AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tentatively,” he said lowly. Hayden’s policy was the same with all supposed friends, new and old, save his brothers… trust, but keep your eyes open.
She nodded, taking a sip of water from her canteen and turning her face back toward the fire and the chatter. He needed to talk to her. Needed to get her away and make sure things were still okay with them. Needed her to scream and rage at him… needed her to do anything but pretend things were perfectly fine.
A hand fell on his shoulder, and he looked up to see a worn face staring down at him. “Hayden,” his contact said, his voice much lower than it had been last time they’d spoken.
“Austin,” Hayden replied.
“You enjoying the food? Too well done for ya?” He raised a brow.
Hayden shook his head, pushing thoughts of Anna from his mind once more and turning his face back toward the fire. “Tastes good to me.” He wasn’t sure if Austin was asking him about the meat, or asking about their little group. Either way, the answer would do.
Austin slapped his shoulder one more time. “I hoped you’d think so. Glad you’re liking it.” He sauntered off, heading over toward the leader of the small group, Mason. It seemed that he was right to assume Austin wasn’t actually asking about the meat.
The crowd around him was small. Fourteen men, six women, two children. He’d gathered earlier that the two children belonged to a woman they’d rescued from a handsy officer, and they’d planned to take them back down to a safe spot once they’d finished their work up here. Otherwise, everyone here was ready to fight or aid in the fighting, which worked for him.
Most likely, they had more people in a different area. It was basic protocol to not have the entire group together while close to enemy territory, especially when they’d taken in two new faces.
A larger group meant a much easier time for him and Anna. Now, they’d have the backup and distraction they needed. They could get in, get to Joseph, and take him out.
Joseph Greene… he needed to talk to her about it. He needed to get this conversation over with, to take whatever rage she threw at him so they could find a way to get past it and complete their mission. He enjoyed her fire, he could take it. And yet for some reason, he felt like that was a lie.
“So who’s running things on your end, now? Same crew? Michael’s son take the reins?” Mason asked from across the fire.
Hayden nodded. “Four of us still share the responsibilities. Hunter Kane is one of the leaders.” He would leave out that Hunter’s wife had recently given birth, and that he’d technically retired to focus on family, and that last he heard, they were already discussing a second baby and a bigger house somewhere outside the compound. That was a problem for another day.
“He had a brother, no? Didn’t Michael have an adopted son?” The man speaking snapped his fingers, as if trying to come up with a name.
“Sawyer. He’s still with us, as well.” Sawyer wasn’t exactly Michael’s adopted son, but Hayden was pretty sure Sawyer would’ve loved to hear it put that way. The man worshipped the ground Michael Kane once walked on.
“Huh.” The man scratched his face. “I knew Sawyer was the head of your group, but for some reason I hadn’t put two and two together.”
Hayden didn’t like discussing his brothers or their pasts. That was their conversation to have, if they felt comfortable having it. “What have you been doing since you came up north? Any progress on the Eastern front?”
“One tiny tick can reap a whole lot of havoc on the human body,” Austin responded from his spot beside Mason. “It’s bite can hurt, can itch, can carry disease.”
“What the fuck kind of answer is that?” Liam laughed.
Austin just rolled his shoulders back, paying no mind to the laughter around him. “We’ve been a tick. Spreading our message, causing chaos, just generally being a thorn in their side.” He shrugged.
Mason shook his head. “Just spit it out, will ya?” He brushed a hand through his hair, messy from the hat that had been on it earlier. “We’ve been lubing them up for your entry.”
Anna chuckled beside him, pulling the attention of several men her way. “Good, they’ll need all the lube they can get.” Her eyes met Hayden’s. “Because by the time we’re done with them? They’ll have been thoroughly fucked.”
Everyone around them roared with laughter at that, Anna’s sly smile spreading slowly over her lips.
For the next half hour or so, they talked, while he quietly observed. Anna commanded attention, giving them all a good laugh with the story of how they’d met, and it was easy to see how she’d risen to the top amongst the other UNR officers. Anna was vibrant, charismatic, and outgoing. He should have been watching the others, but for the most part, he couldn’t pull his attention from her.
Especially knowing it was all an act. Especially knowing that he’d seen a different side of her. A softer, gentler side. A side that nobody here had the luxury of knowing but him.
Especially knowing that even now, she was likely seething. That perhaps her rage was just another brick on the wall she’d kept around herself. Perhaps Anna wasn’t as impulsive and emotional as she’d let on, because right now? She was putting on the show of the century.
Even Hayden found himself entranced and believing the lies her humor told, believing she wasn’t a ticking time-bomb just waiting to explode the moment they were away from the others.
“It’s getting dark,” Mason began, slapping his hands to his knees and rising from his seated position, “we should probably get some sleep, lots of work to be done in the morning.”
That sounded fine to him. The sooner he was able to talk to Anna freely, the sooner he could silence the nagging voice in his mind convincing him that their newfound partnership, friendship, whatever they had, was irreparably damaged. “Where are we staying for the night?”
“Most of us are sleeping under the stars, though we’ve got a few tents set up for the kids and supplies. You two alright with that, or should we empty a tent for ya?”
