by Marnee Blake
Now, witnessing how disturbed she was, he thought on that. “Yeah. Probably. I threw one out of the helicopter from almost forty feet up.”
She nodded with her eyes still on the mangled heap.
“I’m sorry.” Why was he apologizing? He’d done what he had to do, hadn’t he? “They were going to kill us,” he defended, not understanding why it bothered him so much to see her upset. They were running from these guys, weren’t they?
“No, they weren’t.” From the porch, Kitty cut into their conversation. “They wanted to take us prisoner. Take us with them.”
He threw up his hands, gazing at the sky. God grant him strength. “Oh, well, even better. Prisoners. Of Goldstone.” Hell, no. He wasn’t going to be anyone’s prisoner. “Listen, I did what I thought was best.”
Blue nodded again, but her jaw was set as she pushed past him. As if she was pissed that he’d saved them from being taken hostage. He turned to Kitty, looking for sanity in this chaos. “I did what I could.”
“I know.” The way she said it sounded tired. This wasn’t the reaction he’d hoped for. Where were the thank-yous and the great jobs? Instead, he got attitude from one and creepy understanding from the other.
Well, whatever. He’d done what he thought was best, what had made sense in the moment. He’d thought they were in danger. Excuse him if getting rid of the guys who were after them wasn’t a good thing.
“It’s not that it isn’t a good thing,” Kitty added. “It’s complicated. We need to leave, though. They called in our location. The other helicopters will be here in ten minutes.”
“You know, it’s really freaky when you do that.”
“I know.” Kitty nodded toward the shed behind him, tucked back from the house. “Ever driven an ATV?”
Finally. Some fun. “Hell, yeah.”
All four of them: dead.
Blue hadn’t tried to sort through the rubble, because Kitty hadn’t sensed any thoughts or dreams there. Blue had seen enough dead bodies today. Any more might be her breaking point.
As they loaded the meager supplies they’d gathered onto Kitty’s family’s ATVs, no one said much, working quickly, consumed in their thoughts and all aware of the helicopters looking for them. Even Kitty left them to it in silence.
Blue tucked a jug of water on the grate behind the seat on Mrs. Laughton’s ATV, securing it with a bungee cord next to the bag of nonperishable food and spare clothes she’d thrown together. She tightened the strap around her supplies with too much force, and it made an unnecessarily loud snap in her haste. She’d rushed through the kitchen, intensely aware of Mrs. Laughton’s body in the center of the room. They’d covered her with a blanket but agreed they didn’t have time to bury Kitty’s parents properly.
She’d regret that later, she was certain.
Next to her, Seth readied his own ride. His ATV had been Mr. Laughton’s. Blue got the impression Mr. Laughton had been trying to compensate for something. Or a lot of somethings. His ATV’s engine was beefed up something fierce. Green flames streaked along the sides, and the seat was tricked out with nail-head studs. Blue could taste Seth’s eagerness to get his hands on the souped-up thing, to get going again. She gritted her teeth, her disappointment intense.
She’d been wrong about him.
Blue hated guns and violence. After all, her father had shot himself. To her, a gun had caused a lot of her problems, not solved them. But military men—men like Seth—believed guns and bloodshed fixed everything.
She’d certainly never thought she would be attracted to someone like that.
And she admitted that she was attracted to him. Very much.
Stupid body.
The sun was setting, casting fingerlike shadows through the trees. With its retreat, the heat had seeped out of the forest and had been replaced with a chill that lifted goose bumps on her arms. She returned to the car and grabbed the beat-up jean jacket from the passenger seat’s floor. She swung it on, not bothering to button it.
Was she missing anything? She ducked into the backseat of the Cavalier, inhaling the musty scent and squashing her nostalgia. She’d never see the pile of garbage again, and that bothered her for some reason. It wasn’t like the car was reliable or even nice. It was stupid to care so much about it.
She grabbed her iPod, having forgotten she’d tossed it back there after work last night. Candy wrappers still littered the floor, and a handful of old paystubs were scattered on the backseat. She didn’t think it mattered to leave those things. They were dealing with a high-level security company. They would know all there was to know about her by now. She slammed the door closed and walked around to the trunk. She popped the key latch and smacked her palm against the middle of it. The lock had broken a couple years ago. She probably could have had it fixed pretty cheap, but she’d felt kind of cool being able to open it with her hand. Like Fonzie on the Happy Days reruns Gran watched.
Trying to stave off the unexpected tears, she opened her eyes as wide as she could. The contents of her trunk swam in and out of focus, and she held the hatch open, because it wouldn’t stay up by itself. Finally, her vision cleared, and she glanced over the handful of trash inside. As an afterthought, she removed the screwdriver and wrench she kept back there, in case, and allowed the trunk to slam shut with dull finality.
Turning from the car she hadn’t realized she cared about so much, she joined Seth and Kitty.
“You ready?” Seth’s face was unreadable. With his dusty camo and soldier chic, he managed to look hot in spite of all of this.
She gritted her teeth. “Yeah.”
He nodded, retreating to his ATV and swinging a leg over it in a practiced move. Right, he drove a motorcycle. He’d know how to do this. Not that he didn’t do everything with an easy grace. It was a little irritating.
She turned away, needing to focus. Needing to stop thinking about him.
Beside her, Kitty did nothing to hide her misery. Her eyes were red, and tears still streaked her cheeks. Though Blue had always thought her family was strange—after all, they’d been friends for years, but she’d only been invited over a handful of times—this had been Kitty’s home, and her parents still lay inside. Blue knew too much about how that felt. She’d run from her own home this morning, leaving her loved one behind, too. She squeezed her friend’s arm. “You okay?”
Kitty nodded, glancing at the house once more. Fresh tears slid out of the corner of her eyes, and she didn’t bother to swipe at them. Instead, she pressed the ignition switch, and the ATV roared to life beneath her, effectively ending any conversation they might have had.
Blue met Seth’s eyes, and he only shook his head. The message was clear. Don’t press. She needs space.
He was right. Pushing her friend wouldn’t be fair. She’d talk when she was ready.
She held Seth’s gaze for a moment. Who was this man who could kill people one moment and then intuitively understand what someone he didn’t even know needed?
They stared at each other long enough for butterflies to set up residence in her stomach.
He broke the eye contact first, starting his machine with a lazy kick of his foot.
Still unsettled and conflicted, Blue mounted up as well. As the ATV rumbled to life beneath her, she couldn’t help casting one last glance at her Cavalier. Leaving it felt wrong, as if she was abandoning the last bit of her normal life. Which maybe she was. People were hunting them, and she had no idea what would happen if they found them.
She might never return to Glory again.
She couldn’t count how many times she’d dreamed of leaving Glory. Crummy jobs, too many bills, and worst, the fear that her grandmother wasn’t getting the best care. But she’d never imagined she’d leave like this, running like a rat from the light.
Beside her, Kitty started off, leading them into the woods, and Seth followed closely behind her. In the distance, Blue could hear the beat of helicopter propellers. Letting up on the brake, she eased the ATV into mo
tion. God, she hated open-air riding.
As she followed her companions, she refused to look back at the Cavalier.
It was only a car, after all. She was still alive. Most of Glory couldn’t say the same.
Chapter Five
The trip down the mountain took less time than the trip up had taken in the Cavalier. Thank God for that. They heard helicopter propellers constantly at first, but they became less pronounced as the minutes passed. Instead of returning to the road, their little caravan made for the winding creek that fed into Trinidad Lake. They would camp near the lake until morning and then make the short trip from there into Trinidad, where they’d catch the Amtrak out of Colorado. Kitty insisted the Amtrak train didn’t come through until midafternoon. She’d taken it to see her grandmother in Chicago a handful of times.
“Your grandma lives in Chicago?” Blue asked when she mentioned this. “How’d your family end up here?”
Kitty had shrugged. “Dad prefers seclusion.”
Blue didn’t doubt that. Mr. Laughton had been a weirdo. She tried to keep that thought to herself, and if Kitty heard it, she didn’t respond.
They’d driven for a half an hour and darkness had fallen completely when Seth halted. Thank God for the nearly full moon or they’d probably have killed themselves riding through the night. They stopped in the thicker trees that covered the mountains and seemed to be resting in a valley of sorts. “I think the creek is right below us.”
Seth glanced at Kitty, who nodded, but her brow was furrowed and her head tilted to the side. “What’s wrong?”
Her eyes widened, and she waved, frantic, glancing over her shoulder. “Get down!”
“What?” Down? Did she mean on the ground?
Something burst from the trees beside them. It dropped at least fifteen feet out of the branches to tackle Seth. Blue’s heart pounded in her ears as she screamed, scurrying from her ATV to hide beside it. She scanned the supplies strapped to the ATV, trying to see if any of it would help Seth.
It had to be a coyote or a bear. Nothing else moved that fast or could jump so far. But as Seth rolled away, Blue realized he was grappling with a large man, not an animal. Then she heard Kitty yelling like a maniac.
“Jack!” she screamed, swinging off her machine and rushing toward the pair as they wrestled in the dirt. “Jack, it isn’t like that!”
Jack? And what wasn’t like what?
Then Blue placed the name with the body she saw tangled with Seth. Jack Barnett, another boy from town. They’d found his parents and twin sisters dead this morning.
“Oh, shit.”
As Blue watched, Seth slammed his fist into Jack’s jaw. The connection’s dull thwack made her wince. Jack took the punishing blow and then punched Seth in the ribs. He followed that hit with another to the kidney, causing Seth to stumble away.
Seth’s jaw tightened and…there. His new talent. It was there, in the look of concentration, of extreme focus. He moved with strategy and calculation, as if his actions were part of an intricate choreography. He’d done the same against the helicopter back at Kitty’s place.
He was trying to protect them. Again.
Warmth spread through her stomach. That intelligence, that protection. It was incredibly hot, even as she was terrified for both of them.
The two adversaries squared off, circling each other. Blue searched the area, trying to think of a plan, to find a way to separate them before someone really got hurt. All the while Kitty screamed from the sidelines, “Jack! He didn’t kidnap us, you jerk. He’s like us!”
“Wait.” Blue reached over to snag Kitty’s coat sleeve. “Jack’s like us, too?”
Kitty shook her off. “Jack!” Then she spun, studied the trees, and tore off into the woods without any more explanation.
Blue took up where she’d left off—watching Seth and Jack try to kill each other.
Jack crouched and dived at least twenty feet across the forest floor, tackling Seth to the ground. In response, Seth grabbed him and threw him sideways. Jack tumbled through the air at least the length of two cars to slam into a fallen log. He rolled away and struggled back to his feet.
Seth grimaced at him and glanced up, considering. Then, from flat feet, he jumped straight up—insanely high—landing softly in the upper limbs above them.
As Blue watched, Jack followed Seth, jumping high into the tree, and settled on the limb a few feet from him. She might have been impressed if she wasn’t so terrified for them. They were using these new skills as if they’d been born with them.
Seth tensed, preparing for Jack to dive at him. Her heart in her throat, Blue remembered they weren’t the only ones with a new skill set. Jack looked pissed, and she wouldn’t let him hurt Seth if she could help it.
Unsure if she was doing it right, she reached out with her mind. Focusing on two different points was more difficult than focusing on one, but she couldn’t stand by while they killed each other. She didn’t need to move them. She only needed to stop them from moving.
She closed her eyes, directing her attention toward the two men at the top of the tree. She willed them still with all of her might and hoped she was doing it correctly.
When she opened her eyes again, they remained where they stood in the top branches, in the same positions, like statues of gladiators. In a tree.
“I’m going to let you go in a minute,” she called out. “But Jack, you need to stop. Seth is one of us, as you can see. And Seth? This is Jack Barnett. You found his family, the twins?” She gave them a moment to process that before she said, “Okay, here goes.”
She dropped her paralysis and watched them both take deep breaths, gasping. They shifted, regaining their balance above her.
“What the hell?” Jack hissed. “You know we can’t breathe when you do that, don’t you?”
“Oh, God.” She covered her mouth in horror. “I didn’t know. I just didn’t want you to kill each other.”
Her nose tickled, and she swiped at it. Darkness on her hand caught her eye, and she lifted her fingers in front of her face. Blood. She scowled at it. Her nose was bleeding? She hadn’t had a nosebleed since elementary school.
“Why, because you wanted to do it yourself?” Jack dropped through the tree, limb by limb, until he landed on the ground with a graceful leap.
She scowled at him, swiping at her nose again. Jack could be so difficult. “Watch yourself, Barnett. I look small, but I could take you.” With these powers, anyway.
“You wish, Blueberry Muffin.”
She rolled her eyes. What were they, in middle school? “Gee, Jack, you thought of that all by yourself? That college education must be really paying off.”
“Whatever, Blue.”
Seth fell to the forest floor next to him, giving him a shove. “You’re real charming.”
Jack addressed her again. “Who the hell is this?”
Seth crossed his arms over his chest. “Seth Campbell. Specialist, U.S. Army.”
“The army?” Jack addressed her, not even looking at him. “I knew he was a stranger, but you got involved with someone in the army? After all of this? Are you an idiot?”
Was she?
She looked at Seth, and his gaze was unreadable. Her immediate instinct was to defend Seth. But she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know much about him. He’d helped her get out of Glory, and she knew that he’d toss someone from high up if he felt threatened. She also knew that he made her heart beat a little bit faster, made her trust him when she probably shouldn’t.
That wasn’t much to go on. She finally said, “He saved my life. And he helped Kitty and me escape.”
He snorted. “Oh, you remember that, do you?”
She scowled back at him. “Hey, you killed some people, too. Sorry if I’m having a hard time with that.”
Jack turned on the other man, his fists clenched. “You killed people?”
“I took out the helicopter that was following us,” Seth sneered. Then he turned back t
o her as he continued. “When I thought Blue might get hurt, I got her to safety.” Something vulnerable flashed in his eyes. Seeing that, the chink in his armor, her heart clenched. He had done that. He’d protected her.
Impulsively, she joined him, taking up residence at his side. When his eyebrows dropped in question, she only tilted her chin up and remained silent.
The animosity bled from Jack’s face, replaced by skepticism. “You took out a helicopter?”
“Yeah.” Seth broke eye contact with her and crossed his arms over his chest.
“And how’d you do that?”
“I saw it,” Kitty said, coming out of the trees, her hiking boots crunching the underbrush. Pine needles littered her messy ponytail. “I watched him jump up into the helicopter.”
Someone followed her out of the woods, joining their little group.
Blue squinted at him in the dying light. “Lucas Kincaid?”
He waved awkwardly, his hand at his hip. “Hey, Blue.”
Thank God, another familiar face. Luke had gone to Raton High with the rest of them. Word was that he helped care for his father. He kept to himself and went straight home after school, never getting involved in clubs or sports. Not that Blue was the sporty or clubby girl, either. But there had never been any hiding for her. Everyone knew who her parents were. She’d always liked Luke, though. As she’d spent more and more time caring for Gran, she thought of them as kindred spirits.
“Where did you come from?” They’d checked Glory. Luke lived on the mountain, though, not directly in town.
“I found him,” Jack piped up. “After I found my parents and realized that someone had cut the power and phones to Glory, I took off. I ran up into the hills, to Parker Sinclair’s place. Running’s a whole lot easier like this.”
Blue couldn’t help her smile. “Don’t you play football at USC?” The kids from Glory knew he did. Jack had been something of a football god at school.