by Bec McMaster
Dragging a crate into the center of the room, she reached up and eased the manhole open, peering out. The sunlight speared her eyes and she squinted, letting her vision adjust. There were two doors in the room below, but she wasn’t venturing further into Black River, even if Wade was standing out there waiting for her. Whatever was making that noise was something she didn’t want to run into.
Flipping aside the lid, she tossed the pack out and hauled herself up through the opening. The heat hit her immediately, shimmering on the hot sands. At least most of her skin was covered. She dragged another shirt out of the pack, wrapping it around her head and face. It would have been better if she’d worn white, but the heat wasn’t the worst danger out here. And white would stand out at night like the fluorescent globes in the room below.
There was no sign of Wade. No sign of any wargs. Only his footprints, leading away toward the back of the building.
She peered toward the fence ahead, toward Haven. Time to find out if her folks were still alive. The settlement was well-guarded, but the reivers had been packing a fair bit of heat. Hopefully, Jimmy had gotten there in time to warn them.
* * *
The hot sun baked the back of his neck, his hat nestled low over his eyes. Ignoring the heat, Lucius peered through the sight on his rifle, watching the deer’s ears prick. It knew he was out here. Somewhere. It just didn’t know where.
He’d been tracking it for a mile. And keeping an eye out for warg tracks, but they were obviously tucked away after the previous night’s gorging. He’d found a rabbit carcass – or the remains of some fur and a paw, anyway. Clear tooth marks that showed a warg in full-shift, to someone with an experienced eye. He’d been tracking them for years, even before he’d been clawed up and turned. A few hairs on a scraggly tree, the stink of urine against a rock... But they didn’t come closer to Black River. They’d smell his own scent, find the body left out for the scavengers. Not much could kill a warg, and it’d make them wary.
Taking a deep breath, he let it out, smooth and slow. His finger eased over the trigger—
And a hint of darkness caught his peripheral vision. Lucius took his finger off the trigger, cursing under his breath. For a second, he thought it was a warg, but then he saw the sunlight gleaming off honey-blonde hair.
“Son of a bitch,” he whispered, staring at his prisoner. Or his ex-prisoner.
Riley slipped through the canyon far below him with impunity, some insane turban thing wrapped around her face and head, with her hair tumbling out beneath it. The pack over her shoulders was his. The rifle too. His shirt. His jeans. The bloody woman had somehow escaped her handcuffs, and stolen half his gear.
Lucius choked on a laugh. He’d underestimated her.
His eyes slowly narrowed, and he looked to where the deer had been. Gone. Dinner had vanished into the fading afternoon sunlight. He might have chased it, but he had larger prey to run down.
Blonde, eminently curvy prey. And a quick glance at the molten disc sinking toward the horizon told him he didn’t have much time to do it.
Something caught his eye on the horizon. Dust. Like a car or a jeep. Bending low, Lucius frowned, peering through the scope. An armored jeep shot into view, a pair of heavyset men in the front and a gun turret mounted on the back. A hint of movement in the dust trail behind it – more jeeps, more men.
Reivers.
Fuck. He stood up and bolted across the rocks, throwing caution to the wind. They were following the only road out here.
And it led straight to Black River.
* * *
The shadows lengthened in the canyon. Riley traced the path they’d taken the night before, trying to check landmarks as she went. It had been dark, and the area around Black River was unknown to her, but every so often she caught the faint trace of a scuffmark. Wade moved almost invisibly, it seemed, but her own tracks weren’t so untraceable.
She’d found a dead warg just beyond the fence, its dark eyes rolled back in its head, silvery light striking off the pupils. Bloody marks marred its abdomen, but the broken neck had been the thing that killed it. The sight had kept her wary for a mile, the gun lifting at the slightest sound. Wade had to be out here somewhere, but there’d been no sign of him. Only the eerie sensation of being watched sometimes.
Like now.
Riley stopped in the shelter of an overhang and waited, holding her breath. Being trapped in the canyon sucked, but it was the only way out. The scrape of something moving over the sandy track followed her. She eased the safety off Wade's rifle, pointing it toward the sound.
Hesitant footsteps followed her. Quiet. Wary.
A wet brown nose came into view, and a tan face with large black eyes. Riley eased out her breath, staring. A deer. A bloody deer. The wind was blowing toward her, not the deer.
She lowered the rifle and took a step out from underneath the overhang. The deer’s legs stiffened, its knees bending as though to spring away.
“Hush there,” she whispered. “Easy now.”
It trembled, staring at her outstretched hand. Then its eyes widened and it looked up, behind her.
Riley spun, the rifle flying to her shoulder as a shape launched itself off the rocks behind her. Wade smashed the rifle down, landing lightly in front of her. Riley opened her mouth to scream but he clapped a hand over her mouth, shaking his head sharply. The deer was long gone.
Tension rolled through his shoulders. Eyes raking the canyon, he yanked her under the overhang. Riley froze. She might have tried to knee him in the balls, but the easy humor which usually rode him was gone. A cold, battle-hardened man stood in front of her in that moment, ready for a fight.
Something had spooked him.
“Reivers,” he whispered. “Coming through the canyon. You need to follow me, and be quiet. Understood?”
Lucius Wade, psychopath warg, or a convoy of reivers?
She chose the lesser of two evils.
Easing her grip on the rifle, she nodded and let him lead her toward the sheer rock wall of the canyon.
“They’re coming fast,” he murmured. “Can you climb?”
“Like a monkey.”
Slinging the rifle over her shoulder, she dug her toes into a narrow crevice in the wall and leapt up, grabbing a handhold. Wade shoved a hand under her ass, urging her on. She could hear him cursing as she scrambled up the rock, his warm body almost hot on her heels.
“How many jeeps?” she asked, arms straining as she climbed higher. Dragging herself over a lip of rock, she knelt on the small ledge, trying to catch her breath.
Wade’s hand caught the edge and he shoved himself higher, sweat dampening the collar of his shirt. “Three.”
Riley sucked in a sharp breath. Then reached for his hand.
Wade stared at her then took it, his own rasped with calluses. Their eyes met as his weight dragged at her. Just let go and he’d be nothing more than a broken body on the ground far below.... The thought was enticing. Then she dragged him forward, onto the safety of the ledge.
Wade knelt low, peering over the edge. Dust was thick in the canyon, travelling toward them swiftly. He jerked her down, shoving a hand between her shoulder blades as he pressed her flat. There wasn’t much room on the ledge. Lowering himself onto his palms, half his body covering hers, he peered below.
Hot breath curled over her ear, his thigh thrown over hers. Riley half-glanced over her shoulder, unnerved by his closeness.
“You could have done it,” he whispered, his words stirring the damp curls at her ear.
Their eyes met. She knew exactly what he was talking about. “Don’t think I didn’t think about it.”
“I know.” A hint of dark humor curled his mouth. “I saw it in your eyes.”
Below them, dust swirled, thick and choking. Wade’s hand stroked over her back, settling against the base of her spine, but his gaze was locked on the road below, as if the movement was unconscious on his behalf. Riley’s eyes narrowed. Maybe it was. Maybe not.
The first jeep shot through the curve of the canyon, one of the men laughing as it zoomed around the corner. Riley flinched, pressing herself deeper into the rock.
“I might be able to avoid the wargs out there, but not a band of reivers.” Biting her lip, she added, “For all your talk, you haven’t hurt me yet.”
His eyes met hers. Pale, pale blue, with a hint of silver shine to the dark pupils. “You think I’m all talk?”
“No.” He definitely had the capacity for violence. “I just think you haven’t hurt me yet.”
And he could have left her there in the dark, locked in that cage, but he hadn’t. There was some trace of humanity left in him, just a hint of it.
Wade looked away, watching as another jeep shot through the canyon below, the image reflecting back off his eyes. “Don’t trust me.”
“I don’t.”
Their eyes met again. In perfect accord with each other.
“Next time,” he whispered. “I am putting you in the cage.”
Riley watched the last jeep shoot by, toward Black River. “You got another cage somewhere, do you?”
Three
THE DUST SLOWLY cleared, the sounds of the jeeps fading in the distance, along with the whooping cries of the reivers.
Lucius put his hands underneath him, starting to rise when some sixth sense stirred the hairs on the back of his neck.
Riley opened her mouth and he clapped a hand over it, shoving them both flat again. Her warm brown eyes bulged in outrage, but she acquiesced. Her breath wet the palm of his hand, her chest rising and falling sharply. Another time and he might have let his gaze rove, but this wasn’t the time. Or the place.
And she was definitely not the woman.
Silence settled over the canyon. The prickle along his spine grew, irritating him, like a trail of marching ants. Riley rolled her eyes toward him, as if questioning his sanity.
Lucius laid in wait.
Three seconds later, his patience was rewarded. A man stepped out from behind the corner below, carrying a heavy shotgun. He moved with the stealth of a military man, using finger gestures to direct his partner. A wide-brimmed hat shielded his face. The other guy followed on his heels, eyes roving the canyon, each foot placed with extravagant care as he tracked his gun around. Muscles bulged from his short-sleeved vest, rippling beneath the badly inked tattoo of a hawk that banded his arm.
Both of them paused. Dust stirred, the wind whispering eerily down through the canyon walls. Beneath him, Wade could feel the heat of Riley’s body as she tried not to breathe.
The men lowered their shotguns. The one in the lead tugged his left glove off with his teeth, then fiddled with something on his wrist.
“Wade’s not here,” he muttered quietly, and Lucius’s blood went cold.
Johnny Colton. In the flesh.
I thought I killed you back near Fort Lopez.
Obviously, that was one body he hadn’t buried deeply enough. And if Colton was here, then Bartholomew Cane wouldn’t be far behind. Colton was a dog of war, but Cane was the one with his hand on the leash.
Static crackled from below. Lucius caught a few words, enough to know they’d both been ordered back to the jeeps.
“Aye,” Colton murmured, his eagle-eyed gaze raking the canyon. “Just keep your eyes open. Wade’s a dangerous man.”
With a few gestures to his comrade, he snapped his glove back on, put the shotgun to his shoulder again, and started backtracking the way he’d come.
Lucius waited a long time before he took his hand away from Riley’s mouth. She sagged, taking a deep breath.
“You need to come with me. Now,” he whispered. “Don’t try to run, don’t make too much noise.”
“Who was that man? He knew you.”
Grimly, Lucius levered himself to his feet. “An old friend who didn’t know enough to stay dead.”
Reaching out, he offered her a hand and hauled her to her feet. She stumbled against him, her foot having obviously fallen asleep. Unaware of her hand pressed against his chest, she tried to wiggle her boot to provoke blood flow.
“He was looking for you,” she murmured. “I’m guessing it wasn’t just to nurse a beer and share old hunting stories.”
“That’s not the question you ought to be asking.”
Her full lips pursed, thoughts racing behind her eyes. “How did they know you were going to be here?” she murmured.
“Exactly.”
Only one person knew the direction he was headed. Her eyes flared wide. “Jimmy,” she whispered. “They got their hands on Jimmy.”
Shouldering his gun, he peered up at the cliffs above them. There was no point risking the canyon track, and Black River was out of the question now. Lucky he was a man who liked to prepare for eventualities. He had two other stashes of equipment and food out in the desert. Two more hidey-holes he could tuck her up in, nice and safe. Black River was simply the most hospitable, with water and a generator he’d rigged for electricity.
“Guess your settlement dodged a bullet,” he said, reaching up to grab a handhold. “He must have blurted out my name, made ‘em change direction. Colton would have wanted me more than the settlement.”
Riley caught his arm. “Where are you going?”
“Up.”
“What about Jimmy?”
He gave her a sharp look, as if she were crazy. “I only need one hostage, and you’re the prettier one. Something tells me McClain might be more interested in saving your backside than the boy’s. And, chances are, he’s dead.”
“What if he’s not? You know the reivers. Why kill someone when they might have a use for him? They sell what they don’t want down south, at the borderland slave markets.”
Lucius let go of the rock face and turned to face her. “What part of this situation don’t you understand? You hostage. Me kidnapper.”
She licked her lips. “What about all your stuff?”
“I’ve got more.”
Anger flared on her face. Lucius watched her battle some thought, then turned back to the rock. “Follow me,” he said.
“Wait!” She grabbed him again. “What if—What if I made it worth your while?”
Lucius laughed under his breath and raked her body with his gaze. “You’ve got to be offering something pretty damned good to make me risk my neck going into Black River against ten or so reivers and a pair of wargs.”
“Wargs?”
“Colton and his friend,” he snapped. “I’ve got some bad news for you, darlin’. Reivers and wargs teaming up? Your settlements out here are screwed.”
“We got ways of dealing with the wargs.”
“And the reivers? Their guns?”
Her chin tipped up. Stubborn as the day she was born, he’d bet. “I didn’t think you were a coward.”
Lucius laughed. “Nice try, but I don’t give a shit what you think about me. I’m not here to be your hero, darlin’. I’m here to see McClain dead.”
And then Colton and Cane, if he could.
Riley’s fists clenched then relaxed. “You can’t get near McClain, not if he stays at Absolution.”
So McClain’s at Absolution? Wade smiled.
“Correct,” he replied. He’d seen the walls guarding the settlement, and the gun towers. Absolution was the most defensible settlement out here in the Badlands. He’d scouted them all, hunting for signs of his enemy. “That’s where you come into it.”
“What if I could get you McClain?” she blurted.
Lucius stilled. And looked at her.
“Without Jimmy, McClain will never know you’ve got me,” she replied. “He won’t come after you like you planned.”
“Then I’ll find someone else to play messenger.”
“And if he comes, he’ll come in force,” she replied. “What if I could get him to come alone?”
“Through your magic powers of persuasion?�
� He glanced down again. “You’re a nice little piece, but McClain’s not stupid, and I don’t think you’ve got a seductive bone in your body.”
“Because I haven’t used it on you?” she asked sweetly, then rolled her eyes. “McClain offered to be my protector two years ago. Trust me, I can get him alone. The man won’t take no for an answer.”
Well, now. That was interesting. Lucius eyed her with more consideration. She was pretty, all blonde hair, big brown eyes, and long, lean lines. Strong. A hint of curves where a woman should have them. A stubborn cleft in her chin that hinted at her personality. That was warning enough for any sane man.
And intriguing. A woman who threatened to shoot him, who somehow managed to escape his handcuffs and get herself out of Black River as easy as if she were taking a stroll? Yeah, that’d appeal to McClain. Hell, he could see the appeal of it himself.
Lucius turned his body toward her. “I get the boy back, you bring me McClain? Alone, no weapons.”
“You get weapons, he gets weapons,” Riley retorted. “I’m not going to lead him to his slaughter, but I’ll give you a fighting chance.”
“Too kind of you.”
“My money’s on McClain.”
She’d never seen him in action. “It’s a deal.”
Riley hesitated, but then held her hand out. “Only if Jimmy’s alive.”
Lucius yanked her close to him, capturing a handful of that glorious golden hair. “You break your word and I’ll make you regret it.”
Riley put a hand against his chest. “You put your hands on me again and I’ll kill you.”
Her hair was softer than he’d expected. Lucius let it run through his fingers like wet silk. He squeezed her hand. “Done. But you’re coming with me. I’m not going into Black River alone, hoping you’re going to be sitting there, twiddling your thumbs, waiting for me to get back.”
“I wouldn’t leave Jimmy behind.”
He let her go. “I’m still going to need someone to watch my back. Colton I can take, but maybe not two of them.”
“You want me to go back into Black River?”