Carved In Stone, page 14
Kenn took the next path to lead him into a small wooded area in an alcove of stone. It was so much like where Safe Haven was, just in miniature, that Kenn burst out laughing.
His hard, surprised brays alerted everyone to his presence and told Adrian he was being mocked.
Conner rose from the pushup position quickly, stepping back as his dad’s face turned dark. They’d risen to a drillmaster today and Conner was glad for any break.
“She shouldn’t send you again,” Adrian stated.
Kenn understood it wasn’t because of the laughter. “I can handle the fallout.”
“What do you want?”
“There’s a storm coming tonight.”
“I know. Why are you here? You shouldn’t be here.”
Adrian didn’t want anyone around right now. He had too many mistakes to ever atone for and being near Kenn, who he had been closest to, was salt in his wounds.
“Boss has a message.” Kenn gave him Angela’s note with angry amusement still lining his words. “You have work to do, like the rest of us. Get on it.”
Adrian’s eyes misted over as he read the cold instructions.
After the storm, have Conner and four good men meet a Safe Haven crew at the very bottom of the road. Assist and provide security. This is not FND. It’s survival.
“Anything you need,” Adrian whispered gratefully.
Kenn, repulsed again at Adrian’s weakness for Angela, left without saying anything that he wanted to. How could he have idolized that man so much?
That’s not Adrian, his mind whispered hesitantly. That’s a shell. She’ll fill him back up in time.
Kenn paused, hidden under the cover of a wildly growing tree. He hadn’t heard that voice in a long time and wasn’t sure he wanted to now. The inside whisper had led him into so many mistakes that he would never fully be free of.
I’m sorry. It’s my nature.
You almost destroyed me and everything else, Kenn responded, thinking clearly for the first time when dealing with his demon. I won’t ever trust you.
I can try to follow the light, the demon offered apologetically. You’ll have to help me.
The wind blew the leaves around aggressively and Kenn got his feet moving. No. Go back to sleep until you can do better than try. I won’t risk my place again.
Relieved and disappointed, the demon faded away and Kenn felt his soul lighten. He was a better person now, a stronger person, and he loved his life. It had been good under Adrian and he still missed that, but serving under Angela was quickly becoming necessary. She was good at it and she didn’t hold a grudge anymore, as far as he could tell. The future had never looked better to the Marine, and he entered the main gate with a tolerant nod to the guards who glowered. “We all have work to do. Get on it.”
Behind Kenn, Conner stood under the same tree and gazed at the gates of Safe Haven in confused longing. A team had just come in with three large trucks and it was holding up a line of people on their way to the supply vehicles. One of those people was Candy and Conner stared, heart hurting. He was hers! Why couldn’t she understand that?
Adrian’s hard hand settled onto his shoulder and Conner accepted the comfort, trying to fight the need to rush the gates to be with her. At least his dad understood how that felt. They did have one thing in common.
“Come on. We need to get some things ready for our mission.”
Conner allowed his father to lead him to their site, not asking what they were being sent out to do. He was willing to go wherever Angela wanted, if it meant he might have a chance to earn his way back in.
4
“We’re all set,” Whitney stated, handing Kyle a paper. “It’s all in there.”
Kyle had understood by their gear list that Angela was sending them out to a dangerous area and hadn’t argued. They needed the items on her list and he planned to return with them. “Good. Half hour after mess. Tell the others.”
Whitney rushed off to get cleaned up and eat, and Kyle lingered, verifying that the guards were alert and the camp was calm. It was always hard to tell with so many people, especially when whining about sore muscles was so natural, but to his ear, everything was fine.
“That’s when his place is the most dangerous,” he grumbled. Kyle wasn’t anticipating being away from Jennifer for the next few days. Hell, he didn’t like being away for a few hours!
“Then we should go have a nice meal,” Jennifer stated, coming up behind him.
Kyle froze when she wrapped her arms around him from behind, pressing those breasts into his back.
Jennifer retreated, understanding and yet annoyed at the same time. “Or maybe I should go eat by myself.”
Kyle, frustrated and tired, slid in front of her and delivered a kiss that promised she would never have to eat alone.
Jennifer giggled as Kyle pulled away and stared at her. His thoughts were now complete chaos. It was cute.
“It’s not cute!” Kyle protested. “It’s frustrating.”
Jennifer’s demeanor became cold and she went to the mess without saying anything else.
Not sure what he’d done wrong, Kyle followed, replaying the scene.
Jennifer stopped at Peggy’s table to collect Autumn, and Kyle went to get their trays, still confused. Why were women so hard to figure out?
Jennifer was busy blocking her thoughts from the baby and missed Kyle’s observation, but it wouldn’t have mattered. She was having a hard night. Sleeping alone was hard. She’d had a bad dream and Kyle hadn’t been there to comfort her. She didn’t like this schedule at all.
“I’m sorry,” Angela said, joining them at the center tables. “It does matter.”
“It’s okay.” Jennifer smiled tiredly. “We’ll be fine.”
Angela waved at the sleepy baby. “Yes, you will.”
Jennifer took hope from that and allowed Kyle to slide in without giving him the cold shoulder. All she’d wanted to do was share a good moment with him to replace her bad mood, but she needed to control her own emotions and not depend on her man to do it for her.
“Eagle signups are still open folks, but there are only a few slots left,” Tonya’s voice told them over the radios. “Come see me. I have the sheet.”
Angela was pleased with how that was going–both the rookies and the radio–and she skimmed the board that Doug was currently updating. Theo’s team had been in the lead until Billy’s crew got in today and dumped three semis of stuff in their site. No one knew how they’d managed to do so much in only one day, but Angela was more than happy with their ingenuity. The coats and boots would keep them all alive.
“You all set?” Angela asked.
“Yes,” Kyle answered, not sure how much of his run he should talk about. “We’ll get in, get the stuff, and get home.”
“Perfect,” Angela agreed. The run north wouldn’t be pretty. Neither would a couple of the other missions that she had crews leaving for in the morning, but without water and food, they were doomed. Fuel was also a necessity, though, most people here wouldn’t understand why for a while yet.
“Have we seen any movement?” she asked next, making the people at the table tense. All of them knew she meant their old enemy.
“Nothing so far,” Morgan said. “From either source.” He was fresh off sniper duty with the teens and he felt as tired as Angela looked.
Angela was glad. She hadn’t been able to view anything about the remaining government or the Mexican’s, and it was making her twitchy.
The crowd cackled and groaned as Billy’s team was listed in first and Angela took the opportunity to inspect her people for problems.
She found only the ailments that she’d already known about and forced herself to relax and try to enjoy the calm meal that she had stayed up for. If Marc came by and found her moping, there would be hell to pay.
Angela spotted Kendle coming through the crowd and waved her over. Around them, people grew wary.
Kendle joined her at the table with red cheeks. “Yes?”
“I have some things I need delivered,” Angela stated evenly. “Would you like to take them or should I ask Kenn?”
“Depends on what it is, I guess,” Kendle answered, glad when people resumed what they’d been doing.
“I need a problem handled. You’re delivering a few items to make that job easier. I’d like them to arrive around midnight.”
Kendle understood who the recipient was and the trouble it might cause between Marc and Angie. “I’ll take it.”
“Good.” Angela took a packet from her jacket and handed it over. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” Kendle went to the tray line after putting the package into her pocket, wondering why Angela had asked her. Make work?
Kendle shrugged. She’d planned to visit Adrian later anyway.
Angela didn’t reveal how important the delivery was. When Adrian received it, he wouldn’t be happy. Neither would Kendle when she met with Daryl for her shift later. They made a good team, despite the fact the fact that they hated each other.
5
Evening fell over the mountains in a quick spread of darkness that had Eagles scrambling to light the cans and center fire. They didn’t have the timing down yet and the shadows on the mountain cliffs were spooky.
Marc spent time with the huddling groups of people who weren’t laboring, glad Angela had instructed the radio crew to play soft, soothing music. Marc chatted, calming fears, but slowly made his way toward the cave. The constant sound of work was echoing and Marc was curious how much progress had been made since this morning. As he approached the entrance, raised voices drew his attention.
“Don’t ever do that again! Do you understand?”
Marc rounded the cliff wall and found Tara, with Missy at her side, crying. The two were clearly having a discipline moment and Marc joined them, trying to read Tara’s thoughts again. “Problem, ladies?”
Tara flinched.
Missy immediately came to Marc’s side and wrapped her little arms around his waist.
Marc lifted a brow. “Well?”
Tara frowned, arms crossing over her chest. “She ran off and I found her inside the cave. She could have gotten hurt.”
Marc looked down to tell Missy she couldn’t be in there, and froze at the fear on her little profile. It instantly reminded him of Angie, as a child. “Are you okay?”
Missy nodded, burying her face against his hip and Marc patted her soothingly.
“That’s not right,” Tara stated. “I’m not abusing her. I yelled.”
Marc didn’t reply, busy trying to dig into the child’s mind this time. He hit a blank wall and found it impossible to penetrate.
“Please?”
Marc regarded Tara coolly. “Please, what?”
“Please don’t interfere with my rules as Missy’s parent. She has to learn to fit in.”
Marc agreed, but he knew there was something wrong. He just didn’t know what it was. “As long as the child isn’t being abused, we don’t believe in interfering.
“Good.” Tara carefully came forward and took Missy’s hand. The little girl smiled up at her mother and Tara sighed in defeat. “Okay. I’m sorry I scared you, but the cave is dangerous. Don’t do it again, okay?”
“Okay!” Missy shouted, jumping into Tara’s arms.
Marc kept studying them as the woman struggled toward the tent area with the wild child. He’d figured out what it was that had bothered him about her shadow while in the QZ, but it didn’t fit with this protective parental feeling. Whatever was going on with her, Marc was suddenly confident that Angela had plans based around it. To pull off anything in Safe Haven, you either had to have the boss lady’s permission, or you had to be smarter and more alert than Angela–something Marc wasn’t sure was possible at this point.
Marc spotted Tracy trailing the pair and nodded to her but didn’t offer more. He was confident that she would have intervened if Tara had been abusing the girl. Eagles protected people in many ways, and it wasn’t always from outside enemies. Sometimes, people had to be protected from themselves.
Marc saw Kendle leaving by the rear gate, where there were no people in quarantine to shout at her and he frowned. Kendle was walking an ugly line and he was considering an intervention. He wasn’t happy about having to do it, but he’d brought her here and it was his duty to help her if he could.
6
Adrian was waiting for the rest of his instructions from Angela. Her coded message had said there was trouble. He assumed she didn’t want his pals to know, otherwise Kenn would be more than a delivery boy.
“What did I miss this time?” he muttered.
“I don’t know,” Kendle answered him, enjoying his flinch as she ducked inside the tent. “But she has her own shit-storms brewing. I wouldn’t count on her for more help.”
Kendle tossed him a small package and then waited. She agreed with Adrian that Angela didn’t want some people to know they had more problems, but Kendle wasn’t one of those and she’d already scrutinized the parcel. Angela had been confident that she would.
Adrian examined the items, wondering who the target was. He read the slip of paper.
You are Safe Haven’s guard dog until I can get them to let you in. Use these things in hope of regaining your honor.
“She gave me a silent message as well,” Kendle informed him, recalling the feeling of Angela in her mind with revulsion. “Another old friend is coming. Get ready for it.”
“Did she say who?”
“Vlad.”
Adrian rose in a blur, intimidating in his fury.
“When?!”
Kendle was unable to stand her ground before his fury. She shrank away, taking up a spot by the open flap. “When I asked that, she said now is best.”
Adrian searched the package again and found nothing else, which said the threat was imminent. “Tell her I’m on it.”
“Which one?” Kendle asked. She’d pulled it from his mind.
“All of it,” Adrian answered. “Anything else?”
Kendle swiped at a spider trying to make a web over the doorway. “She wants you to go out alone for whatever you do.”
“I intend to,” he swore, pulling on a shirt. He’d spent the day out with all of his faction, gathering supplies for the job Angela had given them, and he was tired, but this had to be handled now. Jack and his men were more than a threat. They were gifted hunters who excelled in ambushes.
Kendle waited for him to get dressed and then trailed him toward the small fire, aware of feeling left out. She pushed into his mind and saw their newest enemy as Adrian remembered him.
Ten well-armed men lounged around a concrete room with a single window that marked it an underground structure. On the long center table was assorted piles of cash, guns, and other needed items for the missions they often went on. The rest of the room was empty, with nothing to identify its purpose.
Some large and muscled, some average height and weight, the only thing these men had in common was a few pieces of their gear. Unlike the military that many of them had spent time in, being a government hunter didn’t require a uniform or have strict conduct rules. It only mattered that they always accomplished their mission. It earned them more fame and cash, promotions and honors that average fighters would never have a chance at, and being out of work, even for a short time, wasn’t something they cared for. Between runs right now and supposed to take a long break, the team of bounty hunters were already bored and expressing their displeasure.
“That Canada run should have gone to us,” Vlad complained, sharpening his knife. “Bravo team sucks.”
The other men nodded and snickered.
“If I needed a break, I would have asked for one,” Jack stated, rotating to view their team leader. “You should have gotten our vote on it.”
Adrian didn’t respond. He was leafing through the latest booklet on capturing descendants, and waiting for a reason to reply. He had a lot of pent up anger.
“Are you listening?” Jack demanded.
“He don’t listen to anyone but the boss,” Kranten taunted. “Ass-kisser. That’s our CO.”
Adrian grinned, nodding. Good enough.
The brawl quickly got wild, with men being slammed through doors and into metal lockers that bent under the force. No one from the adjoining rooms and halls interfered. Adrian’s crew was lethal and they blew off steam like this every time they were forced to take a break. It had become a ritual that everyone expected and dreaded, except those rough men.
Adrian let the team get as dirty as he thought they needed and then whistled loud enough to get attention. “We’re done.”
The men all resumed their positions of confinement, but now they had wounds to tend and punches to groan over.
Except for Jack, who glowered at Adrian in resentment as blood dripped from his nose. “I’m not done yet!”
Adrian shrugged, turning around. “Matchup?”
Jack nodded eagerly and the other men formed a wide circle for the fight. This was another part of the ritual, however, it didn’t feel the same this time. Jack was truly angry and all of them wanted to know his underlying reason for it. Jack was aware that the orders for the break had come from higher than Adrian. So what was the problem?
Before the two men could duke it out, a loud siren blared through the compound, drawing them to their gear. A siren here only meant one thing–they were under attack.
Adrian let Jack shove by him, disappointed. He’d been anticipating releasing more of his anger at being cooped up here. The government didn’t like their hunters wandering, so breaks were spent underground.
Adrian was swallowed in running men as he emerged into the hallway and he went with the flow, not needing to check his weapons like some of the men around him were doing. He was always ready and he pushed ahead to find the threat.
The screens inside the lobby of the underground bunker flashed on, showing a topside view of the main entrance that was disguised as a roadside diner. In the diner was a large group of people with glowing red orbs and guns in their hands.
“Looks like some of Canada came to us,” Vlad commented. “That’s their hunters–the ones Bravo team was sent after.”
