by Angela White
Dust coated the area and the coughing began.
“Covers up!” Marc shouted from under his own wet bandana. “Glasses on!”
12
“Is it set?”
“Yes.”
Marc went to where Kendle was waiting at the edge of their camp. Her growing attachment was a concern for Paul and Jax, but they didn’t understand.
“Will Angela?” the demon questioned.
Marc wasn’t sure. Considering the link between her and Adrian, maybe she’d be glad.
Kendle could feel Marc’s unhappiness, but didn’t know what to do for him. He wasn’t like LJ, wasn’t hot for her. Careful conversations were the best she could do most nights. She’d never met anyone as closed-off as Marc.
“I’m sorry for that,” he stated.
Kendle slid her arm around his waist. “It’s okay. That’s not what we were brought together for.”
Marc wasn’t sure about that and didn’t say anything. He also didn’t pull away from her comfortable embrace. He needed these men to think she was his woman, but more, he needed the human touch. Most of the men riding with him only made contact in a moment of quick courage, like they were brushing the skin of a revered elder. Some days, it sent his ego through the clouds. Other days, it made his stomach boil. Those were the days he was forced to accept that Adrian’s job was also awful and lonely. It was harder to resent Adrian for desiring the same thing that he was at the moment.
“You could call her.”
Marc was used to Kendle’s intuition, but not her compassion. That was an emotion she didn’t display much of.
“No.”
“Why not? The soldiers know where she is, and where you are.”
Marc sighed, telling her the same lie he’d used on Jax yesterday. “She’s already a target. If people hear how much I… need her, she’ll never be able to sleep alone or even take a shower in private. I won’t do that to her. She values her privacy.”
Kendle thought he was lying, but didn’t call him on it.
“Are you ready for tomorrow?” he distracted.
Kendle grimaced. “Wish it was now.”
Marc agreed, only for different reasons. “One more day here.”
Kendle didn’t care about the location, only the goals and the people. “Then tomorrow needs to be bloody. I can’t be stuck inside a base with all these men and not kill anything.”
Marc chuckled, thinking she and Angela would probably have made great friends and team mates.
“Come on. Let’s get some coffee and go over the layout.”
Kendle went willingly, trying not to feel isolated when he let go of her. Marc was a fixed point and she kept him in her sights as often as she could.
Marc spent the next hour boring her with details instead of giving her the workout she needed. He was on the edge himself and wasn’t sure of his own control. Kendle liked to draw blood and after being careful, he would need a release that wasn’t available until they sprang the trap.
Marc wasn’t about to blow up early. They’d spent three days planning this last attack. He expected to lose 40 over the next few days, maybe even tomorrow, but the massive attack come lunch would hopeful slow the troops and give them time to blow bridges and overpasses as they retreated. Little Rock base was where most of them would go next, though some would return to their own camps to protect their people. More would go to Safe Haven to help defend them and get Marc’s other plans rolling. For a few of those, Angela would need all the time he could give her to get them ready.
“Call coming in.”
Marc detoured to their communications bike, to their control man.
“Ghost camp, Alpha. Come in, Alpha.”
“We hear you.”
“Five by nine, out of eight and six.”
The radioman gawked at Marc in confusion, but Brady only flipped the dial to channel 43 instead of explaining. “You got me.”
“Got a numbers update for you and some good news,” Quinn’s happy voice bounced off the barren landscape.
Marc clicked the mic and Quinn knew to go ahead.
“We are now eight times what you left behind. I repeat, we are by eight.”
“That’s the good news, right?” Marc joked.
“Actually, no. The good news came from a rider delivering hardware. Safe Haven has company–the good kind.”
Marc felt his worry ease a bit. “Thank you.”
“Anytime, Boss. Instructions or messages?”
There was a hopeful pause on that last part and Marc sensed that Angela had told them to find out if he had anything for her.
“No.”
“Copy. Out.”
Marc gave Atolius a nod of respect–it had been his idea–then moved toward his tent. When he held out a hand to Kendle, men approved. They liked Marc and Kendle together. It was a good match to those who were viewing it from the outside.
13
“Shoot him!”
The call came from several team leaders and the soldiers fired obediently, missing the cloaked figure leaping across the roofs of homes and businesses, even sheds and barns when he had to.
“Again!”
“Fire!”
The shadow leapt in time to avoid the hit behind him, but the explosion in front of him sent the Ghost between the brick buildings and out of sight.
“Get him!”
Two forward teams went that direction and the team leaders behind them disapproved of the order. Didn’t command understand that those two teams would return with only half their men and even those would be wounded? The Ghost was lethal.
The soldiers listened for more sounds of fighting as they continued their march to Little Rock AFB. Command wanted it secured in short order and the battalion was almost out of time on their deadline. The Ghost had slowed them down, but now, they were shoving through the last five hundred miles to get inside some sort of protection. Being picked off was bad for morale.
Kablamm!
The explosion lit up the south side of the city and confirmed the thoughts of the team leaders. None of those two platoons would be coming back. If command kept sacrificing men like this, there wouldn’t be many alive when the welcoming air strips came into sight.
“Keep marching!”
The order as met with grumbling, but no real resistance. All of the soldiers wanted to be undercover and not stopping until they got there now sounded good.
“Ahhh!”
More men fell on their flank, the screams echoing up, and this half of the battalion began to run.
Behind them the delay of being attached with fire-bombs put a small amount of distance between these two groups.
Marc used it to join them like he was a part of their group. He got the shadow riders into their proper places in the rear of the first platoons, aware of the men who swept their clothes and decided they weren’t a threat.
When Marc opened fire, the other riders did the same.
Before the teams ahead of the rear could run and help, Marc and his men were already out of sight. They were alone as they stomped down the stairs and vanished into the sewer.
14
“He’s a Ghost. You can’t kill him.”
The General put his gun to the Indian captive’s temple and pulled the trigger.
The body slumped to the bloody dirt and the General tossed an arm around the Major’s shoulders, gun hanging over his cheek in a threat.
“I want him brought in, and I don’t care what you have to do to accomplish that.”
Francis laughed despite the danger he was in. “Do it yourself. The bullet is easier.”
The General grimaced at the refusal.
Francis tensed under him. “Do not underestimate me. We will die together.”
The tension and fighting in command was as bad as it was among the ranks, and the General was forced to calm down. He stepped back, but didn’t put the 9mm away.
“If you can’t give me the Ghost, why did Command send you out here?”
Major John Francis had arrived late yesterday and been observing silently. Now, he leered toward the forty new bodies the Ghost had given them. “His woman is capable of doing that without firing a single bullet. I didn’t come for the Ghost. I came for the Raven.”
“I have doubts about us making it to Georgia, Francis. Not without more men.”
The Major sneered. “You would need a miracle, but I don’t mean to go to her. She will come to us.”
“And how will that work?”
Francis gestured to the radio they were keeping on the rebel channels. “We’ve heard her. We have the stories from people who were there. She’ll come for her Ghost.”
“But that leaves the same problem!” the General protested. “We can’t catch him.”
Francis spit towards the General’s freshly-shined boots. “You clearly can’t.”
The general saw it coming too late.
“Ugg!”
The knife was calmly retrieved from the dying man’s chest, the gun in the dirt and out of reach.
“No vest,” Francis commented, cleaning his blade on the General’s shocked, paling cheek. “I’ll take it from here. You’re now relieved.”
Chapter Twenty
Walnut Grove, Alabama
8/2
1
For the first time in months, they were camped near a town and the feel was heavy.
Walnut grove, Alabama had been average, with a normal population for the area, but it wasn’t anything more than a ghost town now. Doors kicked in, frames of charred buildings and trailers, cemeteries looted and bones laying in disrespect. Even the roads the clearing crew had prepared were slimy and dark, like it never stopped raining here long enough to dry up. The sky above matched, with an ominous shade of green that kept Samantha on edge.
Angela had brought them here intentionally after Theo had called it in. Her camp needed to be reminded of how deep the War had hurt them all and camping out of sight of those horrors wasn’t going to be the norm anymore. The truth would be something they had to stand on from here and it began with what happened.
The camps around hers were uneasy being out in the open, but she knew it would work on them as well. By the time they left here, anger and the burning desire to survive would flood every patriot in their convoy.
“We have to talk.”
Angela tried to shut him down, sensing what was coming. “Camp’s fine right now.”
“That’s not what I wanted.”
Killing time until evening Mess, Angela didn’t look up from the schedules she was going over in the lea of her tent. When he waited for her to respond, Angela wondered how far he would go to keep from retaking the reins.
“Have a seat. That hip’s gotta hurt after all the hours you’ve put in on it.”
Adrian joined her with a grimace and waited for her to finish.
Angela dragged it out, not wanting to do it.
“Angela.”
“No.”
“Angela.” More persistent now.
“No, Adrian. I don’t want this. I never have.”
“You’re sure?”
She finally met his eye and gave a bark of bitterness that he wasn’t surprised by. He knew the range of emotions that leadership brought.
“Yes.”
“But?”
Her gaze went to the schedules. “But I don’t know where I belong now. And you know that. It’s why I didn’t insist while Kenn was at the medical center.”
Adrian’s heart broke at her lost tone and he took the opening without hesitation. “You belong by my side.”
Angela stared, stunned he would say so aloud.
Angela sat back, Witch whispering, mind racing. He was letting her in, now, when she had no defense. What did she feel?
When she finally spoke, Adrian wasn’t sure if he should be braced or ducking.
“I waited my entire life to be able to love Marc, dreamed of how perfect it would be.” She glanced over the, her, peacefully surviving camp. “I still do.”
“But.”
“But I’m drawn to you and it’s easy to understand why. Look at what you’ve given me, given all the people here, how you gave of yourself to build this!”
She refused to lie even as the guilt spoke up. “I could have been blinded by it, if you were bad.”
“I am evil, Angie,” Adrian refuted, sending a small spark with the variation. He had to keep it light, though. It was one of those things that he would only be able to use openly once she was his. When that happened, he would whisper it in her ear every night as she exploded in his arms.
Angela sighed at the tremor of longing that his use of that name produced. “No worse than the rest of us. We may be kindred’s, but I love Marc. I’d never do what Samantha is.”
Adrian lit a smoke with a deceptive casualness that hid his pain. Only his mind said that it mattered, that he would continue to wait. “I’ll take over soon.”
Adrian studied her for signs of reluctance and found only relief. She honestly didn’t want it.
“How will you handle it?”
Adrian shrugged. “That’s up to you. Publicly is best, so they don’t think I’m pushing you out.”
She denied that. “They’ll just be glad you’re in charge again.”
“Don’t underestimate all you’ve done for them, Angela. When I’m banished, it’s you they’ll ask to take back over.”
Adrian grit his teeth in frustration as he moved toward the main camp. What could he say to make her understand that they belonged together? He’d never met someone he respected more, wanted more, felt more for, and it hurt and angered him that she couldn’t accept it. When would she realize that he was the only one who would be able to make her happy?
Adrian sighed. Only after Marc’s death and he wasn’t even allowed to hope for that.
Doors open wide between them, he left her with the ugly thought and Angela found no comfort in his prediction. She’d have to do this again. When the camp found out, she’d be the one to hold Safe haven together. How did she prepare for that?
“We think you should be leading anyway–the camp females.”
Those words rang in Angela’s mind. Had Tonya really felt that way or had she just been trying to make a team? Peggy and Hilda clearly agreed, but what did the camp and Eagles think?
Angela found her shadow in the darkness, met Kyle’s curious gaze. “Ready to go back to being his top Eagle again?”
“It’s what I was promised, what we agreed to.”
The mobster’s tone was closed-off and Angela glanced at him coolly.
“So the last weeks of being my right hand were just a part of your duties?”
Kyle snorted, not about to challenge her over a lie that didn’t matter between them. “I wanted to tell him no, to go against him right then,” Kyle confided lowly. “The same as you did.”
Angela blew out a sigh. “But he didn’t recognize it. He thinks I can’t wait to give it up, when I…”
She changed the words. “I don’t know exactly what happens to us now. I’m not sure where we fit.”
“Yes, you are. It’s ending and you loathe the idea of just being an Eagle or even Marc’s mate. You want more. He’s right, and that’s why you’re upset.”
“I want to do more.”
“And you can’t with Marc here?”
“Marc wouldn’t stop me.”
“Unless you choose to stay in command to share leadership. He’d never accept that, right?”
Angela tossed the smoldering butt to the ground and put it out with her boot. She viewed Kyle, sometimes still amazed by how much had changed since her first day in Safe Haven. Why didn’t the mobster know what was coming, what she’d figured out a long time ago?
Instead of anger or information, she put him to work. “Talk to people quietly and get a consensus, find out how they feel about us now. I don’t want to lead, don’t want this burden, but I don’t think I can go back to being on the shelf un
til needed and I doubt you can, either. We’ve come too far for that.”
Kyle left and Angela finished facing the ugly truth. “I want to agree. I want to stand at Adrian’s side and keep learning to lead. There’s only one thing on this planet that I want more than that, and it isn’t My Brady.”
Angela’s hand dropped to her stomach.
2
Kenn stayed in the darkest part of the shadows as Adrian left, lingering to observe Angela and Kyle instead. What he saw made him grimace. It didn’t take long for him to understand what Adrian was doing and why.
“Always protecting the herd,” Kenn muttered, following Adrian. “When do you get to be happy?”
Kenn had long since accepted that Adrian didn’t want to take back over, and stopped pushing him on it. He thought he understood why now. Adrian was training her and giving himself a break. So far, it was working out well. Kenn didn’t think things would be much different right now if Adrian hadn’t been injured, except that he himself would have Brady’s job of slowing down the enemy.
“And what have you seen that makes you lower yourself to these tactics?” Kenn mused, watching Adrian accept an offer of comfort from Nancy, the sailor from Hot Springs. “What’s coming for you, but not this camp?”
“His past.”
Kenn turned to find Samantha had been shadowing him and scowled.
“Hey, not like that,” she explained quickly. “I’m practicing and you’re better than most of the Eagles.”
Kenn’s chest swelled, but he ducked mentally. Samantha was rarely ever nice to anyone. “What do you mean, his past?”
Sam pointed out something that she assumed he’d missed. Most people here had. “Did you notice that all of us have been brought down, in one way or another? We’ve been knocked about as low as we can go, then Adrian built us back up. Now, we’re stronger than we’ve ever been.”
Kenn hadn’t realized how many of Safe Haven’s members had gone through it until she said so. “What about Adrian?”
“His fall came in little Rock.”
Samantha snorted. “It started when Angie came here. Little Rock was a domino in that line. His payment, his punishment, isn’t over yet.”
Kenn got her point and began worrying more than he already had been.
