by Anna Hackett
He grinned. God, she was something. “Didn’t doubt it for a second.” He pushed her down on the bed, scooting them up close to the metal headboard. “Now, why don’t I show my woman why I’m a good man to keep around?”
She made a humming noise. “You can cook?”
“Nope.” He reached up and urged her to grip the rungs of the headboard with one hand.
“You can clean?”
He shuddered. “Definitely not.” He made her curl the fingers of her other hand around the headboard. She stretched out, her chest lifted toward him.
“So, apart from being a good shot, why else should I keep you around?” she asked, her voice husky.
He cupped her breasts, flicking at her nipples. “Well, I’m good with my hands.”
“Okay,” she said breathlessly. “What else?”
“I’m also good with my mouth.” He leaned down and peppered kisses over her stomach.
“Hmm, that’s not bad, I guess.”
“Not bad?” He slid lower, his hand slipping between her legs. She was already slick and warm for him. He moved up, covering her body with his. “And contrary to popular belief, I have very good stamina.” He thrust inside her.
Her eyelids fluttered but her gaze stayed on his. “Well, it’s all sounding quite promising.”
“Still not convinced.” He thrust again, his hands covering hers on the headboard. “Well, you’ll have to keep me around, because I’m not letting you go.”
“Arrogant,” she muttered, her hips lifting to meet his.
“And if you try to leave, Claudia, I’ll follow you.” He thrust harder, wanting her to feel his claim. “You try and leave me in some misguided attempt to protect me, it won’t matter, because I’ll be right by your side.”
Her eyes were wide, and as Shaw lost himself to the roaring desire, he went to work showing his woman just what she meant to him.
***
The gazebo overlooking the pool had probably once been a nice spot to lounge in a bikini, reading a book or sipping some frothy drink with a little umbrella in it.
Now, it was the location of their latest planning meeting to escape the encroaching aliens.
“They know our general location. They know we’re still in the mountains.” Holmes paced back and forth.
Claudia sipped her coffee. The man was on the edge. He was going to break under the pressure if he didn’t find a way to diffuse it. Guilt wormed through her. Part of that was her fault. Unwittingly, she’d led the aliens closer.
Holmes stopped and stared at everyone gathered. All the squad leaders, comms officers, a few of the squad soldiers, Noah from the tech team, Lia from the drone team, and Finn, the unofficial head of the Hawk pilots. All of Hell Squad stood at the back. Shaw was beside her, sipping his tea. They gave him hell that he preferred to drink tea, like some elegant lady. He didn’t seem to care.
“We need to get out of the mountains,” Holmes said. “The longer we stay here, the greater the chance they’ll find us. They are hounding us, running us down.”
“They are tearing up trees all around the place,” Lia said. “Every drone is picking up huge alien activity. Those giant saws of theirs won’t leave a tree standing.”
Claudia stirred. “When the Huntsman chased me through the trees, something was clearly affecting him. He was bleeding from the nose and eyes, in pain.”
The general nodded. “It’s the only thing stopping them from just overrunning us.”
“So, follow our plan.” This came from Tane. “We follow the route out of the mountains, and if we come across any aliens, we kick their butts.” Behind him, Squad Three gave a bloodthirsty cheer.
Damn, the berserkers were scary. Claudia was bloody glad they were on their side.
“It isn’t quite that easy, Tane.” The general shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded at Elle. A screen projected up on the blank wall behind what had once been an outdoor bar. “Here is our original way out of the mountains. It wasn’t the main road out, but a secondary one.”
“They’ve chased us too far south,” Claudia said.
The general nodded. “There are too many aliens between us and this route. We’d never make it.”
“So we go south,” Marcus said.
“There’s a problem.” Elle swiveled around. “At the edge of the mountains to the south is the Warragamba Dam, which in turn creates Lake Burragorang.” She tapped the keyboard, and the map zoomed in. “It was a major water reservoir for Sydney.”
Claudia stared at the image of the lake—it was long and narrow, starting in a mountain valley, before spreading out to the north and the south along the edge of the mountains. It formed a barrier between the mountains, and the location of the Enclave closer to the coast.
“There are no bridges or access to it,” Elle said, her face tense. “It had an exclusion zone around it to ensure the water quality. There is very little infrastructure around it.”
Marcus frowned. “So you’re saying we can’t go over it.”
Elle nodded. “We’d planned to go north of it…”
“But now we’ll have to go a long way south to go around it,” Holmes finished. “And routes through there are limited.” He waved a hand at the heavily forested area southwest of the lake.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Claudia knew the longer they stayed playing this cat and mouse game in the mountains, the higher the chance the raptors would catch them.
Then Shaw stirred. “Sir, if that’s what we have to do, that’s what we have to do.”
The other soldiers all nodded and murmured.
Claudia smiled. That was Shaw—straight to the point, no avoiding what had to be done.
“Okay,” Holmes said decisively. “We do this. So now, we just need to come up with a workable route that keeps us away from the raptors. Elle, show us the options, please.”
The map changed, lines and points glowing. Claudia frowned. There weren’t many main roads, not without going a long way south which took them farther away from the Enclave.
And made the chances the raptors would finally catch them a whole lot more likely.
There was a lot of forest and not much to break it up. She saw a spot marked on the map—the Jenolan Caves. She stilled. One time, when she’d been about twelve, her mother had forced her to take a trip away, just the two of them. They’d come up here to the Blue Mountains. Claudia had been pissed—she was a city girl. She’d liked buildings, shops and cars. She’d wanted to stay and hang out with the local boys, and traipsing around trees and caves hadn’t been her idea of fun.
But despite her grumpiness, that trip with her mother had been great. The Jenolan Caves were sandstone caves filled with amazing formations and old fossils. After the caves, they’d visited an old mining ghost town. She still remembered the bumpy ride along an old dirt road to get there.
She froze.
“Wait. Elle, can you pull up the location of an old mining town? It was called…crap, Yerra-something. Yerradown or Yerraderrie.”
Elle tapped on the computer. “Yerranderie?”
“That’s it!”
Shaw bumped Claudia with his shoulder. “Why do we care about an old town?”
“I visited there with my mother years ago. It had once been a thriving town built around a silver mine back in the early 1900s. Then the mining industry collapsed, and the dam blocked the town off from Sydney. Several decades later, it had been turned into a tourist destination. I don’t remember all the details, but I remember there was a road in, an old dirt one.”
“She’s right.” Elle swiveled in her seat. “It isn’t well-marked, as they closed Yerranderie as a tourist spot a long time ago.”
The small location of Yerranderie was like a little beacon in the middle of the forest. It was close to the southern end of the lake.
“Here’s the track,” Elle said, pointing to a faint line.
Holmes frowned. “It’ll be rough. Slow going.”
“But the aliens wou
ld never expect us to head off-road. We’ve been sticking to the roads, and in turn, so have they,” Claudia said. “And let’s hope they won’t venture far into the forest without cutting down a lot of trees.”
Shaw shifted. “If we can make it far enough into the forest, along this track, them having to cut the trees down to get to us would really slow them down.”
“It won’t stop the Huntsman,” Claudia said. She’d seen him bleed to try and catch her. He’d risk anything.
“Then we’ll take the bastard out,” Shaw muttered.
“All right,” Holmes said, glancing at his watch. “We take the track to Yerranderie.”
“And once we get out of the mountains?” This from Marcus. Hell Squad’s leader was frowning at the map, his muscular arms crossed over his broad chest. “Once we’re in the open, how do we plan to make the last part of the journey to the Enclave?”
Holmes sighed. “I don’t know. All I know is that the longer we stay in the mountains, the surer it is the aliens will kill us all. We just have to take this one step at a time. I’m also ordering the Darkswifts and Hawks to go ahead, so we won’t have them for back up. We’ll need them more than ever once we get out of the mountains, so we can’t risk them.” Holmes spread his hands. “That’s the best plan we’ve got.”
Marcus nodded. “Fair enough. Must not be easy for you, not having everything planned out in rigid detail.”
Claudia swallowed a laugh, and beside her, Shaw coughed. They both knew the general and Marcus had butted heads numerous times. But the last year and a half had certainly taken some of the starch out of Holmes. He now had a leaner, meaner edge to him.
Holmes raised a brow. “I wish I had all the answers, Steele. I really do. Then I could guarantee no one else will die or end up in some alien lab.”
“You’re doing a hell of a job, General.” Marcus gave one small nod, then turned. “I’ll get started prepping everyone to leave.”
“That’s high praise coming from Marcus.” Cruz smiled at Holmes, then followed their squad leader out of the gazebo.
Holmes looked shocked for a second, before he covered his reaction. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, everyone, let’s get ready to move.”
Shaw touched Claudia’s arm. “I’m going with Reed to sort out some of the weapons and explosives.”
She nodded. “I’ll check in with Tane. See if Squad Three needs some help prepping the Hunters.”
He leaned down, so close she thought he was going to kiss her. His lips brushed her ear. “See you later, my badass girl.”
“Quit calling me that.” She’d never tell him, but she kind of liked the nickname.
He winked at her and sauntered out.
The next hour was busy. Claudia helped Tane’s guys clean the Hunters and check them over with the maintenance team. They’d had to abandon a hell of a lot of spare parts and tools for the vehicles at Blue Mountain Base, but a few of the maintenance guys were geniuses. They seemed to be able to fashion anything from duct tape and rubber bands.
As she headed back to the main part of the resort, she watched civilians busily packing up and herding kids into vehicles. Others were using the last few minutes to take in the view and enjoy the last stolen moments of peace.
She breathed deep. Maybe one day, if they succeeded in driving the Gizzida off the planet, and if she and Shaw survived the battle, they could come back here. Maybe camp for a few weeks and snuggle up together in sleeping bags, enjoy the view and each other. She wrinkled her nose. Although after being on the run from the aliens, she might never want to camp ever again.
Claudia rounded a corner, then came to an abrupt stop.
Ahead, Shaw was standing with a short, curvy blonde. Claudia couldn’t remember the woman’s name, but she thought she was maybe a schoolteacher or something like that. They were standing close, Shaw talking and smiling, the woman repeatedly reaching out and touching his arm.
The emotions that flooded Claudia were raw and ugly. She vibrated with the need to launch herself at the woman and punch the blonde in the nose. She wanted to cut Shaw down with some scathing words, and a part of her wanted to turn and run.
She forced herself not to do any of those things. She stayed where she was, and controlled the emotions. She was not letting her ex direct her feelings and actions now. He’d stopped meaning anything to her a long, long time ago. Hell, he’d probably died in the alien attacks. He was gone.
And she was alive. Despite everything, she had a chance at something she really wanted to make work, despite her fears.
Shaw looked up and saw her. His smile slipped. He said something to the woman, and gently moved her hand off him. A resigned look crossed the woman’s face, then she nodded and slipped away.
Shaw slowly walked toward Claudia, stopping a meter away from her. “You okay?”
“Yes, I am.” She tilted her head. “Unless you tell me you and the perky blonde made plans to meet later and you’re done with me.”
He grabbed her and hauled her close, his lips a whisper from hers. “I’ll never be done with you.”
Oh, she wanted to believe that. “You can’t guarantee that.”
“I can.” He nipped her lips. “I always mean what I say.” He deepened the kiss, and her hands slid around his neck. “I’m prepared to spend a very long time, preferably naked, proving it to you.”
The evac siren filled the air.
They jerked apart. Nearby, people shouted and started running toward the vehicles.
“Shit. When will this ever stop?” Shaw tugged her toward the Hunters. “They can’t have found us already.”
They ran down a twisting path. Ahead, they heard terrified screams and angry shouts. They rounded the building at a sprint.
Shaw cursed and Claudia pulled her backup laser pistol from her waistband.
Hellions were tearing through a small crowd of people trying to reach their vehicles.
As she watched, Claudia saw a hellion snatch up a running man. Terrified people were running for cover, but the rabid hellions were too fast.
She fired and a second later, Shaw had his own pistol out.
It was like tossing rocks at a rampaging lion.
“Focus on the big one,” she yelled. “It’s the alpha.”
Shaw nodded and together they progressed on the large hellion. Finally, the laser shots were doing some damage and the hellion lifted its head from its prey. Its mouth was coated in blood.
It let out a huge roar, and Claudia kept firing. She saw it flinching from the impact, but she knew there was no way they could take down an entire pack of hellions with laser pistols. They needed their carbines.
With a long yowl, the canid fell, rolling off the man’s body. Its belly exploded, and red poison splattered on the ground, sizzling as it ate into the dirt and grass. Claudia spun and fired at the next animal. It was menacing a woman who was slowly trying to creep away. Shaw went down on one knee, shooting at another.
She turned and saw two more creatures slinking in from behind them. She spotted a couple and child, trapped out in the open. “Over here.” She waved at them and herded them between her and Shaw. “Shaw, you got something in your bag of tricks?”
“Fresh out today.” He kept firing.
Claudia stared at the glowing red eyes of the incoming hellions. Drool dripped from their sharp fangs.
Suddenly, she heard shouts. She looked up and saw Squad Three pouring out of a nearby building.
“Help has arrived,” she said.
The heavily muscled men of the berserkers sprinted full speed at them. Some had carbines, others had bulky shotguns.
The boom of the shotguns was loud and the hellions all snarled and turned to face the new threat.
Tane led his squad. He was a little leaner than the others and a little faster. He raised his carbine, a set expression on his tough face. As he shot at the hellions, Claudia thought he might be almost as good as Shaw.
Suddenly a hellion flew out of nowh
ere and slammed into the squad leader.
“Keep going,” he roared to his men.
Claudia’s eyes widened. Around her, Squad Three shouted and cheered as they took down the remaining hellions.
But she kept her gaze on Tane.
He rolled to his feet and eyed the hellion. It growled at him, and man and alien circled each other.
“You seeing this?” she asked Shaw.
“Yeah. We all know the berserkers are a little crazy. Tane seems like the most rational of them all, but I think to lead a team like this—” Shaw jerked a thumb at the men who were now laughing as they fought “—you have to be the craziest of all.”
Or at least the most fearless.
As the hellion leaped at Tane, he didn’t bother with his weapon. He waited and at the last second, grabbed the hellion with his bare hands and swung it around. He tossed it and it lost its balance, scrambling to get back on its feet.
Tane pulled a massive combat knife, far bigger than the regulation Gladius knives most of the squads used. Then he and the hellion launched at each other.
As the man battled the alien dog, she noted his brutal movements. He put every ounce of his strength into the fight. But what she noticed most was Tane’s face. There was no fear, no concern, no anger…nothing. It was like he was completely emotionless.
Claudia wondered what the man had seen…or done…to leave him like that.
He jammed the knife into the hellion’s throat, and the fight was over.
Tane rose, his dreadlocks framing his face. “Time to get these people out of here.”
Claudia nodded. “These hellions have to be a scout team.”
Shaw cursed. “Which means somewhere, they have a raptor handler who’s sending our location back to the others.”
There was a roar of engines and Claudia saw three Hunters heading toward them.
“We need to get out of here,” she said. “Fast.”
Chapter Sixteen
They were on the run again.
The Hunter raced down the road, the convoy speeding along behind them. Shaw didn’t take his eyes off the targeting screen. If an alien showed up, he was blowing it to smithereens.
He’d watched those hellions take down those innocent people like they were nothing but food. He ground his teeth together. After the hell the aliens had put Claudia through, after all the death and suffering, he was well and truly done.
