She wasn't lying. Every time she closed her eyes, Tina's face appeared in her mind.
Not the blood-covered face from her nightmare, but the Tina she knew, the little girl who always smiled at her, and defended even when no one did. The child who would quietly hold her hand whenever she pretended not to be scared.
The more Laurel tried to push the image away, the clearer it became, and her fingers slowly tightened around the rifle resting across her knees as if holding onto it could calm the uneasy feeling pressing against her chest.
Gabriel noticed the movement. His gaze lowered briefly to her hand before returning to her face, but he did not mention Tina's name. He
had followed Laurel long enough to know when words would help and when they would only make the silence heavier, so he simply shifted slightly closer to the truck wall and watched the road ahead through the narrow opening near the front.
