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  Then my time had come.

  I had taken Decima back to my quarters. Angered by the fear on her face and the act I was bound to complete, resentment had seeded. But when Decima had lain in my arms, forced to endure the compound mandate, despair had set in because she did not react as the brothers had described. Stoic, brave, she had quietly endured my penetration as if grace was her fate while sin was mine.

  A deep contempt for compound life had poisoned my soul that day.

  An unusual expression of sorrow clouded Decima’s features as she confirmed my statement. “No, I didn’t. Not until you took a beating for me.”

  While she had not shed a tear while losing her virginity, she had pleaded for one thing. She had wanted protection from the final act that confirmed the cycle of a female becoming a woman. River Stephens, the leader of River Ranch, completed the initiation of every female by taking the woman himself and leaving his seed. Only his seed was allowed in a woman, unless a brother fought for the rights to her. Then you endured a life-threatening beating to prove your worthiness.

  That was what Decima had asked of me. Not to let River Stephens, her biological father, plant his seed in her.

  Her plea sweeping the last of my faith away, I’d done what a man should do. “I invoked my one passage.” I had claimed rights to her. The beating from River that followed had been my due. “It was a given.”

  “You wasted it,” she clipped.

  My expression as still as the hunter I was trained to be, I failed to not let my hand fist at her insult. “It gave you what you wanted.”

  Concern she did not have for me when we were together washed over her features. “What about what you wanted?”

  “I have no regrets.” Not about that decision.

  Decima glanced at the ground then threw out one of her insults meant to distract. “You kissed like shit back then.”

  A birdcall sounded from deep within the woods, signaling the brothers were about to take Decima’s men by force. I should have been in position next to them, but instead I was staring at my past and realizing my mistakes. I should have taken her and left years ago, before the raid. And I should have left again when I had laid eyes on the gas station angel six months ago.

  Ignoring a second birdcall, I gave the words of respect I should have given years ago to Decima. “You never showed me tears.” She had shown me strength.

  “You wanted me to?” Decima’s anger-laced response was a telltale sign she did not want an answer.

  I gave her one anyway. “I never wanted to hurt you.” But the day of the raid, I had failed her. Taking my defensive position in the tree line, I had shot at federal agents in the name of protecting the compound, but I had left her unprotected. Dozens of compound members had been killed that day. When the dust settled, River had told me in disgust that she had been shot making a run for the gate.

  Steeped in guilt, I had grieved for a year and chastised myself for all of the missed opportunities to leave compound life behind. A year grew into two and the hunger of many mouths to feed kept me hunting. But six months ago, fate put another sign in my path.

  A gas station angel who smiled at me like no female ever had. The past six months I’d looked for her every time I went to fill the truck’s tank, telling myself I would seize the opportunity should I see her again.

  I never had.

  Now Decima was here and fate was giving me an opportunity.

  This time, I was not going to squander it. This time, I would not fight beside my brothers.

  Decima looked at me like she suddenly understood. “You liked me.”

  Resentment, not that she was alive, but that she was free, surfaced, and I verbally lashed out. “I could take you right now. It would be my right.” It was the second time a lie crossed my lips. By compound rights, I no longer had any claim on her, she was a deserter.

  “You could.” The confusion between her drawn-together eyebrows released, and what had been her usual determination returned. “And I could fight you.”

  If not for the dire situation about to unfold, I might have smiled. I had tried to love her once. I had never given her my heart, but I had given her protection until the day of the raid. Then she had proved me inferior. “You were always stronger than me.”

  Her eyes went wide with shock. “Stronger?”

  She must have thought of escape all those years ago, but she had never spoken of it to me. I could have gotten us out and kept us safe from any bounty. I had skills River Stephens did not. “Yes.” I regretted I was not stronger then, but she was just as strong. “You are the same, but different.”

  “I never belonged here, Hero.”

  I had known that, but I had failed her. I would not be a failure this time. “A woman like you belongs everywhere.” No cage could contain someone who thought freely.

  Her arms went around my waist and her head landed on my chest. “Thank you, Hero. For everything.”

  Unfamiliar territory made my muscles stiff, and I could no longer ignore the impending firefight. “Does he protect you?” A dark-haired man she had brought with her, who was now behind the palmettos watching us, stared at her the way a man stared at a woman he had given his heart to.

  “Who?”

  She knew who. “The soldier.”

  She spoke in compound speak. “I am not bonded with him.”

  Although her words were familiar, I knew from her dialect that she had left this life behind more years ago than she had been gone from it.

  “Why?” She should be bonded with him, or married, as they called it outside the compound. A man who risked his life by walking into an armed fortress was a man worthy of her.

  “He does protect me. In the world out there, it’s enough.”

  It was not enough. I pushed her away and glanced at the woods. “And he… tends to you?” I had never planted my seed in her. Even back then, I knew I had no right to her.

  Her cheeks flushed. “Yes.”

  Staring over her head, I nodded once and selfishly gave her words that were meant more for my peace of mind than hers. “You were loved.”

  Her hand landed on my chest. “So were you.”

  I grasped her fingers and squeezed once before I released her. The time for sentiment was gone. “Goodbye, Decima.” I turned to go.

  “Hero?”

  I looked over my shoulder.

  “Alathena?” she asked, mentioning her birth mother’s name.

  I did not hesitate with the truth. “She is with God.”

  Grief choked her throat. “How… how long?”

  “Spring before last, she was found in her chambers. She never woke one morning.” I suspected it was by her own hand, but I did not say that to the troubled woman’s only daughter.

  Decima nodded, then she surprised me. “You can get out.”

  Holding her gaze, I spoke the lie loud enough for the brothers in the woods to hear. “If I had wanted to leave, I would have done so already. My life is here.”

  She frowned. “Are you saying what you think I want to hear?”

  The muscles unused for many years, I smiled. “I learned a long time ago there was no purchase in giving you empty words.”

  She smiled back, but there was no joy in it, not like the angel from the gas station.

  Out of the corner of my eye, movement from the tree line caught my attention. We were out of time. I dropped my voice. “Be careful. River will not do as you expect.”

  “Meaning?”

  “He let you go once. I do not foresee him doing it again.” I wanted to give her more warning, but soon my actions would speak for themselves.

  Alarm filtered into her voice. “But you’re letting me go?”

  I did not blame her for asking. She knew the compound rules, but it saddened me she saw me as one of the enforcers. A final birdcall indicated the brothers were moving in, and I threw words out that were meant to distract. “Decima, if you were mine to keep, you would have already borne my children.”

/>   “Are you a….” She swallowed as if she were jealous. “Do you have children?”

  I had not taken another woman since her. I’d had no desire for any of the compound women, no desire for any woman at all, not until I’d laid eyes on the gas station angel. “No.”

  “Is that by choice?”

  I only stared at her in response. She would not understand my hatred of all women from here except her.

  “Hero… take care of yourself.”

  “Goodbye, Decima.” I disappeared into the tree line opposite of where her soldier was waiting for her.

  Skirting the compound, looking for signs of any more men Decima had brought with her, I saw four brothers intercept Decima and tell her River wanted to see her in chambers.

  I stepped out of the trees. “Brother Spiro, the elders need you and your brothers in chambers.” It was not a lie. They would need everyone who could shoot when Decima’s men started firing their automatic weapons.

  Spiro did not move. “The holy—”

  “Immediately,” I warned, using my authority over him as a hunter.

  Spiro glared at Decima’s man before he and the three brothers with him retreated.

  I waited until they were out of earshot, then I quietly addressed Decima’s man. “You need to get her out.”

  Ignoring me, he moved toward the front gate. “Come on, Kendall.”

  “Not that way,” I warned. “The front gate is not an option.” I glanced at Decima. “Decima, do you remember the summer deer trail?”

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  “You will need to take the west one.” It led deep into the woods. None of the other brothers liked to go that far. They would likely not follow.

  Decima’s man glared at me. “First of all, her name’s Kendall. Second, we’re not prisoners. We’re walking out the way we came in.”

  I wondered if he had named her Kendall, but I did not ask. I was listening to the movement in the woods behind me.

  Misreading my lack of response, Decima’s man took a step toward me. “You got a fucking problem?”

  I held his gaze, wondering if Decima had lied to me about him. “She said you protect her.”

  “That’s why I’m not walking her ten miles deep into the fucking glades with who knows how many of your brothers lying in wait.”

  “You were the one who supplied the weapons.” He should not have given River Stephens weapons if he did not want a war.

  “What’s Stephens planning?” he demanded.

  I lowered my voice. “He will not let her leave alive.”

  He called to the blond man standing behind him. “Talerco.”

  “On it.” The man he called Talerco touched the communication device in his ear and quietly spoke. “Vikin’, Ink, hurry the fuck up.”

  Spiro would be back in chambers by now. They needed to leave. “She knows the trails. I trained her.”

  “Here’s the difference between you and me,” Decima’s man ground out. “I don’t drag a woman through the woods in enemy territory because her statutory rape asshole of an ex tells me to.”

  “André,” Kendall snapped.

  Decima’s man, André, did not listen to her. Instead, he raised his weapon and held it against my temple. “If I have to shoot my fucking way out of here, starting with you, I’ll do it. She’s walking out that front gate because that is her fucking right.”

  Unfazed by his threat, I took his anger for what it was, but he needed to be aware of what he was up against. “There are one hundred armed on compound,” I quietly warned. “I have only counted seven of you, including the sniper position.”

  “Then you know you’re scoped right fucking now.”

  I did. I had already spotted the other soldier in the trees. “I do not fear death.” With death came freedom.

  “We’re leaving. You help us or you don’t. I don’t give a fuck.” André dropped his weapon from my temple, then took Decima’s hand and pulled her toward the front gate despite my warning.

  No choice, I dropped back into the tree line, and that’s when I heard it.

  Motorcycles.

  A lot of motorcycles.

  No one on compound had a motorcycle.

  I ran.

  Cutting through the trees, skirting the farthest line of defense the compound brothers held, I ran to the outer fence and scaled it. The bikes drawing closer with every quickened breath, I circled toward the front access road, outside the compound gate.

  Running parallel to the road, jumping over branches and dodging the pines, I hit the old dirt road as more than twenty men on motorcycles pulled up to the open gate. Driving around the three black SUVs Decima and her men had come in, the bikers drove straight into the compound.

  Seconds later, gunfire erupted.

  Shots came from every direction. I swung my rifle from my shoulder and looked through the scope. Scanning, I searched for Decima. On my second pass, I saw one of the SUVs reverse lights go on.

  I sprinted.

  My head low, praying it was her in the vehicle, I knocked once on the glass. Three bullets in rapid succession plunked into the metal inches from my chest, and I yanked the door open.

  Decima glared at me from the driver seat. “Don’t even fucking think about it, Hero. I’m not going with you to the deer trails.”

  “Move over,” I ordered.

  “No. You don’t even know how to drive.” She shoved me away. “Get out, I have to get to him! Your asshole brothers are shooting at him!”

  I dropped my voice and focused on her. “Decima, I am going to help him. Move over, I know how to drive.”

  For a single heartbeat, she did not move. Then she climbed into the passenger seat, and I got behind the wheel.

  She pulled a gun from her back waistband. “Drive!”

  “Give me your communication device.” I put my rifle between the two front seats and held out my hand.

  “No,” she snapped.

  I was not risking an unannounced breach of her soldier’s team. “If I do not tell them I am helping them, they will shoot me.”

  Hands shaking, she pulled the device out and gave it to me. “Drive!”

  Fitting the device into my ear, I threw the luxury SUV into drive. “This is Hero. I am pulling the SUV between the truck and the bikes. Is this the armored vehicle?” Bullets hit the vehicle, but they were not penetrating the metal. I had heard her man, André, speak of an armored vehicle when I was scouting him and his soldiers, but I needed to be sure.

  “Yes!” Decima shouted. “It’s armored. Now drive.” She reached over and pushed my leg down.

  Hearing nothing but gunfire through the communication device, I handed it back to Decima, and stepped on the gas.

  The tires spun in the mud, then the vehicle lurched forward. Angling between the truck and the bikers, I drove toward Decima’s soldier first where he lay prone, firing. Reaching behind me, I threw the back door open for him.

  Unloading his magazine to cover himself, André jumped in the back seat and yanked the door shut. “Spin around, spin around!” Lowering his window a few inches, he shoved the barrel of his automatic rifle out the four-inch opening.

  I turned the SUV in a half circle and pulled alongside the truck where the blond soldier, Talerco, was. André laid down fire, and Talerco yanked open the rear passenger door and jumped in.

  “Those fuckin’ tree hidin’ motherfuckers.” Talerco glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Present company excluded.” He cracked his window like André had done and started picking off shots into the woods.

  “Reverse,” André ordered, switching out his magazine. “Cover the back of the truck.”

  I threw the SUV into reverse and gunned it. The heavy vehicle responded immediately, and I pulled parallel with the back of the truck. Gunfire from the compound brothers in the woods started hitting the armored SUV instead of the truck where André’s men were.

  André spoke into his communication device. “Neil, Dane, retreat! Tyler, re
treat!” He shoved his door open, stood on the running board, and laid cover fire over the top of the SUV.

  His men sprinted to the cab of the truck. The brothers in the woods kept shooting and the men behind their motorcycles returned fire.

  I stared at the main building, an idea forming.

  André got back in the vehicle as the truck drove off compound, followed by another of the soldiers’ black SUVs.

  I glanced in the rearview mirror at Decima’s soldier. “Most of the men are in the main building.” Including River. André was a trained soldier, he would know what I was suggesting.

  André shook his head. “No fucking way. Retreat.”

  With a steady stream of bullets plunking against the vehicle, Talerco casually glanced at André. “No sense chokin’ the dog if you ain’t gonna touch his neck.” He checked his magazine. “I got two and a half clips left.”

  “Jesu-fucking-cristo.” André glared at Talerco like he was insane. “No. We’ve got extra cargo.”

  Unfazed, Talerco shrugged. “Whole reason we’re here.”

  André’s glare cut to Decima.

  She held his gaze how she used to hold mine, then she showed him no fear. “Do it.”

  The frown lines in his face deepening, André glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “What’s the building made out of?”

  “Wood frame.” I had helped build it. It was solid, but not indestructible.

  A round of bullets hit the SUV as one of the motorcycles caught fire. Decima glanced at the destruction around the compound. “Damn it, André,” she snapped. “Do something!”

  “Fuck.” André slammed his fist into the side of the door, but he did not make a decision.

  Talerco did.

  Grabbing Decima by the shoulder, Talerco pulled her out of the front seat and shoved her to the third row in the back of the vehicle. “Back seat, come on, come on. Get down!”

  André climbed in front and gave me a warning glare. “You one-hundred percent in?”

  I did not hesitate. “Yes.” This was the fastest, safest way to get to River. I was not fool enough to think this would end with anything less than his death. If it wasn’t Decima, it would be another escaped member he would go after, or young boys he would arm and force to stand in front of him the next time a government agency came at us. River needed to be eliminated. Of that I was one-hundred percent certain.