by Liahona West
A dam broke inside Eloise. With the ability to move, finally, she gathered Bannack into her arms and held his trembling body. She cried with him, held his head against her shoulder, slipped her arms around his back.
“I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.”
Bannack, shuddering, snuggled into Eloise’s shoulder. He whispered, “I could not live with the knowledge that I did nothing. They are dead because of my inaction. It did not take long for me to go to Joy. I groveled at her feet to get her to take away my memories. I figured,” a shuddering breath from Bannack shook Eloise’s cheek, “if I had no memories, I’d be able to live in peace. When she promised to take them after I served her for five years, I agreed.”
“Why?” Eloise’s heart dropped.
“Because living without my memories was worth the wait. She had one of her goons teach me to fight. My training wasn’t like yours. It was brutal and abusive. Eventually, I killed him. And you wanna know what? It left me relieved.”
Just when the boulder in Eloise’s stomach was fading, Bannack threw a curveball. Now she saw another side of him, one that used the rage and hatred created when his family was murdered and channel it into something useful. A machine.
“Fighting came easy. All I had to do was to envision them and I could do anything. Feel nothing. My inferno had somewhere to go instead of burning through my soul.” Bannack peered at Eloise. “Are you doing okay?”
Stiff, Eloise nodded. “I think so. It’s a lot to take in. Is…there more?”
“Yeah. If you’re up to it.” Bannack watched her, his wet eyes flicking across her face. “We do not have to keep talking about this.”
Eloise smiled, albeit a weak one, to encourage him to continue. “I am. It’s important to you. I,” she put her hand on his cheek and watched his lashes flutter, “want to hear. No matter how hard it is to get out.”
Somewhere, far off, children giggled. They moved outside to a mossy bench near a tree. Scattered light bounced off the patchwork grass underneath the pine tree the two of them sat under. Roots peaked out from underneath the ground. Carefully, Bannack lowered his head into Eloise’s lap.
“She promised me she would take the memories away,” Bannack continued. “It was too painful…to live with the guilt and rage. I was neck deep in helping her. First, she told me I needed to bring someone to her. A—a deserter from her facility who was selling her formula. I believed her. Then it was another, and another. Until I was so far into her treasonous dealings that I could not hope for redemption.”
“Oh, no.” Eloise closed her eyes. When they first met, Bannack had revealed he worked for Joy and what he did, but hearing the details carried a heavy weight. As she looked at Bannack, his head in her lap, she bent down and placed her forehead on his cheek. His skin was soft. Piney floral notes of lavender swirled in the air.
“I did it all. Many died. Finally, she asked me to kidnap Nora. I refused. Dug the tracker out.” Bannack rolled up his sleeve to show Eloise the thick scar on the inside of his forearm. “By the time Joy realized I had taken Nora and her family, we were already too far for her to get to us. Lived in Canada for a bit and then I came back. Now, you know everything.”
He turned his head to look at her. The exhaustion she carried when he finished his story wasn’t out of relief but out of emotional weight.
Life hasn’t been kind to either of us.
“I’m glad you told me,” Eloise said when Bannack sat up. “It’s…a lot to take in.” One thing bugged her, though. She couldn’t shake the question, so she asked, “Where did your family die?”
“A store right off the old highway. The one tucked behind Cushman Trail.”
Blood rushed from her face. She put the pieces together. Eloise knew Ada’s and Bannack’s family’s deaths were not similar by coincidence.
“What is wrong?”
“Newman’s? Is the store you’re talking about called Newman’s?” She couldn’t breathe. Her heart was going to explode from her chest. Unable to sit still, Eloise stumbled to her feet, walked a few feet away, and wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to keep the nausea from producing bile.
“I…yes. But how did you—”
She spun around. Her eyes red with warm tears trickling down her cheeks.
“We were there.”
Bannack furrowed his eyebrows as he stood. “You—”
“We were there,” Eloise repeated. She shook. “Remember how I said Ada was killed in front of me in a store? That was Newman’s.”
Bannack took a step back. He kicked a rock with a grunt. It hit the concrete wall, and he crouched low, his back to Eloise, then put his head in his hands. “Why didn’t I do anything?”
“You didn’t know.” She knelt beside Bannack.
“I could have done something, though.” Bannack’s whisper rasped out of him so quietly she had to lean in to hear him. Then she saw his face. Contorted. Tears trickled down his cheeks. His chin quivered.
“Hey, hey,” Eloise said and reached out for his face.
Gasping, Bannack pulled away.
She kept her hands on her knees. “I know you feel responsible for what happened to us, but it wasn’t your fault. Those men chose to hurt all those people. You were scared.”
“It…it is eating away at me, Elle.” His breath hitched. “I am suffocating. I keep going back to that day, wishing I did something. Ran inside. Fought them. Anything.”
Her stomach hurt, and she wanted to touch him, hold him. “Don’t let this eat at your soul. Don’t give up on belonging, joy, and love. You’re vulnerable. It means you’re human.”
The way he looked at her, with his forehead wrinkled, tears on his face, and shoulders shaking made Eloise want to groan, his pain affecting her too. It clawed off of him, terrified and anguished, and into her bones. She wasn’t a stranger to shame. She knew how debilitating it could be, but where she had people to nurture her and take care of her in times of vulnerability, Bannack didn’t. He had been beaten until he forgot who he was and only recently tried building himself back.
“You are an incredible human.” Eloise said. Bannack looked at her as if she possessed a third eye, but she continued, slowly inching her way closer to him. “You’re still here. That’s an incredible feat. The night we met, you put aside what you wanted to help me. And yes, I know what I said. Do you realize how incredible that is? You saved me. Even when you didn’t want to. I know,” Eloise reached for Bannack and he didn’t flinch away, “your family is watching you and they’re so proud of you for persevering. It couldn’t have been easy.”
His body seemed to crumple into her hand, and he shuddered. “No.”
Leaning in, Eloise whispered, “You’re here and you matter.”
An audible groan of relief flooded from Bannack. He became limp under her touch.
“I’m not leaving. Even if it takes a lifetime of healing, I’m never going to leave you and you’ll never have to experience loneliness or judgement ever again.”
A shaking sob rolled out of Bannack.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Liam
The Sentinels were easy enough to get through and they never even saw him sneak through their lines. Chuckling to himself, hidden by the thick, leaf-laden branches, Liam marveled at the ease of it all.
Pitiful, Mason. Truly pitiful.
He looked to the sky. Dark clouds blocked out most of the sun.
All he had to do now was wait for Mason to leave the Compound, then he could strike when least expected in one last beautiful job. A job so perfect, he could retire from. His magnum opus.
If it wasn’t for that idiot Mason taking his sweet time, I’d have done the job already and be home sipping tea.
Liam gritted his teeth, his mouth watering as he thought about the bachelor button petals mixed in with the black tea leaves from his garden, and watched Mason from his perch in the large oak tree. The Compound leader sat at his desk, one hand supporting his
head and the other writing on a piece of paper.
A woman approached and leaned against Mason’s back. He paused, smiled, put his palm against her arm.
So, you finally married her, huh?
Before Liam left the Compound after their disagreement on how the Compound should be run—Mason wanting a more pacifistic approach—Soora and Mason had been dating for several years.
His attention, bored watching Mason, shifted to locating Adam in the bushes. The assignment required finesse and planning; he had the knowledge needed to get Mason and Eloise, but Adam did not. He was clunky and bulky whereas Liam was thin and nimble, able to dance away and dodge easily when the situation called for it. The one thing he loathed about being with Joy was patience. She made him wait for far too many things.
It’s what brought the downfall of Liam’s and Mason’s relationship.
“I will not subject the people who come and live at the Compound to war again! They need a sanctuary, not a military operation.”
“You haven’t changed, have you?” Liam balled his fists.
Soora, Mason’s fiancé, came to his rescue. “He’s right, Liam. They’re worn out and tired from the fighting.”
Liam turned to her and contorted his face. “Oh, please. You’re so predictable to run to his aid the moment he needs it. I would never have asked you to do such things if you’d just stayed with me instead of being swept off your feet by this bastard.”
Soora blinked at him and he knew he had been cruel, but he couldn’t take back his words.
A fist crashed into Liam’s nose, breaking it. His eyes watered and stung, and he tumbled backward over the desk, hitting his head on the linoleum. When his eyes focused, Mason stood over him, knuckles red and seething.
“How dare you,” he growled. “Get out. I never want to see you again.”
Liam stood, blood dripping from his nose. His head pounded. “You need me, Mason. No one is going to protect the Compound if you kick me out.”
“I will protect them.”
“You?” Liam laughed and wiped blood from his lips. “You always were a dreamer. Even when Fade attacked the twenty-seventh battalion, you insisted they would be okay despite their base being blown up! Then you ran in there and risked everyone just for a couple of kids!”
“Those kids were alive, and I’ll be damned if I don’t save every single life worth saving. I’ll die trying if I have to!” Mason advanced, and Liam glared at him as he said, “I will do everything in my power to protect people who come to live here by giving them peace. God knows we need it. Now, get out of my Compound or I’ll break something else.”
Ego destroyed, Liam’s self-preservation kicked in and he left, vowing to prove Mason wrong, no matter what it took.
The memory made Liam’s nose hurt.
Liam settled in. He trained his eyes to the back door.
Any minute now. He adjusted the pack on his lap. And I can stop being so bloody bored.
***
Mason emerged from the Compound and Liam, whose backside had been in pain for hours, sat up with a grunt. He leaned forward in the tree while raindrops landed on his head, shoulders, and back.
“There you are,” he said and smiled when Eloise appeared, too. “Mason, you predictable git.”
Liam caught Adam’s attention, gestured with his hands, and climbed down from the tree. He followed them from a distance. Long ago, when he and Mason were stationed in the fifty-fifth battalion, Liam had learned how to walk silently and he’d used it to his advantage. Spying became his specialty.
He could hear them talking in hushed tones.
“How is the farmer’s cow doing?” Mason asked.
“Fine. He cleaned her off and she’s perfectly healthy. A little scratch on her knee, but that’s it. Meanwhile,” Eloise lifted her shirt to her nose and made a face, “I smell like cow.”
Mason laughed. “Tell me about the meetings with the committee. Is Francine still giving you a hard time?”
“She’s come around. We should be able to start digging for the underground refrigeration spaces soon. It’s going to be so nice to have cold things again.”
Alright. That’s enough talking. Liam nodded to Adam. Time to wipe some memories.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Eloise
“There’s nothing like a cold glass of wine,” Mason said.
Eloise flicked her hood on to protect her head from the rain and watched Mason react to the memory of cold wine, something Eloise couldn’t empathize with because she’d never had cold wine before. She smiled.
He looked over Eloise’s shoulder, and his eyes widened. He stepped forward. “Liam,” Mason said with a growl. “I told you I would break something else if I ever saw you back here.”
Eloise turned around. Liam, a tall and skinny man, sauntered toward them with his chin tilted down. She noticed his limp.
“So, you steal my girl, kick me out, and start your empire. Did I miss anything? Oh! That’s right. You broke my fucking nose in the process.” He ran toward them. “I liked it the way it was before!”
Mason lifted his arms and braced his body for the attack. Liam crashed into him, using his legs as a propeller to land two hits. Mason grunted, twisted his body, and slammed Liam into a nearby tree.
“After all these years, you’ve still got it.”
Like before, when Cassius attacked Bannack, Eloise stepped in the way despite Mason’s warning cry. She glared, doing her best to hide the fear ransacking her body. She’d never seen Mason attacked, except during training exercises. The experience jarred her.
“Stop this,” Eloise said, her kukri outstretched and a reverse grip on the karambit. “I don’t know who you are or what you want with Mason, but I won’t let you hurt him. Leave now!”
Liam’s angry laugh made her blink and he looked at Mason. “She’s feisty. You should really listen to Daddy.”
Mason made a defeated noise as Eloise turned back to Liam, the fire of anger exploding through her. “Excuse me?”
She leapt forward, slashing with her karambit to follow through with her elbow. Something solid hit her ankles. She gasped, landed on the ground, and watched Liam advance. She faked a slash with her kukri, but he hit it from her hand, spun it in the air, and grabbed onto it.
Mason crashed into Liam, allowing Eloise to scramble to her feet.
Someone grabbed her from behind. She squirmed in surprise and her attacker squeezed, her lungs unable to expand. Somehow, in her frantic fight to break free and breathe, she caught footing on a boulder. Eloise pushed off it. The person holding her lost balance for a moment and she took her chance. Eloise searched behind her for the back of a neck, adjusted her weight forward, and fell. The man flipped over her head into the mud. Thunder made music in the sky. He rolled away before she could knock him out.
A foot flew into her vision and she had no time to even gasp before it got her in the face. The treads scraped along her skin, taking a chunk out of the bridge of her nose. She cried out, holding her face, and bent over.
“Run!”
Lightning flashed.
Mason slammed his elbow into Liam’s sternum, knocking him back, and rushed the man who attacked Eloise. He picked up her discarded kukri on the way and stabbed him in the neck. Blood splattered across Mason’s face.
He yanked the blade out, turned, and panted. A needle stuck out from his stomach.
Eloise’s pupils dilated. She pointed at it. “Mason…”
“Oops,” Liam sneered. He hadn’t even tried to stop Mason when he ran over to the second man and now, they knew why.
Mason looked down and pulled the empty syringe out. “What…” he stumbled and blinked, then shook his head. “What did you do to me?”
He fell onto his knees, his head rolling.
“Mason!” Eloise grabbed onto him, his body heavy against her, and she turned to Liam. “What did you do?”
“He got what was com
ing to him.” Liam sneered again.
The syringe was small, about the size of her hand including the needle. Eloise tossed it away.
“Mason, hey,” Eloise patted his face and tried to push him to a sitting position. “Hey. You gotta stay awake.”
“I’m okay. I think.” His eyebrows knitted together. “Just help me up.”
She did, but he struggled to keep his balance, so he leaned against her.
“He’s not attacking,” Eloise whispered as she glared sideways at Liam. He stood some distance from them, a crazy gleam in his eye. “What should we do?”
“I-I don’t…know. Something’s…” Mason groaned and grabbed his head, “something’s wrong.”
“Hey, Daddy’s girl!” Liam paced, and another lightning strike lit up the sky. “What are you going to choose? Daddy or a chance to avenge him?”
“Can I engage?” Anger boiled inside her again, and she gritted her teeth. “He attacked you.”
“I know.” With much effort, Mason stood to his full height. He wobbled but stood on his own. “I’m okay for now.” He smiled at her. “Go get him.”
Eloise launched forward, a growl turning into a yell, and attacked. She undercut, swiped with her legs, and slashed with her knives, trying her best to get the better of Liam. Each attack he deflected easily. Mud flew. More lightning, this time too close. Liam pinned her to the ground by her throat. She jammed her knee into his ribs, making him grunt, then she gouged at his eyes.
Liam screamed and stepped away.
Gasping, Eloise stood. Her chest burned and her eyes watered.
He rubbed his eyes. “That hurt. My job isn’t finished, though, and you killed my assistant.”
“What are you talking about?”