loose circle at the edges of the glow cast by the lanterns. But something had shifted the night before in the movie theater—instead of carefully separating themselves into us and them, her team and Knox’s mingled together, with Maya carelessly dropping her gear beside Conall’s as they carried on an animated conversation. Even Dani seemed heedless of where she placed her belongings, most of her attention focused on arguing with Rafe and Gray about—of all things—the transition metal molybdenum.
Only Knox kept his distance, but Nina was getting used to that. He had a routine for when they stopped to camp, a checklist he progressed through with deliberate thoroughness. Supplies inside. Interior surveyed. Tasks assigned to his men.
While everyone else scattered to secure the perimeter, Maya and Conall tried to get the central air going. It wasn’t the most efficient use of their charged solar batteries, but Nina’s shirt had been plastered to her back all fucking day. She would have sacrificed blood at that point for a little comfort. Maya and Conall poked at it, but the system was shot. Without maintenance, the rubber hoses had succumbed to dry rot, allowing the refrigerant to evaporate into nothingness.
Nina went in search of the next best thing—her shower. The water faucets in the small bathroom were dry, but she found a cistern out back. She set up the pump and the frame for the camp shower without looking too closely at the pool of rainwater in the huge concrete well. The pump’s microfilter would take care of any contaminants, and she was better off not knowing what those contaminants might be.
She was nearly finished when Gray popped his head out the back door. “Do you need batteries for that?”
“Just one. Small capacity.”
“I’ll get it hooked up.” He gestured. “Maya and I found a couple of industrial fans in the garage. We’re working on them.”
“Good.” Nina rose and stretched her back, groaning when her spine cracked. “If you get them going, I’ll marry you. Both.”
He snorted. “Knox is out front. If you want to tell him about the shower.”
She really didn’t. But a quick pass through the filling station yielded no distractions. As promised, Maya was tinkering with a large, round fan that looked capable of moving blessedly copious quantities of air. Dani had set up the camp stove for a real meal. Conall was sweeping dust, debris, and more than a few dead bugs clear of the cement floor, while Rafe pilfered through an abandoned tool cabinet.
“I’ll be outside if you need me,” Nina murmured, but no one was listening.
Someone had rolled up the giant bay door at the front of the garage. A rhythmic thudding sound drifted in on the thick night air. Nina followed it around the side of the building and froze.
Knox was chopping wood. He’d stripped to the waist, and his sweat-beaded skin gleamed in the light from a magnetic solar lamp he’d affixed to a massive generator. As she watched, he brought the ax down in clean, precise strokes to split a massive log.
“What are you doing?” Her voice sounded too high to her own ears. Breathless.
The ax thudded into the stump he was using as a base. Knox straightened and turned, revealing his bare chest and vivid strokes of black ink over his heart. “It’s a wood-burning generator. We can save the batteries.”
On closer inspection, the bulk of the machine’s mass was dedicated to the burner box, where Knox had already laid a fire. If it worked—and they kept it fed—it could power everything they needed. “That’ll come in handy. There are a few fans inside, and I set up a shower out back.”
He ran a hand through his damp hair, and her imagination took over. It was easier than breathing to picture his skin slicked with water instead of sweat, the rivulets sliding down the changing contours of muscle like the hands of a lover. But the fantasy stopped with her field of view, right there at his low-slung tactical belt.
Nina resented every square centimeter of cloth and leather.
“A shower would be nice.”
“Hmm?” The statement dragged her from her lascivious thoughts, but not far enough. “Oh. Right. It won’t be hot, but at this point, you’ll probably wish it was cold.”
His lips twitched.
Dammit. “Because of the weather, I mean.”
“Mmm.” He ran his fingers through his hair again with a grimace. “I hope this front breaks soon. I’m not used to having to sleep in conditions like this.”
“It can’t last forever.” Having an entire discussion about