by Angela White
Kenn didn’t respond and Marc straightened up. “The man I served with would have known this was coming.”
Kenn’s face darkened. “I assumed it would be you in charge, asshole.”
Marc smirked, moving off. “You were wrong. On a lot of things.”
Kenn saw Daryl fall into the shadows, staying even with Marc, and understood what hadn’t been said. Daryl, on the few occasions they’d seen fit to protect him, had been Kenn’s sniper.
Safe Haven’s leader and XO were only protected by the top teams. Angela and Marc were in control. It was his nightmare come true.
Kenn stayed still, running it through the filters, trying to accept. It was only until Adrian recovered...
When the Marine finally moved, it was to find a line of Eagles waiting.
Kenn rolled his eyes. “I don’t need another intervention.”
“That would be a nice change,” Angela observed.
She came from behind him, looking tired and glorious under stress. Kenn hated her.
“How was the trip?”
Kenn grunted. “Make-work.”
Angela stayed alert. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. Adrian thought it was best that you were away when everything happened.”
“Adrian?” Kenn questioned snidely.
Angela lit a cigarette. She’d only been awake four hours and she was already beat. How the hell did Adrian do this day-in and day-out?
“Adrian made the calls on placement. And he made it clear that I can change them if I’m unhappy.”
Kenn snorted rudely. “You and asshole running it all–why would you protest that?”
“Because I need this camp to run even smoother than it did under Adrian, and the only way that happens is through you.”
Kenn considered. “You’ll bump Brady somewhere else? Somewhere below me?”
“Yes,” Angela answered coolly. “Do I need to?”
“If I say yes, what happens?”
“You get the XO slot, Brady gets something a lot further down, and the camp and Eagles spend the rest of Adrian’s recovery making your life as miserable as they possibly can.”
Kenn had known, but hearing it, being sure he had no choice, helped. “And if I say no?”
“You stay on Adrian’s right through his recovery and top off a steady reform with bonus points.”
“Meaning I’m forgiven?”
Angela had bigger things to spar over. “For me? Yes. And that means for most of the Eagles, as well.”
Kenn didn’t have to spend time thinking about it, but he still loathed the idea. Some days would be hard, but if he got to stay with Adrian, he would determine his own future.
“Should I bump him?”
“No.”
Satisfied, Angela turned away without adding anything. A man’s pride was a hard thing to replace. Destroying it was almost always lethal, but even wounds could be deadly. Kenn was willing to keep trying to change. So long as he was, the past was over for her.
Angela gave a positive motion to the waiting Eagles and they disappeared.
“Hey!” Kenn called.
Angela didn’t face the accusing tone. She knew what was coming. “Yeah?”
“Why didn’t I ever rate a constant shadow?”
Angela didn’t hesitate. “Because you were usually the threat.”
2
Lunchtime for Safe Haven found both sides of the QZ tape calm and Angela keyed her new mic. “I need the top people at the little mess.”
There were garbled rogers and she keyed the mic again. “Five minutes.”
Angela lit a cigarette, steadying herself.
Kenn was first, striding briskly and she only nodded her thanks as she took a steaming cup of tea from his hand. Like he’d been expecting the call.
Angela smoked and sipped, eager to see who would be next.
Kyle rounded the corner of the medical tent and Neil showed up behind him. Jeremy and Doug appeared next, arm in a sling. With her, it was first come, first to serve. If you didn’t know your place by now, odds were good that you didn’t have one.
Angela went into the little Mess and they followed. She settled onto an end of the table, too restless to sit.
“You guys know who handles what and I feel no need to disrupt Adrian’s routines. Yet,” she warned.
“I’m going to tell you what I know has to be done. You then tell me who handles each item and hit me with anything I missed.”
Kenn took out his notebook, surveying the area. “Where’s the new XO?”
Angela concentrated for only an instant. She didn’t need as much time now to use her gifts. “Close by, perimeter check. It makes him nervous to have all of us in one place.”
“Same here,” Neil stated.
Angela got them going. “The rain is first. Sam says we’re in for a downpour over a couple days. Make whatever preparations Adrian normally has you do, but be low-key about it. The camp can’t know that we knew.”
Neil raised a finger. “That’s mine.”
Marc came through the flap and took the open seat on Angela’s right without a comment, but his face was tight.
“We’ll have to switch our parking area. Getting stuck in the mud isn’t a big deal until Adrian says let’s roll.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Kenn said.
“We also need to move tents and animals. You and Neil will work together?”
Both men agreed, neither as reluctantly as she might have expected. Kenn missing out on XO this time around had settled a lot of Neil’s remaining animosity.
“Adrian’s pet projects. I know he has a lot of things going on. Someone get me a list with updates.”
Kenn wrote it in his book.
“Adrian needs things–his brown box, clothes that are loose, his poncho and boots. Also the bottle in his bedroll, but when he wants a third shot, tell him no because of the medication mix.”
Angela registered the calming atmosphere, but was too busy settling into settling things down to figure out what it meant.
“Schedules and shift changes will be handled daily for now. The watch stays doubled until Adrian says otherwise, and no one goes in or out without my say-so.”
“I’ve got all that,” Marc spoke up firmly.
No one argued.
“I want entertainment set up, too, but not just anything. I need people well occupied. If he’s been saving something good, now is a good time to bring it out.”
“Mine and Jax,” Jeremy told her, writing notes.
“Good. The QZ has to have two volunteer gophers and a burning crew. Tell Li Sing all hot meals for the next week.”
Angela stubbed out her cig as she waited for them to catch up and sort the jobs, then she continued. “How are we on water and fuel?”
“Low, but okay for roughly two hundred miles and one camp stop of four days,” Kenn answered, thumbing through his worn book for the information.
“So we have two day’s reserves and four days stock on both?”
“Maybe five, if we start rationing now.”
“No. We’ll collect what we need for cleaning and toilets. John will give numbers on how much bleach to use and what all can be done with the rain water.”
Angela switched topics. “Have there been any reports of lurkers or anything out of place from the teens on the gate or the guards?”
Everyone indicated things were fine and she was relieved. She wasn’t sure how to handle it yet when the answer came back different.
“What about the camp?”
“Appears to be calm,” Neil offered hesitantly.
Clearly, none of them were sure.
“We’ll need a confirmation on it. I want a complete weapons inventory in the next 48 hours and Sam needs a basic aquaphonics setup. She provided a list of the supplies to make our own.”
Angela held it out and Jeremy didn’t protest when Neil took it.
“What about the other kids inside the complex? The ones like Conner?” Kyle asked.
<
br /> Kenn glanced at Angela. “They took off the second we escaped.”
Neither of them said that would be how the government bunker found out what happened. They didn’t need to.
“That’s it from me. What did I miss?”
Kenn closed his book after making a final note. “Other than the ants, I’m good.”
There was impressed note to his voice that she didn’t put much stock in. “Leave the ants for now. The rain will buy some time. Anything else?”
Nothing came and she looked around. “Surely I missed something?”
“Not that I noticed,” Marc stated sharply. “You’ll be almost as good at this as Adrian is.”
He walked out into the stiff breeze, leaving an uncomfortable silence.
“He’s checking the perimeter again,” Angela explained. “We’ll wait.”
Marc wasn’t gone long and no one missed the note of accusation as he spoke.
“Dale’s moving this way with enough panic on his face to draw attention. People are already peering from flaps and tables.”
Angela sighed. She had missed something. She’d assumed Marc had taken care of the final threat, but it was clear that there’d been another.
Angela glanced at Kenn first.
Kenn knew who the problem was, too. “The odds were low on it. I should have said it might happen.”
“We handle it like Adrian would.”
Kenn’s eyes went to Kyle’s frown and then Marc’s thickening glare. “Some of us can.”
Angela took another leap into the role she’d been given. “Negotiation attempt?”
“Maybe,” Kenn agreed as Dale ducked into the little mess, voice almost a squeal.
“I can’t find Ray and I’ve been searching for hours. He was shot. He’s supposed to be resting!”
Neil hurried over to quiet him.
“Two-man Recon team?” Angela asked, still looking at Kenn. In his mind, the words were very different.
“Take Marc and show him what’s expected of Safe Haven’s XO.”
Kenn hadn’t been ready for that, but he covered it well. “I think that’s best. Unless you want to let Brady loose on them.”
Angela caught the question–Should I make him do it? She didn’t answer.
Marc scowled. “How many fucking walking plagues did you guys bring back from that city?”
Angela grunted unhappily. “Too many.”
“Where is he?!” Dale demanded from around Neil’s arm.
Kenn was waiting for Angela’s final choice, but Marc didn’t. He knew what had to be done–the same thing it always came to. More blood had to spill.
“Let’s go,” he ordered. “Fill me in while we recon.”
Kenn slowly rose, giving Angela time to say no. When she didn’t, his respect for her went up.
Kenn turned back before reaching the flap. “If he balks?”
Marc spun around, snorting out anger, but Angela and Kenn were in agreement on this. She would be surprised if Brady could handle the chore. It would take an asshole.
“You do it.”
Kenn accepted the direct order without any reaction, but inside, there was a small cry from the old Kenn. He didn’t like taking her orders and that wouldn’t ever change.
They left as Neil took Dale out of earshot for a private talk.
“Quarantine him,” Angela ordered lowly, looking at Kevin. “Do it now.”
Kevin didn’t like the idea, but he understood why. He approached Neil and Dale firmly, quickly coming up with a story.
“Dale, come on over to the next tent. We want John to check you out. If someone got Ray by drugging his food or water, you were probably hit with it, too.”
Dale didn’t protest, didn’t think it was anything other than what he’d been told. He left with Kevin, muttering lowly, but allowing himself to be comforted.
Angela turned to the remaining senior men. “I want a full camp check-in, the QZ shut down, and our perimeter shrunk by half. Make it happen.”
3
“Tell me–all of it.”
“It will be easier to show you,” Kenn answered. They’d found the prints outside Ray’s tent easily enough and followed them to a small town that neither of them could find on their maps. Only two streets and roughly a dozen buildings, it wasn’t hard to pick out Ray’s Eagle jacket hanging from a rope on the rusty flagpole. It bothered them both to know the threat was camped so close to Safe Haven.
“Be ready with your rifle, and if you find you can’t fire, make sure I’m alive to do it.”
Marc hated not knowing, hated it that Angie thought he wouldn’t get the job done. “Just tell me what’s going on. Why is his jacket up there, but no ransom call or security visible?”
“They think we owe them this. When they’re done with him, he might have been returned. But our new Boss,” Kenn mocked. “Doesn’t want a peaceful ending.”
Marc wasn’t sure how to take that. “Done with him, how?”
Kenn shuddered. Cara being dead was little comfort. “Just cover me as well as you would her, or I won’t make it back to Safe Haven. And while I may not be missed, Ray will.”
Marc blew off the warnings. He had no intentions of being responsible for Kenn’s death, directly or not. Someone else held that place of danger now.
Before Marc could ask anything else, Kenn left their cover for full view of the town, hands up.
Marc swore under his breath as he ducked down and got set to fire, frustrated that he still didn’t know who the target was.
The hundred or so snake women streamed from inside and behind the buildings of the town, all with various weapons in hand. Kenn was encouraged that none of them were being fired or thrown yet.
“Coming in!” he shouted. “Get your leader.”
A tall women wearing bright orange scales sewn over a long trench coat walked from the town hall and down the walkway.
Kenn saw her protection moving closer as well and began planning the ways in which he would take them out–by himself. He was assuming Brady had frozen at this point. A woman-killer, Marc wasn’t.
“Why are you here?”
Kenn blinked at the heavy english accent. “To collect what’s been taken, of course.”
The woman’s expression said that wasn’t allowed. “Your friend will be returned when he has satisfied the debt.”
“I can’t allow that,” Kenn argued lightly. “He belongs to someone else and they’ve paid well for his return. Unless you’d like to make a better offer?”
The woman’s protection crowded closer, but she didn’t flinch. “What did you have in mind?”
Kenn slowly pointed toward the jacket flapping harshly in the wind. “You return him and that, now, and we won’t kill all of you.”
Weapons were being aimed and Kenn didn’t give them time to think. “When I go for my gun, the rest of his team, and mine, will open fire. I might be hit, Ray could be killed in the crossfire, but I promise that two-thirds of you won’t walk away. Being female means shit to us now.”
“You will belong to me,” Tiffany declared. “Take him inside.”
The snake women weren’t about to be cowed by threats, and their leader’s reaction said so in no uncertain terms.
Kenn made a subtle gesture to Marc and allowed himself to be taken into custody. “Remember what I said, ladies. When I go for my gun, seventy of you will die.”
4
Marc recognized the heavily-used ploy from their time as Marines, but he wasn’t sure he could go through with it. Now that he understood, he was reluctantly forced to accept that Angie may have been right. He wasn’t okay with killing women.
But Angela would expect all three of her Eagles to return, and that meant covering Kenn when he came out with Ray over his shoulder. Or just going in after them, like the motion had demanded. How could he do that without killing?
“You can’t,” his demon replied brutally. “But I can. If these women are allowed to roam free, they’ll become as
dangerous as any group of men.”
Marc wanted to protest, but couldn’t. There was no arguing the truth. “Okay,” he muttered. “But you’ll have to help me.”
“I take no pleasure in killing,” the demon relied. “Sex makes no never-mind to the color of blood. It all tastes the same and it’s always required. You know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
Marc adjusted his scope to the main door that had swallowed Kenn, then pulled both Colts and made sure they were ready to cover the other directions. Marc thought briefly about calling to camp for reinforcements, but realized Angela and Kenn had known the threat and hadn’t wanted anyone else involved.
“Also means these women are dangerous,” he stated, still convincing himself. “If they weren’t, she might have sent a team as a training mission.”
He wasn’t sure why he thought that, only the similarities he was noticing. She’d picked up Adrian’s style quickly, but Marc was already noting subtle differences, and was sure the other alert-minded males in the Eagles were, as well. He suddenly had no doubt that Angie had her own agenda to accomplish before giving up control.
5
Kenn let the women search him for weapons, take what they found, and lead him into the area where they had several couches and desks placed along the walls. Except for Ray’s slumped form in the corner, the rest of the room was empty.
“Don’t get comfortable. We leave in an hour.”
Kenn settled onto the side of the longest couch, aware of how the woman’s needy gaze lingered on his body instead of his face. “Where you headed?”
Tiffany frowned. “We, my pet, are going west.”
Kenn shrugged evenly. “You’re funerals. It’s dead there.”
“Why did you come? We would have returned him.”
Kenn laid back, putting his hands under his neck. He hadn’t been on real furniture since the War and it felt better than he remembered. “We have a new leader. She wants him returned now.”
The woman was startled, giving way how interested she was, and Kenn grinned. “She’s a lot like you, only she has an army of lethal killers at her disposal. I’d return her property. It’s not too late. We don’t have to be enemies.”