Caught in the Aftermath

by Jami Gray

  ‘Those bastards still alive?’

  She blinked. ‘Nope.’

  ‘You or Ruin?’

  That earned a tiny curve of her lips. ‘Both.’

  ‘Good. What about that fucker Rally?’

  ‘No longer among the living—not my doing.’ The curve bloomed into a smile and something close to her normal irreverence reappeared. ‘Planning on going back and resurrecting the dead, hotshot?’

  Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, he brushed his hand down her neck and over her shoulder. ‘If I thought it would help.’

  Her smile widened, revealing the bottomless well of strength that was Vex. She leaned up and nipped his chin. ‘Appreciate the thought.’ To prove it, she kissed him. Instead of passion and hunger, this kiss carried a generous sweetness, a drugging temptation on its own. He sank his hand into her hair, held her close and revelled in the offering. They eased closer to the hungry edge only to be pulled up short when someone pounded a fist on the wall outside their room.

  ‘Get yo’ asses up, we’re out in fifteen.’

  Vex gave him one last taste, then pulled back, resting her forehead against his chin. ‘Sounds like your time’s up.’

  ‘I’m not done yet.’ He carefully untangled his hand from her hair, gathered it back into one hand and tugged until she looked up. ‘After we get Cam and get back, I want some quality time with you.’ As the words escaped, he realised it was nothing short of the truth, uncomfortable though it was. Yeah they had shit to do, but afterwards? He wanted—no needed more—from her, with her—whatever she was willing to give. Maybe it would ease the strange hold she had on him.

  Proving he wasn’t the only one thrown off balance by his request, he caught her flash of uncertainty before she buried it. ‘After we get Cam back, we’ll make time.’

  Her agreement soothed the rough edge of his emotions. Determined to get them back on even ground, he pressed a fast, hard kiss to her lips. ‘Good.’ Giving her curvy ass a light slap, he rolled her over and got up. ‘Let’s go to work.’

  ***

  This time Math and Vex made their way downstairs without an escort. In fact, the only directions came from one of the guards near the elevator. ‘He’ll meet you out front.’

  He and Vex shared a look, but didn’t talk as they headed down. The night’s earlier activities had died down and now the main floor was quiet, with piles of sleeping or passed out bodies scattered along the edges. Here and there some stubborn souls were still drinking or tripping or both. As they crossed the main floor, movement caught his attention. He pulled up short and grasped Vex’s wrist in silent warning, tugging her back behind the partial concealment offered by the ancient video arcade machine.

  Closing in at his side, she kept her voice low. ‘What?’

  Using his chin, he directed her attention to the man striding towards the entrance. ‘Recognize him?’

  She studied the figure as he stopped to talk to one of the door guards. ‘Nope. Should I?’

  ‘That’s the jackass who couldn’t take his eyes off you.’

  The unknown man finished his conversation and walked into the night.

  Vex tugged against his hold. ‘Maybe he’s our guide.’

  Considering the uneasy feeling crawling over his skin, Math hoped to hell not. They continued across the room, passed by the main entrance guards, and stopped out on the cracked sidewalk. Doing a casual scan, Math noted the sentries posted on the buildings across the street took their job seriously, their attention still as sharp as it was earlier. Point to Ori for running a tight ship, because Math had no doubt it was loyalty to Ori, not Trip, that resulted in a well-disciplined fighting force. It might be enough to hold off any reprisals should Math and Vex fail to redirect Greer’s ire. Maybe.

  ‘Took you long enough.’ The drawled greeting came from the shadows, drawing Math out of his grim speculation. A familiar whipcord figure stepped forward in a flutter of mismatched material. Light from the barrel fires danced over Bon’s face, his grin a slash of white in the mix of dark paint and dirt. ‘I was gettin’ lonely.’

  ‘Really?’ Vex aimed a pointed glance at the woman sauntering in the opposite direction with a distinctive rolling gait.

  Undeterred, the street rat danced between them and threw his arms over their shoulders, becoming the middle to their human sandwich. Math coughed as a wave of nose-wrinkling odour accompanied the move. Bon’s grin widened. ‘Ah now, beautiful, no need to get jealous. Plenty of goodness to go around.’

  Seeing the warning flicker in Vex’s gaze, Math wisely stepped out of Bon’s hold and settled in to enjoy the show.

  Sure enough Vex snagged Bon’s hand and with a quick twist, had him in front of her, bent over by a painful wristlock. ‘Bon, Bon, how many times do I have to tell you? No touching.’ With her free hand she gave the kid’s back a patronising pat, then released him.

  As Bon straightened and shook out his hand, he flashed another manic grin, making it obvious Vex’s warning hadn’t even dented his attitude.

  Math caught the calculating gleam in the kid’s gaze. Time to get down to business. ‘Guessing you’re our guide?’

  Bon began walking backwards, leading them down the street. ‘Got it in one.’

  Math followed, Vex coming up on Bon’s other side. ‘You seem pretty damn happy to be doing this.’

  Bon shrugged as he turned to face the right direction, his grin fading around the edges. ‘Trip reached out. I do him a favour, maybe he returns it, yeah?’

  Vex snorted. ‘Don’t count on it.’

  A lethal adult peeked out behind the crazy teen act. ‘Don’t count on much, ‘cept me.’

  ‘Smart man,’ Math muttered.

  ‘Stupid gets you dead,’ Bon shot back. ‘I’m still breathin’, my man.’

  Kid had a point.

  Bon turned down a side street, leading them away from Trip’s place and deeper inside the maze of the Hole. About halfway down the dark road, he stopped and turned. ‘Since I plan to keep inhalin’ on a regular basis like, you should know.’

  Since Bon wasn’t leading anywhere, Math and Vex were left with no choice but to stop. Math took point. ‘What’s that?’

  Arms folded across his narrow chest, Bon’s face was hard to read, but the warning in his voice was clear as a bell. ‘You ain’t the first to wander in tonight. More city rats scampered in a couple hours ago. Thinkin’ you might be lookin’ at an unexpected welcoming committee.’

  Vex’s shoulder brushed Math’s, and he looked down to see the same realization Bon’s warning brought. Guess their shadows had managed to slip through the Green and make it in. Dammit. They would be joining up with those holding Cam. ‘Know how many are serving on this committee?’

  ‘At last count? Five, could be six.’ Bon shrugged. ‘Hard to tell, they all look the same.’ He snickered at his own joke.

  Reading his frustration, Vex murmured, ‘They’re using him as bait. Still six to three odds aren’t bad.’

  ‘Count me out.’ Bon’s hands flew up, making warding motions. ‘I guide you in and that’s it. That’s all I agreed to. Ain’t taking a knife in the back for either of you.’

  Maybe they should ditch the kid and take their chances going in on their own. No sense in dragging dead weight. They had enough to worry about. Frustrated at the whole fucked up situation, Math snapped, ‘Fine, you can hide in a corner and watch. We’ll be sure to tell Trip you did your job.’

  That earned him a snarled, ‘Fuck you.’

  Vex stepped in front of Bon as he went to lunge at Math. The kid pulled up short, proving her earlier lesson left a lasting impression. ‘Step back, Bon,’ she warned.

  The kid spun on a heel and stormed down the street.

  ‘Son of a bitch.’ Math dragged a hand through his hair as he turned to stare unseeingly back the way they’d come. The sensation of running out of time wrapped its icy hands around his throat.

  A hand on his arm brought his attention to Vex. ‘You need
to get a grip.’ She waited for his reluctant nod. ‘We need him, otherwise we’ll waste time trying to pinpoint Cam’s location.’

  ‘If he’s going to bail, I’d rather he did it now instead of when shit’s going down.’ There was a reason he preferred working solo. Less likely to get stabbed in the back.

  ‘Can’t argue with you, but let’s use what tools we can, while we can, okay?’

  Unable to fight her logic, he snapped, ‘Fine.’

  She studied him for a long moment, then turned to walk towards Bon, leaving Math to follow.

  Chapter 16

  It was closing in on an hour later when Vex dropped to the ground, taking a position on her stomach, allowing the small overlook’s high grass to hide her, her attention on a crumbling brick structure. To her left, Math did the same, while Bon mimicked them to her right. Above them the moon hung high, it’s light casting a silver glow occasionally interrupted by a drifting cloud.

  ‘You see it?’ Bon’s quiet voice barely rose above the soft rush of dancing foliage and nature’s nightlife.

  From her position, Vex caught the amber glow escaping around the boarded edge of a first-floor window. ‘Yeah.’

  Math touched her shoulder, drawing her attention to a shadow moving out from under the protective reach of an old growth tree. As the details became clearer, she realised it was a perimeter guard. Where there was one, there were bound to be more. Sure enough, as she scanned the nearby structures, another figure came around from the back and the one in front disappeared on the far side. The boots on the ground were alternating their routes, eliminating possible double ups. A few more minutes passed before she managed to pick up another one on the sloped roof to the west. She waited a bit longer, because if there were six as Bon indicated, the best use of them would be to put four outside at their most vulnerable points, and keep two inside with Cam. Minutes ticked by and she was about to reconsider her assumption when Math indicated the half-collapsed building to the east. There, on the flat roof of the stoop covering, a bit of darkness shifted, giving a glimpse of a man shape before blurring back into obscurity. Just once it would be helpful if the enemy was a little less capable.

  Relatively reassured, Vex gave it another handful of minutes. When no new players appeared, she tagged Bon and Math, got their attention, and using hand signals indicated they should fall back. She carefully made her way to the backside of the overlook. When both men joined her, they huddled together out of sight of the collection of guards on the other side.

  Keeping her voice low, she addressed Bon first. ‘You need to hang here until we’re sure this is our target. Can’t have you giving the game away.’ Catching the teen’s mutinous expression as he prepared to argue, she grabbed his shirt in her fist and dragged him close until their noses almost touched. ‘Not a discussion, or the payment promised disappears.’

  Unable to avoid her gaze, she caught the moment his arrogance wavered and knew he’d cave before his ungracious reply. ‘Whatever.’

  Using the hold on his shirt, she shoved him back. ‘Don’t forget a return trip was included in this.’

  ‘You ghost on us, boy, and I’ll hunt you down and skin you.’ Despite Math’s soft tone, his threat was no less fierce.

  When Bon’s Adam’s apple bobbed, Vex knew the kid was scared enough to stay put. Good, because chances were damn high they’d be running hard and fast when they left here. Done with Bon, she turned to Math to cover their next steps. Since Bon had led them around their targeted building, they managed to get a rough view of the sides and back before taking their position on the overlook facing the front. ‘You pick out an entry point?’

  Crouching next to her, arms resting on his knees, Math nodded. He looked back in the direction of the building, even though it was out of sight. ‘Second floor, east side. There’s a narrow window, board on the bottom is hanging by a thread.’

  Eyeing his broad shoulders, she pointed out, ‘You’re a bit wider than a two by four.’

  ‘If one board’s about to go, you can be sure the others are right behind it.’

  Math probably had a point. The building was tucked on the edge of what used to be the town, and to get to it required a canny survivalism approach. The structure had to be at least a hundred years old, maybe more from the brick exterior and pre-Collapse architecture. ‘Right, you want me to take care of our friend to the east or our duo on the ground?’

  Math shook his head. ‘Neither. Leave the east guard to me, you worry about the guy to the west.’

  ‘And pick off the boots on the ground while you’re crawling inside.’ The delay between the eliminations worried her. Too much time for an alarm to be raised.

  Math was obviously following the same line of thinking. ‘If baby boy wasn’t so worried about getting a boo-boo—’ he shot a contemptuous glare at Bon, his opinion underlying each word, ‘—we could take care of all three posts at once.’

  Vex caught the calculation under Math’s frustration, so she wasn’t surprised when Bon’s lip curled and he spat, ‘Fuck you, asshole. I could gut those wankers in a heartbeat without breaking a sweat.’

  Math didn’t bother with words, just arched a brow and smirked.

  Proving once again how fragile the male ego was, Bon folded his arms and declared, ‘I’ll prove it.’

  Not about to overlook an unexpected gift, no matter how expertly manipulated, Vex said, ‘So that mean you’re working with us tonight?’

  Bon shifted his attention from Math to her, and she watched as the kid realised how he’d been played. She gave him credit though, because instead of blowing up, he set his jaw and glared at both of them. ‘Tonight only. We get clear of this shit, I’m out.’

  Not about to argue, she murmured, ‘Good enough.’ She turned to Math. ‘Yeah?’

  Math’s expression remained stony as he studied Bon, but he finally grunted.

  Taking it as his agreement, Vex went back to their plan. ‘Crow takes east, I’ll take west, Bon takes front.’ She looked at Bon. ‘You take him out, you don’t have much time before his back up comes around.’

  ‘Got enough.’

  With no other choice, she took him at his word and turned to Math. ‘If Bon’s right on the numbers, means you’re going to face at least two more inside. They could be hiding anywhere.’

  ‘Chances are good they’re sticking close t—’ he flicked a glance at Bon before continuing, ‘—the bounty. Our best bet is if you can get inside, cause a distraction, draw them away so I can get to him. The kid can stay outside, in case others show up.’

  Bon shifted restlessly. ‘You expecting more?’

  Not wanting him to bolt, Vex said, ‘No, but better safe than sorry.’ Going back to Math’s suggestion, she told him, ‘I’ll keep them occupied, you get to your bounty and get him out. Preferably the back way. I’ll be right behind you.’

  Math frowned. ‘Not leaving you behind.’

  Used to such protective statements from the Vultures, she was unprepared for the tiny kernel of warmth Math’s comment generated. Tucking it away, she reminded him, ‘You’ll probably have your hands full. No telling what kind of shape he’ll be in.’

  A muscle worked in Math’s jaw before he gave her a short nod.

  Now that everyone was on the same page, time to get a move on. ‘Right, then let’s move.’

  ***

  Accessing her target took a bit of time as Vex circled around the building to the west. Of the three structures, hers was the shortest, sporting a single level layout. Clambering up the thick trunk of a nearby tree, she used the protective covering of the heavily leafed branches to reach the other side of the pitched roof. From the tree, she studied the guard’s movements. Waiting until his attention shifted to the occupied building, she carefully dropped to the opposite side of the roof, kept low and picked her way across. Every time the guard’s head began its swivel, she dropped to her stomach, praying the roofline would keep her presence concealed. It was nerve-shredding work, but she inche
d her way across until she was within range of her target.

  The way the buildings were aligned, there was no clear line of sight to where Math should be removing the east guard. So she decided to time her move with Math’s entrance. No matter what he said, making the hole wider would still cause noise. With knife in hand, she waited.

  When the muffled groan of snapping wood brought the prone guard’s head up, she moved. Pushing up from her position, she lunged over the roof’s peak and slid down to drop on the guard’s back. Yanking his head back with a grip in his hair, she swiped her blade across his throat even as he rolled over, trapping her beneath. His heavier weight crushed the air from her chest. It didn’t help that he still managed to nail her kidney with an elbow and rake a bruising heel down her shin.

  Fuck it.

  Shifting her blade, she drove it in, the knife slicing through tissue to hit bone with an arm jarring impact. She ripped it free and drove it in two more times. The last one she held tight to the hilt, twisted her wrist, and then held the blade steady as his body jerked in her arms. His head slammed into her cheekbone hard enough to produce stars. She fought to keep her mind blank as his blood dripped over her in a warm trickle. Finally, his body went slack.

  She rolled him off and crouched over him, relearning to breathe. Dammit, no way that struggle didn’t get tagged. Keeping an eye out, she leaned in, tugged at his t-shirt to use the relatively clean edge to wipe her face. Despite feeling the thin, sticky film indicating she hadn’t gotten it all, she figured it was good enough.

  Cleaning her blade on the dead man’s pants, she stayed low and went to check below. Better to be sure the way was clear, before dropping down. A muffled scuff of leaves came from under the big tree out front. The drifting clouds blew clear of the moon giving its light free rein. It was enough for her to make out the pair of boots, soles up, slowly being swallowed by the thick shadows under the old growth. Score one for Bon.

  She lay there, peering over the roof’s edge, waiting for the second guard to make an appearance until her straining ears rang with the quiet. By the time the night’s natural sounds started to trickle in, impatience joined hands with worry. Math was depending on her for a distraction, and she couldn’t afford to spend any longer playing possum. Grasping the edge of the roof, she tugged it to make sure it wouldn’t crumble under her weight. It held. Adjusting her hold since she refused to put her blade away, she slipped over the edge and dropped into a crouch, blade at the ready. The insect choir hiccuped and went back to their song.