The Last Marine

by Cara Crescent

  He stormed into the bedroom, ready to give her hell.

  She was sound asleep.

  And all his anger melted away.

  He wasn’t even sure what he felt. Whatever it was, was tearing him up. Something different than he’d ever experienced before, that’s for sure. But the idea of her loving him when he had to leave wasn’t a cause for celebration. This whole thing was starting to feel like a Shakespearean tragedy where they’d both end up hurt.

  He had nothing to offer her. No home. No job. Not even his honor. And for her to give him this—

  She jerked awake and opened her eyes, searching for him. As soon as she laid eyes on him, she lay back down and closed her eyes. “Come to bed, Griff. Can’t sleep without you.”

  She was killing him. Slowly, brutally, destroying him.

  He walked over and climbed into bed and she draped herself over him, tucking her head under his chin.

  God, he wished he could stay. Wished he could marry her and build a home with her. Legally binding her to him would mean everything to him. Having her for his wife would make him happier than he’d ever been. But his very name would cause her endless grief with the Blue Helmets. She’d become as notorious as he. Unless he ended their problems.

  Still half-asleep, she shifted, lifting up to kiss his chin. “Missed you.”

  Ah, Christ. Covering her mouth with his, he made slow, sweet love to her. With each touch, every kiss and intimate possession of her body, he tried to express what he couldn’t say.

  He wanted to stay.

  He wanted her love and to love her.

  Their bodies breathed as one, hearts pounding, bodies arching and straining, united in their purpose. And when bliss took them both, making them shudder and clutch at each other, the release was bitter-sweet.

  Goodbye sex always was.

  *****

  “He’s planning on leaving today.”

  Prudence made that statement as she walked down a back alley with her arm tucked into Lucan’s. He’d loaned her his coat which was two sizes too big and a hat which she had pulled low on her forehead. She had to tip her head all the way back to see his expression.

  “I know.” His eyes were similar to Griffin’s, that same sea green. “Look, Angel, I asked you to walk with me because I want to know what’s going on with my brother. Merrick thinks . . . ” He looked away for a moment. “Well, why don’t you tell me what’s up with Griffin? Then I’ll tell you what Merrick thinks.”

  Were they still upset over what happened yesterday? “I know he’s a bit rough around the edges, but he’s a good man, Lucan. Yesterday . . . I don’t know what happened, but I don’t think it had anything to do with you and Merrick. He’s been worrying himself sick—”

  “Stop it, Angel.” Lucan shook his head, grinning. “You don’t have to explain my hot-headed brother to me. I might have a better idea about what all that was about than you do.”

  “Really?”

  “Griffin’s always been the responsible one. He’s the one who took care of our mom when Dad was away. He took care of me. Then he joined the Marines and he took care of all of us. I don’t think he gave a rat’s ass that I’m with Merrick or that we’re married. What’s killing him is that he didn’t know. That whole scene yesterday—that was Griffin punishing himself for not being around and maybe waiting for me to punish him, too.”

  Prudence stared. “Did he say something?”

  “Nah.” Lucan sighed. “He’s just like our old man.” He patted her hand. “Now, tell me about things. Does he treat you good?”

  “Of course.”

  “He is hot-headed.”

  She scoffed. “He’s all bluster. By our third encounter I figured that out. All his scowling and barking is just his self-defense. All I have to do is put my hand on him and he stops.”

  Lucan chuckled. “Mm.”

  “He’s always taken care with me. I feel safe with him.”

  They walked in silence for half a block. She wasn’t sure what Lucan was after and she didn’t know how to bring up her concerns. So she studied the buildings they passed, admiring the sunlight glinting off the diamond bark walls.

  Lucan cleared his throat. “Merrick said Griffin pulled his gun on a kid in town yesterday.”

  She winced. “It was a firecracker. Startled him, is all.”

  “Was that the first time he’d been . . . startled?”

  She shook her head.

  “Nightmares?”

  She nodded, stopped, and turned to look at Lucan. “Fugues, too. I’m worried. When we first met . . . I realized he might be suicidal. He wasn’t thinking too clearly, but then he was fine for a few days. I mean he was restless at night, but his humor improved. He seemed happy.”

  He tugged her into motion again. “Did something happen?”

  She sighed. “Scanner ships passed us one night. He got moodier after that. Then the next night he had to fight off some scarecrows.”

  Lucan cursed. “Sorry.”

  She smiled. “I’ve been with Griffin for the last week. I’m used to hearing men swear.”

  “Yeah, I suppose you would be.”

  They continued to walk and Prudence thought back to the fight with the Scarecrows. Griffin had been in control . . . until the end. There was a moment there . . . . “When the Scarecrows attacked, part of me was terrified for him and part of me . . . was a little scared of him. I suppose he had reason, I mean he almost died. Two of them had him in their grasp and . . . oh, I don’t know. He got lost there for a few seconds. Had this look in his eyes. Then he was fine. I stayed awake with him that night and his nightmares were fierce. The next day he had a fugue.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I’m pretty sure he thought we were back on Earth. He kept telling me to go back to base. Said he needed to be punished. He kept saying he didn’t know.” She stopped walking and faced Lucan. “He had no memory of it the next morning. A few days before he had told me some things that happened while he was active duty. Things that would . . . negatively affect anyone. We can’t let him leave. This isn’t good for him.”

  “We’re not planning on letting him go anywhere. Right now, Merrick’s playing along with him. He’ll get Griffin’s weapons without a fuss.”

  “Not a chance, Griffin’s never without them.”

  Lucan gave her a wink. “Merrick’s a damn fine pickpocket and Griffin’s not in top form right now. Merrick will get the weapons.”

  She felt like the worst kind of betrayer, plotting against her mate. The rational side of her knew this was best; Griffin needed help. She wanted him whole and healthy. But, goddess did she love the man and, doing this, something she knew would make him furious and hurt was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. Prudence nodded. “Then what?”

  “Then comes the hard part. We’re all going to have to sit down and have a chat.” Lucan dragged his hand through his hair. “I went through this with Merrick a while back. It’s not fun. He didn’t want to listen to reason. God, he was a real bastard, if I want to be honest. There were days I didn’t think I could take any more. Days I thought, ‘To hell with him, I’m leaving.’” He shook his head and propped his hand on his hip. “Look, I don’t know how close the two of you are. You don’t have to be a part of this if you don’t want to.”

  “I love him.” She pressed her hand to her belly. She was strong enough to do this, as long as it meant there was a chance she’d have a family at the end. “I’ll stay.”

  He grinned. “I was hoping you’d say that. Here’s the deal, Angel. He’s going to feel cornered as hell, so no quick moves. Keep your hands where he can see them and keep calm. No matter what he says, or how much of a fuss he puts up, you keep your cool.”

  Her heart was beating as fast as if she were getting ready to face a scarecrow again. Goddess help them, this wasn’t going to be easy.

  Chapter 30

  Griffin sipped his coffee while he waited for Merrick.

  Lucan had t
aken Prudence out for a walk, which made him twitchy as hell. He didn’t like her out there where people might see her, but Lucan insisted and she wanted to go. There wasn’t a damned thing he could say to stop her. Maybe it was best. She didn’t need to be here while he set his plans.

  His hand went to his stomach and he lifted his shirt to look at Prudence’s mark. Prudence Angelica Parnell loved him. She shouldn’t, but she did.

  Merrick walked in with a middle-aged man. “This is Grady. Back when I tried to get into the spaceport, he helped me draw up a blueprint based on what we could see from a distance, memories of those who have passed through, and things we heard about the place.”

  Grady stood a few inches shorter than Merrick, but his body was rail-thin. Thick glasses made his eyes appear overlarge and his movements were so slow as to be almost sloth-like. Even his Southern drawl seemed to creep along. “You Chief Payne?”

  “Yeah.” He held out his hand and then waited while Grady took hold. Griffin gave the man’s hand a hard pump, hoping to instill a little energy into him. “Thanks for letting me take a look at your blueprints.

  “’S not much. Drawn from hearsay, to tell the truth. I’ve got true blueprints of every other building for miles ‘round. Figures you’d want this one.”

  Griffin started to chuckle, then stopped when no one else even cracked a smile. He cleared his throat. “Well, let’s take a look.”

  He had the distinct urge to pace while Grady placed the rolled paper on the table and, methodically smoothed the blueprint out, setting little weights at each of the four corners. Catching Merrick’s attention, Griffin rolled his eyes.

  The blueprint showed an octagonal-shaped building with two sets of perimeter fencing. “Are those chain-link?”

  Merrick chuckled, moving to stand next to him. “Outer fence is electro-wired. Inner wall is eighteen-inch steel, ten feet high with barbwire over the top. Each fence has one opening. The outer fence here.” Merrick reached over and pointed to a spot on the map, pressing up against Griffin. “The inner gate here.” He did the same thing again when he pointed to a spot on the exact opposite side of the map. “Guards with dogs patrol between the two.”

  Griffin moved over to give the larger man more space. “You have got to be shitting me.” He stared at the two men. “Everybody has to walk half the perimeter to get to the second gate?”

  Grady rocked back on his heels. “No, sir. There’s a moving walkway. Moves real fast, too. We all got to take a ride on it when we first arrived. They took us off the ship, straight onto the walkway and escorted us out. None of us have ever been back in.” He glanced back at Merrick. “Isn’t that right?”

  “Yep.”

  “Takes about ten minutes get from one door to the next. And here”—Grady pointed to a notch in the inner fence line—“And here.” He pointed to the next in the row. There were about twenty little notches between the gates and he had no doubt Grady intended to point out each one.

  “Grady, spit it out, man. What do the notches represent?”

  “Sniper towers.”

  Merrick folded his arms over his chest. “And all this is before you even hit the security check points.”

  Fuck.

  Griffin’s heart pounded in his chest and sweat broke out on his brow. For the first time, he had to face the very real possibility he might fail. That he might spend the rest of his dishonored life protecting Prudence from a man light years away. Being with her wouldn’t be a hardship, but not being able to make up for his sins would make him crazy. “I gotta get in there.” He sat down. “I can’t—” Even if the rest of his mission failed, he had to take out Randolph if he wanted to keep Prudence safe and that meant he needed to get back to Earth. “He won’t stop hunting her unless I make him stop.”

  Merrick patted Grady on the shoulder. “Thanks for bringing this by. You mind if we hold on to it for today?”

  “Nope. I don’t need it for nothing. There’s nothing on the other side of those fences that’s any better than what’s on this side.” His overlarge eyes seemed to see right through Griffin. “Well, if ya need me, I’ll be at Lucky’s.” Grady meandered out of the room.

  Merrick pulled up a chair. “Tell me what’s going on. Maybe if we brainstorm this out, we can come up with an alternative plan.”

  Griffin shifted. He was so wound up he felt like electricity ran under his skin. Worst of all he felt stupid. Naïve. “There’s no information about Asteria’s spaceport back on Earth. I hacked into the military’s system. Everything was redacted.” He sat back and looked at Merrick. “I can’t believe I fucked up so bad again.”

  “That’s not helping anything. Talk to me. I get that you couldn’t make a true plan until you got here, but you had an idea in your head. A goal. What was it?”

  “I . . . . I wanted to get to Lucan. When I found out he’d been transported I was terrified he'd been hurt or killed.” Christ, he couldn’t breathe. His heart raced in his chest and the whole room seemed to want to close in on him. “I had to see him. Christ, I had it in my head that if he wanted to go back to Earth, I’d get him there.” Griffin shook his head and wiped the sweat from his brow. His whole body shook. “I lost my base, everything was FUBAR, and I went home and he was gone. Neighbors told me the Blue Helmets took him and that he’d been sent to Asteria. And I had nothing. My base got fragged. My accounts were frozen. I didn’t—”

  “Look at me.”

  The compassion in the other man’s expression floored Griffin. Here he was damn near losing his shit, telling his brother-in-law what a stupid fuck he’d been and . . . . And Merrick must not understand. “I went after Alfred because I knew a high-profile crime would get me transported. And I hated him. I hated the things I did for him. I hated what he’d taken from me and I hated what he’d turned the world into. I’ve killed a lot of people in the line of duty, Merrick, but I’d never killed anyone in cold blood before and, oh God, I shot him right in front of Prudence.” His gut churned. Why had he never thought about that before? She’d watched him kill her husband in cold blood. No wonder she ran from him those first few days.

  Merrick’s hand closed over his shoulder, making him realize he’d bent in his seat, hanging his head between his knees. “You’re safe now. If you want all this to be over, it’s okay for it to be over.”

  Griffin got to his feet and paced. He couldn’t sit still. He’d fucked everything up and no one understood. “It can’t be over. I wanted to make up for what I’d done when I killed Alfred, but I made things worse. You don’t understand what Randolph is like.”

  The other man’s gaze was sure and steady. “He is not your problem, Griffin. He’s not.”

  “He is.” He could hear his voice edging up, could hear the frantic quality, but was helpless to stop. “My actions put him in charge. My actions. And I cannot live with myself until I make things right. Do you understand? I have to get my honor back.”

  *****

  Prudence and Lucan came in from their walk and went upstairs. On the way back, Lucan had repeated enough times that everything would be fine until she almost believed him.

  However, when they reached the second floor, she took one look at Griffin and her smile faded. The weather was cool enough that she’d borrowed Lucan’s jacket, but Griffin was sweating. All his muscles were tensed up and even from across the room she could see how hard he shook. “What’s wrong?”

  Griffin turned away, but Merrick motioned her in. “Maybe we should all sit down and talk about this.”

  Griffin met her gaze, his scowl fierce. “It’s not up for discussion.”

  Lucan led Prudence over to the table and pulled out a chair for her. “Quit barking at Angel. You’re lucky as hell she’s such a sweet lady.”

  Merrick took hold of Lucan’s arm. “Babe, would you bring in some wine? Maybe get something from down in the cellar. I think we could all use a drink.”

  Prudence watched as some silent communication ran between the two men. In the end, Lucan
went downstairs. Merrick gave her a pointed look. Okay. Lucan said if Griffin started getting agitated that Merrick wanted them to keep their voices low, their hands in view. He said not to move too fast or make any threatening gestures. She slid her hands onto the table.

  Merrick nodded. “Come on, Griffin. Sit down.” Merrick used his foot to slide a chair closer to him. “No one here is going to stop you from doing what you need to do, but if we put our heads together, we’ll figure something out.”

  Griffin sat, but he pulled the chair back from the table first so he sat with his back to the wall. She suspected he wanted to keep an easy escape route. He almost looked the same as he did that day on the velocepillar when he’d had that fugue.

  All she wanted to do was go and comfort him, but she couldn’t. Not yet.

  “So, after you got here what did you expect to happen?”

  “I was on the wrong side of things, I guess. I didn’t expect any of this.” He motioned to the room they sat in. “See, before we realized what was going on, I was hauling people to the spaceport for transport. I saw how scared everyone was. I got to see the dossiers on Asteria describing how inhospitable this place is. I didn’t expect to find Lucan working, married, and happy. I expected him to want to go home and I intended to find a way to get him there. I expected typical spaceport security—intimidating but easy enough to breach if you know what you’re doing.”

  “Which you do.”

  Griffin let out a mocking laugh. “Obviously.”

  “You got here in one piece.” Merrick nodded to Prudence. “You and your lady. I’m pretty sure you two are the first to survive that trek without transportation and heavy artillery. Now, who is looking for Angelica?”

  Griffin looked as stunned as she felt.

  Merrick smiled. “Before Grady left, you said him won’t stop hunting her unless you make him stop.” He glanced at Prudence and bumped his shoulder against hers. “Besides, I knew I’d seen you somewhere. Can’t forget pretty eyes like yours. Prudence, right?”