Page 68 of Entangled

I slam into Heather’s back when she stops, and she shoves me off her.

“Dude, watch it.” She gives me an incredulous look.

I steady her, and myself. Then I scrub a hand over my stubbled face with a clipped, “Sorry.”

My gaze drifts back to Eden, just as Bentley eyes her off. My eyes narrow on him, but Jaykob’s already yanking Eden close. Heather gives me a bemused, sideways look, and I shoot her an irritated frown.

Eden gets herself into more trouble than one soft-spoken librarian should be able to. I’m just looking out for her. It’s about time I started protecting her properly.

She’s just become my number one priority.

“Serious thing, aren’t you,” Bentley muses. “You?—”

“If you tell her to smile, I’ll hit you myself,” Heather cuts him off, and it’s my turn to eye her.

Heather’s never been one to fight other people’s battles. She’s big on people defending themselves—especially women. The Heather I knew from three years ago would have eaten Eden for breakfast.

What the hell happened in that camp?

Heather shoves forward, ignoring Bentley’s introduction, and it’s only when she pushes past Jaykob that I see the tense standoff behind them. There’s a crossbow trained on the two Sinners murmuring together.

“Who let the prisoners talk to each other?” I snap, and Jayk shrugs one shoulder.

“Like it matters. They’re dead men anyway.”

“That they are,” Heather agrees, and she glances at the muscular, tattooed woman holding Alastair. “Sloane, take them to the deep cave. I’m going to have fun with this.”

The man with the bandages releases the other Sinner, and tension steals over me. There’s a look that some men have that says they’ve taken a life. This one has that look a dozen times over. He’s moving slowly, and I’m sure those wounds are hurting him, but no sign of it shows on his face.

I see the SEAL tattoo on his collarbone, set in a bunch of vines and plants. He’s trained, too.

And right now, he’s trained on Heather.

“Cut it, Heat. We need to talk to them.” I pull out my gun as a precaution—if this guy’s a SEAL, then he can do plenty of damage fast with no weapon at all. But the man’s eyes don’t shift from her. Heather’s nose wrinkles in silent, vicious hatred.

“Jayk, secure them,” I order, and he releases Eden so he can get to his pack.

“You don’t need to do shit,” Heather says dismissively. “Go get some rest. I have this handled.”

I grit my teeth. Stepping closer to her, I lower my voice. “You’re emotional and not thinking straight. We need information.”

Heather’s eyes widen in shock, then something dangerous fires through them.

“God, you are un-fucking-believable.” She bares her teeth. “Emotional? You want to try that again? Or are you going to suggest I’m on my period next?”

A throbbing starts up in my temple. I don’t know how to talk to women—I’ve never been good at it, and being deployed for four tours didn’t leave a huge amount of downtime to practice. Beau always smoothed that stuff over for me.

“Not emotional because you’re a woman. You’re emotional because you’ve been their captive for who the fuck knows how long. You’re compromised, and we need information.” Then I add with a growl, “And you look ready to murder someone.”

“Because I want to murder him.” She mock gasps. “Ding ding ding. We have a winner.”

I grit my teeth as Heather glares at me.

“You have no idea what this man did to me, Dom. No clue what happened in that camp. You don’t get a goddamn say.” She lifts her voice so it carries, her jaw set. “And this? This ismycamp. These aremypeople. They chosemeto protect them—not you. So sit your ass down.”

The Sinner’s cold, pale eyes gleam as Jayk ties his wrists, and a murmuring starts up around us, but I’m caught in my own frustration. I get she wants vengeance, I do, but this is moving too fast. She’s being stupid and stubborn, and she doesn’t know shit about interrogation. She’ll get these Sinners killed, and weneedan inside source. But fuck if I could ever talk sense into her when she gets like this. She neverlistens.

“There is no sign of Sam anywhere. These civilians have left a storm of tracks all the way to this cave’s front door. How long do you think it’ll be before they come for every woman and child in here?” I snarl back. “These people are prey, and they’re the predators, and you have to know that they’ll be on your trail indays. You have no useful weapons, no fortifications,nothing. You!” I point at the woman restraining the Sinner. “Did you find weapons in their camp?”

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