“Still wanna kill me?”
Alicia too pulled herself up, breathing carefully to restore strength and equilibrium. “Maybe later.”
“Have we resolved anything here?”
Alicia allowed herself a smile. “Obviously, it’s not quite that easy. It’s gonna be a long hard road. But I had to do this, Drake. I had to. It’s a start. Do you understand?”
He did. “Been a long time coming,” he said. “But it’s pure Alicia Myles. You were self-destructing the other way and you knew it. I’m happy you chose me to… help.”
“Who else could it be?”
“Russo?” he said. “Beauregard?”
“Russo’s a good man,” she admitted. “A solid man. I could have chosen him and, if he survived, we’d be better than ever. But Beau? Nah, he’s just a goal. Every woman deserves twelve inches at least once in her life.”
Drake winced. “Please don’t ever say that again. It hurts more than the broken tooth.”
“You know something.” Alicia cocked her head. “I know we have a battle to get back to. A tough motherfucker, if I’m being totally honest, but for the first time in almost twenty years I feel like I’m not going to die soon.”
Drake eyed the slope that would take them back to harm’s way and hoped she hadn’t just jinxed their future. “First of all,” he said. “Let’s see if we can get outta this hole. Here…” He held out a blood-streaked hand.
Alicia Myles took it.
CHAPTER FORTY
Lauren Fox watched the battle unfold from atop a small sand dune to the east of the valley that held the long lost galleon. She used field-glasses to keep up with the action, saw the onslaught of the helicopters and the SPEAR team’s breakneck run around the valley’s crumbling ridge. She saw the fifth chopper come down, the fireballs that surrounded it, and the pitched battle between army, marines and mercs. The point where Drake joined.
And then the sand hit. The storm swirled all around and consumed her entire world.
Jenny lay at her side. “Now that’s a bitch.”
Lauren stared. “Who’s watching Bell?”
“Karin. Why? Don’t you trust her?”
“Karin’s… delicate.” Lauren hated herself for the choice of words. If anyone referred to her as delicate she’d do a great job of making them eat their teeth. “We shouldn’t leave her alone.”
“Well, that dude, Bell, he’s no threat. A fried chicken could take him out.”
Lauren took a last look around, then dipped her eyes against a flurry of sand particles. Quickly, she slithered back down the slope, a matter of only six feet. The Pythian, Nicholas Bell, sat with his head in his hands, obviously wishing he were anyplace but here. Lauren, still harboring a soft spot for the wealthy builder, walked over to him.
“You did the right thing,” she said. “Trust me. It will work out.”
Bell regarded her with a strained smile. “Just stay with me,” he said. “Without you, I’m not sure I can do this.”
Lauren hid a grimace, worried now what Smyth would think. The soldier had been wonderful to her, everything a real man should be. Maybe they would even try dating when they found a little downtime. But Smyth — like any man — was a fragile piece of kit and prone to jealousy. Smyth also knew that Bell had bedded Lauren as Nightshade not so long ago.
Shit. What a mess.
She walked over to Karin. “The world’s a mess up there, a battleground. I don’t see what else we can do.”
Karin managed a weak smile. “We wait. Our friends will come back. Don’t they always?”
Lauren heard the bitter tones inherent in Karin’s words. She walked away, unsure how she could help. As she approached Jenny she saw the other woman stiffen.
“Behind you.”
Then a deep voice: “Don’t fucking move a muscle.”
Lauren turned anyway, inbuilt instinct always defiant. Two mercenaries stood facing them, wearing black and toting the usual machine pistols. Both men looked tired.
“That Bell?” one of them asked the other.
“Yeah.” The other consulted a tattered photograph. “Thank fuck. We’ve been searching for your ass for twenty hours, dude.”
Nicholas Bell looked like a rabbit caught in the spotlight. “Searching? What do you mean?”
Lauren realized that these men hadn’t been sent out recently and might not know about the huge extent of the battle above. They had been out searching for the lost Pythian, it seemed.
The second mercenary waved his weapon at Bell. “We’re here to rescue you, dumbass. They kidnapped you, right? Well, they sent the best out to save you.”
His partner tapped him on the shoulder. “Probably not wise to call one of the bosses a dumbass, dumbass.”
The first merc shrugged. “Sorry, boss.”
Bell gaped between them. “You’re the best? And how… how did you find me?”
“What, ya think the big boss don’t have a tracker on you? Ha! And when I say on you I do mean in you. Get it? Probably artificially extended your sleep one night and made a doc perform a small op. Ever wake up feeling extra sluggish? No reason why? Maybe feel hungover even though you only had one glass of wine? The government does it all the time, so they say. Happens regular.”
“Shit,” Bell, Karin and Jenny said together.
“Yeah.” The man shrugged. “Every time I wake with a weird feeling I hop on over to the bathroom and check every inch of my body. Just in case.” He grinned.
Jenny shared a look with Lauren. “Yuck.”
The man hardened. “Well, Bell? Get over here then, or do ya like hangin’ with the dead girlies?”
“Dead girlies?” the other asked.
Girlies? Lauren bristled and she knew Jenny felt the same.
“Shoot ‘em, bud. And, Troy, follow fucking orders like yer s’posed to.”
Isolated, unguarded, Karin, Lauren and Jenny all knew they were fending for themselves. They were not soldiers, or warriors. They weren’t even trained. But they had certainly seen action and could guess how the next few minutes would play out.
Karin acted first, perhaps thinking about her future at Fort Bragg. She darted from a sitting position, surprising Troy and making him stagger away. Lauren came next, stiff-arming Troy as she came across him, jerking his head sideways. Jenny was closest to the leader and jumped behind Bell for a split second before ducking around his other side. The leader tried to track her with his gun but the weapon was too large. Jenny was on him in a second, grappling, gritting her teeth and panting hard.
Lauren kicked at knee, groin and stomach, remembering her civilian martial arts training. The soldier looked surprised, even staggered a little when she blasted his knee. Karin tried the same from the other side, giving him an awful lot to think about. His weapon wavered between them.
Lauren picked up a rock and slammed it across his temple, wincing as she did so. Troy stumbled, his gun discharging. He threw all his weight onto her but she smashed the rock down again. Karin punched his arm until the gun clattered away, then gave him multiple blows to the face. Troy spat blood and punched blindly, trying to regain the advantage. A fist connected with Lauren’s nose, making her eyes water. She gasped, trying to fend even more blows away. Karin caught one of Troy’s wrists in her hand, held it, and then slammed a rock straight down onto the knuckles. A sickening crack resounded around the clearing.
Troy screamed. Karin brought the rock down again even harder. “You were going to shoot us,” she said. “This is what you deserve.”
Lauren knelt with her knee across the man’s throat until he passed out, then they scrambled back.