and then: “Depends on what sort of land we’re talking about. If it’s dry grassland, no problem. If it’s a swamp, absolutely not.”

“Definitely grassland,” I said. “What about a hose for fueling something else up? Got anything like that?”

He snorted. “’Course I do. You can use the hose I always use to transfer fuel from the tanker to wherever it’s going.”

I looked back to Nelson, the initial question answered, and waited for the next step.