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“No need, we’re fine with that.” It was a clear night, gentle breeze, perfect for sleeping outdoors. He stood, testing his luck and holding his hand out to Anna. “Shall we retire?”
She gaped at him for a moment before putting her food scraps to the side and taking his hand, pulling herself up. That had to be progress, right?
“Just remember, no fire. Speaking of which, we outta be putting this one out. And take some blankets, Laurie will get you some.”
Hayden nodded, taking the folded blankets from a sweet middle-aged woman and pulling Anna through the trees to look for a more secluded spot for them. Eventually, he found a spot to set up camp, laying one blanket out on the ground and keeping the other to go on top of them.
His mind kept going back to that innocent question Anna had asked… do we trust them? She’d put trust in him, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Despite everything, she’d still put trust in her trust in him. And somehow, that changed things for him.
He should’ve told Anna the truth about his father the moment he’d heard her speak his name. And yet he didn’t, he kept silent, against all logic and reason in his mind. Hayden didn’t act foolishly, didn’t think with his emotions. That was left to his brothers. He was the logical one, the one who thought things through and reacted responsibly.
And yet in this situation, with their relationship already fragile, he couldn’t bring himself to do what was right. He couldn’t bring himself to be reasonable, to just rip the band-aid off and get it out there. Not until it was too late. Not until he’d already spent days lying to her.
His feelings for Anna were clouding his judgement, making him act uncharacteristically dense. He should’ve told her the truth from the start.
“Hello? Earth to Hayden?”
He snapped out of his thoughts, meeting her gaze. “I’m so sorry Anna.” Hayden always scoffed at his brother’s bad decision-making when it came to the women they loved, and now, in this moment, he completely understood it. Not that he loved her, of course. It was far too soon for that. They’d barely become friends.
But that fragile friendship was more important to him than anything, he found. And it wasn’t until she’d opened up to him about the most painful moments in her life that he’d realized just how evil he was for hiding the truth about his past from her. About his connection to the man responsible for her pain and suffering.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now.” One corner of her mouth lifted. “I know that’s probably shocking to you, but this one… this one I need to process for a bit.”
Hayden nodded, understanding. “That’s more than fair.”
“Let’s just… let’s just pretend you didn’t tell me for a bit, okay? Just so I can think it over.” She rubbed her hands over her thighs. “I won’t run away or whatever. I just don’t want to talk about it right now.”
His jaw tensed. He simply nodded. “I’ll do anything you need to make this right.”
And he would.
? ♥ ?
Anna returned from taking care of her nightly necessities to find Hayden sitting on top of one large, opened sleeping bag from their supplies, his elbows resting on his knees as he stared up at her.
She’d had so many questions for him, and yet the only thing she could focus on was how the moonlight caught his features. The way he’d gotten out of his handcuffs with ease. The way he called to her in his sleep, as if she were his first priority. Not himself, nor his brothers, nor the mission. Her.
A creeping feeling nagged at her, whispering that maybe she wasn’t better off alone. Maybe there was more to life than revenge. Maybe there were people she could trust, could rely on.
And who better to rely on than Hayden? He was strong, intelligent, insightful, handy. A skilled fighter with incredibly useful connections and knowledge. There was so much she could learn from him, and she had a feeling he’d always keep her on her toes, in one way or another.
Plus, he wasn’t too hard on the eyes. Scars were sexy, after all.
But he also terrified her. Because the moment he’d admitted his lie? She’d forgiven it. Seen why he’d done it and known that she would’ve done the same. Didn’t blame him at all, and of course didn’t fault him for the connection… we didn’t choose family, after all. He admitted that he’d lied to her, and she’d forgiven him without a second thought. And that was freaking terrifying to her.
“You gonna lay down, or are you just going to stare at me all night?”
She stuck her tongue at him, grateful that he seemed to respect her request to pretend nothing had changed. “Pretty brave of you to assume I’d share a sleeping spot with you.” Despite her words, she dropped into the sleeping bag, grabbing for the folded blanket on the edge of it.
Hayden bumped her with his shoulder. “We’re all we have. Of course we’re sticking together.”
Another tightness formed in her chest, but she ignored it. “Yeah? So you do trust these people, or you don’t?” She could’ve sworn Hayden knew Austin from the few bits of conversation they’d shared, though he didn’t outright say it. “You know Austin, no?”
Hayden grinned. “So perceptive.”
She clicked her tongue. “My training may not have been as good as yours, but I’m not completely incompetent.” She threw the blanket out over their lower halves, then leaned back onto the hard ground. Above her was a sky full of stars, a sight that always made the cold earth on her back worth it. “So? Austin? Trust?”
“I do know Austin. He is one of my contacts. Or, he was in the past. I know of their group, and from everything I can tell, they are trustworthy.” Hayden still sat up, his gaze toward the fire a hundred or so yards out.
