(unedited)

The silence has me on edge as my eyes examine every inch of the surrounding area.

It feels unnatural. Almost like every living creature within the campgrounds are holding their breath.

Just waiting for something to happen.

My fingers anxiously tap against the handle of the knife that's strapped to my right leg as Gabe and Luke step around me to begin heading down the right side of the path.

I grimace when the gravel crunches under their boots, the noise sounding far louder thanks to my unease.

Why do I feel so unsettled?

I gasped sharply when a warm hand wrapped around my left wrist. I tense my body, preparing for whatever is about to happen, only to quickly deflate when Leather and Cyprus tickle my nose.

“Easy, Peanut, it's just me,” Nathan whispers as he carefully turns me around to face him. “What’s going on?”

All movement stops, and I know everyone's attention is on me now. But I keep my eyes on Nathan as he releases my wrist to bring both hands up to cup my face. The warmth from his touch seeps into my cheeks, and the tension within my body begins melting.

“I don’t know. I just…” I pause, trying to find the right way to describe my feelings. “Something just feels off here.”

I can hear someone moving closer to us, and my gaze finally leaves Nathan’s blue eyes to see a hand reach up to grab his shoulders. The elegant fingers squeeze once in a silent gesture for him to step back. Nathan swipes his thumbs across my cheeks before releasing them and moves to the side, allowing Owen to fill the vacant space in front of me.

His earlier amusement has vanished, replaced by the stern look of our take-charge leader Mr. Blackbourne. I detest that my weird feeling has ruined the playful mood from earlier, but at the same time, those hard steel eyes stir something new inside me.

A darkness I never knew lived deep inside my soul until I was forced to unleash it to survive.

”What feels off?”

”Listen,” is all I say, and silence envelops us. It takes a moment, but understanding flashes across Owen’s steel eyes as they dart to the surrounding trees. “It could be nothing, but when nature is this quiet, it means danger.”

Owen nods in agreement, his eyes scanning the treeline a moment longer before he turns back to me. “It could mean nothing,” he agrees, “but if you have a bad feeling, we’ll proceed more cautiously.”

My next exhale whooshes out in relief as Owen turns back to the others and quickly reworks our mission. Instead of savaging the entire campgrounds with the hopes of gaining three RVs, we’ll now only be looking around long enough for Axel’s team to get one RV running.

It sucks we’ll be losing out from just a gut feeling, but I’ve learned the hard way to trust it.

Once Owen receives confirmation from everyone about the changes, he looks back to me. That millimeter smile is back as he takes that last step towards me, his warm hand coming up to cup my face like Nathan’s did moments ago.

My heart stutters a beat as he slowly leans down and lightly brushes his lips against mine in a feather-soft kiss. “Thank you.”

“For what?” My words come out as a breathy whisper as I fight to stay on track. My thoughts are in complete chaos now as this barely-there kiss reignites the fire from the unexpected teasing from moments ago.

“For speaking up with your concerns.” Surprise blows away the lust-filled haze taking over, and I'm left utterly confused.

“What?” I sputter out.

Owen’s gaze softens as his thumb slowly caresses my cheek. “There was a time when you’d never voice any concern regarding yourself. You would always put your needs below everyone else’s, even if you were uncomfortable. I'm proud that you spoke up instead of second-guessing your instincts.”

Happiness floods my system, leaving me almost lightheaded as a smile dominates my face. This isn't the first time one of my boys has said they were proud of me, but no matter how often I hear it, I'm left intoxicated by the feeling it creates in me.

It's on par with an adrenaline rush but doesn't fade. It only grows brighter inside as it reshapes me into a better person.

“Thank you,” I say before reaching up to shift his hand and gently kiss his palm. “I love you.”

“And I love you.” He brings our conjoined hands closer to him and copies me by placing a kiss on my palm. “Stay close to Luke and Gabe, and be alert for anything.”

“Got it.”

Owen reluctantly releases my hand, and I turn to find Luke and Meanie watching us with soft smiles.

As I close the gap between us, I glance over my shoulder at the others and feel significantly better seeing them cautiously scanning around them as they split into their respective teams.

Here's to hoping it's nothing.

Luke and Meanie take up a position on either side of me. Their steady pace matches mine as we follow the gravel path to the right.

My typically goofy boys are silent as we cautiously approach a bend in the path, where the gravel transitions into dirt before it disappears in the heavy shadows created within the thick treeline.

I wrap my hand tightly around the handle of my knife as we move into the shadows. My unease spikes when my eyes take a few heartbeats to adjust to the dim lighting. Our steps slow for those seconds, but I begin to feel better when nothing jumps out at us.

The morning light peeks through the leaves enough for us to see by, but I don't like how many dark spots are still sitting around us. A part of me wanted to pull out my flashlight to see what might be hiding in those shadows, but I quickly shut that down.

As of right now, we are barely visible in the dim lighting, as we are wearing our go-to outfit for missions: a dark-colored long-sleeve shirt under a black bulletproof vest with dark pants and boots. All a bright light would do is lead whatever has me on edge straight toward us.

From my left, Luke snaps his fingers to catch our attention, then points to a patch of neon orange fabric peeking out between a few thick trees a couple feet off the trail. Luke looks at me with one eyebrow raised in question, and I nod.

His eyes raise over my head to glance at Gabe, and once he has the go-ahead signal from both of us, Luke steps off the path.

I wait a moment, creating more space between us if he needs to move back then copy Luke’s path through the dried leaves. Hoping to lessen the noise we make as we slowly approach the small cluster of trees.

As Luke steps up to the gap to peek through, I carefully pull my knife from the sheath on my right leg, wanting it ready to go as my eyes bounce from left to right. One quick snap from Luke signals the all-clear and he continues to lead the way around the trees until we’re standing within a tiny campsite.

The neon fabric that caught Luke’s attention looks to be from the single-person tent that’s collapsed at the base of the cluster of trees.

Thankfully, I don’t see any human-shape lumps under the fabric, so that’s one less thing to worry about, so I scan the rest of the clearing.

A few feet away is another collapsed tent, this one dark green, with a destroyed bag in front of it. Its contents scattered around the clearing, mixed with dead leaves and fallen branches.

I slide my knife safely back in its holder as I motion for Luke to checkout the green tent before I head over to the orange one. Leaving Meanie to watch our backs as we search for anything useful.

"So," Luke mumbles, keeping his voice low so it does carry, as he crouches down by the backpack. “Do we finally get to hear the dirty things Owen said to you?"

A surprise snort comes out, and I quickly slap my free hand over my mouth to keep the rest of the laughter from following.

“Yeah, Trouble,” Gabe adds as he peeks over his shoulder at me. His slight smirk only grows when he sees the blush spreading across my cheeks. “We already promised not to wimp out like the others.”

I release a few nervous chuckles behind my hand before dropping it and taking a few deep, encouraging breaths.

As the events spill from my lips, I can feel my blush spread down my neck and chest. I keep my focus on carefully moving the tent around, knowing if I looked at them before getting it all out, I would chicken out.

“And then he said that I wasn’t ready for what he wanted to do,” I grumbled, the earlier irritation coming back as I pulled out a gray duffle bag from inside the tent. “What the heck does that mean? What am I not ready for?”

The zipper takes a couple of hard tugs before I can get it open, and inside, I find a few items of clothing, a pair of sneakers, a small flashlight, an unopened pack of gum, and three packages of dried fruit.

I bite down on my lip to keep an excited squeal from escaping when I check the gum to see that it's peppermint.

Corey is going to love this.

I’ve heard him comment a few times about missing gum. That it helps him concentrate when he’s working on the computer.

To make sure it definitely gets home, I tuck it into one of my side pockets before finally noticing how quiet Luke and Gabe are.

I'm slightly afraid to turn around, thinking that they might have broken their promise and made a run for it, but no.

When I look back they’re still there, seemingly frozen in place as they look over at me with vastly different expressions.

A large smile is plastered across Luke’s face with this spark of mischief dancing within his brown eyes. While Gabe’s heated stare scorches a path slowly down my body before traveling back up.

“It shouldn't surprise me that my Troublemaker is causing trouble,” Gabe says, his deep voice vibrating the still air around us. “Before I explain what Owen wanted to do, I want to know something first. How did you feel when he said that to you?”

“How did I feel?” My voice squeaks a little as I feel my heart begin to race. This is kind of uncharted territory for us and I can feel myself wanting to shy away from expressing my true feelings.

Stop being a wimp, Sang. You can't take the next step with them if I can't even talk about it.

“Okay,” I start as I spring to my feet and whip my sweaty hands on my pants as a way to use up the nervous energy building up. “Of course, I was mainly confused because I couldn't figure out what he meant. But with the way he looked at me and the tone he used I was almost excited? Maybe?”

“Excited,” Gabe repeats as his own lips tilt up in the same mischievous way as Luke, “does it feel like the rush you get on the back of North’s motorcycle?”

I nod because that's exactly how it felt.

It's weird to think that teasing Mr. Blackbourn gives me that same adrenaline rush as riding North’s bike, but it did. And I can't help but want to do it more to see what happens.

Gabe gestures for Luke to take his place as the look-out before moving to stand in front of me. He keeps his left hand on the handle of his knife, but brings his right up to slide his fingers down my cheek. His touch feels cool against my skin and I lean more into his fingers to alleviate some of the heat created from my blush.

“I'm going to attempt to explain things without being as graphic as I want to be. You might pass out if I do,” he says, causing Luke to snort behind him because Gabe and graphic go hand-in-hand. You can't have one without the other.

Gabe flips Luke off with his left before placing it back on the handle of his knife. His eyes move over the clearing quickly, needing to see that we’re still safe, before they land back on me.

“Now we all know our Mr. Blackbourne loves to control fucking everything. From missions to our personal lives.” I nod along as that's a given. “Another thing he likes to have control over is his sexual partners. Do you know what that means, sweet Troublemaker?”

“No,” I stammer. I feel his cool fingers glide down to my neck before he gently wraps them around it. There's zero pressure on my windpipe, so my breathing isn't hindered in any way. But just the presence of it there leaves my body vibrating with the sense of danger while also having full trust that he would never hurt me.

“This is a mild form of using control on your partner. There's more to it than just this, which I'll explain when we’re in a safer environment, but it gets my point across, yeah?” He waits for me to nod before moving his hand back up to my face. “Back at the Jeep you teased Owen about having the control and he wanted to prove to you who has the real control. I’m not sure what went through Owen’s mind but I can guess that it would be finding a way to tease you until you apologized. Kind of like this.”

I suck in a breath when I feel a feather light touch skim across the bottom part of my stomach right above the edge of my pants. The gentle caress sets my blood on fire and I immediately understand what he was getting at.

Gabe chuckles once he sees his small demonstration sunk in and releases me from further torture by dropping his hand.

“Do you need any more examples?” He teases and I quickly shake my head. “Good. Let's hurry up and finish clearing this site.”

He heads over to the green tent, taking over for Luke as I turn back to mine. My body still radiates heat while I search under the fabric one more time.  Making sure I didn't miss anything and find a decent enough sleeping bag balled up towards the back corner.

I'm able to stuff it into the duffle bag when the sound of a short whistle breaks the silence. I jerk up as another one follows, then a third one.

The help signal.

“Fuck.”