“What he’s done. Not her.” Rylan’s blue eyes flared with annoyance. “Hudson isn’t responsible for her brother’s choices, or his actions.”
“She lied to us, Ry.”
“Because she knew exactly what would happen if she told the truth. She knew you’d react like this.” Rylan dismissed him just as the others had, turning to Xander to issue a sharp command. “Reach out to Lennox on the sat phone and find out if she’s there.”
Xan took off without a word, Kade hot on his heels.
“Gas up the bikes,” Rylan told Pike. “The Jeep too.”
Pike left with a nod, still cradling that damn wolf as if she were his own young.
Alone with Rylan, Connor drew a ragged breath and met the eyes of the only real friend he’d ever had in this sorry world. “What the hell are you doing, man?”
“Getting her back,” Rylan said evenly.
His gut clenched. “I won’t live here with her.”
Rylan hurled Connor’s own words back at him. “Then go. There are no chains keeping you here, remember? You don’t want to be our leader? Well, fine, brother. Maybe I don’t want to follow someone who makes impetuous decisions without consulting the rest of the group. Someone who throws an innocent woman to the mercy of this goddamn wasteland just because she was scared to tell you about her past. I wanted you to lead, not terrorize, and if you took even a second to think about it, you’d understand why she hid the truth from you.”
Connor had never heard his friend sound so impassioned. Or so disgusted. “I gave her a choice,” he mumbled.
Rylan looked startled. “What?”
“I told her she could stay if she led me to Dominik. She refused.”
There was a beat.
Then an incredulous hiss.
“Jesus Christ, Con! What kind of coldhearted move was that? Did you think she’d happily lead you to her brother so you could kill him?” Rylan threw his hands up before Connor could answer. “You know what? I can’t even look at you right now. You’d better get your head on straight, Connor, because we’re going to bring that woman back whether you like it or not. Because she’s one of us. So you can either be here when we get back, or you can be gone.” Rylan squared his shoulders. “I don’t give a shit either way.”
“Are you sure Tamara is in Foxworth?” Hudson asked as she accepted the coffee mug Jamie held out to her.
They were sitting at the counter in Lennox’s kitchen, going over Hudson’s plans as waves of humidity rolled in through the open windows. The sky was overcast, hinting at a downpour, but as much as Hudson welcomed some rain to temper the heat they’d been dogged by, the dark clouds were simply a reminder that summer wouldn’t last forever. It was already August, and she wanted to have a solid plan and a place to live before autumn came and temperatures dropped.
“That’s where she said she was headed.” Lennox took a quick sip of coffee, then raked a hand through his messy hair. “But if you want to catch up with her, you’ll have to leave soon. Tam wasn’t planning on staying long. She mentioned something about a trip to East Colony.”
A burst of excitement went off inside her. East Colony. If Hudson hurried, she could track Tamara down and convince the woman to take her with her. A whole new colony. An entire ocean separating her from Knox.
And Connor.
Pain shot straight to her heart at the thought of never seeing him again. When she’d left the Enforcer compound, she hadn’t imagined she would fall in love with someone, and yet she’d fallen so hard and fast for Connor that she couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t loved him.
She loved the bastard even now. Even after what he’d done, even though he’d proved to be as ruthless as she’d suspected him to be from the moment they’d met. She loved his strength and arrogance, his gruff voice and rough caresses. She cherished those rare moments of ease and laughter, when he dropped his guard and made himself vulnerable to her. She loved every fucking thing about him, the good and the bad and the ruthless.
But she’d made her choice, and she couldn’t go back on it now, because no matter what her brother had done, she refused to have his death on her conscience. She and Dominik had shared a womb. They’d spent every waking hour of their childhood together. She would never be able to live with herself if she led Connor and his loaded rifle to her brother’s doorstep.
“I still think you should stay here,” Jamie insisted, as she’d been insisting all morning.
And risk running into Connor? No way. Hudson knew the men would wind up here sooner or later, and her stomach roiled at the thought of facing Connor after she’d offered him her love – her heart – and he’d crushed it into dust between his fingers.
“I can’t,” she said, wincing at the audible crack in her voice.
Lennox cursed softly. “What the hell did that bastard do to you, love?”
“Nothing.” Sorrow curled around her throat. “It was my fault. I lied to him, and he reacted the way anyone would have reacted.”
But had he? Would Rylan have thrown her out? Would Lennox? She wasn’t sure, but she also wasn’t about to share the sordid details with Lennox and find out. Her only course of action was the initial one she’d set months ago – to get as far from West Colony as possible. She simply had to treat everything that had happened in between like a tiny hiccup.
Meeting Connor… loving Connor… it was all just a fucking hiccup.
“I don’t like the idea of you going to Foxworth alone,” Lennox admitted. “You’ve never met Reese before. She’s suspicious of strangers.”
“Beck and Travis have both met Hudson,” Jamie pointed out. “They’ll vouch for her.”
“If they’re there,” Lennox said somberly. “Those two spend half their time combing the colony for cars to fix up.” He sighed. “I’d come with you, but I don’t like leaving Jamie here alone.”
The blonde rolled her eyes. “I can take care of myself, asshole.”
“Of course you can, love. I just don’t like leaving you.”
Hudson didn’t miss the way he looked at Jamie when he said that. Tenderly. The cocky rogue had vanished, replaced by a man who… Oh hell. He was in love with Jamie.
And Jamie was in love with Rylan. Not only that, but she didn’t seem at all affected by Lennox’s rakish good looks and magnetic charm. It was obvious from the way she treated him that she viewed him as nothing more than the best friend she’d had since childhood.
Thinking about the love triangle that neither Rylan nor Lennox probably even knew they were part of made Hudson’s head spin, so she pushed the thought aside and focused on more pressing matters.
“I’ll be fine on my own,” she assured Lennox. “I don’t want to put your life at risk.”
“No, it’s not safe to travel alone.” He glanced at Jamie. “Are you sure you’re okay with manning the fort while I’m gone?”
“Seriously, Len. Insult me one more time and I’ll carve your balls off with this spoon.” With a sweet smile, Jamie waved the spoon in question before using it to stir her coffee.
“Jesus, woman. Leave my balls out of this.” His trademark grin returned as he glanced over at Hudson. “We’ll head out in thirty. Why don’t you grab something to eat while I gather some gear and gas up the —”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence.
The gunshots that exploded in the air shook the walls, causing Jamie’s mug to slip out of her hand. It hit the floor and smashed to pieces at the same time heavy footsteps pounded on the hardwood floor as multiple intruders entered the house. Another gunshot rang out, followed by a loud crack and a deafening crash, as if pieces of the ceiling had snapped off and fallen to the ground.
Hudson’s pulse raced in panic.
They were under attack.
Eight hours. Rylan and the others had been gone for eight hours, and Connor couldn’t fight the gnawing worry that something was wrong. Lennox had confirmed over the sat phone that Hudson was with him, but it took only three
hours to reach his place. Three hours there, three hours back. Connor tacked on an extra hour for Rylan to sweet-talk Hudson into agreeing to come back, and that totaled up to seven.
They should have been back by now, damn it.
Unless they’d stayed for a drink, or to shoot the shit, or… Hell, maybe they weren’t coming back. Maybe they’d decided his shitty leadership wasn’t worth coming back to.
But no, they’d be back. Or at least Pike would, because no way would the man leave the wolf behind. Hope had planted herself in Connor’s cabin the moment the others had left, and she’d been staring accusingly at him ever since. She didn’t seem to like the rain, though. Each time a boom of thunder rumbled in the sky, she whimpered and burrowed her head into the mattress. Whenever Connor tried to reach for her, she snarled at him.
Jesus. He really had no allies left.
“Relax, beast. I’m going to make it right.” His voice came out in a hoarse rasp. He’d smoked so many cigarettes today, he was surprised smoke wasn’t blowing out of his pores. He hadn’t given in to the temptation to drink himself stupid, though. He couldn’t be piss-ass drunk when the others returned. When Hudson returned.
He needed to be sober when he told her he loved her and threw himself at her feet to beg her forgiveness.
You didn’t kick her out because it was the best decision for camp. You did it because it was the best decision for you. Because she hurt you and you lashed out like a goddamn lion with a thorn stuck in its paw.
Rylan’s accusations had been running on a loop in his head for eight hours straight, and not even the rain pounding relentlessly against the roof could drown them out.
It had taken only about twenty minutes for the words to sink in, and by then his men had already been gone. So had any vehicle he could’ve used to hightail it over to Lennox’s, which left Connor with no choice but to stay behind and think about what an asshole he was.
“I screwed up, okay?”
Hope cranked open one eye before lowering her head again. Unimpressed.
He didn’t know what possessed him to defend himself to a wolf, but he couldn’t stop the desperate words that poured out of his mouth. “I let my pride and temper get to me. I fucking know it, so quit looking at me like that.”
The wolf didn’t even blink. Her eyes were no longer ice blue, but contained a yellowish tinge now. Eventually they would change color completely. Yellow-gold most likely, the same shade as the she-devil that birthed her.
“I love her.” Three tiny words, yet they sounded rusty leaving his mouth. Foreign. He cleared his throat, testing them out again. “I love her.”
Goddamn it, he did. So much that it hurt to think it, feel it. He hadn’t thought he’d ever love another woman after Maggie. He hadn’t wanted to. But Hudson had snuck past his defenses with her stubborn gray eyes, her eager sensuality, and that remarkable combination of strength and compassion that never failed to amaze him. The things he loved about her were different from what he’d loved about his wife. He’d been drawn to Maggie’s sweet innocence and sunny smiles, and her softness had soothed him, at least at the beginning. But Hudson…
“She stands up to me,” he told the silent creature at his side. “Which you should be fucking grateful for, beast. Otherwise you wouldn’t even be here.” A chuckle slid out, as hoarse as his voice. Shit, he really needed to stop using smoking as a stress reliever. Damn habit was going to kill him.
Yeah, he really did like her bossiness, though. The way she ordered him and his men around as if she’d known them for years. And he fucking loved how protective she was. Of Pike, when she came to his defense each time the men mocked him about being a grumpy bastard. Of Kade, whom she never once pushed to talk about his life in the city. Xander and his tech gadgets. Rylan, every time he pulled a stupid stunt and got hurt. And… hell, she was even protective of her brother, monster that he was.
She’d lied about being Dominik’s sister, but Rylan had been right – Connor needed only to stop and think about it, and he got it. He would’ve done the same thing if it meant ensuring his survival.
Christ, he was such a bastard. He’d exiled the woman he loved. If he was lucky enough to earn her forgiveness, he knew he was going to spend the rest of his life making it up to her.
Hope whimpered suddenly, and Connor ran an awkward hand through her fur. Surprisingly, she let him. “It’s just thunder,” he assured the pup.
But clearly her hearing was more fine-tuned than his, because she shot up to all fours and darted toward the end of the mattress, gazing intently at the door. Since she’d yet to master the act of jumping on and off the bed, Connor scooped her into his arms and marched to the door, throwing it open just as headlights appeared in the driveway.
His heart soared with joy and sank with dread simultaneously. Unconcerned about the rain pouring down on him, he ran toward the approaching vehicles.
Too many of them.
Connor shifted the wolf to one arm and withdrew his nine mil, relaxing only when he recognized the pickup truck that pulled in behind the Jeep. Lennox’s. And the black SUV that tailed it was the one Beckett had procured for Jamie.
His body hummed with unease. Shit. Something had happened. Something really fucking bad, because there was no other reason why Lennox and Jamie would be here – and Layla and Piper, he realized, as the two women climbed out of the SUV. It wasn’t until everyone had gathered on the driveway that he understood how bad the situation was.
Because Hudson wasn’t with them.
“Where is she?” he blurted out, his gaze traveling from one solemn face to the next.
The silence was worse than anything they could have said. It flooded his brain with grisly images that quickened his pulse and brought bile to his throat, and he stood there frozen in place as the rain fell over him.
Pike was the first one to speak. “She’s gone.”
“What do you mean, she’s gone?” The outraged demand sounded familiar. He realized it was the same one Xander had shouted at him this morning after he’d confessed to sending Hudson away.
Rylan spoke up next, his grim voice muffled by the relentless downpour.
“Knox took her.”
21
The rest of the story came out faster than Connor’s panic-ridden brain could keep up with. Jamie’s sobs mingled with the slaps of the rain hitting the dirt as Lennox described the attack on their house. The gunshots. The shouts. The bullet that had ripped into Nell’s abdomen when she’d stumbled out of her room to find Enforcers swarming the corridor.
“Nell?” Connor’s head snapped up, and he gazed past Lennox’s shoulders at the SUV behind him. “Is she…?”
“She’s dead.” Grief swam in Lennox’s eyes. “The rest of us would be dead too if it weren’t for Hudson. The Enforcers stopped firing when they realized she was in the house. The lieutenant…” Lennox hesitated. “He called her his wife.”
Acid rose in Connor’s throat. Swallowing it down only succeeded in ripping his stomach to pieces.
“They were in the area looking for her, Con. And she…” Lennox trailed off.
“She made a deal with him,” Jamie filled in with a sniffle. “She said she’d go with him if he promised not to hurt the rest of us.”
His stomach clenched. Of course she had. Hudson would never let people she cared about get hurt, even if it meant sacrificing herself.
“And then they left.” Jamie shook her head, visibly confused. Amazed. “I thought for sure they’d kill us. But they just left.”
“We didn’t stick around after that,” Lennox said grimly. “I don’t care what that bastard lieutenant promised. He has our location now, and I’m not dumb enough to believe he won’t send a cleanup crew to take us out. So we packed our shit and took off. We were headed for Foxworth when we ran into your boys on the road.”
Connor took a deep breath that burned his lungs to ashes. “Knox probably took her back to the compound.” He gnawed on the inside of his cheek. “We hav
e to get her back.”
“The city is nine hundred miles from here,” Xander reminded him. “We’re looking at a fifteen-hour drive, and that’s not accounting for roadblocks or fuel stops.”
“You don’t happen to have a chopper lying around here, do you?” Lennox said dryly.
“No.” Connor cursed. “But we both know someone who does.”
“Reese.” Rylan’s expression lit up. “Wait – you’re saying we get Hudson back and I get to pay a visit to Foxworth? Fuck yeah.”
Fuck no, more like it. The reigning queen of Foxworth did indeed have a helicopter. It was a military chopper abandoned after the war, designed for speed. It’d get them to West City in five hours or so, cutting their travel time in more than half.