The Life After War Collection

by Angela White

  “He’s better, but not out of the woods,” John said lowly, showing her Adrian’s chart. “He’s still fighting the infection, I think.”

  Angela checked the next page, hating how low his blood count was. “I think the drugs interfered–stopped me from being able to heal the wound fully.”

  John didn’t answer and Anne’s thought was clear.

  He always worries until there’s signs of improvement.

  Angela handed the chart back. “He looks mostly on track to me and the witch is snoozing quietly, so why don’t you do the same?”

  John started to argue and Anne took his arm. “That’s a wonderful idea. Come on.”

  John reluctantly let Anne lead him from the tent, as Kevin called Millie in for her first shift on medical duty.

  Aware of the audience, Angela started the conversation mentally as she sank down into the chair at Adrian’s side.

  How do you feel?

  Betrayed.

  Ah, Angela thought. He’d been expecting death.

  Do you know what you’ve done?

  Angela leaned against the tent. “Tell me.”

  You’ve traded my life for your son’s.

  Angela tensed. “What are you talking about?”

  Adrian concentrated on the anger instead of the agony. I believe Marc used his lifeline on Dog.

  Angela gasped, lids clenching shut as that fell into place. If anything happened now, they wouldn’t be able to heal Charlie.

  Adrian wanted to remain angry, but the waves of misery coming from her had comfort spewing out. Shannon didn’t use hers and it became mine. I’ll use it for Charlie. Calm down. Stop. Breathe.

  Angela wasn’t sure why she was reacting as if Charlie was injured now, but the witch wasn’t speaking up and that was a bad sign. The sense of doom was so strong that she could taste it.

  With her walls down, Adrian read the feeling and immediately assumed that was why he had been spared. At some point, he would be asked to give his life for Angela’s son. He would do it willingly.

  Angela caught the thought and frowned deeper. She was calming–when Adrian made a vow, he meant it–but knowing that he was so willing to die was haunting on several levels. She didn’t want this job he’d gifted her with, and there was definitely no way she could do it alone.

  “I’m going to send some people in. Draw from them.”

  Adrian wanted to refuse. He should be dead and yet, here he was, expected to resume the burden that had put him here in the first place. He couldn’t help feeling resentful. “I’m not empty.”

  Angela knew that to be a lie, and let it go. The people she’d sent had orders to insist. “Do you need anything?”

  “Time with Charlie and Conner.”

  “You’d have them be friends?”

  Adrian remembered not to nod. Movement hurt. “More like brothers.”

  Angela slammed a wall down on the thoughts that produced. “I have no problem with it. Maybe Charlie can help him forgive you.”

  Adrian winced. “I don’t deserve that.”

  “Then why?”

  “They’ll be a support system that the others here will look to for strength and ideas.”

  “Our replacements.”

  Adrian didn’t spend energy denying it. “Yes.”

  Angela thought about saying Charlie was only interested in Tracy, but couldn’t. That might be his focus right now, but it would change after he’d gotten, or been denied, what he was currently seeking. And what would he want then?

  “I’ll arrange it,” Angela said after a minute. No matter which way things went with him and Tracy, a solid friendship with Conner would be something to help Charlie.

  Adrian drifted as the pain increased. Drained of energy, his body was having a hard time regenerating the blood he’d lost and it was slowing the healing process.

  Angela listened to some of the thoughts floating through the tent and just outside it. Things appeared calm. She needed a report from Marc.

  Adrian heard her stand up and opened his eyes. “Thank you.”

  Angela stared, picking out concerns and feeling more of him now, more of his light, than she ever had. There was also more darkness. Adrian had been brought down. First, by the wounds and infection, and then again by how easily his camp had changed hands. He knew it was only because of his carefully laid plans, but the proof was having a disastrous consequence. It said he wasn’t needed and for someone like Safe Haven’s fearless leader, that was a crushing blow. In his plans, he hadn’t been alive to get in the way.

  Vanilla ran along his senses, turning him into a mass of regret. The power of her magic had pushed him over a line that there was no recovering from. Adrian used what strength he had and sent a mental hand to touch her cheek.

  Angela felt his gentle caress and jerked away in anger. “Don’t do that!”

  Adrian grinned in lethal defiance. “I’m done hiding how I feel. You should have let me die.”

  The radio crackled loudly in the charged silence. “Raven to the QZ gate.”

  Still locked in eye combat with Adrian, she hit the button on the belt. “Copy.”

  Adrian studied her face, pushing his magic out in a hard blast. “When Marc’s not enough anymore, I’ll know. I’ll feel it.”

  Electric sparked violently as Angela read what he was trying to hide, but his secret plans didn’t change the fact that he meant every word.

  “And I’ll be waiting for that moment, craving it.”

  She turned for the flap at the panicked sense of need. “That’s what I’m afraid of!”

  Adrian closed his lids in satisfied frustration. She felt it, her words confirmed that, but the defiant anger in the tone suggested a long battle with herself before she got to that point.

  “I can wait,” he whispered, slipping into his glaring dream world. “And then I’ll love you until I’m dead, the same as Brady.”

  Angela didn’t react. The woman inside understood his anger was at how he had to use her…and how she was allowing it.

  His personal feelings are growing, the witch stated bluntly, not appearing to care. It means he will make sure that you and those you love will always survive.

  “Even if his life is the price?”

  The witch didn’t cackle in amusement, but it laced her answer. Oh, yes. He’d throw it all away for the chance to love you even once.

  Angela shoved the demon aside in revulsion. “Not true!”

  The silence spoke volumes.

  Angela stormed from the tent and smacked into the hard chest about to enter it.

  “Be careful!” she snapped, shoving by him.

  Kenn watched her go with a speculative expression, but inside, he knew. He went to Adrian’s side with a slight frown.

  “How are you this morning?”

  Adrian grunted, barely awake and Kenn did something he never thought that he would. He scolded Adrian.

  “You have to stop playing with her. You’ll hurt the dream.”

  Adrian was shocked by who it was coming from.

  Kenn took the chair, opening his notebook. “You once told me that a man couldn’t have a high place here and her, that no one could balance the two.”

  Adrian’s depression swarmed over them both. “I don’t have a high place anymore.”

  Kenn understood a lot from those words and went on with the truth. “You’d have to kill Brady.”

  Adrian didn’t respond and Kenn scowled. “Snap out of it! You can’t take over like this.”

  “I’m not taking back over,” Adrian informed him coldly. “My duty is done.”

  3

  Kenn left Adrian a few minutes later, sure the injured man was set to manipulate them, to push someone into telling Marc or the camp. When that happened, Angela would have full control and Adrian would be removed from the picture. Then, his real body could be left for the government, and Safe Haven would be that–safe.

  To keep it from happening, Kenn was developing a plan. It was a dangero
us thing, to side with anyone but Marc right now, but Kenn had belonged to Adrian from the moment he’d realized the man didn’t have an XO. All these miles later, there was no other choice. Kenn would try to help Adrian get what he needed.

  “And good luck on it,” Kenn muttered. “Even if he was dead, she’d still swing with Brady.”

  Kenn spotted Kyle sitting outside his tent, working with lanterns, boxes, and piles of rails and bars. Kyle understood how badly they needed Adrian. Maybe…

  Kenn joined the mobster, staring at all the baby equipment. “Feeling like a dad yet?”

  Kyle snorted coolly. “No. I feel like an engineer who suddenly turned stupid. These directions don’t make sense.”

  Kenn let himself be distracted, taking the sheet Lee shoved his way, but inside, he was building schemes. Adrian wanted to be dead or with Angela, and he no longer cared which. Kenn would try to give him the more reasonable of the two.

  “Rail C is missing,” Lee stated in frustration, viewing the piles he’d been roped into helping with. “I only looked away for a minute, but it’s gone.”

  Rail C was in Kyle’s hand. He and Kenn exchanged smirks.

  “Why don’t you go get a beer?” Kyle suggested. “And bring me something. I’m starving.”

  Lee stood up, dusting himself off. “Yeah, right.”

  He knew Kyle wanted him out of earshot and he went willingly, glad to escape the baby session. He hoped Candy didn’t get any ideas from seeing him assist.

  Kyle glanced up. “What do you want?”

  Kenn stilled at the hostile tone. “To talk.”

  Kyle tightened the rail in place. “I won’t help you trick her. We were wrong to try.”

  Kenn began assembling the other side of the portable crib. “And if it’s what brings Adrian back? Does it matter then?”

  Kyle had heard the tones and rumors, he knew why this was being brought up, but he’d already made his choice. “Ask someone else.”

  “Yeah.” Kenn knew he wouldn’t. If the mobster weren’t keen on getting Adrian back, the others wouldn’t be either. Angela was earning that slot.

  “You think her plan will work?”

  Kenn slid the washer on. “Yes. The parts we’ve been told, anyway.”

  Kyle viewed the darkness that surrounded their camp. He’d also gotten the impression that Angela hadn’t told them everything. “She’s so much like him.”

  “Yeah.” Kenn didn’t say they were a match. He didn’t need to. The top men had been thinking it all along.

  And that’s how I do it, Kenn thought. I don’t have to tell them. I need to show.

  Kenn dropped his attention to the directions. Adrian had done a fantastic job of controlling himself, of hiding how deeply he longed for what he couldn’t have. When the top men saw how unhappy he was, how he’d given up in so many ways, the debt they owe him would take over. All Kenn had to do was make sure they saw Adrian’s pain and that wouldn’t be hard to do right now. Control was hard to come by when the drugs were strong and the company was right.

  Strolling across the compound, Tonya spotted Kenn’s big frame. The baby furniture he was assembling was obviously for Jennifer, but it was something of a shock to find her killer Marine carefully putting a crib together. Especially considering where she was going.

  Tonya walked around the water tanker and quietly opened the door to the medical camper. Maybe she was wrong. It might be stress, or a cold, or… Tonya stopped trying to make herself feel better. She wasn’t wrong.

  4

  Angela was surprised by who came into the medical camper. She must think its John’s shift, Angela thought, giving Tonya a polite smile. The redhead’s words cleared things up a little.

  “Can we talk while you do the exam or do I have to be quiet?”

  Angela waved a hand, trying to remember that personal feelings didn’t matter. “Have a seat. We’ll talk about whatever you want.”

  “No gown?”

  Angela was surprised again by the nervous tone.

  “Nope. I’ve always hated them.”

  Tonya sat on one of the stools at the small table. The other side of the camper held a large recliner covered in a pink sheet–the cloth kind. Another sheet of the same feminine shade was folded neatly, lying in the seat.

  “Is that where you’ll do it?”

  “Yes. Great, isn’t it?”

  Tonya agreed, clipped hair bobbing. She took the papers that Angela handed her as she sat down on the other stool.

  “It’s mostly medical history and the same old questions about your health and family history. John and I also added a few things, like signs of radiation sickness. Is this your first visit?”

  “Yes. I didn’t think I needed one until now.”

  Her pharmacy was doing well and she was gaining friends. Tonya had even gotten into the spirit of the holiday by offering free flagsticks for people to pin to their tents. It was a wonderful change from the brutal Christmas remnants they were still running across.

  “What’s the problem?”

  Tonya’s voice lowered. “I have a mole on my thigh that hurts sometimes and…I’m late.”

  Angela’s startled gaze flew to Tonya’s. Late. Maybe pregnant, and who was she keeping time with? Kenn, that was who.

  Do you care? the witch inquired casually.

  No, Angela answered. I’m free now.

  “How late?” Angela asked, tone light.

  “Only a week,” Tonya responded lowly.

  “Is that normal for you?”

  “No. I can keep the calendar by it.”

  “Adrian will be ecstatic, and it will finish off the camp’s approval,” Angela stated.

  Tonya sighed. “Those things are good, but will he be happy?”

  Angela considered, then shrugged resignedly. “I barely know this Kenny. Maybe he’s strong enough to be a father now.”

  “Yeah, what about me?”

  Angela was surprised at the fear and self-doubt. “You’ll both have help, but yes, I think you can do it.”

  “I’ll be out of the Eagles.”

  “For a while,” Angela confirmed. “But you’ve seen with Jennifer that it won’t be right away. You’re needed.”

  That was what Tonya had come to hear. She didn’t need the test to know what was going on with her body. She and Kenn were going to be parents. She’d just needed to know that it wouldn’t cost her the new life she’d found.

  “When will I start to show?”

  Angela frowned at the when, not if. “From your build, I’d guess around Thanksgiving. A bit sooner to the man who uses his hands on you. The signs will be there.”

  Tonya thought about their almost violent sessions and sighed again. “I guess he’d be happier if you and Anne took care of it for me.”

  “I’m not sure that’s true.”

  Tonya snorted. “Yeah, right.”

  “I mean it,” Angela insisted. “He’d be completely forgiven if he had a newborn for the camp to fall in love with.”

  Tonya lit up angrily at the thought of her child being used that way and Angela kept the rest of their talk to the coming baby. She’d given Tonya a warning. Now, she would give her a test and confirm what the redhead was already sure of.

  5

  Peggy stopped outside the tent, nervous.

  A hand descended on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

  Doug was in a great mood now that he’d been cleared for duty. “Lookin’ for me, Babe?”

  Peggy laughed. “Yes. She wants us to give a hand with a lesson.”

  Doug followed Peggy’s shapely hips, wondering why she was involved. Suspecting a matchmaking attempt, Doug remained silent and thoughtful. John’s advice had sank in and festered. Doug was now considering asking Peggy to be his woman. He didn’t care that she’d hid her skills.

  “Any idea what she’ll have me doing?”

  Realizing Peggy was a rookie, Doug shook off the mental haze and got to work. “Keeping them in line and maybe e
ven medical. She knows you used to volunteer at the Red Cross.”

  Peggy stiffened. The words from Kevin had been harsh. He’d told her FND work might not cover it.

  Doug was mulling over the skills Peggy hadn’t wanted known. She’d jumped in and gotten a set place, but she hadn’t wanted the glory or duties of a nurse. “Can you tell me why you lied to him?”

  Peggy paled. “I’d rather not.”

  “Your choice,” Doug offered. “Would be easier to get the men to accept if they understood there was a reason for it.”

  Peggy sighed, slowing. “What if there wasn’t?”

  Doug hated to push and did it carefully. “You should tell me and I’ll find out what we can do about it.”

  Peggy was relieved, but not enough to spill her guts openly. “Can we talk later?”

  Doug swept the sleeping camp. “It’s late now.”

  She didn’t answer and Doug caught the hint slowly. “You mean later, later…”

  She smiled shyly. “I can’t sleep sometimes.”

  Doug felt his big heart thump and forced himself to do what had to be done. “I can talk to you in public, but until you’re cleared or punished, I can’t claim you or even be alone with you.”

  Peggy froze, stunned.

  Doug was a bit hurt himself. “You let people suffer and be overworked when you could have helped. That has to be settled first.”

  “She hurt someone, gave them the wrong medicine,” Becky stated quietly, coming up behind them. “She won’t forgive herself for making a mistake.”

  Becky kept walking and Doug turned to Peggy. He found her halfway across the compound.

  “Damn.”

  Instead of hurrying to catch up, Doug trailed her and continued to think. There was a lot he and Angela could do with that explanation once he had the fine details.

  Doug stiffened. Unless she’d been negligent, like drunk or on drugs when the accident happened. That wouldn’t be viewed as an accident or a mistake. It was a crime.

  6

  Kenn came through the flap and silence fell.

  “He’s teaching us?” Charlie’s voice echoed with hostility.