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“Anna,” she answered, despite the fact that his eyes bore into Hayden rather than her. They must have been carried off the road, because all around her were endless trees. She tried to subtly scan for a break in the trees, for the freeway or a path of some kind, but she was only met with more forest.
“Anna,” the man beside him nodded, pulling her attention back. He was of a leaner build, with lighter hair and well-groomed facial hair. “My mother’s name was Anna.”
Before she could spit back any type of retort, the man in the middle nodded in Hayden’s direction. “And you? What’s your name?”
She turned to him, watching his face as he mustered the energy to respond. He must’ve been really out of it to be so sluggish in his movements. “Hayden,” he finally said.
The men shared a look, then the one in the middle smiled. “We were hoping you would say that.”
She squinted at them. “You were?”
He nodded. “We saw the scars, and the guns, and could barely believe our eyes.” He placed a hand on his chest. “I’m Mason.” He gestured toward the one who’d spoken to her earlier. “This is Liam.” Then, to the final man at his side. “And this is Austin. We’re very happy to see you, Hayden.” His gaze drifted to her. “And Anna,” he quickly tacked on.
“May I ask whether we should be happy to see you, as well, or is this joy one sided?” Hayden asked calmly.
The men exchanged a humored look. “We’ve been living deep in the South, just trying to get by and make right by our families. Then we heard the Resistance had taken over the Central District and were planning to take more, and we decided we’d come on up here and offer them a hand.” Mason grinned. “I assume I have the right Hayden, yes?”
Anna felt the air rush out of her lungs in relief.
“You are correct.” Hayden pulled his hands out from behind his back, holding up the pair of handcuffs that definitely should’ve been restraining him still. “I assume I don’t need these anymore, yes?”
The men burst into laughter, and Hayden turned his head to her, giving her a quick wink.
Sonofabitch.
? ♥ ?
The fire roared high before them, crackling and popping and roasting the fresh kill that hung over it. The warmth felt good on his frostbitten skin, but the feeling wouldn’t last. Apparently, they were a fair bit closer to UNR controlled land than Hayden had realized, and once the sun went down, so would the fire.
So, he’d enjoy it while it lasted.
He didn’t like being caught by surprise. Perhaps he relied a bit too much on his forbidden technologies. Perhaps he’d have used them more and known just how close they were to the enemy if he’d been willing to step away from Anna for more than a few minutes at a time.
Not that any of that mattered, now. He played it off as if he’d known exactly where they were. Anna seemed to see past his lie, but at least she didn’t call him out on it. Not in front of the others.
She also hadn’t said a word about his confession, which was more than a little concerning. Sure, it was smart to wait. That little piece of intel would do serious damage in the wrong hands and wasn’t meant to be shared with anyone, but… she was acting too normal. As if nothing was amiss.
He shoved it down, focusing on the present moment. Doing his best to pretend everything was perfectly fine and playing out according to plan—he had plenty of experience with that, after all.
It wasn’t unheard of for small groups to pop up throughout the country. He’d heard stories of them, on and off, in different areas. Most of the time, they were planning to join with the Resistance, but sometimes, they remained independent of them. Sawyer didn’t like that, but Hayden didn’t mind. It didn’t matter one way or the other, so long as they were all fighting the same enemy. Still, he’d always kept tabs on them, made sure he knew what they were up to, had a handful of contacts amongst the different groups, including the one that he sat with now, though he’d keep that to himself.
Hayden bit into his hunk of meat, enjoying the taste of crisp, hot food. Even though it hadn’t been very long at all, it felt like he and Anna had been surviving off of dehydrated meals for ages. Maybe their time in the compound had made him soft. He used to eat those little meal packets for months on end without complaint.
Anna’s leg brushed against his, pulling his attention from the conversation around him. Normally, he’d be able to focus on nothing but the newcomers and learning everything he could about them. Not now. Now, he turned to Anna, finding her light eyes staring back at him, highlighted by the firelight and looking more beautiful than ever.
“I have to admit,” she started, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear, “I didn’t believe you about the handcuffs.”
He chuckled, but it came out sounding wrong. The relief he felt at her casual conversation almost overwhelmed him. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”
She bit her lip. Didn’t say anything else, and his mind instantly went back to earlier… to when he had lied to her. Shit.
Her pink tongue swiped over the indent her teeth had left on her lip, and Hayden couldn’t help but imagine the taste of her mouth. “Do we trust them?” she asked, voice hushed.
Ah, the most important question. Who to trust? Somehow, Hayden enjoyed the question. One, it referred to them as a we, a unit, as if his trust or distrust in them would mean hers as well. And two, that made it seem an awful lot like she was starting to trust him, something he wasn’t sure he’d ever expected from her. Certainly not after earlier.
Not that he could blame her. Trust wasn’t easy for him, either. Even his brothers, he’d kept at arm’s length most of the time.
A knife twisted in his gut at the realization that Anna could just be playing nice in the crowd. That once they were alone again, the mask would fall and she’d tell him just how vile he was for being connected to her tormentor. That her fragile, freshly blooming trust in his was trampled for good and never coming back.
