Page 195 of After the Burn

Then she patted his arm and smiled. “We can share.”

“Okay.” Colson turned and smiled slowly at Gideon.

Gideon took one look at Colson’s face and finally seemed to understand that he had pushed too far.

But it was far too late.

A rotter slammed into the collapsed section of fence a distance behind him.

Then another.

Gideon turned toward the sound, and that was all Colson needed.

He moved fast. Faster than a man of his size should be capable of.

Gideon had barely gotten his weapon halfway up before Colson hit him. The force of it drove both backward and into the side of a concrete column.

Wren followed, walking calmly, as if she had all the time in the world.

The men with him had ran to intercept the rotters leaving Gideon to his fate.

Gideon swung at Colson, but he blocked it and drove his fist into Gideon’s stomach. He folded, as his breath came out in a whoosh.

Wren stopped a few feet away. “Was she scared?”

Gideon looked up, his face confused and gasping for air. “What?”

“My sister. Was she scared?” Wren repeated patiently.

Gideon didn’t answer.

“Was she scared when you gave her to them?” Wren’s voice was eerily calm.

A rotter latched on to one of Gideon’s men, and he screamed. Nobody moved to help.

Beck stabbed another that had approached and tossed it on the ground. Lucas threw his hatchet straight into a rotter's forehead, pulled it back out, and was tossing it from hand to hand, ready for whatever came next.

Gideon finally stood and spat blood onto the gravel. “How the fuck should I know?”

Colson hit him again. Hard enough to snap Gideon’s head sideways.

“Wrong answer,” Adrian muttered beside me.

Wren’s face had gone completely blank, then she nodded. “Okay.”

Colson’s face was thunderous.

Wren pointed at Gideon. “He’s yours first, but leave me some, please.”

Colson smiled sweetly. “I love it when you say ‘please’.”

Gideon tried to run, but he only made it three steps before Colson caught the back of his shirt and dragged him down.

Gideon rolled and reached for his gun, but Wren smiled as she kicked it away. “That’s cheating.”

Then Colson went to work.

I had to look away after the second hit. Colson was a man on a mission, and he was done playing around.