Honest Lies
1
Kenn pulled into the QZ parking lot just before lunch, annoyed and worried about more than just Adrian. He’d already checked in with the perimeter men over the radio. Everyone knew he’d returned, but no one was here to update him. He peered around in confusion. Where was everyone?
Crack!
Thunder had the camp scurrying. Kenn saw Eagles racing to secure things. Tarps were going up, animals were being brought in, and the perimeter shift was still doubled. It appeared normal for the situation, but Kenn knew it wasn’t.
He’d been sent away. Why? Because Brady was in charge? Kenn was braced to accept it, so long as he was still the XO when this was all over. Adrian had promised.
Kenn left his gear in the truck, not sure that he wouldn’t be ordered right out on another meaningless run. He headed for the medical tent, but before he got there, Angela came through the QZ with Kevin and Samantha on her heels. Kenn strained to hear them.
“Yes, to all of those and shut down the QZ desk half an hour before dark. From now on, we’ll pass out food and water, get a sheet on any medical issues they have that can’t wait, and tell them we’ll open at 8am.”
“Do you want security on those who wait overnight?” Kevin asked.
Angela paused to consider, then made the choice. “Yes, but light. I don’t want to scare even one of them away.”
As Kevin left, Samantha took over the questioning. “Neil said to tell you he needs an answer on the first three things you were given.”
“Tell Neil to cool them all off–send the music players out and dig up some pre-holiday fireworks. That’ll buy us more time. They have to have contact with Adrian before they get the official word on who he gave command to. If they think we’re hiding his death, they might riot.”
Angela moved out of sight and this time, Kenn immediately noticed how much quiet protection she had, including Adrian’s personal sniper.
Realizing what that meant, his mouth dropped open.
“He gave it to her!”
Mocking laughter came from nearby.
“After all the training lessons, did you really think he wouldn’t gift her that way? Weren’t you watching her soak it up like she was born a Mitchel?”
Kenn turned slowly to find Marc lounging casually against the water truck. Kenn prepared to fight for his place if it was needed.
Marc threw in a bit of explanation, hoping to be sure of Kenn’s intentions, but also his cooperation. Now wasn’t the time for battling each other. “You lost your chance at leadership a while ago. So have most of the top men along the way. Other than rookie teams, she’s the only Eagle left who might hesitate to pull a trigger, to kill.”
Kenn didn’t respond and Marc straightened up. “The man I served with would have known this was coming.”
Kenn’s face darkened. “I assumed it would be you in charge, asshole.”
Marc smirked, moving off. “You were wrong. On a lot of things.”
Kenn saw Daryl fall into the shadows, staying even with Marc, and understood what hadn’t been said. Daryl, on the few occasions they’d seen fit to protect him, had been Kenn’s sniper.
Safe Haven’s leader and XO were only protected by the top teams. Angela and Marc were in control. It was his nightmares come true.
Kenn stayed still, running it through the filters, trying to accept. It was only until Adrian recovered...
When the Marine finally moved, it was to find a line of Eagles waiting.
Kenn rolled his eyes. “I don’t need another intervention.”
“That would be a nice change,” Angela observed.
She came from behind him, looking tired and glorious under stress. Kenn hated her.
“How was the trip?”
Kenn grunted. “Make-work.”
Angela stayed alert. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. Adrian thought it was best that you were away when everything happened.”
“Adrian?” Kenn questioned snidely.
Angela lit a cigarette. She’d only been awake four hours and she was already beat. How did Adrian do this day-in and day-out?
“Adrian made the calls on placement. And he made it clear that I can change them if I’m unhappy.”
“You and asshole running it all–why would you protest that?” Kenn snorted rudely.
“Because I need this camp to run even smoother than it did under Adrian, and the only way that happens is through you.”
Kenn considered it. “You’ll bump Brady somewhere else? Somewhere below me?”
“Yes,” Angela answered coolly. “Do I need to?”
“If I say yes, what happens?”
“You get the XO slot, Brady gets something a lot further down, and the camp and Eagles spend the rest of Adrian’s recovery making your life as miserable as they possibly can.”
Kenn had known, but hearing it, being sure he had no choice, helped. “And if I say no?”
“You stay on Adrian’s right through his recovery and top off a steady reform with bonus points.”
“Meaning I’m forgiven?”
Angela had bigger things to spar over. “For me? Yes. And that means for most of the Eagles, as well.”
Kenn didn’t have to spend time thinking about it, but he still loathed the idea. Some days would be hard, but if he got to stay with Adrian, he would determine his own future.
“Should I bump him?”
“No.”
Satisfied, Angela turned away without adding anything. A man’s pride was a hard thing to replace. Destroying it was almost always lethal, but even wounds could be deadly. Kenn was willing to keep trying to change. So long as he was, the past might really be over for her.
Angela gave a positive motion to the waiting Eagles and they disappeared.
“Hey!” Kenn called.
Angela didn’t face the accusing tone. She knew what was coming.
“Why didn’t I rate a constant shadow?”
“Because you were the threat.”
2
Lunchtime for Safe Haven found both sides of the QZ tape calm.
Angela keyed her new mic. “I need the top people at the little mess.”
There were garbled rogers and she keyed the mic again. “Five minutes.”
Angela lit a cigarette, steadying herself.
Kenn was first, striding briskly and she only nodded her thanks as she took a steaming cup of tea from his hand. Like he’d been expecting the call.
Angela smoked and sipped, eager to see who would be next.
Kyle rounded the corner of the medical tent and Neil showed up behind him. Jeremy and Doug appeared next, arm in a sling. With her, it was first come, first to serve. If you didn’t know your place by now, odds were good that you didn’t have one.
Angela went into the little mess and they followed. She leaned on an end of a table, too restless to sit.
“You guys know who handles what and I feel no need to disrupt Adrian’s routines. Yet,” she warned. “I’m going to tell you what I know has to be done. You then tell me who handles each item and hit me with anything that I missed.”
Kenn took out his notebook, surveying the area. “Where’s the new XO?”
Angela concentrated for only an instant. She didn’t need as much time now to use her gifts. “Close by, perimeter check. It makes him nervous to have all of us in one place.”
“Same here,” Neil stated.
Angela got them going. “The rain is first. Sam says we’re in for a downpour over a couple days. Make whatever preparations Adrian normally has you do, but be low-key about it. The camp can’t know that we knew.”
Neil raised a finger. “That’s mine.”
Marc came through the flap and took the open seat on Angela’s right without a comment, but his face was tight.
“We’ll have to switch our parking area. Getting stuck in the mud isn’t a big deal until Adrian says let’s roll,” Angela continued.
“I’ll take care of it,” Kenn stated tonelessly.
“We also need to move tents and animals. You and Neil will work together?”
Both men agreed, neither as reluctantly as she might have expected. Kenn missing XO this time around had settled a lot of Neil’s remaining animosity.
“Adrian’s pet projects. I know he has a lot of things going on. Someone needs to get me a list with updates.”
Kenn wrote it in his book.
“Adrian needs things–his brown box, clothes that are loose, his poncho and boots. Also, the bottle in his bedroll, but when he wants a third shot, tell him no because of the medication mix.”
Angela registered the calming atmosphere, but was too busy settling into settling things down to figure out what it meant. “Schedules and shift changes will be handled daily for now. The watch stays doubled until Adrian says otherwise, and no one goes in or out without my say-so.”
“I’ve got all that,” Marc spoke up firmly.
No one argued.
“I want entertainment set up, too, but not just anything. I need people well occupied. If he’s been saving something good, now is a good time to bring it out.”
“Mine and Jax,” Jeremy told her, writing notes.
“Good. The QZ has to have two volunteer gophers and a burning crew. Tell Li Sing all hot meals for the next week.”
Angela stubbed out her cig as she waited for them to catch up and sort the jobs, then she continued. “How are we on water and fuel?”
“Low, but okay for roughly two hundred miles and one camp stop of four days,” Kenn answered, thumbing through his worn book for the information.
“So we have two day’s reserves and four days stock on both?”
“Maybe five, if we start rationing now.”
“No. We’ll collect what we need for cleaning and toilets. John will give numbers on how much bleach to use and what all can be done with the rain water.”
Angela switched topics. “Have there been any reports of lurkers or anything out of place from the teens on the gate or the guards?”
Everyone indicated things were fine and she was relieved. She wasn’t sure how to handle it yet when the answer came back different.
“What about the camp?”
“Appears to be calm,” Neil offered hesitantly.
Clearly, none of them was sure.
“We’ll need a confirmation on it. I want a complete weapons inventory in the next 48 hours and Sam needs a basic aquaponics setup. She provided a list of the supplies to make our own.”
Angela held it out and Jeremy didn’t protest when Neil took it.
“What about the other kids inside the complex? The ones like Conner?” Kyle asked.
Kenn glanced at Angela. “They took off the second we escaped.”
Neither of them said that would be how the government bunker found out what happened. They didn’t need to.
“That’s it from me. What did I miss?”
Kenn closed his book after making a final note. “Other than the ants, I’m good.”
There was an impressed note to his voice that she didn’t put stock in. “Leave the ants for now. The rain will buy some time there. Anything else?”
Nothing came and she looked around. “Surely I missed something?”
“Not that I noticed,” Marc stated sharply. “You’ll be almost as good at this as Adrian is.”
He walked out into the stiff breeze, leaving an uncomfortable silence.
“He’s checking the perimeter again,” Angela explained. “We’ll wait.”
Marc wasn’t gone long and no one missed the note of accusation as he spoke.
“Dale’s moving this way with enough panic on his face to draw attention. People are already peering from flaps and tables.”
Angela sighed. She had missed something. She’d assumed Marc had taken care of the final threat, but it was clear that there’d been another.
Angela glanced at Kenn first.
Kenn knew who the problem was, too. “The odds were low on it. I should have said it might happen.”
“We handle it like Adrian would.”
Kenn’s eyes went to Kyle’s frown and then Marc’s thickening glare. “Some of us can.”
Angela took another leap into the role she’d been given. “Negotiation attempt?”
“Maybe,” Kenn agreed as Dale ducked into the little mess, voice almost a squeal.
“I can’t find Ray and I’ve been searching for hours. He was shot. He’s supposed to be resting!”
Neil hurried over to quiet him.
“Two-man Recon team?” Angela asked, still looking at Kenn.
In his mind, the words were very different.
Take Marc and show him what’s expected of Safe Haven’s XO.
Kenn hadn’t been ready for that, but he covered it well. “I think that’s best. Unless you want to let Brady loose on them.”
Angela caught the question–Should I make him do it? She didn’t answer.
Marc scowled. “How many fucking walking plagues did you guys bring back from that city?”
“Too many,” Angela grunted unhappily.
“Where is he?!” Dale demanded from around Neil’s arm.
Kenn was waiting for Angela’s final choice, but Marc didn’t. He knew what had to be done–the same thing it always came to. More blood had to spill.
“Let’s go,” he ordered. “Fill me in while we recon.”
Kenn slowly rose, giving Angela time to say no. When she didn’t, his respect for her went up.
Kenn turned back before reaching the flap. “If he balks?”
Marc spun around, snorting out anger, but Angela and Kenn agreed on this. She would be surprised if Brady could handle the chore. It would take an asshole.
“You do it.”
Kenn accepted the direct order without any reaction, but inside, there was a small cry from the old Kenn. He didn’t like taking her orders and that wouldn’t ever change.
They left as Neil took Dale out of earshot for a private talk.
“Quarantine him,” Angela ordered lowly, looking at Kevin. “Do it now.”
Kevin didn’t like the idea, but he understood why. He approached Neil and Dale, quickly coming up with a story. “Dale, come on over to the next tent. We want John to check you out. If someone got Ray by drugging his food or water, you were probably hit with it, too.”
Dale didn’t protest, didn’t think it was anything other than what he’d been told. He left with Kevin, muttering lowly, but allowing himself to be comforted.
Angela turned to the remaining senior men. “I want a full camp check-in, the QZ shut down, and our perimeter shrunk by half. Make it happen.”
3
“Tell me–all of it.”
“It will be easier to show you,” Kenn answered. They’d found the prints outside Ray’s tent easily enough and followed them to a small town that neither of them could find on their maps. Only two streets and roughly a dozen buildings, it wasn’t hard to pick out Ray’s Eagle jacket hanging from a rope on the rusty flagpole. It bothered them both to know the threat was camped so close to Safe Haven.
“Be ready with your rifle, and if you find you can’t pull the trigger, make sure I’m alive to do it.”
Marc hated not knowing, hated it that Angie thought he wouldn’t get the job done. “Just tell me what’s going on. Why is his jacket up there, but no ransom call or security visible?”
“They think we owe them this. When they’re done with him, he might have been returned. But our new boss,” Kenn mocked. “Doesn’t want a peaceful ending.”
Marc wasn’t sure how to take that. “Done with him, how?”
Kenn shuddered. Cara being dead was little comfort. “Just cover me as well as you would her, or I won’t make it back to Safe Haven. And while I may not be missed, Ray will.”
Marc blew off the warnings. He didn’t intend to be responsible for Kenn’s death, directly or not. Someone else held that place of danger now.
Before Marc could ask anything else, Kenn left their cover for full view of the town, hands up.
Marc swore under his breath as he ducked down and got set to fire, frustrated that he still didn’t know who the target was.
The hundred or so snake women streamed from inside and behind the buildings of the town, all with various weapons in hand. Kenn was encouraged that none of them were being fired or thrown yet.
“Coming in!” he shouted. “Get your leader.”
A tall woman wearing bright orange scales sewn over a long trench coat walked from the town hall and down the walkway.
Kenn saw her protection moving closer and began planning the ways in which he would take them out–by himself. He was assuming Brady had frozen at this point. A woman killer, Marc wasn’t.
“Why are you here?”
Kenn blinked at the heavy English accent. “To collect what’s been taken, of course.”
The woman’s expression said that wasn’t allowed. “Your friend will be returned when he has satisfied the debt.”
“I can’t allow that,” Kenn argued lightly. “He belongs to someone else and they’ve paid well for his return. Unless you’d like to make a better offer?”
The woman’s protection crowded closer, but she didn’t flinch. “What did you have in mind?”
Kenn slowly pointed toward the jacket flapping harshly in the wind. “You return him and that, now, and we won’t kill all of you.”
Weapons were being aimed and Kenn didn’t give them time to think. “When I go for my gun, the rest of his team, and mine, will open fire. I might be hit, Ray could be killed in the crossfire, but I promise that two thirds of you won’t walk away. Being female means shit to us now.”
“You will belong to me,” Tiffany declared. “Take him inside.”
The snake women weren’t about to be cowed by threats, and their leader’s reaction said so clearly.
Kenn made a subtle gesture to Marc and allowed himself to be taken into custody. “Remember what I said, ladies. When I go for my gun, seventy of you will die.”
4
Marc recognized the heavily used ploy from their time as Marines, but he wasn’t sure he could go through with it. Now that he understood, he was reluctantly forced to accept that Angie might have been right. He wasn’t okay with killing women.
But Angela would expect all three of her Eagles to return, and that meant covering Kenn when he came out with Ray over his shoulder. Or just going in after them, like the motion had demanded. How could he do that without killing?
You can’t, his demon replied brutally. But I can. If these women are allowed to roam free, they’ll become as dangerous as any group of men.
Marc wanted to protest, but couldn’t. There was no arguing the truth. “Okay,” he muttered. “But you’ll have to help me.”
I take no pleasure in killing, the demon replied. Sex makes no never mind to the color of blood. It all tastes the same and it’s always required. You know that.
“Yes, I do.”
Marc adjusted his scope to the main door that had swallowed Kenn, then pulled both Colts and made sure they were ready to cover the other directions. Marc thought briefly about calling to camp for reinforcements, but realized Angela and Kenn had known the threat and hadn’t wanted anyone else involved.
“Also means these women are dangerous,” he stated, still convincing himself. “If they weren’t, she might have sent a team as a training mission.”
He wasn’t sure why he thought that, only the similarities he was noticing. She’d picked up Adrian’s style quickly, but Marc was already noting subtle differences, and was sure the other alert-minded males in the Eagles were, as well. He suddenly had no doubt that Angie had her own agenda to accomplish before giving up control.
5
Kenn let the women search him for weapons, take what they found, and lead him into the area where they had several couches and desks placed along the walls. Except for Ray’s slumped form in the corner, the rest of the room was empty.
“Don’t get comfortable. We leave in an hour.”
Kenn settled onto the side of the longest couch, aware of how the woman’s needy gaze lingered on his body instead of his face. “Where you headed?”
Tiffany frowned. “We, my pet, are going west.”
Kenn shrugged evenly. “Your funerals. It’s dead there.”
“Why did you come? We would have returned him.”
Kenn lay back, putting his hands under his neck. He hadn’t been on real furniture since the war and it felt better than he remembered. “We have a new leader. She wants him returned now.”
The woman was startled, giving away how interested she was, and Kenn grinned. “She’s a lot like you, only she has an army of lethal killers at her disposal. I’d return her property. It’s not too late. We don’t have to be enemies.”
Tiffany was starting to get the same uneasy feeling she’d had in Little Rock and suddenly wished they’d kept going. The lure of healthy men to impregnate their females had been impossible to resist and the vote to try had been unanimous. The expected sterility from the experiments had finally appeared and it was brutal.
“Our kind has been hunted for a long time and we always survive. We’ll take our chances.”
“And Angela will take your lives.”
Kenn waited for an answer and looked over to find that the snake woman had left the room. What the hell? He still wasn’t used to quiet females.
Kenn went to Ray, not sure if he was alive. “You okay?”
Ray glanced up, bruised face thick with misery. “No.”
Startled at the immediate answer, Kenn checked him visually for other signs of abuse, but only found red cheeks over pale skin. “What’s the problem?”
Ray’s lip quivered. “I’m not really an Eagle, am I?”
Kenn let out a breath in annoyance, glaring upward. “Not now, okay? I can only be so nice and then people get hurt.”
Ray took that as an answer, shoulders slumping. “Always knew, anyway. He told me–said I may never get what I wanted, no matter how hard I tried. He was right.”
Kenn settled into the chair across from Ray, glad the man’s arm was still bandaged, though dirty. “Don’t know how you figure that. You have a set place that you’ve earned. Wasn’t it what you wanted?”
“I wanted to be accepted!” Ray snapped. “And for Dale to be accepted. That can’t happen now.”
Kenn began to realize the women had already abused Ray, that he was feeling guilty for betraying his lover.
“Don’t tell him, Ray. That’s all you have to do. It’s okay.”
Ray peered up with eyes glimmering. “No, it’s not, you idiot. I couldn’t do it. I failed. I’m not worthy!”
“Even with the pill?” Kenn questioned in shock.
“I got sick,” Ray confessed miserably.
Kenn snorted ruefully. “Wish I had. Then maybe I could get that sound out of my brain…”
Ray had expected scorn and answered hesitantly, “They would have gone away.”
Kenn didn’t like Ray beating himself up, but wasn’t sure what to make of that. He chose to examine it later. “No. If you’d serviced them, they’d have known it would work and taken more of us next time, then kept returning for raids. Not being able to perform goes in Safe Haven’s favor.”
Ray hadn’t considered that, but it wasn’t enough to relieve him of the failure. “I’ll hand in my jacket.”
“You’ll have to get it from the women first,” Kenn reminded. “I think it’s their totem or something.”
“Still hanging from the flagpole?”
“Just flapping there in a direct violation of Adrian’s rules. Made us want to open fire.”
That remark got more of Ray’s attention and began to pull him out of his misery. “Who’s out there?”
Kenn didn’t care if they were overheard. It wouldn’t matter. “Just Brady.”
Ray paled. He knew what that meant. “She’s willing to spill blood to get me back?”
“Yes. Did you doubt it?”
“I expected to fight my way out when I realized I couldn’t do what they wanted.”
Kenn slowly stood up, hearing footsteps. “That may still be required. You feel up to it?”
Ray’s voice was full of depression. “I feel like dying.”
Kenn slung an arm around Ray’s strong shoulders, careful of the injury. “Then you’re gonna hate what I’m about to do, but if you don’t play along, I’ll hurt you.”
Kenn tightened his grip until Ray winced, and dragged them up and around to be facing the women as they came in.
Finding the two men so close, Ray clutching at Kenn, sent scowls across female faces.
“I told you!”
“Kill them both!”
“Wait.”
Kenn tugged Ray closer, pretending an affection that was more than friendship. “We’re ready to go home now, ladies. We can’t give you what you need. None of the men in our camp can.”
The females remembered that Kenn and Kevin had been able to, but before they could protest the lie, Kenn glanced at Ray.
Ray felt that spark, the heat that usually told him Dale was close, and blanched. He didn’t want to feel an attraction for Kenn, for any reason, but it was too late. That golden flow of magic swarmed over him and Ray was helpless but to respond.
He dropped his head in shame. He liked to be in control in his relationships, but the best sex he’d ever had was before the war, with a powerful man who hadn’t been afraid to ‘handle’ him.
“Enough!” Tiffany commanded angrily. “We don’t care. When the drugs take effect, both of you will give us service.”
Kenn dropped his arm, but kept his big body pressed against Ray’s hip. “Okay.”
Tiffany stared in surprise at the quick agreement. “What?”
Kenn got set. “We will provide you a service.”
Tiffany’s scale-covered face relaxed a bit. “Good. Okay, then. We’ll bring you a pill.”
As soon as they were gone, Kenn nudged Ray toward the unbarred window. “Stay low.”
Kenn shoved Ray through the screen, not listening to him land. If he didn’t get out of here, he might puke.
Marc saw Ray hit the ground and quickly waved him toward the sparse trees, out of the way. Seconds later, female shouts came and Marc knew the time for choosing had come and gone. He was here. He would protect his man.
Kenn’s big frame didn’t appear in the window, but the women running after Ray stopped as soon as Marc began to pepper their feet with shots.
Marc aimed and fired, reloaded. Where was Kenn?
Ray made it to Marc’s side a few seconds later, panting, “He’s still…in there.”
Marc motioned him to get down, and then stood up. He could see someone struggling in the lobby behind the door.
Marc came from his hiding place with a Colt in each hand.
6
“Let him go. Now!”
Marc’s angry voice outside the main door made Kenn freeze. “You got him to come out. Holy shit, lady. You’re all dead now.”
Tiffany slapped him. “Shut up!”
Kenn growled at her, the sound menacing.
She quickly retreated.
“I’m counting to three…” Marc’s warning was followed by a blurred count and then all hell broke loose.
Bullets slammed into the wooden door, causing women to duck and Kenn to hit the floor.
Marc used a sharp kick to take out the door.
His voice was set in stone. “Surrender or die.”
Tiffany raised her gun.
Marc shot her in the throat.
He looked around with a deep glower of resentment as she slid to the dusty floor. “Next?”
There was silence and stillness for the space of five seconds, a space in time where only one life would have been taken.
Then the woman behind the door lifted her gun to Marc’s chest and fired.
Grunting with pain and effort, Ray shoved Marc out of the way and took a trim.
Marc spun off the wall and let the demon loose.
Kenn grabbed Ray and shoved him down. That Ray had returned to help wasn’t surprising. When he grabbed a fallen gun and began firing left handed to cover Marc, that was.
Bang! Bang!
Those Colts snapped out death and punishment with each sharp bark, and Kenn herded Ray outside. No need to draw Brady’s fire.
Ray followed Kenn’s lead and didn’t get involved any further in the one-sided fight. These weak women were no match, but they were realizing it too late.
Marc picked them off before they could get under cover, their horses long gone in the chaos. He didn’t pause, even when they began to flee in terror. He took out anything that moved, the demon in charge of his guns.
Kenn listened to the crashing with a growing worry. Would Angela be pissed that he’d forced that side of Marc into the light? He’d thought to be the one out there doing the killing. He honestly hadn’t thought it would work. Too late now.
Kenn waved Ray toward camp. “Stay low and go straight to Angela. Tell her there was a small gunfight, then they let us go and left. If you don’t, Brady will know.”
Ray paled, hearing the screams as Marc massacred the remaining women. They’d refused to leave or surrender, and they’d probably really intended to take him and Kenn when they fled, but did it justify this?
Kenn wasn’t thinking that, but he was considering how important Marc was to the camp. If Marc lost that edge, the good man inside, it would hurt Adrian’s dream.
Kenn reluctantly stood up and interfered. “Brady! She’s calling us!”
Kenn was relieved when Marc calmly reloaded and slid his smoking Colts into their holsters. The few wounded around him didn’t even cower in pain as he strode by, desperate to escape his notice.
Kenn did a rough count and came up with forty. Another dozen lay inside. The rough estimate he’d stated had come close.
“I warned them,” he muttered, noting that Ray had stopped just out of sight. “They should have listened.”
Marc walked by Kenn like nothing was amiss, but the Marine knew better than to trust the pretense.
“Hang on. We have to burn this–all of it.”
Marc was in the fog of bloodlust, barely able to think. “Burn what?”
“The bodies, the town–all of it.”
Marc’s haze slowly began to clear. He took stock of the carnage and gave a curt agreement. “I’ll gather. You find the necessaries.”
Kenn didn’t argue. They’d done this once in Afghanistan, though those bodies had all been male, and he knew Marc would do things exactly as they had then. They would cover up the mess and Marc would bury the memory. Angela, a woman, wouldn’t want details, only to know that it had been accomplished.
Marc listened to Kenn’s steps fade, and then forced himself to face what he’d done. He expected overwhelming regret and pain, but there was only cold, hard satisfaction as he viewed the carnage.
“This is your doing!” he accused the demon.
There was no answer. Of course, the evil side had done this. The good Brady wouldn’t have been able to fire more than the first few shots, but that inner man was tired of letting dangerous threats live. These women were that, though untrained. In time, they would have terrorized every area they traversed. Slave traders weren’t the only ones who deserved to die and Marc was finally at a point in the aftermath that he no longer put right and wrong first.
The remaining women had fled the instant his attention had been distracted by Kenn. Marc gathered their fallen guns and ammunition, and other valuables as he dragged their bodies to the stairs of the town hall. All those arson scenes he’d witnessed on the way here no longer appeared completely mysterious to him now.
And the soul? Marc questioned himself ruthlessly, needing to get it out before he saw Angela.
It’s bruised, but intact, the demon replied. It cannot be crushed by doing the only thing you can to protect those you love.
Marc didn’t agree, but he’d given up his afterlife long before the war. All he wanted now was to be with Angie until he died. Who cared what happened after he was split from her?
7
Within an hour of finding Ray, the entire town was engulfed in a blaze that even the old world would have been hard pressed to save from the wind-driven flames. No one else would know what had happened.
Ray was waiting on the edges of the camp, out of sight and hearing, but in view of tent tops.
Kenn instantly understood why Ray was lurking. “You’re no actor, are you?”
Snapped out of his pain, Ray stiffened. “Fuck you.”
“That’s your need, not mine.” Kenn sneered, still pissed. He’d known Ray would respond to his pull, but to feel it! Hadn’t Cara’s memory been enough?
Ray only stared in confused longing, waiting to be told what to do.
Marc barked out a hard laugh. “Go tell her exactly what you were told, and then go to Dale.”
Ray paled further.
Kenn snorted. “She’ll know everything if we send him in.”
“She needs to,” Marc stated harshly. “She thinks I’m not like the rest of you. It’s time she knew better.”
“You’d hurt her that way?” Ray asked, shocked.
Marc paused. “Hurt her, how?”
Ray scowled. “She worships you. Even I know that. She’ll be crushed.”
Marc’s feet moved again. “Maybe she needs to be.”
Kenn didn’t swing Marc around by his arm like he was tempted to do. He no longer had a death wish.
It was Ray who jumped in front of Brady, voice hard. “No.”
Marc shoved Ray aside and was surprised to find himself on the ground, looking up.
Ray planted his feet, ready to protect himself as best he could. “I’m the one who failed, who made you have to do all that. You take it out on me and leave her alone! She’s got enough to handle.”
Marc stared stupidly, fighting the rage. Ray was defending this? It snapped Marc out of the haze and he slowly stood up.
Ray immediately flinched.
Kenn actually wanted Marc to go over the edge, but he also wanted Adrian’s dreams intact and he interrupted again. “I agree with Ray.”
Marc detoured around them. “I’m not lying to her.”
“Again, you mean?”
Ray’s words had Marc spinning on his heel. “What’s that?”
Ray paled further, but made himself speak. “Dale’s been helping the vet. He told me about Dog.”
Marc winced and Kenn took note of that. When Marc didn’t argue, Kenn vowed to find out every detail of that story.
Marc once again headed for camp, but his stride was no longer as angry or determined. Dale knew. Ray and Kenn knew. How long before Angie did?
Ray and Kenn were both relieved when he went toward the main camp, instead of the QZ.
“Will he be okay?”
“If he keeps his mouth shut,” Kenn answered. “If she finds out he’s lying to her? Not a chance he’ll come through it alive.”
“She wouldn’t kill Marc,” Ray protested.
Kenn got them moving. “When she’s finished, it will feel like she did. You take care of Dale. I’ll handle our new leader until Brady’s ready to.”
Ray didn’t like turning it over to Kenn, but Marc clearly wasn’t able. “Be careful. She sees so much now!”
Kenn grunted. “Not if you give her something else to inspect. It’s all about distraction. You have to know which bomb to put in her path first.”
Ray didn’t think it would work for long, but if it bought them a little time, that was good enough. Angela couldn’t find out that her man had massacred an entire group of females by himself. She’d never view him the same and everything would suffer for it.
8
“She got a minute?”
Kevin saw Brady stalking toward the showers as Ray vanished into the QZ tent where Dale was snoozing. John’s sedative should be wearing off about now.
Kevin reluctantly waved Kenn to go on.
Kenn ducked into the tent after a quick tap.
Angela glanced up from the notebook page as Kenn dropped the flap. “It’s done?”
Kenn was startled by how much she sounded like Adrian. “Yeah, it’s over. No more problems there.”
Angela looked down. “That won’t keep me out. What happened to the rage that blocked me for so long?”
Kenn blinked, blurry teenage concerns crumbling under her prying. He’d never felt anything as strong as her mental fingers opening the doors in his mind.
Angela waited for him to resist, ready to hurt him to know the truth, but he only grunted unhappily.
“You won’t like it.”
“I don’t expect to. Would you rather tell me?”
“No.”
If he tried to explain, it would come out wrong. Better that she got to view the danger they’d been in–that Safe Haven would have eventually been in.
Angela read it as deeply as she needed to, but in her heart, she’d already known who had spilled blood. Marc’s Colts were impossible to mistake once they began to crash.
Kenn felt her withdraw from his mind and was relieved. He once again had secrets that she wasn’t allowed to know.
Angela picked up the thought and immediately got angry. “Don’t cross me.”
“Not unless Adrian tells me to,” Kenn answered carefully, feeling the chill.
Angela had to be satisfied with that. She didn’t want to ruin Kenn by breaking him down to discover what he was hiding. It would be ugly.
Kenn caught the top sentence of the page she was on–Lying is not only wrong, it’s absolutely necessary. Without lying, a leader will never be able to control his flock–and quickly looked away. He didn’t remember all of the instructions and lessons he’d read through while Adrian was handling the slavers, but that one, he did. It had made him feel better because that was how he already lived his life. For Angela, it had to be difficult.
“She’s the one remaining Eagle who might hesitate to pull the trigger, to kill.”
Marc’s words had been laced with contempt and Kenn now recognized the remark for what it was. Brady had a conscience that was crying out.
Angela asked herself if it mattered beyond what she’d already considered, and found only silence. She wasn’t sure. The thought of trying to view Marc that way was frightening. Even the images she’d seen felt like a dream. That couldn’t have been her Brady.
“I’m good. Get some rest before your shift.”
Kenn heard the dismissal and left the tent before she changed her mind and tried to get further into his.
Angela listened to the witch cackle, confused and sad. She’d sent them out to kill and they had. She bore the sin of this, not Marc.
Once that sank in, Angela felt under control and tugged her jacket over that unused wrist blade. It had never felt heavier than when she stepped outside and found Marc coming from the shower.
Their eyes locked over the camp.
Marc read the resigned understanding, but didn’t want it. He did need her to keep seeing him as the good guy, though. It was the only advantage he still held over Adrian.
Angela saw the shadow on his face, the wall he didn’t want her to get through either, and slowly accepted it. If that was how he wanted things, the camp would be led to assume that Kenn had handled things.
Marc wasn’t relieved when she didn’t call him on it. She knew something–too much. Nothing had gone right today.
Marc spotted Dale and the vet fawning over Ray, and amended his thought. Something had gone in his favor, though he hadn’t recognized it at the time. Ray was in his debt and that was useful.
The Eagles knew what had happened without Kenn’s quiet words, and they all expected to feel less for Marc–less trust, less respect–but when he joined them on duty, they found only acceptance and a bit of sadness. Another camp idol had proved he was capable of something awful. They would be stronger for it.
Kenn observed the anticlimactic attitude in shock. If that had been him, they would be glad of it, but the coolness would have returned until he did something big again. The difference in how he and Brady were treated by the Eagles was astounding on every level.
Kenn took up his post, mind spinning through the moments he’d had that compared to Marc’s. Why hadn’t he been as accepted as easily?
Angela waited until Kenn was out of sight, and then went to a man she hadn’t spoken with in a while. When she opened her mouth, he beat her to the punch.
“Would you like a recon for survivors?”
Angela stared at Seth. “Yes, I would. Your team only.”
Seth gestured to the shadows waiting nearby. His men needed a mission and he needed time away from Becky’s pain. Upon hearing and observing, Seth had been set to volunteer and suspected that Angela had noticed the silent request.
“Leave in an hour?” he asked, wondering what Becky’s response would be. She didn’t like being away from him, but Seth was able to recognize this as an opportunity. She claimed she was doing fine, but he wasn’t sure he should believe her.
Angela grimaced slightly, and Seth understood.
“Half that and home by daylight.”
Angela left before she could change the order. She wasn’t sure what she would do if any of the snake women actually wanted to take shelter with them, but she’d figure something out. Leaving them in the wilderness to die simply wasn’t in her nature.
But killing now is...
Angela ignored the witch. Threats were to be handled first. Compassion had to come after. And Marc had made the final choice. If the women hadn’t been threats, they would still be alive.