by Dale Mayer
When he finally put her on her feet, she gasped and said, “The next time you do that, I’ll hurt you.”
He grinned and said, “Well, you’re welcome to try.”
She took several deep breaths. “You damn-near busted my ribs this time.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t have time to throw you over my shoulder.”
She just rolled her eyes at him. “We need to help Asher,” she said.
“Asher can handle himself,” he said sternly. “This is what we do.”
“Well, we need to get those women out of the trucks then,” she snapped.
“You need to get your butt up that tree.” He pointed at the one behind him, then lifted her, placing her on one of the branches. “Get as high as you can. I’ll be back as soon as I can. This time stay put.”
“And if I don’t?”
He spun, stared at her with deadly precision, and said, “Then you’ll get caught in the cross fire. A lot of bullets will soon be flying around. I need to know you’re safe and out of the way.”
She looked at him, realized why he was so adamant, and nodded. “I care too,” she said. The heat in his gaze set her stomach on fire, and she smiled and said, “Go. You do you. And I’ll stay here, like a good little child, and do me.”
“There is nothing childlike about you,” he said. “You’re all woman as far as I’m concerned, only you don’t like to listen to orders.”
Chapter 11
Danica didn’t know what to do, so she huddled in the tree, part of her wishing she had headed out in the vehicle with the other women, just so that she would be farther away from this nightmare. It would also be warm and comfy, and she’d be off her feet, and that beat sitting in a tree, waiting for the men to finish their war games. The darkness was easing, and that was almost worse. Now she was looking for men to appear in the shadows.
She still had her handgun, which reminded her that she’d shot and killed a man—a thought she was desperately trying to push off. First, she was absolutely astonished that she’d hit what she had aimed for—his head—and, second, that she’d killed a man. Her second for the day… Wasn’t there supposed to be this huge panic-stricken moment of grief, realizing what an awful thing she had just done? Yet, at the same time, she felt only relief. He had been trying to kill Asher.
She knew it was justifiable, but, at the same time, she had taken a life. So why didn’t she have any misgivings about it? Maybe later those would hit her, when she woke up in the night and realized how devastating her actions had been to this man’s wife or sister or mother. That he had a family to mourn his loss, a loss that she had created. And still, she couldn’t find any sympathy inside her heart for him. It came back to the fact that it had been either him or Asher, and it would always be Asher. And, if it had been Beau, well, she would have pulled the trigger even earlier. The fact was, she couldn’t do anything more than try to stay alive and to keep the people who had saved her alive too.
From where she sat in the tree, she had little to see. She scooted up another branch, trying to look around, realizing she was making a bit of a racket. She hugged the trunk as she stared at the compound. She could see several men milling around, as if in a meeting, before they were sent out, probably to hunt down her and Asher because, if he hadn’t been killed, the cult knew Asher wasn’t alone. Hopefully those people didn’t find her or Asher or Beau.
As she watched, two men approached where Asher had fallen, looking around, apparently not finding anyone. But she could see Asher behind them, and, just like that, both men went down. She didn’t know what he did, but he gripped their necks, and their faces contorted, and they fell to their knees without making a sound. Asher dropped with them, helping to carry them forward. She studied the group of men down below, but nobody had even noticed. She wanted to whistle and applaud because, as far as skills went, man, Asher’s were great. The faster he was, the better at taking out the enemy.
If the kidnappers even now breaking up into small groups had half their skills, she knew that Asher and Beau would be in trouble. Not only were these human traffickers well-armed, but there were many more of them.
She couldn’t see Beau, and that really bothered her. Having seen Asher, she wanted to keep an eye on him too. Beau was so damn big, it was hard for him to hide away and be unnoticed; yet, so far, he’d managed it. He also somehow had the ability to stalk like a panther in the darkness. Not when he was running away packing her—that had probably been the sound of elephants, in all actuality—but, most of the time, he moved with a smooth, silent deadliness. Asher was the same.
She watched as one group of four bad guys broke up, with two men coming toward her, while two moved to where she’d last seen Beau. Nobody headed to where Asher was, and she smiled at that.
Asher, realizing he was out of sight of the others, quickly disappeared into the trees. She caught sight of him heading around toward the back of the compound. Two more men headed in that direction, but she figured he’d take them out in no time. It was still distressing to be here watching, knowing what was going on, and yet, not able to do anything. Talk about irritating.
Just then she saw the two men heading in her direction were coming directly toward her. She stilled, not even daring to breathe as they trampled the ground underneath the branch she was on. They certainly didn’t have Beau’s skills of walking silently. For that, she was grateful, as it likely meant they were untrained and just heavyweight muscle. Unfortunately they were well-armed muscle, and that wasn’t very good.
Just below her, one of the men raised his arm and fired a shot. She closed her eyes and whispered silently, “Please not Beau. Please not Beau.”
When a shot answered, the first shooter stood still for a long moment before falling forward, and she realized the responding shooter had been Beau. Only Beau had the killing shot. The second man then fired, as if he was up against a whole military unit. When he finally stopped, another single gunshot sounded, and the frenzied gunman dropped. She wanted to cheer and laugh, but it was just too damn sad to think that both men had lost their lives. If they hadn’t shot at Beau to begin with, he wouldn’t have shot back.
That sent everybody else running. She had seen the six cult members originally inside the gate, separating—two toward Asher’s location, two heading off at an angle, and another two toward her. Since hearing the latest shots, she suspected that would bring the other four in to investigate these two guys below her. In the distance, she heard another lone gunshot, and she could only hope that was Asher taking out somebody else. The more they took out right now, the better off they all were.
She kept an eye on the men at the trucks, still outside the gate to the compound, probably the two drivers. They were talking, but it looked like they were having an argument, like they both wanted to take off but had to either be paid or to drop off their goods.
One of them walked around to the back and opened up the truck. He hopped up and immediately came back with a woman who was tied up but was at least mobile. He had her step out, then went back for more. Before he was done, he had unloaded eight or ten women. He hopped down, rounding them up, and she realized they were tied the same way as she had been. He moved them all to the front of the truck so that he could drive away.
When his partner realized what he was doing, he yelled and shouted. One of the women tried to hop away, but he reached out and cuffed her hard; she went down on her knees and collapsed.
Danica was too far away to do anything, but she’d be damned if she’d sit here and let him beat up those women—not when tied up, not even when untied. Yet she knew that, if she climbed down, and the two other men found her, she would be in trouble, and Beau would have to come after her.
She was arguing with herself. No way would she let those two newest men get these other women inside the compound. Yet no way could she reach them from where she was. Moving as quietly as she could, she descended the tree and found the two collapsed men were still fully armed. Beau had shot them and hadn
’t shown up to take their weapons yet. Since he hadn’t come toward her, he was most likely expecting the other men to still be around.
She quickly picked up one of the rifles, another handgun, and a knife off the second man. Moving as silently as she could, she walked to the front of the compound where she could see the truck drivers. She was afraid somebody would notice her, so she picked up the pace and ran until she was up against a clump of brush. That was one good thing about the compound. They kept most of the native plant life around to keep themselves undercover, and it gave a lot of cover for her to move around too. Behind her, she heard another gunshot.
The men at the truck were now in a fistfight. The only reason she could think of for that was if money was involved. She crept to the side of one of the trucks and then to the front of it, where the women were, and, with the knife that she’d snagged, she quickly cut the ties on their feet and hands and told them where to go. The women got up and bolted as fast as they could. They were all running in a straight line back along the road, which, of course, further confused the issue. She checked the wide-open back of the truck, but it was empty.
Just then one of the men gave a hard punch to the other, and the guy went down. She realized the one left standing wasn’t the one who had opened this truck. She swore as he realized the women were gone—screaming and shouting, clearly giving away their positions. He came around and pulled a handgun, firing at the women. The last woman ducked but kept on running so he’d miss.
Danica smiled at that, until suddenly she faced him herself.
He looked at her in fury.
She didn’t even have to think; she pulled the trigger, firing from the hip. Red bloomed on his chest as he pulled his own trigger, but she was already behind the truck, and the bullets splattered harmlessly all around her. She knew that she had worn out all the beginner’s luck available when he pitched face-first onto the gravel beside the truck. The other man was still unconscious in front of the second. She took the butt of her rifle and hit him hard on the head, wanting to make sure that he stayed down.
She went to the back of the other truck and opened it up. Same as the first, tied-up women were inside. They stared at her in horror. She nodded. “I’m backing this truck up and taking you guys back up the road,” she said. “Stay tight.” She slammed the door while not one woman spoke up.
Danica raced around to the driver’s side, tossed her weapons onto the passenger seat, fired up the truck, and hit Reverse. As soon as she could, she turned it around and headed down the road. When she saw several of the other women running, she rolled down the window. She called out to them. As soon as they saw her, they raced back over, and she had four in the front of the cab immediately.
Knowing that she was in danger of getting caught no matter where she went, she kept going straight until she saw three more women huddled on the side of the road. She pulled up beside them and said, “Get in the back of the truck.” They piled into the backseat behind her.
Only two more to go.
One up ahead limped along, but, as soon as she saw the truck, she bolted into the brush. Danica stopped, called to her, and said, “Come on. I’ve got everybody here.” The woman came running and climbed inside. “Did you guys see where the other woman went?”
The last one in said, “I was the first one you helped. I haven’t seen the others.”
Danica hated to drive away, to leave one of the women in trouble, but, as she started up the engine again, she saw one of the gunmen with a woman held up against him, a handgun against her temple. He called out, “Get out of the damn truck.”
She whispered to the women, “Stay down. He doesn’t know you’re here. He’s after me. Keep the rifle. I’ll tuck the handgun in my pants.”
“I’ll kill her right now,” he roared. “Get your ass out here.”
She called out, “Okay, I’m coming. I’m coming.” She pushed open the truck door and stared down, seeing nothing but the wild, panicked eyes of all the women inside the truck, knowing that the back of the truck was full of women too. Danica slowly hopped down.
He took one look at her and shook his head. “What the hell?” he said. “You’re the one they’ve been looking for.”
She reached out her hands and shrugged. “What can I say?” she said. “It’s not like I didn’t appreciate the hospitality or anything.”
He frowned. “You think this is some fucking joke?” he said. “You ruined an entire operation, causing chaos and havoc everywhere you go.”
“I’m known for that,” she said. “You could let her go though. That poor woman didn’t do anything.”
“She tried to escape,” he snarled, shoving the gun up against her ribs instead.
She could see the woman trembling and crying. “Well, that’s my fault,” Danica said, stepping toward him. “I cut her free.”
He stared at her. “What the fuck?” he asked. “I should just shoot you where you stand.”
“You probably should,” she said. She had her hands on her hips, but her fingers of her right hand were against the butt of the gun. “What you should do for sure is let this poor woman go. She didn’t do anything.”
He glared at Danica and dragged his hostage back toward the brush. “I want you to turn that vehicle right around and take her back to the compound,” he said.
“Well, obviously that won’t happen,” she said. “So you’ll either have to shoot her or to shoot me.”
“I’ll shoot both of you if I feel like it,” he said.
“Well, that’s just less money at the end of the day, isn’t it?” she asked. “Obviously we’re commodities that you’re selling, so, if you killed two of us, imagine how the bosses will feel?”
“When they realize I killed the troublemaker,” he said, “they’ll probably give me a fucking reward.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but I think they’d much rather have the money from selling me.”
“I don’t give a shit,” he said. “I want you flat on the ground. I don’t want you talking. I want you to stay on the ground and not move.”
She bent to get on her knees. “I can do that,” she said, “but you still have to let her go.”
“I don’t have to let her go at all,” he said. “She’s one of the new group. We’ve already got orders for her.”
“New orders,” Danica said, fatigue and horror and the ugliness of the world around her overtaking her for a moment as she contemplated him. “You know something? You’re just one example of those men who I absolutely hate in this world.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you like or what you don’t like,” he said, “and I told you to get your ass flat on the ground.”
“And I told you to leave her alone,” she said, getting angrier. “I’m already on the ground. The truck is right here. Come and get it.”
He dragged the woman forward now, his gun going from Danica to the woman and back again.
Danica looked at the woman, who stared at her with terror. Danica called out, “You know what? Anytime you want, you can just fall to the ground.”
The guy grabbed hold of his hostage tighter and said, “Well, that ain’t happening.”
But, as they neared Danica, the woman looked at Danica, gave a quick nod, almost immediately tripped, and went down. The man was hanging on to her so hard that he lost his balance, and he fell too. Immediately Danica pulled out her handgun and fired. But it wasn’t her shot she heard; the killing shot came from her left.
She looked to see Beau walking toward her, his gun pointed at the gunman on the ground. As soon as the woman could, she pulled herself up and raced to Danica, who was back on her feet. She held the woman close.
Beau walked over, kicked the gunman with his boot, nodded, and asked, “What the hell? Do you ever stay put?”
“Twenty women are in the truck here,” she said. “I couldn’t let the cult get their hands on them.”
And his smile, as rare and as brilliant as the sunlight breaking through the cloud
s, shone on his face. He leaned over, kissed her hard, and whispered, “And I’m glad you couldn’t. Makes you a very special lady.”
There was a shout, and she looked to see Asher.
He raised a hand and asked, “Is everything okay?”
Beau nodded. “Everything’s fine. But we’ll have to reassess our plan.”
Asher joined them and asked, “What happened?”
“Danica happened,” Beau said. “Again.”
It took a lot to surprise Beau in this world, but Danica never quit surprising him. He couldn’t believe it when he’d seen her take off with the women in the truck. He had only a brief glimpse of what was going on, but he could see women madly trying to escape and then Danica in one of the kidnappers’ vehicles, backing out and taking off.
When she’d shot one of the drivers, Beau had been absolutely stunned. He would have to ask her about the marksmanship that she’d shown. Or was it just dumb beginner’s luck? It happened more often than a lot of people believed, particularly to women, who were used to pointing their fingers because that’s all a gun was about—point a finger and shoot.
It’s when you got into all the details and worried about how to do it correctly that most people couldn’t be accurate with their shooting. Not only had she been accurate, she had also helped all these women to escape and got most of them into the truck. And when she found that woman held hostage, Danica had stood her ground for the sake of all the women. Beau meant what he’d said about her selfless decisions—she was one hell of a special lady.
He checked with the women inside the cab of the truck and saw their fearful gazes—just because he was a man. He hated that. For a long while they probably would associate every man as being like one of the assholes who had done this to them. “It’s all right,” he said. “I’m with the military. We’re here to rescue you.” Some of the women sobbed quietly together. Others still stared at him with distrust. He looked back down at Danica. “I’ll open up the back,” he said. “I need to see if anybody needs medical attention.”
