The Price We Pay (Life After War Book 7)

by Angela White

  Kevin tapped the driver on the shoulder to get them rolling again, and wondered where Cynthia was.

  5

  “We’re here.”

  The sun was high in the sky by the time Marc’s group made it back to the cabin they were using. Leaving Charlie and Becky behind hadn’t sat well with Marc and he’d lingered until they were almost behind schedule. Only a sharp remark from Kenn had gotten them going.

  Tonya was waiting at the cabin door. She and Kendle had put in a long morning and then split up for different sleeping sites, as per order. Now, it was time to go meet her partner in crime again. “I’m leaving.”

  Junit and Natoli, her escorts for a short while, stepped around her as she lingered. Tonya was hoping that Kenn would come in for a quick goodbye.

  Kenn surprised them all. “Just go.”

  Tonya did, frowning. Kenn wanted her to go to Safe Haven, to resign her post.

  “If I have to give Charlie a break, you have to do the same for her,” Marc warned. “Go catch up to her, idiot.”

  Kenn huffed and stomped into the cabin. “I’ll be sleeping.”

  “Not until we sort out what came in while we were gone,” Marc corrected as he went inside to a new, large pile of taped crates and boxes.

  Kenn got his notebook out and the two men settled into it, anxious to be finished.

  Adrian lingered outside with the guards as they switched shifts.

  “Any messages come in with the new gear?”

  Natoli nodded. “Yes. Our spies say the soldiers are on the move.”

  “Good,” Adrian stated, lighting a smoke. “Right where she wanted them to be?”

  “So far, yes.”

  Adrian let the Indians work and sat on the steps of the cabin. Marc and Kenn talking through the open door about the gear was a soft babble and his mind went where it wanted.

  Angie!

  Monitoring harder now than before he’d found out Charlie’s job, Marc caught the plea for attention and quietly stood up.

  Kenn, who had been on the receiving end of that look many times, ducked to be out of the crossfire.

  Angie! Adrian called pitifully.

  Marc picked up the nearest object and threw it.

  The half a cup of coffee cracked into Adrian’s head, and shattered into dozens of pieces.

  Adrian slumped to the damp ground.

  Kenn regarded Marc with resignation. “You really are gonna to try to kill us aren’t you?”

  “Try?” Marc snorted.

  Kenn dragged Adrian to the cot he’d woken up on, not happy with the irony.

  6

  “They didn’t like leaving us here.”

  “I know.”

  Both teens were dressed in warm gear and were well fed on rations, but the feeling of being in over their heads was still bigger than anything else.

  “Why did she send me out here?” Becky asked suddenly. “I know you know the truth.”

  Charlie didn’t think it would hurt to tell her. “She knows you’re not as recovered as you pretend to be. She says Seth knows better too, but he wants to believe it and so he accepts the act.”

  Becky had paled and she didn’t respond right away. Hearing her deepest secret spoken aloud so bluntly was a bit surprising.

  “Sorry about that,” Charlie stated. “You want the rest?”

  “Yes.”

  “She said you need to have justice and to be the one to hand it out. She also said you might go too far into the dark side and that I need to keep an ear on your mind.”

  Becky wanted to deny that she might become a problem in the future, but Charlie didn’t let her.

  “We know better, Becky. It’s not something to be ashamed of, only a feeling you have to battle.”

  Becky understood then. Angela knew she was suicidal. “She’s giving me a way out that everyone can live with!”

  “Please don’t take it,” Charlie begged. “We love you.”

  Becky burst into tears and Charlie left her alone, hoping she would get some more of the poison out of her system. His mom said Becky wouldn’t do it when it came down to it, but after spending only a day with her, listening to the awful voices in her mind, Charlie wasn’t so sure. Becky had a well of pain inside that was deeper than anything Charlie had ever felt. It would take a lot to keep her from drowning there.

  Becky curled up in her bag and tried to get herself under control so that she could sleep. She shoved the rest from her thoughts and found herself drifting off almost immediately. Pretending to be happy was tiring.

  Charlie watched her for a moment and then spent some time contacting his mom and delivering an update on all that had happened. When he was finished, he also sent a quick message to his dad, not wanting Marc to be angry with him.

  Worried is not angry, Marc sent back. Get some sleep.

  Charlie did that as the dawn came, waking Becky to stand watch. It had been a long night and there were more of them to come.

  7

  “Hello in the camp. I’m here on orders.”

  Seth’s call brought a shadow from a ledge above them who pointed toward their feet.

  Before he could move, a hand shot up and grabbed Seth’s ankle. “Hey!”

  The men burst out laughing as Cynthia sat up, hands out like a zombie.

  Seth sat a large kit by her shallow grave, impressed and horrified. “That’s pretty good.”

  “Thanks. Tell the boss it’s ready to go out here.”

  “I will. You need anything?”

  Cynthia shook her head, not opening the bag. “No. You?”

  Seth hesitated. “Yeah. Do you know where she is?”

  “Yes. You’ll be with her if you stick to your envelopes.”

  It was as if Angela was scolding him and Seth let out a curse before stomping down the ravine. He had two more stops after this one, and then they were breaking for the night. Would Becky’s camp be one of those stops? He hoped so. There was no way he would sleep tonight without knowing where she was. All he would be able to imagine was her lying under leaves and dirt somewhere, as Cynthia had been.

  Cynthia waited until the team was out of sight before opening her delivery. In it was gear too heavy for her to carry this far and it would be left when she had to run. By then, the weapon would either be out of ammunition or be destroyed in the fight.

  Cynthia quickly set up the portable grenade launcher in the spot she’d already cleared, reciting the steps mentally. Once she pulled the tall blind over it and untied the tree branch she had secured, the hand-held, gas plug operated, semi-automatic, revolving action M32 was invisible.

  She’d only used one a couple of times during her more recent training, but this part of her job wasn’t hard. Aim, fire, reload. It was the dying part that could be rough.

  Feeling better than she had when she’d dug this hole; Cynthia carefully recovered herself. If she’d fooled Seth’s team, the soldiers would go for it too. This was the main road into Safe Haven, the most direct path, and they were sure the troops would be thickest here. Angela had surprises all along this street, like Marc had suggested during the one female team meetings he’d been asked to join. He hadn’t liked giving them those deadly answers, but he had delivered a number of ways for females to be lethal. Angela was using all of them.

  Cynthia’s post was isolated. It would take the soldiers a bit to reach her and the reporter wasn’t happy about being alone on the mountains. She also wasn’t terrified of it. Angela’s orders had mentioned Eagles in the area if she had to have help, and it was a comfort to know that was true, but she was also heavily armed and even the howling of the wind through the branches didn’t cause panic as it might have in her before. She’d faced a lot of fears since coming to Safe Haven.

  As she closed her lids, Cynthia hoped Kevin was in a better place than she was. Angela had him on protection detail for someone. Cynthia had recognized the gear he’d been packing from a checklist. She didn’t know over who or where. She assumed she had a shado
w, and didn’t let herself think Angela would have put them together. It would have been risking one of them getting distracted and Angela wouldn’t do that yet. It was why Seth and Becky couldn’t start out together.

  Faced with too much time to think, Cynthia tried to make herself go to sleep instead. If she thought about what she was doing, about the life she carried and the future she’d almost had, she might not be able to do this.

  8

  “Hold up.”

  Seth’s team stopped only a few minutes after leaving Samantha, going still and quiet. Voices came to them.

  “I heard something.”

  “One of ours.”

  “You sure?”

  Seth recognized the voices and cleared his throat. “Good thing we’re friendly.”

  Zack and his men appeared through the trees and the two teams greeted each other. It was nice to know they weren’t out here wandering the dim wilderness alone.

  “What’s next?” Zack asked.

  Seth opened his next envelope. “Someone will meet us here and they have the next step. We’re supposed to sit tight.”

  “I’m here.”

  They peered up to discover Tracy straddling a thick tree branch above them. She tossed Seth a wrinkled envelope.

  Seth read it angrily. “You’re kidding, right?”

  He shoved it into Zack’s waiting hand. “I won’t do it.”

  “Then get to camp and be reassigned,” Tracy told him. “Boss’s words.”

  Seth grit his teeth as the other men complained.

  “No way.”

  “Is she nuts?”

  “We don’t do that. We’re Eagles!”

  Tracy was already tired of hearing it and she dropped from the tree and opened her long coat to reveal an outfit a hooker might have worn. The fighting ceased.

  Tracy smoothed the wrinkles from the dress and brushed at her wild hair. “It’ll work, right?”

  “Yeah, it’ll work.” Seth, now disgusted with himself as well as Angela, shoved by her. “Let’s go.”

  The sight of Tracy standing there looking like she was about to film a porno flick was almost more than he could take. Was Becky out here somewhere doing the same thing?

  “Does Charlie know?” Seth asked suddenly.

  Tracy nodded, increasing her pace to account for their long strides. “Yes. The teenagers were the only group Angela didn’t have to hide things from. She said it was a relief.”

  Shamed, the men fell silent and the group walked to the first location on their list. They were now a roving patrol on the western side of Lookout Mountain. Their instructions were to eliminate anyone who came toward Safe Haven and to use Tracy as their bait for ambushes and traps. While it was devious, it was also hard, and none of the men were sure they could do it. As a result, they were a somber group that traveled through the thickets of pine and stacks of nature-forged stone without speaking to Tracy or each other.

  9

  By the time Kyle made it to his last stop for the night, he was nodding off behind the wheel again.

  Marc recognized it and waved Adrian into the driver’s seat.

  Kyle collapsed gratefully on a hindmost bench.

  “You okay?” Marc asked, moving aside for the next load of supplies to be brought onboard. They were all deliveries for tomorrow and they’d be stopping at so many camps that only a van or truck would hold it all.

  “Well, Brady,” Kyle forced out after a yawn. “I’ll tell you something, if you don’t get pissed.”

  Marc already knew, but he held up a hand. “Word of honor.”

  Kyle opened bleary eyes and locked onto Marc’s grinning face. “That woman of yours is a real bitch. You know that? A real, honest-to-god, ball-busting bitch!”

  The other men laughed and agreed, but Kyle shook his head in wonder. “I didn’t know how hard she is to please. I thought you were a lucky bastard every night.”

  “He is!” Adrian slammed the plastic-wrapped crate down and left the filthy van.

  Marc’s laugh followed him into the cold night air.

  “Can’t you get off him?” Kenn snarled, able to feel Adrian’s pain.

  Marc stopped smiling, becoming the cold, distant leader that Kenn had loathed serving.

  “No. He earned this every time he put his hands on her, kissed her against her will. And you earned it because you made sure they had time alone for him to do it.”

  Kenn, frustrated, stuck his middle finger up.

  Marc’s surprised laughter rolled into the night and Adrian grit his teeth. Those were his bonding moments that Marc was stealing, his men and women to command, and the rage began to grow hotter inside Adrian. He hadn’t wanted to be attracted to Angela. He hadn’t planned all of it, despite what Marc thought. The feelings were real and he’d tried to fight them.

  “Too damn strong,” he muttered, loading the stack of empty pallets into the small shed behind this tiny campsite. “And she feels it too. Not all my fault.”

  10

  They were on the move a couple minutes later and quickly caught up to Tonya, who had orders to walk down the middle of this rocky, bumpy road. All the men assumed she would be met by someone, but there was no way to tell if it would be theirs or the enemy.

  During their argument, Tonya had been forced to tell Kenn her role and show her weapons. He hadn’t been able to argue the plan on merits, only his emotions, and she’d refused to return to Safe Haven. As a result, Kenn had stopped talking to her. Marc thought Tonya getting a dose of the old Kenn was a good idea as well. He had little doubt that the redhead would reevaluate her relationship while walking through the darkness, but Kenn wasn’t smart enough to know that’s how a woman worked.

  Tonya didn’t raise a hand as the van went by her and instead of being scared or unhappy with her role, she was extremely grateful to Angela for the chance to prove herself. When it was done, if they survived, Kenn wouldn’t be allowed to treat her like anything except an equal and that was all she wanted. If he still whined and acted like a child about it, she would tell him how it was and he could take it or leave it.

  After thinking about it, she’d realized Angela was right. Her baby was Kenn’s way in with the camp and the Eagles, but Tonya wasn’t going to let him use their child’s coattails any more than she would use his now. That was the behavior of the old Tonya and she didn’t intend to be that ugly creature ever again.

  11

  “That’s our ride.”

  The large group was happy to hear those words. They’d been walking all day and had only reached their pickup spot a few minutes ago.

  The van pulled alongside the resting Eagles, and Marc opened the doors with a grin. “Who needs a lift?”

  Low cheers echoed and they piled into the crowded van, grinning and laughing as they spotted friends. Zack and Seth’s team were quickly occupied with refilling their supplies, but Seth stayed with Marc, hoping for an update. None of the groups they’d stopped by or come across had word on Becky.

  Marc held out a small envelope. “This is where she’ll be at noon. Boss said not to be late.”

  Seth snatched the paper and slammed his tired body into the seat behind Marc. “This is bullshit!”

  It was a feeling that all of them had experienced today and Marc nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go. Everyone in?”

  The van pulled into the darkness with a full load of men and supplies, all of them deadly in their own way.

  Marc heard Seth crumble the paper up and shove it into his pocket. The anger was thick, and while Marc wanted to ease the man’s fears by telling him that they’d talked to Becky earlier, he didn’t. Angela had said it was best to let Seth get wound up this time and Marc hadn’t argued. Angela saw further than he did and if she thought Seth needed to be strung out by the time the fighting started, it was no problem to accomplish it.

  “I’m sure she’s fine,” Marc commented. “Want a juice box? We brought grape.”

  “A what?” Seth stared in fury. “You’re kiddi
ng, right?”

  Marc shrugged. “Sorry.”

  Seth fumed in silence and Marc eased on the gas. The sooner that ticking bomb was out of range, the better. If Seth did explode, it would take out an entire block.

  Marc surveyed them in the mirror, noting that Tracy was being treated like a member of the group and not a whore. He also saw that she had cuts, scrapes, and a nasty bruise on her cheek, and understood she was another piece of bait. Angela had refused to explain what her female team was doing and Marc had assumed that it was bad, that he would have tried to stop her if he’d known. He trusted Angela to do the right thing, though, and it hadn’t been hard to let it go then. Now, he was seeing these women being used in ways that he never would have approved and the concern was growing. How far would Angela go to win?

  12

  Marc shut the van door and clicked the lock into place. They’d reached their final stop of the night and while he needed rest, he wasn’t eager for dreams. He’d stayed behind to lock up, stalling the moment when someone would shove him into a tent and insist that he rest.

  The Indian camp was spread out, with patrols of braves on and off horses constantly roaming the perimeter. In the center, a giant bonfire was roaring and natives in full costume were dancing and singing. In other times, Marc would have been in the front circle, taking in as much goodwill as he could. Tonight, the tom-toms were an instant headache.

  “We’re all set, boss,” Quinn stated, joining him on the short walk into the Indian camp.

  Natoli’s people would be their shelter for a few hours and Marc was glad of the order. The still-decorated hunting cabin was getting on his nerves. If he never saw another tree with dead bulbs, it would be too soon.

  “Marc spotted an old woman cooking outside a teepee and was drawn there, shunning the rows of tents that his men were using.

  The woman was holding out a small wooden bowl before he got to her and Marc took it gratefully. “Thank you, old mother.”