“I’m coming with you,” he said grimly. “I don’t fucking like it, but I’m coming.”
Reese’s eyes flared with relief, but it was Rylan who clapped him on the back. “You’ll see, brother. This fight will be so easy, you’ll wonder why we even bothered arguing about it.”
Sloan looked at Reese. “When do we leave?” he asked with resignation.
She dumped the rolled-up map on the desk across the room. “First thing in the morning. I’ll tell the rest of the crew.”
“Fine. I’ll get the supplies. Rylan, you handle the vehicles,” Sloan ordered. “Gas ’em all up and make sure they’re ready to roll out.”
As Reese and Rylan discussed the transportation they’d need, Sloan stood there with his fists clenched and his throat aching from the agony of keeping his fear locked down. He knew that throwing a temper tantrum wouldn’t succeed in changing Reese’s mind. She was stubborn as fuck, and she’d made up her mind.
What bothered him, though, even more than this reckless plan of hers, was the crushing sense that she was drifting away from him. He’d dreaded this moment, and he didn’t even blame Rylan for it, because Reese’s distance had always been inevitable.
Ever since Jake’s death, Sloan had watched her brush aside more than one lover whenever shit got too real for her. He’d thought all their years of friendship made him immune to that, but he should’ve known better. The moment he’d unzipped his pants, he’d become a threat to her carefully composed armor, whether she admitted it or not.
“Sloan.”
He lifted his head and met Reese’s big brown eyes. “Yeah?”
“We’re going to need to get some sleep tonight, but . . . I don’t see why we can’t enjoy some after dinner entertainment. You down?”
Sloan knew perfectly well she was trying to distract him with sex, but the hot look in her eyes, coupled with the wicked groan that Rylan let loose, had something warm curling south of his stomach.
He licked his dry lips. “We’ll see.”
Those words sounded as weak as three-day-old coffee. Reese gave a slight smile, Rylan winked, and Sloan went over to the rec hall to count guns, cursing himself the entire time.
*
Morning rolled around fast. Sloan had intended for them to get at least some sleep, but the sex had been fueled by anticipation of the fight and no one had wanted to rest, not when there was a hard cock to suck or a hot sleeve to fuck.
Still, he felt weighed down by fatigue as the three of them started out in the truck barely past dawn. Nash, Davis, and Sam tailed behind them in the other truck, while Beckett rode ahead on his motorcycle.
“Sloan . . . you know I appreciate your caution, right?” Reese’s quiet voice drifted over from the passenger’s seat. “Just because I don’t choose to follow all your advice doesn’t mean I don’t value it.”
“I know.” And he did know. He was done sulking. There wasn’t much point to it when they were on their way to attack another outpost.
He’d just have to make the best of it. The important thing was that they were all together. And he was doubly glad that Rylan was with them, resting in the backseat in anticipation of taking the next round of driving. They would be on the road all day and night.
Reese, meanwhile, was fidgeting beside him. She tapped her fingers against her knee, shifted every other second, fiddled with the radio dials even though they were listening to dead air. “I saw you coming out of Bethany’s house before we left,” she said after a beat of silence. “How’d she look?”
“Sleepy. Apparently the baby kept her up most of the night. She needs full-time help, I think.”
“Maybe we could ask Christine to move in with her,” Reese suggested.
“That’s a good idea.”
“One of my few?” she asked tartly.
He slid a surprised glance in her direction, wondering why she was bitching when she’d already gotten her way.
“Sorry,” she muttered. Her cheeks turned pink and Sloan knew it wasn’t from the morning chill. “Oh, hell, Bethany’s baby still bothers me, all right?”
“Gosh, sweetheart, I had no idea you were having problems with that,” he said wryly.
She sighed and let her head loll back against the seat. “Christine told me yesterday that she wanted to have a baby, and I stood there full of a weird kind of jealousy over a fourteen-year-old. It was damn embarrassing.”
He tightened his grip on the wheel. “I’d have kicked Bethany out a long time ago if I knew it was going to affect you like this.”
“You would not.”
“Would too. I’d let the whole town burn down if it meant keeping you happy.” Sloan’s gaze flicked to the rearview mirror. “I’d keep the one in the back, but the rest of them can go to hell.”