Their gazes locked, and he glimpsed a flicker of fascination in her eyes, as if she was intrigued by whatever she was seeing on his face.
“Anyway.” Rylan cleared his throat. He glanced from Connor to their unwanted visitor, humor in his eyes. “So your source says security at the storage facility has been downgraded?”
Hudson shifted her gaze to Rylan. “He’s certain of it. I guess the Enforcers were worried they were wasting too many resources on the storage stations and not enough on city patrols and colony sweeps. So they reduced the amount of guards.” She paused. “They installed land mines to compensate for the loss of manpower.”
“Shit,” Rylan murmured.
“Land mines,” Connor echoed. He couldn’t keep the sarcasm from his voice. “Any chance your source knows what kind of explosives we’re dealing with?”
“Sorry. That’s all he told me. But I assume he meant the ones that go boom.” Her sarcasm rivaled his.
Pike joined in with a surly scowl. “You don’t have anything else we can use? Locations? Trigger mechanisms? Blast radius?”
“Sorry,” she said again.
Connor bit back a curse and thought it over. He supposed they could always reschedule the raid, at least until they conducted some more recon. They’d accounted for six Enforcers, which was usually the deal. Definitely hadn’t accounted for land mines, though.
But they were in desperate need of supplies. They were out of antibiotics because Rylan was an impulsive motherfucker who couldn’t stop from getting hurt every time he stepped out the door. They needed more ammo too, and battery packs if they could find them. They were doing all right in the food department, but stocking up for winter would be nice. Assuming they’d be here in the winter. At the moment, their camp was secure, but that could change in a heartbeat.
“Are we holding off?” Rylan asked, reading his mind.
After a beat, Connor shook his head. “No. But we’ll have to leave now.”
The others looked startled. They didn’t travel in the daylight if they could help it.
“Are you crazy?” Xander demanded.
“We need to be ready to move at night. That means extra recon during the day. We’ll watch the rotation of the guards, however many there are —” He speared Hudson with a curt look. “And we’ll assess this potential land mine situation before we even think about moving in.”
The men’s reluctance faded as they each nodded at his orders. The way they trusted him implicitly made him ill at ease. Technically, Rylan and Pike had more military experience. Although the People’s Army had “officially” disbanded two decades ago, there were outlaw groups that continued to train and fight for the cause, waiting for their chance to wrestle the power from the GC’s hands. Rylan and Pike had once trained recruits for the cause.
Connor’s training had ended the second his father had taken a bullet to the head when Connor was ten years old. After that, he’d been forced to teach himself everything else he needed to know. He’d had his mother to protect, not to mention the rest of their group, which had consisted mostly of women and children because the other men had suffered the same fate as Connor’s father.
He’d never wanted to be a leader. Fuck, he didn’t want it now. He couldn’t stomach the thought of having any more deaths on his conscience.
“What about her?” Pike jerked a thumb at Hudson.
“I’m right here, you know,” she said irritably. “You don’t need to talk about me in the third person.”
“How about you shut your smart mouth, little girl?” Pike snapped. “The only reason you’re even here is because my boys think with their dicks and not their brains.”
Anger radiated from her body, but she wisely stayed quiet.
“He has a point,” Rylan said tentatively. “We can’t leave Hudson alone at camp when we go.” He shot her a rueful look. “No offense.”
“I get it. We’re strangers.” She glanced around the table. “But I meant everything I said last night. I’ve had training, and some knowledge of how the Enforcers operate. I can be an asset if you give me a chance.”
Every pair of eyes flicked back to Connor.
Hudson smirked at him. “Wow. Look at the blind obedience you invoke in them. I’m impressed.”
He ignored the barb, still thinking about what to do. He was never not thinking, and fuck, it was exhausting sometimes. He hadn’t asked to be in charge, and he resented his men for placing this much faith in him.
He studied Hudson’s earnest face, her golden hair and flawless features. Her looks were a goddamn distraction, but despite what Pike believed, Connor didn’t think with his dick. Maybe he’d fuck this woman, maybe he wouldn’t. Right now he was concerned only about what she could do for him outside the bedroom. He recognized the strength in her. She’d held a knife to his throat last night. Gotten close enough to do it, which didn’t happen often.
“She comes with us,” he said briskly.