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Adrian's Eagles: Book Four (Life After War)

Page 45

by White, Angela


  They took three jeeps and two blazers, Angela driving her own, and Adrian fought the urge to call them back as his bad feeling grew stronger. He moved toward the Mess to surround himself with the warmth of his remaining herd instead.

  He spotted Samantha’s dismayed face also watching the convoy leave from her place atop the fire truck. They were learning how to use the bulky equipment and Adrian let his feet go that way. Sam had been keeping tight company with Neil and Jeremy and she would be tense while they were gone. He would lend a hand on the crew and distract them both from their worries for a bit.

  4

  “Is there a problem?” The mission team had just crested a short hill and found themselves on a narrow, two lane road that began to slope downward. They’d been gone from camp for an hour.

  Angela looked in the mirror at Neil’s question. “They’re arguing behind us.”

  “That would be the usual for those two,” Neil stated, wishing he were with Kyle to back him up against the Marine. Kenn didn’t want her in the Eagles. He would loathe the very idea of her leading a team, let alone having to follow her orders.

  “Uh-huh.”

  Neil grinned at her suspicious tone. “What?”

  “There’s something going on.”

  Neil’s eyes went back to the stalk-layered landscape and she snorted. “That’s what I thought.”

  Angela kept track of the angry men in her rear view mirror as she followed the jeep ahead of them, very aware of being protected in the center of their convoy.

  Neil also kept tabs on the men behind them, and when they saw the motions of real anger, it was Marc who told them to keep rolling.

  “But if they’re fighting…”

  Marc yawned. “Kenn’s driving. He won’t stop for that.” Brady pulled his hat down to block out the dim light. “When we hit Chadron now, it might be a different story.”

  Realizing he was right, Neil relaxed a little and used the distraction technique that usually worked so well on rookies. “It’s time for a check-in with base and each other. You do it.”

  Angela didn’t hesitate despite being the one driving. She had aced the radio courses so far.

  “This is Liberty. Check in, by 7.”

  To her delight and Marc’s surprise, when Neil changed the channel, it was already lighting up.

  “Independence, clear.”

  “Justice, all clear.”

  “Freedom, all clear.”

  “Caboose, clear.”

  “Copy, stand by for a base check.”

  Neil switched them to another channel, one the camp stayed on regularly between broadcasts.

  “This is Animal Control. Come in, Safe Haven.”

  “Gotcha loud and clear, Darlin’.”

  Angela rolled her eyes as the men with her frowned at the unprofessional response from their radioman. He sounded drunker than usual.

  “Everything is 5-by. Same?”

  “Roger that. Happy huntin’.”

  “Copy, out.”

  Angela hung up the mic, feeling pleased with herself, but it faded as she noticed the argument behind them had already resumed. Kenn’s violent hand gestures and red face said he was beyond pissed.

  “Kyle can take care of himself,” Marc stated from the backseat, not turning around. “They have some things to work out.”

  Neil and Angela were both scowling at those words.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Adrian made out the vehicle arrangements for this mission. He wanted them alone together.”

  Before he could insist on seating arrangements, Kyle had stepped in front of him and Kenn knew his plans to prove Angela unworthy during this mission weren’t going to work. He’d had the right words on his tongue, was ready to restart the old war with her, and then Kyle had moved into his path and said four words the Marine loathed. “Let’s have a talk.”

  It had gotten ugly fast, and now they were riding in tense silence, both too pissed to keep arguing.

  Kyle lit a cheroot, blowing it his way in disrespect. Kenn had told him not to smoke the little cigars when they rode together.

  Kenn fanned the cloud back, putting the window down. “Asshole.”

  Kyle agreed in surprise. “That’s me.”

  He was discovering that he actually had respect for this Kenn, the one who spoke his mind, and Kyle pushed back into the battle, determined to win. “Pretend it’s someone else in charge. Do it for Adrian.”

  “No.”

  Kyle sighed as they rolled by a weathered sign announcing the Antioch limits. It was going to be a long ride to Chadron. He hoped things were going better for the Boss.

  5

  Hisssss…

  Adrian’s hand jerked back and he leaned away from the burlap sack lying on his cot.

  Hiss…

  The snake sounded angry and Adrian quickly snagged the drawstring and gave it a sharp jerk. The bag closed tightly, drawing a louder noise as the sack rippled from the snake’s anger.

  Sitting with the other papers and packages, and half buried under other envelopes and boxes the Eagles had put here, the bag had seemed harmless. With Kenn only out of camp for half a day, there was already no organization and it had allowed someone to slip in an attempt on his life.

  Adrian moved to the closest chair and sat down, thinking hard. Such a simple and yet smart move implied the person knew their routines. It was also indicative of someone pissing on another man’s property, an insult meant to wound mentally.

  This attempt had been done to hurt him. Even if he didn’t get bitten and die before Angie could get back, he… His eyes narrowed. While she was out of camp, her tent was unguarded.

  Adrian shoved himself to his feet angrily, but took an extra minute to gain control of his emotions. He would have Jeff and Kevin handle this. Those two were much more reliable than Zack.

  He moved toward the training tent, glad Doug, at least, was still here to help maintain normal order, and he kept his steps smooth and his face friendly. His mind however, was in a dark place. The next attempt would be bolder and try harder to kill him. His sheep might be caught in the crossfire, and like any good herdsman, Adrian began working on a plan to spare them. They would be on the road for the next two days and the highest teams would be out of camp the whole time. Plenty of opportunity for their mole to poke his head up again.

  6

  “You could sneak into his tent, be waiting when they come in.”

  Becky didn’t jump at the voice, she’d known Rick was nearby, but she flinched at the image of Neil returning to find her in his bed.

  “Yeah, I can see that working well. There’s nothing like being tossed naked from a man’s tent.”

  Rick’s hands plunged into his pockets at the word naked and Becky grinned at him. “You’ve got something else, right?”

  “If you were found together before he could throw you out, it wouldn’t matter, would it?”

  Becky wanted to swear she’d never trap Neil that way, but couldn’t. “Not to the camp. He’d have to marry me, maybe.”

  Rick’s smile widened. “That’s what you want, right?”

  Becky answered quickly despite no longer being as sure as she’d been. “Yes.”

  “I know how you can make it happen. Without the naked parade.”

  Becky looked at him, seeing the careful control and almost desperate need. Rick was dangerous. Again, that delicious shiver had her reacting more boldly than she really felt. “And in return?”

  The traitor moved closer, but didn’t take his hands from his jean pockets. “A small reward.”

  Angela’s voice ran through her mind. “To be an Eagle, Becky, you’d have to give up Rick. They’ll never let you in while you play games with the enemy.”

  “Are you the enemy, like she said?”

  He nodded, knowing it wasn’t necessary to lie to the teenager. In fact, it was crucial that he didn’t.

  “What do you want here?”

  “Samantha.”
>
  Becky’s stomach churned with jealousy. That blonde bitch again! She struck back, hard. “I won’t be your toy. If I go to his bed, he’ll be my first.”

  Rick shrugged. “Your choice, always.”

  Fooled, the teenager moved a step closer. “What kind of reward?’

  Rick didn’t wait any longer to demonstrate.

  Becky froze as he swept her up against his rugged body, hands pressing her close. He hugged her and she allowed it. It was a much smaller price than she’d thought he’d ask.

  Rick knew the end of his time in Safe Haven was nearing, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be back, or that there wouldn’t be time for what he had planned for the young girl in his arms. Always one to set up the next move, he forced himself to step back and give her a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I get lonely.”

  Becky’s heart melted, as he’d known it would. “That’s okay. I was expecting worse.”

  He shook his head. “I’d never hurt you.”

  “Promise?” she questioned.

  He let the sarcasm loose. “You know it.”

  Rick held out a small vial. “Half of this will put him in the mood. He’ll take any woman in his bed, with or without her say-so. All of it will knock him out for about eight hours and make him feel like he’s been drinking for a week.”

  Feeling much like a traitor herself, Becky slid the bottle into her pocket. “This is wrong.”

  “Yes.”

  She waited for Rick to give her the speech she would have heard from the Eagles. When it didn’t come, she surprised them both by moving back into his arms for an intense clutch. “Thank you!”

  Pushing his luck, Rick held her close again, mind pretending she was a taller, fuller blonde with a scar on her hip and lightning in her touch.

  7

  Accompanied by steady rain, the Eagles drove straight through to Chadron. Thanks to half their path being over roads they had just cleared for Safe Haven, they were entering the city limits twenty five hours after leaving camp.

  They’d stopped twice for driving changes, the others snoozing lightly in the vehicles, and while the fighting between Kenn and Kyle never really seemed to stop, it did pause when they took their short breaks in the rain.

  Angela stayed close to the vehicles during these moments, not wanting to hold them up, and she studied how the others handled the cramped conditions and horrible sights, like when they’d rolled through Berea, Nebraska.

  It had been five months since the War, and the running corpses they’d all shied from in the beginning were mostly gone now. All that usually remained were graying skeletons in tattered bits of clothing. In Berea, however, the bodies had been fresh even through the rain-soaked windows. Their convoy had driven by these reminders of human insanity with tense faces and guns ready. It was clear there had been a battle in this small town, but between whom? There were no signs of the government or the Slavers, only residents of the town, and the Eagles swept the wet landscape harder after that.

  They’d left the mystery behind and it wasn’t until they made it to Max and Lenore’s ranch, that Angela connected the pieces. “The wolves did it.”

  Marc raised a brow, but he got her drift an instant later. He kept his mouth shut, thinking that if the wolves were now south of Chadron, that didn’t bode well for the mountain couple Angela had hopes of rescuing. Chances were slim that Max and Lenore had lasted another month after they’d come through here.

  As the convoy rolled to a stop in front of the weathered ranch house, the rain stopped and Angela’s upset voice told him the odds had shrunk to nothing.

  “No life survives in there.”

  Her words weren’t doubted, but Neil had a short team move inside to verify it anyway. The sooner they were out of this stalk-filled graveyard, the better.

  “I need to go in.”

  Marc opened his mouth and Angela swung herself from the blazer without waiting for his protest. “I’m not asking.”

  She slammed the door, and the remaining Eagles split off into two groups. Kenn stayed with Neil’s men, guarding their vehicles, and Kyle’s team followed her inside. How they had gotten him to play along, she didn’t know, but she was glad.

  The smell of the corn was much worse than when she’d been here before, and Angela moved quickly through the reeking home toward the kitchen with the edge of her shirt over her face. One of the doors in the long hall drew her eye and a warm flush spread up her face. That was where Marc had helped her conquer some of her fears.

  Angela pushed away the memories and the disturbing version that wanted to change the players in that moment. Now is not the time, she warned herself. Sex and death were not supposed to mix!

  Moving into the next room, Angela spotted the huge bodies in the bed, their exposed, purple skin full of tiny teeth marks, and clenched her fists against the guilt. Blinking back tears, she kept walking. There was nothing she could do for them now.

  Angela stepped through the curtains and grabbed the ornate Caller from the wall peg. She hadn’t known the mountain woman very well, and Max, she hadn’t even liked, but they had been full of life when she’d been here four weeks ago. It was impossible not to feel weighed down.

  Why she took the wall ornament was only clear to Marc, who frowned at the thought of who would be wielding it.

  The Eagles followed her back outside and when Angela loaded herself into the blazer’s passenger seat, they exchanged relieved looks, eager to be on the move again before the sun went down. The wolf den was only twenty minutes from here and as soon as it was destroyed, they could rejoin Safe Haven.

  Lost in her guilt over Max and Lenore’s terrible deaths, Angela didn’t feel the waves of unease moving their way until it was too late.

  One minute they were rolling steadily by row after row of molding cornstalks, the sickly, knee-high plants all they could see in every direction of the Walgren Lake State Rec Area.

  The next instant, a wall of death thundered from the corn and washed their convoy away.

  Angela struggled to breathe, smothered between the two men as the blazer rolled. They were hugging her tight, trying to keep her away from the debris that was pounding dents into the reinforced steel.

  Slam! Crack!

  Another flip - this one beat them against the front seats and then each other.

  CRACK!

  The back window was hit hard, sending spiraled fractures through it, but none of the black mud that had swallowed them.

  Rip! Thud! Even reinforced, the 4x4 was giving under the onslaught.

  Smash!

  They came to a sudden, jarring stop against something hard, and it flung them along the roof as the mud-wave parted to flow around them.

  Angela wrenched her head up, gasping air into pain-filled lungs. “Hold on… not done…”

  Their grips tightened, feet bracing, and then the blazer was hit in the side by something big and they were spun back into the chaotic mess.

  The flash flood raced over the land in a roaring torrent. Leaving a trail of destruction that was nearly two miles long, the wall of mud carried the blazer along brutally. Slowly losing power, it finally let them go deep in a cornfield with muddy silt up to the tires.

  At a shaky gesture from Angela to confirm it was over, the trio inside untangled themselves carefully.

  “You okay?”

  “You all right?”

  They asked it at nearly the same time and Angela nodded, wiping blood away from a scratch across her arm. “Think so. Might be sick,” she informed them, swallowing a groan as she noticed how many other small cuts she had. If this kept up, she’d be a hideous hag by the time she got to Kyle’s level. “Can we get out?”

  “Two minutes.”

  She nodded again at Marc’s words, and then held her head as it spun. “One…two…three…”

  Marc grinned at the countdown and the two males began examining their situation. He and Neil were also bleeding from numerous places, but none of them seemed bad and being me
n, they didn’t worry about it now that they’d assured themselves of her safety.

  “There’s light.” Neil pointed.

  Marc slid toward the back passenger window. “Good. That means we’re upright.”

  The blazer’s engine wasn’t running, denying power to the switches, and it took both of them to gently force the glass down.

  Mud rolled into the blazer in small rapids, leaving a very limited vision of their surroundings. The battered vehicle was sunk partially down into the dark, dank mud, and all around them… were cornfields and little else.

  “Help her with the gear and I’ll do a quick check,” Neil instructed, already sliding his thin torso through the mud-covered window.

  Angela didn’t wait for Marc to help her from the slippery opening, moving smoothly out and then onto the roof before jumping clear of the mud path. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Brady to touch her; she wanted to hold her own and be treated like any other Eagle, no matter what happened.

  Marc knew and followed her silently. He’d been sure seeing her on this mission would be hard, but he was beginning to suspect it wasn’t because of anything she might do, only his reactions to it. He had himself under tight control right now, but later, when she was busy proving herself again, might be another thing all together.

  8

  “Come in Freedom.” Neil waited, still fighting half an hour later to get his guts under control from their wild ride. Thanks to the extra supplies they’d brought, their injuries were a large number of scrapes and bruises from bouncing off of boxes and bags instead of sharp metal, but Neil had little doubt they’d be hurting from it later.

  There was only static as the mud-splattered trio listened and the Trooper tried again, worried. “This is Liberty. Come in Independence.”

  Angela shook her head when he would have tried a third time, sure they’d been heard. The adrenalin was still pumping through her body, making it easier than usual to pick up on Kenn’s bad vibes.

  “They hear us. Radio’s sparking. Looks like the same street we were on when the mudslide swept us out. They’re on foot now, too.”

 

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