by Cara Carnes
“You’re smarter than most operatives we have worked with in the field before coming here,” Mary said. “There’s book smarts and street smarts. You’ve got the latter in spades. Everyone out here says so.”
“Thank you,” Kamren said as she glanced down at the phone. How the heck did she get it set up? She’d never had one before.
“Now we can set it up and enter our numbers in. We’ll take pictures to program in so you see our faces when we call. And your address book will show pictures, too,” Zoey said.
“We can teach you to read,” Rhea said.
“Yes! I can make a word a day app,” Bree said.
“There’s like hundreds of those,” Rachelle said.
“Yeah, but this one’s just for Kamren. When she’s used the word twice, she’ll get another. Words I know she’ll want to know.”
Emotion formed in her throat. “Thanks. This means a lot to me.”
“The guys want to make sure you get all their numbers into it,” Riley said. “I told them we were doing this, and they want to make sure she’s got everyone’s numbers.”
“On it,” Addy said as she whipped the phone from Kamren.
Rachelle’s gaze narrowed on the phone. “Why is she getting everyone’s number?”
“Because she may need them,” Mary said. “And Rhea’s right. We can teach you to read, if you want us to. It’s entirely up to you because you are what matters, not what you can or cannot do.”
Kamren believed her. She looked around the room and saw the same quiet resolve within everyone’s expressions. They’d respect whatever decision she made because they respected the fact it was her choice. She was so far beneath their league, but she didn’t want to be. She might be street smart, but she wanted to be far more than that.
“I’d like to learn, maybe get my GED.”
Bree’s eyes widened, and she erupted into a big grin. “Yes! Okay, girls. I’ll get an action plan together and assign us each a grid of knowledge.”
A grid of knowledge? Kamren gulped. What had she just gotten herself into?
“Why do you get to be the decider of the grid?” Rhea asked.
“Because I have time on my hands, and I know a thing or two about teaching adults how to read,” Bree answered quickly. “I taught my grandma, you know.”
“You did?” Kamren asked.
“Yep. She was raised country, in the Appalachian Mountains.” The blonde locked gazes with Kamren. “So I’ve got this. We’ve got this.”
She nodded. Maybe she wasn’t that different from them after all.
15
“What are we doing?” Kamren asked as she followed the women up the stairwell leading to the top of the roof. The women crouched, so she did too.
It was the next morning, and way too early as far as Kamren was concerned. They’d stayed up into the late hours talking, laughing and getting to know one another. She loved how down to earth all the women were, even though they were all so freaking brilliant in their own way.
They helped her fit in.
If conversation steered to weird science mumbo jumbo, Addy shifted it back to common ground. So did Riley. They talked about hunting and stuff, too. Bree wanted to know more about hunting blinds and tracking techniques.
When her question went unanswered, she repeated herself. “What are we doing?”
“War games,” Vi said. “Operatives get bored easily around here, guess we’ve raised the bar pretty high on the adrenaline scale.”
“No shit,” Zoey muttered. “Stay low. We don’t want anyone accidentally looking up here.”
War games didn’t sound like something anyone would want. Kamren stared down at the large group of people exercising in formation down below. Funny, they didn’t look ready for war games. No guns. Hardly any clothes. She gulped as the thought slammed into her. She glanced down and winced as she took in the pale pink Star Wars jammies.
Addy was easy to spot in the group because of her red hair, but the woman hadn’t noticed them. As far as she could tell, no one had. She crouched down, using the ledge of the roof as cover as she looked over at Vi and Zoey.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Shoot them.” Vi did a shooing motion with her hands as she reached up and fiddled with her com. “She’s chickening out.”
“I’m not chickening out,” Kamren groused. “Just tell me what I’m doing again.”
“You’re shooting them. What part of that is hard to understand?” Zoey turned a screen to Kamren. It had a number one in green on one side and a one hundred on the other. “I’m calling it ‘One Versus One Hundred’, but I think there’s a bit more than one hundred. And they’re worth different point levels. I figured that’s only fair. Like taking out Marshall is worth way more than one of the potentials. And Jud? Well he’s worth one hundred points. Dallas and Gage are seventy-five. Oh, and Fallon and Addy. Actually, we’ll make it simple. Any team leaders are seventy-five points. Everyone else is twenty-five.”
Kamren eyed the gun skeptically. No way in hell was this a good idea. “And the point of this?”
“They’re getting slack with their security,” Mary said in the com. “Not a single one of them has a weapon on them. Not one. It’s shameful.”
“It’s six a.m.,” Kamren argued. She glanced down at her jammy bottoms and bare feet. She couldn’t shoot people while wearing jammies.
“If you aren’t up for it, I’ll do it my damn self, but that’s not gonna be very effective.”
“And me up here on a rooftop where I can’t get down is?” Kamren shook her head.
“Okay, smartass. We go when you think you’re in a good position you can defend. Let us know, and we’ll start,” Vi said. “Zoey and I will stay up here and keep score. Don’t get dead. There’s a pool.”
“A pool?”
“Yep. One thousand bucks big,” Zoey said.
They were certifiable. The thought made her wince. Certifiable wasn’t the best thing to think about given what’d gone down with Rachelle. Fortunately, Riley and Rachelle had ironed out their differences. The woman had even convinced her sister to talk with Doctor Sinclair, a psychologist they had on hand at the compound. The two had gone into town with Momma Mason to do some modifications to the upcoming wedding plans.
Last night had been a bit awkward with her sister, but Kamren was glad they’d gotten to spend some time together. She and Riley were still tight, and that was what was important. Once she got the medicine she needed, she’d be back to herself in no time.
“Shouldn’t you and Mary be in town with Mrs. Mason doing wedding stuff?” she asked.
“No,” Mary growled into the com. “Dylan and I should’ve eloped.”
“Don’t you dare do that. You dragged me into a big wedding, missy. I’m not doing it alone.”
“She dragged you in?” Kamren looked at Vi.
“Dylan proposed to Mary. She said yes. Momma Mason started planning a huge shindig. Jud and I hooked up, fell in love. He proposed. I said yes.” She sighed. “Then he got with Dylan and Mary and decided we could get hitched on the same day. They all agreed. I got shanghaied.” The love and adoration in Vi’s gaze told Kamren all she needed to know—the woman was thrilled about being “shanghaied.”
“The wedding is Momma Mason’s jurisdiction. We all want it that way,” Mary said. “So, are you in position? Time’s ticking.”
Kamren sighed and eyed the bag full of paint pellets for the gun they’d given her. Bree had modified one of the fancy rifles to shoot paint pellets instead of bullets. She’d assured everyone the distance would be comparable to a real bullet, but Kamren had her doubts. If she was going against over one hundred well-trained operatives with nothing more than colored paint, she needed a better plan than standing on a rooftop and firing down at them.
“Give me half an hour.” She didn’t wait for a response. She scurried down the roof via the fire escape on the far backside of the building. She unshouldered the backpack of extra supplies she’d packed wh
en this disastrous idea of “fun” had formed a little while ago.
Over breakfast.
Kamren couldn’t help but smile. She’d woken in Dallas’s arms. They’d spent a long few minutes kissing, then they’d progressed to grabbing breakfast. He’d gotten waylaid with drills, but the women had dragged her into their group and the plan had formed.
She opted to stay in her jammies to not waste valuable time. The traps were rudimentary and far from precise, but she didn’t need perfection—she needed functional and quick. The more the better, given the number of targets. The protective blind she’d been working on would be a perfect position to work her way back toward. It sat in the back against the electrical fence and had a defendable one-hundred-eighty-degree view. With the traps and other surprises she’d set out along the way, she should last a while.
Assuming the dang gun worked.
Her pulse pounded in her ears as she climbed into the blind. She sat on the small stool and sighted the unsuspecting targets. She listed the higher point values in her head. Everyone was present, the highest targets up front leading the rest. It was almost too simple, but she knew they were well-trained operatives. They’d act swiftly and brutally.
“In position.”
“You’re green for Operation One to One Hundred.”
And so chaos ensued. She got in six head shots before anyone realized what was going on. Then she stared Jesse straight in the eye as she shot him in the forehead. Bree had ensured her the shots wouldn’t hurt. Much. So head shots were clean, swift kills.
Panic commenced.
Marshall, Addy, and Dallas were the only high value targets remaining. Jud had been the first shot, mainly because the man freaking terrified her. She didn’t waste ammo, but shot whenever her next target’s gaze swept away from her location. She counted the targets as Zoey and Vi kept her apprised of how many remained.
“Someone’s coming up at your nine,” Mary said. “Ouch, that’s gonna leave a mark. What kind of traps do you have laid out? He just went down hard.”
Kamren angled her rifle downward, shot him, then refocused on the crowd heading her direction. Fish. Meet barrel.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Dylan’s voice growled in the com.
“You can’t talk. You’re dead,” Mary said, her voice a monotone, like she was reading off a grocery list.
Kamren chuckled into the com as she took down Marshall and two others. Oops. Time to reload. Damn it. Not that she should complain since she couldn’t recall ever using a weapon that held so much ammo. Bree’s creation was pure genius.
“Thirty-four left standing,” Zoey whispered.
“What are you doing?” Dylan repeated.
“Teaching everyone a lesson,” Vi supplied. “Now be a good dead person and keep quiet, or she’ll shoot you again.”
“Son of a bitch.”
The man’s voice was met with silence as Kamren continued about her work. Someone had set out some paint rifles along the perimeter near the building. Though a couple of people had managed to get one, the metal blind she’d insulated herself in ensured they wouldn’t breach her area easily.
Because those who stood a chance were already dead.
One man remained standing. He’d hunkered down behind a barrier and waited out her firing. She tracked his progression as he slowly made his way toward her location.
“Crap, I fucked up,” Zoey whispered.
“What?” Mary asked.
“I sort of forgot Marcus was a high level. I had him flagged in her view as a ten and he’s definitely at least a fifty.”
“His training, he’s a seventy-five. If not more,” Vi said. “He’s a team leader, newly promoted.”
“Great.” Her victims weren’t good dead people. They cheered him on and offered him advice as he moved on her position. Damn mouthy corpses.
Really, it was nuts. No way in hell would she have done so well without the element of surprise on her side. And the women.
“He’s too good at hand-to-hand, but he’s slow in rapid-fire situations,” Mary supplied, like it made any danged sense.
“English, please.”
“Give him more than one thing to target at once, then strike.”
Right. That she could do. Maybe. With her gaze sweeping between her target’s last position and her bag, she used some of the cord she’d pocketed to jury-rig the weapon to go off. She headed for the door. She shimmied down the stairs and fell to her belly in an awkward crawl. She so wasn’t a soldier. How the heck did they do this shit every day? Oye.
“Why did you leave the blind?” Zoey asked. “Get back up there.”
“Quiet,” Vi ordered.
“He’s still firing at the blind. Holy shit! Wait. Who’s firing the gun?”
“Zoey, shut up,” Mary ordered.
Kamren let the women duke it out via the com as she pulled the handgun she’d loaded with paint pellets. Colored gas grenades were in her other hand. She tracked her target’s new location, ten feet to the left of his previous location. Smart man had realized the gun wasn’t manned any longer, which meant she didn’t have long to act. It was now or never.
Adrenaline spiked within her as she lobbed the first grenade so it landed with a hard thud behind his current position. He whirled toward it. She lobbed the second near the first. She jumped to a crouch and lobbed a third, this time to the right. He was almost within range. She lobbed the final one right at him.
He turned, rifle in hand. Red filled the air between them. A pellet shot past her head, where she’d been moments before, but she was already firing. She didn’t stop until his entire chest and forehead were splattered with pellets. She dropped to her knees as a loud whoop sounded from atop the building.
Though Bree had remained quiet during the “game,” she was quite vocal now.
“And we have a victor!” the woman shouted.
Marcus wiped paint off his face and smirked. Dallas laughed loud and long, his amusement filling the tension-charged air around her. He closed the distance and hauled her against him. His mouth swept down on hers. The kiss was long, hungry and filled with the same desire she’d experienced the last time they’d kissed.
“Damn, that was spectacular, sweetheart.” He dragged her head against the crook of his arm and turned them both to face the gathered hoard of people she’d just pseudo killed. “And what did we learn today?”
“Not to leave my woman alone with yours?” Dylan asked as he crossed his arms and scowled. “And pink is the new commando color around here.”
“Try again,” Mary said as she appeared with Vi and Zoey. Bree was still shouting from the rooftop. “Never assume HERA has you covered. None of you had a weapon.”
“And if we did, she’d be dead,” someone said.
“Hardly.” Vi pointed at the blind. “She had the element of surprise, but that doesn’t excuse the chaos I saw from some of you. She took out all the leaders first, knowing they would get to her otherwise. All the rest of you? You’ve got a long day ahead of you. Hit the showers, then be back out here in an hour. That’ll give me time to chew your leaders out while you aren’t here to hear me.”
When they didn’t move, Mary added. “Now, unless you want another lesson from me and HERA.”
Everyone shuffled out quickly. Kamren turned and noticed Fallon, Nolan, and Jesse looking over the traps she’d set as a man she’d never met hobbled away. Oops.
“These are clever,” Fallon admired. “Simple, but very effective.”
“If you pack the holes with nails or something else painful, they’re more effective. Dad learned how to set them from survivalists up north.” She pulled out a knife and got to work removing them. “Sorry about all this, by the way. I told them it was a bad idea.”
Kamren stood as she finished the apology and shifted her gaze beneath the intense scrutiny of those gathered around her.
“You were brilliant, sweetheart,” Dallas said. “Though not sure I’m down with our teams seeing yo
ur jammies.”
“They’re Bree’s. I think.”
The appreciative smile and his half-hooded gaze as it meandered down her, slow and assessing, killed any further response.
“He’s right.” Jud smiled. “You worked the field perfectly and established a defensible position. Given enough weapons, you could’ve likely stayed up there a long time if you had hand-to-hand training. It was a hell of a job.”
“And to think she has no formal training,” Addy said with a grin. “That’s my girl.”
“No, that’s my girl.” Bree sauntered up with a huge wad of cash in her hand. She held it up to Mary and Vi. “Told you! I freaking told you she’d clear them all. But no. You were naysayers.”
“I said ninety percent,” Vi said. “That’s hardly a naysayer.”
“Pft. Please. She was ninety percent through with them before they even knew what the heck was happening.”
“I’m thinking you’d probably be better off taking that money inside,” Kamren suggested.
Bree looked around. Her gaze widened. “Right. See ya later. We’ll do this again. Double the odds.”
“I’m thinking this is a one-time thing,” Kamren said.
“Are you really pissed?” Mary asked Dylan.
“No,” he said with a grin as he hauled her close and kissed her. “We deserved it.”
“Yeah, you did,” Vi said. She shoved Jud. “She took you out with one shot.”
The man looked at Vi and smiled. Then laughed.
Everyone followed suit. Conversation flowed easily as they compared “wounds” and moved closer to inspect the blind she’d constructed. In typical man fashion, they decided to test the blind with real bullets. Kamren shook her head and walked away with the women. She flashed Dallas a smile and waved as she left. The intensity in his gaze as he returned the grin promised more kisses later. She couldn’t wait.
An obnoxious buzzer sounded from Mary’s pocket. She looked at Vi, then snagged a device from her back pocket. She looked back at Dallas. “HERA has a hit, in the deep of the black we’d excluded.”
