by Alison Aimes
Cocking his head sideways, he listened. Heard what sounded like scuffling up ahead. And took his first silent, careful step into the shadows.
“She made an error aligning with you.” The operative’s voice reverberated through the corridor. Unfortunately, the damn echo chamber made it difficult to pinpoint his location.
“She has a partner.” Ryker slunk deeper into the tunnel, moving heel to toe to muffle the sound of his advance.
“I’m going to kill you in front of her as a reminder of exactly why we’re trained to remain detached. Council would approve.”
“How’s that thigh? Sting like a bitch?” Ryker moved faster, certain the bastard was stalking him as well.
Silence. But he could hear the man’s low, steady breaths.
He launched himself toward the sound.
“No! It’s a trap!” Fine-boned hands slammed into his side, a thrust powerful enough to make even a behemoth like him stumble. His shoulder scraped sharp rock—as the dirt beneath his boots crumbled.
Cracks appeared right where he’d been about to step.
What happened next took only an instant. His mind registering the operative’s trick even as his feet shuffled back and he fought to regain his footing.
Only to have his gut twist in horror as Jade’s body landed where he’d been headed. Straight in the center of the brittle rock well. A deep hollow concealed by nothing more than a thin layer of dirt. “Jade, no!”
Her arms wind-milled. The ground dropped away. Her body followed.
Panic rocketing through him, he lurched onto his stomach, every muscle straining as his arm thrust forward.
“Jade!” His fingers clamped down on warm skin, so tight he knew he was near to crushing her wrist bone.
The weight of her fall dragged his chest closer the edge.
All the while, gravity sucked loose sand and dirt down on top of her head like a raging sieve, the rim shrinking as the hole crumpled in on itself. With Jade inside.
He swept his free hand outward, trying to hold the sand back. It was like trying to stop the planet from turning. Debris filled the hole, faster than he would have believed, burying her alive.
Until only her hand, clutched in his, was visible. “Jade!”
“Let go.” Her voice was faint, but clear.
Latching his boot behind a nearby rock, he locked them in place and gripped her tighter. “No.”
With a roar, he heaved with all his might. No luck.
“Let go.”
“Not happening.” He needed some kind of rope or fabric strong enough to tie around her so he could use a rock as leverage. Or a fucking shovel. None of which he had. Think!
“You can’t save her.” The operative’s voice resonated from somewhere over Ryker’s shoulder.
“Help me, damn it. She’s one of yours.”
“She was slated to die anyway. For some foolish reason, she chose to go attempting to save you.”
Fury slammed through Ryker. “You think she made a foolish mistake? Rectify it. Help me.” Every muscle burned as he struggled against the heavy weight of the dirt dragging her down.
Silence. The bastard had made his escape.
Tamping down on a swell of panic, Ryker scanned the surrounding area, his chin scraping rock as he looked for anything he might be able to use as a tool. “Jade?” He heaved again. “You okay? You with me?” The press of dirt had to be immense.
“Yes.”
The wave of relief made him light-headed. “Ignore that bastard. We are getting you out of there.”
“I was able to use my free arm to protect my head and create a small pocket of air. I can breathe. For now.” Her voice was cool as always, but he could hear the tinge of pain beneath.
They needed to move fast.
“Any foolproof escape options spring to mind?” He wedged his boot deeper into the crevice, trying to gain more stability. “Can you see or feel the bottom of the hole?”
“No. But you’re holding up my full weight. My feet aren’t on solid ground.”
Shit. The pressure on her shoulder had to be immense. “Just hang on a little more. I’ll clear the dirt from above to decrease the pressure enough that I can pull you out.”
“A good plan, but unfeasible. The ground around the rock well is too loose. Every time you try and clear it, you’ll only send more dirt and sand spilling down to take its place.”
Damn it. “You got any good ideas?”
“You should go. The operative is right.”
“No.” He scanned the area for some other idea. His brain working a mile a minute. “I’m not leaving you.”
“I left you. In that cell. Chained to the wall. You don’t owe me a thing.”
“Stop trying to piss me off. I know what you’re doing.”
“The ground above is brittle. It could easily break and drag you down, too. The others need you. We both know my death is imminent anyway.”
“It won’t work. I’m not leaving you here, assassin, so stop with the bullshit and start putting that substantial, logical brain to the task of exactly how to get you out before we both end up dead and the others are left to fend for themselves once more.”
A long silence.
“I’m not leaving you,” he roared.
“You said.” In contrast to him, her tone was a normal decibel. “I’m thinking.”
“Got it.” He shut up.
And drowned in thoughts of his sheer stupidity.
He’d thought that by keeping her at bay, he could keep himself safe.
But it was too late for that. She was under his skin. In his veins. A song of second chances and redemption he couldn’t shake—and if he lost her without ever getting the chance to tell her, he was diving headfirst into the hole and joining her.
Because he’d finally fucking decided to live again and he wasn’t doing it without her.
“Jade? You still with me?”
“If I’m very careful, I can use my boot to dig out toe holds and work my way upward. If I make it high enough, I’d offset the weight of my body and give you enough leverage that you may be able to pull me out. But you’d have to be quick. Quick enough to grab me before the hole closed. Otherwise, you’ll be pulled down here with me.”
“Do it.”
“It’s a risk. You could end up—”
“Don’t even bother finishing that sentence. Just get to work.”
“I’ve already begun, but…” A brief pause. “If it doesn’t work and the hole collapses and sucks me all the way down, don’t do anything stupid like try to come after me. You’ll only end up dead as well.”
“You’re getting out.”
A long sigh.
Eyes locked on the disturbed dirt, he watched for some kind of shift. Or, better, a flash of dark, silky hair.
The shadowy ground gave him nothing.
Cursing, he shifted slowly, arm clamped around her wrist, and rolled onto his side. When nothing stirred sand-wise, he swiveled his feet until he was no longer on his belly, but on his ass, bracing his legs against the cave wall, her wrist between his thighs. It would mean he’d go straight down with her if things didn’t go as they hoped. But it was the best leverage he could get.
They were in this together.
“How’d you know about the well?” The question popped into his mind all of a sudden.
“I suspected. The other operative and I were clearly given much of the same intel. These caves, their numerous rock wells, and their usefulness as a natural weapon against opponents were all in the same briefing. It’s no doubt why he lured you here.”
“Wish I’d had the same cheat sheet.” His jaw clamped tight. “You shouldn’t have done it. You shouldn’t have saved me. Not at cost to yourself.”
No response.
Panic thrummed down his veins. “You still there, Jade?” He fucking hated just waiting. Hated that he couldn’t do more. Like reach down in there and pluck her out. Or trade places with her. “All okay?”
“Yes.” Her tone was as no-nonsense as ever. “I’m leveraging my weight against the tunnel side to push myself up. But…” A far too long pause. “I shouldn’t keep talking. It’s best to conserve my energy and air.”
Janus hell. She was right. And his guilt wouldn’t help a damn thing right now. “Absolutely. Don’t say another fucking thing. Just keep at it. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
The silence stretched. His anger at the operative, at himself, pulsing through his veins. If she didn’t make it… There was so much he needed to say. So much she deserved to hear.
“Stop ruminating.” Her voice echoed from below.
“You’re not supposed to speak,” he growled. “Focus.”
“I am trying, but I can practically hear you roaring inside that hot head of yours, felon, and it’s distracting.”
He shook his head. She really did have a twisted sense of humor. “Fine. I’ll stop yelling inside my head. You can go back to focusing.”
“I would but…”
He cocked his head, panic crashing through him once more. He’d never known her to hesitate. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” came the reply. “It is only that I’ve come to tolerate your chatter. It can even at times be soothing and…it wouldn’t be totally unwelcome now.”
If she’d been above ground he would have grabbed her and kissed the hell out of her. Since she wasn’t, he blew out a breath and said, “Say no more. I’m talking. I’m talking and I won’t stop until you’re up here, and in my arms, and I can show you exactly what I think of you reducing my important thoughts to chatter.”
A faint chuckle.
His chest puffed out—until he remembered how little there was to actually smile about.
“So, begin,” came the queenly command.
“Right.” But for the life of him all he could think of was her and how badly he wanted to dive beneath that sand and drag her close. “I, ah…” Blank. His mind was blank.
“That’s alright. You don’t need to talk. Silence helps me concentrate.” Like always, she was letting him off the hook.
Which made him realize exactly what he wanted to say.
29
“I’d like to tell you what happened to my wife and son. To me. Are you up for hearing that kind of tale right now?” Ryker hadn’t shared the full story with anyone. Not even his Commander.
There was another long pause. “Yes,” Jade said at last. “I’d be honored.”
Throat full of chalk, elbows dragging in the dirt, he slid his ass as close as his wedged boots allowed and, with a deep breath, began. “My wife’s name was Saralynee. My son would have been Archer, after her father, who’d died the year she was born. Saralynee was a sweet girl. Kind. An orphan, too. All she wanted was some stability.” His voice warbled. “A family of her own.”
“She found that in you.” It wasn’t a question.
“For a little while.” He cleared his throat. “We were so young. Still figuring everything out. Who we were. What we wanted. She pursued me, hanging out at the drink hole where our team went after work. She had her eye on my Commander at first, but she made no secret of her desire for a family and he was so focused on the team, he had no interest in more. But I did. Or at least I thought I did. She was pretty and sweet and, after so long having nothing to call my own, I thought why not? I flirted like hell with her. Signaled an interest in the long term, whereas before then I’d been less than serious with other women.”
“She fell for you. No surprise.”
He shrugged. “Grif was my wingman. He charmed her into it. I think…I think Saralynee liked that I was a Council soldier. Steady job. Better rations than other non-Councils. Nice barracks. I know she thought she’d be safer, protected by the fact that we were favored by Council.”
“Then you joined the Resistance.”
“I thought you weren’t talking,” he chided.
“I’m not. Just prompting. I think I’m getting closer, the air’s growing cooler.”
“I’m ready.” All he wanted was to act.
“Not yet, though. Keep talking.”
A few more grains of sand slid into the depression and he silently prayed for her to move faster. Then, he did as bid.
“We’d turned a blind eye to a lot of what was asked of us, telling ourselves we were helping to keep our own safe, but when our team was ordered to take out a neighboring barrack of men, women, and children who’d gone against Council protocol, we refused. Valdus, Grif, and I…we just couldn’t lie to ourselves any more. Deserting, we joined up that same lunar rotation.” He blew out a breath. “Saralynee never said a word of protest. But her eyes grew increasingly shadowed with fear. Then, as rations grew harder to come by and our quarters kept rotating so we couldn’t be tracked, I could feel her drifting away. I could hear what she never said. I’d reneged on our contract. Changed the rules. Broken our unspoken contract. And she was right.”
“War isn’t pretty.”
“You’re right. She knew that. She didn’t blame me. She just didn’t want to be part of the fight. That’s one of the reasons the growing distance between us was so hard. Neither of us were wrong. Or right. We both just wanted different things.”
A stretch of silence. He could hear the scrape of dirt. Saw a few particles fall into the hole. He told himself it definitely sounded as if her voice was growing closer.
“Then, she got pregnant and”—he pushed past the clog of emotion choking his throat—“we were suddenly right back on the same page.” He laughed, but it sounded bitter and forced even to his own ears. “I had never been fucking happier. A child of my own. A family. I don’t think either of our feet touched the ground for the first four lunar rotations of her pregnancy. She was nauseous a fair amount so I stayed with her, spent less and less time with the team. They understood. Grif made us a crib. It was”—he smiled—“it was a good time. We learned we were having a boy. We felt his first kick.” His voice broke, but he pushed on. “It was like we’d found everything we’d ever been searching for, everything we hadn’t realized we were missing.”
It dawned on him then that by letting the agony of grief keep him from telling their story these past two years, he’d denied himself all the good memories, too.
“So,” he continued, “things were good and Saralynee and I spent most of our evenings by ourselves, locked in our own little world. I spent my time carving a gift for the little guy’s arrival and she studied the baby vids and told me everything she thought I needed to know. We were a family.”
“Sounds nice.”
“It was.” He cleared his throat, his stomach tightening as the memories unfolded. “Until the rotation the team learned that a Council death squad was descending on a non-Council barrack. There was a good deal of speculation that it could be a trap, the Council wanted us bad by then, but what could we do? Not go and let those people be slaughtered?” He shook his head. “Saralynee asked me to stay with her. It was the first time she’d done so. But I told her I had to go. That my men needed me. That I’d be back before she knew it. I got her secured away in a safe hold and, with a final kiss to her belly, I joined my men.”
“What happened next?”
He liked how Jade didn’t shy from the ugly. “Next thing I knew we were ambushed, half the crew dead, and the other half captured. Our trial was a sham. Our sentence not surprising. Saralynee came to the trial, but I never got to talk to her. The next time I saw her”—he sucked down a sharp breath—“the next time was in their torture room when they strapped me down and forced me and the rest of the team to watch on live vid as the Supreme Council’s special guards rounded up our loved ones and, one by one, raped and tortured those we loved, including my wife.”
“I am so sorry.”
“I know.” It felt right to tell her. Like him, she’d been a part of the Council system and, like him, she’d broken from it at a cost.
He knew she’d understand.
How it had broken
him forever. How it had also remolded him into the man he was now. “They did it to punish us—and send a message to the rest of the Resistance. Fight back, stand up, and this will happen to you.”
“That kind of evil needs to be destroyed.”
“You know what haunts me out of all that horror?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I’d been screaming at the screen, telling the guards to stop, unable to do a damn thing, unable to look away while they hurt her. I knew she couldn’t hear me, but I begged her to stay strong, to stay alive, but I could see…I could see the light dimming in her gaze and I”—he swallowed hard—“understood then that she was leaving me and that my son was dying with her. That all our choices—all my choices—had brought us to this. There was nothing I could do but keep my eyes on her and hope to Janus that in some small way she knew she wasn’t alone. That I was with her. I’d fucked up in life, but I promised her I’d be there at the end.”
He sucked down another shuddered breath. “Then right before the last guard raised his knife to her belly, they shut the vid off. Let it run to static—and cheated me of yet another promise I’d made her.”
“Ryker.”
“I didn’t even get to be with them when they died. Those fuckers stole that from me, too. Crazy or not, of everything, that haunts me that most.”
“I will forever regret the fact that I was part of an organization that could do something so cruel and horrific to any people, but you, your wife, and your child especially. If I make it through this mission alive, I am more than willing to hunt each of those bastard guards down and kill them for you.”
He believed her. She was that strong, that capable. That amazing.
The knowledge that she’d be willing to do that for him lightened another corner in the darkest corridors of his soul.
“That would mean you have to get your ass up here.” The waiting was driving him insane.
“Yes.”
“Tell me you’re close. Tell me I can start pulling now.”
“Another few moments.”
The next ten heartbeats were some of the longest of his life.