Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (7 page)

Emma’s attacker hit the gravel hard.
Vin kept his hold on the man’s throat and dropped the rifle so he
could pull his pistol. Before the man’s breathe woofed out of his
chest, Vin had the gun pressed against the man’s temple.

“
No! No, Vin.” Emma put
her hand on Vin’s shoulder, warmth soaking through his shirt. “He’s
my friend. It’s only Dillon.”

Dillon whimpered in the silence. The
only other sound was people breathing. No one even
moved.

Vin tucked his pistol back into his
weapon belt and snatched up his rifle as he rose. Moe strode
forward and helped Dillon to his feet. People started talking
again, walking around the moose and some jogging off to collect the
needed tools.

Emma touched Vin’s shoulder again. “He
wasn’t hurting me, Vin.”

Vin thought he saw pity in her dark
eyes but that made no sense. He wasn’t the one picking himself off
the ground. “He shouldn’t have touched you so … roughly.” Vin
wanted to say Dillon shouldn’t have touched her at all. But then
another thought had him looking closer at the trembling Dillon.
“Where were you? Why are you just now arriving?”

Dillon swallowed and looked to Emma as
if expecting her to help. “I … I live in the last house on the
north end of town. I didn’t hear anything until the shot woke me
up.”

Vin knew he didn’t read emotions well
in others, but he sensed the lie. He itched to grab the man’s
throat again but Emma wouldn’t want it. “The north end?”

“
Yes. The very last
house.”

Vin stepped toward Dillon, shaking
Emma’s hand off his arm. “So you didn’t noticed the open gate when
you heard a disturbance?”

“
Open gate?” Vannie asked.
“Are you saying this behemoth busted through our gate?”

Vin watched Dillon’s expression,
searching for guilt. “No, I’m saying someone opened it, and this
poor dumb animal wandered in.”

Moe overheard and cursed softly. He
grabbed Dillon’s arm and pulled him back through the alley,
speaking over his shoulder to Vannie and Vin. “Come with me.” Moe
led them down the middle of the street, keeping a firm grip on
Dillon. Emma trailed behind them.

“
Hell’s balls,” Vannie
cursed when the open gate came into view. “Who would have done
this?”

“
Don’t swear, Vannie,”
Emma said. “Dillon didn’t do this if that’s what you’re thinking,
Vin.”

“
Of course I didn’t.”
Dillon jerked his arm from Moe’s grasp. “I was sound asleep until
that shot blasted through the night. Why would anyone do
this?”

“
Anything could have
walked in through here,” Vannie said.

Vin realized he should have closed the
gate as soon as he noticed it. “I better check the rest of the
village.”

“
I’ll go with you,” Emma
said.

“
No you won’t.” Vin
started toward the houses on the eastern side. “Close that gate,
Vannie.”

Emma tagged along behind him, her small
boots snapping a quick cadence to keep up with him. Vin walked
faster so by the time he rounded the corner behind Dillon’s home,
she was trotting. And making a lot of noise. He stopped and turned
to face her.

She stopped also and folded her arms,
her flimsy blouse emphasizing how skinny her limbs were.

“
You’ll only be in my
way.”

“
Someone has to watch your
back.”

“
I don’t understand your
jokes.” And being so close to her while she wore such light
clothing didn’t help clear his thoughts.

“
You can’t make me angry
so don’t try.”

Vin blinked, struggling to make any
sense of her comment. He should have stayed hidden in the forest
instead of trying to live among these people. A rustling sound
distracted him.

Emma opened her mouth to speak again
but Vin placed his finger on her lips. Her breath flitted across
his calluses. He jerked his hand away, cursing himself for touching
her. He gestured over his shoulder. Now he would have to keep her
right beside him.

They continued along the back of the
houses until Vin paused. He needed Emma to stop moving. Her
footballs sounded as loud as gunshots to him. The sounds came from
behind the foliage growing near the wall. Deep shadows hid the area
underneath the plants even from Vin’s sharp vision. The scent of
fresh blood and spilled innards hung in the still predawn
air.

Vin’s experiences had taken him to many
worlds. Each new planet had its own variety of life. Warm-blooded
beasts of fur and hair usually carried similar scents but this odor
reminded him more of vipers and cold scales.

“
What is it?” Emma
whispered.

Vin didn’t know and didn’t plan on
going into the bushes in the dark to find out. Some reptiles used
venom to catch prey and protect themselves. He’d seen men die
horrid painful deaths after encountering such alien creatures. He
retreated Emma and forced Emma to back up also, creating a larger
killing field in front of him.

Though he couldn’t see them, he sensed
many sets of eyes upon him. A slight rattling of bushes close to
the ground meant many small creatures lurking in the shadows. He
hoped they were shy of something larger than themselves. But
animals traveling in packs had the courage wrought by
numbers.

A small lizard hopped out of the
bushes, dark liquid glistening around its mouth. It traveled on its
long back legs that sported evil looking claws shaped like
sharpened hooks. It carried its front legs before it like tiny
hands on thin arms. Though the beastie stood only as high as Vin’s
knees, the teeth exposed by its gaping mouth hung as long as man’s
small finger. Even as he assessed it dangerousness, a half-dozen of
its companions bounded from cover to join it. The first one
chattered and chirped, and the others answered.

“
I think they’re talking
to each other.” Emma wrapped her fingers in the back of Vin’s shirt
and tugged as if to pull him back.

He resisted. Retreat would inspire an
attack. Moving slowly, he reached for his pistol. Even that slight
movement prompted the little beasts to spring forward. Their cries
rose in pitch as they flung themselves toward them.

Vin’s first three shots each took down
a lizard but then the other four were upon him. The creatures sank
their teeth into his boots. Vin kicked out with his right foot and
threw two of them backward. They landed with startling agility and
raced toward him. He shot another one.

Only the quality of his boots prevented
their knife-like teeth from chewing through to his shins. They dug
on his feet with the back claws and chattered in a rapid
nerve-jangling way. A small foot crunched into one of the beasts.
It tore away a piece of his boot as it spun away two paces from the
blow. Vin shot it.

Emma kicked at another one, but her
blow skimmed over its back. Her momentum carried her off balance so
she stumbled away from Vin’s back. The vicious little creature
abandoned its fruitless attack on Vin’s boot and hopped toward
Emma.

Vin pegged it, blowing its blood all
over Emma’s pant legs. He tried to shake off the last little animal
as it scrambled up his leg. Its needle-sharp front claws dug
through his pant leg above the top of his boots. They pierced his
skin as it pulled itself toward his vitals. He clubbed it with the
butt of his pistol but the strike didn’t faze it.

His belt held a knife and as he reached
for it, Emma returned to the battle. She punched the reptile with
her small fist. It turned its head and hissed at her. Vin threw
aside his pistol and snatched it by its neck. His well-honed knife
sliced through its skin, muscle and backbone without hesitation. It
head tumbled down into the dirt, ending its spitting
outrage.

Emma panted beside Vin and from behind
them came shouts and approaching footsteps. Vin heard no more
thrashing in the bushes and trusted his aim that all the reptiles
he’d shot were dead. Blood ran down Vin’s legs and into his
boot.

“
You’re injured.” Emma
bent down and looked at his leg. The night had given way to gray
light.

“
Why didn’t you stay
behind me?” Vin looked at the short boots she wore under her thin
pants. “They could have torn into you.”

She set her hands on her hips. “Well,
you’re welcome. I told you that I could watch your
back.”

“
We heard the shots,” Moe
panted out as he, Vannie and Dillon skidded to a stop.

“
Holy hell, an entire pack
of jecks,” Dillon said. “Are they all dead?”

The sun touched the top of the trees
beyond the fence, changing gray light to golden. Vin checked the
loads in his pistol, noting he had thirteen of the twenty shots
left. He brushed past the men gaping at the dead reptiles and
approached the bushes that he now saw were some type of berry
bushes clinging to a roughly made trellis. Behind the thick
foliage, he spotted the curly, coarse hair of one of the goats kept
in the village for milk. The docile little animal wouldn’t have
stood a chance against the bloodthirsty pack.

“
Each one killed by one
shot!” Dillon kicked at the jecks.

More villagers approached with caution
from the alleys between the houses. He waited until they’d gathered
around the carnage. “We need to check the entire settlement for
anything else that might have wandered in. Get your weapons first
and work in groups of at least four.”

The men hurried off to obey, a few
casting nervous glances at the greenery between the houses and the
wall. Dillon trotted after them, but Vannie and Moe stayed
behind.

Moe put his hands on his hips much like
Emma had. “That’s some shooting there, Vin Smith. Don’t know if
I’ve ever seen anything like it.”

Vin had only hit three of them before
they’d reached him. Obviously he needed some practice with his new
pistol. This latest model, designed for the military, would fire
under water and in low atmosphere. With a little practice, he would
be able to kill all seven before they reached him.

“
None of that right now,
Moe.” Emma wrapped her arm in Vin’s much like she had earlier to
lead him into the café. “One of them scratched Vin’s leg. I need to
clean it out before an infection takes hold.”

“
You do that, Emma.”
Vannie narrowed his eyes at Vin. “Moe and I will help make sure the
compound is clear, but then we’ll have a bit of discussion with
Mister Smith.”

* * * *

“
I have my own
antiseptics,” Vin said as they came to the surgery door. He hefted
his rifle someone had set on the boardwalk.

Emma thought of the powerful antibiotic
Vin had given her for Russ. Likely he did have something better for
the wound. The surrounding wilderness provided a healthy
environment for all kinds of microbial growth. She’d treated many
rashes and odd infections since arriving in Hovel Port. “We’ll go
to your place then, and I’ll use your medicines to treat
you.”

“
I don’t need assistance.
Please return to your own home.”

Emma heard people working behind her
surgery to butcher the moose. The meat would feed the entire
settlement for weeks. Groups of men moved along the street,
slipping into alleys, to check for other intruding wildlife. What
if one of the village children had stumbled into the jecks when
going out to play? But they would be safe now, thanks to Vin. “I’ll
check your wounds properly unless you tell me you’re a
doctor.”

“
I’ll already told you I
wasn’t.” He stared at her for a long moment, some kind of
calculation going on in his eyes. Then he turned and walked toward
his shop.

Emma hurried after him, prepared to
give him a lecture on manners. Most of the soldiers she’d worked
with over the years had excellent manners and treated her with an
overabundance of respect. But a few of the most damaged had
interacted with anger or cold disregard.

Vin’s attitude defied her ability to
diagnose or categorize him. He acted comfortable with the distance
he kept between himself and others, making no attempt to be
friendly. And his cold demeanor didn’t seem like a screen to
protect his sanity from the horrors trapped in his memory. She
almost thought the calculation in his eyes was actually him
interpreting the language and then forming his answers as if the
universal language of the Galactic Empire wasn’t his native
speech.

The interior of the shop shocked her
into a sudden stop just inside the door. She’d been in the little
work place a number of times, asking the previous own to fix this
or that. It had been a maze of parts, pieces and tools thrown about
in casual disarray. She’d often wondered how anything had ever been
found or repaired amongst the mess. Today it might have been a
different building.

Vin had cleared the center of the room
except for three work benches on which various tools lay in ordered
rows by size and perhaps function. Emma suspected the previous
occupants of the floor occupied the shelves along the walls. Only a
few old stains soaked into the wood dared mar the spotless floor.
Even the air smelled different. A hint of sunny freshness covered
the previous taint of old rubber and dirty metal. And he’d only
moved in a little more than a day ago? The only thing about the
remodeling that didn’t surprise her was the military preciseness of
the room’s organization.