His grip tightened on her arm. “Do what I say and it’ll all be over soon.”
Reese’s heartbeat was surprisingly steady as they walked for what seemed like forever. Her boots thudded softly against the floor of what she suspected was a hallway. A few minutes later, a gust of cold air hit her, cooling her face even through the hood. Gravel crunched beneath her boots. Eric hadn’t blindfolded her last night when they’d driven through the huge electric gates of the Enforcer compound, and she remembered seeing gravel in the courtyard. She wondered if that was where they were now.
She heard male voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying. The conversations were muffled by the hood and the sound of her pulse now shrieking in her ears. Her sense of equilibrium wavered as someone pushed her onto what felt like the seat of a car. Doors slammed, and there were so many footsteps in the courtyard that she wondered if the entire Enforcer compound was coming to watch her get shot to death in the city square.
Once again, she clung to Hudson’s insistence that Dominik was a decent guy. “Your sister is a good woman,” she blurted out.
There was a sharp hitch of breath, followed by another command. “Quiet.”
Reese kept going. “I wasn’t sure I could trust her, even after she donated almost all the blood in her body to try to save a dying man. I still thought she might have an agenda, that she might be working with you and the council to kill us all.”
No answer.
“She asked me to spare you,” Reese confessed with a shaky laugh. “When we were attacking the outposts, Hudson was worried you might be in one of them. She begged me to spare your life. I told her I wouldn’t make any promises.”
Still no answer, so she finally gave up and quit talking. She wasn’t sure what she was trying to achieve anyway. Was this her plea for Dominik to spare her? Hudson had said he was working behind the scenes, and if that were true, that meant he’d never be able to save Reese without revealing his betrayal to Commander Ferris. Whatever Dominik was or wasn’t doing, he’d be crazy to release a high-profile outlaw prisoner. It would instantly make him, as he’d called it, an enemy of the Colonies.
Reese was surprised to feel tears sting her eyelids. She really wished she’d listened to Sloan. She wished she could see Rylan’s careless grin one last time. Those two men had made her feel . . . they’d made her feel like a woman. And that was a liberating sensation for a woman who’d always felt as empty as her womb that could never be filled.
The silence dragged on and so did the drive. Based on Hudson and Connor’s intel, Reese knew the Enforcer compound was about fifteen miles from the city gates, but it seemed like they drove for a lot more than fifteen miles. Or maybe time had just slowed to a grind. Maybe each minute was no longer sixty seconds but a thousand of them. Maybe that was what happened when you were on your way to die.
Eventually she closed her eyes, but she didn’t sleep. She listened to the sound of the engine and felt the bumps of the road beneath the tires. The handcuffs dug into her wrists but she ignored the discomfort.
She just wanted to get this over with. Maybe it would be better this way. Maybe Sloan and Rylan were better off without her. Without her callousness. Her tendency to shut down whenever she started feeling a little too much. Not to mention that she couldn’t give them a future, at least not one that involved cherub-cheeked infants like Bethany’s.
Her heart twisted painfully as she remembered Sloan and Rylan’s insistence that she was a mother to everyone in Foxworth. They could be right, but it didn’t matter anymore.
A low voice sounded from the front seat of the vehicle. “We’re all set,” someone said.
“Good,” Dominik replied. “Send a text to Vin to let him know.”
Who the hell was Vin? And why hadn’t anyone mentioned Ferris this entire time?
The car came to an abrupt stop, and once again Reese was being jerked around like a doll. Her boots hit the ground with a squishing noise, as if she’d stepped in a puddle. Or soft, wet earth. Either way, it didn’t feel like she was standing on a road.
She instinctively tensed when cold hands brushed her wrists. There was a jingle of keys, and the handcuffs popped off at the same time the hood was pulled off her head.
Light assaulted her vision. Not bright sunlight, but the glow of dusk. She blinked rapidly to adjust to it, and her mouth fell open when she glimpsed something in the distance. Three somethings, actually. Gleaming military choppers.
Reese blinked again. What the hell was going on?
The frantic internal question was answered when Dominik appeared in front of her. His gray eyes were hard, but the corners of his mouth lifted up in an almost smile.
“I hope you’re not scared of flying,” he said.
27