She drew back and her mouth dropped opened. His face in shadows, she couldn’t tell what he meant, or how to respond. He wasn’t exactly the kind of guy to joke but he couldn’t be serious. No way. Finally, she managed to ask, “What?”
One little word that meant so many things and no way to say it all. Why wouldn’t he let her go? Could she step on his boat, knowing he’d never change? His life was the river. Danger. But he didn’t answer and didn’t give a clue what he meant or what he wanted—other than sex. Sex she could do. Well, certain kinds of sex.
Instead of discussing anything, the future, the plan, or what the hell he’d do to those men, he murmured to her, “Grab your bow and follow me.”
Long body stretched, muscles defined with exertion, he reared back and smashed his boot through the door. It slammed back on its hinges with a loud thump against the wall. With a roar, he dove straight for the guard sitting outside. The other man fumbled his weapon in the panic. They landed in a heap of flying fists. Steadying herself, she brought her bow into position. When a flash of color rounded the corner, she let the arrow fly.
Chapter Six
Jared jolted as he landed on the guard. A man’s scream sounded nearby. Mari’s arrow had hit its target. She could handle her own while he took care of this one he’d tackled to the ground. His fist drew back and he slammed it into the temple of the gang member. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head and he went limp. One down. Three others, wounded and ready to round up.
Silence descended and the hair on the back of his neck prickled. Jared stilled, completely unmoving and took a deep breath to loosen his shoulders. Derek had taught him everything about being a guardsman. Jared lived his life by keeping low, safe, but when he could, he protected the people working hard to make a life out of this wasteland. These people and what they were doing, more than surviving, but building a community, a family, they were more important than his walking out of here.
But his objective was clear. Take down the bad guys then convince the villages to give up on this community and join with Memphis City. They all had to walk away.
“Who the hell are you?” A man behind him snarled. It could only be Gareth. “I watched this place for weeks. Nobody here worth worrying about and then you show up.”
Mari harrumphed behind him and he wanted to growl at her not to draw attention to herself. They were idiots if they hadn’t counted Mari as someone dangerous but for now, if they focused on him, she could work more freely. Jared knelt in the open area in the middle of the compound. The guard on the ground in front of him was out cold. The sandy area was dry and dusty, like the sand dunes that now surrounded Leavenworth. It was like home, but it wasn’t. If he were home, this asshole never would’ve gotten within ten feet of the fort.
He closed his eyes and hoped Mari wouldn’t rile Gareth up even more. Anger made people stupid, and stupid people shouldn’t be pointing a gun at Jared’s head. Even without turning, he knew he was in the weapon’s sights.
“You think he’s the one worth worry about? I’m the one who shot your stinky-ass self.” Mari sounded deadly and a strange, aching pride filled his chest.
The promise of violence cloaked the compound and Jared felt the movement behind him—Mari’s struggle to get away, the grunt of exertion, the slap of skin, the snap of the bow’s wood cracking. The beginning of a growl came and Jared rolled. A shot fired and dust kicked up from where Jared had knelt.
Jared launched from his crouch and in a burst of speed, came at Gareth with a full-bodied tackle. Gareth held Mari’s wrist and with a cry, all three of them went sprawling in the dust. Snarling, Jared ordered Mari, “Go find the others.”
She did it. With no hesitation, she yanked from Gareth’s hold, scrambled from the ground and holding her wrist, lurched away, jogging toward the big community house. Jared grabbed a fistful of sand and climbed to his feet.
Scrambling and spinning to face Jared, Gareth didn’t make a move to follow Mari. The gang leader didn’t find her to be a threat despite the blood staining his jeans. More the fool. Hobbling forward a step, the drifter glared with seething anger.
“It’s over. You don’t want to make it worse on yourself,” Jared warned.
“Fuck you,” the drifter snarled.
Jared stared down the barrel of the gun and in a burst of clarity, understood his long-dead father. The plan had been thin to begin with, but it’d failed. Anything he did now would be desperate, spur of the moment, and mostly likely to end with his death. He may be nothing but a walking corpse, but at least he’d take this man out. Without Gareth, the rest of them would be easily handled.
His whole life, he’d lived as an example of careful planning but he’d never fooled himself. Sure, every rope, every crate, every precaution was gone over in detail but it’d all been so he could be on his boat, that thin line between planning and waiting disaster.
“They’re worth it.” Jared spoke with a confidence.
“This bunch of ragtags? What are they worth?”
“Dying for.” Jared meant it. The thought of Mari caught and at this man’s mercy made his insides feel like somebody had beat him with a boat oar.
This ended. Now. If they waited, these drifters would dig in, get stronger, and hurt Mari, try to break her. He’d seen it before but no way in hell he’d let it happen here.
His boot scuffed forward. Gareth’s finger stroked the trigger. Neither of them moved again. Sweat coated Gareth’s shirt and Jared’s skin felt tight as the moisture on his back evaporated. A flicker of color moved outside of the narrow, tunneled vision that Jared kept on the drifter. Gareth’s attention wavered.
Jared leaned to his left. In a quick turn, he lunged right, brought his hand up, and threw the sand. It didn’t work. The sand had pressed into a clump in his sweaty hand. It hit the ground and splattered.
But Gareth jerked and his shot went wild.
Jared reacted without thought and threw himself at Gareth. They landed on the ground. Jared sprawled over the slightly smaller man. Gareth wheezed, the sound so similar to Jared’s painful fight with asthma that the past nearly blinded him. But he held on. With both hands, he gripped Gareth’s forearm, keeping him from lifting the pistol and aiming. He brought up the arm and smashed it down on the hard packed sand.
The pistol exploded and pain slashed across Jared’s face.
He couldn’t see, but he held on, smashing that hand over and over. Yelling.
“Drop it. Drop it, damn you.”
The world roared around him until a soft caress across his jaw cut through the chaos.
“It’s okay, Jared. It’s over. They have him,” Mari whispered.
Hearing the surrounding voices, seeing the hands holding down a bloodied Gareth, Jared rolled to the side. Squinting his eyes closed tight against the insanely bright sun, he surrendered to the blazing torment that cut into his face.
He didn’t pass out but wavered in blind, painful stillness. When he came to himself, Mari had disappeared. He managed to sit without hurting himself too much. One of the older women, Vicky, cleaned his face and put some sharp scented ointment on it. As he became more aware, he realized he still sat in the middle of the compound while the villagers worked together to put up a makeshift gate.
“You’ll keep putting this on. I know it smells, but it’ll keep the infection away. You don’t want it setting in on your face.” Vicky wiped her hands on a cloth and patted his leg. Everything about her was strangely soothing. Her familiar, large pleated skirt had a few more patches and her weathered face broke into the smile she always had for him. “Thank you for what you did.”
“Was nothing,” he murmured and his face heated.
“It was. And it’s a fine thing you do, taking them to the city for the guardsmen to deal with.”
“I work in cargo, ma’am.” He gave her a wink and she giggled. It was a sound that paid him back for all the trouble. Something loosened in his chest and the guilt that he’d acted rashly, almost gotten
himself killed, wilted away.
“You wouldn’t mind taking a bit more cargo would you?” She patted his shoulder and stood with a slight groan as her knees popped.
“What kind?” he asked suspiciously. The sly woman had loosened him up, making him soft before the punch.
“One of the men will go. We wish to work out some arrangements. Exchanges for security, whatnot.”
“You should all just move down there.” The anger tried to build, but the firm shake of Vicky’s head sent it away. He understood Mari, even as he spoke with her elder instead of her. They were a family though most of them weren’t of the same blood.
“Just like you gave up your home? We belong here, river rat.” She patted him on the head to soften the insult. “You don’t know why we won’t leave, do you?”
“No. You’re not being reasonable. It’s not safe. These drifters would never have attacked Memphis City.”
“Look around you, my friend. Look at the people who live here. What do you see?”
Jared glanced around to the faces of the people he’d known for years and shrugged.
“You don’t see the color of our skin. I know it. But others do.” Vicky put a hand on his shoulder as his stomach churned. She gave him a soft smile. “You look poleaxed by the thought.”
She chuckled and he frowned.
“And that’s part of what I like about you. Even though you’re as tough as nails, you have a good heart. Not everyone has such a good heart.” She shushed him when he opened his mouth to tell her she was mistaken and continued, “Most of us are black or dark skinned. Most in the city don’t care, but the few who do, they’re ugly. Living here, we’re all happy. If we up and move, we’ll have to fight. Fight the few who are still blind. But we know that we need to start reaching out. Mari is a good hunter, but she can’t replace the four guardsmen we lost. It’s time to connect, exchange people and ideas more directly. Not just through your trading.”
“I suppose that would help, but you need more guards.”
“We’ll work it out. It’s our home and we’ll protect it.”
He nodded. “Home is worth fighting for.”
“Glad you see that. Weren’t sure you understood.” Vicky stared at him as if she could see right into him. “Do you have a home?”
“Of course I do. In Leavenworth.” He scowled.
She tsked. “We like you well enough. You find yourself needing home, you come back.”
Vicky laughed at his expression—he didn’t want to know what she saw there—and meandered away, leaving him to stew. He didn’t know if he was pleased at the invitation to live here or offended that they thought he didn’t have a home.
Maybe moving to Memphis City wasn’t best for them, even if it made them physically safer. And maybe the fire in his belly to move them had to do with his own hang-ups. Living on an overpass for several years as a kid had definitely shaped his views. They might’ve had a vantage point to guard against the gangs that were rampant just after Chicago had burned to the ground, but he hadn’t felt safe until his entire ragtag community had moved to Leavenworth. That bridge had never been home. It’d always been a just a place, just a secure stretch of road where they’d holed up while hoping for better. The village was better. It was what these people had looked for as their home.
Groaning, he got to his feet and took stock. While he sat on his ass, the villagers had roped their prisoners and marched them to the dock. The pregnant woman had insisted she go, too. Everything was aboard, including the food the villagers had packed, needlessly, for such a short trip. He limped to his boat.
The injury to his face had only been the kickback from the sand when the bullet smacked into the ground. His back stung from where he’d been dragged across the ground. The limp was from a deep bruise. Overall, he was surly and angry. By the time Tim, the emissary they were sending to represent the village, nodded and settled onto the deck of the boat, Jared was jittery, antsy.
Time to head down the river.
Jared checked over the rigging. He’d have to replace the fuel he’d spent and trade into debt with one of the merchants in Memphis City. Few of the gas depositories had survived the great fires of New Orleans and the barrels from the delta were worth a ransom. But with his body ailing and the loss of several days, he’d have to replace it in case they ran into raw weather on the way back.
“Oh hell,” he breathed. He’d been stalling. All to say goodbye to a woman he had to leave behind. He’d never wanted anything more than her. Nothing had made him want to go against all his plans, take a risk, more than having her open brightness at his side, but that part of her that thrived, it was all village. He couldn’t take her from her home.
Time to go. And never come back. He couldn’t promise he wouldn’t steal her away if he saw her again.
All the crates were secure. The sail flapping in the wind. The prisoners were patched up, frowning, and lashed to the deck of his boat.
Gareth was sullen. The others were nervous and gave their leader as much space as possible given they were roped together around their necks and their hobbled legs. The woman was only tied at the hands. They’d put her closer to the hut and away from the others. She glared at him as he tugged the mooring loose.
The boat floated free. The loss of something he’d nearly had, was it real? It sure felt like it was crushing his chest. It had to be real.
He turned his back on Memphis Village and reached for his barge pole.
A pounding run sounded over the wood of the dock. Jared whirled. Legs spread, he glared over the widening space between dock and boat.
“You’re not coming,” he snarled but something unclenched in his gut.
Mari halted, put a full duffel bag beside her boot, and spread her own feet. Crossing her arms she glared right back. “I am.”
“You’re too impulsive. You’ll get yourself killed just like my father did, taking on an entire gang to give us time to get away.” Damn, he hadn’t talked with anyone about this. Ever. Not even his mom or his god-father Derek.
“I won’t get killed. Not that way. On your boat, I’ll be in no more danger than you. I trust you.”
His throat burned and he nearly told her to stay the hell away, but his shoulders burned. He glanced at his hands where he clutched the barge pole to steady the boat, ruthlessly fighting to keep from sliding away from the dock. He hadn’t even known he’d done it. He stared at her determined frown as his rigid body fought the current. “He did what he had to do. So do you.”
Her expression softened for a moment but then she hitched her chin and her eyes glinted. She lifted her bag and stared at the several feet of water between the dock and the boat.
“If you come aboard, I told you what would happen.”
She frowned. “You did. You said if I got on that boat, I was yours. But you got it backwards. You’re mine. Now, get out of my way. You need a boatsman and I’m coming aboard. If nothing else, I gotta make sure Tim manages to talk to the right city folk down there.”
“You’ll regret this, Mari.” Fear snaked into his gut like never before, but she didn’t look one bit afraid. “No matter what I said before, you aren’t foolish. You’re not rash. You do what you do to protect people you’re responsible for, even me. Yourself last, but this is something you’ve been careful of before. Be sure you mean it.”
“I’ll regret not grabbing hold of you. I’m ready to see the world, but more to the point, I’m ready to take you on. Turns out, I was really lucky when I caught that snake in the chicken coop. It brought me you.”
Swallowing hard, he firmed his stance as she leapt aboard. She landed so close her cloth covered breasts brushed against his chest. If only he’d managed to get a shirt on, it wouldn’t have wrecked his concentration, his resolve.
“You need me,” she whispered. She was a mess, still. Neither one of them had cleaned up—as if they were in a race to get out of here before temptation got loose, or their prisoners made more trouble. “And yo
u want me.”
“I don’t need you,” he murmured back.
“You do.” Her brown eyes glistened. Her mouth parted and her tongue slid out to wet her bottom lip. “You need help getting these men to Memphis City. You need help getting this boat back up the river. You need help getting out of those jeans and your fine body pumping into mine. But you mostly need me ‘cause you’re you. And I’m me. And we’re both home when we’re together.”
“You are definitely you.”
He wanted to kiss her. Badly. Enough so that it was a physical ache to pull away.
“We will get rid of these prisoners. Then we’ll see.” Jared let her slip past him. Her body rubbed against him and he fisted his hands around the barge pole to keep from grabbing her. His cock ached and throbbed and his mouth watered.
“We’ll see,” she purred and winked at him before striding toward his cabin like she owned the place.
He had a suspicion she already owned him.
Chapter Seven
Memphis City was the same as usual with the ruined buildings of old Memphis looming over the compound walls. People made scavenging trips into the wasteland. They kept evidence of the old life scattered around their small houses, but living like this, in the shadow of death, gave her the willies.
It was different this time, though. She didn’t head to the saloon to find a man. No, she headed there to get a shower in one of the small rooms they rented out. The bed was small but clean. She’d been in this one before. With a man. It’d been nothing like being with Jared. She cleaned quickly and changed. Jared had been quiet and aloof throughout the trip down. She wouldn’t put it past him to leave her. All she had to do was get back before he did.
They’d delivered their prisoners to the sheriff. Tim had gone to speak to the city elders, and Jared had gone somewhere, to some friend’s place. She refused to wonder about that friend as she raced back to the boat.
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