by Lea Griffith
Jude didn’t think it would happen. After all, the room had been built to survive a nuclear holocaust. A little overboard, but Jude knew what the world was running toward, and he’d wanted a way to protect his family. But he wasn’t God to know if the cave system would hold up to that much of an explosion.
So they’d have to run.
“What about the cat?” Ella asked as Jude changed his clothing into warmer wear. He shoved new outerwear into his go bag and moved to the armory.
“What about it?” he asked absently.
“Chica goes with us,” she said firmly.
He stopped loading ammo into another knapsack long enough to check the monitor and throw Ella a look of disbelief. “You named it?”
The cat meowed.
“I named her, and she goes.”
His woman was worried about a stray cat? When Dresden was about to try to blow them sky high? Damn.
“Shove her in your go bag, zip it up, and she can go,” Jude told her, grabbing the last bit of ammo he could stuff into his knapsack before he zipped it shut.
“Chica?” Ella called, and damn if the cat didn’t immediately go to her.
Jude watched in bemusement as she put the cat gently into the sack, talking to it like it was a child and could actually understand.
“Do we have a couple of cans of Vienna sausages down here?” she asked him, her gray eyes pleading.
He thought his eyes were going to bug out of his head. But he threw a thumb over his shoulder and said only, “Check under the sink over there.”
She did and made a triumphant sound as she shoved two cans into the sack with the cat.
Jude gave one last look to his comm room.
“You can rebuild,” she offered.
He nodded in affirmation. Maybe he would, but only with her.
Jude reached for her hand and tugged her to the door. “Got your weapon?” he asked.
“Yeah. Holster at my back,” she answered. “And I’ve got one in my boot. Oh, and I stole a KA-BAR from your armory.”
“I approve.” He held out a rifle to her. “Put your go bag on first, then strap that over your back.”
She did as he told her. No questions. Not even the cat complained.
“We’ve got about an hour hike out of these caves. It’ll still be dark when we exit. I go first, and if there’s any sign of danger, you tuck in and wait for my orders. We clear, Ella? I need your cooperation here.”
“I’m clear,” she said in exasperation. “How the hell did I manage to survive a whole year without you?”
Oh, her sarcasm. He’d missed the hell out of that. He rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. I’m sure it was touch and go.”
She threw back her head and laughed. Loud. It was beautiful. “And that’s a truth you can take right to the bank. Cash that shit out and run for Mexico.”
He grinned at her, checked the monitor again, and punched in the code. “I’m first. Always.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied smartly.
“Smart-ass.”
She turned her head and tried to look over her shoulder at her butt. “You think?”
He shook his head as the door swished open. He stepped into the tunnel and checked for any disturbance. “We’re clear. We’ve got to move fast. I don’t know how the cave will hold up when those explosives he’s almost finished setting go.”
“Let’s move then,” she said. “I’ve got you, Chica. Hold on for the ride.”
His lips curved again, and he swore he hadn’t smiled so much in a year. “Let’s do it.”
They moved quickly. They’d made it about a quarter of a mile through the tunnels when the first explosion rocked the system. The way the walls and ceiling of the cave’s tunnels shook didn’t bode well for them.
“Run,” Jude said, turning around to get behind her. “Run fast,” he urged as he took off his headlamp and put it on her head.
The concussion of another blast nearly took them off their feet. He refused the fear that climbed up his throat. He wouldn’t lose her here. The earth rumbled as it absorbed the impact and sought to hold. Wind rushed by him, the wind of the approaching dust headed their way.
“Run, Ella!” he yelled, and she did just that.
He tore after her, but they weren’t fast enough. “Duck down, and cover your face,” he called as the dust caught up to them.
Jude covered her body with his as yet another rumble rocked the walls around them. The fear knocked on his mind again, and he again refused it entry. Instead, he held her close, making sure she kept the cloth in place over her mouth and nose. He shoved her face into his chest and bowed low over her, breathing through her hair and letting the silk of her tresses filter his air.
Another boom, and her body shook. His world was about to collapse around him. Horror choked his throat, and his hands clenched tighter around his woman.
He was scared he’d found her only to lose her again. And in the midst of one of the greatest terrors of his life, Jude was smiling because all he could hear was Ella talking softly to the damn cat.
Chapter 18
Goddamn Dresden! He was going to blow up the whole mountain! Ella’s entire body trembled, and she wondered if she’d just come back to Jude to lose him to Dresden anyway.
“We’ve got to move, Jude,” she said against his chest. She pushed against his side to get him to move, and he hissed in a breath.
He laughed, and it was rueful in the sudden awful silence.
“Let me look,” she ordered, pushing his hands away as she moved to her knees in front of him.
“No time,” he muttered. “We’ll patch it again when we’re safe.”
Ella gazed at him, either to judge his words for truth or to see if he was simply placating her.
She nodded at what she saw in his eyes. They would run, and she’d care for him later.
He stood and helped her to her feet.
“I’ve got you, Chica,” she said softly to the cat zipped inside her go bag. The cat meowed back. “You’re getting a gold bowl when we get home.”
“We’re keeping it?” Jude asked, dismay hugging his tone.
A laugh escaped her. “Her. We’re keeping her.”
Jude grunted.
As she began following him once more through the caves, it struck Ella that over the last forty-eight hours she’d fallen back into team mode. The past year she’d been solo, with the exception of Brody. She’d conditioned herself to the reality that she was the only one she could count on 24-7.
Jude had erased that line of thinking in two days. That was indicative of how tired Ella was, but more than that, it was a clear sign that she trusted him. Their connection hadn’t disappeared. It had grown in strength.
She still didn’t know if she’d survive Dresden, and she knew she had to go back in, but she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. Dresden wouldn’t stop coming for her. She didn’t know everything about his operation, but she still knew too much. And he didn’t like being beaten. He wouldn’t take losing Ella to Endgame lying down, as evidenced by the continued explosions that rocked the caves.
She watched Jude’s back, kept her gaze trained on him. One foot in front of the other, she followed him without question.
He stopped once and sank down behind a cave wall. She lowered immediately. He held up his hand and waved her forward. “That wall wasn’t there when I came this way. It’s caved in, and I’m going to have to move some rocks so we can squeeze through.”
He took off his go bag, his weapons, and the light he’d taken back from her. “Train that light on the wall so I can see.”
She did, and he began moving rocks. And then he moved more rocks. And finally more rocks. The wall didn’t seem to be shrinking, and there didn’t seem to be any holes opening up.
“That’s not good, huh?�
� she asked.
He hung his head, glanced at her, and smiled. “Nope.”
She blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Do you have reception on the sat phone?”
He rubbed his forehead as he pulled out the phone. “No.”
“We’re stuck?” she asked, unable to keep the quaver from her voice.
“No,” he said, assurance in his voice. Then he started moving rocks again.
The cat meowed, and Ella opened the bag. The cat ventured out, looked around, and stepped right back into the bag. “Huh. She likes the bag,” Ella mused.
Jude grunted.
“Can I help?” Ella asked.
“No.”
She cleared her throat. “I really can’t help?”
“No.”
“Do you know any other word at the moment?”
“No,” he said, but there was a laugh in his voice. “You feel that?” He held his hand up above his head.
“No,” she responded with a smile. “Feel what?”
“Fresh air,” he told her and began to move faster.
He moved three more fairly large rocks, and a gust of fresh air rushed into the cave. He grinned. “We’re almost there.”
He climbed up the rocks a little and moved more. “Need you to move, Ella. Some are going to fall.”
She picked up their stuff and moved back, watching as he opened up a hole big enough for them to climb through.
“Let’s get out of here,” he called down.
Ella handed their gear, the headlight, and his weapons up to him. He pushed their things through and then slithered through the hole. Ella was left alone. The gaping maw of the cave rose behind her, and she shuddered. She hated the dark.
Jude was back through the hole in a minute at most, holding out his hand to her. “Climb up, baby,” he ordered.
She climbed after giving him her go bag. She slid through the small opening and reached back for the bag. He handed it to her, and then Ella wasn’t alone in the dark anymore.
They made good time to the mouth of the cave system. Again, Jude went ahead to do recon and came back telling her they were going to bed down there.
“It’s snowing hard,” Jude told her. “The opening is hidden, and I doubt anyone will move tonight.”
“Do you think Dresden breached the comm room?” she asked him.
Jude met her gaze. “No. But I think he destroyed it, and until he can verify you’re either dead or gone, he’ll be busy trying to dig through tons of rock to get in.”
“He’s smart, Jude. Don’t underestimate him,” she warned. “He’s a master strategist and will think of every move I could have made, including escaping. Don’t doubt he’s looking for that opening right there.”
“He’s the devil, Ella. I never underestimate evil like Dresden.”
She nodded and moved to set up a place to bed down. “Can I let Chica go? Do you think she’ll come back?”
“Let her out. She’s not going anywhere. You’re feeding her. You talk to her. She’s yours now, whether you like it or not,” he said.
Another ray of hope speared her chest. “I’ve never had a pet.”
“And now you do,” he affirmed with another patented Jude grin.
Ella rubbed the area over her heart. She was afraid to trust how much her world had changed in just a few days. She’d gone from wanting to shove a wineglass stem through Dresden’s eye socket to teasing parlays with Jude.
But it felt good. It felt right. So she’d take it and keep moving until she had to change directions.
Jude hunkered down in front of her as she unzipped her go bag. He reached for her hand, pulled it to his mouth, and gently kissed her palm. “He’s never getting to you, Ella.”
“You can’t promise me that, Jude. And the fact remains that I may have to return.”
His gaze darkened, and he lowered her hand as he stood again. “Over my dead body.”
“That’s what I’ve always been afraid of,” she whispered.
“We’re going to talk about this habit you have of trying to protect me. But right now you’re going to sleep. I’ll take first watch. You rest,” he ordered.
Fatigue pulled at her. She watched as Chica remained in the bag, refusing to leave. The gorgeous cat curled into an indistinguishable ball of brown, white, and black fur, then went to sleep. Ella lay down beside the bag, petting the cat. “Wake me when it’s my turn,” she told Jude around a yawn.
“Will do,” he promised.
* * *
He was going to allow them an hour at the most before he woke her and they left this cave. Dresden was a former Navy SEAL. He’d have gone over every possibility before blowing up the ground Jude’s house had sat on. That meant he was definitely searching for Ella’s path of escape.
Dresden knew damn well that Jude wouldn’t have left her safety to chance. Nothing was one hundred percent. Not even safe comm rooms built into rock.
Jude took a few moments to watch her sleep. He loved her with every molecule of his being. She was never going back to Dresden if Jude had anything to say about it.
Her hand rested on the cat’s back. Jude shook his head and let a smile curve his lips. Only Ella with her soft heart. She was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. His gaze traveled over her face—over the scar at her temple, across the slope of her cheeks, down past her lips to the small dent in her chin.
She was everything to him. He could admit it here in the darkness of the cave that sheltered them. Hell, he’d admit it to the world. He just had to convince her that he could keep them both safe before she left again.
There were so many angles to this thing with Dresden. The Piper, his daughters, Anton Segorski, people in Jude’s own government, and on top of that, there was now some nameless organization attempting world domination?
“What the hell have we gotten into, El?” he asked softly.
She turned her face to his, a frown creasing her brow as if she’d answer him, but her eyes never opened. She was tired. God knows she’d been through hell during the last year. He needed the entire story, but right now he needed to get them safe.
Jude stood, pulled a thermal blanket out of his go bag and placed it on top of Ella. He headed toward the mouth of the cave and sank down behind a big boulder, watching and listening. Dawn was about an hour away, and the moon was hidden behind the clouds that still dropped snow on the earth. There had to be at least six feet on the ground now. It was so thick that it’d already covered his tracks from earlier. It would definitely slow down anyone who tried to move in it.
The night was quiet; nothing moved in the cold and precipitation. Jude didn’t even see signs of forest animals moving in this weather. A twig snapped just outside the cave entrance. Jude raised his rifle and peered through the scope. Nothing but darkness. He got down on his belly and crawled to the entrance, settling behind a snowbank. He slowly created a hole in the snow and put his rifle through. He listened. He waited.
Nothing moved.
A shadow separated from behind a cedar. Big and stealthy, it headed toward Jude’s location. Everything narrowed to that shadow, though Jude’s other senses flared out, seeking more threats. Nothing else moved. No sounds of weapons hitting cloth or feet moving over snow hit Jude’s ears.
Just that shadow.
He’d never seen anyone but Jonah Knight move that silently. But this man was shorter than Knight—hell, shorter than any of Jude’s Endgame teammates.
The shadow drew closer. Jude pulled out his KA-BAR, palmed it, and lowered his rifle. He’d take the man as quietly as he could. He didn’t want anything to draw other scouts to this location.
The man reached the mouth of the cave, which put him right beside Jude. Jude flowed to his feet, rising above the man and stroking the knife across his neck. Jude’s movements were too fast for
the man to be prepared, so he went down fast and easy. Jude ripped the man’s balaclava off and exhaled in relief when he didn’t recognize him.
Jude dragged the man farther into the cave, checking for a radio and finding none before he hid the body behind a boulder so Ella might miss it when they left. He had to do recon, and that meant leaving the cave. He checked on Ella, made sure she still slept, then moved back to the cave’s entrance.
He was wearing another set of white camo outerwear, and it remained pitch-black outside. He blended into the snow effortlessly. Jude used every last ounce of his training as he slithered out of the cave and into the tree line beyond the caves. Jude glanced back, checking the cave to make sure he’d hidden his path, and saw it still looked pristine.
The cave’s entry was hidden by low, overhanging trees that grew out of the sides of the rock. The mountain was a formidable foe, but life grew in the most bizarre places. The man he’d just taken out had to have known it was there, and that wasn’t good. It meant Dresden knew, or had guessed, about the caves.
Jude worked quickly, finding no one else hiding in the immediate perimeter. He hustled back to Ella. “Baby, get up. We gotta move,” he urged.
She was up in a second, asleep one moment, completely alert the next. His hands fisted. She’d been conditioned to do that by Dresden, no doubt. Yes, she had training, but nothing that would have prepared her for that instantaneous alertness. That only came from combat situations, and Jude was finally realizing that’s what her entire year alone with Dresden had been. Combat.
Ella zipped the cat in, folded the thermal blanket, and handed it back to him. He shoved it in his go bag and helped her load her bag and her weapon onto her shoulders. She was dressed exactly like him. He was about to test her endurance as they trekked up the mountain, hopefully reaching the pass that would take them down the other side.
“We’re heading up the mountain. We have to move quickly and silently. You loaded?” he asked as he strapped his bag to his back and checked his weapons.