Page 4 of Entangled

Mateo’s brows draw down. “We couldn’t travel that far. We’re still by the lake. I just had to make sure those assholes didn’t stumble over us.” He lifts his chin in the direction of the three men who passed us.

Sam grunts. “They’re from Red Zone. I’ve seen the tall one before.”

“Well, they’re crawling all around here looking for something.” Mateo shrugs one shoulder, then lifts a brow significantly. “We’d rathernotbe found, hmm?”

Sam rubs a hand over his beard, then he smiles. It looks cramped and unnatural on his dirty, weathered face. “Lead the way then.”

Mateo makes a short bow that makes Sam turn a hellish shade of red, then indicates for us to follow.

Chapter2

Eden

Survival tip #66

If you’re trapped between two predators,

don’t worry about taking sides.

You’re probably dead anyway.

When the sounds and smells of a makeshift camp finally reach me hours later, I almost collapse in dizzy relief, despite my growing dread. A camp means they’re not moving, not immediately, and Ineedto rest. I crave it with a vicious hunger.

The day is fading into twilight, and the last filtered rays of sun burnish the group of men in a cozy gold. There are about a dozen of them scattered through the area, and I feel an abrupt wave of recognition. This is the spot I saw on Jasper’s screens in his secret lair. I’m fairly sure, anyway. I’d been too preoccupied to examine them for more than a brief moment at the time.

The camp is curiously divided, with seven or so men set up by the trees and the remaining five opposite them, at the base of a towering cliff. I’m looking between them when I spot a pretty woman with coal black hair sitting on a blond man’s lap. She’s in the larger group by the trees, and even though I know it’s terribly rude and I have far bigger concerns, I can’t stop staring. It has beenso longsince I’ve seen another woman that I almost put us in the same category as Javan rhinos and mountain gorillas—bordering on extinction.

It’s absurd, of course. I knew women were around somewhere, raiding tampons and bras and diapers, butseeingone? The kinship I feel is as sudden as it is surprising.

I’m not the last of a dead race.

As we step from the forest, tired heads turn and about half of the men reach for their guns. They take us in and several shove to their feet.

“Keep moving,chica,” Mateo urges.

Sam grabs my arm, and I grimace, but he’s looking at the group. Groups? “Why is no one on watch? We could have been anyone.”

Mateo hesitates, looking at me in Sam’s grip, then glances at the men in the camp. Their expressions are disturbingly dark. Mateo gives me an apologetic half-smile, then shrugs and walks over to the group by the trees.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve to show up here, Sam,” the blond man says as he gestures for the woman in his lap to get off him. When she does, he stands so he faces Sam and me. He has a vicious bruise running up his neck and small cuts pepper his face and arms.

Sam stiffens. “Watch your tone, boy.”

Two others shoulder in beside the blond man, hands on their weapons. Hot adrenaline begins to fire in my veins.

Sam’s grip on me tightens. “You’re lucky I’m alive! You left me for dead.”

“If only,” Mateo grumbles loud enough that his voice carries, and there’s a rumble of laughter from the larger group by the trees.

A tall, narrow-featured man from the other group by the cliff spits into the dirt. “Sam’s the only reason any of you made it in the first place. Show some respect.” He tongues his lower lip and looks me over. “He even found us a friend.”

“Is that the same bitch we were chasing?” someone asks behind him, elbowing a tattooed man sitting on a log, who squints at me. “Fuck me, it is too.”

A cold weight slams into the bottom of my stomach. Sam confiscated my bloody little knife and bag of weapons when he captured me. I don’t even have that to protect myself.

Though, given that I can’t feel my fingers, I doubt it would have made a difference.

“What a waste of goddamned time,” the blond man growls at the other group, not sparing me a glance. “Maybe if you’d spent less time chasing after her and more time scouting that stupid lodge, you wouldn’t have killed us all!”

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