From The Ashes (Life After War) (80 page)

A loud cheer echoed, drawing female attention. Now that they were no longer being held by the women or the lingering effects of the drugs, the Eagles had returned. Men stood straight, faces determined, hearts and minds meeting in one goal–get their people and their leader back.

A few of the snake women were muttering among themselves, realizing they'd discounted the men but shouldn't have. Between the two groups, they now outnumbered the Major's men, though only by a small margin.

Nuna saw the looks and shrugged. “If you wish to die this way, I find no dishonor in it.”

That sent them back to the packing, and Nuna threw the men a satisfied glower. They weren't stealing her women, and if she couldn't have the soft male avoiding her stare, she didn't want to help any of them, for any reason.

“
Move out, Eagles.”

The team vanished into the darkness, each man following the single reflective light on the back of the jacket ahead of them. It was the flag–and all of them glowed faintly for this purpose.

Behind them, the snake women also disappeared into the darkness, but they went west–out of the city. Let the men keep fighting. The women wanted only to survive.

Chapter Twenty Four

1

“
It's not working.” Hudson said, bored and tired of making the drugged woman hurt enough to rise through the fog for a long scream. He didn't mind torture, but this wasn't fun–it was baby cuts and twisting points when he wanted to stab.

“
Once more, and we'll break for a few minutes,” Garret conceded. He'd been so sure...

Hudson obligingly twisted the blade.

“
Nnnooooooooo!”

This hoarse shout of agony was enough to make even Hudson cringe back. He'd hit a vein.

Hudson quickly compressed it and began tying a lace around her wrist so she wouldn't bleed out.

Garret's office was just another storage room, filled with boxes and crates. There was a wide desk in the far corner, near a door that led to his personal residence. In that luxuriously decked out room was a single window and door. Garret liked escape routes.

Garret picked up the mic. “In ten minutes, we'll start again. Bring my son and we'll trade. Ten minutes, Mitchel... if she doesn't bleed out before then.”

Silence.

The Major shook off the shadow of fate–he made his own!–and sneered at Hudson. “Go rape something. I'll call when I need you.”

Garret wasn't happy about Lenore's treatment, but they'd all disliked Embry, so there hadn't been a punishment, only words–which were sometimes enough. In this case, Hudson's spirits were renewed. He'd told Lenore to be waiting for him after the battle, and if she wasn't, he'd get the fun of hunting her down. Life was just wonderful.

Hudson opened the door.

Thud!

He stumbled backward and barely stopped himself from swinging.

Cara shoved her way into the room. “He's coming! I saw him.”

Cara looked like she'd been running, maybe from the very men who'd provided the distraction for Adrian's escape, and Garret didn't question her presence.

Cara didn't look at the woman in the chair, though she knew who Shannon was. Still mourning the loss of her mate, Cara held no sympathy. If Shannon had been a fighter, it might have made a difference, but she was only a corpse waiting to be made.

Garret waved Hudson toward the other door. “Be ready.”

“
Do you feel death here, darling?”

Garret jerked, startled. He turned to find the once stunning blonde staring at him with cold hatred.

Shannon leaned her head back, taking shallow breaths to control her flipping stomach. “When he gets here, I won't be the only one to bleed out.”

Garret saw that her tie had come undone and blood was running freely down her arm. He moved to replace it, not wanting Adrian to find her dead. He had to
see
it.

Even battered, Shannon was still beautiful, and Garret ran a rough finger down her cheek. “Why couldn't you just be loyal to me?”

She slowly opened her sunken eyes, bracing. “Why couldn't you let me go to the man I loved?”

Instead of a blow, the Major chuckled. “Because he wanted you, too, of course. I couldn't allow him happiness. You never mattered, except as a way to get to him.”

Shannon already knew–she'd come to terms with it a long time ago. “Conner's with his father now. That's all I ever wanted.”

Garret sneered jealously. “Conner is dying in an alley somewhere from my bullet!”

Shannon screamed, this one carrying an inner pain that Hudson hadn't been able to draw.

“
Motion sensors are going off, Major.”

Garret went to the screen and saw multiple alarms flashing in silent warning. Three in the rear, one in the front... and six more on their weakest side.

“
Back together, are we?” Garret muttered. “Good.”

Cara lingered by the window, tensed for battle. She'd come to salvage what she could for her women, but the Major wasn't in a giving mood right now. She needed leverage.

Bang! Bang!

The gunfire was followed by footsteps thudding up the stairs.

“
We've lost the outer perimeter.”

The guard that informed them of that placed himself between the Major and the door, but not until he was directed to do so by Garret.

Bang!

This shot was louder, deeper, and came from the rear of the building.

“
They're into the compound!”

“
All men to full alert!”

Radios blared with panic, and the Major didn't bother to calm his men. If they followed their training, they were still likely to die. Mitchel wasn't one to take prisoners.

More feet stomped hurriedly up the stairs, and the Major braced for Adrian's entry. He'd never hated anyone so much.

The door flew open, and Garret saw the person's enraged face an instant before he fired.

Bang!

Bang!

Only one body thumped to the floor, and the Major chuckled cruelly as Hudson screamed in denial. Talk about irony.

2

Kenn grinned at the sight of Adrian marching through the alley. The smile grew when the rest of the mission team appeared behind him, pointing and laughing in relief.

Adrian didn't slow, and his men fell in, ready to help him express his displeasure.

As he neared the now unguarded, unlocked back door, Kenn paused. “How do you want to do this?”

Adrian slid the extra gun from Kenn's holster and stepped inside. “Kill them all.”

Kenn laughed as the battle shield fell. “That works.”

They ran up the stairs, over bodies that made them frown in confusion, but there wasn't time to stop as bounty hunters rounded the corner and began firing.

“
We have a group of them in the west hall!” one of the hunters shouted into his mic.

Adrian promptly shot him in the head.

Kenn hit the man next to him, and the group of hunters fled down a different hall.

“
What the hell...”

Daryl shrugged it off and moved up the lantern-lit stairs on Kenn's heels, vaguely wondering where Kyle was.

They moved through wooden halls stripped of carpets, paintings, curtains, and anything else that could be used for cover or to encourage a fire. In the top corners were dark cameras that they'd expected to have to shoot out. Why wasn't Garret watching for them?

Adrian didn't pause when they reached the only closed door. One kick sent it banging against the wall for a short glimpse before it slammed closed.

Now, he slid to the side, the images burned into his mind. A bloody Shannon in the chair, three men lined up behind her, but in front of Garret, who was standing at his desk, gun in hand.

Adrian concentrated. What else had he seen?

“
Come on in, Mitchel! It's time we settled this.”

Adrian motioned the Eagles to stay clear of the door, not sure if Garret remembered how he used to set the enemy up by shooting through the walls on each side of a door. It was much more effective than blasting harmless shots through the peephole.

Adrian slid in front of the door, still working the scene. What else had been in the room? Chairs...stacks of books...gun on the floor...a dark puddle under the desk. Garret was wounded.

“
Looks like you had an accident.”

Garret's answering tone was strained. “There was a... domestic issue as you arrived. It's over now.”

Adrian used his boot to slowly push the door open, spotting the body of a woman he didn't know, and a hunter crouched over her in grief.

“
Lenore wasn't happy about her rapist not being punished. She chose to give herself justice, and I couldn't allow that.”

Adrian thought of the dozen bodies they'd passed on the way up here. “She got her money's worth. You're short two full teams, thanks to her aim.”

The Major frowned. “Really? I'm sorry I killed her then. That type of shooting is worth an effort.”

Garret sighed regretfully. “Much too late now. I only need you, anyway.”

“
And Conner,” Adrian reminded.

Garret glanced toward the door, expecting the boy to limp in. When there was no movement, he frowned. “Where is he?”

“
Dead,” Adrian stated bitterly. “Because of the drugs, I couldn't save him!”

Garret snarled in denial, but it was lost under Shannon's scream. She lunged from the chair, grabbing for the gun Lenore had dropped when Garret shot her.

“
I hate you!”

Garret ducked as she fired, but the battered woman had accounted for his reaction. Her shot went too low, however, hitting the edge of the desk and taking his hat from his bald head with the ricochet.

Barely able to see, Shannon raised the barrel and fired again.

Bang!

Hudson took the opportunity to back out of the room through the Major's private door.

Hudson fled rapidly through their fleeing, chaotic compound, thinking he was on the wrong side. Mitchel's men were loyal to him because he cared about their lives. Garret's men stayed from fear or greed, and Hudson recognized the moment. He'd had enough.

Hudson was dry–devoid of humor and imagination, the Major would have said. Just a crew girl, Lenore had inspired strange feelings in Hudson–ones he'd been careful to hide. And he'd been extremely patient waiting for his turn.

Unable to love, Garret had underestimated Hudson's emotional stability, continuing to laugh as Lenore bled out. In that moment, his bond with the Major had snapped.

“
Hudson!”

He ignored the call for help. The days of coming when summoned were over. Hudson stepped over the bodies he was sure had come from Lenore–she'd certainly tried to wipe Garret out–and continued toward the dam. He'd set things off early, go out with a bang.

The furious explosives man headed back to the place he'd been happiest–before Lenore was shot and the future began to appear so grim. Let the Major and his quarry fight it out. What did he care? There was only one thing that would comfort him now, and Hudson moved that way with freedom ringing in his heart.

He wasn't bound to the Major anymore! It was a dangerous, powerful feeling, and he was sorry he wouldn't get a chance to grow bored of it. Where he was headed, he wouldn't return.

3

Daryl fired at the pair of bounty hunters coming up the stairs and ducked behind the wall as they responded in kind.

Another group of men had them pinned down across the hall from Adrian. They were keeping the Major's men from reaching him, but they couldn't help their leader, either.

“
I hate you!”
the voice came from across a dim hall that was alive with gunfire.

It's almost over
, Daryl concluded, firing again as an unlucky hunter popped his head around the corner.
We're almost finished.

“
Look out!” Billy yelled.

Daryl threw himself to the floor as the wall exploded.

Grenade
, he thought dizzily, ears ringing.