The Rogue

XXIX

*Faye*

Laundry, laundry, and more laundry. I wanted to beat my head against the wall. There seemed to be no shortage of clothes to be washed in this pack. I had seen more men's underwear in the last two days than I had in my entire life.

"Time for dinner," Maxen declared as he found me in front of the washer and dryer.

"Finally." I moved the last load of wet clothes to the dryer and started it.

"Keeping busy?"

"Yep."

"Good."

Ignoring him, I dragged my chair back into the kitchen to return to its place at the table. I turned to find myself cornered between the table, the wall, and Maxen's giant brick of a body. My eyebrows rose in question.

"We're, ah, going off sight for dinner," he informed me, standing entirely closer to me than necessary.

"Oh. Okay."

"Before you ask, your father can't come."

"So how's he going to get dinner then?" I studied him closely while wondering what all this odd behavior was for.

He shook his head. "One of my men will feed him."

"Are you sure...?"

"Yes. Now, let's go."

Sighing, I followed after Maxen. We left his apartment and climbed into the same rusty red Suburban he picked me up in nearly two weeks ago. I immediately noticed there was no one else in the car.

"Just you and me?" I asked. "Where's everyone else?"

"It's just us tonight. Put your seatbelt on."

Although I was feeling rebellious, I clamped the black strip of fabric across my body. Worry took root at the bottom of my gut in the form of a stony fist. I chewed on my bottom lip as Maxen drove around the apartment complex and onto a dirt road. The road led straight into the desert.

"Is this the part of the movie where you take me off into the middle of nowhere to kill me?" I wondered aloud.

"No."

"Then why are we driving into the desert?"

"For dinner."

Either he had totally lost his mind or I was missing something here. I gave up trying to understand and turned my face to the window. Dunes of scorched earth stretched out for miles until, in the distance, the earth shot up in wild, rocky crests. The sun had already sunk below the farthest mountain range, leaving behind only a trail of pinks and yellows.

The car rolled to a stop. My eyes flickered forward to peer through the windshield but found nothing remotely edible. Unless the occasional spiky cactus counted as food out here, which I sorely hoped it didn't.

"Come on," Maxen ushered, somehow already at my door. He tugged me out by my hand before practically dragging me off.

"Just make it swift, okay?" I half-teased, half-pleaded.

"What?" he asked, quirking a brow at me over his boulder of a shoulder. "Make what swift?"

"My death."

Rolling his eyes, he pulled me along even faster. I gulped and tried not to trip over my shoes. We ducked behind one of the dunes and edged down a rocky path. I wondered if we were heading to another cave where he intended to lock me up. These things were never out of the question with the Rogue leader around.