How much danger Angie and Sarah were in.
Without me there to protect them. Without me there to lead them to safety. Dammit, why had I thought it was a good idea for me to come out here and try to do recon on Randall’s camp? Why hadn’t I sent Marlon instead, so that I could stay in the town and get ready for any potential invasion?
Because you’re the one used to running missions in the field, not him, the voice in my head whispered.
You don’t even know that! I answered sharply. And that was the truth. I didn’t have a damn clue who Marlon was, or what he was capable of. I didn’t know he was better off staying in town. I didn’t know whether he could run missions like this.
I’d never even bothered to ask. Hell, I’d just assumed that I would be the better man for the job. And I should have damn well known better. I should have seen this coming. I should have known that it would be better for me to stay in town and protect Angie and Sarah.
Suddenly I realized that Henry had said something, and that I’d missed it in the chaos of my thoughts.
“What?” I shouted back.
“I said they don’t want anything with the townspeople!” he shouted, his breath coming quick and shallow. “They don’t care about them! They only want those weapons!”
Right, well that was a good thing, right? If Randall and his men only wanted the weapons, surely it would mean that if the townspeople just gave up the weapons, they could… well, not go their separate ways peacefully, most likely, but almost certainly get out of there without too much bloodshed.
But then I remembered the gleam in Randall’s eye in that shack in the woods, and the optimism I’d been starting to feel grew suddenly dim.
“Are they going to leave the townspeople alone?” I asked. “Get their weapons and get back out again? As long as the townspeople don’t fight?”
There was a short pause, and I knew the answer to my question before Henry even opened his mouth.
“Not a chance,” Henry replied grimly. “Randall’s hated everyone in that town since he and his kin got thrown out. He’ll use whatever excuse he can to start shooting. The town’s only hope is going to be for them to put up a defense and be ready to fight their way out of there. Otherwise Randall is going to kill them all.”
Dammit. That wasn’t what I’d wanted to hear. And as I increased my pace again, the break in the trees where we’d find the bridge already opening up in front of us, I had only one thought.
I hoped to all hell that Marlon had been smarter than I was, and more prepared. I hoped he’d already had a plan in place to either defend the town, or get those people the hell out of there.
14
Marlon raced for the Town Hall, Joe hot on his heels, his mind skittering through the plans he’d already put in place for this exact situation. No, he hadn’t expected Randall to come right across the ice like that. Yes, he’d most certainly thought that they’d have more time. And he’d definitely thought John and Henry would have been back in town before they had to deal with this.
He’d been counting on John’s knowledge of the people of the town—and of the town itself—to help him. Been counting on John’s natural leadership ability. His training.
He’d also been counting on the fact that these people would have a loyalty to him and would actually listen to him when he told them it was time to go.
As it was, he guessed he was just going to have to depend on Mayor Bob for that aspect. Because he didn’t know where John was or how long it was going to take him to get here. Hell, he didn’t even know if John was going to make it in time to be a part of the coming battle.
He also didn’t know whether John was actually still with the living, though he put that thought quickly to the side as incredibly unusable right now.
He did know that he couldn’t let any of that stuff bother him. Yeah, it had been an awfully long time since he was in the field. Even longer since he’d gone to battle—and even longer since he’d had to plan an escape.
But he was going to have to get those skills working again, and fast. This situation wasn’t going to allow for anything to happen slowly.
He just hoped that Bob had done what he had asked of him. He hoped that the people were at least partially ready for what was about to go down. Because he could already hear the increasing sound of men behind him, and he knew what that meant.
Randall’s men had already started reaching the town’s side of the river. They were already climbing the embankment that led right into the streets of this village. And Marlon’s time to get this escape done was growing extremely short.
By the time Marlon and Joe got to Town Hall and skidded to a stop in the snow banks in front of it, the front doors were already closed—just as he’d told Bob they needed to be. Which was a good sign.
He hoped he’d find more good signs inside.
Marlon started banging on the door the moment he was close enough. “It’s Marlon and Joe,” he said firmly.
The door opened a crack and a single eyeball appeared on the other side and looked them up and down once, then again.
“For God’s sake, Sean, they’re right on our tails. Open the damned door!” Joe muttered, moving closer to the crack.
The eyeball disappeared, and a moment later the door swung open to reveal Sean, the chief of police, and Mayor Bob.
Marlon walked in quickly, pushing through the men to get in the door, then reaching back to pull it quickly shut behind Joe.
Bob looked from one to the other, frowning. “Where are John and Henry?”
“Whereabouts currently unknown,” Marlon said sharply. “And that’s not important right now. Wherever John is, I have faith that he can take care of himself—and Henry, to boot. Right now we’ve got bigger problems. Randall and his men are on their way across the river. The attack that we discussed is happening now.”
Bob took two seconds to process that information, then nodded firmly, and Marlon thought once again how lucky this town was to have a mayor like him. Few men were so quick to process information and move forward, but Bob was one of the best he’d ever met.
He was glad he could count on Bob right now. Because the next hour or so was going to be incredibly stressful. And, if they were unlucky, bloody.
“At the bridge?” Bob asked, already turning and striding toward the main room of the building.
Marlon fell in right next to him, leaving Sean and Joe to bring up the rear. “Unfortunately, no,” he replied. “They’re coming over right below town. Right across the ice, on sleds. Which means that if they make it without falling through, they’re going to get up the embankment and into the outskirts. They’re going to be here a whole lot more quickly than we thought, Bob.”
He saw Bob shoot him a look out of the corner of his eye, saw his mouth tighten, saw the wrinkles around his eyes grow suddenly deeper.
“Then we need to move,” the mayor observed. “Now. Not later, like we expected.”
“Now,” Marlon agreed. “Our plan still holds, but we’ve got to move more quickly, and we’ve got to be more organized. Do you have your people ready?”
“As ready as they’re going to get,” Bob replied. “We spent the last hour following your directions. The defenders are ready, the runners are ready, and I’ve even had some of the older kids in the supply room, packing things up.”
Bob threw open the door to the largest room in the building and walked through it, gesturing around him as he went.