Instead of answering, Pete turned to Marie. “So, to Thomas’ house we go.”
“It’ll be faster if you and Jack go get the guns while I get the packs,” she answered. “I’ve been thinking about this, and we don’t have much time. You guys go to the armory and I’ll—”
“No,” Pete snapped. “The last time we split up, you were attacked. Or don’t you remember?”
Because he did. Just a matter of hours ago she’d nearly been raped by one of the bikers. If Pete hadn’t stepped in when he had, it would have been only a matter of time before the man had overpowered her. The woman was strong and clever, but that only got you so far when matched up against brute strength.
He wasn’t going to take the chance of losing sight of her again. He didn’t like having her tagging along, but at least if she was with him, he could make sure nothing happened to her.
She made a face at him, clearly remembering exactly what he was talking about. “Nothing happened,” she muttered.
“It would have. Which is exactly why I’m not going to let you go barging into Thomas’ house by yourself.”
Besides, if they were all together, they wouldn’t have to worry about taking the time to find her if she got lost.
“Fine,” she snapped. “We get to Thomas’ house, get what we need, and get the hell out of there. Then we hit the armory on the way by. And what then? We’re just going to go waltzing out of town and count on no one noticing? And what, walk into the forest and hope we go the right way? Because it’s sounding an awful lot like we don’t have one single chance in hell.”
God, the woman was getting downright maudlin. And he sort of liked it.
Still, she had a point. “We’ve got to get into the house and hope no one’s there, then get back out and out of town without anyone noticing us,” Pete agreed. “And you’re right; I’m not liking our chances for any of that.”
“What are you talking about?” Jack asked, chiming in once again like he’d just now figured out that there was a conversation going on. “No one’s going to be around.”
Pete turned and stared at him. “And why, exactly, is that? They all take the night off after someone invades the village? They figure their work is done, and they can just go to bed or something?”
Now it was Jack’s turn to give Pete a jaded, supremely annoyed look. He gestured sarcastically to his left, up the street toward the barn. “No,” he said, his voice heavy with snark. “But they are having a town meeting. Which means every single person in town is up there by the barn right now. Not in Thomas’ house. And not in the armory.”
He tipped his head triumphantly at having shared this additional information—information that Pete was positive Thomas would actually string him up by the thumbs for sharing—and Pete and Marie turned at the same time to look at the spot Jack had pointed to.
There, they saw an enormous bonfire, with a crowd of people milling around it, getting as close to the fire as they dared and talking amongst themselves.
Moments later, a figure that Pete recognized as Thomas jumped up onto some sort of platform and motioned for everyone to be quiet. A hush fell over the crowd as they waited breathlessly for whatever their cult leader was going to tell them, and Pete smiled.
“Everyone is there?” he asked. “Are you sure? They don’t leave any guards around while they’re dancing around the bonfire?”
“There’s no dancing,” Jack noted seriously. “And no one is ever left out of a town meeting. Thomas only has them when something really important has happened. Miss it and you get in big trouble. I should know. I missed one once when I was sick, and I had to shovel snow by myself for a month. Everyone’ll be there. I guarantee it.”
Pete turned and shared a smile with Marie.
“In that case,” he said, “I suggest we get to Thomas’ house as quickly as possible. I want to be in and out of there before he even thinks of closing up that meeting.”
Chapter 5
The good news was that they knew exactly where Thomas’ house was, based on having been there several times—and seen it from the door of the jail.
The even better news was that Thomas had set his house up to have better lighting than anyone else in town. So the place was lit up like a Christmas tree comparatively.
“Is he trying to draw people to his house or something?” Marie huffed, her strides lengthening so she could keep up with Pete. “Like… isn’t the leader of a group of people supposed to fly under the radar? Remain hidden in case of attack?”
Pete tipped his head, but didn’t take his eyes off of the house in front of them. “You really are starting to sound like you stepped right out of a spy novel. What are you doing, studying these things in your free time?”
“Yeah, between getting shot at and learning how to skin a deer, I’m taking time out to take Spying 101 through the local university,” she shot back. “Did I forget to tell you that? Figured it would come in handy during our next adventure.”
“You might just be right,” Pete said. “Next time I have a question about how to spy on someone, you’re my first call.”
They reached the darker shadows at the side of Thomas’ house at that point, and came jerking to a stop in the alley between his house and the one next to it. And then they started looking for a way in.
“The door?” Marie hissed.
“Even he can’t be stupid enough to leave it unlocked,” Pete answered. Though his thoughts went immediately to all the doors he’d already found open in this town—and how stupid he’d thought the people here were. They were paranoid as all get out when it came to intruders and strangers in their town, but he’d found the door to Thomas’ study unlocked, and then they’d been able to walk right into the armory earlier.
It was like they were so sure their town was secure that they never even thought about securing the houses themselves.
But he couldn’t imagine they’d be that lucky again. Besides, the town actually had just been invaded. If that didn’t get someone to lock their doors, what would?
Then he saw that he was giving Thomas way too much credit. Because the door might be locked—or maybe not—but the window that sat right in front of them, in what Pete was guessing would be Thomas’ office, was cracked open.
He ducked forward and stuck his fingers through the opening, shifting them just enough to see whether the window was going to slide up or not.
It did.
“God, they really don’t believe in security in this town, do they?” he whispered.
“Probably think they’re smart enough that they’ll be able to beat anyone who appears,” Marie noted, coming up beside him. She ducked down and put one eye to the opening, squinting in the dark as she looked around. When she stood up, her face was half triumphant… and half doubtful. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s in there. But it doesn’t feel like a good idea to just jump on in. Feels like a trap.”
Pete bit his lip and ducked down to stare through the opening as well. She was right about the room. It looked completely empty. But the door that led to the rest of the house was closed.
And he wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of running into Thomas in an enclosed space. Regardless of what Jack had said about Thomas and his town meeting. And regardless of the fact that Pete himself had seen Thomas on the other side of town, not five minutes ago.
This was a small place. It wouldn’t take long for Thomas to find his way back to his house, having forgotten something or finished his party speech to his cult.
“Jack, you absolutely positive no one is in there?” he muttered.
“As positive as positive can be,” came the answer.
Pete wasn’t sure that qualified as reassuring, coming from the man who had managed to tell them in one sentence that the town was shorthanded and needed men who could handle guns. But he also knew that they didn’t have a lot of time to pull this off. They were already spending too much standing here discussing things.
“Right. We get in, get our
stuff, and get back out again, got it? Marie, you’re coming with me. Jack, you’re standing out here to keep watch. Get our attention if you see anything, okay? If you see someone coming, you get into the house and find us. The last thing I want is for Thomas to find us in his house stealing from him.”
He didn’t wait to hear whether the others were going to agree to his plan. Instead, he shoved the window up as high as it would go, crouched down, and jumped through, headfirst. Two seconds later, he was hitting the ground at a roll, just like he had practiced when he’d first joined the National Guard—just in case he’d see action.
Two seconds after that, he was coming up in a crouch, the gun in his hands and pointed toward the door, his ears on high alert for any sound in the house.
Nothing. There was no one else in here; he was sure of it. The hair on the back of his neck wasn’t standing up the way it would have if it sensed another human presence. And that was good enough for him.
He got to his feet and got back to the window in two steps, reaching through to grab Marie and pull her to him.
“You get upstairs and pack our things. Get into Thomas’ stuff and get as many extra shirts and jackets as you can pack. I’ll be getting supplies and guns on the first floor. If we can take weapons here, it saves us a trip to the armory. Get back downstairs as quickly as you can. Go!”
He punctuated the last word with a smart slap on Marie’s butt, and then watched—refused to think about what he’d just done—as she opened the door, ducked her head out to search for anyone in the house, and then disappeared, running for the stairs.
He caught himself staring after her, and darted into action himself, grabbing the bag that he found on Thomas’ desk and then the map off the wall. Two quick steps and he’d yanked open a drawer of what was obviously Thomas’ personal armory, and within moments he had two more handguns and several boxes of ammunition in the bag. Thinking that was enough—and that grabbing anything else might take too much time—he rushed for the kitchen, where he made quick work of the cupboard, grabbing enough protein bars and fruit to get the three of them through at least a week. A quick glance around the kitchen told him that there weren’t any water bottles laying around, but he figured they could find water on the road, if they needed to.
If nothing else, they could build a fire and melt snow. There was definitely enough of it lying around.
One more look across the kitchen and he thought he had everything he could possibly take. The bag in his hand was almost full and there wasn’t much more that would be useful to them on the road.
Besides, by his count, they were only a day away from Anchorage. With luck—and something that he hoped looked like a vehicle—they’d be in the city by this time tomorrow. And then they wouldn’t have to worry about finding food or water in the wilderness. He didn’t have one damn clue what they were going to find in Anchorage, but surely it would be better than what they’d found so far.
Surely they’d at least have some sort of civilization. People who weren’t trying to wrap him up into a cult or keep his traveling partner as a wife for one of their members. Maybe they’d even have law enforcement.
Maybe they’d have found a way to turn the electricity back on. And maybe they’d have word from DC about what the hell they were planning to do to get society itself back on track.
A part of him shivered with excitement and hope at the thought—while another part of him told the first part not to be so naive. This wasn’t a fairytale, and he wasn’t guaranteed a happy ending.
Still, he’d make due with a somewhat peaceful ending. A world where people weren’t constantly trying to kill him.
He allowed himself a grin at the thought and turned and made his way out of the kitchen, looking for Marie and wondering what could be taking her so long. Most of their stuff had still been in their packs, and though Thomas had gone through them, Pete had seen Hilda carrying them back upstairs while Thomas was lecturing them. How hard was it for Marie to find them and shove anything extra she could find—
He came to an abrupt stop right outside of the kitchen.
Marie was standing on the stairs, the two packs at her feet, her eyes wide open in shock and her face drained of color. She was licking her lips, though, and Pete knew from experience that it was what she did right before she let her mouth run off with her.
And there was no doubt who she was going to be talking to. Because one glance at where she was looking showed him Thomas, standing right inside the front door with a shotgun aimed squarely at Marie’s chest.
Chapter 6
Pete immediately slid one foot backward, and then the other, carrying his body back into the kitchen as slowly—and subtly—as he could before the boss of Clearview saw him.
Little-known fact, he observed to himself as he went: The human eye detected speed more consistently than it detected things that were moving slowly. So when you wanted to get away from someone who hadn’t seen you yet—at least, he hoped Thomas hadn’t seen him—it was a whole lot better to move slowly, in inches, than it was to move as quickly as possible.
In fact, he didn’t think that was only about humans. After all, every big cat in the wild used this advantage, too. Move slowly enough and your prey won’t spot you.
Be subtle and the guy who might shoot you if he sees you won’t notice you creeping back into the room you came from.
Still, he paused once he was around the corner and hidden again, holding his breath and listening intently for anything from Thomas. Because he’d always heard that moving slowly was better in that sort of situation… but he’d never actually tried it before. And it seemed like the kind of thing that could end up being a lie.
And if it was, then right now, when some lunatic had a gun on his traveling partner, would be the worst possible time to find out about it.
There was nothing from the living room but heavy breathing, though, and he felt his shoulders slip down just a notch. They slid back up when Thomas started talking.
“You,” he sneered, presumably in Marie’s direction. “I should have known you wouldn’t stay put in that jail. The question is… How, exactly, did you get out?”
“I had a lockpicking device slid up my ass, in case of emergencies,” she retorted. “Your crew missed it.”
God, shut up, Pete thought with a wince. Did the woman have to use a smartass comment anytime anyone asked her anything? Didn’t she see the gun Thomas was holding?
She had to know that it wouldn’t take much for Thomas to use it.
Although. Suddenly Pete remembered something he’d thought before, and felt his shoulders go even tenser. The men around here had been awfully keen on Marie and what she could do—and the fact that she was female—and he’d taken about five minutes in this place to realize that there were more men than there were women. Didn’t take a genius to figure out that they would probably try to keep any woman that stumbled upon their little town.
God, he’d thought that right from the start, and she’d confirmed it by noting that Jack watched her too closely for her liking.
And he’d had her fucking wandering around the house by herself. A house that belonged to the leader of this little cult. A cult that Pete had already figured out might want to keep anything that looked female.
Shit.
He should never have sent her up there alone, he realized—though to be honest, he’d taken Jack at his word when he said that Thomas wouldn’t be back anytime soon, courtesy of the town meeting they were having at the end of the street.
Wait.
If there was a town meeting, what the hell was Thomas doing here? And where the hell was Jack? He was supposed to be on the lookout in case anyone came calling at the house before Pete and Marie had collected everything they needed.
Double shit. This was what he got for leaving someone like Jack on lookout. He knew better. You didn’t leave the deaf, dumb, and blind man watching out for intruders—even if the man in question was really only dumb. He didn’t k
now Jack’s background or how he’d come to be here. Had no clue whether the man even knew what it meant to keep his eyes peeled.
Given the fact that Thomas was now standing in the living room with a rifle pointed at Marie, without any sign of movement from Jack, Pete was guessing Jack did not, in fact, have any clue what it meant to keep his eyes peeled. And Marie was the one who was going to pay the price.
He tuned back into the conversation at that point, realizing that he’d been having a discussion with himself about something that absolutely didn’t matter, rather than paying attention to what was going on in right front of his face, and then grimaced again.
“Look,” Marie was saying. “We just want to get out of here. We’re not taking anything of yours. Only the stuff that we brought with us. You obviously don’t like us much—don’t trust us, for sure—and we figured it would be better for everyone if we just got out of your hair. I mean, right? Wouldn’t you be happier if we just left?”
It was a good argument. But something told him Thomas wasn’t going to go for it.
The click of the safety on the rifle confirmed that thought.
“Lady, you’ve seen our town and our operations. You know exactly how this whole place is set up and what we have. You’ve got the layout of the town itself. Hell, I’ve heard you’ve even been in the armory. You actually think I’m going to let you walk out of here with all of that information at your fingertips? All that intel you can just sell the government?”
Marie didn’t even try to contain her snort. “There you go again with that government bullshit. You’re insane. We don’t have anything to do with—”
A gunshot went off, and Pete was moving before he could think about what he was going to do. Besides, this situation didn’t really call for a plan. That asshole was shooting at Marie—hell, maybe he’d already shot her—and that was all Pete needed to know.
He shot out of the kitchen like a cannonball, heading right for Thomas, who spun around at the sudden action, his eyes going wide at Pete’s sudden appearance.
Stone Cold Fear | Book 3 | Ice Burn Page 3
