by Angela White
5
Billy and Jax, aware of each other, ran together as they followed Samantha to her next location before dawn. They’d already scouted it themselves after she marked it, and had no trouble keeping up with her but still staying out of sight. What they hadn’t counted on was her also being aware of them.
After Tonya and Kendle left, Sam had spent the morning on the move, picking off small teams of soldiers when the opportunity arose. Sam spun around, rifle lowered, but ready in case she was wrong about who was tailing her.
“Come on out.”
Jax and Billy emerged with slight smiles and faces that held no mockery, only respect.
“Very good,” Billy praised, thinking Neil and Jeremy were lucky to be sharing her. Unlike a lot of their members, Billy understood the urges to go against the norm.
The trio settled down together behind the blanket of trees that was Sam’s next location. She held out her sheet and both men chuckled.
Keep your escorts company until your target arrives.
Sam grinned, liking the feel of being an equal more than she could express to even herself.
“How long?” Jax asked, thinking of snoozing.
“Fifteen minutes or less,” Samantha stated, reading the rest of her orders. She stowed it in her kit, and nervously got up to explore the weapon already perched above them in the tree line.
Sam hadn’t seen who delivered this one, but she was again aware of how intelligent Angela was. She’d provided a secondary weapon in case Sam had lost hers in the first attack, which she hadn’t.
“Man, I wanna be her when I grow up,” Sam stated wistfully, climbing the tree.
When her escorts saw what was waiting, they laughed again, understanding the feeling. Adrian had been good, but Angela was better.
Neither man noticed the false cheer or the distraction technique that had been used on them. Samantha was good at following orders, especially those she agreed with. If these brave men knew what she was about to do, they would drug her and drag her straight to Neil and Jeremy.
6
Donner’s order for the men to push in a hundred miles a week was being followed and then some. These men had heard the rumors of the Ghost being on the outer rings of this invasion, harassing Donner, and they hurried toward their goal in the center, hoping to reach Safe Haven before Marc caught up to them. It flushed these unsuspecting men directly into the second and third rings of Angela’s trap, where they wouldn’t be able to call for reinforcements at all.
Donner had planned to use field phones too, but Angela’s mines and detcord were buried in the only places where teams of men could make camp with heavy gear. All forms of communication, other than smoke and mirrors, or mental, would be gone between teams until the soldiers could replace the lines. By then, it would be too late to matter. Donner and his men would already be too deep into her rings to withdraw.
Zack’s team watched from atop the cliff as the squad of soldiers below them began packing up to start the day’s trek. Zack waited until the sentries were also inside the damage path and hit the button on the box in his hand.
The flat area below them immediately exploded. The detcord running under the feet of the soldiers left little chance for escape.
Zack and his team waited for the dust to clear before going down to strip the area of whatever remained. Another chore on their list was done.
Chapter Eighteen
What Ghosts May Come
1
“Who is that?”
Every soldier on the base had heard rumors of the Ghost being alive by now, but the sight of him striding through the blasted gates behind another glowing-eyed devil was enough to send weaker soldiers fleeing without firing a single shot.
“It’s the Ghost!”
“Get out! Get out!”
“He’s here!”
“Kill him!”
The base alarm began to blare, but it was drown out by the rear gate exploding in two loud pops that sent bodies and debris flying.
Kenn and Marc strode through the smoke, throwing grenades and firing with intent. The nearest soldiers fled as they recognized the Ghost.
Kenn didn’t care that they were fleeing, only that they were a threat and he fired from the hip like Adrian had taught him. He took a savage pleasure in the headshots and splattering gore.
He heard Marc behind him, taking care of the soldiers trying to come in from the rear, but he didn’t turn and help. He knew where Tonya would be, where anyone being interrogated would be on a temporary base like this one, and he moved that way without pausing as shadows scattered in front of him.
“Look out!”
Kenn threw the grenades together, causing two large blasts that cleared the path. He used his last one to blow open the rickety door, dissolving the front of the main building.
“That’s the main alarm!”
In the center of the base, Tonya felt the entire structure shudder as looked at her captors with genuine sympathy. “You don’t want to be in this room when he finds me.
It was easy to see that she was right when another round of explosions came, followed by awful screams of men dying. Her guards fled the room, not bothering to shut the door.
Tonya, hands bound in front of her, picked up the Twinkie that one of the soldiers had been teasing her with and tore into it as if she was starving.
Marc guarded the halls as Kenn stepped into the room with Tonya, who was busy swallowing a last bite and grinning happily.
Kenn growled, but the relief at her being unhurt allowed him to start waking from his rage daze. Crashing, he dropped down into the chair across from her and leaned back. “Whenever you’re ready, dear.”
Tonya flushed at the sarcasm, but quickly climbed into his lap and kissed his cheeks until he hugged her tightly in annoyance.
“Thank you for coming for me.”
“You are mine, right?” he stated, but not with the possessive tones that he’d used on Angela. He didn’t feel that way anymore.
Tonya smiled. “Yeah. Thanks for that, too.” She snuggled into his arms, stomach quieted a bit as a sense of safety swarmed her with weariness. “You feel good.”
Kenn grunted, becoming aware of her physical state when he lifted her into his arms and stood. “Is this what you’re gonna be like? Cause I can’t take this shit, woman.”
Tonya smiled against his sweaty neck and didn’t make any promises that she couldn’t keep.
Marc led the way out of the nearly deserted base, unable to keep from feeling proud of their talents as he swept the destruction that they’d rained down upon this place in mere minutes. Whatever Angela’s reasons for this attack had been, she had accomplished an important feat here and for the first time, Marc had an honest hope that they might win.
2
Donner’s convoy turned to the only alternate route as the explosions echoed across the mountains. There was no way to be sure that it was their recon teams dying, but Donner knew.
He directed his driver go to his next chosen den, a small, one floor office complex that had once sold cabin rentals to tourists. His driver sped across the rocky road, trying to get under cover.
Samantha waved four fingers in the air to indicate how many teams were in this squad and then she took aim. Angela wanted Donner pushed continuously.
Samantha hit the tree in front of the convoy instead of the first jeep. Despite wanting to disobey, she had chosen to trust her leader. She had been able to stay ahead of Donner because of the stops he’d made and the routes Angela had chosen. Donner’s vehicles couldn’t go where she could and it was costing him.
Samantha fired her rifle with glee, hitting mirrors and trimming shoulders as her escorts did the same from the tree above her, per their orders. Billy, on the new rifle, was in heaven.
“There!”
Samantha acted as if she hadn’t noticed the soldiers coming up on her right.
Her guards noticed them too late, view blocked by her body and large tree br
anches.
Samantha waved her panicking guards into hiding and raised her hands as the soldiers spotted her and began shouting orders.
She dropped to her side with her hands out in front of her.
The first thing each soldier noticed about her was the glaring red and white maternity shirt that claimed to love both boys and girls. The second thing they noticed was her glowing red eyes.
“What the hell?!”
Samantha smiled politely, swallowing her sudden case of nerves. “Can I speak with your boss, please? I’d like to register a lengthy complaint.”
“Get up!”
Samantha let them jerk her up by the arm and cuff her, not answering their demands, but obeying every order. The voice inside was saying these men were on the edge, not to provoke them even by accident.
“Donner wants anyone we catch,” the team leader stated. “Take her to a jeep while we clear the area.”
“No clearing,” a higher ranked soldier belayed the command. “You heard the explosions. Entire damn mountain might be rigged. Move out.”
A minute later, Samantha was being marched down the small incline and it was hard to keep the satisfaction from her face.
Billy and Jax were on the move the instant the soldiers were out of sight, headed for the center of their zone to contact their teams for a rescue mission. They had no other envelopes. They flew through the paths and over the stone, not stopping or talking until they were both at their limit and had to slow down. The mountain around them was alive with the noises of life and death, but few of them drew notice from the two worried men.
Neither of them said what they were both thinking, but it was obvious what they had to do when their contact van finally came into sight.
The two tense sentries sitting on top of the van stood up in concern.
“Together?” Jax asked, stumbling a bit as Neil jumped from the roof and flew toward them.
“Yes. Start talking before he reaches us and we may actually survive.”
3
“I’m not in a good mood,” Samantha warned as Donner came into the small room and closed the door. “Neither are my sons.”
She’d been shoved into a jeep, but they’d only traveled a few minutes before reaching this office complex.
Donner took that in with delight. “And they have a father who will be arriving shortly?”
“Yeah,” Sam said evenly. “Let’s go with that.”
Donner was prepared for lies and deceit, or even attempts at sympathy, considering the quick admission of pregnancy, but when she began to control the environment, forcing wind from nothing, he was unable to halt his interest. Few descendants had physical gifts. Mental abilities were common.
Sam let go, and the air dropped, the papers on the desk stilling. She wasn’t an alpha and couldn’t get into Donner’s mind as long as he kept his walls up, but he would have little trouble reading hers. Not that it mattered. She didn’t know Angela’s final plan. No one did.
Donner moved into the opposite chair. “More?”
Samantha indulged him by bringing every object into the air from the desktop and throwing it against the door he’d come in by.
“Excellent.”
He studied her with oddly flickering eyes and Sam realized Angela had been right again, about the government sending their own kind.
“Why are you here?” Donner asked, reading the woman’s thoughts. She was scared and proud, but mostly tired and wanted to go home.
“To kill you.”
Donner chuckled even when he felt the genuine hate behind her words.
“Someone’s already been trying to do that.” He gestured at his bandages, glowing orbs peering through her mind, rifling drawers.
Samantha gave a sweet smile as she pictured pulling the trigger on him.
She laughed when Donner flinched. “Sorry, I missed. I am a rookie.”
Donner’s anger rushed out to drive Samantha backwards. She managed to keep from being hurt by landing on her side, but the pain of the blow drew tears to her eyes.
Samantha let them fall and stayed down. She’d been told not to push him in any way, that he was volatile right now, but she hadn’t been able to resist. As she lay there, she felt him ripping open doors in her mind, but there was nothing for him find. She had no orders now, no specific plan to follow. She was at the mercy of fate and the man at the table.
“Yes, you are,” Donner stated, soothed to discover she wasn’t hiding anything. “But even with your gift, you’re still not worth passing up two alphas. You’ll be traded.”
“Good. I’ve wanted to be in my tent with a mug of hot chocolate for days now.”
Donner read no lie there and frowned. Why would they send in a pregnant woman with orders to kill him, but no plan?
“Good question,” Samantha commented. “Ask her when you see her, will you?”
Donner felt the wind rise in the room as Samantha stood up, the cold chill that settled onto his shoulders. Had he underestimated their abilities?
“No, easy,” Sam controlled, rubbing her stomach.
Donner didn’t miss it, but the goal he had was still larger than unborn twins who could affect nature. “I’m an alpha, Ms. Moore. If they try–”
“They’re just hungry,” Samantha hurried to explain, scooting up against the wall. “They couldn’t give a shit less about you.”
Donner snorted and headed for the door. He was gone a minute later, stopping only long enough to order the door guard to bring her something to eat.
Samantha let out the breath she’d been holding the entire time he’d been in the room, but she didn’t let her thoughts go to anything more than the immediate care of her children. Donner had been in her head and he was indeed, an alpha. She’d had no way to resist his presence in her mind. It had been awful. He would likely monitor her thoughts until something else distracted him.
Samantha stayed back as the door opened and the guard came in with a small pouch. Another soldier stood behind him, gaping at their prisoner.
Samantha smiled at them. “Is it okay if I ask a couple questions?”
“Like what?” the food deliveryman asked suspiciously, setting the pouch on the desk.
“If I need to, ah, use the facilities?”
The man rolled his eyes, waving toward a door to the right. “There’s also a couch in there.”
Sam was surprised. Her happiness at not being held in awful conditions flooded the room.
The two men stared at her, dumbfounded. Her happiness was addictive.
Sam went to the rear rooms instead of making a run for it. She wasn’t supposed to escape or bewitch these men onto her side. That was the easiest part of this mission. Samantha had no idea what came next, but after everything she had done over the last few days, it was a relief. She had wounded Donner more than once, flushed him north, and now she was here, in his camp. Angela would bring her home alive if possible, but no matter what happened during Angela’s finale, Sam had accomplished her mission objectives.
She thought about her men, who knew by now that she’d been taken, and controlled her anxiety by forcing her mind to slow for sleeping, like she’d learned in Eagle training. It had been a long run and it wasn’t over yet. She couldn’t break down now.
4
“How did you beat me here?” Kyle demanded.
He’d ducked inside the temporary tent to find Jennifer sitting on a bedroll, pulling off her muddy boots. He’d only been here long enough to give Angela an update on Zack’s team, who Kyle had transported multiple times today. They’d been busy beavers.
“I didn’t, really,” Jenny confessed, giving up on the boots to lie down. “Some of us rode on the back of your van. You never noticed us.
“You did not!” he denied, missing the wording.
Jennifer snickered. “Yes, we did.”
Her smile faded. “Why was Conner brought in?”
“He broke a moral rule,” Kyle said uneasily, forced to believe that he�
��d missed her hanging from the rear of the van. He excused it as being tired.
Jennifer was too tired to scan his thoughts or drag it out of him. “Okay.”
Kyle knew she wanted answers, but he didn’t have them to give. He was glad when she sat up and began fighting with her boots again.
“You look tired,” she said, finally getting the first one untied.
“So do you,” he answered, calming down a bit now that they were together. Why did she have that effect on him?
“I have no idea, but it works both ways,” Jenny said, blushing. “I missed you, too.”
“Can I hold you?” Kyle blurted suddenly.
Jennifer knew he meant something different from what they’d already been doing and asked, “What do you mean?”
Kyle swallowed, embarrassed. “Before we sleep, I, uh... I’d like to cuddle, with you in my lap. Just for a few minutes.”
Jennifer couldn’t deny him. He’d never asked for physical contact before and she found that she didn’t mind the idea of trying this with him. In fact, they’d already sort-of done this, only lying down.
“Um, yeah. Okay.”
Kyle removed his boots and jacket, exposing big arms under a black t-shirt.
Jennifer looked away, suddenly scared of herself. Killing Louis and the others had helped her get by a mental block. She wasn’t afraid of Kyle hurting her, though she was sure he would without meaning to. Her pain would come when he asked for her to participate, to respond.
Kyle had no idea where Jennifer’s thought were as he sat on the bedroll beside her and leaned against a tall cooler.
When she jumped, nearly lunging from the cloth, he sighed. “It’s okay, Jen. We’ll just go to sleep.”
“No.”
Her sharp tone made Kyle look over, expecting to find the witch, something he wouldn’t tolerate when it came to their physical bonding.
Jennifer’s beautiful eyes glared at him in fierce determination. “You didn’t ask for anything wrong, Reece. Shut up and take it.”
