Gratitude and pleasure brightened Hudson’s expression. “Thank you. You won’t regret it.”
Connor shifted his gaze in dismissal and scraped back his chair. “We leave in an hour.”
4
These men could never know the truth about her.
She’d almost confessed everything to Connor last night, when he’d held her captive with his hypnotizing eyes and taunted her about bending her over the table, but common sense had prevailed at the last second. She heard the contemptuous tone they used when they spoke about the Enforcers. If they knew who she was, they’d kill her on the spot.
Or… send her back to the city.
No. She couldn’t go back there. She might not be safe among the outlaws, but she wasn’t safe with Dom anymore, either. Her brother had turned into a stranger, and the only life she’d ever known had become more dangerous than anything she might encounter in outlaw territory.
And even if Dominik wasn’t looking for her, there was no doubt in her mind that Knox was.
A chill raced up Hudson’s spine as she pictured Knox’s face. Handsome and cruel. Savage dark eyes and a mouth that was always curled in a sneer. It frightened her to think what he’d do if he found her. If her own brother had refused to protect her from that monster, then nobody else in the city would.
Which meant she had to protect herself. She had to stay silent and prove to Connor and his men that she could be trusted.
Easier said than done. The fact that he’d examined her wrists this morning told her that Connor was more suspicious of her than she’d thought. In that moment Hudson had never felt more grateful to her father for marking her neck instead of her wrists. He’d wanted her to feel equal to Dominik, had thought it would please her to be treated as if she were one of the boys. But her title of “Enforcer” had always been an honorary one.
Because she wasn’t an Enforcer. She was a nurse, and she helped people. She was a good person, damn it.
But even though she was currently plastered to Connor’s body like glue, she could still feel deep waves of mistrust rolling off his powerful body. He’d refused to let her out of his sight, insisting that she ride with him today, and for the past two hours she’d clung to his muscular chest as the motorcycle sped down the dirt back roads they were taking to the storage facility.
The hard muscles beneath Hudson’s palms were wreaking havoc on her senses. Connor’s body was remarkable. Every sleek, defined muscle strained against her fingertips, and despite the wind that was battering her face and whipping her hair around, she could smell his woodsy, masculine scent, breathing it in whenever she shifted her head.
He slowed down as they rode along an overgrown stretch of road with grass and shrubs slicing up through the cracked pavement. They hadn’t passed a single town or city on the way, but now they were approaching an area that showed signs of former civilization. Run-down houses and abandoned storefronts came into view, but Connor revved the engine and quickly veered onto another back road.
It was another hour before they finally reached their destination – a wooded area behind a fenced-in warehouse that looked shiny and new compared to the other structures they’d seen. The chain-link fence was tipped by barbed wire and stood twelve feet high; at the top of every fence post was an ominous black camera sweeping the perimeter.
It always startled her to see technology in use outside the walls of West City, but she knew the Global Council made sure to keep certain communication towers and satellites in operation to aid the Enforcers who worked beyond the city borders.
Her boots connected with the ground, and she flinched when Pike stalked up to her and Connor. She wasn’t going to lie – Pike scared the shit out of her. Of all the men, he was the most difficult to read, and yet it was easy to figure out he didn’t like her. Or trust her. Or want her around. If it were up to him, she probably would have been banished on sight.
So… if she wanted to stay with these men, she needed to win over Pike.
Or maybe just Connor, because Pike seemed to follow his lead even when he clearly disagreed with some of Connor’s decisions. Winning them both over, however, would definitely guarantee a stress-free existence.
Except… who was she kidding? There was no such thing as a stress-free life, not in this unfamiliar world she’d found herself in. Not when she wanted Connor more than she wanted her next breath.
“Split up,” he barked at his men. “Get in position. Cover all four quadrants, same as usual. Hudson and I will take up position here.”
She marveled at how fast the others snapped to action. She’d never met a man who commanded swift obedience the way Connor did. Even her brother, who’d been leading the Enforcers for years, didn’t inspire that same level of loyalty from his people.
Hudson wondered if Connor had ever heard the word no. If he’d ever clapped his hands the way he had now and gotten refusal instead of submission.