“There,” Hudson said, pleased. She’d balled up her shirt and was holding it tightly to Rylan’s neck. “I can take a better look when we get to your camp. You have supplies, right?”
As Kade turned to tell their guest about what she could find at their camp, Connor blocked out their voices. This whole night had been nothing but a major headache, starting with the bandits who’d decided to cause trouble in the only bar in the area and ending with the mysterious woman in his backseat.
Too many questions ran through his head. Who was she? What was she running from?
And more important, how the hell was he going to get rid of her?
One look at the men’s camp and Hudson knew she’d made the right decision by imposing her presence on them.
Their place was as secure as the Enforcers’ compound, with trip wires and motion sensors set up around the perimeter and C-4 strung through every inch of the place. She didn’t bother asking where they’d gotten the equipment. She was simply glad they had it.
Still holding her shirt to Rylan’s neck, she studied their surroundings as they drove through the camp. She spotted a dozen small A-frame cabins on the left and several more of them deeper in the forest, their wooden roofs peeking out from the trees. The buildings were old and shabby, boasting paint-chipped doors, broken porches, and boarded-up windows. The men hadn’t tried to pretty the place up, but at least they’d secured the hell out of it.
“How long have you lived here?” she asked curiously.
“About a year,” Rylan answered. “We stumbled on it after a group of Enforcers ambushed us on the Utah coast.”
If Hudson’s father were alive, he would have shaken his head at those words – the Utah coast. He was one of the rare people who’d been around when America had been divided into states, when the word coast referred to places like California and Oregon and somewhere else she was forgetting. But those areas were gone now – underwater, thanks to the earthquakes that had ravaged the country after the bombs were dropped.
Utah, she mused. Five hundred miles west of where they were. Dominik had visited that area a few months ago, and the Enforcers didn’t sweep a region again until they’d worked their way through the entire colony first. If she went west, chances were she’d be able to evade Dominik for a while. Maybe forever.
The thought of living her life without Dominik in it brought a rush of sorrow to her chest, a knot of emotion wrapped in anger and accusation directed at her brother.
Damn it, what happened to you, Dom?
The Enforcers used to be honorable. They’d protected the citizens and given the outlaws a chance to reintegrate into society. Dominik had been a good leader. A good man.
So what the hell had changed? When had the Enforcers decided they liked killing? And raping? Ambushing camps and weeding out the sick?
When had her brother turned into a monster?
And why the hell hadn’t she seen it?
Hudson choked back the pain and bitterness clawing up her throat. She had to stop thinking about Dom. When she’d orchestrated her escape, she’d known it meant that she’d never see her brother again, and dwelling on the past wasn’t going to help her adjust to her future. Her fucking uncertain future.
“We keep most of the supplies in the main lodge,” Kade told her as the vehicle stopped in front of the main building.
“Get Ry inside,” Connor barked. “I’ll stash the Jeep and check the perimeter.”
Hudson’s heart did a little flip at the sound of his raspy voice. The man might be a total asshole, but she was finding it impossible to rein in her body’s response to him. He was so masculine, rippling with quiet power. And when she’d felt his erection pulsing against her leg earlier…
The second they’d come into contact, pure liquid heat had rushed to her pussy. She’d never felt anything like it.
She wanted to feel it again.
A door creaked open, and she realized Kade and Rylan were waiting for her.
Swallowing, she hopped out and followed them up the rickety steps to the double doors of the large log building. When she noticed Rylan swaying on his feet, she wrapped her arm around his massive shoulders, summoning a protest from his lips.
“I’m fine. Really.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure you are, big boy.”
Kade flicked a light switch, and a warm yellow glow illuminated the room, revealing a wood-paneled lobby in disarray. Dust motes danced in the air, flying apart as Kade stalked forward and gestured for her to follow. They climbed a small set of stairs and walked into a large dining room littered with dusty round tables and wicker chairs. Kade kept walking all the way to the back of the room, where Hudson found three tattered couches and an enormous metal cabinet filled with supplies.
She left Rylan on one of the sofas and examined the contents of the cabinet. Dozens of pill bottles, everything from painkillers to sedatives. Another cubby held bandages and gauze and a third contained surgical tools. There were syringes and sutures and transfusion equipment, even a defibrillator.