Gannon’s head whips around and there’s a peculiar, delighted look on his face that sends confusion sliding down my spine. He laughs again. “Over here, freak.” He’s holding something behind his back.
Fucking asshole. I couldn’t care less what he’s doing, but I won’t let him ignore that his father sent me to find him and have it blow back on me. Forcing myself to move, I plod through the twigs, brush, and assorted debris that has its home on the forest floor. “Be right there.”
When I reach him, he stares at me with an odd twinkle in his eye, working his jaw to the side. His attention darts toward the sound of axes and saws on wood, before settling on me again. Frowning, I scan the area, mind scrambling as I spot dark red splotches in the dirt. Blood. I track the path until I finally spot gray fur huddling beside a fallen log. What in the—? An animal is trying to hide, huddled in on itself and shaking. I think it’s a squirrel, though its tail is gone. I turn to find Gannon dangling the missing bit of fluff from his fingertips and shake my head bewildered. “Why’d you do that?”
He smirks, then shrugs. “Because Ican.”
I rub a hand over my face, then pivot, striding rapidly toward the river.
“Arrow.”
Unable to hide how what he’s done has made mewant to throw up, I spit, “What?” agitated. “Your father wants you. Go find him.”
He levels me with an ugly sneer. “Say anything, and I’ll tell your dad where all his cider is disappearing to.”
Oh, fuck.
I’m still shaking with rage when Hayze makes his way to the river a while later. I glance up at his approach. For some reason, his expression is no less stormy than mine. He roughly rubs a hand over his face, exhaustion apparent from the puffiness under his eyes and the tight set of his jaw.
But whether it’s more of a physical tiredness from last night’s ritual and the subsequent lack of sleep or the mental toll that this morning’s debacle with the Collective has taken, I couldn’t say. For me, it’s all of the above.
Pausing his march as he reaches my side, he growls, “I need to have a word with Dragan about last night.”
Now? Shit.Just what we need is a fight to erupt. I grit my teeth because I’m still considering knocking some sense into Gannon for the squirrel incident. “Yeah.” I point a distracted finger toward the group a ways down the river. While I’ve been busy cutting wood the width we need for the planks of the bridge,they’ve been ineffectively attempting to determine the distance from one side of the river to the other. My lips quirk. “I’m sure Kiefer will eventually clue them in that there’s a trigonometric equation that is fairly easy to use to solve for the distance. They just need a protractor and to use their brains for once.” On second thought, it might not be so easy for that bunch. Even my father seems perplexed.
Hayze raises a brow, then shakes his head. “I’m no good at math, you know that.”
I shrug, wincing internally. Hayze is fucking smart, he simply has never seen himself that way. It’s been his greatest challenge his entire life—seeing himself as good enough to be in charge of everything our fathers have created here. “We both know that’s not your issue.” He doesn’t see things like the rest of us do. I figured that out a long time ago.
A second later, he sighs, looking back in the direction he came from. “Where’s Cross?”
“Still with…her,I would think.”
My brow raises, and because Evren is still sawing like a man possessed not too far away, I mutter under my breath, “How is she?”
Hayze’s lips press together. “Other than the fact that the Collective is making yet another statement by extending her correction, you mean?”
I suck in a breath. “Fuck. I meant emotionally. Is she… very upset?”
He huffs, rubbing a hand over his lightly bearded jaw. “Yeah, just like you’re probably assuming.” Helowers his voice, quickly whispering, “They want her on display for any woman who has ever considered bucking against their control. They’ll be reminded of what will happen should they not adhere to the ways of our commune. She’ll be there when they look out the kitchen window. She’ll be there when the women hang the wash on the line. And she’ll be there when they fetch eggs from the chicken coop.”
I nod, quietly agreeing. “Delilah will be the ultimate warning, yet another harsh reminder to not only the women, but everyone in the compound of what happens when the Collective is displeased.”
Exhaling hard, Hayze’s lip curls. “Anyway, upset really isn’t the right word. She’s mad. Really mad.” He swallows. “Especially at me.”
“Why?” Almost before the word is out of my mouth, I realize how stupid it is. “Because she thought you were going to help her?” I lower my voice even further. “And then…”
His gaze flicks to his father, and he gives a short nod. “Yeah. I couldn’t. Not how I wanted to. She doesn’t?—”
“Understand. I know,” I say, finishing his thought.
He peers at me, concern shining in his eyes. “Arrow, what are you doing? You’ve been visiting her again.”
My cheeks heat, but I don’t feel the need to confirm what he already knows and definitely not the exact nature of what transpired between the two of us. I lost control. And the next time I saw her was for thecorrection. She may not have told anyone what we did but Twenty-One does know I was down there this morning, and that has worry clouding my thoughts. Now is not the time to bring it up. There’s something else way more concerning, in my mind at least. I scuff the toe of my boot in a grassy patch beneath my foot. “We all saw the evidence of what your father did to her this morning, but Kiefer—he needs to be watched. He was in her cell.”
Hayze’s head snaps toward mine, his eyes blazing as they pin on me. “What? When?”
“What are you all talking about?” Cross’s arrival catches me off guard as he charges forward, huffing as he waits for an explanation.
