“Looks like we have everyone on the list, plus a few,” he said, his gaze flicking to Shelby before settling on me. “Are you all right?”
“Perfectly fine. I had more than enough protection. None of them got close to me, and Shelby says this is all of them.”
He faced her.
“I really wish you weren’t here.”
“I know, and I’m sorry for putting you in this position. But, we both know you can’t make exceptions. People here will lose faith in you. Besides, Nat will find a way to cause problems if I stayed behind.”
Matt’s weary expression as he nodded pulled at my heart. Everything rested on his shoulders. Over in Tolerance, at least Mya had Drav.
“He’ll try to find a way to cause trouble even if you don’t stay,” Matt said. “That’s why I made sure to have proof of what he meant to do first.” He looked at me. “Can you download all the footage while we start moving everyone?”
“Absolutely.”
Shelby laughed, a bitter, sad sound. “Cameras? You’re all a lot smarter than he gave you credit for. I’m guessing you’re going to publicly show some of it?”
“We have a projector we can use against the supply shed,” Matt said.
“I’ll go through the footage and clip pieces together,” I offered. “You have enough on your plate.”
“June, make sure I’m in it,” Shelby said.
Although I didn’t want to do it, I knew she was right.
Carrying the first four men, Tor and Turik left with Matt while I got to work. Shelby quietly watched the footage with me until it was her turn to go with Matt. Turik and Vorx accompanied her.
“You need sleep, June,” Tor said, watching me work.
“And I’ll get some. But I need to finish this first. Did you see how tired Matt looked? It wasn’t from lack of sleep but the stress of having all this pressure on him. If I can do a little to help ease that, then I should. Tolerance is a thriving community because everyone is working together there. That’s why I came back here. I want to help make this place more like Tolerance. Isn’t that worth a few hours of sleep?”
He kissed my brow and rubbed my back while I pieced together the footage, saying nothing more until it was finished.
Tomorrow, Tenacity would lose fourteen of its citizens.
* * *
I stood beside Matt,my gaze fixed on the video loop projecting on the shed wall. The footage glowed brightly in the predawn light and made it easy to see the men, who were now bound and kneeling in front of us, as they broke into my house. Even better was the audio I’d picked up and laced in.
The first group of five men didn’t say much when they broke in and found nothing. But what they did say was damning.
“Nat’s going to want her beaten for this.”
The second group of four was chattier.
“Take everything. The bitch deserves it.”
“I hope Matt reassigns her to one of our houses. She’s good at getting supplies. We could use more women like her.”
The third one, though. That was the cherry on top.
After making his lackeys go inside first, Nat strode through the front door and saw his men bound and out cold on the couch.
“I’m going to enjoy beating the shit out of her,” he said.
“We should have done it the first time,” one of the others said.
Behind them, Shelby remained by the door, peeking through the window and casting worried glances back at them.