At Any Cost (Book 3): Bleak Horizons

by Fawkes, K. M.

  Bleak Horizons

  At Any Cost Book 3

  K. M. Fawkes

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  K. M. Fawkes Mailing List

  Also by K. M. Fawkes

  Copyright 2019 by K. M. Fawkes

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.

  All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.

  Prologue

  Garrett looked out across the faces of the townspeople, trying to get his feet under him before he started talking. Never in his entire history had he thought he’d be doing something like this—trying so desperately to get people to accept him as their leader again. It wasn’t something he’d ever wanted for himself, and he certainly hadn’t set out with this on his list of goals.

  But they’d come to this town and found it lawless and in need of guidance, and he’d quickly stepped up to the plate. It had helped that the people of Trinity Ranch seemed to be intent on him stepping into the role, and it had been even easier when he’d realized that they were actually going to listen to him, join in on his discussions, and carry through on some of his ideas—or at least tell him why they thought those ideas were wrong, and what they could do better.

  Since they’d returned from Helen Falls and found Steve shouting about how defective Garrett was as a leader the day before, though, he’d been fighting a battle with himself about whether this was the right role for him or not. The night before, he’d been sure that his time as leader was over. He’d been standing in his backyard with his few allies, positive that he was going to be displaced.

  The thought had even crossed his mind that once Steve was in control, Garrett and his friends would be lucky if they were allowed to stay in town at all. Steve had made no secret of how he felt about Garrett, and it wouldn’t have surprised him to find an eviction notice nailed to his door. Even worse, he’d felt as though the townspeople had agreed with him.

  Which was why he’d been so surprised when he woke up this morning to find the entire town—less Steve and some of his friends—at his door, having pushed Greyson forward as their spokesperson.

  Garrett’s gaze went to Greyson’s, and he knew his face held a number of questions. Greyson, one of his closest allies in the town, could have come bearing many different messages. The fact that the people of the town had pushed him forward could have meant anything, as far as Garrett was concerned. It could have been that this was the man they thought Garrett would listen to best when it came to stepping down. Could have been this was the man who could deliver the news about having to leave town the gentlest.

  He certainly hadn’t expected the words that came out of Greyson’s mouth then.

  “Cap, you know I’m on your team,” Greyson said. “You know I’ve got your back. Anything happens, I’m with you. Have been since the first day you arrived. The people thought it might be best if I was the one to speak to you because of that.”

  “Okay…” Garrett said, drawing out the last syllable. He glanced around for Alice, wondering if she knew what was going on, but couldn’t see her in the crowd. Hadn’t she been invited? “What’s your point, Greyson?” he asked bluntly. “Neither one of us is the sort of man who enjoys beating around the bush. How about you get to the point?”

  Greyson gave him a quick grin and then nodded. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to start with a bunch of flowery language. Just wanted to make sure you knew where I stood.”

  “I know where you stand,” Garrett muttered. “You know you’re on my list of people to go to if I need anything. I suppose I’m glad to know that you feel the same. Or something.” He lifted a brow, acknowledging the joke, and grew quiet, silently suggesting that Greyson continue with whatever it was that he—and the townspeople—had come here to say.

  Greyson reached out and grabbed onto Garrett’s shoulder, squeezing sharply.

  “Came to tell you that the town’s not behind what Steve said to you last night,” he said. “That was him blowing smoke and nothing more. You might have heard cheering from the crowd, might have seemed like some of the people were riled up, but that doesn’t mean anything. Certainly doesn’t mean anyone wants you to step down. There’s not a person here who thinks Steve should actually be the leader. Don’t think there’s anyone here who would trust him managing the local library, much less the entire town.”

  There was laughter from the crowd, and Garrett glanced out at them, too surprised to come up with an answer right away. He’d gone to bed the night before with a number of possibilities in his mind, and none of them had included him maintaining leadership of the town.

  No, he hadn’t wanted to step down. He still thought he was the best man for the job, and that these people deserved a responsible, smart leader. But he also didn’t want to stay if they didn’t want him. The scene the night before had certainly made him think that the majority of the town had been in agreement with Steve about Garrett stepping down.

  Hearing otherwise was definitely a surprise. And now as he looked out at the crowd, he finally saw Alice at the back, her mouth twisted to the side in a smirk of pleasure—and her eyes telling him very clearly that she’d expected this, and that she would be rubbing it in later. She had believed in him as a leader long before he’d believed in it himself.

  “What exactly are you saying?” Garrett asked, looking back at Greyson.

  “That we’re hoping you’ll still be leader here,” Julia spoke up from right behind him. “Since Greyson is doing exactly what he said he wouldn’t do and beating around the bush.” The young woman, whom Garrett had first met in General Green’s military-base-turned-prison, sent an arch-browed look in Greyson’s direction, her head tipped in disapproval. “Maybe we should have chosen someone else.”

  She turned back to Garrett and gave him a charming grin. “We talked about it last night after Steve and his friends left, and after you were back at your house, and we came to the conclusion that we just can’t do without you, Garrett. We need you. And we’re hoping you’ll agree to need us back.”

  Garrett took a total of about three seconds to think about it.

  “Nothing would make me happier,” he said firmly. “You know how I feel about all of you. You know I would never willingly desert you. If you want me to stay, then I’ll be staying, and that’s all there is.”

  A cheer went up from the crowd, and Garrett cheered with them, unable to stop himself.

  Chapter 1

  Garrett stepped carefully into the cave, holding his breath. The place was dark, dank, and more than a little creepy. Then again, he’d always been the sort of person who didn’t like enclosed spaces. They made him jumpy. Nervous.

  But if it came down to it, this particular enclosed space just might be the way his people made it out of a bad situation alive. And for that, he was willing to loo
k past the squeamishness in his belly.

  The cave was quite small compared to some of the greater underground caverns in New Mexico. Definitely not something there would have ever been tours for. He hadn’t even known it was here. When one of the kids had come to him saying that they’d discovered something while out hunting, he’d almost written it off as too good to be true. Something they’d imagined. Now, he was definitely thinking otherwise.

  “What do you think?” Greyson muttered, appearing suddenly at Garrett’s side, lantern in hand.

  Garrett eyed the walls around them, then threw his gaze up to the ceiling. It couldn’t be more than twenty feet in either direction from the opening, and the ceiling was closer to the ground than his stomach liked. Maybe ten feet up, twelve if they stretched it. But everyone would be able to fit in here, if they got close.

  “It will be a perfect hiding place,” he finally said. “Enough room for everyone, even if they need to lie down for a bit. And the entrance is almost impossible to see if you don’t know it’s here.”

  “God only knows how Shawnee found it,” Greyson agreed, nodding. “Never occurred to me that there might be rock underneath all that sand. Or that anything good might come of the rock itself.”

  Garrett snorted and walked into the center of the opening, then started turning, mentally filling the cave with the people from Trinity Ranch and making sure they’d fit. There were fewer now than there had been, and he cringed at the memory of those they’d lost. Bart and Riley, left behind—potentially dead, potentially held hostage in Helen Falls. Victims of the biker gang that lived there and had started making trouble for the small community of Trinity Ranch over a twice-stolen tanker of gasoline. Fawn, the tiny girl with the big heart, who had died of a sickness they’d never been able to figure out. Only children, dead now thanks to the actions of—

  Don’t, he told himself firmly, breaking the thought before it snowballed. He didn’t have time for that. Didn’t have time for the heartbreak and frustration. The only question he had to think about right now was whether everyone would fit in this cave—and whether they could get here easily if they had to leave town.

  “Think it can fit everyone?” he asked, turning around again and trying to imagine everyone at Trinity Ranch. “Think it’s close enough for the people to get here easily, if it comes down to it?”

  There was a pause, and then: “I think so.” Greyson turned with Garrett, falling into step with him. “Don’t know how much they’d be able to bring with them in terms of supplies, but they’ll be able to make it easily enough if we draw them a map. Just can’t plan to stay. Then again, this isn’t supposed to be a long-term hiding place. Right?”

  “Right,” Garrett said firmly. “Only to be used if they don’t have any other choice. Just a place to hide. Just in case.”

  “And what about the plan?”

  Garrett bit his lip. True, there were plans to leave town. That didn’t mean they would materialize—and it didn’t mean they couldn’t be prepared in case something happened before they were able to go.

  “Figure this is a pretty central location to several of the towns around here,” Garrett ended up saying, choosing not to share the extent of his thoughts. “If we stay close enough, we’ll still be able to use it.”

  Another pause, and Garrett already knew what was coming.

  “Think they’ll be coming after us?”

  Garrett turned to meet the bigger man’s eyes. “You know they will. And I can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to defend ourselves. Not against a gang of men who don’t care how many lives they take. We have too many women and children, and few of them are comfortable around a gun. Yes, they’ll come for us, and when they do, we’ll need a place to hide.”

  He cast his eyes back over the cave. It wasn’t ideal; if the bikers from Helen Falls found them here, they’d be worse than cornered. Here, they’d be completely trapped.

  But if the bikers from Helen Falls were distracted by something else at the time, and never saw the townspeople leave town at all, it just might work.

  “What’s the plan?” Alice asked the moment Garrett was back in town.

  Her tone was sharp, and he knew exactly what that meant. She was upset that he’d taken Greyson with him into the wilderness to look at the cave. Angry at having been left behind.

  Frustrated at having lost those two kids back in Helen Falls.

  Instead of answering her immediate question, Garrett addressed the things she wasn’t saying as he strode quickly toward the house he’d adopted as his own. “Alice, you know I couldn’t take you. You’re one of the only people I trust, and I needed you here to keep an eye on things while I was out of town. You’re the only one who can talk sense into these people if they decide they want to try something crazy. If they won’t hear sense, you’re the only one who can physically manhandle them into obeying.”

  He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, wondering if that would do the trick, and caught the ghost of a smile at the corner of her mouth. More than she usually gave anyone. He’d count that as a win.

  “Anything happen while I was gone?” he continued.

  It wasn’t an empty question, and it wasn’t one that he asked lightly. One of the men in town, Steve Thomason, had been making trouble for Garrett, Alice, and their group since they’d arrived. He’d never liked Garrett, and had been both offended and jealous when the rest of the townspeople voted Garrett in as their preferred leader.

  Steve had spent every waking moment since then doing his best to undermine Garrett and take over. And when Garrett, Alice, Shane and Greyson had returned from Helen Falls down a truck and missing the two teenagers they’d taken with them, Steve had made short work of riling the townspeople up about Garrett and his leadership.

  Even though the people had arrived at Garrett’s door that morning, assuring him that he was still their leader in their eyes, Garrett knew that they weren’t as solidly behind him as they had been before. Garrett felt them starting to splinter—and he knew for a fact that Steve would be working to drive a wedge deeper into the divide.

  “Well, you know Steve,” Alice said, lengthening her strides to keep up with Garrett. “That man can’t keep his fool mouth shut. Can’t stop telling people that he’d be a better leader than you. But the moment you ask him what he actually wants to do, he doesn’t have an original idea in his brain. Just a loudmouth, and nothing more.”

  “A loudmouth that the people tend to listen to, if I’m not here to drown him out,” Garrett grumbled.

  Alice bumped his shoulder with her own—a rare show of affection from the stoic woman. “That’s why you have me,” she answered. “To do your shouting for you when you’re out of town. Now what’s going on with the caves? Anything we can use? Are they real?” She cast her gaze to the side, where they could see the rolling flatness of the desert between houses. “I didn’t think there was anything out there but sand and gravel.”

  Garrett turned up the walkway that led to his house—or at least the house where he currently lived—and stopped to face her. Alice’s hair was getting longer now, reaching past her chin and almost to her shoulders, and he thought it made her look… less sharp, somehow. The look in her eyes belied that softness, though, and he quickly rerouted his thoughts.

  Keep thinking about her looking soft, and she’ll desert you faster than you can say “wait,” he told himself firmly.

  “They’re real enough,” he said, answering her question. “Or rather, it’s real enough. Very well hidden, too. Entrance is virtually undetectable, just looks like a hole in the ground in the middle of a bunch of cacti.”

  Alice breathed out through pursed lips. “And there’s enough room for everyone?”

  Garrett shrugged. “Enough room for the people. Not the supplies. And not for any length of time. Definitely not if they’re being actively chased. Those bikers see our people go down into that hole and the whole community is going to be trapped down there. The opposite of safe. Bu
t if they—if we—need a place to hide for a few hours…” He shrugged. “It works.”

  Alice’s eyes narrowed. “They?” she asked, latching onto the point he’d hoped she wouldn’t notice.

  Another shrug. “It would be pretty foolish to think that if something happens, we’ll all get out of here at the same time,” he answered simply. “If something does happen, I know I won’t be one of the ones running first. Will you?”

  She gave him another sly cat grin, and nodded once. “You’re willing to do that? Even for people who don’t completely trust you anymore?”

  He turned sharply on his toes and started walking toward his house again. “I can’t blame them for that. Not really. We might have thought we were doing the right thing in Helen Falls, but that doesn’t change the fact that we came back without one of the trucks, and may well have gotten Riley and Bart killed. We put the entire community at risk.”

  “Which is why we also immediately started in with a plan to leave,” Alice said, rushing to catch up with him. “A plan that Steve has been trying to undermine since we voted on it.”

  “Steve is convinced that there’s nothing to fear,” Garrett growled.

  He reached the porch and flung the front door open, the very thought of Steve making him feel caged in and restless. “And unfortunately he’s right about us not knowing for sure where we’re going. That doesn’t mean we can stay here and just… wait. Like rabbits sinking back into the shadows, hoping the coyote can’t see us or might decide we’re not worth the time. We have something those bikers want. We pissed them off by taking it, and then we pissed them off even more by keeping it. Even worse, we managed to injure their leader and kill some of their men. And damage their bikes.”

  He gave her a pointed look at that, to which she raised her eyebrows in a “Who me? I was just saving your life” sort of way.