by Angela White
“I’m sure Angie will think of something,” Jennifer declared happily, curling an arm around Kyle’s waist. She wasn’t afraid of him anymore, but he was still scared of her. His embrace was filled with control and longing.
Jennifer rested against his arm as they trudged victoriously up the passage. He’d waited enough and so had she.
Can you get us a sitter for tonight? she asked mentally as they neared the first checkpoint. She’d spent the last hour making sure it was what she wanted.
Kyle tripped, hitting the wall. “What?”
Jennifer giggled.
“No,” he denied, realizing why she might be asking for that.
Jennifer smiled wider. Now that she’d made the choice, she would follow through.
Kyle swallowed nervously, sensing her thoughts, her mood. He wanted her body. He always had, but he also wanted her love. Without the second, the first was meaningless and he wasn’t going to let her pay off a debt with sex and ruin what they had going.
Jennifer put a hand on his arm, slowing them until the others got out of sight.
Kyle tensed as she stopped, not sure what to expect. He had to do this slowly, he had to be careful, he had to protect–
“Kyle.”
He froze as her lips neared his, heart pounding.
“All you have to do is love me. Do you?”
“More than anything, Jenny,” Kyle groaned in desperation. “I want to marry you.”
He immediately regretted spilling the truth, but Jennifer spoke against his clenched lips. “Autumn will make a cute flower baby.”
Kyle almost stopped breathing. “You’ll…you’d…
Jennifer laughed again. She placed a soft kiss to his lips, body warming despite the cold temperatures. “If you ask me nicely.”
Kyle kissed her back, unable to fight it. I love you. I love you. I love you!!!
Jenifer soaked it up to replace the awful cruelty that Cesar had stored for their physical moments. Kyle wanted to love her, not possess her. As she curled her arms around his neck, ignoring the approaching footsteps, Jennifer connected their minds.
I love you.
Always?
Always.
Marc waited impatiently as the couple sealed their new bond. He could tell this tunnel was no longer a danger or these two wouldn’t be necking in the dark. As they broke apart, still exchanging promises mentally, Marc sighed, heart hurting. He missed those days with Angie. Would they ever have them again?
Marc’s demon, who had been quietly angry for the last few days, spoke up. Only if you accept Adrian in her life. She needs him.
Marc locked down on that voice, furious again. She wouldn’t need him for anything once they dumped Safe Haven on that island. Adrian would become a vague, shifting memory.
Jennifer felt Marc’s anger surge and reluctantly broke the connection with Kyle.
“Adrian went down and grabbed their descendant fighter,” Marc stated gruffly, now scanning the entire cave system and the thoughts of the nearest patrols. “I want you to check him out and report back.”
“You got it.” Jennifer kissed Kyle once more and then jogged up the corridor. She was quickly out of sight.
Marc turned to Kyle, who had tensed as soon as he realized who was waiting for them.
Marc could have sent any number of nasty or supportive things in that moment. He chose to be a friend to the mobster. “Double the foreplay. Pretend she’s a virgin.”
Kyle flushed. “I’ve considered that already.”
Marc snorted. “Yeah, I’ll bet you have.”
Not hearing any condemnation in Marc’s tone, Kyle stepped closer. “You went through this with Angie, right?”
Marc flipped his light around to shine behind them. His hinky feeling hadn’t gone away yet. “She was terrified. After a while, she loosened up, but that first time was hard on her. I could tell how scared she was. All those old fears came back in that second. We fought it together.”
“She loves me.” Kyle grinned like an idiot.
“You’re about the only one who didn’t know that. Some observant Eagle.”
The men shared a laugh, but Marc didn’t take them out of the tunnel yet, sensing there was more that he needed to do here. He waited for the mobster to speak, trying to be the boss that everyone needed.
“We struck gold.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Kyle coughed, still trying to clear dust from his lungs. “I’d like to take some of it. For a ring.”
“I have no problem with that,” Marc allowed. “A wedding sounds like something the camp needs.”
Kyle was relieved. It had been his way of asking if the camp would accept him and Jennifer as a married couple.
Marc motioned toward the darkness. “Get what you need. I think Theo can shape it for you.”
Kyle vanished into the darkness as Marc went toward the main camp, full of new contemplations. Kyle and Jennifer were going to get married. That would give other couples the idea. Safe Haven was about to have a rash of proposals and broken hearts, but also parties and celebrations of normal life continuing. Angela would love that.
Marc stopped, frozen. Or would she? Would she be worried over who might ask her? Would she expect him to, even though they’d lost a baby and Julia had shown up? Perhaps she was hoping Adrian would ask her? Would she say yes to either of them? What did she want?
Now dwelling on personal drama, Marc slowed for more time to weigh things. Marriage wouldn’t solve their problems… Angie would never betray him, but if they were married, Adrian would be distanced even further than their deal had done.
Wondering if he’d inhaled too much gas, Marc continued to stew on it as he went to the upper levels. He wasn’t the boy scout anymore. He was a man determined to fight for his love, no matter how dirty the battle got.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Hard Way
1
“So what now?”
Becky leaned against the stone, hating where she’d chosen to hide as hundreds of Mexicans came up the road and swarmed around the collapsed entrance. She and Seth were trapped fifty feet above the patrol that appeared to be making camp as well as investigating the scene. When the corridor collapsed, a billowing cloud of shrapnel-filled dust had enveloped the area, allowing her and Seth to climb, unnoticed, onto this ledge. They were now hunkered down behind two boulders that barely hid them.
“We’ll sneak out during the chaos,” she muttered, wishing she’d kept walking when she saw the vehicles coming. She also could have warned Angela, but she hadn’t. She’d waited for Seth.
“Why didn’t you keep going?”
Becky winced. He was so smart sometimes that it was frightening. “I wanted you to come with me.”
Seth sighed. “Well, I guess you got what you wanted.”
Becky didn’t reply. She hadn’t meant for it to be this way. When he got over being mad, he would realize she hadn’t planned on this happening. Then he would get pissed again when he found out she hadn’t warned the camp. The excuse that she’d known the rescue party was close, wouldn’t fly with him or anyone else. Seth might be able to return to Safe Haven, but she now couldn’t.
Becky sighed as the weight of the choice lifted from her chest. It was over. She could go forward from here–away from her ghosts, with the man she loved. Yes, she was getting exactly what she’d wanted.
“Where are we going?” Seth asked, wondering how he would be able to protect her while they were alone. They were both cold and scared already, and it had only been thirty minutes.
“South, for now. I…I can’t be locked up in that mountain, Seth. I just can’t.”
Seth felt a little better after hearing that. He hadn’t known she was suffering from mountain sickness. Many citizens were and distractions only worked so well. If too much fear came, the herd would also have run. Except, now, they couldn’t. It was tough it out or die.
Sort of like us, he reflected, glad for once of the dim sunlight
trickling through the thick dirty clouds. He had faith in making an escape if Becky could take the climbing. He had almost no faith in his ability to help her give birth out in the wastelands. That was one of a hundred problems to conquer–not the least of which was the radiation that they were absorbing even now.
Reminded of the dangers of waiting, Seth noticed a lapse in the dusty security patrol below them and motioned Becky to start climbing. There was a partial passage right above them. It went half a mile into the stone before coming right back to this section of the mountain, but they would be out of sight of the Mexicans. When it got darker, they could walk out using Safe Haven Hill, where that short tunnel ended. It was a former ant hole, however, and could still be dangerous. Once in that cavern, Seth planned to radio Marc and ask if he wanted them to do anything before they headed off on Becky’s adventure. He had no idea where they might end up, but at least they would be together without seeing Neil every day.
Spirits improving, Seth climbed up the mountain with Becky’s ass in his face. Yeah, this might work out well for us.
2
The quick resolution to the Mexican infiltration was a comfort to Safe Haven. Instead of the massive panic that it could’ve caused, most inhabitants went about their daily routines while listening to the radio. It was almost as if they were enjoying a show about something happening to someone else, instead of being right above where the action was actually taking place.
“You’ll be sorry that you have done this!” the radio crackled.
Marc didn’t respond to the threat even after he finished draining his water bottle. He was going to let this play out, at least for a while. When the camp started to have a problem with it, he would have to have another solution ready. Until then, it was as good as any and it didn’t risk any of Safe Haven’s people, which made it the ideal plan. As a military strategist, Angela would have been incredibly valued.
“Are you there?” the Mexican shouted through the radio. “I will make you pay for this!”
Again, Marc didn’t answer. It was a mental tactic. Not only would the man hate being ignored, it also told the camp that leadership wasn’t in a hurry, that he had things under control. Marc frowned as he realized he had learned that from Adrian.
“You will give us the children or every one of you will die underneath that stone!”
“The children in question do not wish to leave the safety of Safe Haven,” Marc was forced to reply, able to feel Angela’s anger at the threat. “They were asked. They said no. I will tell you this for the last time. Get lost or face our wrath.”
Marc exited the radio cavity, gesturing Kenn to go quiet. Word would be passed to use the lighting system. As of right now, the Mexicans wouldn’t be able to monitor their transmissions. There wouldn’t be any.
As Marc left, Billy and a few others joined him, waiting for orders. Eagles liked to stay busy, but it was also easier to work than it was to dwell on what could happen if things went badly.
Marc didn’t have much for them to do. Thanks to how things were already set up in their haven, all they needed to do after blowing the entrances was to ensure that they had security cameras and audio up. Kenn and a few of the lower Eagles were doing that now, using it as a training class. It had occurred to Angela that they didn’t have many dwellers who could handle explosives or wiring. Marc had concurred that it was a future problem and approved the schedule. He wanted to go to the weather room to check on the cloud that was coming, but he had other things to take care of first. Because he was Safe Haven’s boss, he would have to make himself accessible. After that, he would be free to do rounds and get updates, then sleep. With past administrators, information had been handled. They didn’t have to search for updates and numbers. Marc hoped the tradition would continue with him, but if it didn’t, he knew what to do. There might be moaning from citizens who still wanted Adrian or Angela in charge, but Marc didn’t anticipate many problems. Now that they were in here together with no way out, people would obey the rules or occupy slots in the brig.
Thinking of the brig brought Chauncey to mind and Marc frowned again. He still wasn’t certain on what to do with that traitor or the one Adrian had brought up. Common sense told him to use bullets and not waste tears over it. Morality said the man hadn’t committed a crime that was against Safe Haven’s code of conduct. Those laws were currently being redrafted by the Council during their free time. They all wanted to make sure that traitors were dealt with harshly from now on, that there were strict rules for handling those issues. Marc didn’t want public executions again, but maybe for a little while, it might be necessary. The results from his demonstration at their gates had proven to him that the method was effective, even if it was intolerable to him personally. He would do whatever it took to keep the peace here, to keep people safe and alive. Adrian and Angela didn’t think he had reached that point yet, but they were wrong.
3
“What about them?” Billy asked Marc quietly, long hours later. The herd was settling down to sleep, restlessly, as the two men stood a few yards from the hole where Adrian and David were camped. Neither of those guys knew Marc was here, but the guards did. They’d snapped to attention, proving they were alert enough to continue their shift.
“Leave them alone for now,” Marc ordered, mind spinning. Angela’s notes had made this choice.
Leave them alone when you have the hostages. It’s covered.
Billy didn’t know how Adrian and a few others were going to keep the Mexican prisoners down in the hole from escaping or plotting, but he didn’t question it. He assumed that come morning, different orders would be given. The camp had been told that the guerillas were in a lower corridor that was blocked at both ends.
Billy pondered that for a minute and then followed Marc out of the area. If Marc buried this hole, the guerillas down there would die of suffocation or starvation. It was a neat, awful solution.
Marc let the understudy assume what he wanted. Marc didn’t know what Angela meant by it being covered, but he didn’t doubt that it would indeed be awful. With her and their enemies, it always was. She had no mercy.
As he left, Marc fulfilled the last order on her notes concerning the Mexicans. “No guard.”
Now Billy began to protest quietly, but Marc refused to rescind the order.
As the two men went to the main camp, followed by the confused sentries, David and Adrian didn’t wake up. They had both been up for more than twenty hours. They were beat.
Half an hour later, a tall, gangly man in a white coat approached the hole where the Mexicans were waking. He could hear their low murmurs of fear and anger at their situation.
Chris ignored the two sleeping military guys near the hole as he approached it. The vet dropped a pouch into the darkness, whispering, “I brought some food. Please don’t tell on me!”
David, awake and now angry, tensed to grab the man.
Adrian, lids still closed, slid a hand over David’s wrist to keep him from reacting.
Chore finished, Chris hurried to the animal area, where he had placed his cot. He couldn’t stand sleeping around the guards in the general living quarters. He never knew if he might talk in his sleep. That would be a problem.
David rose up on one arm when the vet was gone. “Why?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
“Should we tell Marc they’re awake?”
“Go to sleep,” Adrian ordered. “In the morning, keep your gob shut.”
Confused, David listened to the eating and plotting below until exhaustion forced his lids shut against his will.
4
“Billy loves me. I don’t understand why we can’t tell people or spend time together.”
The twelve-year old’s voice carried to the Eagles who were cleaning up the mess from extra hours in the reading and entertainment chambers by upset camp members. All conversations stopped so the men could listen. The girls weren’t supposed to be up here right now. No one was. The kids also weren’t sup
posed to be alone. Someone would be in trouble again for letting these girls give them the slip. All four guys instantly thought of Shawn.
“You can’t say that!” Missy hushed the older girl, pointing to the adults gathering trash from the cans that lined the passage. “They’ll tell.”
“Not if we don’t have to,” Shane stated. “But when you break the rules like this, it isn’t going to help him, you know?”
The two girls glared in response to the warning.
Shane firmed his shoulders. He was the highest level among them. He had to do what was right. “I don’t care who you are or what you can do. Why are you up here? Everyone heard Marc say the top floor was off limits until tomorrow.”
Leeann reluctantly held up her hand. “I want to put this in his locker.”
The sight of the handmade card brought grins and frowns in equal responses from the Eagles.
“Go on,” Shane allowed. “But this still gets put on the report. We don’t break the rules for anyone.”
“And that’s why we can’t ever talk in front of you!” Missy complained. “Shawn is nicer!”
The little girl stuck out her tongue and shoved Leeann toward the training room where the lockers had been set into an impression in the stone.
Logan shook his head. “Someone should warn him about her.”
“She’s a baby,” Jake protested. “Let her alone.”
“His problem, not mine,” Logan declared.
“Don’t think he wants it either,” Whitney pointed out quietly as he tied the bag with the arm recently out of the cast. “Shawn is honoring a debt that he doesn’t really owe.”
“Looks like rough duty,” Jake joked. “That one is trouble.”
