Relentless

6- Saige

I tore my eyes away from him and locked onto another car that dropped into the unknown; I gulped as my heart pulsed and the goosebumps turned into shivers of fear, adrenaline pumping hot through my veins. His smirk vanished instantly. Sighing, he absent-mindedly rubbed the back of his neck, "You don't have to. I don't want to force you to do something you're not comfortable with."

He tried to hide it, but I caught the slight disappointment in his voice. I didn't like that; I didn't want to let him down. He's done so much for me, and he did drive all this way because I refused to go back. What's one more time of escaping the jaws of death? I internally facepalmed of how morbid I sound before answering still uncertain, "Okay."

"Okay, what?"

I took in a shaky breath, "Let's do it."

His eyes lit up, but he held his excitement, "Are you sure? You really don't hav-,"

"Get in line before I change my mind, Myles."

A smile slipped past his lips as he held up his hands in mock surrender, "Yes, ma'am."

He turned on his heels and I reluctantly followed. There were a handful of people waiting in front of us. This reminded of that time I scraped my knee and Kelly made me put a band-aid on it. When the time came to take it off I tried slowly but it hurt. So Kelly ripped it off fast, I don't know why that way felt better but it did. I hated how slowly we were approaching this mountain coaster as Jackson called the ride of death.

Jackson leaned against the railing with his arms crossed studying me, while occasionally scanning our surroundings for trouble, "Talk to me, O'Connor."

I cocked my head, "About what?"

He shrugged, "Anything, tell me something about you."

"There's not much to tell."

He gave me a pointed look, "Right, a mysterious girl shows up out of nowhere in the middle of the woods at night, alone, starving, hurt, and can't talk. Not only that, but she's running from something or somebody."

"That sounds like a great story. Tell me more," a knowing smirk glued to my face.

He was taken aback by my retort but quickly recovered, a smirk of his own sliding past his defenses, "She met a handsome and awesome guy who saved her from the dreadful Diamondback."

I rolled my eyes, "Who's picking up Justin's traits now?"

"Touché," he let out an easy laugh.

We moved forward a bit as the line grew shorter, a small detail dawning on me, "And excuse me, mister." His dark gaze sparked with mischief. "You have yet to say hardly anything about you," I crossed my arms for emphasis.

He glanced away shrugging, "Not much to tell."

"Pfft, right," I scoffed, my tone matching his while lowering my voice. "A twenty-five-year-old living in a secret town hidden up the mountains who, let's not forget, is a highly trained ninja and spends his spare time going on adventures with a "mysterious" runaway girl."

He raised his eyebrows grinning, "Ninja?"

"Really? That's all you got from that?"

"Your story sounds better than mine."

We inched closer as screams filled my ears; I whipped around realizing it was just a girl dropping. I placed my hand on my chest willing my heart to slow down, it only became even more erratic when I realized we were next. I felt his presence behind me as I watched a girl hop on strapping herself in with excitement. His fingers lightly brushed my arm as a means of comfort, once again leaving a trail of goosebumps. And then it was our turn. Heart hammering and slightly shaking, I forced my feet to move. Jackson climbed in the back seat first and I carefully followed sitting in between his legs. The attendant helped us strap in and signaled all was good to go.