Page 72 of Entangled

I hated that Heather thought he was a better man than me... but fuck if I ever wanted him dead.

“Tommy and me...” she starts, then stops, looking up and blinking. She swallows, then tries again. “We left Bristlebrook with the civs, and it was hard. Harder than we thought it would be. Eventually, we worked out some of these caves, figured out some safe places, but we knew you had cameras, and we... we didn’t want you finding us.”

Heather gives me a guilty glance, then grimaces. “We looped the feed, just through this part of the woods. We planted herbs and vegetables all through the area—wild and random, so anyone coming through the forest wouldn’t know people were living around here. And we went out searching for more people.”

She runs a hand over her hair. “I figured there were plenty of people who might hide from groups of armed men, so I started going out with some of our women—and we found them. Families. Older people. More women. We brought them back. When we reached fifty, we split up into different cave networks to reduce foot traffic. But we... struggled.”

More than fifty. I try to count back in my head how many people I saw here today. There’s a lot more than fifty. Maybe double that.

“Struggled how?” I ask, and I know my voice is testy. But goddamn. We were so close. We could havehelped.

“Food,” she says, and she crosses her arms over her chest. “Food was our biggest issue. We didn’t have weapons, so we couldn’t raid anyone, and only a few crossbows to even try to hunt. We had some snares and nets for fishing, but we had a lot of people. So we decided to try Cyanide City.”

Fuck.

“Bad move, that,” Bentley offers unhelpfully. “Only the worst live in Cyanide.”

Jayk glares at him. “Don’t you live in Cyanide, Red Zone?”

Bentley shrugs his huge shoulders. “Well, sure, that’s how I know.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Heather says tiredly. “But we needed food. Meds. Weapons. A damn break, I don’t know.”

I’ve had enough. “Cyanide, Heat? Fucking Cyanide over Bristlebrook? Were we that bad of an option?”

She shakes her head, not looking at me. “I didn’t think we’d be welcome. Not after the way we left things.”

“I wouldn’t have turned downcivilians,” I grit out, and it feels like I’m grinding my guts and putting them on display.

I can’t bear it, the thought of being responsible for more lives. It’s different with the guys—they can handle themselves. I know how to talk to them. I give them orders, and they don’t get their panties in a knot about it. They justobey. Usually, anyway.

These people need help. Food. Housing. Women, in this world, attract predators like bees to nectar. They need to be defended. Worst, they need to trust me, and I don’t know how to get them to do that.

Not when I don’t even trust myself.

But I would work it out. I’ddoit. Because what good am I if I can’t protect innocent people? It was the whole reason I followed Colonel Slade—dad—into the Rangers.

Heather does look at me then, eyes like sad gray clouds. “I know, CC. I do know you wouldn’t have turned us away. We just... we thought we had other options.”

I turn away with a derisive sound. Clearly that worked out.

Finally, she sighs.

“We were trying to get into the hospital when Sam found us.” She laughs bitterly. “Of all the fucking people.”

Bentley sighs, leaning against the wall. “Asshole, that guy. You don’t want to know the amount of booby traps we had to set up to keep the Sinners out of Red Zone.”

He shudders, and while he’s distracted, I eye him.

“Youset up the snake pit?” Mateo hisses suddenly, pulling against his restraints. His brown eyes are wide and incredulous on Bentley. “That killed two of our men.”

“Did it really?” Bentley’s wide grin is eager, his eyes lighting up. “We knew it had been set off but didn’t find any bodies. It’s great to hear your work paid off. They arenoteasy to set up.”

Mateo glowers at him, while Bentley seems lost to his thoughts.

Snake pits. Swords and snake pits. For fuck’s sake.

I rub my head, and when I have my shit together again, I look at Heather and nod my chin at Alastair. “How does he come into it?”

---