Page 30 of Ensnared

“That’sthe police,Ithink.We’re‘RangersLeadtheWay,’” he mutters as he shoves his hands in his pockets.Hisgaze skirts mine. “Maybeyou should chat toDomabout this one,I—”

Ilift my chin and force my hands to unclench, and he breaks off with a grimace.IlikeLucky.He’seasy to be around and has made me feel welcome and included, without the underlying pressureIfeel from the others.Butit just isn’t fair, andIcan’t pretend it doesn’t matter to me.

IfI’mbeing honest,Iwouldn’t have just killed to have what theyhave—the things or objects.Inthe early days especially,Iwas so desperate to feelsafe.I’mnot a fighter.Idon’t have any crazy, special survival skills.Evenwhen everything went dark so suddenly, even though the broadcasts stopped,Iwas so confident theArmy, the cops,someonewould get organized eventually.Thatsooner or later they would sweep through, take control, and protect us.Thatwe would recover some semblance of government and order.

Butit never happened.

Ilearned to protect myself, andI’mbetter for it.Notwith guns and fist fights, but with learning and patience.Buthow many others died who really needed the help that these men—trained and so much more capable—could have given?

Sure, theArmywas scattered, destroyed.Butsurely even the five of them could have done something on a small scale.Couldn’tthey have helped innocents on the ground, rather than holing up together and only caring about themselves?

Ican’tlet this go.

Soinstead of backing away from the confrontation, my usual instinct,Itake a deep breath. “No.Youbrought me out here.Explainit to me.Makeme understand why you all felt it was okay to hide out in paradise while innocent people were butchered.”

Luckyblinks at me in shock.

“Well, damn, sweetheart.AndhereIthought you were sweet and shy.”Heruns a hand into his hair, seeming to forget it’s in a bun.Hescowls when it loosens, and his arm drops. “Wedid try, okay?Wetried a couple times early on.”

Hehesitates a moment, like he’s trying to find the right words.Helooks as though he’d rather be anywhere else. “Whenwe first came out here, we collected nearly twenty people before we even had resources to support them.Afew families, some couples, a handful of loners.Welost four on the way—attacked by asshole marauders like your friends from the other day.Theywere attracted by a big group of soft targets,Iguess.Wefought them off, but there were too few of us to protect that many in the open.Awoman died, two men... and a kid.Wouldn’thave been eight years old.”

Mystomach drops, andIbite my lip.

Abrown feathered chicken plucks atLucky’sshoes and he scowls down at it, butI’mnot sure what he’s seeing.There’sa vulnerability in the downturn of his mouth.Thememory clearly hurts him.

Myself-righteous anger melts into concern.Gently,Itake his hand again and tug until he lets me lead him out of the clearing.Luckydrops the scoop, but whenImove to release his hand, he squeezes it.Avoidingmy eyes, he stares at our cupped palms.We’restanding too close, butIdon’t move away again.Absently,Irun my thumb over his wrist.

Whenhe continues, his voice has steadied.It’smatter of fact, like he’s reading a report. “Itgot tense after that.Afew people started thinking that they could have done better, wanted us to share around the weapons.”

Hesnorts, and the sound is colder thanIthought him capable of. “Likewe’d hand our weapons over to civilians who don’t know their asses from the right end of a rifle. ’Speciallyones muttering about how they’d be better in charge.Bythe time we got toBristlebrook, it was a pot ready to boil over.Therest of the group was picking sides, who they thought would win out.Wegot the most, butSam—the loudest of the assholes—got the ones willing to cause trouble.”Hegrimaces. “Everyonewas distracted the first week or two, but it didn’t take long before they tried a coup.”

Thefinal residues of my anger wither like fire-caught parchment.I’msuch an idiot.ClearlyI’mtoo emotional right now.WhatwasIthinking, accusing him of not caring?Beau’sfirst reaction on seeing me was to calm me down and tend my wounds—andLuckyinstantly wanted to bundle me up and cart me back with them.Ofcourse they would have tried.Imaginingthem asleep and helpless while the people they’d protected came after them...

I’mbeginning to get a bad feeling about why they’re alone.

“Domhad figured them out, though,”Luckycontinues, almost motionless.It’sunnerving.Likehe’s been powered down, all that joy and animation sucked into some dark, yawning black hole. “Hewas watchingSam’sgroup closely, so they didn’t catch us unawares and take us out in our sleep like they hoped.Wecaught them in the act.Subduingthem was easy, at least—they weren’t so keen on fighting us while we were awake and armed, funnily enough—and soon we had ’em tied up all nice and pretty.Butthen we had to figure out what to do with them.”

Luckylooks back at the clearing, his neck corded with tension.Henriettais nestled up against the wire fence, as close as she can get to him.Abeady black eye rakes me head to toe.IfIwere a more fanciful person,Imight think the ruffle in her black feathers is aimed at me for upsetting her friend.

Shiftingmy hand,Itwine our fingers together until our naked palms are pressed against one another.

“Wetold the rest of the civilians the next day, asked them what they thought we should do.”Thegrim cast to his face is so unlike theLuckyI’veseen so far,Ifeel the urge to cuddle up to him. “Therewas only onesmartthing to do.Theyknew where we lived, they were full of hate, and they wanted what we had.Wedidn’t have the resources to keep them as prisoners, so... the group wanted us to... to take them out.”Heswallows, then looks at his feet. “Imean, it made sense.Would’vebeen safer, you know?Tokill them.”

Achill seeps into my skin, andIbarely hear the last part.Didhe say ‘take themout’?

Itake a breath.WouldIhave been able to let those men go ifIhad them at my mercy?Knowingthat they knew whereIwas and whenI’dbe vulnerable?Knowingthey could, and most likely would, come back for me at some point?

Hecatches my expression, and his face softens. “Wecouldn’t do it.It’sone thing to kill someone in combat, it’s a whole different thing to execute civs in cold blood, even ones who attacked us first.We’renot murderers.”Rubbingthe back of his neck, he sighs. “Weexiled them.Don’tknow if you know this aboutRangers, but we get pretty extensive surveillance training.Wemade it clear they weren’t allowed within fifty miles ofBristlebrook, and we spent weeks setting up motion sensor cameras, remote controlled cameras, the works, just in case they came back.”

“Anddid they?”Iask.

Luckyshook his head. “We’veseen others, and we stopped them before they got too close.Butno, they never came back.”

Inod, thinking that over, and we watch the animals in silence for a moment.

“Whathappened to the others?Thefamilies who were here,”Iask softly.

Luckyshrugs one shoulder, but the movement is slow, like he’s become too heavy to shift.

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