At his confession, Bunny didn’t flinch, didn’t shrink, didn’t show even a flicker of surprise. She simply lifted Nate’s hand to her lips and brushed a kiss across his knuckles. Even though she hadn't been certain, not really, until just that moment about the details of what had happened during Nate and Rodeo’s trip through the Capitol, it was common sense to guess they couldn't have snuck in and out wholly unnoticed. Someone along the way would have tried to put a halt to their plans. Nate was a gentle man, at his core, but when it came to choosing to protect one of the others, to choosing the action that would let him come back to her -- Bunny knew where his heart would lay.
“I’m sorry it came to that, Nate. I know the pain that must have caused you. But if two lives hang in the balance and one of them’s yours, every single time you’re the one I'm going to pick,” she murmured, her eyes never leaving Nate’s face. “You did what you had to do to come home.”
Bunny and Willa had spent years in the same small town, where gossip spread over the ground like early morning mist, but that was another lifetime ago. The woman who lived in the Dog Park now was a stranger to her, and she could no more speak to Willa’s thoughts than she could a sparrow’s. But Bunny knew hew own mind, knew that she believed in her heart that there would be no justice for the Hellhounds in La Quinta. She’d heard too many stories around camp to believe any different. Bode was no angel, she knew this too, but to say he deserved any of this wasn't true.
“There’s not a moment that’s passed since I heard about the arrests that I haven’t been afraid for him. But I lived with fear before, and now I’ve got you with me. We're not the only ones worrying, either. If there's any way to get to Bode and the others, someone's going to find it.”