Page 63 of Guardian

The kids only giggled.

“Meet Julia and Xander. They run the show here,” Logan said.

One of the women stepped forward and took the girl off Logan’s hands. “Don’t listen to him. They’re not that bad.” She smiled. “I’m Leila. And these two belong to me.” She looked over her shoulder and pointed at one of the men. “To me and Aiden. And they hate being in bed. They seem to always sense when something exciting is happening in the compound.”

Aiden raised his hand in greeting. “Hey.”

Logan set the boy back on his feet. “You’ve met Hamish. Next to him is Tessa, his wife. And that guy is Pearce. He’s our computer genius.”

Various greetings bounced around the room.

“So, what went down with the council?” Aiden asked.

Logan shrugged. “They didn’t give me much of a chance to explain the situation or make a case. I’m afraid your father is pretty hard-nosed.”

“Aiden’s father?” Winter asked.

Logan nodded. “The head of council is Aiden’s father and—”

“But he’ll find you.” She shot a look at Aiden. If he knew, wouldn’t he eventually tell his father?

“Aiden won’t tell his father that I’m here, right, Aiden?” Logan asked.

“If I wanted you to rot in that cell, I wouldn’t have helped organize your escape,” Aiden said.

“They put you in a cell?” Winter asked, frustrated that she was only getting piecemeal information. “And you escaped?”

Pearce suddenly cleared his throat. “May I?”

Logan nodded. “Yeah, I’m kind of curious myself how you guys pulled it off.”

Pearce smirked. “Well, we’ve had our eyes on you ever since Manus found you in San Francisco. When you went to the council to make your case, I’d already prepped everything to watch you there. When the camera caught you being led to the cells, I deactivated the surveillance cameras at the council compound and alerted Manus.”

“Nice hacking,” Logan commented. “Will they be able to trace you?”

“No chance. The cameras were only out for about three minutes. The guys in the control room probably didn’t even realize that I fed them a static image instead of a live feed.” He shrugged. “So all Manus had to do was get you out of there once the guards put you in the cell and—”

“Only Logan didn’t exactly give me a chance,” Manus interrupted. “By the time I got to the cellblock, he’d already overpowered his two guards and locked them in the cell.”

“I didn’t exactly know that you were coming to get me,” Logan said. “If I remember correctly, last time we met you gave me an ultimatum and threatened to bring me in yourself if I didn’t comply.”

“Yeah, well, I had to try to bring you to your senses.” He glanced at Winter and looked her up and down as if assessing her. “But I guess you’d already made your choice.”

Winter felt Logan take her hand and squeeze it. “Yes. I made my choice. I’m sorry that you guys have to deal with the fallout from my decision. You know that you don’t have to do this. By hiding me and Winter here, you’ve become accessories. We can leave.”

“And go where?” Manus challenged and made a dismissive hand gesture. “You’re safest here. Nobody will guess that you’re hiding out in your own compound. Nobody would think you’d be that stupid. Now let’s regroup and figure out our next steps.”

“Next steps?” Winter heard herself ask. “But if Logan wasn’t able to convince the council, there’s nothing else we can do.”

Manus laughed, and several of the others joined in. “You should know something about us, Winter. We don’t give up after the first attempt. We’ve had higher hurdles to climb. We’ll figure this one out.”

When she met eyes with Logan, he blinked in agreement.

“Manus is right. We won’t give up. There’s too much at stake.” Logan pulled her closer to him and lowered his voice. “I won’t give up as long as you’re alive.”

Tears shot into her eyes, and she had to hold her breath and force them back down to keep from crying in front of everybody. She couldn’t show weakness now in front of these strangers who were risking so much for her. She had to prove to them that she was worth their effort.