The Price We Pay (Life After War Book 7)

by Angela White

  “What does it accomplish?” Shawn asked, knowing Brady would want that answer.

  “I have several things to try when he gets here, but I expect all of them to fail. Going with him will allow everyone a safe pass off this death zone and give Brady time to convince the soldiers on the other side of that gate to join us. When that happens, come get me.”

  Angela waved them out when they would have argued, calling to Cynthia. “I need a few minutes, gentlemen.”

  The males left the tent grumbling, but satisfied that she still had their best interests at heart. As long as they could tell Marc it had been for the good of the camp, he would let them live.

  “Something went wrong on Jennifer’s end of the plan,” Angela stated lowly as soon as they were alone. “She won’t be here.”

  Cynthia frowned. “Is she okay?”

  Angela nodded, packing thing into a small kit. “Yes, and so is the baby, though the same can’t be said of Lilly. She planned to take the baby to Donner and trade for a pass to the bunker, but Autumn had a better idea.”

  Cynthia didn’t ask what would happen to Lilly once Jennifer got her daughter. That scene would be uglier than what Angela had done here.

  “I thought so too,” Angela said. “We’ll proceed without her.”

  “But she’s your guard and escort, and then Marc’s right hand.”

  Angela glanced up pointedly and Cynthia realized the duty was now hers.

  “Yeah, okay. I can do that.”

  “Good. Would you like to go over it with me to be sure we’re together?”

  “Yes, that’s a good idea.” Cynthia didn’t let herself worry over the change. Angela had told them adjusting would be necessary in places.

  “The hardest part first,” Angela instructed, scribbling on a notepad.

  “I have to handle Brady.”

  “Yes. He has to read this before he leaves the gates.”

  “And if I can’t, then I have to handle his duties.”

  “And you can,” Angela supported. “This isn’t the first time you’ve saved lives.”

  Cynthia smiled in pleasant surprise and Angela handed Cynthia the note. “Stay with Brady through this. He’ll have Kendle if he wants her, but he’ll pick anyone else if he has the choice.”

  “I will,” Cynthia vowed. “We’ll have work for her. If she returns.”

  “She and Kevin’s team are close. They had to wait out the explosions and it’s not safe for them to come out yet. They’ll be in soon though, and it might trigger a new fight at the gate. Make sure you’re ready for that.”

  Cynthia took out her notebook and wrote it down, then placed the message to Marc inside. She’d already memorized it in case her book was damaged later, but she was dreading that moment. It wasn’t a nice note.

  “It has to be harsh,” Angela explained, hearing the rumbling blades of a helicopter. “Our camp surviving depends on it.”

  4

  “I don’t want to go. I request sanctuary.”

  Those words drew frowns from Adrian and Conner, who were in the canvas behind the command tent together, cuffed to the table.

  Angela had just come in and the Sergeant hadn’t wasted a second.

  “Please.”

  Angela was aware of time now running faster and raised a brow. “Sell me.”

  “Donner has a secret plan to challenge the government after he claims you and Adrian. I don’t want any part of fighting for either side.”

  Angela saw no lies in his mind, only concern for his own actions and she was forced to adapt her plan on the fly.

  Angela raised a hand and sent a bolt of red light that slammed into the Sergeant’s chest and knocked him backwards. He sprawled awkwardly against the bars and didn’t move.

  Angela left the tent as the sound of a chopper increased to nearly deafening. Donner was here.

  The chopper could have been blown up at any point. It was on the pilot’s terrified face and in the jerky downward movements of the landing in the center of her heavily fortified site. More than a hundred men were here and all of them hated the enemy.

  The door slid open before the chopper had landed, revealing Donner, in full uniform, standing there waiting to be executed.

  In time, Angela promised herself. He had the advantage right now. If she killed him, the bunker would bomb them and he knew it. For this meeting, he held all the cards.

  Angela, with a group of protection, moved toward the chopper and stopped a dozen feet away as Donner came out alone. She couldn’t see inside the shadows of the chopper thanks to his choice of an evening pickup and she stayed still instead of going to meet him.

  Donner saw it as an insult and possible trap, but he stepped onto her base with an arrogant flare and salute to the pilot.

  It was returned with a shaking arm and a pale face.

  Donner spent a few seconds scanning the people, the fierce loyalty he felt, the secrets that they held. The government is right to want you all exterminated, Donner thought. You’re too strong.

  “I want to be sure they stay that way,” Angela stated coolly.

  Donner chuckled at her display, knowing it was for those people who were suddenly face-to-face with a demon from their nightmares and feeling concern for their immediate future.

  “I had trouble with Sergeant Wallz,” Angela stated, tone regretful. She was sorry.

  “Dead?”

  “Along with Heather and a few others. They thought they’d be forgotten during the trade, left to rot here, and they tried to break out. I had mines in place. It wasn’t pretty.”

  Donner didn’t care if she was lying and didn’t dig. “They were right. Where are Mitchel and his son?”

  “Conner wasn’t part of the deal,” Angela pointed out. “He isn’t here.”

  Donner half suspected the lie this time, but again, didn’t care enough to pursue it. “Get Mitchel and let’s go.”

  “And in return?” Angela prompted, keeping her distance.

  “We’ll pull out and depart the state. Your people are small potatoes. They can go.”

  Behind Donner, Trey was with Becky and Samantha, knife in one hand, gun in the other. His intentions were clear. If given the order, he would shoot one and gut the other.

  “And do I know you’ll keep your word?” Angela asked. “No, I think we’ll do this a different way.”

  Donner tensed to fight, but Angela only held up a small box.

  Donner recognized the trigger to what he could only assume was a powerful explosive and he began ripping into her mental walls to discover where it was hidden.

  “Not here,” Angela answered without a strain. Her witch shoved Donner out as if he were nothing.

  “It’s in more than one place, but that’s not the part you have to worry about. It’s the weaponized Smallpox virus it will spread across this mountain that is.”

  Donner laughed. “I’ve been inoculated for all that shit. Try again.”

  “I accept that challenge,” she intoned, stopping his amusement. “Your vaccinations are decades old and this strain was developed in the good ‘ol US of A, two years ago. Wanna bet your vaccination can stand up to it?”

  Donner fell into fast-thinking mode and Angela blew him out of it with, “I want Tracy.”

  Donner gaped in confusion. “Who?”

  Angela sneered, “Your man took her and you don’t even know? What kind of a leader are you, Major?”

  Donner’s ego wouldn’t let him take too many insults and Angela knew that. She would push him carefully.

  Donner slowly reached into his pocket and took out a small radio. “Bring Tracy to the gate. And identify yourself, Soldier!”

  Awful laughter answered and Donner scowled. “Sherman.”

  Angela raised a brow and Donner shrugged. “A minor player.”

  “I want her back,” Angela repeated. “And then you get Adrian in exchange for letting Safe Haven go.”

  Donner had decided things had gone too far to change his plans.
“No deal, Ms. White. Blow us up or get on that chopper.”

  It was the moment where time and fate stood still to witness what the choice would be.

  “I’m sorry,” Angela said softly. “I didn’t want it to be this way.”

  Her finger lowered on the button.

  Before Angela could push it, gunfire rang out and they all turned to see Bridget strolling through the camp, shooting at the chopper with a gun in each hand.

  “Where is she?!”

  Bullets pinged off the chopper, deflected into the crowd, and even Donner flinched at a near miss.

  Trey pushed the hostages back and tried to get a clear shot.

  Angela grabbed at Bridget as she came by, snatching the gun and punching the heart-ass woman in the temple hard enough to take her straight to the ground.

  In the ruckus, the detonating box had been shoved into the hands of the person closest. Cynthia kept a finger hovering in case Donner tried to grab it, but the Major stayed back and watched Angela direct Bridget’s body to be bound and placed in a cell. He appeared fascinated.

  Angela started to take the box and then froze, mind going dark. Something had changed.

  “Donner!”

  Sherman’s drunken shout was ugly and loud, close by, and it was a surprise to see that he was inside the camp, next to her command tent. The gun in Tracy’s ribs was little compared to her beaten face.

  “You want this bitch so bad!” Sherman shouted, motioning toward Angela with the gun as he dragged Tracy backward. “I’ll kill her for you!”

  “If he fires, I’ll blow us,” Angela warned Donner, taking the box. “And you won’t make it out. There’s a charge right under your chopper.”

  Now Donner had to step up and prove his leadership, but the situation wasn’t under his control anymore.

  As he moved toward Sherman, eyes starting to glow, the mercenary shook his head, gun aiming at Angela. “Not me! Her!”

  Crack!

  Sherman’s body arched and blood burst from his lips as the bullet went through his chest and out the other side.

  Donner stared in anger at the sniper who was no longer under the cover of the overhead tram, furious to have his man stolen from under his nose.

  Angela screamed in denial as the blast went out, stepping toward the woman falling from the tram as her Eagles pulled Tracy to safety, but it was too late to stop Crista from hitting the jagged cliffs below.

  “Die!” Jeff screamed, rifle coming up, and Donner sent a blast over that side of the camp, knocking a dozen men into the enraged man.

  Donner spun around with a kick and sent the box in Angela’s hand flying toward the chopper. Her guards rushed to get between them as the soldiers outside the gate began climbing and throwing debris over.

  Angela slipped and let Donner catch her as she fell, delaying. His arm snaked around her throat and the courtyard went quiet again except for the mini-battles along the weakening fence.

  “I will kill her,” Donner warned the circle of men around him. “Get Adrian on that chopper. Now!”

  During the chaos, Trey had kept Samantha on the chopper, and quickly retreated.

  Angela found Theo’s eyes in the panic. Go get her body.

  Theo nodded slowly, stunned. I will. My word.

  Adrian was rushed roughly onboard the chopper a few seconds later, but Jeff had found the box and he held it up. “You can’t have her.”

  Donner didn’t understand how serious Jeff was and he sneered. “You’ll be dead in ten minutes. The bunker will blast this mountain off the map.”

  “No, they won’t,” Jeff said icily. “Weaponized Smallpox will spread with explosions. This will decimate the entire country, including the bunker. You won’t get any reinforcements while I hunt you down.”

  “While we all hunt you down,” Cynthia spoke up, furious over Crista. “You can’t hide from us!”

  Donner began to understand that striking out at their sniper had been a mistake, but there wasn’t a way for him to back down now and he dragged Angela toward the chopper, grip so tight she was almost passing out.

  Jeff, grief-stricken, wasn’t bluffing and those who knew him fled toward the gate, hoping to escape the coming conflagration. It started hysteria and the entire camp fled toward the only exit that his chopper was blocking.

  Donner made the personal connection too late and let go of Angela, lunging for the box as Jeff turned toward Crista’s body.

  “Stop!”

  Alarms began sounding from every radio tuned on, loud, piercing waves that halted all activity in the effort to make that one sound go away. When it did, the replacement wasn’t better.

  “We wish to speak with Angela White or Adrian Mitchel. Please comply immediately.”

  Angela, who’d been pulled to safety behind a wall of Eagles, croaked out the obvious. “It’s the bunker, Jeff! Answer them before they bomb us.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  1

  Jeff stayed close to Angela as she answered the call, unsure if he might blow it all up anyway. Losing Crista was devastating now that he’d accepted the inevitable settling into kids and a wife. He’d almost convinced himself that he wanted it and he couldn’t resist swinging on Donner when he walked by to listen to the call.

  Donner hit the ground, prepared to brawl, but Jeff stepped back. He would take his rage out one swing at a time if that were the only way he could get it, but his male mind was already telling him that after it was all over, Donner could be hunted.

  “And I’d help with it,” Angela stated lowly. She hadn’t foreseen Crista’s death, though she’d had the bad feelings and ignored them in favor of the more obvious threats. She also hadn’t accounted for Bridget’s growing insanity either and it had cost them all.

  Donner stayed outside the tent, armed and ready to kill, and Trey kept the hostages in the chopper, though the two females weren’t allowed to come to the door, preventing foolish rescue attempts. Trey knew these two women were the only things between him and certain death. The mob in Angela’s camp was as dangerous as the one’s they’d quelled or ran from in Donner’s camp.

  “I repeat, put Mitchel or White on with us. We can see your location, hear your transmissions. Comply now.”

  The routine male voice was nearly a computer and it did lend a sense of calm to the situation as Angela keyed the radio. “You’ve got me. What?”

  The man was startled into a laugh. “Am I bothering you?”

  “We are kind of busy right now,” Angela confirmed, rubbing her throat as her men shot glares of hatred at Donner. Having him here went against everything they’d been trained for.

  “Yes, we’ve noticed,” the man replied sardonically. “You will get onto that chopper, Ms. White. All of your people can go free, but you and Mr. Mitchel have things to answer for.”

  Angela’s response wasn’t what her fighters were expecting.

  “I accept your terms. It is witnessed by hundreds here and across the country. If you break your word, the war will resume and the bunker will be first on their list.”

  “We have no intentions of continuing this war, Ms. White. Nor will we allow you to detonate a biological weapon on US soil. Should you do so, we will target your location and use enough force to obliterate the virus and your meddlesome interference.”

  Angela didn’t have to put a tremor in her voice to indicate being intimidated. The waves of menace were vibrant.

  “I’ll keep my word. You do the same.”

  “We will. Get on the chopper with no further incidents and we will order our troops to withdraw. When they are gone, your fleeing rats can desert their ship without fear of the big bad wolf.”

  The mocking was almost too much for Angela and she dropped her head to keep any of them from witnessing her rage. The bunker still had no respect for what she could do. That would change as soon as they betrayed the deal.

  “I need a few minutes to collect my things and pass leadership,” Angela said over the mutters and pr
otests growing in and around the tent.

  Donner wisely and carefully moved toward the chopper, understanding how much danger he was in as the wolf he’d only briefly glimpsed padded from the small supply tent to his right. He hadn’t seen the animal behind the boxes.

  Dog stopped a few feet from his newest enemy, aware of Angela in his mind and her warning of Donner’s powers kept him from lunging. She said Charlie and Brady would be killed if he attacked and it kept the wolf glaring but inactive.

  Angela heard the gate opening and feet pounding to get inside. The soldiers who’d survived were regrouping, choosing where to go next, and she had little doubt that they were being surrounded from multiple directions. She hadn’t been able to kill enough of them.

  Donner sat on the chopper’s floor, ready to fire his weapons, but the crowd knew Angela’s bluff hadn’t worked. She was being taken and there was nothing any of them could do about it.

  “You have five minutes, Ms. White, and then I’m sending the missile. You see, I don’t think we should waste our time capturing traitors. And I like explosions. They’re so…unstoppable.”

  Angela clicked the mike in reply and then jerked the wires from the radio. It was the only sign of her anger and no one realized she’d prevented them from easily calling to Brady. The rest of her plan had to have time to work before Marc’s vengeance landed square on Donner.

  2

  “Faster!” Marc growled. He and Quinn were way ahead of their group.

  Marc had left Safe Haven’s den right after Jennifer, who had chosen to go straight for Donner’s remaining men and threaten their lives to reveal his secret location. Marc hadn’t argued, though he doubted Lilly would have gone to the Major. Her vendetta was personal, and it was torturing Marc not to be able to help track down the infant, but he had to get to Angela. He’d sent teams out to start searching for any signs of Lilly, but in that time the awful whispers Dog had heard had returned to haunt Marc. Something was happening with Angela and it wasn’t what they had planned.