Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (17 page)

Vin paused long enough to pull the
jacket on. Though made for someone taller and wider than him, it
would cover his weapons belt.

A man Vin assumed was the Underboss
barked orders at the north end of town. Men shouldered long poles
in an attempt to brace the tilting structure. The armed guards
weren’t in sight.

Vin crossed the street without the
frantic workers noticing him. Once he reached the cover of the
building he started to run but slid to a stop at the back corner.
Four armed men fought their way through the brush as if a saboteur
hid under a shrub. He expected a similar group searched behind the
other building. He didn’t have time to wait for them to pass and
though his high tech camouflage could get him past them it would
take too long.

Vin ran back to the front of the
workers barracks and entered the first door. The set up inside
mirrored the other building. He took the steps three at a time, not
pausing until he came to the top floor. A ladder attached to the
back wall and led Vin to a trapdoor to the roof. He scampered up it
and opened the top to peek over the edge. The guards didn’t glance
upward, their attention focused on the ground.

He laid the door flat on the roof and
slid out, staying low. His recent wounds cried out a protest as he
crawled to the middle of the building where he stood up. A few deep
breaths beat the pain back into submission. He crouched enough so
the guards couldn’t see him and ran the length of the building,
shedding the worker’s jacket along the way.

When he reached the other end, Vin
pulled the remote from his belt and programmed in an approach
flight for his hover. He didn’t want the guards to shoot it down so
set it to fly to him on an arc beyond the reach of their limited
range weapons.

The guards started fighting their way
through the brush toward the jungle when they heard the hover start
up. They didn’t see the craft until it flew into the open behind
them. It zoomed up to the roof, hesitating for a moment as he
leaped on. Once aboard Vin guided it with hand controls.

The whistle of gas powered rounds flew
over Vin’s head. He turned from the open field and flew over the
street. Too much chaos remained near the mine entrance for anyone
to notice him. Vin gained altitude and flew over the heads of the
workers. He gained the cover of the jungle and then turned south
with all speed.

* * * *

Emma bathed Julie’s body with alcohol,
an old Earth treatment to bring down fever. The little girl had had
two convulsions in the past hour. Cindy Denton, Julie’s poor
mother, had run home to see to Billy and his father.

Julie no longer tossed or moaned in the
depths of her fever. Her tiny body sprawled slack and unresponsive
as if the life had already fled the cover of her physical self.
Emma feared the girl’s soul was correct that death had won the
battle.

Moe had promised to return when he
finished searching the settlement for more of the poison pellets.
The cursed things, pink and bright, had been designed to attract
children. Vannie had stopped by to let her know they’d found dozens
more of the foul things along the east wall. Only good luck had
prevented more children from finding them.

Emma brushed Julie’s hair back from her
forehead. Dried sweat left the fine blonde hair stiff and sticky.
Despite the continued IV fluids, Julie had stopped sweating after
the last seizure. Finding an antidote had been their only hope, but
Julie had weakened quicker than expected. Even if Vin didn’t get
caught and managed to find the medicine, it would be too late for
the little girl. Emma blinked back tears. She didn’t want Cindy to
see them when she returned.

The cool air of evening swept around
Emma’s legs as the door opened behind her. Cindy had certainly
hurried to return.

“
Is she dead?”

Emma turned so quick she lost her
balance at Vin’s question. He caught her arms and steadied
her.

“
You’re back.” Emma
touched his face but his attire drew her gaze down his body. Body
armor, of a kind and quality she’d never seen.

Vin undid a seam in the side of his
outfit and withdrew a thin case. “I think this is what you
need.”

Emma had a million questions, but they
could wait. The package held four precious vials of antidote. After
reading the instruction on one of the bottles, she used a needle to
extract just one dose. She fed it into the IV tube, muttering a
prayer as if flowed into Julie’s vein.

Vin took up the sponge and started
rubbing alcohol on Julie’s bare arm.

Emma found another sponge and joined
him. With Vin there, the treatment no longer seemed so hopeless.
“Did you have trouble finding it?”

“
No.”

“
Did you have to kill
anyone?” Too late to call it back.

Vin didn’t look up from Julie.
“No.”

Emma sighed with relief. At least she
didn’t have that guilt to deal with. “You didn’t get injured?
Further injured?”

“
No.”

“
Did anyone see you? How
did you find it? Did anyone chase after you? Do they know you’re
from here?”

Vin paused and frowned at her. “No. It
was in the medical office. No. Probably.”

Emma slapped her sponge down on the
table, prepared to vent all her frustration at Vin, but then Julie
moaned. The little girl rolled her head from side to side. Emma
reached out to comfort her and touched her wet cheek. Moisture
beaded all over Julie’s skin, soaking the thin gown she wore. “Her
fever is breaking. Vin, her fever is breaking.”

She moved without thought, throwing her
arms around him. She grabbed his face and kissed him again and
again. She caught his lips and held him to her. The armor he wore
pressed against the length of her body and drove home the danger of
what he’d done. Without being asked, without hesitation and without
failing.

Vin pushed Emma back and a few seconds
later the door opened.

“
Julie!” Cindy Denton
gasped.

Emma took Cindy’s hand and led her to
the bedside. “I think she’s turning the corner.”

Over the course of the next sixteen
hours, Cindy and Emma tended Julie as she sweated away the last of
her fever. Vin disappeared, and Moe checked in twice to bring them
tea and food.

The first rays of the morning sun bent
in through the cheap glass windows when Julie opened her eyes.
“Momma, why are you crying?”

Emma joined Cindy in tears and hugs.
Cindy couldn’t stop thanking her, but Emma knew that Vin deserved
all the gratitude. She intended to make sure everyone knew it, but
first she would give him a private thanks.

* * * *

Emma found Vin in his shop, asleep
while leaning on one of his work tables. Asleep until she walked
in.

Vin sat up and stared at her. His AI
unit blinked on the table in front of him, as sleepy looking as its
user. “Julie is better?” The roughness in his deep voice reminded
her of his recent injuries.

“
She is.” Emma walked to
his side, hiding a shyness she hadn’t felt with him before. She’d
seen him unclothed, yet this moment seemed more intimate. Perhaps
because of what they’d been through together. They’d battled death
and won. She pulled up another work stool and sat beside him. “How
are you doing?”

“
How?” Vin looked at the
AI screen. “I’m using this to tap into….”

She put her hand on his arm. “I mean
how do you feel? Your wounds?”

“
Oh. I think they’re
healing.”

She took his hand and stood up. “Let’s
go up to your room where I can check them.”

“
I felt no tearing or
bleeding.” But he let her lead him.

The steps reminded Emma that she’d been
on her feet for a full day with only brief rests when her legs
wouldn’t hold her anymore. Before they reached the top, Vin helped
her with a strong hand under her elbow.

He touched a switch on the wall and a
bright overhead light came on. His body armor hung neatly from a
hook on the wall, leading Emma to wonder where it had been before.
Vin pulled his gray fitted shirt over his head.

New, smaller bandages had replaced the
ones she’d applied. Their haphazard placement told her he’d changed
them himself. The image of him twisting and stretching his injured
body to treat himself saddened her. Vin needed someone to take care
of him. Someone who understood him, at least a little.

He stood with his back to her as she
pried off the self-sticking dressings. Though they surely tugged on
his half healed wounds, Vin never flinched or made a sound. She
touched the smooth unmarked skin in the center of his back to make
sure the heat beneath her fingers was his natural temperature and
not a sign of infection. The organic skin shield had started to
peel in places as new skin grew beneath it. She nudged him into
facing her.

The bandages on his front had been
applied in better fashion. Seeing the wounds reminded her how close
to death he’d come. After she pulled the bandages off, she ran her
hands over his ribs and searched for new injuries. “You’re sure you
weren’t hurt again?”

He stilled her roving hands by covering
them with his. “I only need some sleep, but first I have to
finish…..”

She touched his lips to stop him and
then took his hand, leading him to the cot. “You’ve done enough for
now. Maybe enough for a lifetime. Even super soldiers need to
rest.”

He allowed her to push him down on the
bed. She kept her hand on his shoulder, enjoying the solid feel of
his muscles beneath his fingers. Everything about him was solid. He
again covered her hand with his and held hers in place. He stared
at her with a look of uncertainty, an emotion she realized was
nearly always present in their conversations. At least she
recognized his meager emotional cues more often.

“
And do amazing doctors
also need their rest?” Vin tugged on her hand, surprising her into
a yip and a tumble into his arms. He absorbed the impact and fell
back onto the cot with her on top of him.

Even in the midst of delighted shock,
she worried about his wounds. She scooted to one side of the narrow
bed, and Vin stretched out so they faced each other.

Emma ran her hand along Vin’s smooth
cheek. Geneticists had discovered how to make men beardless
generations ago but it was a choice for most men. Not the Recon
Marines. Beards required care, a luxury of men of leisure not
marines. Vin’s eyes no longer looked cool to Emma, but cautious and
distant. Despite their current intimate position, the distance
remained.

The cot permitted only a twitch between
them but somehow Vin managed not to touch her along their lengths.
So she closed the distance, flinging her trouser clad leg over both
of his. It was difficult to think in her current position from any
perspective except that of a lonely woman in bed with a beautiful,
equally lonely man. But she’d never shared her body with a man
purely for physical relief or for emotional forgetfulness. Though
the strength of her growing feelings for Vin motivated her, she
worried he didn’t feel the same. The psychiatrist part of her knew
he carried a wound that still bled inside him. Whatever germinated
between them could go no further until she tended that deep injury.
“Tell me about Yalo Pango.”

He couldn’t withdraw physically on the
narrow cot. She touched his face again, willing him not to pull
away any other way.

Vin took her hand from his face and
pressed it to his bare chest. His heart beat with slow, strong
strokes beneath her palm. “Yalo wasn’t anything like you. She was a
soldier, a warrior, strong of body and without your soft
heart.”

Emma smiled at him in encouragement,
wondering if Vin knew he insulted her.

“
It was so easy to
understand her. Her duty was first and all like it was for me. But
somehow we found a way to have love and duty both for a little
while. We married and committed to protection of the Queen of
Giroux. Yalo had just found out she was pregnant. We hadn’t told
anyone yet, savoring the wonder just between us for a short time.
Then Hadrason came to Crevan Four and tried to kill Queen Callie
Adell, but Yalo did her duty.”

After he remained silent for a long
moment, Emma filled the silence. “She died protecting the
queen.”

Vin swallowed. “And our child with
her.”

Emma wanted to wrap him in her arms,
but she needed him to tell it all. “And then you went searching for
revenge.”

He dropped his gaze to her hand he
trapped against his chest. “I wanted to kill Hadrason, but it would
have been disastrous for my brothers and their chance at a new
life. So I struck out on my own, gathered what I needed and started
my mission. My brothers captured Hadrason, but the killer earned
only a plush prison. Vannie told me he probably still runs his
empire of mining using corrupt military leaders and greedy
politicians to build his fortune and power. He loves his
money.”

Vin’s insight surprised Emma though she
doubted he understood all the complex machinations of Hadrason and
his ilk. But revenge could be simple. “So you went after his
empire?”