Page 76 of Harmless
“Okay,” I said. “But if you need a break, let me know, and I’ll have someone else take over.”
“I will.” She gave me a cheeky smile. “I’m stronger than I look, Rori.”
I grinned back and playfully knocked my shoulder into hers. “I know you are. I’m just overprotective of my people.”
We set Paige up with a telescope on the crest of the hill, while everyone else settled in to hunker down for a while. Because we couldn’t have a fire, we drank lukewarm coffee and gnawed on rations of dried fruit and jerky. Astarte stayed near me, creeping closer and bobbing her head while I chewed on some dried mango slices.
“This has chili powder on it,” I told the bird. “Don’t think it would go down well for you.”
“Oh shit, I love chili mango! Can I have some?” Santos scooted from his reclined position to lay his head in my lap.
“You can have anything of mine,” I purred, feeding him a piece.
Paige had been watching the compound for roughly an hour at that point and set the telescope down on her pack, rubbing her eyes.
“See anything interesting?” My fingers stroked along Santos’ jaw and neck, feeling the movement of muscles as he chewed.
“Not really.” Her brow pinched with frustration. “It looks like a homestead community run by women. Everyone’s farming, cooking, washing laundry by hand, feeding animals, repairing fences, stuff like that.”
“No men?”
Paige shook her head. “Not a single one.”
“How about armed guards?”
“I saw a few women with assault rifles, but they weren’t at guard posts. They were just walking around doing whatever. One had a baby in one arm and this giant gun in the other.”
“A baby?” I repeated. “There’s kids there?” Under my fingers, Santos stopped chewing.
“A few, yeah.”
I frowned, turning that over in my head for a while. Kids had to come from somewhere, and if they were pimping out men like at Mystic Canyon, that would explain it. But if there were no men at all, where did the children come from? The only explanation I could think of was women being pregnant before joining the cult.
Children also made attacking the compound a much trickier situation. We couldn’t go in guns blazing and risk killing them or making a bunch of orphans. Nor did we have the resources to take children with us.
“Take a break,” I told Paige. “Rest your eyes. When you get back to it, I want you to keep watching the ones with weapons. Find out how many there are, see if you can spot a pattern.”
“You got it.” Paige stood and stretched, then smiled as the Hunter approached with a thermos of water and cup of soup for her. “Aw, thank you, love.”
“Always,” he muttered, eyes rapt on her.
What an adorable couple. I looked down at Santos with a smile that dissipated as soon as I saw his expression. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah.” He looked anything but, his mouth pressed into a thin line, eyes vacant as he rolled up from my lap. “I need to talk to Devin real quick.”
“Okay.” I touched his forearm before he could leave. “You know you can talk to me too, right?”
He plopped back down on the ground beside me, his eyes full of that familiar warmth and love as he took my chin and pressed a sensual kiss to my mouth.
“I know, and I will,” he whispered. “I just need to hash out something with him first. Ugly gladiator stuff.”
“Okay.” I ran my thumb over his cheekbone, then leaned in to kiss him again. “Love you.”
My eyes shot wide open, realizing too late what I’d said out loud.
Oh fuck.
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