by Angela White
Adrian had left detailed instructions, in small bits, with all of his top men. Not enough to cause complete chaos at the time, he had made sure a successor would have a solid support structure based on equal footing.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Daryl prompted, loving his new life at moments like these. He, too, was a leader of men.
“Work on the wall will slow.”
“Is that possible?” Daryl asked lightly. “They’ve been at it for hours and only have two panels up.”
Kevin understood the point as they watched Eric and Tim struggle to get it lined up, and Mike purposely hang his end crooked.
“Fair enough,” Kevin gave in. Even untrained, weaker camp women would take the job more seriously.
“Those three are trouble,” Kevin stated lowly. “We’ll end up guarding them, like with Matt.”
Daryl didn’t answer the obvious. “If you have ideas, she’ll want to hear them.”
Daryl didn’t add more and Kevin didn’t push for details like he knew Daryl was hoping. If he decided he wanted this job, he would find out everything he could, but until then, he planned to maintain a small distance. Kevin had a lot of irons in the fire, from radio man to leading his own team, but the most powerful draw in Safe Haven for him was currently enjoying breakfast in bed.
Both men observed as Angela stopped by the QZ desk on her rounds. The teens appeared nervous and Daryl waved a few more men toward her. The new arrivals from this stop would be heavily screened and viewed with complete mistrust until they were cleared medically and mentally.
“Should I…”
“Yes.”
Kevin went to Angela’s side.
Daryl gave Kyle a nod across the din. Hesitant or not, Kevin had the instinct required for the position. Now they would see if he developed the desire for it. Without that, he would be switched out for someone with the proper enthusiasm.
12
Neil saw Samantha enter the QZ and reluctantly turned to sweep the rest of his area and then the main camp. Slacking off right now wasn’t allowed. Everyone was still snickering over earlier, and though the wounds were only minor, his pride couldn’t take another blow at the moment.
Jeremy joined Neil, and also stood with his back to the QZ. It felt odd, but with Brady as Angela’s other sniper, it was the strangers who were in danger.
“We’ve started packing things up for the move,” Jeremy told him. “Ahead of schedule. Sam said it was a good idea to be ready.”
“Then it probably is,” Neil responded, trying to be neutral. He understood that Samantha wouldn’t be happy with either of them, so she’d chosen both. And Adrian had known, approved it.
Jeremy was trapped between shame and anger in the light of day, and he couldn’t take much of the silent treatment. He resumed his rounds without a second attempt at conversation. Like Neil, he wasn’t strong enough to walk away from Samantha and the taste was surprisingly sour at times and incredibly sweet at others.
“He’s the only one who knows what it’s like for you.”
Neil jumped. He hadn’t heard Cynthia come up behind them.
“If you two ever came together to care for her needs, I believe she might be happy for the first time in her life.”
Neil waited, thinking Samantha had made another friend who was as hard as she was.
“She’s like Adrian–it takes more to get her there.”
Neil had to turn at that remark, scowling.
Cynthia beat him to it. “Not that you didn’t do good, ’cause clearly, you did. I mean in other ways. One person tending her isn’t enough.”
“What does she need?”
The question surprised both of them, but Cynthia couldn’t give him the clarity he was hoping for.
“The same as Adrian and Angela, I’d imagine. Devotion, loyalty, obedience, support, but also your insights, your guidance, the instincts and protection. Look at it this way: What if Adrian only had Kenn to see to his mind? How much worse would he suffer?”
Neil snorted, thinking of all the planning and work it took to keep someone like Adrian happy. The blond was the multi-tasker from hell.
Cynthia lowered her voice as Samantha came toward them. “Pretend she’s him, and I’d say things will get easier.”
Neil found he could do that easily, but he didn’t start working on it. He was still mulling over Becky’s words about forgiveness. She’d told him it didn’t matter, that in the end, it wasn’t her choice to make.
“The nightmares decide my mood on any given day.”
Neil understood how that could be, and wanted to change it for her. Becky deserved peace and Neil had chosen to give it to her, if he could. He owed her that.
Chapter Six
1
Angela paused outside the tent they’d chosen to hold their second meeting in. She’d instructed Kenn to have the leaders of each team collect the ideas and plans, so that the number of people would be roughly half what she’d had yesterday. The final meeting would only be her and the top five men in camp.
Noting the green sunset, Angela hit her mic. “Kyle, join us, please.”
“Copy.”
There was curiosity in his tired response and she waited outside for him, waving the others on when they would have lingered.
When they were alone, listening to the gentle murmur of men already comparing plans, Angela glanced at Kyle.
“You once told me if I needed anything, that I should talk to you. Remember that moment, Reece?”
Kyle stiffened at the name, now aware that something was coming. “Of course. And yes, I meant it.”
Angela noticed he didn’t immediately ask what she wanted. She understood that was only in case it involved Jennifer, who was still in the medical tent, resting under supervision.
“I’d like to offer you a job change–third in command.”
Kyle gaped, unable to form a response, and Angela didn’t wait.
“I’m not Adrian. I won’t expect as much, but I can’t have a top man who serves two masters, like Kenn would. I need men who belong to me, the way Adrian’s do. I’m offering one of those places to you.”
Kyle still wasn’t sure what to say. “No one’s going to like this. Neil and Doug both…”
“Serve in other ways.” Angela interrupted, sure she had the complete attention of everyone inside the tent. “Adrian will be out of commission for at least the next two weeks and we are short on time.”
Kyle searched her nervously. “You’ll give it all up the second he says he’s ready?”
“Before that, if I can.”
“Then it would be my honor to serve.”
“Adrian and Marc will probably be the only ones who don’t eventually think we’re trying to take control while the boss is hurt. You may lose friends and gain enemies,” Angela warned.
Kyle snorted, holding the flap open for her. “We all expected you to reform the chain of command. I just thought you’d pick Neil or Doug, or even Zack, over me.”
“So did a lot of people,” she stated, not smiling. This job required her to be surrounded by killers. Nothing less would save them.
Angela went to the front of the tent and got to work.
“Let’s hear the weakest solutions first, the ones that do not cost lives. Brady, you start.”
2
While nice and flush with game, the Toltec Mounds state park was much too open for their liking, and Angela was eager to be gone. They’d enjoyed the flat land around the mounds, and the bit of history that was attached to the locations, but it was enough to keep the shield above the camp most nights. Angela brought it up now, but made sure those closest saw she wasn’t worried, just being cautious.
Angela felt the waves of coolness as she neared the medical tent. They were in direct contrast to the humid evening breeze, but matched the concerns of the men she’d left behind. They hadn’t been happy with her answers, or lack of them, and the bad vibes could have been coming from anywhere.
&
nbsp; When she walked by Adrian’s bed and got a hard stare, she understood who was upset with her. It only took a minute to figure out the possible reasons why, something she did while John gave her a quick update.
“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, and 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 life line 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 in comfort and that was a bad sign. The sense of doom was so strong 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 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 through.
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 Brady.
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 lain 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 what you love will always survive.”
“Even if his life is the price?”
The Witch didn’t cackle in horrified 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 told me a man couldn’t have a high place here and her, that no one could balance the two.”
Adrian’s depression swarmed over. “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 over.”
3
Kenn left Adrian a few minutes later, sure the injured man was set to manipulate them, to push someone into telling Brady
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 dangerous thing, to side with anyone but Brady 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 around 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 most 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.”
