by Angela White
Angela didn’t have time for his self-righteous anger. The weight that was settling onto her shoulders was far heavier than any she’d ever carried. She was in charge of Safe Haven. This was her camp.
Angela straightened her sore shoulders, stretching them out to balance the awful load. When she thought she could handle it, she met Doug’s gaze. “I will do everything I can to keep these people alive, and that includes Adrian. I don’t want his place.”
Doug already knew that. “You’re the Boss now.”
Behind Doug, the senior Eagles began stepping out of the shadows, showing their unity. Team leaders and their XOs appeared, giving her their support, their loyalty. Their thoughts rang in her heart, held her up under the weight of the role she’d been given.
He was right to choose you.
We trust you to guard his dreams.
Angela let a single tear trace her cheek. She’d come a long way from Cincinnati.
Angela found Neil waiting nearby. She knew what was coming and tried not to let it bother her that the camp was staring at them in small, nervous groups from the tape.
“Got a few things for you,” Neil said, holding them out.
Angela blew out a tired breath and started to tell him now wasn’t good for her, but he didn’t pause.
“You’ll wear this at all times and keep it by your head during sleep.”
Neil helped her put Adrian’s cleaned radio and belt on over the filthy clothes that she hadn’t taken the time to change yet, and then handed her a small cigarette box with a snap lid.
“This is an alarm. Open it for a smoke, and we know to come quietly.”
“I’ve had the course on protecting him,” Angela grunted, heart frozen with pain. “I know what’s it’s for.”
She shoved the alarm impatiently into her back pocket, adjusted the headset, and then keyed the mike. She let go just as fast. “What god-awful name did you guys pick?”
Neil’s lips twitched in the barest of smirks. “We stuck with his.”
Angela snorted without amusement. “Raven to Kyle. Have someone escort Conner to the medical tent.”
“Copy.”
She looked at Neil in annoyance. “Next?”
She reminded him so strongly of Marc on his second day in Safe Haven that he smiled despite the heaviness in his heart. “Questions. You provide the answers.”
Angela planted her feet firmly, as she’d seen Adrian do so many times, and found the stance almost comfortable.
“Hit me. I can take it now.”
End of Book 3
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Notes from Angie
After that trip, I’m exhausted.
As I’m sure you noticed, Kendle and Luke didn’t spend time with us in this edition. I tried to write it in and played with the chapters until I was frustrated enough to realize that it just didn’t fit. I hope you’ll pick up a copy of their complete story when it is released. Once you read it all together, I hope you’ll understand why I couldn’t jump back and forth again. After what Kendle went through with Ethan, she deserves no less than an author’s (and reader’s) full attention.
Did you enjoy our journey this time? I’m rather fried at the moment and can only hope I’ve done it justice. The final choice on that is, as always, up to you. I’ll be watching the reviews and comments, and resting up to bring you the next leg of Safe Haven’s arduous adventure. The Mountains they’ve been hoping for (and dreading) are coming next.
Will Adrian live? Most of you already know the answer to that by reading the prologue at the start of this series. No worries. Safe Haven still has a need for that troubled leader. So does the new guardian, who can’t wait to return the camp to his capable hands. Only, there’s a problem with that. The camp likes Angela in charge.
To my Betas: Thank you!
To my Facebook Crew: I adore you!
To my Readers: You honor me with your time and belief. Thank you!
Have a wonderful year, world, and please, tell me what you think! I need those words from you more than I can explain.
Tiredly sweeping the darkness for the rest of my Eagles,
Angela White
Deleted Scene#1
Ignoring the chill, Rick stayed high and still as he spied on the battered brick building. When Marc had spun out of camp with the doctor, Rick had followed in the truck he’d gotten from McCook. That was before the slavers had destroyed it while searching for the radio rigged to lure them there. Cesar’s men had killed everyone they’d found, and Rick hadn’t come down from his water tower vantage point.
The traitor studied the rest stop and the smoldering carnage through binoculars. Who was in such desperate need of a doctor that Angela’s skills couldn’t handle it? If it was Adrian, there was still hope despite the carnage.
But it wasn’t.
Rick had viewed Marc’s expression as he made the walk to the door. The woman was down, and that meant a group of extremely pissed males were in there, eager to kill anything that moved. Still, if Adrian didn’t know there was a new threat, he wouldn’t rush back, would he?
Rick settled against the slimy tree, being careful not to catch the attention of the Eagles on sniper duty. Once he saw where they were going from here, Rick planned to get busy collecting beans, bags, and, of course, bullets. He was certain Adrian would leave this area as soon as he could. The cicadas were all over the reeking bodies, birds circling below the layers of grit. Even the big ants were carting off gory chunks through the bushes, proving Adrian’s carnivore theory. The thought of that happening to Cesar’s body made Rick want to cackle maniacally. He didn’t, of course. Unlike Cesar, Rick knew how to make himself wait for the right time.
Movement near the far edge of the ugly scene drew Rick’s attention to shadowy forms that appeared and then vanished in the fog. A minute of studying told him it was scavengers–the human kind. The few survivors from Adrian’s trap were also lurking near the rest stop. To attack?
Considering their lack of organization in contrast to his careful stillness, they were probably waiting for Adrian’s Eagles to be gone so they could clean up the scraps.
Plans quickly reshaped in his mind with little effort on his part, and Rick settled in for a snooze. The phone set on vibrate would wake him in a bit, and then he’d get ready to follow the Eagle scouts that were always sent out first. After that, he would come back and talk with the lurking Mexican survivors. He expected to kill at least one of them to prove his point, but they would soon understand that Cesar’s replacement was white.
It didn’t make the hatred any weaker or change the plans for Safe Haven. Every soul cowering inside its borders would come under slaver control... and there would never be a better time to strike than now, when they thought they’d won.
2
Rick was the first one to pick through the remains after the Eagles left, and he did it with one hand on his gun. Thanks to Safe Haven, he was very, very good with it.
You could have been an Eagle, his demon taunted. You were supposed to be one of them.
Rick swallowed the bitterness and allowed it to sink into that ball of rage smoldering in his guts. It wasn’t over. Angela’s death wouldn’t be the only price paid.
Foggy shadows shaped like tall mice drew his attention. The rats were coming.
Rick waited where he was, settled onto the charred hood of Cesar’s once golden car and smirking openly at them. His days of hiding were over.
The slavers slowly came toward him. These men had been in the rear of the second convoy, catching up in time to witness the slaughter. Helping hadn’t been an option against the screams and the bugs. They’d hidden until it was over, were forced to, Rick guessed. Cesar had run their tanks dry to chase Adrian.
These dozen men had waited for Adrian to leave; hoping to strip whatever was left and flee south. They had no intentions of going to Cesar’s camp or even letting anyone know what had happened… except there was a witness to be handled. If the white man met up with the others, they would be hunted down. Shirking your duty was unforgivable, even if it meant your life. Rick held a small advantage…unless he was alone. Then, he was dead.
Rick knew. It was in their furtive glances and stiff strides. They’d forgotten who they were dealing with. Maybe one reminder wouldn’t be enough.
The traitor’s calm was disarming. “Guess we all got lucky.”
Not sure what he wanted, the Mexicans didn’t answer. They still hated Rick as much as they always had, but now, there was also a layer of respect. What Safe Haven had done here was the first defeat they’d encountered, and these men were reluctant to challenge anyone who had survived there undercover as long as Rick had.
“So…going south from here, I’ll bet.” Rick jerked a thumb toward the rest stop. “Avoid it when you pick through. He’s got it wired. They knew there were survivors.”
The deserters immediately swept the shadows, as if expecting to see Adrian and his Eagles rushing toward them.
“Now that they’re rollin’ again, he’ll send half of them to take care of Cesar’s camp.” Rick’s manner grew pointed. “Those who haven’t already deserted, anyway.”
Tension crackled at his veiled threat, hands tensing, getting set.
Rick slowly stood up and took his smokes from his front pocket. He inhaled, snapped the lighter shut. “Be a shame if Cesar’s camp got a call about you guys deserting him when he needed you the most. Kinda goes against the code, you know?”
“They won’t survive,” sneered one of the men in the rear of the group. “And neither will you.”
The Mexican drew in a blur.
Rick was faster.
His bullet tore into the Mexican’s throat, and he fell forward, hands clasped around the gushing wound.
Rick immediately gestured with the barrel. “Strip him and put it in my share.”
The look the slavers exchanged made Rick chortle happily.
“You’ve figured it out. Good. That’ll make things go faster. Let’s start with this: you go when I say so.”
His hard stance dared them to protest the order. He would kill the first one who did.
The shortest of the remaining men stepped forward calmly, but despite his mild manner, Rick knew this was the one among them who had planned to be their leader for the trip back across the border.
“And when will that be, gringo? This land tastes like death.”
Rick hoped to surprise them with half-truths and brutal lies. “Two days. Help me with something, and then you can run like the cowards you are. When I pick my crew, none of you will be on it!”
They didn’t like that.
Rick felt it coming and fired again as the would-be leader drew.
Another body hit the ground with a dull, final thud.
Rick gestured angrily, patience gone. “You will give me what I want!”
None of them was eager to die, and the smarter among them began to recognize the new chain of command, bow to it. Rick’s skill with the gun made him the boss.
“Two days, then we’re gone. You have to sleep.”
Rick knew better than to put his gun away until he was sure of control. He delivered that chain with a sneer. “There were other survivors.”
He gestured arrogantly. “And they joined me willingly to avenge Cesar’s death. They’re waiting one hour for word. After that, they’ll make the call. You get one chance, and then you’ll be hunted down by your own kind.”
Caught by their own cowardice, none of the homesick men considered that he might be bluffing.
Sensing the victory, Rick lowered his gun. “Meet us half a mile east of the Ellsworth Country Club by nightfall. Don’t be late.”
Rick turned toward his truck, hand still loose, ready. “Without Cesar to hold them here…or me, that camp of Mexicans will hunt you all the way to hell.”
The traitor picked up the small bag of treasures he’d looted, swung it over his shoulder before delivering a last parting shot. “Cesar was reckless, and it got these men killed. That will never happen while I lead.”
It was enough to begin a tentative bond, and Rick kept moving, hearing them start to scavenge. They would show up and be a bit more willing to work, thanks to the manipulative techniques he’d learned from studying Adrian. By the time the slavers realized he didn’t mean a word of it, running wouldn’t be an option.
Rick kept his stride sharp and arrogant as he went to his vehicle. It’s what Adrian would have done.
Rick liked that thought. Yes, it was, and he had a very good idea of what the blond leader would do now, too. For a change, that Eagle had no idea trouble was so close. With Angela at death’s door, there wouldn’t be any warning.
“One mistake, baby,” Rick crooned. “It was all I needed.”
He moved steadily through the moldy area to prepare for the Mexicans’ arrival. They thought he had more men. He would make sure that impression held long enough to finish what Cesar had started.
3
The remaining Mexicans were here. His bluff had worked.
Rick waited in the shadows of the horse farm, ignoring the enormous, frost-covered skeletons that littered the edges of the fence. Unlike normal frost, this was a layer of frozen white slime that stuck like ice chips.
The traitor let out a deceptively defeated grunt as the small group of hostile men approached.
“There are two things you should know. First, we’ve decided we only want willing men for the rush.”
Rick’s tone said he suspected what they’d agreed on. “No back-shooting that way.”
Observing their reactions, the traitor saw he’d been right.
“The second is that if you at least cover us from the outside and pick off anyone we miss, we’ll cut you in for part of Safe Haven’s supplies.”
There were surprised mutters at the boldness of his plans, and quick glances around the frosty dimness–maybe to verify it wasn’t a trap.
Rick shrugged cruelly. “We’ll be returning the bodies of Adrian and his Eagles in exchange, but the camp won’t know that until it’s too late.”
He could have given the Mexicans time to consider it all, but Rick didn’t think Adrian would have, and he acted accordingly. “So, fall in with the plan or get lost. You’re not really needed.”
“Maybe we will–”
“Kill me and do it yourselves?” Rick sneered “There are men all around us. You may get me, but they’ll get all of you.”
That was something they hadn’t been paying any attention to, but now that they were, each of them instantly respected Rick more. There were shadowy forms in trees, a glint of a pistol behind an overturned tractor, the edge of a sombrero showing next to a chicken coop. It was very convincing.
One of the slavers spoke up. “A fair cut?”
Rick snorted, hiding triumph. “Not if you don’t take half the risk.”
His leer was as cool as the wind. “I’m first man in–biggest share.”
Rick’s lies came easily, and he let their greed seal their fate.
�
��I will fight.”
“Si!”
“And I.”
Rick studied them before agreeing reluctantly. “A provision. If I die during the run, you get nothing. If I’m still alive when it’s over, you can split my share.”
They all scowled at the unexpected generosity.
“Why would you do that?”
Rick allowed small amounts of the truth to slip out, and added an irresistible lure.
“Because Cesar gave me a new life, and they took that, but mostly, because I still want the woman. No one touches her.”
There were evil leers amid the plans now being discussed, and Rick was aware that they thought he meant Angela. They didn’t know it was Samantha, always Samantha’s cornflower blue eyes that haunted him.
Deleted Scene #2
“Why would you tell him that? Make that deal for me?” Jennifer was loud and angry. “Don’t you know I’m broken inside?”
“I don’t pity you.”
“You want to be between my legs.”
Kyle only raised a brow. “And?”
Flushing, Jennifer shook her head, remembering the surprise, the trust that had flowed between them when he’d given her the pistol on her hip. They were out for a walk right now, being stared at, and Jennifer was uneasy. His admission of telling Adrian he wanted to claim her hadn’t helped that feeling.
“I’m offering for a lot of reasons.”
“People should get together because they love each other.” Her cheeks darkened. “Not for lust.”
Kyle smiled. “How do you know that I don’t? I’m offering a lot for a man who only wants sex that he can get from nearly any woman here.”
He made sure she understood that wasn’t a bluff. “They’re keeping track–waiting for you to push me away, to prove you’re too young to handle being mine.”
