Claimed(104)
Fear skittered through her. “I think I do.”
“What? How?” he said in surprise.
“I met one of your trainees on the road. Max?”
Dominik sucked in a breath. “Max is alive? He dropped out of the program and killed two guards on his way out of the city, but the kid’s soft. I didn’t think he’d last a day out there.”
“He made it far enough to run into me and my group. And he told me that Ferris is giving the trainees injections.”
Dominik nodded. “Vitamins.”
“No, I don’t think so. Max noticed serious personality changes in the other recruits, guys he’s known his whole life. I think Ferris is giving you guys some kind of aggression drugs.” She bit her lip. “I think he switched your pills out after Dad died.”
Dominik paled. He rubbed his bloodshot eyes, looking more tired than Hudson had ever seen him. “Fuck. That… would make sense.” He pinched the bridge of his nose like he was warding off a migraine.
She let out a breath. “Did you know about Dad’s plan for me to marry Knox?”
“No,” he said immediately, his tone vehement. “I didn’t. I promise, Hudson. You know how hard I fought him when he decided that Knox would be the perfect lieutenant for me. But there was no arguing with the old man, so I sucked it up. I tolerated Knox because he’s a good soldier, but I never would have agreed to let him marry you.”
She believed him. She knew when her twin was lying. Although his eyes looked desperate and angry and confused, there was no dishonesty there.
“What’s going to happen to me now?” she asked as a wave of exhaustion washed over her. “Will I have to marry him?”
Dominik was quick to reject that. “No way. That’s never going to happen.”
“He thinks it will.”
“He can think whatever the hell he wants. I won’t let him touch you.” Determination hardened his jaw. “I found a way to get you out once. I’ll do it again.”
Their hushed conversation halted when a knock sounded on the door. Dalton, one of Dominik’s higher-level Enforcers, appeared in the doorway with a sleek silver tablet in his hand.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, sir, but… well, uh, the men are a bit confused.”
Dominik’s brow puckered. “About what?”
Dalton held up the tablet. “The order you posted. Nobody is sure what it means.”
“Be more specific,” Dom snapped. “I post a lot of orders.”
“The meeting tonight.” Dalton fidgeted in discomfort. “Was this supposed to go out to the general boards? Should I gather the men?”
“For fuck’s sake, I have no idea what you’re babbling about.” Dominik stuck out his hand, gesturing to the tablet. “Give it here.”
Hudson watched as her brother scanned the contents on the screen, his frown deepening.
“This is obviously some kind of tech error,” he muttered. “I didn’t schedule a meeting for tonight, and I’d certainly never arrange for it to happen outside the gates.”
Hudson’s heart flipped as a thought occurred to her.
Her gaze snapped up at Dom, and he tensed slightly, as if sensing she had an answer to the mystery. They’d always been able to read each other with nothing more than a look, and so she wasn’t surprised when he turned to Dalton and barked, “Give us a moment. I’ll be right out and we’ll go clear this up.”
But he didn’t hand over the tablet, just tucked it under his arm nonchalantly, as if he’d forgotten it wasn’t his own.
The moment the door closed behind Dalton, Hudson snatched the device from Dom’s hand and eagerly read the message. It was brief and to the point. Meeting. Four a.m. Two clicks west of the rear gate.
A smile sprang to her lips. “Oh Christ. He actually did it.”
“Who?” Dominik said uneasily.
“My friend… one of the people who took me in… he’s a hacker.” She swallowed. “We found some tablets when we were out gathering supplies and I told him about the program. He must have found a way to get it to work.”
“These are your friends?” Dominik tapped the screen as he skimmed the message again. “Why would they send this? They came to rescue you?”
“Ye—” She halted when she realized that might not actually be true.
Yes, they could have come here to rescue her.
Or they’d come to kill Dominik.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “When I was with them, I found out…” She took a breath. “You ordered Knox to sweep an outlaw camp in the west about two years ago. He didn’t give them a chance to surrender. He killed them all, and one of them was my… my friend’s wife.” She stumbled on the word friend because Connor was so much more than that.