by Toby Neal
Of course, the rocket launcher didn’t have that kind of reach, but the character Luca had created in his mind wouldn’t know that. The skinny guy lowered his rifle as he took in the weapon. Luca untied and lifted the launcher, then placed it at the man’s feet like an offering.
“I heard what y’all are doing around here. I want to join up.”
“This ain’t the Army.” The man told him, eyeing his Airborne tattoo.
Luca glanced at it. “I sure as hell hope not. The Army’s full of mutts. I’m looking to join a pure group.”
“Are you, now?”
“Hell yeah. All the army ever did for me was get my leg blown up. You know how hard it is for a white man with an injured leg to find work in this world?”
The men all nodded, murmuring that they did know; it was hard to be a white man.
“Me and Punches here came all the way from Asprilla.”
“How’d you hear about us?”
“Got a cousin told me about what y’all are doing. Found it on the Internet. Sure hope you can let us in. We’re out of water and food. But I got this.” He pointed at the weapon on the ground. “Seems like maybe you could use it. I don’t know.” Luca looked down at his feet, shuffled a little, then back up at the man, keeping his gaze unfocused, trying to look foolish and easy to control.
“We could maybe use a big guy like you.”
“Whatever it takes, brother.” Saying that word sickened him, when Luca knew what real brothers were like: JT, Nando, Dolf, Dante, Cash—not to mention his brothers-in-arms, now rotting in a group grave.
The man pulled a walkie-talkie off his belt. “Marcus, we’ve got a possible.”
A moment passed and then a reply came. “Tanner says bring him to the Temple.”
“Roger that.”
“You got any other weapons on you?” The man asked, turning his attention back to Luca.
“Sure do. My Desert Eagle, my ankle piece and my knife.”
He handed the weapons over and they patted him down, grabbing him roughly and spreading him against the wall, their hands exploring.
“He’s clean.”
The gate opened. A man on either side accompanied Luca as he pushed the Harley inside, Punches following closely behind.
As he passed through the gate Luca sent up a prayer: Keep Nani safe.
Chapter Nineteen
Haunani
Nani watched Luca push that cherry-red Harley in through the big stockade style gate, Peaches at his side, the armed men of the compound surrounding them.
Her sniper rifle’s scope had been more than adequate for the mile or so distance to the compound—but once the gate closed after him, Luca was gone.
Lost to her.
The weird, free-floating anxiety she’d experienced waking up without him swamped her.
He’d abandoned her.
Luca was going to be with his kind, misogynistic, racist cavemen who liked to carve swastikas into their skin, like Tanner Hillish had done to his own chest. She’d seen a picture in the man’s file.
But no. Luca was on the job. He wasn’t really joining that cult of killers. Luca didn’t trust women, obviously. He had some screwed up ideas that didn’t have anything to do with Nani but she was a handy scapegoat for his issues. Her accusation about Catholicism had made him blink, disoriented, like he was waking up from a spell and didn’t know what to make of the world. Nani would have found it comical if it wasn’t so darn depressing.
What an idiot—and what a hero. He’d bluffed his way into that nest of vipers way too well. That’s what was spooking her.
Damn it.
Her insides still turned to Jell-O thinking of his stoic, tireless work with the men. She thought back to the tender way he’d carried her to her bed from the grave where they’d buried them—only to reject her more cruelly than ever, afterward. Talk about mixed signals! It didn’t take a degree in psychology to see he’d been burned badly by someone, scarred on the inside as deeply as his thigh was on the outside.
She was over this thing with him.
The last thing Nani needed was to get raked over the coals of Cocky Lupo’s irrational, messed-up beliefs about women. She had enough of her own crap to shovel through, thank you very much.
She shifted, trying to get a better angle, more visibility.
Once they closed the gate, all Nani could see was the wall and the sentry posts. Her anxiety increased, worse than ever, making her heart pound and her palms sweat on the rifle. What was happening to Luca?
She had to get closer and see what was going on inside. If the big lug was in trouble, she could at least nail a few skinheads with the distance rifle to help him out. Never mind that Captain Cocky Lupo had told her to stay put and “enjoy her vacation.” The hell with that. Screw him.
Nani backed down off the observation knoll. Her clothing was already dusty, but she tucked bits of tumbleweed in her helmet and made sure she was coated with dirt before slinging the rifle strap over her shoulder. She checked that her trusty Baby Eagle was ready for action. Then she began a long, slow, stealthy approach to the compound, staying low and hiding in the dips and swells of the landscape.
She spotted a scout patrolling, dressed down in similar garb to hers. She immediately dropped to the ground, her body flattening into a depression in the dirt. Building a compound in the middle of the Texas plains was strategically brilliant on many levels.
The sentry passed by, his boots crunching on the dried grass. The crackle of a walkie-talkie preceded him as he checked in amidst the approaching gloom of evening.
Well, at least Nani knew what she was up against—ridiculous odds, with a side order of tight security.
There was really only one vantage point to head for, a hillock a quarter mile from the compound, crowned by a cluster of scrappy oak trees. Once she got there, she’d be able to see down into The Center and keep an eye on Cocky Lupo.
His father had worked as an undercover cop and been murdered in the line of duty. Was Luca afraid, knowing what he was up against?
He hadn’t seemed so, swinging a muscled leg over that sweet Harley, saying something nasty over his shoulder, roaring off with his dog sitting where Nani should have been: tucked close in his wind-shadow, her arms around his waist... She’d love to ride awhile behind him on that bike, down the open road to somewhere better. Anywhere, really.
Nani slid a hand into her pocket and rubbed Mikaela’s beach glass. The familiar sensation grounded her in reality.
The VP was the one who’d taken her satellite communication the night before—his bony, aristocratic face a mask of haughty distaste. “Since you’ve got this far, keep going. Why should you let those men die in vain? Identify Tanner Hillish, gather actionable intel, and we will take care of the encampment.”
Nani almost heard him add, “and you, too,” but she hoped that was just her paranoid imagination.
She was a total idiot, a glutton for punishment, and most likely the government’s fall guy. She and Luca were up against impossible odds.
Nani shook herself and refocused. She moved forward rapidly in little bursts, taking cover periodically until she reached the earthen mound. She scaled it, settling herself between trees whose low branches shielded her from immediate detection. She sipped some water and unslung the distance rifle, leaning it against a branch.
Surveillance was all about comfort: finding a sweet spot with a good view, and once in place, maintaining stillness.
She had a sweet spot. Now all she had to do was be quiet and maintain it.
No, those men would not die in vain. She and Luca were going to get enough “actionable intel” for Washington to choke on.
Nani settled, propping the rifle’s tripod stand on the ground and stretching herself out behind it. She pressed her eye to the scope and moved the viewfinder slowly around the camp.
Full darkness swept the land and big, bright floodlights lit up inside the compound as a bonfire was built in a central gathering area.
Women behind a table were serving some kind of drink from a big aluminum vat, probably some nasty-ass homemade hooch, from the way the men began to sing and stagger after only a cup or two of the stuff.
Nani spotted Luca. The worn old jeans he’d put on as part of his cover caressed his thick legs and wrapped his ass like they were made for him. He looked disreputable and way too attractive in the firelight. Even with his head shaved like all the other men, she couldn’t find him disgusting.
Maybe it was because she remembered the way he’d sat so still for her while she buzzed his hair off. Luca’s big hands had gripped his knees like he was holding himself back from touching her. Nani’s heart had ached as she’d run the blades over the smooth shape of his skull, his beautiful dark hair falling onto the floor.
Would he live long enough for it to grow back?
A curvy blonde with big curls came and sat on Luca’s lap, draping her arms around his neck.
Luca looked startled, and Peaches, beside him, raised her lip in a warning. “Good, girl, Peaches,” Nani murmured.
One of the men beside Luca said something, and Luca laughed, tipping his head back, and squeezed the woman’s ass. She squealed and giggled, or at least that’s what it looked like, her hands wandering over Luca’s chest and crotch.
Nani’s finger trembled on the trigger. She could take out several of the cultists after she blew Cocky Lupo’s womanizing head right off.
A figure walked into the circle of light around the campfire and raised his hands for silence. Everyone became attentive, including Luca. The man was short but muscular, radiating a compelling charisma that captivated the crowd. The fire flared, catching the planes of his face, and Nani recognized Tanner Hillish.
She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she wanted to. The man was a deadly combination of magnetism and poisonous rhetoric.
The leader went on, gesturing with his arms. Nani used the scope to scan the camp, even the guards were listening. He really had them all eating out of his hand.
Even Luca.
Pain tightened an invisible band around Nani’s heart as she trained the scope on Luca’s rapt face, listening to the bioterrorist’s lies as he spun whatever tale he was telling.
She had Tanner Hillish’s head right in her crosshairs. Maybe she should take the shot. Right here, right now, she could remove the threat to the nation with just one little squeeze.
Hillish’s figure wavered in the heat from the fire—oh, she wanted to take the shot. Her finger trembled, and tightened on the trigger but Luca was right across from him. What if she missed?
“Don’t fucking move a muscle, bitch, or I’ll blow your head off.”
Nani heard the racking of a shotgun right behind her. She’d been too busy fantasizing about Luca and killing Hillish to hear someone approach.
She could still take the shot but it was the last thing she’d ever do, and just on the other side of the cult leader was Luca.
She couldn’t risk hitting him.
Nani let go of her weapon and raised her hands. The clang of a rifle butt against the metal of her helmet was the last thing she heard.
Chapter Twenty
Haunani
When Nani came to, she was being dragged along the ground on her back, her hands above her head, wrists tied with rope. She was bumping over the hard, stony dirt road leading into the compound. Lifting her head, she tried to protect it, as her sturdy canvas pants began to rip.
She was being dragged behind an ATV.
The quad stopped at the gate and guards carrying AKs surrounded them. Nani staggered to her feet. Her body ached and she’d lost her helmet, but she hadn’t been dragged long—the pants were just beginning to shred.
“Found this sniper bitch trying to get a bead on Tanner,” the scout driving the ATV said. “I’m thinking we’ll have a little fun around the bonfire with her.”
“Any other hostiles?” A man who looked to be in charge looked her up and down.
“No. Pete and I checked the surrounding area. She was alone.”
“More fool her, then.” The commander gestured, the gate creaked open, and the rope tightened. Nani had to run to keep up as the ATV drove inside, towing her around the bonfire in a showy circle as the onlookers whooped and hollered.
Nani’s arms burned from the strain of being dragged, her joints ached, her head still rang from being knocked out and seeing these people, their faces distorted with hatred, screaming insults and throwing food at her—dear God, she should have taken the shot.
Tanner Hillish held up a hand, bringing the ATV to a halt in front of him. “God has protected me again. We must give this murdering woman the kind of welcome The Center saves for her race!”
A rousing cheer.
What fresh hell was this?
Nani stood frozen as the man driving the ATV unhooked the rope. He pulled on it and she stumbled forward as he reeled her in. The crowd hurled insults and Nani searched around frantically for help. There was none, only an approaching, snarling mob of vicious men and women. They carried spoiled food, garbage, and rocks.
Nani’s captor sawed at the ropes around her wrists with a big Buck knife. The restraints dropped away and he stepped back as the mob began pelting her, screaming invectives.
A stone connected with her stomach and she doubled over. Something wet and slimy slapped her cheek, leaving behind the rancid odor of rotten meat. A rock hit her shoulder, bouncing off and leaving a hot spot of pain.
Her terrified vision searched the crowd until she found him behind the moving mob, still seated beside the bonfire.
Luca.
Her lips formed his name but she forced herself not to call out. She couldn’t let on that she knew him, but oh God, she needed help.
He stared at her, his face a stony mask under that bald scalp, one burly arm clamped around the blonde woman—who grabbed a chunk of meat off the plate balanced on their shared lap, and hurled it at Nani. “Die, black bitch!”
Die, black bitch.
Cocky Lupo sat and watched with a whore on his lap, while she was degraded and pummeled with garbage.
Nani might as well die fighting. Things weren’t going to get better from here.
She gave a roar of rage, leaping after her captor. She snapped a kick up and caught the man right in the throat. He gave a broken sort of howl as he fell and Nani whirled toward the encircling crowd. “Bring it, you racist bastards!”
She charged into the mob, yelling, kicking, punching, and chopping at anyone she could connect with. The red of rage, of hopelessness, of humiliation and approaching death was the only color she saw until someone nailed her on the back of the head, and she went down.
Chapter Twenty-One
Luca
Tabitha whispered in his ear, her lips close and her breath tickling. “Let’s go back to your room. This is turning me on.” He squeezed her thigh, gripping it so tightly that she gasped. “You can hurt me if you want, big boy.”
Peaches touched her nose to Luca’s knee, whimpering. He could not sit for one more second as firelight gilded the tortured face of the woman he loved, and not start killing people.
Tabitha jumped up and pulled his hand. “Come on, they’ll be busy for a while. We can go to your room.”
Luca stood, unfolding his large body from the chair. All his muscles were filled with torque and tension. He wanted to let go, to release the wolf inside him and tear this crowd to pieces.
They were hurling stones and rotten food at his woman.
But instead he stood here, impotent to stop them. The only way to help Nani was to stay undercover, to attack when the odds had shifted. Peaches stood next to him, a low growl emanating from her chest that reflected Luca’s emotion.
What if they killed Nani before he could save her? It physically hurt his churning gut to see her exposed and bloodied, curled into a ball on the ground as the crowd continued to yell and throw things at her. But she’d fought back, hurling herself into the horde, like a tornado o
f anger and revenge.
She was the strongest person he’d ever met.
“Don’t worry, the main event won’t be until tomorrow,” Tabitha must have sensed Luca’s hesitation.
He turned away from Nani, regretting leaving her for a moment, even with his eyes. Should he stay here and witness her humiliation? No, to launch an effective rescue he needed supplies and a plan.
His gaze rested on the woman in front of him as he took all his love for Nani and shoved it down, hiding it in the box from himself and anyone else. He turned that feeling to rage, stoking his anger, letting it burn so bright that it turned cold.
“What do you mean, the main event?”
“We won’t kill her tonight. We’ll hang her tomorrow morning. Tanner puts on a good hanging.”
We.
She included him with that foul word. Luca’s eyes found Nani again as Tabitha hung on his arm, leaning against him, sandwiching his bicep between her breasts as she nibbled on his ear.
Nani had lost consciousness. Her eyes were closed and her powerful body had gone slack. The filth coating her was a disgusting and horrific reminder of her place in this world. But she was alive, and hopefully, relatively unharmed.
Tabitha tugged on him and he followed. Something glinted in the loose dirt as he crossed the compound. Luca stopped, bent down and picked it up. The piece of sea glass Nani had shown him, the gift from her sister, gleamed in his palm. He slipped it into his pocket.
The sounds of the gleeful crowd faded as Tabitha pulled him into the barracks, Peaches following. Tabitha pushed him up against the wall at the base of the staircase and assaulted his mouth, pushing her tongue between his teeth. She tasted like stale alcohol and cigarettes.
Luca pushed her away and threw her over his shoulder as she giggled. He carried her up to his room. It wouldn’t look good if someone noticed that he had refused to sleep with her. It had been explained to him that they were repopulating the world with pure children, and everyone had to do their part.