Being out overnight had made Silas uneasy. It had been awhile since he’d voluntarily been out of the compound after dark, and having numbers on their side hadn’t made him feel any better. With Rae and Ellie present, he’d spent a lot of time with one eye on the dark around them and the other on Rae; Ellie had enough eyes on her, what with Evan, her cousin and her friend or whatever. The one that had shown up just a day before.
But Rae for her part had seemed if not level-headed at least subdued. Even when they’d found the truck and Eric, shot in the fucking back, even the memory made him shudder, she hadn’t reacted like Ellie. Hadn’t gone for the woods, thank god.
And though the result of their efforts had been depressing, he was relieved to be back inside relatively safe walls. He hadn’t minded the quiet ride back, hell, Rae deserved to react any way she wanted. She’d just lost her last blood tie to Elliot besides EJ. Even with the animosity between the two of them, Silas really had been hoping they’d find David alive and safe, for Rae’s sake. For Ellie’s sake. For everyone that had cared about the vet.
He hadn’t even been able to make some bullshit statement about them not finding a body, so he could still be out there. He didn’t want to give Rae some kind of false hope, only to have it dashed if a body was eventually found. Even if it would soften the blow for right now.
Pocketing the keys as he got out, he watched Rae closely, noticed the tears that she seemed to be willing to stay put.
Furrowing his brows at her unfinished statement, he was about to ask her what she’d meant to say when she opened her mouth again. Home sounded damn good right about now, actually. But he couldn’t just leave her there, haul ass to his bed to catch a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep.
“Nah, I’m good for a while longer,” he replied, cracking a small smile at her thank you. “You’re welcome. Just couldn’t let you go out there alone.” She wouldn’t have been alone, but ridiculous as it was, he would’ve been worried that no one was watching out for her if he hadn’t gone. Logically that wouldn’t have been the case, but he was a little beyond logical thinking when it came to keeping an eye on Rae and making sure she was all right.
“You want company back to your place?” he asked, having an inkling of an idea that that might’ve been where she’d been headed with her first statement. “Not that far out of my way.” He closed some of the space between the two of them, stopping just short of putting an arm around her. After the conversation and kiss last week, he just wasn’t sure where the line was anymore.