Warrior Nights

by Sheryl Nantus

  “Always prepared? Were you a Boy Scout?” Kara took the bandage and pressed it to her side, throwing her head back and sucking in her breath through clenched teeth as a new wave of pain surged through her. “Damn it.”

  “The clinic’s not too far—can you walk?”

  She snorted before moving past him, clutching her side. “I’m not made of glass.” She gritted her teeth together. “But this hurts like hell.”

  The snow whipped around them, the flakes now coming down in greater numbers. He looked up, cursing the thick gray clouds.

  She leaned heavily into Liam’s side, stumbling once as they moved out of the alley. He put his hand around her waist, keeping her close. It was still early morning, and the streets were empty—the only luck they’d had so far.

  She bit her cheek, holding back a groan as they moved out onto the sidewalk. “Son of a bitch was about to disembowel me.”

  “What happened?” Liam growled.

  “He recognized me right from the start. Worried I’d been sent to follow him. I’m guessing that moved me out of the ‘don’t touch’ zone into the ‘kill and hide the body’ category.” She paused. “Asked me where you were. Didn’t make you at the diner when we were there together.”

  “A little good luck for us. I verified I’m the target.” Liam took hold of the clinic door and yanked it open. “That’s in our favor—at least we don’t have to worry about trying to deal with someone else as their primary. We might be able to keep this from Marie, from everyone in town if we work it right.”

  “Let me give you the rest of the bad news,” Kara interrupted. “McKay said I brought them here.”

  “What?” Liam started to ask but fell silent as they approached the counter.

  Jen, the receptionist, dropped her newspaper and stared at them. Her eyes went wide as she saw the bloody wound, the torn shirt and the soaked bandage.

  “Get Annie,” Liam ordered. “I’m taking her into Room One.”

  Before the older woman could react, Liam had reached over and pushed the access button under the counter, coming back to grab the security door as it unlocked.

  The woman scurried down the hall toward the office as Liam helped Kara into the first examination room.

  “Put the fear of God into her.” Kara chuckled, wincing as she stretched out on the examination table. “Bet she’s never seen you this worried.”

  “Because she hasn’t.” He turned toward the nearby sink, flipping the faucet on and sticking his bloody hands under the water.

  The door opened to admit Annie, the Ridge’s resident doctor. An older woman with silver hair, she scowled as she saw Kara. They’d met a handful of times since Kara’s arrival, usually as Liam helped unload supplies.

  “What fool thing did he get you into?” She worked efficiently and quickly, pulling a tray out of a nearby drawer before snapping on latex gloves.

  “I fell on a piece of metal,” Kara offered, making up the excuse on the fly. “I tripped in the alley, too close to the garbage…” She gave a wan smile.

  Annie grunted as she cut away the shirt and inspected the wound. “It happens to all of us.” She clucked her tongue. “Lucky for you, it’s not too deep. Looks worse than it is—you’re a bit of a bleeder. A handful of stitches, a tetanus shot, and you’ll be on your way.” She looked at Liam and gave him a sympathetic smile. “She’ll be fine.”

  He grunted as he washed his hands.

  The doctor went about the suturing with a calm, rolling patter, discussing the incoming weather, the diner’s daily special, and the lack of any new romance novels at the library.

  “You staying here for the storm?” Liam asked. “Looks like the big one’s coming in.”

  “As usual.” Annie rolled her eyes skyward. “Already set up the couch upstairs in my apartment for Jen to stay over—keep the clinic open twenty-four seven until things are all cleaned up.”

  “Why?” Kara said.

  “Because people are stupid.” She laughed. “They’ll throw their backs out trying to shovel too much snow, they’ll cut themselves on broken glass or burn themselves trying to cook on an open fire or some such silliness—the weather tends to bring out the stupid in people. We’ll be here for those who can make it through the door and on the phone for those who can’t.”

  “That’s nice,” Kara said. Her mind was spinning, moving back to the vision she’d had in the alley.

  Her mind wanted to ignore it, put it down to the traumatic injury. A hallucination brought on by the impromptu fight, mixed in with the revelation that she’d been the one who had triggered this crisis.

  Her heart knew better, putting names to the woman she’d fought in the earlier vision and filling in the gaps.

  But one name rang louder than any other in her mind, drumming out all else as Annie’s steady hands stitched her back together.

  Valkyrie.

  The previous dreams, the vision, they were true—all of them. The fight with Brenna, her taking evil souls to Helheim to suffer until Ragnarök. She didn’t remember being cast down to Midgard—but that didn’t matter.

  “Accept your fate,” she whispered to herself, the words burning her tongue.

  The harsh sentence repeated itself in her mind.

  No.

  She was not going to let Liam die and be dragged off to Helheim by her sisters. He was trying to change his fate—and she was going to help him, no matter what.

  Kara sucked in her breath through clenched teeth.

  “Hold on. Nearly done,” the doctor said, thinking she was reacting to the treatment. “There.” Annie sat up and snapped off the gloves. “I’ll be back in a minute with the injection. A prescription for antibiotics and painkillers and you can go back home. I’m prescribing bedrest for at least two days, if not three. Be right back.” She dropped the gloves in the waste bin and walked out.

  Kara waited until Annie was out of range before speaking. “You’ve got to find out how I’m involved in this.”

  “That we can manage. I poured all the data they had on me into a stick. They also had paperwork.” Liam kept his voice down. “I found a photograph confirming I’m the target.”

  “I got that. McKay flashed one at Jamie. You had short hair and no beard, made it hard for him to recognize you.” She gave a soft laugh. “Jamie thought you might be Peterson.”

  “Hell, I’m not that old.” He rubbed his beard. “Thought it added a few years, but not that much.”

  “McKay was going to go to the library, on Jamie’s suggestion, to find out if Geraldine recognized you.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t put her in that sort of danger. I sent Jamie off to get coffee, tried to keep McKay in the lobby. He hustled me into the alley for an interrogation. Bastard.”

  Liam winced as Kara levered herself up and prepared to stand. “Take it easy,” he warned. “Those stitches are brand-new. They won’t stand a lot of bouncing around.”

  “I can take it easy when we get back to your apartment and figure this out.” She settled her feet on the floor with a curse. “I’m still debating bringing in Marie on this. She deserves to know there’s trained killers in her town, especially if we’re leaving.”

  “No.” He moved in next to her, fighting the urge to hug her. “If we tell her about the Sons, we have to tell her about me.”

  The door swung open before Kara could mount a counterargument, and she fell silent.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Don’t,” Liam said as they exited the clinic. “Don’t blame yourself. If you were used, it was without your knowledge and consent.”

  “Which makes it even worse,” she snapped, staying close to him as they walked down the street. “I put you in their crosshairs, and I didn’t know? I’ll rip them all new ones.”

  Liam pulled her up short, tugging her into a nearby doorway. He nodded at the unfamiliar black van cruising down the street. It turned to the right, toward the hotel.

  “Want to bet that’s the rest of the Sons?” he whispere
d.

  “Not betting against anything today. What are they going to do if they can’t find McKay after they check-in? He’s not going to be answering his phone,” Kara asked as they continued down the street, pushing herself to walk as fast as she could.

  “They’ll go up to his room, check around. Men will spread out and search for him, won’t take long. Track the GPS on his cell, ask Jamie when he saw him last.”

  “Geraldine.” She gasped. “Jamie will tell them he was going to the library. We need to…”

  “You were with him when he disappeared. That’s what they’re going to investigate first—and when Jamie tells them your name, they’ll be hot on our trail. Geraldine won’t even be on their radar.” He sighed. “We’ve got an hour, maybe two if we’re lucky.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then all hell is going to break loose.” Liam shook his head. “Change of plans. We can’t go back to the apartment—too risky. Can’t afford to be caught inside, they’ll just shoot the place up from the outside if they think we’re there.”

  “Agreed.” She fought to keep her head down. “But we need to find out how they found us.”

  “You’re in no condition,” Liam argued. “That’s not the point right now We’ve got to…”

  She drew up short, growling as the knife cut pulsed. “That is the point. How can we fight them if we don’t have the same information? Whether we stay or leave, we need to know what they know.” She gripped his jacket lapel. “The library. They’ve got a computer. You can access the file there.”

  “Geraldine…”

  “Either that, or we start banging on doors to borrow someone’s laptop.”

  Liam’s expression put that idea down.

  She continued. “Or we go to Marie and the police station.” Kara waved off his scowl. “Your call. We tell her we need to look at something right away—we can’t do the same to Marie, she’s not going to give us computer access without asking questions. We can’t save ourselves or the town if we’re starting off blind.” Kara winced as the wind picked up, blowing more snow into her face. “Snow-blind, even.”

  Liam let out an annoyed grunt but turned toward the library, the large stone building now barely visible in the falling snow.

  Geraldine must have seen them through the front window approaching the library because she opened the doors, gesturing them in.

  “This is it—the big one.” She started to smile before taking in their appearance. “Oh my God. What happened?”

  Kara looked down at the white bandage covering her wound, the edges of the cut shirt flapping free. “Long story.”

  “I need to use the computer,” Liam said. “Can you get her settled someplace comfortable, let her rest?”

  “Sure. But…” The librarian’s voice trailed off as he headed for the office, leaving them behind.

  She turned her attention back on Kara. “What’s going on?”

  “I got cut,” Kara offered by way of explanation. “And we’ve got some problems we need to figure out.”

  “All right.” Geraldine helped her to a nearby padded chair, wincing in sympathy as Kara sat down. “Did you see Annie? Do you want me to call Marie? Dwayne’s on mountain patrol right now but…”

  “What? No.” She grabbed the older woman’s hand, keeping her in place. “Please. Don’t. It was just a silly accident. I already saw Annie, she put in a few stitches. Nothing serious, appears worse than it is. Do you have an extra scarf or something?” Kara gestured at the bandaged wound. “Tore my shirt and I don’t want to get cold as we’re walking around.”

  Geraldine grabbed on to the distraction like a dog with a new toy. “Yes, of course. There’s got to be something in the lost and found.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, we usually run the clothing through a wash or two before putting them in the bin. Especially if they belonged to a smoker—those things stink.”

  She trotted off on her new mission, leaving Kara alone.

  “Fuck.” Liam’s curse snapped through the air.

  “What is it?” She considered getting up but decided against it, the pain in her side finally subsiding to a low ebb.

  “It was you and not you.” Liam stepped out, resting his arms on the doorframe. “Marie’s search. When she sent the picture of you out with the prints, it triggered an alert for the Sons. Seems they’ve had the contract to bust my ass for years but couldn’t get any traction on it.”

  “But…” She shook her head, trying to fit the pieces together. “Where do I come in?”

  “They had a sighting of me over a year ago, in the bar.” He grunted. “When we first met. Someone pulled the security tape and acknowledged it could be me. But the news was slow to filter through their system and get tagged as something useful. They arrived after you’d left the hotel and I checked out, going back underground. After that, we both vanished again, and the trail went cold.”

  “Until Marie put my prints and picture out on the Net.” She cursed under her breath. “To try and help us find out who I am.”

  “Exactly. Add to that, after a year, someone’s asking about the hotel again—the cold case suddenly coming back to life with the chat between Marie and the security chief. With the bounty on my head, it was worth coming to the Ridge and checking it out.”

  “That explains what McKay said about me. But why not grab me out of the gate upon their arrival and interrogate me about my relationship to you? Why look for you with a fake story—McKay said something about you being a fellow vet, looking to find you and hook up for a chat, remember the good old days?”

  “You’re not the target.” He grunted. “The reason the Sons have survived for years is because they don’t draw attention to themselves. If they’d kidnapped you upon arriving in town and dragged you off to interrogate you about a fling in a Nevada hotel over a year ago, they’d have had to kill you when they finished. Simple as that. Whether or not you gave them what they wanted, they’d still make you disappear. The Ridge is a small town—something like that’s going to generate publicity. None of it good.”

  He shook his head. “This way it was a slow hunt. Find out if I was actually in town and then react if I were. If they couldn’t find any trace of me, they would have left you alone and disappeared back into the snow without a sound. Written it off and waited for another lead.”

  “Makes sense.” She ran her fingers over the slick bandage. Annie had done an excellent job—it already felt better. “But we screwed up the plan by being proactive and going to the hotel. McKay must have had a heart attack when he came out of that elevator and saw me standing in the lobby. No wonder he wanted to take me out—he thought I’d followed him. But now that we know that, what do we do now?”

  “Leave.” He looked to the right. “We’re heading over to the diner, where we left the truck.”

  “You mean, leave-leave ?” The words were thick in her mouth.

  “Yep.” He moved out of sight as he returned to the computer. “Drive as long and as far as we can. Find a new place and start over. When the Sons can’t find either of us, they’ll clear out. They won’t cause a fuss if there’s nothing to be gained by it. There’s no money in terrorizing a small town.”

  He appeared, holding the flash drive in one hand and the knapsack in the other. He flipped the stick into the open pouch. “It’s the only way to keep the town safe. To keep everyone safe.”

  Geraldine came out of the back hallway, holding up a dark red knitted scarf. “This’ll work.” She scuttled over to Kara, unfolding the thick bundle. “Make a fashion statement as well.”

  Kara stood up, a greasy ball of fear twisting her stomach into knots. Leaving the Ridge felt wrong, leaving the town to the mercenaries. She wasn’t used to the idea of surrendering, giving up without a fight.

  But the alternative…

  She couldn’t let Liam break his promise, slip back into his old self. Whatever time he had left on this Earth, he wanted to spend it doing good deeds—not murdering men, even monsters like th
e Sons of Cain.

  So she’d run with him, help him escape.

  The senior gently wrapped the scarf around her middle—once, twice, before putting a loose knot off to Kara’s left side. She stepped back to admire her work. “Keep you warm and looks awesome as well.”

  Kara pulled her into a tight hug, as tight as she could manage under the circumstances.

  “There, there. What’s this all for?” Geraldine pulled back with a smile, lifting one hand to cup Kara’s chin.

  She shook her head, fighting to find the right words.

  “Thank you.” It was all she could manage.

  Liam glanced out the window at the falling snow. “We’ve got to go.” He strode up and gave the librarian a hug. “Thanks for everything.”

  “Of course. Take care of that cut, get some rest.” She nodded. “Don’t worry about shoveling the parking lot. Billy will be by after the storm finishes with the plow.”

  Kara gave her another hug before reaching for Liam’s hand. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t begin to say anything, the sense of loss beginning to fill her heart with dread.

  Liam pushed the door open, leading her out into the blinding snow.

  His mind was racing through the options as they trudged through the snow, keeping close to the buildings. The streets were now totally deserted, the storm sending everyone inside.

  “Will this stop them?” Kara asked, her hand tight in his.

  “Only for the time being. They’re not going to come out in the snow unless they have a target. As soon as the hotel digs itself out, the Sons will be hunting us down whether they find McKay or not.” He flashed back to the semiconscious man’s expression as the dumpster lid came down on him. “I’m hoping for not.”

  “Damn it.” She caught up with him, raising her hand to blot out some of the blowing snow. “Where’s the truck?”

  “Over there.” He could just make out the dark silhouette in the parking lot. “We’ve got a full tank—filled ’er up last night on the way to work. We’ll make it to Denver.”