“I know you will.” She kissed him again and let go.
It took everything not to hold on, it took everything not to pursue her. He watched her go, watched her walk into the arms of the devil. It’d been a long time since he’d felt helplessness.
Monte grew impatient with Lerah’s reluctant approach. He reached out and pulled her into his arms. His fingernails dug deep into her skin. She gasped at the pain. “Oh, sweetheart, you’re a mess.” He came in close, scanning her as if she were some foreign object, sniffing her skin. “Let daddy clean you up.” He licked one side of her bloody face, from jaw to cheekbone, cutting a slobbery path through the filth. “I can see why you like her, she tastes delicious.”
“You got what you wanted! There’s no need for that!”
Monte laughed and shoved her towards the line of men behind him. “You’ve shaken off a thousand bullets, but a single piece of ass brings you to your knees.” Two of his men grabbed Lerah by either arm. She didn’t struggle. She kept her head down and followed their lead. “I want you four to take her. Send the rest of the men up on your way down.”
“So, what’s to become of me?” Dominic asked, suddenly wishing his gun wasn’t lying at his feet.
Once Lerah’s head vanished down the narrow path, four men hiked up and took up positions behind Monte. “The same thing that happens to all soldiers, you’re going to die bloody.”
“Why the ceremony? Why not just get it over with?”
“I didn’t want to upset the girl. I didn’t need her running around here, kicking and screaming. It’s better to keep her calm, keep that hope alive. It’ll make for a much more peaceful journey.”
Dominic nodded. “That’s a good play.”
“Thank-you.”
“So, this is what it’s come to between us?”
“I didn’t choose it. You chose it when you decided to join forces with the enemy and cut my boys down. Hell, Dominic, if I knew you were alive, I’d have recruited you. But you went off the grid.”
“It was intentional.”
“See, and that’s the shame, right there. You abandoned your brothers and the cause.”
“Sometimes you get tired of smashing your head against a wall. Sometimes you’ve just got to go over or around.”
“No, I go through it.” Monte turned his gun sideways and slanted it towards the ground. “Get on your knees.”
Dominic shook his head. “I’m fine standing. How do you think all of this is going to end? All you’re doing is starting another war. Settlements will burn. More of our people will die. Is that what you want?”
“It’s what has to be. They aren’t backing off. It’s either surrender and let them go over us or stand up and fight back.”
“I’ve started to see a third option in all this.”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?”
“That there is a certain victory in defeat. I’ve got to believe that somewhere, between the shit the Union is spouting and the shit you’re spouting, that there’s some sort of happy middle. A place where we can all get a little bit of what we want and live without the bullets and blood. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of seeing people I care about die screaming. I’m willing to sacrifice a little on my end if it means putting an end to that.”
“She really did get to you, didn’t she? You love that bitch, don’t you?”
“Hey, don’t call her that!”
“No, no, you love that bitch. Guys,” he gave one of his men a swat to the gut with the back of his hand, “he really loves that bitch. Did you get between those thighs?”
“Stop talking about Lerah. She’s none of your business.”
“You did! You tasted Union pussy. Was it sweet? She has infected every last inch of you. Her juices are practically pouring out of your eyes. We’re doing you a favor, putting you down. You are a sick puppy.”
Dominic was ready to get it done. He was ready to get bloody. He dove for his weapon. He was moving slow, so damn slow. There was never any hope of getting his finger around the trigger. He was outgunned, five to one, on open ground. He was up against one of the best Saboteurs there ever was. Nah, he never stood a chance. But damn it if he wasn’t going to make them work for their dinner.
The sound of gunfire didn’t surprise him. He expected it. He figured after the first couple of shots everything would go black. But he was still alive, still sucking sand, still able to feel the sun on the back of his neck. He’d been shot before, many times, and it hurt like hell. He should have felt something: a sting, a pinch, a cold fire swelling in his bones. The gunfire stopped. Then there was the sound of brass clinking against brass as the shell casings settled. Then silence.
Finally, he dared to look back in the direction of his executioners.
It was the Union, a whole pack of them.
They stood above the bodies of Monte and his crew and they had him sighted. “You make a move towards that gun and you’re dead!”
“Relax chief, you just saved my ass, I’ve got no intention of drawing down on you.”
“What’s your name?”
“Dominic.”
“Where’s Lerah Adams?”
“They took her. I thought you guys would have come across them on your way up.”
The man glanced back over his shoulder, squinting towards the horizon. “Get him up, bind his hands. We’ve got a long a trip back so we need to get moving.”
“Wait, you’re not going after her?”
“We don’t have enough men to form an adequate rescue party, our orders were to retrieve and bring both of you back.”
“Well, you haven’t retrieved her!”
“We don’t know what direction she was taken in or how many men they have waiting. We’re bringing you back to Genesis and the Lord Marshal can decide the course of action.”
“I just told you what direction they went in.” They bound his hands behind his back, collected the packs and guns, and shoved him towards the path.
“Move, and keep your mouth shut, you’ve got a lot to answer for. I’d start thinking about what you’re going to say.”
Struggling and arguing would bring him no closer to Lerah. He knew if he kept it up they’d just make the trip as miserable as possible. It was best to comply and get on whatever good side they had available. Perhaps he could talk them into stopping for a drink and a pack of smokes along the way. He was in no hurry to find out what was waiting for him back at Genesis.
46
“It was a simple task, Dominic.” Hause pounded the top of his desk.
“Simple? I wouldn’t go that far.” Dominic shifted. The hard backed chair, combined with the zip ties plaguing his wrists, didn’t make for comfortable seating. Every time he moved the two guards standing over his shoulders brought their hands towards their weapons.
“For a man of your skills and a woman of her talents, yeah, it should have been simple.”
“You weren’t there. These people cared about one thing and one thing only, their survival. Mother could have been a fish with legs, but as long as the walls held and they slept peacefully at night, they would have been okay with that. The idea of joining the Union is what set them off, something about you people burning their homes and killing their friends and family.”
“It was war, ugly things happen during war.”
“March up there and feed them that line, see how it goes over.”
Hause shook his head. “We’re past the point of talking. Besides, my scouts tell me that it’s now a fortress run by a bunch of disorganized idiots.”
“I suppose that’s better than a fortress run by a bunch of organized idiots.”
“Here I am, getting ready to have you tossed in the deepest, darkest hole in the Wastes, and yet you still find a way to make light of the situation.” Hause stood and came around his desk, sitting on the corner closest to Dominic.
“Smiles don’t come easy these days, I’ve gotta get them where I can.”
“You know what I�
��d like to do right now?” Hause held an arm out, folding his hand into a fist. “I’d like to punch you right in the face. Not in the nose, I don’t want to break anything. I just want to punch you in the fucking face.”
Dominic raised his chin. “Have at it.” Hause was quick, but he lacked the force to do any real damage. Dominic took the hit like a pro and played it up a little to make Hause feel good about his effort. “Feel better?”
“Much,” Hause said, massaging his knuckles. “Looks like you ran into a fair bit of trouble out there.”
“I did. So did Lerah.”
“Including the conflict you had with my men?”
Dominic shook his head. “Let’s cut the bullshit, who are you sending for Lerah? I need to speak to them. I know where they’re taking her; the east coast, beyond the Glass Mountains. I know people—”
“That won’t be necessary, I’m not sending anyone.”
“What?” Dominic came up out of his seat and was shoved back into place with disturbingly little effort. “You have to. You don’t know these men like I do. The things they’ll do to her… you have to send people. She’s one of your own.”
“I think you’d have learned by now that I don’t have to do anything. If you want to blame someone for Lerah’s fate, look no further than the mirror.”
“What did you expect us to do? Let those people get butchered? We didn’t want to kill your men. It tore Lerah apart inside to have to do it. We were saving innocent lives. I thought you wanted to make peace with the Outlanders?”
Hause sighed. “Oh Dominic, you are a simple man, a blunt force instrument, nothing more.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that all of this is a balancing act. Do you know what would happen if the people of Genesis found out that the daughter of my Defense Minister, along with a Saboteur that I contracted, killed a group of their own? These men were fathers, brothers, and sons. Perkins has family scattered throughout the Towers, working in key positions. It’d be mutiny. They’d be knocking down my doors. So where does the blame go?”
“I can only imagine,” Dominic said, spotting the finish line a mile out.
“I don’t like it, I’ve never enjoyed lying. But, for the sake of the people, I’ve got to place the death of my men and the missing coin on Rebel heads. More specifically, I’ve got to place it on your head. They’ll be calling for blood, and I’ve got to answer them.”
“What does this have to do with abandoning Lerah?”
“It has everything to do with it. With Lerah gone and you buried under the Towers, it shuts the door on a very ugly incident, an incident that could throw this entire place into chaos. Besides, we can’t afford the resources or the manpower to go hunting for one soldier.”
“So, she doesn’t get a chance to come back and answer for herself? You’re just going to leave her out there to rot?”
Hause shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much.”
Dominic jumped from his seat and was, once again, slammed back into place.
“Take him out of here. Throw him in the darkest cell we’ve got. Make sure Buddy gives him the special treatment.” Hause sat back behind his desk.
“Come on, tough guy.” The two guards lifted Dominic to his feet.
The office doors crashed open, heralding the arrival of Defense Minister Dan Adams. “Lord Marshal, my daughter, do we have word on my daughter? Men still haven’t been assembled. Sir, the longer we wait, the farther away she gets. I’m ready to leave at once.”
Dominic beat Hause to the punch. “He isn’t sending anyone. He’s going to leave her out there to rot.” Dominic hooked the tip of his boot around the leg of the conference table.
“Lord Marshal, is this true?”
“Dan, don’t listen to him, he’s desperate to avoid the dungeons. Get him out of here, now!”
The two guards dislodged Dominic’s foot. Dominic dropped his weight and dragged his heels. “I know where they’re taking your daughter. I can get her back!”
Dan started towards Dominic. “Stop, I need to speak with this man!”
The two guards paused in the doorway and looked to Hause, conflicted.
“No, Dan, you don’t. Guards, shut him up!”
Dominic felt something heavy split the back of his head, and the world dissolved.
Consciousness returned as the cell door clanked shut. Dominic’s body screamed from the special treatment bestowed upon it by Buddy in the form of stiff knuckles and boot heels.
There was no light in the cell.
He dragged himself across the cold packed earth and through a bed of dirty straw. He hauled himself up the damp wall and sat there, trying to draw breath between the shards of broken glass filling his chest. He placed the back of his head against the wall, closed his eyes, and swallowed a mouthful of blood.
Lerah was out there, somewhere, waiting for him.
He’d find her.
He’d made her a promise.
If Dominic was anything, he was a man of his word.
—TO BE CONTINUED—
Acknowledgments
There are a few people I wish to thank for making this book possible. Each of them played an invaluable role in the finished product. Thank you to my wife for listening to me bitch and moan my way to publication and for your constant encouragement. Danke to Ryan, for your honest and timely feedback. My utmost gratitude to Heath, for the website, you’re a genius, sir, a friggin genius! Merci to my mom, for liking all of my Facebook posts when no one else would. Much obliged to all of my family members that will read this and tell me it’s great even if they think otherwise, thank you for sparing my self-confidence. A special shout out to Yoly, at Cormar Covers, you probably won’t read this, but you’ve got a customer for life (or until one of us decides to do something else).
And finally, to you, dear reader, all of my thanks! Without you, there would be no me.
Until next time,
J.V. Roberts
P. S.
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Contents
Title Page
Ebook Edition, License Notes
Also by J.V. Roberts
Dedication
sab*o*teur
Rebel
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
Acknowledgments
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The Fall of Man: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 1 Page 37
