Page 54 of Born to Bleed

“I won’t wait long, I am warning you right now.” She wouldn’t slip away in the night, or try to escape from them in secret. She told him straight up what her plans were. If he couldn’t gather up a group to go in and fight with her, then she’d fight alone.

“Fair enough.” He smirked. It might’ve been handsome if she hadn’t known what a domineering jerk he was. But he was Hayden’s brother, she reminded herself, so she’d have to play nice. “Now, let’s talk about getting my brother back.”

Now that, she could get behind. She forced a tight smile and nodded, following Sawyer through the trees.

? ♥ ?

It only took a whopping ten minutes before Anna and Sawyer were bumping heads again. He’d brought Ben with him, who watched the two of them in silence, a spark of humor in his eyes the entire time, though he dared not voice it.

“That’s not going to work; the more spread out and nonchalant we are, the less likely we’ll attract attention.”

“Yeah, and the more likely if any one of us does attract attention, they’ll get killed. Working in pairs is still spread out and nonchalant.”

Anna squeezed the bridge of her nose, frustration boiling beneath the surface. She forced herself to be nice. This was Hayden’s brother, after all, one of his closest and longest friends, the leader of the Resistance. Blah, blah.

But holy fuck, was he frustrating.

A half hour of back and forth, and Anna felt no further along than she had before they sat down to speak. “Listen, there’s no reason to change up the plan we spent so long making.”

“I didn’t make the plan,” he snapped.

“Okay, but Hayden did,” she snapped right back.

For a minute, they did nothing but glare at each other, neither one giving in. Anna was getting far too used to getting into glaring matches with stubborn leaders.

“You’re not going to bend on this, are you?”

“No.” She crossed her arms, lifting her chin. “Hayden and the rest of us came up with this plan. I scouted the district and the compound myself. No offense, buddy, but you’ve been here two days. And they’ve been two days of hell. So excuse me if I don’t want to just toss aside everything we worked on just because you need to feel like you’re in control every damn minute.”

She could hear Ben swallow, and nothing else.

Silence hung heavy, until a grin spread across Sawyer’s face. “Y’know, I can see why my brother fell for you.”

Her heart jumped in her chest, remembering the last thing he’d said to her, right before he ran into danger… I love you, Anna. Had he meant it? Was it just the heat of the moment? The adrenaline that a good fight brought?

“Fine,” Sawyer conceded, pulling Anna from her thoughts. “Tell me the plan you and my brother came up with, and I won’t interject until the end.”

She rolled her eyes, but reveled in the victory anyway. It was something. And she had a feeling that for Sawyer? They’d moved leaps and bounds.

Anna filled him in, and true to his word, he kept his mouth shut the entire time.

? ♥ ?

Hayden tried to open his eyes, but they burned and blurred, forcing him to close them again. He pulled at his arms, but they were behind his back, hands tied far too tight by a scratchy rope that dug into his already-raw flesh. The tips of his fingers were numb, barely even registering when he tried to feel for them, to move them.

Fantastic.

He forced his eyes open, ignoring the burn. The first thing he saw was a drop of blood, falling from his brow, the room around him still too blurred to focus in on. His head pounded, aching as he forced himself to recall what happened last.

He’d taken down eleven officers. Injured several more. Planned to dip out and find the others, when…

Ah, yes. He was grabbed from behind, two men coming up at each side and holding his arms out while a fourth took a baton to his head. How many times? More than once. Of that, he was certain.

His eyes began to adjust, though his vision was far too fuzzy for his liking. He was in a cell, but light spilled in through a small, barred window to his left. Not underground. He was seated on the ground, which was cold as hell. Hard. Cement. First floor, then? Soft light poured in from the window on the door… candles? It could’ve been electric. He couldn’t tell.

The cell was wet, but empty. No other prisoners. A bit of hay in the corner opposite him, all part of the psychological games the UNR played. Make people feel like animals, make them break.

Hayden would not break.

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