She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “Probably melted into the stone right now.”
With a grunt, Wade settled a hand in the small of her back. “Remind me not to leave you alone again.”
Riley flinched. Like she’d fucked up. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“Wasn’t talking about that,” he replied gruffly. His fingers flexed on her back. “Heard the shotgun go off. Gave me a minor heart attack. I’m not cut out for this shit. It was so much easier without a partner.”
So much easier not to care.
Riley bit back her retort. He was struggling with this so much more than she was. But then, he’d never expected to find someone to care for. Neither had she, but she’d at least hoped.
“Cut the light,” he instructed curtly, leading her to an intersection. A warm hand slid into hers. “You’ll have to trust me to lead you. And keep your voice down, we’re getting closer to the surface.”
Blackness veiled the tunnels as she followed Wade with careful steps. Shouts came from nearby. Confusion.
“Good,” he whispered. “Got ‘em all on the run. Let’s stir the ant nest a little more.” He fiddled with something in his jeans pocket, and a little box rattled. His matches.
The darkness began to yield to faint light. Cool air on her face, like a ghostly whisper. The tunnel mouth yawned ahead of them, the sky a fading patchwork that melted into indigo in the east. Stars flickered.
Wade stopped her by the tunnel opening and knelt down, gesturing her close to his side. The spicy warmth of his scent curled through her nostrils. “Lily’s being held over there,” he said, pointing to a small adobe building that melted into the cliff. The entire cliff face was pocked with small caves and adobe structures that had been built into the sides of the actual mine.
Reivers ran across the open ground in front of it, thundering up the scaffolding that led to the upper levels, or scrambling up rope ladders. Riley had never really seen them so closely, only through the sights of a rifle, or howling across the bloodied sands toward Haven, and even then she'd been concentrating on other matters. Like the best place to drill a hole through one of them.
It was easy to pick the strata among the pack, just by their clothes. Reivers worshipped strength, and several big men roamed through them, lashing out here and there with chains, and wearing their leather and metal-plated vests like a crown. Others wore open, crusted sores, scraps of rags and leather, and the bare patches of their skin revealed concave chests. These were the mongrels who fed at the edges of the pack. Clothing and weaponry was scarcer among them, and they were easy to pick out by the smearing of red clay across their skin, to protect it from the heat. Red dogs some of the Wastelanders called them, the howling, maniacal reivers who attacked first and were often cut down in the first flight. Bullet fodder on motorbikes. The ones in leather were those to be found in the jeeps, where they had slightly more protection – and authority.
There were several women among them too; some were chained to the iron-link fence along the cliff face, their bodies naked, and their shoulders drooping in dejection, as if all the care in the world had been crushed from them. Slaves. Others strutted the sands like their male compatriots, their heads shaved on the sides, and fierce plaits running down the center line of their scalps. Where the male reivers were a mixture of prime fighters and mad lackeys, the female reivers were all hard, their gazes showing a specific flatness, as if, to survive this world, they'd had to give up any concept of emotions or weaknesses.
Dozens of rusted jeeps were parked haphazardly below, with gun turrets gleaming in the dying light. Wade talked Riley through the layout of the compound. The circular cliffs provided a natural barrier with only one way in. “They know we’re down here now though,” he murmured. “Give me a moment to set the charges to confuse them. Then we’ll make a direct hit on the building holding Lily.”
Riley surveyed the compound. “There are dozens of reivers. What if they recover?”
“Then I’ll kill them.” Matter-of-factly.
Plus two wargs, and God knew how many guns.
Riley bit her lip and pointed. “That jeep there. See the gun turret? Someone’s left the ammunition belt there.”
“Lazy bastards.”
“Reivers,” she said with a snort. “Not known for hygiene, sanity, or discipline. Let me take the jeep. I’ll keep anything off your back while you go for Lily.”
He considered it, a dark look creeping into his eyes. “Don’t like it,” he finally said, but a quick glance at the skyline and the dawning crimson colors there revealed his unease. Night was starting to beckon.
“But you know it’s the smart option.” Riley leaned close, brushed her lips against his. Anything to take his mind off what was coming. “Whoever would have thought the cold-hearted warg who kidnapped me would be so protective?”
The kiss deepened, turned smoldering. His hand cupping the back of her nape, his tongue darting over hers. Just enough to set the slow burn in her blood, then Wade drew back, his breath whispering over her cheeks.
“I love you, Riley Kincaid,” he whispered in her ear. “You gave me a piece of myself back. Just you remember that.” Then he was stepping back, melting into the shadows. All business, while she was still trying to process the words he’d whispered. Had he really whispered them, or was it just her imagination? “Let me set the charges. Then run for the jeep when everything goes off. Try not to draw attention to yourself until then. I’ll meet you by the jeep with Lily. It’ll give us something to escape in too.”
Her heart leapt, then squeezed. Again, it sounded like he didn’t think he was going to get out of this. Like hell.
She grabbed a handful of his hair, stepped in to him. Her desperate mouth seeking his in the semi-dark. Drinking him in, fists curling in his hair, tongue toying with his own. They were both breathing hard when she stepped back, the press of his erection against her midriff.
“You get in, and get her out,” she whispered, voice smoky-rough. “Then come back to me. That’s an order.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, his voice just as rough as hers.
21
Leaving Riley by herself again was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do.
He knew she was strong and resourceful, knew that she could more than take care of herself. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the choking fear that rose in him at the thought of everything that could go wrong. One stray bullet. Too many reivers rushing her. Cane somehow slipping behind his back….
If they got out of this, he was never going to leave her alone again.
In the chaos following the explosions he'd rigged, it was easy to slip across the wide expanse of the cavern floor relatively unnoticed. The afternoon's shadows had lengthened, predicting an hour or two until dusk, and fire still burst in gouts from the main mine shaft as other pockets of leftover dynamite went off. Reivers howled and screamed as each explosion hammered at their eardrums, laughing maniacally as several of their compatriots caught fire. They streamed toward the mine like ants, frantically trying to get inside. The bait was taken.
Adobe gleamed in the sunlight as Luc focused on the building where he'd scented his daughter. There were two reivers on duty, but most of their attention was on the pair of reivers rolling around in the dirt, trying to put their smoldering clothes out. Running past three more, he ducked behind a pair of armored trucks and wove between several canvas tents.
No sign of Colton or Cane yet.
Luc's eyes narrowed as he paused behind a jeep, squatting low. Riley would make for the gun turret, but hold off until needed. The longer they could use stealth as a weapon, the better.
Stealing a glance behind him, he caught a flash of movement as Riley slid to her ass in the dust beside the jeep with the gun turret. Their eyes met, and she smiled grimly.
Luc nodded, then turned his attention back to the job at hand.
Barely ten feet from the adobe hut where Lily was hiding. Luc licked dry lips, gatheri
ng his thighs beneath him for a short sprint. Leaning low, he took a steady breath and then gunfire ripped through the clearing, spraying off the jeep he was crouched beside.
Ping-ping-ping. Luc threw himself flat and rolled under the jeep, his heart hammering in his ears.
Fuck. He risked a look, and someone drilled another three holes into the dirt beside his face. Luc jerked back, sweat dampening his skin. Lily's hut was so close....
But then, that was the point, wasn't it?
To let him get close enough to scent his daughter, to almost picture wrapping her up in his arms, before pulling the rug out from under him. Cane was nothing if not pure bastard. Luc had spent two months tracking him and Colton, before he thought he'd burned them alive, and in every town the story was the same. Whores with burn marks on their skins, men who were goaded into fights that ended up being assassinations, settlements that were raided and burned out, the bodies left bloated in the sun... A monster in human skin. Cane didn't need night to fall for his true nature to emerge.
"Welcome to Copperplate, Wade!" Bartholomew Cane bellowed, his voice ringing clear through the canyon and echoing. "You made it further than expected."
Bullets haphazardly pinged off the metal flanks of the jeep, just enough to keep him pinned down. Fucking bastard. Luc bared his teeth.
Cane's laughter lasted all of three seconds. Then the semi-automatic gun on the back of the reivers' jeep drilled the cliffs where the shots had come from with bullets. Screams cut the air, and Cane fell silent.
"Go, Luc!" Riley screamed, pausing just briefly. "I've got your back!"
The ricochet started up again.
From the sound of it, she was raining hell down upon the cliffs where the reivers were pinned down. Luc rolled out from under the jeep on the far side and launched himself into a sprint. All he could see was the faded blue door that led to where his daughter was being kept. He threw himself at it and rebounded hard, but the latch broke, timber splitting down the center. Another bullet sprayed white chips of adobe as he flung his arms up to protect his head, slamming his shoulder against the door again.
Hope soared through his chest as it splintered in half; he kicked the timber slats free, and barreled through.
"No further," Colton warned, holding a pistol against Lily's head.
Luc froze.
The other warg's eyes were narrowed and he sidestepped, keeping Lily between them. There was a gag around her mouth, and her eyes watered as she looked up at him helplessly. Everything in him urged him to leap forward, to kill the bastard and protect her. A father's instincts, reignited after years of neglect.
But Colton's pistol never wavered.
Colton wasn't the same type of man as Cane – Luc knew that. When he'd hunted them, witnesses spoke of how Colton had tried to restrain Cane's darker ambitions at times. That didn't make him an ally. There was some kind of bond between them, Colton following at Cane's heels, a slave to his whims.
"You don't have to do this," Luc said in a low, soothing voice, his gaze flickering to the pistol and back.
Colton swallowed. "Yeah, I do." His nostrils flared. "You don't understand. I have to do what he says. I have to. He's had me too long, and he's in my head. I can't disobey him."
They stared each other down. "So, you're just a whipped dog?" Luc asked. "When he tells you to kill little kids, you just go out and do it."
"You think I want this?" Colton snapped. His hand shook on the gun, and Lily whimpered as the barrel pressed harder against her temples. "I can... fight his orders sometimes. Sometimes it's long enough. Sometimes it's not."
"Easy." Luc eyed the other man's trigger finger.
"You're too late," Colton said. "You lost. You should never have come here. You just gave him everything that he wants."
"Me."
"No. Not you."
Gunfire fell silent in that second, and a shiver of premonition rasped along his nerves. Riley. The heat drained out of his face.
"That's how he works," Colton said. "There's a sickness inside him. And you nearly burned him alive, once upon a time. He can't forgive that, not now. He wants to take everything you have from you." The gun lowered, but Colton kept a grip on Lily. "But he won't do it himself. He'll make you hurt her instead."
That shiver became a bone-encompassing dread. "He won't get inside my head."
"He doesn't have to." Colton's gaze flickered toward his amulet. "Night's not so far away now. It's his favorite game."
Fuck.
"And he'll make you choose," Colton warned. "The girl. Or the woman."
Lily's face swam into view. She was terrified. And he'd failed her once already. It wasn't a choice, not really, but he knew that Riley wouldn't think it was a choice either.
He knew what stirred the beast – rage, fury, hunger, thoughts of hot, delicious fear dripping through the veins of its prey... The scent of fear was like a five-course buffet in his nose. The warg within him wasn't cruel. It was hungry. Hungry for flesh, or blood, or sex. Animalistic in the extreme. All of its desires were simplified. If it wanted, then it took. Even now, something trembled inside him at the thought. Claws sprang forth from his fingers, and he shook as he forced them back within his skin, reminding himself that he was part human too.
This wasn't always the case. It didn't have to be. He could fight this, if he had to. He could. But he had to do it smartly.
He'd seen wargs hunt and tear bodies apart, just for fun. He'd seen them defend their territory against intruders, or other wargs. The nature of the creature was primal. It wanted to be alpha, wanted to be the only warg standing, or to have others cringe at its feet in fear. No point in pretending that he wouldn't see Riley as prey. He would. What he had to focus on was the other part of his nature.
Make the warg see that she was his territory, to be defended and protected against other wargs. Focus on the hate and the rage, and direct it at the ones who deserved it. Then maybe, maybe – if Riley didn't panic – they might get through this.
"Wade!"
The bellow cut across the open valley of the mine, and Luc risked a glance over his shoulder through the open door. This was his weakness. Riley stood arched up onto her tiptoes, with Cane wrapped around her, his claws digging into her throat.
Shouldn't have brought her... Should have come for Lily myself.
Indecision haunted him. His daughter would always be his priority, but to move now would cost Riley her life, and she knew it. He could see it in her eyes as she met his gaze.
Those determined brown eyes narrowed, her lips firming as she tipped her head up slightly. "Go," she mouthed, trying to take the decision away from him.
Because that was who Riley was. A woman who'd sacrifice herself, no matter what the cost was. A hero. A leader. A woman whose worth wasn't measured in gold, but in deeds.
Her father would have been proud, and Luc had a moment of doubt. How could he ever be worthy of her?
‘Humanity's for the humans,’ he'd said once. And he believed, truly believed that he was no longer welcome in those ranks. But staring at Cane, knowing what the bastard would do to her....
A monster would walk away from her right now, without a care, except for his daughter. And a hero would make one last suicidal attempt to save Riley, because that was what heroes did.
But Luc was no hero. He was also no monster.
And Riley was the strongest, bravest woman he'd ever met.
His half-formed plan was risky and dangerous, and driven by Colton's words. His first instinct was to reject it, but what else could he do?
It was a gamble, no doubt. He knew what type of man Cane was. That was the monster, right there, and to do this meant pitting both of them against each other, in the most dangerous game of all. Even now, he could still feel the flicker of cold sweat dance over the back of his neck, because there were no guarantees that he could pull this off, that Riley would make the right moves... But he had to trust her, and his own instincts.
Did he have the
strength of will to do this?
You are what you are, a little voice whispered. Nobody's hero.
But then, that wasn't what was needed, right at this instant.
Luc's nostrils flared, and then he spread his feet in a wide stance, dropped the knife, and swept his hands up behind his head. "I surrender."
"No," Riley whispered, as she saw the resolve form in Luc's face. She struggled weakly against Colton's hold on her, but she might as well have been wrestling with steel.
"I surrender," Luc said, in an eerily calm voice. "That's what you want, isn't it? Me? Let Lily go, as you promised, and you can do whatever you want to me. Riley can take her with her."
"Let them go?" Cane laughed. "Maybe I will let them go, out there in the desert. How far do you think they'll get with no supplies, and a hungry pack of wargs out there?"
Luc's face paled, but his eyes only narrowed slightly.
Not the result that Cane wanted. Riley could see the hungry look on his face swiftly denied, replaced by something more feral. It was as though he fed on emotions, on the bitter, gut-wrenching twist of them, and Luc had somehow denied him. "Grab him," he bellowed, striding forward. "And bring the woman," he snapped over his shoulder at Colton.
Reivers lunged forward and snatched at Wade as if he were a rabid dog, they a pack of hyenas. One of them had some sort of whip made of chains and lashed him across the middle, sharp, jerky movements that made him grunt as they pinned him to the floor, a swarm of bodies burying him in their midst. Maybe he didn't dare fight back, but she could see the rage in his expression, the way he had to clench his jaw not to.
"What are you going to do with her?" Luc growled, dragging himself to his feet with a swarm of reivers clinging to him.
"Something special. Put him in the cage!"
Tarps dropped from around the tray on a clapped-out old truck, and a silver warg cage gleamed. Luc was thrown unceremoniously inside, and the door clanged shut.
Heroines and Hellions: a Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection Page 33