by Bec McMaster
A distant sound caught his attention. An engine. Lucius froze, the blood in his veins running ice-cold. Riley was bending over, trying to straighten the blankets, but she saw him still and her gaze lifted to his.
“What is it?”
He jerked the rifle into his hand and yanked a black cotton tank out of his bag. Tugging it over his head, he started for the mouth of the cavern. “I can hear cars. More than one.”
Riley gasped, then he heard her pumping the shotgun. “Jimmy, hold this,” she said. “I’ll get the binoculars.”
Lucius barely heard her, his gut trembling in anticipation. He eased against the mouth of the cave and peered out. A narrow dust cloud lined the plain below. Two jeeps heading straight for them. He jerked the rifle to his eye and peered through the sight, a frown dawning. Four men in each jeep, bristling with guns. But they were all human, and there was no sign of rust or gun turrets, like the vehicles he’d expected to see.
“They’re not reivers.”
“It’s McClain,” the kid said, just behind him.
Need swept through, white-hot and so vicious it almost blinded him. McClain. His hands clenched on the gun. Finally. So close he could almost smell the bastard.
Then his brain caught up.
Lucius turned. “How’d you–”
The butt of the shotgun smashed into his face. He went down hard, the right side of his face burning with pain. White light exploded in his head. Need to move... But he couldn’t. Struggled up onto one elbow.
“Rigged up the two-way radio I found in a crate,” the kid said, his voice sounding a million miles away. “Sent an SOS through to Absolution while you were gone.” He smiled through the white haze and lifted the gun again. “Now who looks like a raccoon?”
The shotgun smashed down again.
* * *
Riley looked up as Wade went down, her heart leaping into her throat. Jimmy lifted the gun again, smashing Wade in the face. His body jerked and lay still, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
“Jimmy,” she whispered, dropping the binoculars and racing to his side.
He lifted the gun again, a vicious look on his face. Riley didn’t think, just grabbed at it from behind. A quick knee to the back of his and she wrenched it from his hands, shoving him back against the cave wall as he fell.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked. A quick glance at Wade showed he still wasn’t moving. Lights out.
Black shadows marred his skin, and a cut tore through his brow. The devil looked remarkably vulnerable lying there like that.
Jimmy shoved himself to his feet, staring at her in surprise. “I got him, Riley. I got the warg.” Like he too couldn’t believe what he’d done.
“You idiot!” She darted to the mouth of the cave. “What about the Reivers?”
“They aren’t Reivers. It’s McClain.” Confidence puffed out his shoulders. “There’s an old radio in his supply store. I used it to SOS them when you two were fetching water and washing.” His mouth split into a grin, broken tooth still snarled. The movement made him wince. “We’re safe, Riley. We’ve got him.”
The jeeps sprayed to a halt, armored men pouring out of them. Riley looked down in dismay. What was she going to do? She’d made a mistake in the pool – a desperate, skin-hungry mistake – but she’d never meant for this to happen.
Wake up. She nudged Wade with her foot, but he only groaned.
There was no way she could get him out of there, no way he could escape. Why’d the son of a bitch have to drop his guard now?
“Jimmy!” A commanding voice she knew too well.
Riley flinched and spun on her heel. McClain stopped in the mouth of the cavern, his broad shoulders framed by the endless blue sky. She saw him four times a year at the trading fairs. Heard his rough-as-gravel voice on the radio.
But the sight of him still took her breath away.
Six and a half feet of solid muscle, more heavily set than Wade. He wore a black shirt rolled up at the sleeves, revealing bronzed forearms sprinkled with golden hair. An ammo belt tugged tight over his chest, and a pair of faded old jeans hugged his thighs. The black felt of a ten-gallon hat was pulled down low over his eyes, but she knew he was staring at her. She could feel it on her skin. Underneath her skin. Itching.
“Riley.” His voice was husky. He looked down, raked the scene with a hard glance. Probably saw more than she did in that quick look. “Are you all right?”
“Course I am,” she managed to say.
He nodded then gestured to the men following him. “Tie him up, then shove him in the warg cage. I want the perimeter secure. Where’s Eden? Get her up here to check on ‘em.”
Eden was his sister, a healer. The one McClain Riley tended to get along with. She felt her shoulders droop in relief.
A slim young woman bounded up the narrow incline, dressed in a loose white shirt rolled to her elbows and a pair of jeans. She had the same dark brows and intense grey-green stare as McClain, but where her brother was all arrogance and command, Eden had a gentler nature.
Eden winced when she saw Jimmy’s face. “Well, don’t you look a sight?”
McClain grabbed her arm, turning her toward Riley. His whole posture was tense, voice hard. The pair of them shared a look. “Her first.”
“I’m fine.” Riley frowned. “The worst thing I have is blisters.”
McClain didn’t even bother to look at her. “Check her out,” he commanded, then turned and went to oversee Wade’s incarceration.
Eden stepped closer, and Riley went up on her tiptoes to see over her shoulder. One of the men grabbed Wade by the boot and started dragging him across the sand. His hands had been bound so tightly they were already going white.
“Oh, thank God!” Eden wrapped her arms around Riley and hugged her. “When you didn’t come home that night, your folks radioed Absolution. We’ve been out hunting ever since. Adam’s been unbearable.”
“That’s nothing new,” she grumbled. He hadn’t listened to her protests that she was fine, simply overrode her like he usually did. As if her opinion wasn’t as valid as his.
A faint smile tugged at Eden’s lips. “Come on,” she said, taking Riley by the hand. “Come sit and we’ll have a look at you.”
Easing her onto a rock in a strangely gentle way, Eden knelt in front of her.
Riley caught her hand. “Seriously, Eden. There’s nothing wrong with me that a good meal and a night’s rest won’t cure.”
“The boy said you’d been kidnapped.” A question flickered in her pretty eyes. “By a warg. We were out searching anyway, but as soon as Adam heard who the warg was, he insisted on racing here. I thought we were going to flip one of the jeeps.”
“It wasn’t... that bad.”
She could see that Eden didn’t believe her. The healer patted her knee as a grim little smile edged her lips. “It’s okay. Won’t be long, and we’ll be back at Absolution. You can rest up, take your time....”
“Absolution?” Riley frowned. “No. I want to go home. To Haven.”
The faintest of hesitations.
Riley grabbed Eden’s hand. “What is it?”
Eden shook her head. “When they heard you’d been taken, Peg and Jem radioed Adam. He said it wasn’t safe anymore. That they needed to come to Absolution where he could protect them—”
Her chest tightened. “That son of a bitch. I was gone three days!” She jerked to her feet. “Where is he?”
Eden tried to grab her, but Riley pushed past. “McClain!”
His head turned but he stayed where he was, arms crossed over his chest as he watched them shove Wade into the cage. Wade was starting to stir now. At the sound of her voice, he grabbed for the bars, then jerked his hand back as it touched the silver.
Riley scrambled down the slope, slipping and sliding on the gravelly soil. “You arrogant bastard! I turn my back for a second and you’re there, trying to overrule me! You knew we wanted to stay at Haven!”
“It’s not safe.” Intense green eyes met hers, the hat’s shadow carving half his face into darkness. His jaw was scraped clean, the skin smooth and tanned. Shadows lingered in the dip above his firm mouth as it thinned. “Your council agreed.”
She got in his face, fists clenched. “Of course they did. Peg and Jem have wanted to leave all year. Madi and Dr. Rawlins didn’t. I was the deciding vote. With you breathing down their necks, they wouldn’t have been able to fight the order. It's our home, damn it, McClain!”
A flicker of frustration filled his eyes, though his voice stayed calm. “The reivers burned New Hope to the ground, Riley. Who did you think was next? Us? We’ve got rock walls fifteen feet high. You’ve got a timber fence.”
“And they’ve never gotten past it,” she reminded him with a nasty grin. “Haven’s got high visibility and good defensive towers. Our stockpile can keep us under siege for over six months, and we’ve got shooters. We’ve killed more reivers than New Hope and Isolation did together.”
He grabbed her by the shoulders with warm hands. Turned her to the west. A tiny pall of dark shadows blurred the horizon.
“Haven burned, Riley. This morning, I’d say.”
The shock of it tore a gasp from her throat. “No.” But the proof was on the horizon. She shook her head. “No, it can’t have burned.” It was her home. She’d lived there all her life, in her father’s house. The only reminder she had left of him.
“We got everyone out yesterday, thank God....”
Riley spun on her heel and drove her fist into his gut. The impact bruised her knuckles, but she snapped up with her elbow, under his chin. “You bastard!” she screamed. “Of course they burned it!” Someone grabbed her from behind, tore her off him. She tried to kick out, but missed. “There was nobody there! Nobody to defend it! It was defensible, McClain! It wouldn’t have burned if you hadn’t taken everyone. You just want to control us! Like the rest of your little clan of sheep!” Tears blurred her vision and she yanked hard, trying to break free of the grip someone had on her.
“Riley! Riley.” Soothing hands cupped her face, and then Eden was there. “Calm down. We’re doing the best we can. Your council voted, it isn’t Adam’s fault.”
“I took your people in,” he pointed out.
Riley went crazy again, kicking and tearing. Hot tears burned her skin, but the arrogant prick just watched, like he’d done them a fucking favor. “This is your fault,” she told him. “You look!” She stabbed a finger out toward the horizon, toward the dirty smudge where her home had been. “That’s on you.” Turning, she brushed at the hands holding her. One of McClain’s men. “Get your hands off me. I’m not going to go after him.”
Wrenching out of the grip, she turned back to the cave. Jimmy watched with wide eyes, but she stormed past, into the cool shadows. He tried to touch her shoulder, but she shook him off with a snarl. Even he’d betrayed her.
Collapsing in the corner of the cave, she tucked her knees up in front of her and wept. It was gone. All of it. Her whole life just torn apart and smashed, and McClain had the gall to stand there and tell her he’d taken them in. Done them a favor.
Tears tore through her, a hacking wrench in her chest. How she wished she hadn’t woken up this morning. Then this day would never have happened.
The worst thing was all she could think about was what had happened in that pool of water.
And how... happy – no, that wasn’t the word – how right it had felt compared to the rest of her shitty life.
And how much that scared her.
Her eyes fell on the tiny carved doll Wade had discarded and she picked it up, curving her fingers around it. “Stupid,” she whispered harshly, but she tucked it in her pocket all the same.
Seven
HIS FACE ACHED like a bitch.
Luc leaned back against the cage bars, his shirt protecting him from the silver’s burn. Wind whipped through his hair, stinging the harsh cuts and bruises on his face. He’d been bested by a kid. The thought disgusted him. But worse was the fact that McClain – the man he’d spent the last six years hunting – was sitting two seats away, leaning casually against the seatback as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
Luc glared at the back of the bastard’s hat. A pretty turn of events. This was what happened when he went soft. When he helped people. He forgot what he was for a moment, but they didn’t. The kid had done a number on him, to be sure.
He glanced at the red curls whipping back in the wind in front of him. He couldn’t even find it in him to be pissed at the boy. Luc would have done the same in that situation. But then he knew he was a shifty bastard. The boy who’d nearly pissed his pants when Luc had kidnapped Riley had grown up a hell of a lot in the last few days.
Blonde hair swam into view and, as if she’d ensorcelled him by that pool, his gaze ran over Riley hungrily. The scent of her grief stained the air, forcing a heavy silence on the occupants of the jeep. A young woman, who had to be McClain’s sister, sat beside her and kept looking at her guiltily, but Riley never noticed. She was exhausted. Luc had watched them carry her out of the cave. She’d hadn’t looked at them, not even when McClain tried to talk to her.
If it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t be in this cage.
Luc bit off a curse and looked away, out into the desert. Tough words. He couldn’t even summon up any anger for her either. Her pain itched along his skin, made him edgy. He wanted to touch her but he couldn’t, and no one would even look at him.
Caged. He reached out with his bound hands, ran a finger along the bars, and hissed. Movement shifted in front of him. Riley. Stilling, her head half-turning toward him as if she were just as aware of him too.
A taunt leapt to his tongue, but he ground his teeth over it. He didn’t want to hurt her, strangely enough. Reaching through the bars, he caught a strand of that flyaway blonde hair and rubbed it gently between his fingers.
McClain looked up in the rearview mirror. Grey-green eyes met his own. Luc stilled, fury pumping through his blood. There was his anger, right there.
McClain’s eyes narrowed, and Luc realized the man was staring at his hand, and the tendril of blonde hair Luc held.
Smiling lazily, he stroked his fingers over it and laughed. You want it?
McClain snapped at the driver, and the jeep screamed to a halt. Hurdling over the door, he strode toward the back of the jeep and slammed a fist through the bars.
Lucius was waiting for it. He twisted fluidly, grabbing McClain’s hand in a wrist-lock and shoving his bare arm against the silver bars. McClain’s eyes widened, and he hissed as his skin touched the silver.
“Don’t ever presume that I’m helpless,” Lucius snarled, and heat flashed through his arm. His claws sprang out, and he dug them into the tender flesh of McClain’s soft forearm. Aiming for the vein.
It wouldn’t kill him, but he’d take what he could get.
People were screaming. The sister was standing on the seat, her hands on her cheeks as she yelled her brother’s name. He’d heard McClain speak of her years ago, but the only time he’d ever seen her had been from a distance. They’d ridden together as bounty hunters, shared water and more out there on the Rim, watched each other’s backs. But by silent agreement, they’d never brought each other home to their families. That was like bringing the darkness, death, and destruction of the Rim home with them. When Lucius had been at the settlement, all he’d wanted to do was kiss his wife and forget about the things he’d done.
Riley watched with an emotionless face. She reached for something, coming up with a dart gun in her hand.
Lucius’s eyes widened as it swung toward him. “Don't!"
Her eyes narrowed. The gun went off, and something bit into his chest. He looked down at the dart, warmth spreading out through the entry site, washing through his veins like molten honey. With a wordless gurgle, he slumped back against the bars, the back of his neck burning as he collapsed.
The last thing he saw brought a smi
le to his lips as he went under.
She’d turned the dart gun on McClain.
* * *
Absolution reared over the plain like an ugly, squat fortress.
Riley hated it on sight.
McClain was snoring in the front seat, his hat over his face and his arm bandaged by Eden. Similar snores came from behind. She’d dragged Wade’s bare skin off the cage bars and jammed a spare shirt under his head as Eden tended her brother. Nobody had said a word.
In fact, nobody had said anything since she’d shot McClain with his own dart gun.
“Here we are,” Eden murmured, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. “Home swe–”
“Don’t say it,” Riley interjected. Home was a word that made her heart ache. She was so tired she just wanted to curl up under her mother’s old quilt in her bed and wish this was all a dream. But that would never happen again. Eden had told her that Madi had thought to bring her things from home, but it wasn’t the same. Here at Absolution, she’d be assigned a cell to sleep in, at least until she could sort out her sleeping arrangements.
Or until McClain tried to do it for her. Her eyes narrowed.
The gates started to open as they crossed the barren wasteland in front of the walls. Barbed wire curled into the distance, and the ground was pitted from gunfire. A pang filled her chest. That, more than anything, reminded her of Haven.
But Absolution was nearly three times the size of her little settlement. At Haven, cattle and livestock roamed the dirt streets, and some of the women had coaxed lush little gardens to life in the walled-off yards behind their homes. Here, some of the streets were cobbled, the jeep bouncing under the shadow of the gates. And they were swept clean. There were no goats, no cats, not even a dog. Men moved with military efficiency along the walls, dressed in matching black and carrying ancient AK-47’s. Every house was roofed in tile – a virtual luxury – and the walls were solid white adobe.
There was a square, squat building at the very heart of the settlement. The jeep roared up the hill toward it, curving around the roads. People lifted their heads, smiled and waved. McClain’s name was on everyone’s lips. As they saw the warg cage in the back, the smiles died, and the calls turned harsh.