Captured By The Mercenaries

“You let that psychotic asshole slice me open and dig something out of my arm. With. A. Knife.”

I eased back as her eyes took on a slightly deranged look. “True… Sorry.”

“Sorry?” Her laugh lacked humor. “You all think I should just roll over and do anything you say. I’m a fucking human being, Sig! It’s one thing to claim that I’m ‘yours’, but it's another entirely to treat me as actual property. Like I don’t have free will.”

I bit the insides of my lips. Her outrage was understandable. I wouldn’t like being put in her position either. But out here, it didn’t matter how she felt about it. We forced her obedience in order to keep her safe.

Sure Sig, keep telling yourself that.

“We’re only doing what’s best for you,” I told her.

Her eyes narrowed. “What’sbestfor me? How is digging around in my arm with a kitchen knife what’s best for me? Do you understand what you guys did? How you violated me?”

“Okay, that may not have been the best example, but everything-” I broke off and sighed as she stood and stomped away from me. She took the meat she was preparing and the board and knife with her. I let her go. It was better that she cool off and far safer for me when she was the one holding the knife this time.

At least an hour had passed by the time the other two woke and came out to sit by the fire. Arsen gave a long look over his shoulder to where Colby was sitting, back facing us.

“She still pissed?”

I snorted, but didn’t bother to answer because she got up and came over to the fire. Ignoring all of us, she laid a flat pan on the fire and dropped the meat she’d prepared onto it. She made sure to give us each a dark look before retreating to her spot away from us.

“I’d say so,” Rafe deadpanned.

We all chuckled at that and we didn’t miss the way she glared over her shoulder at us. We left her alone while breakfast cooked, but when she went to take her finished plate to her spot away from the fire, Rafe grabbed her by the wrist.

“Sit here.”

I could all but hear her grinding her teeth together at his order. We watched curiously while she battled with herself. Eventually, she dropped down on a log that was as far from Rafe as she could get. It put her close to Arsen, but he seemed to be the one she was the least pissed at right now. Mostly because he’d kept his mouth shut about what’d happened. I wished I’d done the same.

We ate silently for most of the meal. When we were almost finished, Arsen spoke up. “What’s the plan for the compound? It’s going to be tough to infiltrate it when we know nothing about it.”

“Once we find it, I’ll go undercover and get the lay of the land.” Rafe had several pseudonyms in this region. All of which were buyers of weapons. It made infiltration easy.

Colby’s head jerked up, but she refused to say anything. We could all see she wanted to.

“That’s a dangerous plan,” I commented. “If you’re discovered you’ll be stuck in there with who knows how many enemies surrounding you.”

“I won’t be discovered,” he said with a shrug. Rafe always took the most dangerous jobs. He considered it his duty to protect us, the same way he was insistent on protecting Colby.

“Being a cocky asshole is a surefire way to get yourself killed,” Colby pointed out.

Rafe’s smile was wolfish as he stared her down. “Worried about me, Pet?”

“Maybe I just don’t want them to kill you and come after us,” she muttered, refusing to admit she didn’t want him putting himself into danger.

“I’ve done things like this many times before,” he reassured her. “Roj won’t have any idea who I am.”

“Whatever,” she responded with a shrug. She didn’t interject again while we made our plans. In fact, she stayed as far from us as she could be without risking Rafe ordering her closer.

She refused all advances of conversation. Even Rafe was getting irritated at the cold shoulder she was giving us.

“Just leave her be,” I told him after he’d asked her something only to be ignored. “She’ll get over it faster if you don’t lose your temper. She knows you’re a sociopath, she just needs to come to grips with it.”

“I never lose my temper.”

Arsen snorted in disbelief and I just raised a brow at him. “Sure you don’t. Neither does she,” I commented, pointing the dish I was washing at Colby's back.

Rafe narrowed his eyes at me, but he took the hint. Those two were practically cut from the same cloth. At least where their tempers were concerned.