by Angela White
“Stop yelling at me!” she blared, catching him by surprise again.
“We can have a normal conversation, or we can spill blood right here and now,” she warned coldly. “It’s your choice.”
It was dangerous to push, but the old Angela, the one who’d battled him early in their relationship, was guiding them through this minefield.
When his eyes flicked to Marc and then Dog, she let herself breathe. Sometimes getting Kenny to think before he acted was the only key to surviving the encounter.
Kenn hated it that he might be outnumbered by the tense Marine edging closer and the bristling animal at his side that, upon closer inspection, appeared to be a wolf…but also by Angela herself, who had obviously done a lot of changing (reverting) during her trip.
“Fine. We’ll talk,” Kenn sneered sarcastically.
“We’ll start the entire conversation over.” Angela cocked her head and the sun came through the clouds of grit as if to support her. “Hello, Kenn. Good to see you. How have you been?”
Kenn instantly recognized her tactics. He should. He’d used them daily on her. “Never better. Enjoy your trip?”
Kenn felt his rage go up another notch when she nodded, glancing at her escort.
“Some of it, yes.”
“Hope it was worth it.”
Kenn’s expression promised payment.
“It was,” Angela continued to defy the rules, even though his beefy hands were clenching into tight fists. “Where’s my boy?”
Kenn said nothing, waiting, wanting to hear her beg. He wasn’t prepared for the hate that filled her face.
“I don’t need you to find him! How do you think I got here?” she ground out through clenched teeth.
Kenn was too pissed to be worried, though, he understood he might be in danger. She did more than revert. She’s using the power. She unlocked it!
He had always known she could. The old, thwarted bitterness settled heavily back into his stomach. “You do need me to get near him. He’s with my men, and they won’t want to kill you, but they will.”
Was there a way he could get control of her power now? His mind flashed a picture of her son. Yes.
“Be careful, grunt.”
Her tone was deadly, and Kenn growled at her in rage.
She didn’t back down, and he hated the new knowledge about life and death he read. She thought she could kill him, and that was bad. How much practice had she gotten? What had she done, been through, to get here?
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Angela stated harshly.
Kenn stared at her in shock, unable to believe she would get into his thoughts so openly, so arrogantly. Didn’t she remember what he’d threatened to do if she used it on him?
“Everything has changed, Kenn. You broke our deal when you abandoned me for that group of strangers you’ve been lying to!”
On the edge of control at her veiled threat to reveal his secrets, Kenn was surprised to discover that her disobedience was worse. He hadn’t thought her hold on him was that strong anymore.
“You have six years left! You belong to me!” he hissed violently, leaning in.
Angela, struggling against the fear, stood her ground. “Not anymore. I want out!”
“No.”
“You don’t own me!”
“How long have you two been sleeping together?”
“We aren’t!”
“Lyin’ bitch!”
“You go to hell!”
Kenn’s hand flinched, and Angela felt herself being brushed aside.
Marc stepped between them, finally eye-to-eye with the man responsible for hurting his Angie over and over.
“It’s been a while, Harrison.”
“Not long enough, Brady.”
Marc didn’t respond to the accusation as Kenn waited for one of them (Angela) to get nervous and babble, but they (she) remained silent.
“You’re…traveling together?” Kenn asked finally.
Marc took the lead, broad shoulders prepared to take what came. “We were both coming this way, and I couldn’t let her go it alone. She was hard to convince, though.” Marc lied easily. This was indeed a thin line, and he wasn’t the only one walking it. She hadn’t been exaggerating even a little. Kenn was deadly with the M16 over his shoulder.
“Well, thanks, buddy, but I’ve got it from here. You can hit the redline.”
Marc’s grin widened into sharp white teeth as the wolf at his hip growled aggressively.
“Welcome, pal, but a funny thing happened on the way here. I discovered I want to be with…other people, and I might stick close for a while.” Marc took a step forward to bring them within inches of each other. “Real close.”
Angela knew blood was about to spill and stayed out of it, waiting. Kenn could force his own death right here. She wasn’t as eager as Marc, but if it had to happen, the best time was now, while Kenn was alone.
Kenn’s hairy knuckles inched toward the 9mm on his hip. “She has a man, you fucking Jody!”
“If you want to call yourself that,” Marc snorted with contempt.
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean, boot?” Kenn sneered threateningly.
Marc put them chest to chest without hesitation. “It means she’s not your punching bag anymore! You want to hit someone, grunge-shit, you hit me!”
Kenn took the suggestion, bringing his arm up with force.
The hit rocked Marc backward, and then they were at each other, trading vicious blows.
“Like that?” Kenn taunted, following the upper cut with a powerful roundhouse.
Marc ducked the blow and landed a nasty knuckle to Kenn’s temple that made the Marine stagger. “Yeah! More!”
Kenn rushed him, slamming into his gut, and Marc immediately drove his elbow into Kenn’s shoulder blade.
Kenn jerked, grunting as he was rocked off balance. They hit the dirt together with a hard thud, swinging, wrestling, and trying to get the advantage.
Angela waved at Dog to stay back as Marc pushed Kenn off him with his legs and rolled onto his feet.
Kenn rushed, and Marc ducked again, foot flashing out at the last minute to trip him up.
The blow the jealous man had been throwing glanced off Marc’s wounded arm, and he kicked Kenn in the ribs as he went down, wound stinging from the ripped stitches.
Kenn was on his feet in a blur, hand flying toward his hip.
Both of Marc’s guns were out before the furious Marine could pull his own.
“Do it!” Marc goaded, fingers tightening, longing to squeeze. “Make it count. I will.”
Kenn thought about it. He was fast, better than anyone in Adrian’s employ was, but Brady had always beaten him at the base. Always.
Kenn’s hand moved away from the holster that he’d already gotten open.
“Wise choice,” Marc warned, not feeling the blood seeping through the dusty white gauze on his arm.
“I’ll kill you for this,” Kenn warned.
“Then let’s end it now.”
There was loathing in his team leader’s eyes. Kenn had no doubt Brady would pull the trigger, but fate intervened at that moment, and he didn’t get to find out if Angela would have even tried to stop it.
“Someone’s coming!” she gasped.
Both men responded to the undeniable tremor of fear in her voice.
“Good or bad?” Marc asked, lowering but not holstering.
She looked at them with hazy orbs that made Kenn’s heart slide into his gut. There was no way Adrian would miss that.
“Both?”
Marc glared at Kenn with the demeanor of a lifelong enemy. “This isn’t over.”
“You can bet on that!” Kenn snarled and spit blood at Marc’s boots.
Marc slid his guns into the holsters. “Where?”
Angela pointed to the west, still watching Kenny even though Marc had turned his back with no obvious worry. Her Marine had lost. That made him more lethal than if he’d won.
>
The faint echo of hoofbeats came to them.
Marc automatically gestured for Kenn to protect her and then did the same himself, putting her between them.
Angela was more than surprised when Kenn obeyed without any signs it bothered him. She made the connection an instant later.
That’s how Kenny knew Marc! They’d served together. Had Marc known all along?
No, she realized. He couldn’t have kept that from her. He was too open to be holding a secret that huge.
“There.”
A muddy black horse thundered around the corner as she spoke, carrying a thin, white male with a black bandana covering most of his face and a frantically waving blonde woman in a long brown trench coat.
“How did they know we were here?” Angela asked as all three of them relaxed a little.
Dust flew from the animal’s hooves and Kenn smoothed his short dark spikes. “They found you the same way I did,” he stated, throwing a cold sneer at Brady and then one to the softly growling animal that had returned to its master’s side.
“They passed over that ridge and picked out two muddy Blazers in the middle of the street!”
Before Marc could respond, the foaming black horse was upon them, barely stopping before the woman was off and staggering toward them. She was sickly-looking and gaunt, with the sharp lines of her skeleton poking against sagging skin.
She collapsed against Angela, pulling them both to the dusty ground as she sobbed, “People! Oh, God, people!”
The man also dismounted, lowering the bandana from his scruffy face, but he stayed by the exhausted horse. He studied Marc and Kenn with shifty green eyes, and they both noticed he paid no attention to the raving woman who was trying to get a rush of words out through her tears.
“Slavers! Escaped. Have to get further…gun? Have a gun?”
The woman cried gut-wrenching sobs, and Angela helped her take off the stinking trench coat so she could check her out.
Except for the infected burn on her hip, most of the woman’s injuries appeared to be minor. Her mental state might be a different story.
“Escaped from who?” Kenn demanded, moving toward the man. His tone was menacing.
Rick, a coward, cringed. “Big group of Mexicans! We got away while they were drinking.”
“Where?” Kenn growled.
“On 25, near Cheyenne,” the traitor answered, wondering who this hard-assed, beaten-up man was. The outline of a dog tag under a blood-splattered shirt caught Rick’s attention, and his lips tightened. The enemy.
“How many?” Kenn demanded, disapproving gaze sweeping dirty jeans, cruddy fingernails, and greasy brown hair. Adrian wouldn’t like this guy.
“Sixty or seventy, maybe,” Rick lied, glad that Samantha hadn’t seen all of Cesar’s camp. There was easily three times that number.
“Armed?”
“Isn’t everyone now?” Rick gave a pointed stare and thrust restless hands deep into jean pockets to keep his nervousness from showing.
“How long were you with them?”
“A long time. They took me in Trinidad.”
Kenn scowled, full of frustration. He hadn’t gotten rid of Brady fast enough. The new man and woman would have to be taken to Adrian. They had inside information about the slavers, and that meant there was no time to ditch Marc or hole up with Angela for a few days. Damn it!
“Who are you?” Kenn barked, thinking it should be Angela flinching instead of the filthy sheep in front of him.
“I’m Rick. She’s Samantha.”
Kenn joined Angela, one resentful eye swelling.
Teeth bared, Dog gave a menacing growl.
Kenn hesitated, and then snarled back his own warning.
Both Brady and Angela were surprised when Dog backed down. The animal only retreated a single pace, but Marc’s concern increased. Even the wolf knew Kenn was a violent, trained killer.
“How is she?” Kenn demanded.
“Dehydrated, malnourished, shock–”
“Can she travel?”
Marc wanted to protest the rude interruption, but made himself stay quiet. Angela wanted to try again to handle it peacefully.
“Get her in your Blazer. We can make it to camp by dawn.” Kenn ordered.
“Camp?” Angela asked sharply. “As in Safe Haven, the place you had yet to mention?”
Kenn didn’t deny the accusation in her tone, but he worried over how much she already knew. Would any of his bluffs succeed?
In the tension, only the freshly sedated blonde woman glimpsed Rick’s brief smirk of success at the name of the camp they were being taken to.
Kenn and Marc relocated the softly muttering woman to the passenger seat of Angela’s Blazer and Kenn picked out details that enraged him. Like the edge of a lacy white bra under a purple gift bag and a pair of green boxers showing from the corner of a black duffle bag. He saw the vehicle for what it was–living quarters. They’d been playing house!
When the two men moved to let Angela through with her bag, their eyes locked over her head.
“You’ve disgraced the Corps,” Kenn accused. “Once we get to camp, I’ll do my best to have you banished for it!”
He stormed away before his rage could take control again.
Angela handed Marc the hat she’d retrieved from the middle of the street. “You all right?”
His bruised face was troubled. “Yeah. You?”
“Better now. It’s good that you were able to back him down. Thank you.”
Marc fingered his swelling jaw. “It really isn’t over, honey. This was only the beginning.”
3
Kenn pulled up next to them a minute later in an ugly green Bronco and got out, waving a hand at Rick. Marc, he ignored. “Leave the horse. You drive your woman.”
Kenn then looked at Angela. “You ride with me.”
Marc protested, and Angela said, “I’ll be fine, just keep up. He’s hell behind the wheel.”
More than nervous, Angela let Kenn push her into his truck. As he got into the driver’s seat, she turned to him, determined to throw him off balance from the start. “What were you doing out here, away from camp?”
She didn’t wince as he slammed the door, though he’d expected her to. She was no longer scared of him because he was a man. She was afraid of the dangerous person she knew lurked inside, though, she thought she had done a good job so far of pretending she wasn’t.
Kenn stared at her for a long moment, saying nothing. When she didn’t speak either, just waited for an answer, he shifted into drive and hit the gas.
He didn’t make sure the others were ready, but Angela knew Marc was on their bumper.
“Well?” she insisted.
Kenn lit a smoke. “We got a call from the woman. Adrian sent me to get her and some medicine we need.”
His voice was laced with pride, and Angela hated the curl of jealousy in her voice as she laid the foundation of her plan–change. “Who’s Adrian, and who are you to him that you’re trusted with something like that?”
Kenn was surprised. The Angela he knew wouldn’t have realized that the mission was important.
“I’m whatever he needs,” Kenn answered evasively, not wanting to tell her how high in the chain of command he was, how permanent a place he’d carved out at Safe Haven.
“Well, what does he usually need you to be?”
Her sarcasm surprised him again. Brady had done all this in only a few weeks? It had taken him years to train her.
I should have used the knife, Kenn thought. With the K-Bar, he and Brady were equals.
“I drive, I make out schedules. I teach, I count, I defend, and I lead. Wherever we’re short someone, I do it.”
Picking up on images of a barricaded Louisiana room and her Marine hitting Marc from behind, she wanted to ask what kind of man could do that to one of his own, but the old Angela took control. She knew this enemy well.
“How long have you been with them, Kenn? Long enough to build a
new life?”
Anger and guilt were obvious as he snarled, “That’s above your pay grade! How long have you and Brady been having an affair? Before the war?”
“It’s not like that. We’re–”
“Friends?” he barked, driving erratically. “Don’t lie! You’ve been screwing him all along!”
Angela sucked in a calming breath, heart racing, “You would think of me that way, but it didn’t have to be. I was prepared to love you, to be your mate.”
“I only wanted your obedience. The rest of it is shit!”
“That’s what I mean. I had hoped the war might allow you to–”
“To what? Be okay with you bringing your lover along? Wake up! We have a deal!”
“It’s an unfair agreement! You lied, manipulated, hurt me.”
Kenn didn’t deny any of her accusations. “A deal is a deal.”
“Why, Kenn? You didn’t come for me, don’t want me here. Why keep me? I’ll take Charlie and go. You can tell your people whatever you want.”
“You have six years left, and you’re gonna pay for each and every rule you’ve broken!”
“There won’t be any more punishments. Those days are over!”
Angela’s voice shook with emotion, with warning Kenn couldn’t help but hear. He responded coolly, dangerously, “You have to be sleeping with him to talk to me like that. Wait ‘til I get you alone!”
“We are not! He’s a good friend who helped me.”
“Yeah, helped himself to what’s mine! Unfaithful bitch! It started before the war, didn’t it? Answer me!”
“No! We’re just friends!”
“You’re not allowed to have friends! You belong to me!” he shouted, almost out of control.
The witch refused to let her back down.
“Never! I’ve always been Marc’s!”
Kenn’s hand flew out.
“Mine!” Slap! “You’re mine!” He swerved as he leaned over to hit her again.
Before she thought about it, Angela drew her gun and pressed against his neck.
So close to killing you!
Shaking with a horribly cold rage, she shoved the weapon against him in satisfaction. Things had just changed between them forever.
Kenn eased off the gas and stole a glance at her.