Page 17

“Twelve,” Cole mutters. “To a.. . few more men. But that don’t mean a single thing, all right? Don’t you go making this about something it ain’t. We just need people .”

Again, that nervous tension.

“For the farmwork.” I repeat his earlier words, and Jayk’s hand tightens on me.

He looks at me from under those pretty lashes, then his gaze skitters away. “I...”

My attention sharpens. Hm.

From the sounds around me, I’m not the only one who disliked the non-answer.

“It’s not fucking happening,” Jayk snaps. “We don’t barter women.”

Lucky leans against the side of the throne, spinning his teacup on his saucer. “Yeah, that is so 1740 of you.”

Bearded Buck gives him an alarmed look, then stares, panicked, over at Katherine. Sweat is flowing over his receding hairline.

She absently scratches her cheek with her middle finger.

“No!” He insists. “We’re not trying to?—”

Sneering, Jayk cuts him off. “You haven’t stopped eye-fucking everything that breathes since you got here.”

“Well, can you blame us?” Pete mutters, looking at me bashfully, and Sawyer smacks the back of his head.

Cole steps up, raising soothing hands.

“Okay, yes. So it’s been a while, and these ladies are pretty as a picture, no getting around that.

You’d need to strike me dumb and dead not to notice.

” His smile is staggering, but Jayk’s thunderous glare quickly makes it vanish.

He clears his throat. “Noticing doesn’t make us bad people. We don’t hurt women. We want to help.”

He seems earnest—determined, even—but there’s something else. This is too good to be true. It has to be.

It almost always is.

Maybe I’m too burned. Maybe this is a valid offer. I’ve never been a trusting person. Good men do exist, and my brutes are proof of that. I just can’t shake the feeling that these men are hiding something.

We might be in a terrible position—starving and at the Sinners’ mercy—but by now I know that things can always get worse. I’m not trading one monster for another. Not again.

Jasper meets my eyes, and I sense the same pensive caution in him.

Jayk is.. . less cautious. He dumps his teacup on the tilted saucer, and I rescue it at the last moment as he leans back, staring at Cole with heavy scorn.

“No.”

Cole’s back stiffens, and I see the first flare of real anger from him as he bursts out, “You’re starving!” He points at the women up in the music room. “ They’re starving! Are you really willing to let them die because you’re worried that we’ll flirt with them?”

The air is sticky and uncomfortable, but ice washes through my veins. Around me, I feel Jayk’s chest rumble, his powerful muscles charged and furious on our behalf—but I don’t need him to fight this battle for me.

“ You’re starving.” I don’t mean to say it, but once the words are out, they linger on the breeze like a snap of snowfall.

Cole falls silent, a hint of confusion passing over his features. Pete shifts behind him, and I look at each Reaper in turn, strangely composed, even as my chest roils with a chilly discomfort and my wrists burn with remembered ropes.

“Do you think we can’t see it?” I ask, not bothering to soften my voice.

I list off every red flag I’ve been collecting like I’m preparing for a bull run.

“You’ve hardly been around women for years.

You want to drag us back to your home within minutes of meeting.

You talk over and around us like we’re children— stupid ones!

—that need to be kept and coddled.. .and you think we’re concerned about flirting ? ”

Buck ducks his head, and Cole pales, flinching at my tone.

“Do you think we don’t know what happens if we’re caught alone with ravenous animals?” I ask, and finally Sawyer meets my eyes.

He’s grave. Expectant. The grim line of his mouth says he already knows he won’t like my answer.

“We get torn apart .”

His eyes close, as if in pain, but I shake my head and add quietly, “If you don’t understand that fear, if you can’t respect it, then you don’t deserve to be anywhere near us.”

Jayk takes the teacup rattling violently in my grip. His heart pounds against my back, a booming, constant drum.

Then I realize that’s not the only drumming.

The civilians are rattling their weapons again, in wordless, vehement agreement. My throat thickens as I take in the solemn, unhappy faces.

My first meeting with Dom, Beau, and Lucky plays in my mind, the similarities setting me on edge. I remember my exhaustion and hunger and bleeding feet. I remember how intoxicating the idea of sanctuary was, of food and protection.

I was lucky.

If they had been a different breed of men, if they weren’t so concerned with my boundaries and my comfort, and if they hadn’t listened to me when it was all too much, that situation could so easily have ended atrociously for me.

All of us have grown so much since that stupid deal, and I can’t regret it, not after what it brought me.. . but I’ve learned that lesson already.

It’s not okay for men to leverage our desperation to fix their own problems. We deserve better. We are better.

I swallow hard right as the sitting room doors squeak open again.

Beau walks through, and he’s as lovely as he was on that first day.

With his square jaw and that soft hair, he looks like a storybook prince.

His compassion tempers his stubborn edges, and there’s something cozy with romance in the way his eyes find me first in every room—even if lately they’re quick to skip away.

Beau is the one who first made me believe I could have a happy ending here.

My heart throbs like a bruise as he makes his way over. He’s doubting that now, I know he is. So maybe I’ll just have to take my turn in convincing him.. . because I’m not ready to let him go.

Everyone watches him anxiously as he stops on the stage’s steps.

“Is the girl okay?” Sawyer asks, his gaze switching between Beau and the door like he wants to see for himself.

Beau doesn’t look at him—or Dom either, this time. He frowns at Jayk for a long minute, taking him in... and me, on his lap. Resentment burns lines between his brows.

Finally, he looks away from Jayk and says pointedly to everyone but him, “Jen will be fine. She needed a few stitches, but as long as she stays off her feet for a few weeks, there won’t be any lasting damage.”

The tension in the Reaper’s shoulders deflates. Buck gives Pete a relieved grin, and I swear I see Pete blink back tears.

“Nice work,” Jayk says gruffly, and a strange warmth steals over me. Not the sticky, uncomfortable heat of the day, but something that spreads from the inside out.

There’s no mockery or sarcasm in Jayk’s voice—it’s the same way he spoke to me when I helped him in his barn.

He’s not flowery, but he’s quick to acknowledge people’s efforts.

He shows gratitude without making a fuss.

I’d wondered if he was just that way with me.

.. but I should have known better. It’s just who he is.

There’s a reason he’s earned the civilian’s loyalty.

Beau’s brows lift, and he gives Jayk a strange, searching look. He tenses a little, like he’s shrugging it off, then moves to stand beside Dom.

Everything settles inside me.

I have all my brutes gathered around me now.

“I’m sorry,” Cole says quietly a moment later, and he’s looking at me.

When we stay silent, his voice strengthens, “Truly, we all are. We don’t mean any harm.

We heard you’d had trouble here, and we’d had some of our own.

So when King called... well, we came to get the measure of you.

See if we might be able to work something out. We need?—”

Sawyer gives him a quelling glare, and he grimaces, faltering. Jasper’s assessing glance is razor sharp, and my curiosity piques again.

“Look,” Cole starts again, giving Sawyer a hard-eyed look back. “Maybe we could use some extra manpower.” He glances around at the armed civilians and rubs the back of his neck. “Womanpower works, too. It’s true we have food, but that has some drawbacks, too.”

“You also have people who want to take it.” The realization is soft in Jasper’s voice, and it all clicks into place for me at the same moment.

“The Sinners,” I say, mostly to myself, and Jasper nods thoughtfully.

It makes sense. Cyanide is only hours away from the farmlands, and I’d wondered before how the Sinners were feeding so many inside a dead city. Scavenged supermarkets and empty apartments would only hold so much—and it’s not like the Sinners have any moral concerns over theft.

The Sinners have been stealing from the Reapers.

Which means they’re in the same position as us.

Jayk’s eyes burn the side of my face as he stares at me, but I’m too focused on Sawyer. Pete throws a wild, worried glance at Sawyer, who gives me a speculative once over.

Then, shrugging slightly, he exchanges a look with Cole I can’t read.

The sun begins to tuck itself behind the trees, and a slow darkness falls over us.

“They’re a pest. We’ve had our ways of.. . of working around them, but...” Cole shrugs, eyeing Dom’s kit. “We wouldn’t turn down your skills.”

Jayk snorts. “So you do need us. Fuckers.”

Sawyer scowls at Jayk. “Not as much as you need us. They need us too much to kill us, and we can live on the produce they let us keep. You can’t.” He rubs his mustache, then raises his brows. “You’ll starve without our help. These women will starve.”

Lucky splutters an incredulous laugh. He pushes off the throne, disgusted. “If you’re so worried about it, why don’t you send us enough food to see them through winter? If you’re so good , maybe don’t make deals that put conditions on their survival.”

I send him a sideways look under my lashes, the irony of that one stinging a little. He catches the glance and has the grace to blush.

But Sawyer just shrugs. “We didn’t say we were good.

I just said we weren’t bad . And they ain’t leaving us with that much left to spare.

” With that, he turns, facing the crowd of women scattered through the field.

“Look, you don’t trust us. I can understand that.

So maybe we stick around. You can get to know us—see we aren’t such bad guys, when it comes right down to it. ”

Jayk’s muscles turn to stone under me. “You think we’re just going to let you into our fucking house ?”

Hot wind whips our clothing, as if in warning.

Sawyer raises his hands. “Don’t get your dick in a knot, King. We’ll stay behind your...” He frowns at the deep, wide ditch encircling Bristlebrook. “Pike pit?”

“It’s a moat,” Jayk mutters.

“Right. Behind that.” He turns around to face the civilians. He plucks off his cowboy hat, then holds it against his chest. “Any one of you is welcome to join us—for a meal or to live. No one will touch you, not unless you ask. You’re safe with us.”

Sawyer looks over his shoulder at Jayk, then adds, “Or you can wait until your hunting dries up with the winter, and your vegetables die in the frost, and you start wondering why you’re blacking out because you don’t have the energy to stay awake.”

My breath stalls in my chest, every tiny hair on my arm standing on end at the horrific image. At the likely image.

Pete and Buck look around hopefully.

Still, not a single person moves.

Cole lets out a long, disappointed breath, but Sawyer just nods. He puts his hat back on. “You all stay safe, you hear? We’ll be setting up real close if you want to come say hi.”

He looks us over as the other Reapers awkwardly put down their tea sets and shuffle after him.

Cole hesitates, eyeing us. “There ain’t any more of them explosives hiding around here, are there?”

“About a dozen.” Lucky’s dimples flash dangerously. “Watch your step.”

Uneasiness slips into his expression when no one offers more information, and he grimaces, then braces himself as he follows his friends.

We watch them leave in silence. But as the last light winks out between the trees behind them, I only have one thought.

Sawyer is right.

We are going to starve without them.

But if we agree to go against the Sinners to help them, then it’s war.

And we could be condemning Heather and Bentley to death.