The Price We Pay (Life After War Book 7)

by Angela White

  “What did she say? Exact words,” Marc prompted, aware of how Kendle was looking at him.

  Kendle replayed it in her mind, trying not to miss anything while breathing in Marc’s comforting presence. It was hard telling where they would send her after this.

  “What are your orders?”

  Kendle frowned. “To rescue Tonya. But I can’t do that alone.”

  Marc turned to wave Kenn down from guard duty, bracing for a bad reaction from the Marine. Kenn hadn’t wanted Tonya to be involved at all and he would be angry-with every right to be as far as Marc was concerned.

  “She wanted me to tell him,” Kendle stated as Cynthia kept glaring at her, anxious to be out of the reporter’s line of sight. If that challenge didn’t ease, Kendle would be forced to do something about it and she’d promised Angela to complete her mission before losing control.

  Kenn stomped down the hill, dread in his heart and rage in his mind. He knew from the look on their faces that something was wrong and the only reason Brady would ever be staring at him with sympathy was if Tonya were involved.

  “Where is she?”

  Kendle went to Kenn and told him what had happened, including Angela’s orders and Tonya’s words. Kenn didn’t speak until she was finished and Kendle wondered if the rage sickness had already made it to the US before she landed, like Carol and Marsha had insisted. These Safe Haven people were always pissed off.

  Kenn looked at Brady, then west, toward the camp they’d reconned and skirted around on the way here. He glanced down at the gun in his hand, not sure how it had gotten there.

  “Kenn, we’ll get our weapons, make a plan—”

  Kenn slid his gun into the holster and went west. He didn’t speak, didn’t act angry, but Marc felt the blind rage and sighed heavily. “Whoever has my next orders had better give them to me now.”

  Kenn, only a bit away, took a paper from his pocket and held it up.

  Marc shook his head at Angela’s cruelty and ran to catch up and snatch the waving paper from Kenn’s grip.

  You and Kenn only. The others have jobs to do.

  “That bitch!” Marc swore.

  “I know, right?” Kendle muttered, coming to his side.

  “I have to go now,” Cynthia called from behind them. “Who has orders for my escorts?”

  Marc stopped and tossed an envelope to Cynthia, and then hurried to catch up with Kenn again, forgetting about Kendle.

  Hurt, the island woman turned into the trees and disappeared, not waiting for any more orders. She would do what she wanted to from here on out.

  Daryl and Kevin read their orders as Cynthia stared after Kendle.

  “I’m being sent with her,” Kevin stated slowly, realizing Angela had known what would happen between him and Cynthia. She was splitting them up.

  “I’m your escort to Angela,” Daryl stated evenly, trying not to make Kevin feel worse.

  “Be careful,” Cynthia said and Kevin returned the sentiment with a feeling of almost relief. Maybe it was better this way. He hadn’t been sure he was strong enough for a woman like her. After seeing her in action, he knew he wasn’t.

  Kevin caught up to Kendle without saying anything and the island woman grunted, “What?”

  “I’m supposed to stay with you. Where are you going?”

  “Back to camp,” Kendle answered, but dug her next envelope out moodily. “No matter what this says.”

  Kevin read it with a frown.

  Until you tell the truth about what happened, Safe Haven has no place for you. Our deal is off.

  Kendle screamed in outrage at the betrayal and Kevin kept his distance as the island woman spun around and began punching the nearest tree.

  Kevin saw fresh blood roll down her arm and noticed her wounds. While she beat on the tree, he got out his medical kit and set things up.

  She would calm down at some point and he would try to convince her to tell him whatever it was Angela wanted him to know. Kevin was sure she’d sent him for a specific reason, but after losing Cynthia, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what it was. His thirst for adventure was waning.

  5

  Billy and Jax, aware of each other, ran together as they followed Samantha to her next location before dawn. They’d already scouted it themselves after she marked it, and they had no trouble keeping up with her and still staying out of sight. What they hadn’t counted on was her also being aware of them. After Tonya and Kendle left, Sam had spent the morning on the move, picking off small teams of soldiers when the opportunity arose.

  Sam spun around, rifle lowered, but ready in case she was wrong about who was tailing her.

  “Come on out.”

  Jax and Billy emerged with slight smiles and faces that held no mockery, only respect.

  The trio settled down together behind the blanket of trees that was Sam’s next location. She held out her sheet and both men chuckled.

  Keep your escorts company until your target arrives.

  Sam grinned, liking the feel of being an equal more than she could express even to herself.

  “How long?” Jax asked, thinking of snoozing.

  “Fifteen minutes or less,” Samantha stated, reading the rest of her next order. She finished, stowed it in her kit, and then nervously got up to explore the weapon already perched above them in the tree line.

  Sam hadn’t seen who delivered this one, but she was again aware of how intelligent Angela was. She’d provided a secondary weapon in case Sam had lost hers in the first attack, which she hadn’t.

  “Man, I wanna be her when I grow up,” Sam stated wistfully, climbing the tree.

  When her escorts saw what was waiting, they laughed again, understanding the feeling. Adrian had been good, but Angela was better.

  Neither man noticed the false cheer or the distraction technique that had been used on them. Samantha was good at following orders, especially those she agreed with. If these brave men knew what she was about to do, they would drug her and drag her straight to Neil and Jeremy.

  6

  Donner’s order for the men to push in a hundred miles a week was being followed and then some. These men had heard the rumors of the ghost being on the outer rings of this invasion, harassing Donner, and they hurried toward their goal in the center, hoping to reach Safe Haven before Marc caught up to them. It flushed these unsuspecting men directly into the second and third rings of Angela’s trap and they wouldn’t be able to call for reinforcements at all.

  Donner had planned to use field phones too, but Angela’s mines and detcord were buried in the only places where teams of men could make camp with heavy gear. All forms of communication, other than smoke and mirrors or mental, would be gone between teams until the soldiers could replace the lines and by then, it would be too late to matter. Donner and his men would already be too deep into her rings to withdraw.

  Zack’s team watched from atop the cliff as the squad of soldiers below them began packing up to start the day’s trek. Zack waited until the sentries were also inside the damage path and hit the button on the box in his hand.

  The flat area below them immediately exploded and the detcord running under the feet of the soldiers left little chance for escape.

  Zack and his team waited for the dust to clear before going down to strip the area of whatever remained. Another chore on their list was done.

  Chapter Eighteen

  1

  “Who is that?”

  Every soldier on the base had heard rumors of the ghost being alive by now, but the sight of him striding through the blasted gates behind another glowing-eyed devil was enough to send weaker soldiers fleeing without firing a single shot.

  “It’s the ghost!”

  “Get out! Get out!”

  “He’s here!”

  “Kill him!”

  The base alarm began to blare, but it was drown out by the rear gate exploding in two loud pops that sent bodies and debris flying.

  Kenn and Marc strode through the sm
oke, throwing grenades and firing with intent, and the nearest soldiers fled as they recognized the ghost.

  Kenn didn’t care that they were fleeing, only that they were a threat and he fired from the hip like Adrian had taught him. He took a savage pleasure in the headshots and splattering gore.

  He heard Marc behind him, taking care of the soldiers trying to come in from the rear, but he didn’t turn and help. He knew where Tonya would be, where anyone being interrogated would be on a temporary base like this one, and he moved that way without pausing as shadows scattered in front of him.

  “Look out!”

  Kenn threw the grenades together, causing two large blasts that cleared the path. He used his last one to blow open the rickety door, dissolving the front of the main building.

  “That’s the main alarm!”

  In the center of the base, Tonya felt the entire structure shudder and looked at her captors in sympathy. “You don’t want to be in this room when he finds me.

  It was easy to see that she was right when another round of explosions came, followed by awful screams of men dying. Her guards fled the room, not bothering to shut the door.

  Tonya, hands bound in front of her, picked up the Twinkie one of the men had been teasing her with and tore into it as if she was starving.

  Marc guarded the halls as Kenn stepped into the room with Tonya, who was busy swallowing a last bite and grinning happily.

  Kenn growled, but the relief at her being unhurt allowed him to start waking from his rage daze. Crashing, he dropped down into the chair across from her and leaned back. “Whenever you’re ready, dear.”

  Tonya flushed at the sarcasm, but she quickly climbed into his lap and kissed his cheeks until he hugged her tightly in annoyance.

  Tonya snuggled into his arms, stomach quieted a bit and a sense of safety swarmed her with weariness. “You feel good.”

  Kenn grunted, becoming aware of her physical state when he lifted her into his arms and stood up. “Is this what you’re gonna be like? Cause I can’t take this shit, woman.”

  Tonya smiled against his sweaty neck and didn’t make any promises that she couldn’t keep.

  Marc led the way out of the nearly deserted base, unable to keep from feeling proud of his talents as he swept the destruction that they had wrecked upon this place in mere minutes. Whatever Angela’s reasons for this attack had been, she had accomplished an important feat here and for the first time, Marc had an honest hope that they might win.

  2

  Donner’s convoy turned to the only alternate route as the explosions echoed across the mountains. There was no way to be sure that it was their recon teams dying, but Donner knew it was.

  He directed his driver go to his next chosen den, a small, one floor office complex that had once sold cabin rentals to tourists, and their drivers sped across the rocky road, trying to get under cover.

  Samantha waved four fingers in the air to indicate how many teams were in this squad and then she took aim. Angela wanted Donner pushed continuously and Samantha hit the tree in front of the convoy instead of the first jeep.

  Despite wanting to disobey, Samantha had chosen to trust her leader. She had been able to stay ahead of Donner because of the stops he’d made and the routes Angela had chosen. Donner’s vehicles couldn’t go where she could and it was costing him.

  Samantha fired her rifle with gee, hitting mirrors and trimming shoulders as her escorts did the same from the tree above her, per their orders. Billy, on the new rifle, was in heaven.

  “There!”

  Samantha acted as if she hadn’t noticed the soldiers coming up on her right and her guards noticed them too late, view blocked by her body and large tree branches.

  Samantha waved her panicking guards into hiding and raised her hands as the soldiers spotted her and began shouting orders.

  She dropped to her side with her hands out in front of her, and the first thing each soldier noticed about her was the glaring red and white maternity shirt that claimed to love both boys and girl. The second thing they noticed was her glowing red eyes.

  “What the hell?!”

  Samantha smiled politely, swallowing her sudden case of nerves. “Can I speak with your boss, please? I’d like to register a lengthy complaint.”

  “Get up!”

  Samantha let them jerk her up by the arm and cuff her, not answering their demands, but obeying every order. The voice inside was saying these men were on the edge, not to provoke them even by accident.

  “Donner wants anyone we catch,” the team leader stated. “Take her to a jeep while we clear the area.”

  “No clearing,” a higher ranked soldier belayed the command. “You heard the explosions. Entire damn mountain might be rigged. Move out.”

  A minute later, Samantha was being marched down the small incline and it was hard to keep the satisfaction from her face.

  Billy and Jax were on the move the instant the soldiers were out of sight, headed for the center of their zone to contact their teams for a rescue mission. They had no other envelopes. They flew through the paths and over the stone, not stopping or talking or until they were both at their limit and had to slow down. The mountain around them was alive with the noises of life and death, but few of them drew notice from the two worried men.

  Neither of them said what they were both thinking, but it was obvious what they had to do when their contact van finally came into sight and the two men sitting on top of it stood up in concern.

  “Together?” Jax asked, stumbling a bit as Neil jumped from the roof and flew toward them.

  “Yes. Start talking before he reaches us and we may actually survive.”

  3

  “I’m not in a good mood,” Samantha warned as Donner came into the small room and closed the door. “And neither are my sons.”

  She’d been shoved into a jeep, but they’d only traveled a few minutes before reaching this office complex.

  Donner took that in with delight. “And they have a father who will be arriving shortly?”

  “Yeah,” Sam said evenly. “Let’s go with that.”

  Donner was prepared for lies and deceit, or even attempts at sympathy, considering the quick admission of pregnancy, but when she began to control the environment, forcing wind from nothing, he was unable to halt his interest. Few descendants had physical gifts. Mental abilities were common.

  Sam let go, and the air dropped, the papers on the desk stilling. She wasn’t an alpha and couldn’t get into Donner’s mind as long as he kept his walls up, but he would have little trouble reading hers. Not that it mattered. She didn’t know Angela’s final plan. No one did.

  Donner moved into the opposite chair. “More?”

  Samantha indulged him by bringing every object into the air from the desktop and throwing it against the door he’d come in by.

  “Excellent.”

  He studied her with oddly flickering eyes and Sam realized Angela had been right again, about the government sending their own kind.

  “Why are you here?” Donner asked, reading the woman’s thoughts. She was scared and proud, but mostly tired and wanted to go home.

  “To kill you.”

  Donner chuckled even when he felt the genuine hate behind her words.

  “Someone’s already been trying to do that.” He gestured at his bandages, glowing orbs peering through her mind, rifling drawers.

  Samantha gave a sweet smile as she pictured pulling the trigger on him and she laughed when Donner flinched. “Sorry, I missed. I am a rookie.”

  Donner’s anger rushed out and Samantha flew backwards. She managed to keep from being hurt by landing on her side, but the pain of the blow drew tears to her eyes.

  Samantha let them fall and stayed down. She’d been told not to push him in any way, that he was volatile right now, but she hadn’t been able to resist. As she lay there, she felt him ripping open doors in her mind, but there was nothing for him find. She had no orders now, no specific plan to follow. S
he was at the mercy of fate and the man at the table.

  “Yes, you are,” Donner stated, soothed to discover she wasn’t hiding anything. “But even with your gift, you’re still not worth passing up two alphas. You’ll be traded.”

  “Good. I’ve wanted to be in my tent with a mug of hot chocolate for days now.”

  Donner read no lie there and frowned. Why would they send in a pregnant woman with orders to kill him, but no plan?

  “Good question,” Samantha commented. “Ask her when you see her, will you?”

  Donner felt the wind rise in the room as Samantha stood up, the cold chill that settled onto his shoulders. Had he underestimated their abilities?

  “No, easy,” Sam controlled, rubbing her stomach.

  Donner didn’t miss it, but the goal he had was still larger than unborn twins who could affect nature. “I’m an alpha, Ms. Moore. If they try—”

  “They’re just hungry,” Samantha hurried to explain, scooting up against the wall. “They couldn’t give a shit less about you.”

  Donner snorted and headed for the door. He was gone a minute later, stopping only long enough to order the door guard to bring her something to eat.

  Samantha let out the breath she’d been holding the entire time he’d been in the room, but she didn’t let her thoughts go to anything more than the immediate care of her children. Donner had been in her head and he was indeed, an alpha. She’d had no way to resist his presence in her mind and it had been awful. He would likely monitor her thoughts until something else distracted him.

  Samantha stayed back as the door opened and the guard came in with a small pouch. Another soldier stood in the doorway behind him, gaping at their prisoner, and Samantha smiled at both of them. “Is it okay if I ask a couple questions?”

  “Like what?” the food deliveryman asked suspiciously, setting the pouch on the desk.