Ensnared (Brutes of Bristlebrook, #1)(79)

But maybe he should be afraid. I’ve strayed off the pretty path now . . . and fires and forests don’t mix.

“I’m not nothing, I can help. I can contribute more than just sex,” I tell his chest. “I’m not nothing.”

My voice breaks on the last, and I bite my tongue to stop my anger from fountaining into tears. I tremble from the effort, caught in that awful, awful place between anger and misery.

“Eden, look at me now,” Beau orders, and I do find my head lifting despite myself, uncertainty washing through my flames.

Dousing them.

I eye him warily, swallowing and trying to hold on to some of that heat, but when he seizes my gaze, he holds it with resolute firmness.

“I see you, Eden. Of course you’re not a pet.” His grip softens on my wrists, and he lowers them until they rest against his chest. Slowly, eyes trapping mine like ivy, he threads his fingers through mine. He continues in a low voice, “We might not have spent much time together, but I already know you’re clever—you kept yourself out of danger for years, then set up a home for yourself and taught yourself to survive.”

His thumb runs over our hands, and I decide not to tug them away.

Just for a moment.

“You’re resourceful, I know that too. You lived off the land with no one to help you. And the very fact that you’re still alive tells me you’re stubborn. A real fighter.”

He takes a measured breath and then drops a sweet kiss to our hands, never untying me from his gaze.

“I’ve seen your kindness, too. With me, with Lucky. You were afraid of us when we first met, and you still tried to get us to run to save our lives. And you’re so damn brave. You stood up to Dom when he went after Jayk with his hunting knife, and you with only your bare, tiny fists. I see you, Eden, and you’re the furthest thing from nothing I’ve ever met.”

My lips part. After a moment, I suck in a breath, getting a full, delicious inhale of Beau. More fool me, I think he does mean it.

“You hearing me?” he presses.

I nod.

“Ye—” My voice comes out raw, and I clear my throat. “Yes, Beau.”

Beau groans, deep in his throat. “Two of my favorite words on your lips, darlin’.”

I work up a small smile, thinking hard.

Beau drops a light kiss to my lips. Then another. Then one more, this one lingering long enough to leave me breathless.

He pulls back reluctantly. “I have to go, but we’ll talk later. We can talk all night tomorrow if you want.”

Tomorrow. Beau’s “day.”

Beau is tense and anxious, and I can’t help but want to ease his worry.

“If that’s what you’re into,” I joke, weakly, and he grins crookedly.

“You going to head up to bed now?”

Hesitating for only a moment, I say, “I’ll go upstairs.”

Relief touches his smile. Giving me one last kiss, he leaves me alone, just like the others.

A small while later, my eyes drift to the carnage at the table. To my lovely, terrible rage. Then, quiet as the mouse they believe I am, I creep out of the dining room and up the stairs.

Enough is enough. I need answers. I need the full truth if I’m going to stay. For my own sake, I can’t accept anything less.

Beau doesn’t see me as well as he thinks.





Chapter 24


Dominic


SURVIVAL TIP #146

People are your biggest weakness.

None more than yourself.

T his is the last damn thing we need. Multiple screens take up two walls of the surveillance room—it took us months to adapt the room from Jasper’s study. The server power and capacity needed to store a week’s worth of footage from thirty-seven cameras is no joke. Fortunately for us, between Jaykob’s previous work as a mechanic, the military tech that was sitting around for the taking, and our extensive Ranger comms and equipment training, we managed to rig it up.

In the large, center screen, four men, armed to their pits, creep through the forest. The camera tracks their movement steadily until they move out of range. They have the same rangy, tanned look of the men we tangled with the other day. That in itself wouldn’t be enough, but . . .

“Play it again.”

Jasper taps a few buttons, and the men creep forward again.

“There.” The figures pause. “Right hand. Tattoo. The others had the same mark, like a coiled snake.”

Grim understanding lines my men’s faces and something inside me settles, just a fraction. This isn’t the place for the petty squabbles we’ve been descending into lately. This shit is a problem. A big one. And they’ll face it like soldiers.

Beau is taking longer than I’d like, but I trust him to deal with the girl. Despite his crush, he’ll follow orders. He’s smarter than me. He’s always been smarter than me.

He won’t make the same mistake I did.

“How did we miss this?” Lucky asks seriously, studying the screen. “We have cameras all through these woods. They’re still meant to be five days south, right? How are they now a day and a half north of us? Could they be leftovers from the ones we scattered when Eden was with us?”

“I didn’t miss this,” Jasper replies with a hint of snap to his tone. “They didn’t come from the south. That encampment is still there—I’ve been watching the cameras around them the most. None of the motion cameras were set off until now. I don’t know how they could make it around the woods near us without being caught by our sensors. Not unless they knew where they were.”