Sloan suspected Rylan was doing it mostly to keep Reese from losing it, but none of the Enforcers found his raunchy jokes funny. They wouldn’t, because, as Rylan noted, they had sticks up their asses. Hudson, Connor’s woman, swore that the Enforcers received all the benefits of being a citizen, including any woman or man they wanted, but these men were wound so tight that Sloan wouldn’t have been surprised if they hadn’t had sex since they picked up their first gun.
Rylan’s jokes stopped, however, when the group walked into the remaining building. Sloan ducked in behind the last soldier and immediately understood the reason for Rylan’s sudden change of demeanor.
Some of the Enforcers had gone upstairs, but the building’s front room was tiny enough that Christine had found herself crowded into a corner. At fourteen, she was old enough to stay out of the cellar; there was only so much room in that small space, and she could easily pass as an adult.
But that was the problem. She was adult enough that every single Enforcer was openly leering at her.
Shit.
Christine had been washing clothes at the sink, and the front of her white dress was soaked. Even though she was fourteen, the wet cloth stuck to her chest, revealing womanly curves. The bare hint of sexuality was enough to make these boys pant like hounds hunting a bird.
“C’mere, Crissy.” Sloan gestured for the girl to join him.
She sidled along the side of the room until she reached him. He planted his large frame in front of her smaller one and crossed his arms. A few of the Enforcers had the decency to look away, but one, a blond kid with a scar on his forehead, sneered in their direction.
“They were right. This place is a fucking dump filled with fucking whores.” He kicked over a metal pail and the stench of rotted vegetables filled the air.
“Really think a crate of ammunition is going to be hiding under a composting pail?” Sloan asked mockingly.
The Enforcer started to lift his rifle, and Sloan instantly reached behind his back.
“What’s going on here?” Reese’s voice cut through the tension, but the kid didn’t lower his gun. “Eric,” she called at the staircase, “you’ve searched for three hours. Your men are tired. Come down and take care of this.”
There were thumps upstairs and then a clatter of boots on the stairs. Eric appeared without delay and took in the scene before him: the trigger-happy Enforcer, Sloan with his hand behind his back reaching for his sidearm, the young woman crouching behind him.
“Stand down,” Eric muttered to his soldier, before marching toward the door. “We’re watching you, Reese. We know that a unit came out here about two months ago and never came back. I’d be careful if I were you.”
“I’m always careful.” Reese said lightly. “When you live out here, you’re born careful.”
“Don’t know why anyone would choose this life.”
“Because out here we actually have a choice.” She gave him her caustic smile, the one a man would see before she put a bullet between his eyes. “We can choose to live how we want. We don’t take people from their families and make them live with strangers. We can do what we want, when we want. That’s why we choose this life.”
“Don’t get drunk on your freedom, Reese,” Eric warned. “The ammo depot was only scratching the surface of what the council has. A few guns in the hands of certain parties don’t mean shit.”
“Hope not. We wouldn’t want the bandits to get us,” Reese replied with a straight face.
Rylan and Sloan exchanged barely suppressed grins as Reese ushered Eric to the exit.
8
Few in the camp breathed easily even after the gates closed behind the last Enforcer truck. The usual laughter and chatter in the community was replaced by tense silence and stiff shoulders as the residents applied themselves to erasing the council’s touch from their belongings. Rylan’s gaze caught on Reese standing in front of Graham’s restaurant, halfway down the main road. Her eyes were fixed on the dust clouds the Enforcer trucks had left behind.
With the enemy gone, her guard was down and the worry radiating off her was so strong Rylan felt it a hundred paces away. He flicked his gaze to Sloan, who leaned against one of the front windows of the rec hall that hosted the town’s communal gatherings. Like the one yesterday that had led to the hottest threesome of Rylan’s life.
Sloan was staring at Reese with a narrowed, thoughtful gaze, and Rylan stepped off the curb and started toward him, wondering if the quiet muscle behind Reese’s orders would give him some insight into how to crack Reese’s shell. If Rylan believed that she didn’t want him again, he’d leave her alone, but after last night it was going to take more than a few weak refusals to get him to stay away.
His plan to gather intel from Sloan was interrupted when Nash, one of Reese’s men, opened the rec hall door and poked his head out. “Got a minute?” he called to Sloan.
“Yup, what do you need?” Sloan asked without taking his eyes off Reese.
“Connor’s camp just radioed the inventory of what we took from the ammo depot. Con’s on the sat phone, wants to know how we’re going to distribute the weapons.”