As her gaze landed on him, he looked up.
She glanced away and watched Ren, Eduardo, and Dani drag wooden panels to the fireplace instead.
Lynn didn’t fear Eduardo’s strength, but she was quite sure both he and Ren would go along with the wishes of the pack when push came to shove, and that made them dangerous to her in their own right. She wasn’t sure what Dani would do, which made her a liability.
Ren and Dani set up the outer panels around the fire and laid more paneling over the tops of them to create a roof. Eduardo and Cody installed support beams and racks into the created chamber. Both came out sweaty and coughing even though they’d tied strips of fabric around their heads to cover their mouths and noses.
Cody and Ren were obviously involved, as the kiss had made clear before, and they definitely behaved like a couple: he helped her lift the heavy things; she berated him for doing it, and once it was done, she kissed him as a way of saying thanks.
Lynn was also starting to suspect that Eduardo was romantically involved with Cody. The two men shared intimate moments such as wiping soot off each other’s cheeks or exchanging a kiss here and there—while Ren and Eduardo seemed to be friends or at least not overtly romantic.
Whatever their relationship was, Ren, Cody, and Eduardo seemed to form a unit of which Eduardo was at the bottom. Not far behind the others, but either his subdued personality or Cody’s and Ren’s outspoken ones had pushed him somewhat to the periphery. He dipped his head more often and was sent off for retrieval of materials and tools by the others. Lynn wondered if the three even realized they were doing it.
Her gaze slid to Dani, who most definitely was not part of that unit. They all reacted differently to her, less intimate. Lynn could easily establish where Dani fit into the general hierarchy of the four: on par with Cody or just a fraction below him, but well above Ren and Eduardo. Dani allowed Ren’s hand on her shoulder a moment, for example, but she avoided Cody’s touch if she could.
It struck her how closely groups of people resembled groups of monkeys.
Lynn almost cut into her thumb as she twisted her head about to track Flint’s progress across the roof. Flint was a bit of a mystery to her. His movements and facial expressions were completely controlled. No one reached out to Flint, which could mean they were either afraid of him or he was above all of them in standing. Maybe he had just found a way to avoid the hierarchy altogether. Not being able to slot him into the equation she was building in her head frustrated Lynn, but there was nothing she could do about it but keep observing. That was made harder by the fact that Flint seemed to have eyes in the back of his head; whenever she looked at him, he stared her down. It was unnerving.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Dani, who joined her with more meat. “Let me help.”
Lynn stepped aside, making room. “Is the, uh, hut ready?”
“The smokehouse? Yeah. We’ll hang these to dry soon.” Dani took another knife from the rack, tested its sharpness on the meat, and began to cut when the blade proved sharp enough.
Lynn watched her hands, then her profile, and reminded herself to get back to work.
Dani didn’t talk. They stood close together in the cramped space, and although Lynn tried to keep herself away enough not to, their shoulders and arms brushed on occasion.
Tensely, Lynn allowed her to invade her personal space.
“Dean and Kate are in their rooms.” Dani kept working with her head down.
“Hm?” Lynn looked up from the meat.
“Kate. The boys.” Dani shrugged. “They won’t open the door for Cody or talk to him. He’s worried.”
Lynn frowned. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Dunno.”
Then Lynn caught on to the stiffness in her shoulders and her set jaw. Cody is not the only one worried. Lynn needed to find out how close everyone was to each other and who might be willing to go against Kate and Dean. Dani would be strong enough to, but now that Lynn recognized the worry in her tone, she wondered how willing she would be to defy them. Of course she couldn’t come right out and ask. She had to go the long way ’round. “Are they close, Cody and Kate?”
Dani regarded her. “You know, just because he has two partners doesn’t mean he sleeps with everything that moves.” Her voice was sharp all of a sudden.
Lynn’s face heated. “That is… not even close to what I meant,” she managed. Shit. “Why should I care that he has two partners? I’ve seen weirder things, trust me.” She groaned inwardly. “That’s also not what I meant.” She took a deep breath.
Dani scowled at her. “What did you mean?”
“I meant—” She inhaled to steady her frayed emotions and collect her tumbling thoughts. “That I have no idea what I’m talking about and I should just keep my trap shut.”
Dani remained focused on her a few seconds longer, face unreadable as she examined Lynn’s features. Then the tension in her shoulders and face ebbed away. “Damn right you do.” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she got back to work.
Lynn exhaled as silently as she could. Crisis averted. She watched her a few moments, but when Dani didn’t acknowledge her further, she shook her head and got back to work. Keeping her mouth shut for now would most likely gain her the most in the long run, but she wasn’t happy with it. She felt the pressure of time ticking away as the pile of slabs got smaller and the baskets of strips became fuller.
“Cody cares about Kate and the other way around too.” Dani broke the silence after several minutes. “Richard was hardly here when he was still alive. Cody helps out with Dean. Toby is all but glued to Eduardo, but Cody is the only one who can handle Dean when he’s in a mood. Cody cares about Dean, and caring about Kate came easy, I guess. There is nothing between them, though. Not as far as I’m aware.”
“Wouldn’t be any of my business, anyway,” Lynn interjected.
“True. Same for me.”
Lynn hesitated, then said carefully, “I really didn’t mean anything by it.”
Dani shrugged and kept her head down. “You never know. People are assholes.”
Lynn chuckled despite herself and nodded. “Yeah, that they are. Most of them, anyway.” Now that the tension had lessened some, she resumed her questioning. “What about Flint?” She looked past Dani and found him near a torch, scraping tissue from what seemed to be one of the elephant’s molars. He seemed unaware of anything around him, but Lynn very much doubted that was the case.
Ren crossed her field of vision before disappearing through the door to the staircase.
“Flint is… Flint.” Dani shrugged as she rubbed her cheek on her shoulder. The motion left behind a streak of red that made her look like one of those tribal warrior types who had succumbed to the craziness of life in the Wilds and now worshipped a log in the shape of a duck or something.
“Tired?”
The question shook Lynn from her musings. It took her a moment to realize Dani had caught her staring. Damn it. “No, I was just—” She let the words hang in the minimal space between them, unsure of how to end the sentence without running the risk of upsetting Dani again, just when she was finally getting some answers out of her. She shrugged as she cast a sideways glance at Dani. “Nothing. Forget it. I probably am tired.”
Dani cracked her neck and arched her back. “Yeah, same. I’m so done for today.”
“How much longer?” Lynn turned another slab over in her hands and cut into it.
“Finish these cuts, hang ’em up, get clean, make dinner… I dunno, half the night?” Dani glanced at her with a shrug that seemed almost apologetic.