by Stasia Black
Which was when it struck her. This was a total déjà vu moment. Except now Nix and Clark were on her side. The other guys too. To pull off borrowing the helicopter, it would no doubt take all five of them.
“Where are the others?” she asked as soon as Clark and Nix cleared the fence.
“Mateo and Danny will meet us there. Graham won’t be able to make it. We’ll need him as our ground support in the tech command center.”
Audrey blinked, barely able to take everything in. Were they saying that she wouldn’t get to see Graham. As in, ever again? That their last interaction, which she could barely even remember—maybe she’d passed him the salt at dinner last night?—was it? The last thing she’d ever say to him was, ‘sure, here you go’? The last time she’d touch him was their fingers brushing over a fucking salt shaker?
Her stomach swooped so violently she was sure she was going to throw up.
Oh God.
This was real.
She was actually leaving them.
After today, she’d never see any of them again.
But they’d be alive. They wouldn’t be like Dad and Charlie. Killed and probably left to rot for carrion.
Anyway, there was no time to think about it right now because Nix had grabbed her hand and was pulling her forward into a run along the back fence line of the neighborhood. She could tell he was intentionally going slow for her but she could still barely keep up.
Eventually made their way to the end of the neighborhood fencing. At the back of Camila and Jeffries’s house.
Audrey swallowed down the bile that even being there brought up. If it wasn’t for that evil bastard, she could have—
She breathed out and cut the thought off before she could even finish it. No. There was no use in ‘what ifs.’ They wouldn’t do her any good. There was only what was.
“We didn’t want to take the main road to announce we were heading to the shop, but just pretend we’re taking a walk in case anyone happens to be going by and looks this direction,” Nix murmured, his hand tightening around hers as he pulled her into the open field heading for the woods at the other side of the small clearing. “Look normal.”
Audrey nodded and tried to adopt as normal an expression as she could. Difficult when she felt about three seconds from meltdown, her mind shouting really useful things at her like: This could be the last time you’ll ever hold Nix’s hand. This is the last time you’ll ever see Clark’s face.
Only Nix and Mateo would be going with her on the helicopter to take her to the rendezvous point. There were only three seats so they were all that would fit. Which meant in about ten minutes, she’d have to say goodbye to Clark and Danny forever. And only a short while longer with Nix and Mateo and then—
Clark took one of her arms while they strolled across the field while Nix held her other hand. And for a second, Audrey managed to shut her brain off.
If these were her last moments with them, she didn’t want to ruin them with her freaking out and grief about what was coming next. There’d be plenty time for that later, she had no doubt.
But right now, for one more minute, five more minutes, they were there on either side of her, their bodies warm and reassuring. Her husbands. Her family. Her clan.
And no matter the fact that she was being ripped away from them and had to hurt them to do it, they would always be her family in her heart. She’d hold them there no matter what came next. She’d love them for the rest of her life.
The field wasn’t small, but it felt like they were across it in seconds. And then they started running again, through the woods just out of sight of the road.
Nix crept up to the road when they came close to the workshop. After looking left and right, he gestured for Clark and Audrey to hurry forward. They crossed the road quickly and then Nix ordered them to act normal again as they walked around to the back of the old grocery building to the loading dock.
Danny was waiting outside, chatting and laughing with a couple of guys on smoke break. He was obviously on alert though, because the second they appeared at the edge of the once parking lot, he straightened up. He clapped the guy he was talking to on the back and then headed in their direction.
“Took you long enough,” he said when he got to them. His eyes softened when they fell on Audrey, though. “Hey beautiful.” He reached out a hand and took hers. His eyebrows furrowed. “Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to go. I want you to stay. We all want you to stay. We lov—
Audrey snatched her hand back. “I’m going.”
Danny swallowed and Audrey hated the way his entire body reacted to her words, like she’d slapped him. He tried to play it off with a smile, but it was so obviously forced, Audrey wanted to run away and curl up in a ball somewhere.
Instead she straightened her spine. “Mateo’s inside?”
Danny shook his head. “The helicopter’s around the corner. This way.” He turned abruptly to lead the way and Audrey wondered if it was because he didn’t want her to see the tears he was fighting back. Her chest clenched but she forced her feet to move forward. Just a little more. Just a little longer.
Audrey thought she’d been prepared for the helicopter. But when they rounded the corner and it came into view, she couldn’t help her eyes widening. And her head tilting to the side.
Because… um.
“Are you sure that thing actually flies?” she whispered.
It was ancient. Like ancient, ancient. This thing probably first flew when black and white TVs were all the rage.
There was barely anything to it. Just a huge bubble window around the front of it that covered a bench seat with three harness seatbelts. No back seat. No… anything else.
She took another few steps forward hoping that maybe it would seem more substantial up close but nope. That was it.
Literally right behind the back wall of the seats was the big engine she’d seen in the shop. Then there were the rotating blades on top, landing skids on bottom, and two running boards along the side she assumed were for medical litters for transporting the wounded and… that was pretty much it.
“I’ve witnessed it go up in the air and come back down again if that’s what you’re asking,” Clark said with a clip to his voice.
Um. Wow. “You’re really crappy at this whole reassurance thing,” she muttered.
“You can see it’s a rust bucket.” Clark turned on her. His face was dark and he waved a hand toward the helicopter behind him. “There’s no way in hell you should go up in that thing. I literally saw Mateo duct taping over a hole where it had rusted through the floorboard. Don’t do this.”
Audrey stared at the ground, jaw hard. Was she going to have to go through this song and dance with each of them?
“Nix, do you think it’s safe?”
She didn’t look up at him but she felt his body stiffen beside her. For a second, he didn’t say anything and she wondered if he would. Was this his breaking point? Was he going to lose it on her now?
But then he just said, “Mateo would never risk your life. If he says it’s safe, it’s safe.”
Then he started striding toward the helicopter. Audrey took a deep breath and followed him.
As they rounded the helicopter, she finally saw Mateo. He was holding a gas can, filling up the tank while that annoying guy she’d met the first time she was here, his manager or superior or whatever, stood over him yelling.
“What do you think you’re doing? I told you it doesn’t need to be gassed up until President Goddard visits next week. Are you such a stupid piece of shit you can’t understand the words next week? Should I put it in your people’s language? No bien,” he said in a terribly exaggerated Hispanic accent. “Gassing up now is no bien, understand dumbass?”
“For fuck’s sake,” Nix muttered darkly.
“Did he really just call him a dumbass when he didn’t even know he was mixing up French and Spanish?” Clark said. “Seriously, who the fuck doesn’t know bueno?”
“Hey, fuck-head, did you not hear me?” The man grabbed Mateo’s shoulder so hard the gas canister flew out of his hands and fell to the pavement where gas started pouring out, glug, glug, glug.
“Look what you did, you fucking moron! Pick it up. And that’s coming out of your pay. Sure as shit, I’m docking you—”
Mateo slowly bent over and righted the can of gas, then stood back up.
Audrey had spent the day with Mateo a few times at the shop. And every time it was like he shrank several inches. His shoulders dropped and curved slightly inward. His head dropped, face always down. And he stayed in that position unless he was working with one of the other mechanics, helping them to solve some problem or other.
And at first, that was the posture he stayed in as his boss kept haranguing him. “What a stupid, worthless, piece of shit. Can’t even do one thing right. Plus what’s that under the tarp on the left medical litter? Did you put the test dummy on there already, too? What a fucking idiot. It’s just gonna get stolen if you leave it out here. You shouldn’t have even been working on such a sensitive project in the first place. What would President Goddard think if he came and saw this kind of incompetence? You’re officially off the team. I guess I’ll have to be the one to show him our newest contribution to the country—
“Enough of this assfuck,” Nix growled, starting forward.
But in that same moment, Mateo stood up.
Like, really stood up.
Right before her eyes, he seemed to gain a foot. His shoulders went back, his chin tipped up, and his chest went out. It turned out, at his full height, he was actually taller than his asshole boss. Ha.
Asshole boss—she couldn’t remember his name—seemed to realize it at the same time. But he just seemed annoyed by the fact.
He started shaking his finger in Mateo’s face and kept on yelling and insulting him. “And what’s that on the—”
Which was when Mateo reared back and punched him. Hard too, from the way the guy staggered backward and then fell on his ass.
“Now,” Mateo yelled.
Audrey wanted to cheer for Mateo but suddenly Clark and Nix were rushing her forward. Mateo was already climbing in the pilot’s side and moments later, the blades started whirring overhead.
Which did not go unnoticed.
Even as Nix hurried her up and and helped her into the center of the bench seat beside Mateo, she saw men pouring out of the workshop. As well as a couple guards.
Ever since she’d broken in that night to steal the motorcycle and tranqued the guard, they’d set more security on the place. And they came out now with their guns drawn.
“Oh my God,” Audrey whispered.
It was going to happen again.
They were going to get killed because of her after all.
“S-stop,” she whispered but her voice barely made any noise, or if it did, it was lost in the roar of the chopper blades picking up speed. “Surrender.” Panic spiked through her chest. She swung her head in Nix’s direction.
“We have to surrender,” she shouted, trying to be heard. “Put your hands up. Don’t let them shoot.” She demonstrated by putting her hands up, but Nix only used that as an opportunity to pull the harness down over her head and start buckling it.
“No,” she tried to grab his hands. “They’ll shoot you!” she shouted but he just shook his head.
“They won’t shoot the chopper,” he shouted in her ear.
Was that supposed to be comforting? She looked out the front windshield at where Clark stood just barely out of the circumference of the whirring helicopter blades. At least he had the sense to have his hands up. Wind from the blades whipped at his face and clothes. The guards approached him, heads moving back and forth between him and the helicopter.
So they didn’t see Danny when he snuck up behind the one who’d lagged slightly further back than the others. Audrey jumped and her hand shot to her mouth when Danny grabbed the guy from behind. In a single fluid motion, he yanked the semi-automatic out of his hand and slammed him over the back of the head with the butt of the gun.
“Holy shit,” Audrey exclaimed.
Nix only turned to look as Danny did a similar move to disarm the second guard. The helicopter blades were so loud, the other guards didn’t hear a thing.
As Danny snuck up on the third guy, though, the man swung around, rifle in firing position at his shoulder. But Danny had picked up one of the other guard’s guns and before the man could get a shot off, Danny fired a round into his knee.
Audrey didn’t hear Nix’s whistle but she saw his lips form the little circle.
Then Mateo was smacking at Nix’s chest and gesturing to his harness. Nix nodded and pulled down it down over his head. Moments after he clicked it in place, Mateo pulled up on a long lever to the left of his seat, gripped a controller extending from the dash in front of him, and pumped at the pedals with his feet.
He was pulling and shifting and stomping them in a complicated pattern and suddenly they lifted off the ground.
Audrey shrieked and grabbed for her harness at the jerky movement. The left side pulled sharply up before Mateo compensated and righted it.
They made it up about ten or fifteen feet. And then nosedived for the ground. Audrey screamed.
Oh God, oh God, they were all gonna die.
“Charlie,” she whispered, eyes squeezing shut. But then her eyes shot open again as the helicopter swung upwards, sending her stomach through the floor. She looked over at Nix, who was already staring straight at her. She moved her white-knuckled grip from her harness to grab his hand.
She registered the surprise on his face. But she didn’t care that she was breaking character. She couldn’t pretend to be a bitch right now. If they died in the next few seconds, what the hell would any of the rest of it matter? She held onto Nix like he was her lifeline.
And he was. He had been almost since she’d gotten to the township, if she was honest.
Okay, at first he’d scared the shit out of her. She felt like laughing hysterically as the chopper took another dramatic swing, this time to the left. She stared out the window at the ground that was probably thirty feet below them now.
But soon, almost within that first week, she’d known Nix would keep her safe no matter how crazy he drove her.
He intertwined his fingers with hers and moved his other hand to cover it as well. Lending her his strength.
God, she loved him so much. She loved him. She loved all of them. She loved them so much.
Her stomach felt scooped out as the helicopter wobbled back and forth crazily several more times.
Mateo was pulling back on the central control so hard his arm shook.
But then finally, finally, everything smoothed out.
They started moving forward and suddenly it was like the rough take off had never even happened. They were gliding through the sky smooth as a bird in flight.
Audrey coughed out several shocked gasping laughs, then looked at Nix and grinned. He gripped her hand even harder, bringing it to his lips for a kiss.
For a second their gazes locked, both of them caught up in the joy of being alive and having escaped and…
The smile died on her face.
And now she still had to go through with her plan.
She turned her face away from Nix.
But even though she knew it was stupid and sent the wrong message, she couldn’t bring herself to let go of his hand.
Chapter 38
NIX
Audrey held his hand for the entire two-hour ride. She shifted several times and they’d had to readjust their hold, but she always let him take it again.
He didn’t let himself think about what would happen when the chopper landed. He didn’t let himself think about the fact that for the last two weeks, she’d been acting so strange and withdrawn he could barely sleep at night but for w
orrying about her. He didn’t let himself think about anything except memorizing the warm strength of her hand in his and the feel of her small body against his side on the bench seat.
They couldn’t talk on the ride. It was too loud. Once upon a time there might have been headphones and microphones, but those were long gone.
So Nix held onto Audrey and snuck glances at her every chance he got.
And the two hour ride was over far too fast.
No, not yet, it can’t be over yet, Nix thought when Mateo looked at the GPS device Graham had lent them and started to descend.
But they were dropping out of the sky toward an open field.
No doubt the heads of everyone they’d passed the last two hours had leapt to the sky but this particular spot was fairly uninhabited. Graham had double-checked satellite feed this morning and there had been minimal human activity and no encampments or known settlements nearby.
Wherever Nomansland was, it wasn’t in a thirty-mile radius of the rendezvous location. There was just farmland all around. Galveston and Texas City were the nearest big cities around, about forty miles east. The coast was fifteen to twenty minutes south. About sixty miles southeast was the Demilitarized Zone between Texas and Mexico where a tentative peace was holding after almost a decade of fighting. They’d flown over Houston just a little before sunset. It was still just a huge crater from where the bomb had hit.
Still, Nix lifted his leg and pulled both guns he had holstered at his ankles. Better safe than sorry had long been his mantra, especially for this mission.
Well, along with, it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. They’d never actually asked the Commander if they could use the chopper. Only because Nix knew he’d say hell no.
It was always better to avoid disobeying a direct order when possible. As for the hell he and the guys would catch when they got home? Well, they’d face that when the time came.
All that mattered right now was Audrey.
Audrey.
Her face was white as a sheet, gaze locked with Nix’s as the ground grew closer and closer. She was so fuckin’ beautiful. She was perfect. She was everything.