by Angela White
“I have.”
Her arms went around his neck, sliding deliciously up his chest to get there, and she nestled closer at his small intake of air. “I haven’t given up hope for us, Brady.”
He leaned back to gaze at her. “I’d understand if you had. The things you’re being offered are… I wouldn’t refuse him either.”
“It’s not one or the other, it’s just one at a time,” she stated, and didn’t feel awful at her next lie. “You’re second because we’re stuck waiting on Kenn. For the rest, if I wait, we miss people. I can’t live with that.”
Marc wanted to believe her and he let a small smile reach his face. “I’m sorry.”
She leaned in. “Wait for me, Brady?”
“My whole life if that’s what it takes,” he answered passionately, drawn in, and his focus slipped to her lips. Would she…
Angela sealed their mouths with a hunger that took her by surprise, and felt him tense, before he was crushing her close, taking control. No more holding back or being careful, he kissed her as he used to-until she was trembling and melting against him.
Their breath mingled, harsh and fierce in the charged air, and the tension caught fire as he slid a hand to her hip and deepened the kiss.
“Angela?”
They broke apart fast, flushed guiltily.
“Over here,” she called, hoping her guard would think it was the fog making her sound so winded. That had been the old Brady, the one she loved without reservation, and it was hard to think through the memories.
Seth found them easily, Angela sitting on the hood of the Blazer and Marc standing alertly (in more ways than one) nearby.
“Good, you weren’t alone.”
Seth started to take up a post in the shadows, but she stopped him.
“I might be able to sleep now.”
Angela didn’t look at Marc as she walked by, but he observed her small smile of satisfaction and his ego was soothed. In those few seconds, she’d wanted him every bit as much as he’d wanted her, and there hadn’t been a witch anywhere in the background.
9
“Eagle One to the livestock truck. No rush.”
Adrian pushed the button on the mike, nerves already on edge without the code that meant the exact opposite. “Copy. When is Eagle Two due?”
“One hour.”
“Copy, out.”
If Samantha was calling for him, she’d foreseen something. This was it, the slavers and the weather at the same time. Hadn’t he known it would be that way?
The wind was pushing against him as the front rolled in, the drizzle icy compared to the muggy fog. Tornado weather, he thought, gut tightening. Another of those he’d needed was about to be proven.
Samantha was leaning against the grill of a nearby semi, head back, and Adrian called out softly so as not to startle her, “You wanted me?”
She motioned at the angry sky, sitting up. “It’s closer now. Should all be over after dawn,” she stated, fighting the attraction. She did not intend to become camp whore number two.
She sighed. It was easy to understand why her body called out to his, though. He was proud. It blared from him like an alarm some days, almost blinding in its intensity and lethal in its power. Because when Adrian was proud, he was happy, and that golden light was enough to lift the two-hundred people here off their feet. He flashed straight, white teeth through full, sexy lips, and women nearby felt their pulse speed up. When his scent blew over them, the urge to run rough, feverish fingers through his golden spikes was nearly overwhelming.
“We’ve picked a place close by that meets your requirements. You’re sure about the safety zone?”
“As sure as anyone can be,” she answered. “There are some places that don’t get tornadoes or even bad flooding. Not whole states of course, but small areas inside them. We’re on the edge of one now.”
“Pack it up. You’ll ride with Hilda and the others.”
Samantha swallowed a protest. Lovely.
Adrian continued to the main camp, arriving in time to catch a conversation between his Eagles and Marc.
“Will he stay or go?” Marc asked.
Most of the camp was still up despite the late hour. Adrian had been making rounds, talking to people and telling them to be ready in case.
Kyle did a fast sweep of the muggy darkness. “Go, probably. He hates to take chances.”
No sooner had the mobster spoken, than Adrian joined them, lighting a smoke. “Gather the boys and get us loaded up. Yellow slickers are in truck #6. Mandatory.”
Adrian noticed Doug loitering nearby to break up any possible trouble between Marc and Kenn. They were determined not to let him provoke Marc into another fight.
“I’m sending the camp on. You’re driving my semi. We’ll cover our absence, but have every Eagle, Level Three and up, involved. Tell them to make excuses and fall behind.”
Doug and Kyle hurried off, and Adrian lingered with Marc, finishing his cigarette. It would be the last he got for a while, maybe the last period if things went badly.
“Are they that close?”
Adrian’s voice was hard. “Yes. They’ve left us no choice but to react. We’ll do the best we can to kill them all.”
Marc was for it. “I’m all in.”
Men were coming from every direction. They’d clearly done this before and the camp immediately started getting set to leave.
“Good. I need you on this one, as tight to Kenn as it takes to get the job done.”
“Mission first, all that other shit later,” Marc stated coolly.
“All that other shit is in your mind,” Adrian cautioned. He spun toward his people; voice now a sharp tone of command that garnered instant responses.
“Prepare for travel, people! Get it loaded up! This is a Bug-out!”
Chapter Five
Liquid Steel
April 10th
Near Howes, South Dakota
1
“Eagle Two just rolled in.”
Adrian moved through the rain, following the headlights to get the report himself. He couldn’t wait for it to be delivered this time and Kenn’s fearful expression wasn’t a comfort as he climbed from the truck.
“Hundreds of them. They’ll be here before dawn.” Kenn glanced around, spooked. “Good thing you’ve got the herd ready to roll.”
Kenn spotted Angela in a yellow slicker like the men, leaning against her Blazer. Half a dozen Eagles were patrolling the shadows around her.
He glared. “She should be with the sheep! What the hell is she doing here?”
“Her duty.” Lightning flashed as Adrian pinned him with a hard look. “Do yours.”
Kenn flushed, trying to ignore the rage he hadn’t found an outlet for yet. “What’s the plan?”
“We’re working on that now. Come on. You’re riding with a rookie for cover.”
The gear they were taking had been loaded into trucks and they were set to go. Adrian waited until the check-in had accounted for everyone in Safe Haven before keying his mike.
“Go slow and stay together. Keep the radio clear unless there’s a problem.”
They only traveled for a few minutes before the long convoy was short a dozen vehicles. Men slipped out of place, driving without their lights as they rolled alongside supply and livestock trucks to keep themselves hidden until they could pull behind homes and signs. And all through the convoy, men slipped from their vehicles.
Adrian grunted as he hit the dirt and rolled, swiftly taking himself out of view of the cars now rounding the curve in his blind spot. It bothered the leader to hide as the rest of his herd went by, but he held himself in place.
This has to happen!
As the second half of the vehicles rolled by, Angela’s Blazer came into view and Adrian forced himself not to shout as she opened her door and rolled roughly down the embankment toward him.
Only her driver, Kevin, saw her exit, and Adrian glared at the man as he went by. Door locks, rookie!
“What the hell are you doing?”
Angela had landed in a painful pile at his feet and gave him a muddy grimace. “You would have said no.”
Adrian was aware of the last jeep circling for him and he said nothing as the Eagle picked them up. There wasn’t time to argue. The men Kenn had left to spy on the slavers had sent a clicked message telling them the guerillas were now coming their way. They would only have an hour to set their trap.
Thirty-five men were waiting for them inside a training canvas when they pulled back up to the empty campsite. Every one of their profiles tightened when they saw Angela in the jeep.
“What’s she doing here?! Take her back!” Marc’s voice was as angry as Kenn’s as he moved toward her. “Have one of them take you back!”
Angela had only said one thing to Adrian in the jeep, but it had been powerful to someone who had already asked so much of her.
You’ll need me to bargain with, if it all goes bad.
Now, after being around her two overprotective men, Adrian found himself agreeing. The slavers wouldn’t attack right away if they thought he would negotiate, and by his side or surrounded by these men, she was still safer here than miles away in camp.
Marc had turned to Neil. “Will you take her?”
“I’m staying!”
Both of her Marines tried again to shut it down.
“No, you’re not.”
“We don’t need the distraction.”
Instead of arguing, Angela met the unreadable gaze of their leader.
Adrian responded as if she were any other man in his army, but used the moment to help them understand that she felt the same way they did. “Tell me why.”
“It’s my duty, too. And you might need me.”
Now glad that she’d shown up, Adrian gestured toward the black rig he was set to drive. “You don’t leave that truck.”
“Unless needed?”
Adrian frowned coldly. “You won’t be.”
Satisfied, she ignored Kenn to handle Marc. Their words were silent and emotional, but after a moment, her firm denial of his demands, I’m staying!
She spun toward the truck to discover Adrian holding the door open, and she took the vest from him with a roll of her eyes. “If I’m not getting out, why do I need a vest?”
Her mutter was only meant for his ears, but he didn’t lower his voice when he scolded her, “Because it’s a hard new world you’re so eager to be a part of, and what we’re about to do will ensure that the slavers never stop, never give up, until we are dead and you are under their control.”
Chastened, Angela let out a tired sigh. “I need to go, too. I have to see them.”
Adrian waited for her to climb in before closing the door, and meeting two angry faces in the darkness. His own expression told them it wasn’t their choice to make and Adrian moved toward Kyle with an aloofness he didn’t feel. Getting her accepted as an Eagle had officially begun, adding yet another layer of deceptions and manipulations that brought guilt, but also pride. He, too, was getting stronger.
Marc moved to the window and waited for her to roll it down. He tried to be careful, but already knew it wouldn’t matter. She’d made up her mind.
“You’re going to get hurt if you don’t slow down.”
“I’ve survived so far,” she stated tonelessly.
His countenance twisted and she rounded on him.
“You have to stop now, Brady! It’s different.”
“Because you think you’re gonna be an Eagle and you can do it all.”
Marc wanted to pull it back, but it was much too late for that as her chin flattened into that familiar, unarguable line.
“I will be an Eagle,” she stated, tone full of warning. “And I don’t answer to you. I’ve made no promises I won’t keep, but don’t make me choose between you and the new life I’m trying to build here. You won’t like the decision I’ll make if you can’t wait for me.”
She rolled up the window so she didn’t have to witness his pain, and felt him leave. She had hurt him, but he had to understand that he had no more right to control her than Kenn did. I am my own!
Adrian started the engine and the cool shield of battle settled over his nerves. They would do this and do it right.
2
The small convoy didn’t go far. Once out of sight, Adrian took them through Howes, proper, and then up a road that ran directly behind the small South Dakota town that had bodies hanging from the windows, porches, and abandoned semis.
Adrian used his hands against the howl of the storm to direct their vehicles into a three-sided box, with only a small gap not protected from the rain. They hovered in the middle of the area, and after Kyle and his team got a tarp over it, had a dry place to plan from as the storm drummed against the trucks and thunder rolled angrily.
The sudden sound of running feet had men reaching for their weapons.
“Battlefields of gold.”
Cleared by the password, Zack burst into their area and went straight to Adrian, spraying cold drops. “The lookouts spotted a second group with heavy hardware advanced on Howes from the east. They have a big carrier with a fucking tank!”
The men went silent, stunned.
“Coming through here?” Adrian asked.
“Yes. The camp is already out of range, but we’ll be trapped if we stay too long.”
Adrian thought fast. They had nothing to stand against a tank, did they?
Only Angela. It’s her metal monster, he realized.
“There’s only two ways to get a transport carrier close enough to hit our site,” Kenn commented, subtly directing Lee and Zack toward Angela. His gesture said to keep her from doing anything stupid, like being a hero.
“Everyone says they surrounded the towns,” Neil pointed out.
“They’ll come in from at least two sides and try to squeeze us.” Marc was sure. That’s what he would do.
“Rolling or carrying?” Adrian asked, clearly putting stock in Marc’s opinion.
“Carrying.”
Adrian peered at the devastated town below them, standing pat against the wind gusts. Where was the best place to hit them?
“No time for a pit,” Kenn stated.
Adrian waved a hand. “Someone get me a channel so I can listen to them.”
Angela was aware of Kenn’s allies staying close, but unless she was needed, she had every intention of doing what she was told. If Adrian’s plan failed, then she would try to save them all.
Marc helped Kenn with the radio, their time together before the war making it smooth, but he scanned continuously to verify Angela’s safety. When this was over, if they weren’t dead, he would have some things to say to her.
“Channel 83,” Adrian instructed, waving at Kenn to stay in control of the portable CB.
Marc flanked Angela.
They only listened to the static for a moment before the radio lit up with evil.
“Nos va a venir a través Howes en una hora…”
“They’ll be coming through Howes in an hour,” Kenn translated.
“Excelente.”
“Cuándo vamos a atacar?”
“When do we attack?” Kenn repeated, heart thumping. They were about to go to war again. He couldn’t wait.
“En el trazo de dos.”
Kenn held up his digital watch that showed it as 1:05 am. “At the stroke of two.”
Now holding a very slim advantage, Adrian flipped off the voices and knelt before his army, K-Bar flashing through the damp dirt.
“They’ll come through the main road of Howes. We cleared it yesterday, took six hours. The other streets were worse. They can’t roll over it because of all the noise, so when they come to the main intersection, they’ll take the cleared path.”
Adrian was busy mapping out the small town and Kenn joined him, working on the outline of their dead camp.
“We assume the main group will wait over the hill, out of sight, so they’ll come in here.”
Neil bent down to draw a very realistic Mexican flag where Adrian had pointed.
“They won’t have a clear view without coming over the hill, so they’ll wait for the tank crew to call and say they’re in position.”
Kenn added a tank to their most vulnerable side.
“When the call comes, he’ll tell them to open fire. As soon as the first hit lands, they’ll know we’ve moved and chase us. They’ll catch up to Safe Haven right about the time they settle down from the storm.”
“He’s dangerous.”
“No shit!” Kenn snapped, hating it that Brady was here. “How about one of the ass-savers you used to come up with? Got anything now?”
The men around them frowned, but Marc ignored the tone, busy studying the map. Adrian had said they’d spent all day yesterday clearing the roads. He surveyed their leader with only a touch of bitterness. “What do you think the weight limit is on that bridge we crossed to get up here?”
Adrian saw it right away. That bridge was the only cleared way across the Cheyenne River within a hundred or more miles. If they took it out, there wouldn’t be a single shot fired and the slavers would be trapped on the opposite side of that churning mass.
“Won’t matter if we help it along.”
“And it’ll take them more than a week to go around. None of the other bridges we checked around here were intact,” Kyle told them.
That heavy sense of doom was easing and Adrian stood up, wiping the dust from his hands. “We have about forty minutes. Let’s get it set up.”
3
It took them almost that entire time to get the bridge rigged.
Adrian wasn’t taking any chances the bridge would hold, and that meant climbing down the sides with ropes attached to keep the brave men from being lost in the dangerously strong winds battering them. The Eagles on those ropes were currently chopping and sawing through the support beams, and it was slow, noisy work that had everyone on edge. They were trapped between the two groups now, in plain sight by anyone.
“I’m swinging!” Marc shouted. “Hold my damn feet!”
“Same here!” Kenn echoed, hanging upside down with a saw while rain pelted his face.
