Page 55 of Twilight Tactics

“No way.”

“All right. I’ll show you another move. Join me on your knees and face me.”

Ollie did. “What kind of move is this?”

“The kind that finds out if you’re ticklish.” She dug her fingers into the teen’s ribs and Ollie squealed. “I’m going to go with yes.”

Sully had finished his calland stepped back inside in time to see Elena and Ollie go down in a tangled heap. He started to run toward them, then stopped when he heard the laughter and got a glimpse of the Wonder Woman–patterned secret now shared between her and Ollie.

And him. He snickered.

But he wouldn’t let on about that little fact.

The two were lost in their fits of laughter after Elena tricked her into a tickle fest, their mirth triggering his own. He fought the smile curving his lips, and finally gave in to it while he studied Elena.

Laughter transformed her usually composed features, and the sound of her relaxed joy echoed across the gym.

He’d been attracted to her before this moment—drawn to her competence, courage, and determination. But as he watched her now, sitting cross-legged on the mat beside Ollie, both of them wiping tears from their cheeks and still giggling, something shifted inside him.

This glimpse of the playful Elena, slightly embarrassed yet able to laugh at herself, morphed his attraction into something else. Something deeper. And he couldn’t look away.

She looked up and caught his eye across the room, and he wasn’t fast enough to pretend he wasn’t watching, but she didn’t seem to care. She gave him a small shrug and lifted her hands in a silent “What can you do?” gesture.

Okay. He was in trouble. Like serious trouble. Because this woman—who was all things amazing and apparently harboring her own superhero identity—was working her way past every defense he’d painstakingly constructed.

And he wasn’t sure he wanted to keep trying to stop her.

But he should, because he had his own secrets that weren’t quite so lighthearted as Wonder Woman boy shorts.

The thought sobered him, but he continued to watch the training and noticed how easy Elena made it on Ollie physically while giving her excellent self-defense moves in between periods of explanations that were probably rest breaks in disguise. She’d need to practice the moves when she was stronger, but she caught on quick.

Thirty minutes later, Elena called it. “I think that’s enough for today.”

Ollie looked disappointed, but she didn’t argue. “Can we do more later?”

“Sure. I recommend you treat your body well until later this afternoon—we’ll grab those books from the library—and if you’re feeling up to it, we’ll do another thirty minutes or so. I need a break too.” She rotated her shoulder with a grimace.

The girl’s eyes lit up. “Great!”

“In the meantime, I’ll print off some information about some survival tactics that you can study if you get bored with the books. Normally, we’d head into the woods, but I don’t think that’s going to be an option right now. So I’ll think on it and see if I can figure out a way to put those into practice without putting you in danger. And clear it with Sully and Piper.”

“That would be awesome.” Ollie hugged Elena, whose brows rose at the unexpected move. Then she gave Ollie a quick squeeze, and they walked toward him.

They hit the library, and with Elena’s help, Ollie soon had a stack of outdoor and wilderness books that he helped her carry. They’d printed the promised material as well, then returned to the cabin to find Piper and David in deep conversation with Maya and Gideon. Gideon leaned against the kitchen counter with arms folded, expression strained. The others, seated at the kitchen table, leaned toward each other. They were all clearly in the middle of a tense discussion.

Ollie took one look at the four of them, sighed, and shook her head. “I’m going to take a shower. I don’t want to know. Yet. Give me a little while before you have to drop any bombs on me.” She snagged a drink from the fridge and took a swig. She then grabbed three books from the stack Sully had set on the counter and aimed herself for her room.

Sully patted her shoulder as she passed, and Elena shot her a sympathetic look. Once she was gone, Sully let his gazesweep over the others. Elena helped herself to a drink too, then pulled up a chair.

“Where are we?”

Piper’s lips tightened. “David and I went out to scout a little more. More fences have been cut and there are ATV tracks all over those areas. It looks like the preppers are moving closer.”

“That doesn’t sound like preppers,” Elena said. “They didn’t use ATVs when I was there, and maybe that’s changed by now, but I can promise you the preppers I knew wouldn’t leave tracks like that. They’d find a way to cover them.”

Sully frowned. “You think it’s the other guys we saw?”

“Possibly. Unless itisthe preppers and they just don’t care at this point?” She wrinkled her nose. “I can’t see that being the case, but then this isn’t the normal, nonviolent group that I was born into. The group here has always been an outlier.” She hesitated. “Maya thinks they’re a cult. I haven’t wanted to believe it, but I can’t deny it either. Or it could just be a few bad apples in the basket. Either way, we need to keep trying. I’ll ride out again and see if I can find someone.” She looked at David and Piper, who were staring, mouths open at the information she’d dropped, and she cleared her throat.