Bad Nights

by Rebecca York

“Did he fall?”

  “I think he was pushed.” The comment came from Trainer.

  As he listened to the voices from below, Jack eased himself up again and waved his arm at Shane and Max, letting them know he was okay.

  They gave him grins and A-OK signs before their faces sobered again. They all knew Jack and Morgan weren’t out of the woods yet.

  From below Jack still heard men talking, but he couldn’t make out much through the babble of voices.

  ***

  Wade looked at the man sprawled on the cave floor. Preston was one of his most loyal recruits. He was holding perfectly still, breathing hard.

  Wade came down beside him. “What hurts, son?”

  “Everything,” he answered in a barely audible voice.

  “Did you see Barnes up there?”

  Preston didn’t answer. He’d passed out, but he was moaning.

  Wade looked at his gray face. Could he spare men to get him back to the medics at camp? He ruthlessly weighed the pros and cons and decided they’d have to deal with him as best they could here.

  He asked for the medical kit he’d brought and gave the man a shot of morphine. It was the best he could do at the moment.

  But what had happened to him, exactly? He could have fallen, or that bastard Barnes could have been up there and pushed him back. There was no way to know.

  “We’ve got to find out what’s happening up there,” he said. This time he looked at Graves. “Go out to the front of the cave. You can get far enough away to see what’s happening up there.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Graves started toward the cave mouth. Before he could step into the sunlight, a shot rang out, and he jumped back.

  Was Barnes already on the ground? And opening fire on the cave mouth?

  How was that possible? Or was Barnes still above them and someone else was on the ground?

  ***

  From his high perch, Jack heard a shot ring out. Looking toward his buddies, he saw that Shane had drawn his sidearm and fired toward the mouth of the cave. One of the troops must have tried to come out, and he’d given them a clue that it was a suicidal idea.

  The men inside returned fire, but Shane had already joined Max behind a screen of boulders. They’d pinned down the guys inside, but there were more militia in the cave than there were Rockfort Security agents outside. Eventually the troops would break through. And the shaft was still a problem. Someone else could come up that way.

  Looking around, Jack saw several boulders. “We have to block this exit,” he told Morgan.

  She followed his gaze and nodded uncertainly. “Can we move them?”

  When he heard noises in the chimney again, he said, “We have to, or they’ll keep coming.”

  He heaved at the closest boulder, bracing his legs and straining his upper body with the effort, but he barely moved the large chunk of rock.

  Morgan joined him, and they both pushed, again having little effect.

  Knowing that a person’s leg muscles were stronger than his arm muscles, Jack turned around and braced his back against the rock wall behind him. Planting his feet against the boulder, he pushed with every ounce of determination he possessed, feeling the wounds on his thighs burn and his ankle protest.

  Morgan sat beside him, imitating his maneuver. As they both shoved with their legs, the boulder teetered, then moved a few inches. Breathing hard and putting out a massive effort, they kept pushing, and it finally settled with a clunk into place over the chimney.

  Someone below let out a loud curse. Jack would have cheered if he’d had the breath to spare.

  With the top of the chimney blocked, the voices inside were less distinct now, but he knew they were angry that they couldn’t get at him from that angle now.

  He looked along the narrow strip where they were precariously perched. “Let’s hope Shane and Max can keep them inside while we get down,” he muttered.

  He moved along the ledge, with Morgan following. Before they tried to climb down, they’d have to get farther from the cave entrance to avoid getting shot by the men inside.

  As if to confirm his assessment, a barrage of bullets came from the interior, and Max and Shane returned fire. Jack hoped they had enough ammo to keep the militiamen inside until he and Morgan could get to safety.

  He led her along the ledge, keeping one ear trained toward the mouth of the cave. The ledge got narrower, and he was starting to think that they might have to go back and try the other direction. But finally he came to a place where there were something like natural steps leading to the ground. Or perhaps someone had carved them long ago in the side of the cliff to give access to the ledge.

  He pointed. “This way.”

  Morgan nodded.

  He went first, making sure all the steps were solid. Still, there were several big gaps where he had to turn and help her.

  When they came to a particularly long drop, he eased himself down, then held out his arms to Morgan, bracing himself against the side wall of the stairway.

  “I can’t make that.”

  “Yes, you can.”

  When she finally jumped into his arms, he held her for a long moment before turning back to the descent. As they made it to the ground, his relief was palpable, but he knew they weren’t home free yet.

  “I’m going to join Shane and Max.”

  “I’m coming too.”

  He might have said it was too dangerous, but it could be just as dangerous to leave her here. If someone got to the mouth of the cave and spotted her, they’d have too good a shot.

  “Okay.” He led her farther to the right along the cliff, stopping when he judged they were far enough from the cave.

  “I don’t like it, but we’ve got to cross the field and get into the trees. Then we can head back to the rocks they’re using for cover.”

  She nodded

  “I’ll go first. If nobody fires at me, then you follow.”

  She looked torn.

  “Wait for my signal.”

  He dragged in several breaths of air and let them out, then dashed across the open space, half-expecting bullets to pound into his back. But he made it safely, then gestured to Morgan.

  She started her wild dash, and he stood with his heart pounding until she’d reached the shelter of the woods.

  He gave her a considering look. “I don’t suppose you’ll stay here.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  With a firm nod, he started off, circling around toward the rocks where he could see Shane and Max pinning the militiamen down.

  “Duck low.”

  They did, but Trainer must have spotted them because another barrage of shots rang out just before they threw themselves behind the barrier.

  “You okay?” Max asked.

  “I’ve been better.”

  Shane turned to Morgan. “And you’re Morgan Rains?”

  “How do you know?”

  “We researched the owner of the burned house. Sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances. I’m Shane Gallagher.”

  “Max Lyon. We’re Jack’s partners at Rockfort Security.”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” she answered. “How did you know where to find us?”

  “We went to your place first, where we found the militia guys heading out,” Shane answered. “We followed them. Then we followed the sound of gunfire.”

  “I assume they were trying to smoke you out of the house,” Max said.

  “Yes,” Morgan answered. “When they realized Jack was in there with me.”

  “Sorry about the house,” Max said.

  “Better it than us.”

  Shane made a rough sound. “I’m thinking that we can give the bastards a dose of their own medicine.”

  “Like how?” Jack asked.

  When Shane leaned forward and told the others what he had in mind, Jack laughed. “Poetic justice.”

  “I want you two to start back toward Morgan’s house. We’re in better shape to do this part,
” Shane said.

  “The hell you say,” Jack protested.

  Shane gave him a sharp look. “Don’t play hero. Get the hell out of here. You can get to my Cherokee. It’s down the road from the house. Drive closer, and we’ll join you as soon as we can.”

  Jack nodded. He hated to admit it, but he knew he’d slow them down if they all left together.

  Shane handed him a set of car keys. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  Jack looked at Morgan. “Let’s go. This time, we belly crawl across the field. At least until we get out of range.”

  They started off, making their slow way toward the woods and avoiding drawing fire.

  Chapter 17

  When Jack and Morgan were gone, Shane turned to his partner, a hard look on his face.

  “Did you see the cigarette burn on his arm?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I wonder where else they burned him and what else they did to him.”

  “He’ll tell us,” Max said

  “You think he’ll talk about it?”

  “We’ll make him.”

  Shane wasn’t sure, but he knew they had better put their current plan into motion. “Ready?”

  Max nodded.

  “You want to gather up brush first or return fire?” Shane asked.

  “I’ll gather brush.”

  “The dangerous part.”

  “You’ll get your turn.”

  They alternated scooping up handfuls of the dry weeds, with one of them returning fire while the other worked. They also collected dry branches and small tree limbs, all the time exchanging fire with the militiamen in the cave.

  “Persistent bunch,” Max muttered. “You think we’ve got a big enough pile?”

  “Depends. Do we want to roast them or keep them from coming out?”

  “Good question. I think we can’t gather enough for a militia barbecue. We’d better settle for pinning them inside while we get away.”

  “Agreed.”

  While Shane laid down a stream of gunfire, Max stood and hurled a smoke bomb at the cave mouth. It landed inside with a thud and went off, sending smoke into the cavern beyond.

  They heard coughing and choking, which receded as the militiamen moved farther back from the entrance.

  While they were away from the cave mouth, Shane and Max both rushed up. Shane carried the weeds. Max carried the branches. They threw them all into the cave, followed by a firebomb which they tossed onto the pile.

  The weeds immediately caught fire, and the flames spread to the branches.

  “Turnabout is fair play, don’t you think?” Shane called out to the men inside the cave.

  “Fuck you,” somebody answered.

  After that there was only coughing from the interior. The Rockfort men turned and dashed back across the field and into the woods, the sound of coughing and cursing following them as they hurried back toward Morgan’s ruined house.

  “What’s Cunningham going to say when he hears about this?” Max asked.

  “Is he going to hear about it?”

  “I think he has another source inside the militia compound besides Jack,” Shane answered as they slipped into the woods.

  ***

  Inside the cave, the troops began to cough and curse.

  “Get down low. Get farther back,” Wade shouted before a coughing fit seized him. He followed his own advice, sinking to his knees, then crawling to the back of the cave. His men followed.

  When he saw Preston lying on the ground coughing, he grabbed the man’s arm and started dragging him farther back. Another troop helped. In the smoke he wasn’t sure exactly who it was.

  The ceiling got lower as they moved farther back, but there was a piece of good news. There were several fissures in the floor, and the air coming up from below was uncontaminated.

  “Lean over the cracks in the floor,” he managed to gasp out, hoping that his men were in good enough shape to follow directions.

  He lay on the cold stone, silently cursing Jack Barnes and his friends and wondering how they had happened to show up just in the nick of time.

  It was obvious now that Barnes had never been working alone. Somehow the other guys had been alerted and come looking for him, maybe when he had missed a check-in date. After that, they’d stumbled onto the burned house. Or maybe they’d been monitoring the local news. In any case, he was going to find out who the hell they were. Like, for example, Jack Barnes couldn’t be the traitor’s real name. Wade wanted to know what it was and how to find the bastard.

  A new thought occurred to him. He hadn’t bothered to check the man’s fingerprints because his moneyman had vetted him. Now he was damn well going to find a way to check them out.

  And what if Barnes and his buddies were planning a raid on the camp? Another reason to move up his attack on D.C.

  As he scrambled for a way out of this mess, he thought about using his cell phone to call back to camp. But what good would that do? They were too far away for a rescue operation. Either the smoke would get him and the men in the cave or it wouldn’t.

  He finally gave up trying to think about anything constructive and simply lay on the cold, hard floor of the cave, dragging air into his lungs and coughing. Maybe he passed out. He wasn’t sure, but sometime later he felt one of his troops rousing him.

  “Colonel? Are you all right, Colonel?” The man gave Wade’s shoulder a tentative shake.

  He blinked and rolled over, staring up into the troop’s worried face. “I’ve been better.” He laughed, and that triggered a coughing fit.

  “The fire’s died down a lot, and we were able to push the rest of the burning stuff away from the cave mouth.”

  “Good work.”

  “What are your orders, sir?”

  He wanted to say they were going after Barnes and his friends, but probably they had too much of a head start.

  “We’re going back to headquarters and regroup,” he said. “Then we’ll get the bastards who did this to us.”

  ***

  Morgan was breathing hard by the time they reached her ruined house. She’d been thinking that Jack should be in worse shape because of his many injuries. But you wouldn’t know it to look at him. He’d maintained a steady pace all the way back and stopped a couple of times when he saw she was having trouble keeping up.

  He gave her a considering look. “We can rest again for a minute.”

  Her answer was immediate. “I don’t feel safe anywhere around here.”

  “Yeah. Right.”

  Still, they walked more slowly as they continued up the road, looking for the SUV Shane had mentioned. Her relief was instantaneous when it came into view.

  She leaned against the side of the vehicle, breathing hard, glad she couldn’t see her ruined house from this vantage point. It was too vivid a reminder of how close she and Jack had come to death.

  He unlocked the door, and she climbed in.

  When he didn’t move to the driver’s side, she gave him a questioning look. “What are you doing?”

  “I saw the militia vehicles back there. I want to give those guys another nasty surprise.”

  Instinctively she grabbed his arm. “Stay here.”

  He disengaged his sleeve. “Not until I disable their transportation.”

  “How?”

  “Slash their tires. That should keep them busy for a while.” As he spoke, he pulled a knife from the pack he’d carried with him.

  She didn’t like him staying in the open, but she realized that he needed to exact some revenge on the men who’d tortured him and damn near burned them alive.

  He handed her the keys. “If you hear any sounds of trouble, get the hell out of here.”

  She wanted to scream at him to just climb in the car and lock the doors, but she kept her lips pressed together as she watched him head for the militia’s vehicles. Still, her heart leaped into her throat when he disappeared from view.

  In a very short time she’d come to care what happ
ened to Jack Brandt.

  She sat with her pulse pounding, half-expecting men in camouflage uniforms to leap from the woods and surround the SUV. But apparently they were all back at the cave coping with the fire that Shane had said he was going to set. Or had he been able to pull that off? If he’d done what he said, why hadn’t he come back with the other guy, Max?

  Her tension mounted as she waited for Jack to reappear. When she heard the sound of breaking glass, she jumped. Did that mean trouble?

  She fingered the keys where she’d stuck them in the ignition, watching and waiting.

  Finally she spotted Jack, with his friends, Shane and Max. When she’d first spotted them, she’d thought they were very similar to Jack, tough-looking men who did what it took to finish a job. Now, to her surprise, all three men were grinning like little boys who had just raided the neighbor’s watermelon patch.

  Jack waved when he saw her staring at them. “I met Max and Shane on the way.”

  “What was that glass-breaking sound?”

  “A rock through the window of one of the vehicles. I couldn’t resist.”

  “And we got all the tires,” Shane said.

  “Good,” she answered. She’d never been a party to destroying personal property, but in this case, it was more than justified if it kept the militia from coming after them.

  The Rockfort men climbed into the SUV, with Shane slipping behind the wheel. Jack and Max climbed into the backseat.

  Shane started the engine and glanced at her. “Put on your seat belt. We don’t want anything to happen now.”

  She pulled the belt across her body and clicked the buckle into place as he drove up the road.

  Shane turned around and looked over his shoulder at Jack. “I suggest we go to the Rockfort safe house.”

  “Agreed,” Jack answered.

  As they passed Morgan’s house, she couldn’t stop herself from turning in her seat, looking at what was left of the blackened structure, thinking that she would probably never see this place again. She’d gone there to bury memories of her husband and almost gotten buried herself. All because she’d tried to help a man who looked like he was in trouble. Of course, he’d ended up saving her.

  “What happened to the militia?” she asked.

  “We started with a smoke bomb to pin them down, then set a fire at the mouth of the cave like I planned,” Shane answered.