The Three (42 page)

Kael shot her a compassionate smile and offered the hunting knife that she carried. The blade was still smeared red with blood from the third guard’s throat, the handle sticky with it. Anna accepted the knife with a grateful smile. Any little edge I can get. On edge, she smirked at her own pun.

The guard closest to her was a mere ten feet away. He stood with his back to her, and as she watched, he scratched at his ass with a distracted hand. Anna rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the other man.

This one stood with his back to Kael, staring into the distance. He opened his mouth in a wide yawn. Anna smiled in satisfaction and retreated behind the tent to await Kael’s signal. She stuck the knife in the front of her waistband and set her baseball bat in the grass, having no need for the blunt weapon in this situation.

As she watched Kael counting down on her fingers, she cleared her mind of all doubt, all worry, and focused solely on the task at hand. These two men were quite likely the last obstacle standing between them and Elin. She could not afford to blow it.

On Kael’s signal, Anna rose to her feet and did not allow herself the chance to hesitate as she ran full throttle at her guard. She could see Kael’s mirroring movement from the corner of her eye. Unthinking, unfeeling, she advanced upon the man and grabbed him from behind.

It was both easier and more difficult to snap his neck than she had thought it would be. Easier, in that she did it without hesitation and without remorse, only experiencing a dim flicker of dismay as she committed the fifth murder of her life. More difficult, in that it took slightly more effort than she had anticipated, and for a brief, startling moment, she feared that she wouldn’t be able to do it. She felt him grow agitated, and she tensed in anticipation of a cry for help. Then his neck cracked, and he dropped.

She caught the guard in her arms and looked up at Kael, who cradled the second guard, also dead. Anna couldn’t help but grin along with Kael, in relief and delayed horror, as they dragged the bodies to the edge of the camp and dumped them unceremoniously in a patch of lush vegetation that sat close to a brown tent.

“Matt’s tent is at the other side of camp,” Kael said softly. “I’ll go get him, and we’ll start zip-tying tents while you and Elin get the women out. I’m going to send Matt with them back to Kate’s. I’ll have…business to finish here.”

“I’m staying with you,” Anna murmured into Kael’s ear. “You’ll probably need help.”

“I’ve got a bolt cutter for you to use on Elin’s handcuffs.” Kael handed Anna the hefty tool from her backpack, then two smoke bombs, which Anna stuffed into one of the large cargo pockets on her black pants. “It could be loud, so you may want to take her away from the center of camp to do it.”

“Understood. I’m keeping your knife. It’ll be faster and quieter to cut my way into the women’s tents than to unzip them.”

“Good call.” Kael gave her a brief hug. “Be safe. Kiss Elin for me.”

Anna smiled. “Only until you can kiss her yourself.”

Kneeling in the grass just outside of Elin’s small tent was one of the hardest things Anna could ever remember doing. Separated from her lover by only a thin layer of nylon, knowing that a quick slice with the knife she clutched in her hand was all it would take to touch Elin again, Anna didn’t know how she managed to wait as Kael stalked, wraithlike, through the maze of tents until she reached a small green and purple enclosure on the other side of the prisoners. Anna couldn’t see her features, didn’t know whether she gave any kind of signal that it was time to move, but somehow she could sense the time was right.

Raising her knife, she quietly drew the sharp blade down the length of the zippered door of Elin’s tent, cutting through it with ease. She moved fast, aware that the moment she breached the tent, she ran the risk that one or both of its occupants would notice and, in panicked confusion, start yelling.

Anna poked her head inside just in time to see the young dark-haired girl from the river open her mouth and inhale as if preparing to let loose a mighty scream. Anna’s heart stuttered in her chest, at once sympathetic to the child’s terror and terrified herself that their game might be up so quickly. She started to lunge forward in an effort to clap a frantic hand over the child’s mouth, only to have someone else beat her to the punch.

Elin turned on her side to press a gentle hand over the girl’s mouth, her other hand twisted awkwardly where her wrists were cuffed together. The girl—Lana, Elin had called her by the river—breathed hard and stared at Anna with wide, fearful eyes. Anna was captured for a moment by her lover’s bright gaze and the sweet curve of her neck as she bent to whisper soft words into the little girl’s ear.

At Elin’s reassurance, Lana visibly relaxed and Elin lifted her hand from the child’s mouth and crawled to Anna.

Holding her close and tight, Anna whispered, “Kael’s gone to get Matt.” There was no time for the words of love she wanted to utter; in this, they needed to be efficient. Reconnecting would come later. “We need to get the women out of here as quietly as we can. Matt drugged the men’s wine. We’ve already killed the six guards on duty, and we’re hoping we can get the women out while the rest sleep.”

“I understand,” Elin breathed. She was unable to return Anna’s embrace, but she rubbed her bound hands back and forth over Anna’s T-shirt-covered chest as though making sure she was real. “My hands—”

“I have a bolt cutter, but we have to wait until we’re farther away from camp. I don’t know how loud it will be.”

“Okay. I love you.”

Anna’s heart swelled at everything she heard behind the three simple words. “I love you, too. I want to get a couple of other women up right away. Someone can take Lana into the forest to wait, the other can lead the women back to that place as we take them out of their tents.”

“I know who to get.”

Before they parted, Anna caught her in a brief, heartfelt kiss that Elin returned with equal passion. More than a kiss, Anna knew, it was a promise: that they would enjoy many more kisses in the future, that nothing and no one could ever tear them apart, that they would make it out of this camp alive, together.

Filled with renewed confidence, Anna slipped out of the tent, looking left and right as she emerged into the night. The camp was still quiet, and for several seconds, she didn’t see anything stir. Just as her throat grew dry with anticipation, she spotted Kael and Matt at the far side of camp. Kael turned her head to meet Anna’s gaze just as Elin crawled out of the tent.

Elin turned to see what had Anna’s attention as she stood, and Anna felt the physical impact of Elin’s first glimpse of Kael, of Kael’s intense regard of their lover. Their shared look lasted for only an instant, then Kael was back to work with Matt and Elin helped little Lana to her feet.

Anna’s heart threatened to pound out of her chest. This is working.

Gesturing for Lana to keep still, Elin led Anna over to a familiar red tent. Anna remembered its occupants: a lanky, frightened brunette and her companion, the healthy blonde who had demonstrated a quiet defiance that stirred Anna’s pride.

Anna sliced down the length of the door with her knife and pulled the nylon open so that she and Elin could ease inside. Blinking as she adjusted to the darkness, Anna was surprised to find the stocky blonde woman already awake, staring with glittering eyes. Her brunette companion slept soundly beside her, cradled within the blonde’s strong arms.

“Jen, she’s with me,” Elin whispered.

Immediately, the blonde woman brought her mouth close to her companion’s face, which looked peaceful in slumber. “Sweetheart.” The voice was so quiet that Anna almost didn’t hear it, and achingly tender.

“Wake up, Caroline, and don’t say anything. Everything is okay.”

She placed a gentle finger over Caroline’s lips.

Elin hurriedly told Jen the plan and said, “Caroline can stay with Lana in the forest. We’ll show you where.”

The two women dressed with obvious apprehension, but their excitement was equally clear. Anna led the small group to the edge of the camp, then up the slight incline into the forest. She found the path she and Kael had taken from Kate and Walter’s house then turned to Elin and produced the bolt cutters with a tender smile.

“I bet you want those off,” she whispered.

Elin raised her hands into the air, eyes flashing with turbulent emotion. “Please.”

Anna tamped down on the surge of anger she felt at Elin’s captors for the pain she read in Elin’s gaze. She clipped the handcuffs off with a snap that made her glad she had waited until they were far enough away from the sleeping men.

Elin shook her hands as they were released and cast embarrassed eyes at the ground. “Thanks.”

Without thinking, Anna reached out and captured Elin’s wrists in her hands. She rubbed her thumbs over the skin rubbed raw by the cuffs. As she did, she had a flash of Trey doing the very same thing at the river the day before. Startled, she dropped Elin’s wrists, all at once awkward and uncertain about how to behave. She was vaguely aware of three pairs of eyes watching them, though Jen, Caroline, and the child remained silent.

As if sensing her hesitation, Elin wrapped her arms around Anna’s shoulders and buried her face in Anna’s neck, hugging hard. “Kael is really okay?”

“He’s okay. Pissed, but okay.” Anna continued to hold Elin close, unable to release her quite yet. “Did they hurt you?”

Elin’s body trembled for a moment. “Yes.” When Anna stiffened, Elin tightened her arms. “But not like that.”

Anna’s body flooded with relief. Despite what Matt told them, she needed to hear the words from Elin’s mouth. “We’ll help you heal,” she swore.

When they moved apart, she quickly organized the others, hoping the next stage of the plan would be as smooth as the first.

“Jen, come with us. You’ll lead small groups back here.” Looking to Caroline, she said, “If something happens, we’re staying with a doctor—Kate Woodard—in the city about two miles due west. She lives in a large brick house on the northeast edge of town. The address is 427 Vaughn.”

Caroline took Lana’s small hand in her own and, gazing at Jen with slightly unfocused eyes, murmured,

“Come back to me, you understand?”

Jen gave her a gentle smile, before turning to Anna and Elin.

“Let’s go. I don’t know how they haven’t woken up yet, but I don’t trust it to last.”

Remembering one last detail, Anna dug around in the largest pocket of her cargo pants. She retrieved a thin black tool and offered it to Elin.

“My steel baton,” Elin whispered. It wasn’t the same one she’d had when she was taken, of course, but Kael and Anna had been able to find one remarkably similar to her confiscated weapon. She took it, eyes flashing. “Thank you.”

“Our friend Matt drugged some wine,” Anna told Jen. “But we don’t know how many of them drank.

Hopefully it’ll keep most of them in a deep sleep. Our friends are securing tents closed right now to slow down anyone who might wake.”

Jen nodded. “Then we shouldn’t waste another second.”

Jen did a good job moving through the tents quickly and quietly, assembling the women in small groups.

Anna’s stomach churned, and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to relax until everyone had made it to the trees without rousing any of the sleeping men.

Anna stood guard while the last few women prepared to leave, the knot of worry in her stomach twisting as she scanned the tents around her. Thickening fog swirled around her ankles, a testament to the damp approaching dawn. She was unable to suppress a growing sense of foreboding deep inside. This is going too smoothly.

She approached the last tent, a small orange enclosure that lay at the western side of the camp, only feet away from a larger blue tent that housed sleeping Procreationists. Anna had saved it for last on purpose; it was the riskiest extraction and she had wanted all the other tents cleared first.

Elin joined her and cut the tent open, then pushed her way inside. Anna followed closely behind.

Almost immediately, a dark-haired woman sat up and leaned forward to grip Elin’s arms, her attractive face lined in worry. “Is it Lana? What’s wrong?” she whispered.

Elin touched the woman’s face with a reassuring hand. “She’s fine. We’ve got her away from here already.

Hurry and we’ll take you to her.”

The woman—Lana’s mother, Anna surmised—glanced over at her groggy tent-mate, a blonde girl who looked as though she couldn’t be more than twenty. “But what if they catch us?”

“We need to go,” Anna urged. “Taking your chance at escape is better than condemning Lana to this life.

Come on.”

Lana’s mother hesitated only a moment before she released Elin’s arms and gathered her shoes from the end of her sleeping bag.

That’s when Anna heard it—at first a soft indistinct muttering, increasing in intensity until Anna could hear the confusion in the voice. Startled, she scrambled out of the tent and leapt to her feet, leaving Elin to deal with the women. She picked up her baseball bat and swung her gaze around, trying to identify the source of the noise. Next to her, two other women huddled together in front of their tent, looking as though they were struggling not to dive back inside their nylon prison.

“What the fuck?”

The words, slightly slurred, came from somewhere ahead of her, on the opposite side of camp from Trey’s tent. Anna started forward, baseball bat in hand, just as she spotted Kael’s sprint across the camp. Kael withdrew a large knife from her waist as she approached a green tent where a confused man could be heard wrestling with the zipper from inside. He clawed at the material when he couldn’t get out, his curses growing louder. Anna heard what she assumed was his tent-mate joining the struggle, just as Kael reached them.