Hell Breaks Loose by Sophie Jordan

Author:Sophie Jordan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

Grace had the cabin to herself for most of the day. Reid started a fire in the fireplace. It crackled enticingly, but she didn’t want to position herself in the main room where she would risk further interaction with him.

Instead, she sequestered herself in the bedroom where she found an old beat up copy of The Hobbit on the nightstand. She burrowed on the bed beneath the heavy Aztec-patterned blanket, appreciating the warmth and telling herself the book would distract her. She smiled, thinking of Reid’s grandfather reading from the epic fantasy. A good man, Reid had called him. A man with depths, she also suspected.

Cold seeped in from outside, penetrating the skin and bones of the house. Winter was coming. She pulled the blanket to her chin, looking up from the well-read book to the frosted windowpanes, gazing out at the distant mountaintops, a few already capped in snow.

Reid stayed outside most of the day, only coming in once or twice, the thud of his boots alerting her and making her heart stop hard before picking up again.

She emerged to eat a lunch of peanut butter crackers and orange juice—something she could grab quickly and then dive back into her bedroom to (hopefully) avoid Reid.

Once before ducking back into the room she crept cautiously toward the front window. The fire popped and a log crumbled in the fireplace as she munched a cracker and peered outside.

He was there. She watched for some moments. He didn’t drift from the front of the house. She was certain that was deliberate. Not so she could spy on him, as it were, but so he could keep an eye on the front door. He did not trust her to stay put.

Grace leaned against the doorjamb, watching him secretly from her vantage point. He buried himself under the hood of the van for a short while, his strong arms flexing as he worked, using tools whose names she didn’t know. He was seemingly indifferent to the cold, not even bothering to don a jacket, leaving her to observe the way the muscles in his broad back played beneath the thin fabric of his shirt.

Slamming the hood shut, he moved into the shed, pulling out an old motorcycle that looked like it hadn’t seen action in years. After several failed attempts to get it started, he set to work on it. Like he was just any guy spending an afternoon working on his bike. Like he wasn’t a wanted man with a hostage that every law enforcement agency in the country was hunting.

Turning away, she picked up her plate and disappeared inside the bedroom, where she spent the next few hours reading and rereading the same pages, trying not to think about Reid and reflect too much on the idea that a boy with a good grandfather who taught him to fish couldn’t be all bad.

Later, she returned to the kitchen with her plate and took another look outside. He was still at work on that motorcycle.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.