From the Ashes

by Angela White

  “Yes.”

  Reading them both, Angela discovered that Kyle didn’t want Jennifer to take any of the fallout if he were banished, that’s why he’d set it up this way. How sweet. And naïve on his part. If he were voted out, the camp would find a way to hurt her for disrupting the flow of the Eagles.

  “Come in.”

  Angela noted the bigger belly, the stiffness of Jennifer’s movements. She looked better, but it was obvious that she was much too young for what her body had been forced into.

  Kyle stood up, directing Jennifer into the chair.

  “What would you like to say?” Angela asked.

  Jennifer wasn’t one to play games when it came to getting what she wanted. “Kyle asked me to be his mate. I’ve said yes, with conditions.”

  Angela’s head spun to him in disapproval. “Really.”

  Kyle groaned. “I need her, Angie. In so many ways, I can’t tell them all.”

  “And what about her needs?” Angela demanded.

  “I’m taking care of them!” Kyle snapped back guiltily. “And I’ve made their deal!”

  “But you haven’t stuck to it, otherwise we wouldn’t be here right now,” Angela retorted.

  “I asked him to kiss me, to be sure I wanted him.”

  Jennifer’s words were clearly a lie. Kyle’s stunned face was the evidence.

  Angela snorted, leaning back. “The camp won’t believe that any more than I do.”

  Jennifer locked gazes with Angela. “That doesn’t matter to me. He and I have an arrangement in place, one that I like.”

  There was steel in that tone, those golden eyes that resembled Dog’s. Angela studied the girl openly, evaluating. “The camp will say you’re too young to know what you want or need.”

  “But he isn’t,” Jennifer pointed out. “And you all trusted him before me, right?”

  Angela admired the girl’s tactics. “Yes. We never expected Kyle to react this way to any female, let alone one so young. It makes us worry.”

  “It does the same to him, but I’ve talked to Charlie. Wasn’t that how you and Marc started out?”

  Angela opened her mouth to scold and realized she was trapped–by a fourteen-year-old girl who had the heart of Adrian’s highest Eagle. That said a lot, didn’t it?

  Kyle was staring at Jennifer as though she was his reason for breathing. It was an expression she and Marc had shared for all the years of their childhood, and that included when it would have gotten him arrested. Love knew no boundaries of time or distance.

  “I’m going to recommend that you be declared an adult, so that your choices are your own.” Angela raised a hard brow toward the surprised mobster. “That is what you were hoping for when you planned this, right?”

  “Yes.” Kyle forced himself to talk past the lump in his throat. Why had he thought Angie hadn’t known? “She needed time to get to know me, to feel the connection. I’d never hurt her. I gave that promise during our first night together, and I meant it.”

  “And if she grows up and wants freedom? A new man? You gonna be like Kenn and stalk her?”

  “No!” Kyle protested that, immediately. “I’ll let her go.”

  “Like hell you will! Just be good to me, and I’ll never want anyone else.” Jennifer scowled, flushing at her outburst.

  Kyle was lost in the daze of getting of what he wanted most, to be allowed to love her.

  Jennifer smiled, hand over her stomach. “You make me feel safe.”

  “A friend can do that, too,” Kyle offered, starting to realize how crowding her emotions, trying to give her no choice, had been wrong.

  Jennifer tilted her head as he knelt in front of her. “You are my friend. You have been all along.”

  “It doesn’t have to be more,” he conceded, unable to hide the misery behind the revelation.

  “I was going to insist on that, being friends only, but something Chris told me made me realize I want more.”

  “That was where the…relief question came from?” Kyle asked, letting his hand cover hers as the babies jostled for position.

  It was as if they were alone as they worked out the bonds holding them together, and Angela took it all in, concern easing.

  “Yes. He said you would take a woman here, in secret, to keep from hurting me if I didn’t want you like that.”

  Kyle stiffened. “They’ve been informed that I won’t be using their services.”

  “They? As in more than one?” Jennifer’s cute face squashed up in anger. “That makes me want to hit you!”

  Kyle chuckled, delighted. “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “You can. I’d never hit you back.”

  “Even when I tell you that I’ve already signed up for the Eagles?”

  “No. Never.”

  His hand over her stomach had tensed for an instant, but she hadn’t felt her usual flare of fear. It was liberating, and Jennifer finished making it clear that she wasn’t nearly as innocent as she’d led everyone to believe.

  “When we were in that farmhouse, I had to make a choice. I knew I could use the things you were feeling to control you. That’s all it was at first for me, aside from how safe you made me feel. I saw what you could do for my baby, and...I chose to lead you on. And, I’m not sorry I used you that way.” She looked up at him with regret and victory. “I’m also not saying all this to keep you out of trouble.”

  Kyle took her confession to heart and delivered one of his own. “I knew you would, Jen. I used your worry over the delivery and Safe Haven’s reaction. I’m sorry, I just…”

  “Want me,” she supplied.

  “Yes.” His hand curled protectively over the top bulge, caressing what would be his son or daughter in a couple of months. “Them, too. I can’t take away what he did to you, but I can swear it won’t ever happen again. We’ll be the family you’re missing.”

  She sighed as his touch began to settle the babies down. Her pale hand against Kyle’s extremely tanned fingers was a harsh contrast, a bad omen of their compatibility her mom might have said, but Jennifer didn’t listen to that voice. Her mom hadn’t always been right, like her being an escort.

  Jennifer understood now that her mom could have been one of Adrian’s Runners if she’d wanted to be. Instead, she’d liked her life of moral depravity. Jennifer hadn’t, but that experience had kept her alive during captivity, and she was grateful for it now. Without her mom’s voice whispering, telling her what to do, she would have been one of the hundreds of corpses Cesar left in his wake.

  “I like the deal we have.” She flushed. “And when I’m stronger, I think you won’t scare me as much.”

  Kyle pressed an intense, chaste kiss to the back of her hand. “We’ll go slowly, with everything.”

  Jennifer stood up, silently insisting on being held, and Kyle surrounded her with his killer’s arms, heart complete for the first time in his life. He was wanted!

  Angela slipped out of the tent, smiling. Love. It screwed with everyone at some point.

  5

  “Why are we stopping?”

  Shawn pointed toward the edge of the creek where a large group of wild turkeys was foraging in the bushes.

  Neil’s truck came to a stop, lights flashing off, and Sam realized this was their prey. She was relieved. She hadn’t been looking forward to more deer.

  “You stay with Neil.”

  She ignored the happily observing men in the seats behind her. “What?”

  Shawn tried not to smirk. He liked Sam and didn’t want to offend her. “He switched you for our XO. You’ll play that role today.”

  Sam swallowed nervously. Neil had done it on purpose, so she would have to spend time with him.

  Wasn’t that part of why you wanted to come along? she asked herself. You wanted human contact. Now, you’re getting it.

  “Fine!” Samantha closed the door, heading for Neil’s truck, but even in her anger, she knew not to scare the birds away by slamming it. Safe Haven needed th
e food.

  Samantha slid into the passenger seat of Neil’s truck with a sharp glare that dared him to try starting a personal conversation.

  Neil wisely kept his mind on the mission. “This is what I need.”

  Sam scanned the short list he’d prepared while driving, judging from the messy writing. His scrawls were usually neat and tight.

  It didn’t appear to be anything she couldn’t do. “Okay.”

  “We’re the flushers. We make the noise, and the rest of the crew captures them in nets.”

  “Taking some alive?”

  “Yes. Chris thinks he can raise these, too.”

  Samantha shrugged. The vet appeared to be doing well so far. Most of the animals he’d added to the collection were still alive, with quite a few of them pregnant. That thought had need, sharp and heavy, settling into her gut.

  Neil leaned over slowly to pull something from the glove box, letting his scent hit her. Charlie wasn’t the only one who was studying these post-war females. Neil had noticed Samantha used a light spray of perfume. He’d taken it to mean she liked her man to smell good, too, and he subtly waited for any reaction. With the windows up, she should be getting a full blast.

  Samantha was. Neil’s musky, tempting scent was one of her favorites. Polo on a man with that attitude of control was attention getting, but she was smart enough to know it was being used as a weapon to wear her down.

  Sam hit the window button and began breathing through her mouth.

  Neil frowned, quickly sitting back. She didn’t like it. Damn. Something different? Sighing inwardly, the trooper skipped on to the next ambush. He grinned at her. “Ready to go get covered in glory?”

  Samantha couldn’t resist his excitement or the challenge. She leered. “You know it.”

  Neil did. She wanted the same things that he and the rest of Adrian’s army did, to be useful and be recognized for it. They were a perfect match. If only he could make her see that.

  Samantha joined the men at the rear of the vehicles, taking her air horn and the long, thick leather gloves the flushers were required to wear.

  As she and Neil softly stepped towards the far end of the creek bank, the nauseating thrill of battle started to fall over her mind. This is what she’d come for too, as much as the human contact. She didn’t have to have a man, but this ego-feeding boost, she had been desperate for.

  “Ready?”

  Samantha was unable to keep from flirting at Neil’s innocent question. “Born that way.”

  Neil’s eyes flashed with hunger. “Prove it!”

  Sam hit the button on her horn instead of grabbing him, and the turkeys scattered.

  She and Neil stayed back, occasionally hitting their horns to keep the birds from fleeing, and the gunshots rang continuously as the team took aim.

  When they’d bagged enough for a good stock, nets were brought out to capture the requested dozen. The angry birds fought, and it took them more time to load the birds into the trucks than it had to actually capture them with the nets. Turkeys were mean.

  “You gonna live?”

  Neil slung blood onto the browning grass. “Affirmative. Just got my first turkey bite. Can’t go until the award shows up.”

  Samantha had a number of scratches and marks, too, but only Neil’s was bleeding.

  Neil did quick first aid, dumping alcohol over the wounds twice before adding ointment and a bandage. He looked up as he finished. “Did you do yourself yet?”

  Sam flushed at her thoughts, aware of the others lingering at the rear of the trucks. Except for the three snipers in the trees, they were alone. “Later, maybe.”

  Neil came over to the hood she was leaning against. None of her injuries appeared to be serious, and he let it go. But he didn’t back off.

  “Can we talk a minute?”

  She immediately tensed, and Neil grunted, “I’ll make it quick, and then you can go back to ignoring me.”

  Sam didn’t tell him that was the only way she could leave him alone. “Get it over with, then.”

  Neil’s pitch lowered, gaze softening. “I miss you, and I’d like to spend some time together that isn’t work.”

  Samantha wanted that, too. “Not a good idea.”

  Neil snapped his mouth shut. “Fine!”

  He spun toward the creek to get their used equipment, and Sam followed.

  “Neil, hang on.”

  He stopped but didn’t turn, and she sighed again. “I can only treat you guys the same.”

  “You know, by now, that our team will survive?”

  “Yes,” Samantha concurred ruefully. She should have known Neil was smart enough to understand what she’d done.

  “What can I say to convince you?”

  “I don’t think there is anything. I’m not made for what either of you have in mind.”

  Neil spun around, jealous that he wasn’t enough. “What do you want from me?”

  “Why can’t you both be my friend?”

  His response wasn’t a surprise.

  “I can’t share, Sam. I’m barely okay with being your…” He stopped himself.

  “Whore?” she supplied coolly.

  Neil winced but didn’t deny the title. “It’s not what I want, but if that’s the only place you have for me, I’ll take it. I don’t even see other women now.”

  Sam was instantly elated. It meant he hadn’t picked anyone.

  “I need to think,” she said finally, flooded with nervous confusion. Was she really going to do this to all of them?

  Neil grunted. “Take your time, and let me know. I’ve finished my shopping now, and I’m ready to buy or steal, whichever you’ll allow.”

  It sent her to their second kiss, to the one he’d wanted for comparison. Apparently, it had done to him, what it had to her.

  Sam paused on the way to the truck, nose filled with his scent. She didn’t want the drama, but she did want him. “You smell good, Neil. Too good for a hunting trip.”

  The trooper leered, confidence restored. “Wait until you get me fresh out of the shower. Smell like a French whore.”

  Sam spun around, ready to let him have it at the continued game when she’d said she needed time to think, and saw he was just as surprised by the spark as she was.

  Samantha groaned, moving for Shawn’s truck. “Damn you.”

  “For what? I was–”

  Splash!

  Sam turned back, but didn’t see him. “Where’d you go, Neil?”

  Her call had Eagles immediately moving her way, and Sam hurried to the creek edge. Had he fallen in?

  Oh, Shit!

  “Shoot it!” Neil ordered, fighting for breath as he was dragged down.

  Sam fumbled for her gun as her eyes found the end of the large python coiled around Neil’s body. Its head was floating on the ripples as they struggled, and she fired without hesitating.

  Neil choked, going under as the coils tightened.

  “Neil!” Samantha jumped in.

  It only took them a minute to get the snake’s corpse off Neil and pull him onto the bank, where he lay coughing and chortling.

  Sam stayed by his side. “What the hell, Neil? You know things come out of the water now!”

  He was still giving the occasional cough. “Distracted.”

  Sam flushed as his team frowned at her. “Not my fault. I didn’t switch out members.”

  “But you did show up when you weren’t on the list,” Shawn pointed out. Samantha shooting at Neil hadn’t been funny at first, but now, it would become a team joke.

  “I always go on the hunting runs!” Sam protested.

  “Yes, you do,” Shawn commented, eyeing his team leader. Had Neil left her off the list on purpose?

  “I didn’t think…you wanted to be around me.”

  Neil had started to say us, but hated to draw attention to the way he’d left his XO in camp to take her along.

  “I don’t!” She sighed. “Didn’t. Stop pushing me, Neil!”

  S
am shoved to her feet but stayed close. “You want a hand into the truck, or should we just roll your ass back into the damn creek?”

  Neil chuckled, full of the adrenalin that came from surviving. “A hand would be nice, thanks.”

  The rest of the hunting team watched her slide an arm around his waist and tense when his came up to her shoulders. It was the first time they’d been this close since he’d kissed her, and lust sizzled from both of them. Neil’s reaction was to be expected–he was a man, and he’d almost died. For Sam, though, the needs appeared to be just as great, and none of the team was surprised when she placed a soft kiss to his cold cheek.

  “You gotta stop doing this shit to me, Neil.”

  Neil was so surprised by her action that he grinned like a fool and submitted without any further resistance. “Sorry, Sammi.”

  The Eagles chuckled and went to finish loading the turkeys and supplies. It was time to go home.

  7

  Kevin drew on his courage. “Would you like to have dinner with me?”

  Cynthia looked up in surprise. Other than lessons, the males here hadn’t shown her any interest. She raked him with a brutal gaze.

  Kevin was neat and clean, and not so much bigger than her that she would feel intimidated. His body was lean and tight, his short, blond hair neatly kept. He looked like an all-American playboy. What does he want with me?

  Kevin slid onto the bench without waiting for an invitation. He was certain there wouldn’t be one. “You’re legal now.”

  That revealed a lot more than she’d expected, and the reporter leaned back, studying him. She’d seen Kevin watching her, had run into him more than once during her sneaking and spying, but she hadn’t thought it was an attraction on his part.

  Kevin waited patiently, taking in her scent, the glint of her hair in the brief sunrays struggling through the grit. He found her sexy and exotic, and always had. Now that she was accepted, and he’d waited long enough to be sure she and Jeremy really were finished, he intended to make himself known. The other Eagles hadn’t decided how to handle her yet, except to treat her like a teammate, but Kevin wanted more. Especially after sticking his nose in her business.

  “Yes.”