Under His Guard (13 page)

“Did they get married?”

“They couldn't. It wasn't allowed. They weren't even supposed to have sex. This time it wasn't about race but about simple control of Company commodities. They didn't want their assets distracted by anything other than providing entertainment to the patrons.”

Leon stiffened in my arms. “They survived through all dat hell and the Company couldn't let them be together?”

“They didn't survive enough, though. Not enough.” I tried not to let the story burn me, but it wasn't just a story. It was my past, how I came to be. “When it was discovered she was pregnant, they tried to escape. My mom knew they'd take the baby from her; they couldn't let an infant interfere with her performances. With the help of some underground Freelanders, she made it out. My father was shot in the back because at the last minute he wouldn't run. He had to make sure she had the best chance. That meant serving himself up.”

I cried as I hadn't before because I'd trained myself to grieve in silence. Being with Leon made my emotions claw at the surface, dragged them from the darkness.

Leon's fingers tenderly took away the tears. “But your mom's not at the commune.”

“No. She never fully recovered from my father's death. She died when I was eleven.” I pressed my mouth to his in a gentle kiss. “They say she died of a broken heart.”

I captured him in a deeper kiss, giving him my desire and need. Like my mom, I thought I'd die when Tam and Wilde did, only to discover my heart beat more proudly than ever with Leon in my arms. But their ghosts still stood between us.

When he drew back, his lips were slick, his eyes hooded. “Eden and Hills raised you?”

“No one raised me, angel.” Before falling in love with Tam and Wilde, I'd become unreachable, pushed into isolation from the boundless feelings pressing in on me from all around. “I'm untamed.” Especially with Leon, when I felt the uncontrollable urge to have him again and again.

He felt the press of my erection rising from my groin. His eyes twinkled. “Somethin's not tamed, dat's for sure.”

We kissed and caressed slowly, kindling the fires that would ignite again if I didn't let him fall asleep. His heavy eyelids finally started to drift down when he broke our lingering kiss.

“Did I know all this before?”

“No, angel.” I pulled him deeper into the blankets.

“Why do you keep callin' me dat?” he asked for a second time that night.

“Because you give my heart flight.”

When I woke, it was to the arousing feeling of Leon's lithe body molded against mine. His hot erection was a brand against my hip. I slipped my hand beneath the blanket and ran my fingertips up and down the pulsing shaft, knowing I'd make good use of his ass again if I didn't get out of bed soon.

I left him sleeping and quickly washed and dressed. Arrested by the sight of him burrowed under the covers, one arm beneath his head, I walked out the door before temptation made me lose all my gentlemanly restraint.

I wondered if Cannon had slept at all when I found him in the large room downstairs, fully alert. He seemed to thrive off tense situations.

We pooled our meager rations, and I set some aside for Leon.

“How's Leon?” he asked.

“Better.” I kept my face clean of all emotion.

“Fucked it out of him, did you?”

I stared right through Cannon.

“Hey, you don't need to talk. I heard it all. Don't know why we get dubbed the Fuck Bunnies what with the noises you got out of Leon last night.”

“I don't kiss and tell, no matter what you think you heard.”

“No. You just screw in front of the whole commune.” He looked instantly regretful. “I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean to bring up—”

I waved his apology away. “That won't be happening with Leon.”

Both his eyebrows lifted. I was saved from any more interrogation when Nathaniel entered the room.

He settled beside Cannon, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “Where's Raine?”

“He left real early to retrieve our shit and get Farrow and Sebastian.” Cannon fed a bite of dried fruit and grain to his partner. “And he for damn sure better stock up on some provisions, because any more of this trail-mix bullshit and my stomach's gonna gnaw a hole clean through to my spine.”

A sudden sound interrupted us from outside the mammoth door. A possible intruder. We three took careful aim, arranging ourselves around the room to hit the target from all sides.

Raine strolled into the keep. Alone. He kicked the door shut behind him, seemingly unperturbed by having several weapons pointed at him. “Well, folks, I've got some good news and some bad news.” He shook a small leather bag in his otherwise empty hands.

C
annon, Nathaniel, and I lowered our weapons.

“Please tell me that Sebastian and Farrow are on their way in.” I started right in with questioning Raine.

“'Fraid not.” He stuck the mysterious leather pouch in his pocket and quickly rolled a cigarette.

Cannon glowered. “So that would be the bad news, then.”

“'Fraid so.” He exhaled two perfectly concentric smoke rings.

Linc and Liz entered the room. Liz immediately began digging through the food supplies while Linc asked Raine, “'Fraid so what?”

If this kept up we'd never get to the bottom of Raine's intel. “Why don't we put a lid on it until the others come down?”

“Aye-aye, Cap'n.” Darwin slunk in with a salute in my direction. All eyes locked on her. “What? We're on the water, aren't we?”

Raine stubbed out the butt of his smoke with his boot. “Can I just say—?”

“No!” I barked.

Leon loped around the corner. “Don't think you should be cranky after last night,
beb
.” He sent a shy smile my way.

His hair was tousled, his expressive eyes dancing. I wanted nothing more than to throw him over my shoulder and take him back to bed for the entire day.

Those plans were shot to shit when Raine started talking. “Karesh was raided. They mostly managed to decamp before the troopers swarmed.”

“Define
mostly
,” Cannon said.

“There weren't any casualties, just a couple prisoners.” As Raine divulged his info bit by bit, he made himself comfortable on the floor.

“And the prisoners were?” My heart started pounding.

“Your people.”

A round of expletives sounded off.

“Anyone else?” I asked.

“No.”

“Chief Shehu, his family, they're all safe?” I'd felt an affinity with the warrior.

“Just yours.” Raine reclined on his elbows. “They were hauled to a war camp on the outskirts of Omega. The chief had them tailed. He's keeping an eye on them.”

“An eye isn't good enough. They'll be dead meat or beaten up for Revolution secrets if they're detained much longer.” Linc strode around the room. He'd been raised as CEO Cutler's one rising star, known to be a ruthless and cunning strategist. He knew the CO's ops inside and out.

“Maybe you'd like the good news now?” Raine pulled the satchel from his pocket.

“Get on with it.” My nerves were tighter than a slip wire at this point.

Juggling the bag from hand to hand, he said, “I managed to find what I think is the final ingredient for the cure.”

The tension released from me so fast I felt dizzy. My palm sweated against Leon's, or maybe that was his getting damp as he gasped beside me. “What is it?”

“A rare genus of plant found only in the most rugged desert terrain. It won't be identical to the Company's synthetic antidote, but it should do the trick.” Raine tucked the bag away again, fully aware that the item was more valuable than all the scrip in all the Territories. “I told you Mother Nature always provides.”

I smiled against Leon's lips when I kissed him soundly. He gripped my back, laughing between soft nips of my teeth. When I pulled away, I asked, “How long?”

“Eh, I don't know. Measurements, test runs, this and that…” Raine lounged idly, as if he were talking about the fucking weather and not the cure to a disease that was set to kill my man. “The other good news is I retrieved your gear and weapons as well as my mobile lab.”

“Then you should get right on it.” I struck for the door, ready to carry anything he needed into the castle so he could set up and start work.

Linc stood in my way.

“Move it.”

“We need to consider our options,” he said, always the tactician.

“Here are your options: Move your fucking feet out of my way or we're gonna go a round or two.”

Practically climbing up my arm, Leon tried to drag me away. Linc's chest heaved in and out, but he wasn't as full of rage as I was. He was being cool in the face of a twofold crisis, whereas I had only one goal.

“If we fight, it's gonna get real ugly in here, real quick. We're all on the same side.” Linc left his hands down at his sides, as unthreatening as could be except he still blocked the door. “We have a choice and it could affect the entire war, if not our collective consciences. Stay and work on the antidote or save our friends. People we consider to be our family.”

My teeth clamped down hard. “Leon is my family. I want to save him. We're staying.” It was a no-brainer.

The others immediately objected, Leon most loudly. One of these days I was going to have to teach him to choose self-preservation over playing the goddamn martyr for the cause, preferably before he ripped my heart out and shredded it apart.

I took a step back from Linc. My shoulders were stiff as I turned to face the room. “Leave Raine here so he can work.”

Nathaniel attempted his peacekeeping thing. “We aren't splittin' up again. Not after what just happened. Two of our people were caught, man.”

Their protests did nothing to budge me from my decision, not until Leon drew me away. “
Cher.
”

God, he was pulling out all the stops this time. The second he called me that, he had to know he tied me in knots, wrapped me around his finger. I let him back me out to the hall, where he leaned up to glide his lips across mine. The way his tongue teased into my mouth to tangle slowly with mine caused a splintering ache that started in my chest and leaped to my groin.

I grunted when he drew back, chasing after his seductive lips.

“There's a week and a half. Plenty of time for Raine to make his medicine.” Nuzzling my neck, he whispered in my ear, “You won't be proud of yourself if you insist on him stayin' when we need him to save the others. And dat's one thing I love about you, my big, righteous warrior.”

His soft touch and low words were more persuasive than any gun at my head could've been. He knew it, too. Several more drugging kisses had me agreeing to anything. Hell, I'd go out on my own to extract Sebastian and Farrow.

I nodded my assent.

Leon pulled me back to the room. “We're solid.”

The others quickly rearranged themselves in casual stances as if they hadn't been watching the whole show with avid interest.
Dickheads.

For the next fifteen minutes, I lugged our shit from the stolen vehicle to the castle along with the others. Amid our gear was Raine's lab equipment.

Leon lifted a wide-bottomed glass vessel from the box he set down inside. “Dis looks like a bong.”

“Beaker, bong, same thing. We can have a toke after our mission.” Raine wiped an arm across his perspiring brow.

Pothead, tour guide, shaman, same diff.
Jesus.

“No one's smoking anything and we're not going anywhere until Leon eats something.” I delivered Leon's and my packs to the bottom of the stairs.

Liz took a break from checking her cases of ammo to heckle. “Whoa ho! Looks like there's a new big papa in town.”

“I'm not his daddy, Liz.” I glared down at her while a blush crept up the back of my neck.

She hummed softly, reloading her Eagles. “That's not what he was screaming last night.”

“Suits me fine.” Cannon interrupted. “Gives me time to shave this fucking fuzz off my face.” He scratched his jaw.

Nathaniel's eyes lit up. “Well, I volunteer for that duty.”

“Hop to, then, Blondie.” Cannon gave him a lascivious wink. “I guess the honeymoon really isn't over.” They raced up the stairs.

“Horny-moon, more like.” Leon snickered.

I swatted his ass. “You'll get yours, too, later tonight.”

He gingerly rubbed his backside. “Dat still hurts, ya know?”

“I'll make it feel better later.”

Leon moved into my welcoming embrace and suckled on my bottom lip until my knees were one suck away from buckling. This playfulness between the two of us was brand-new, lighthearted even amid the fear and stress. “Dat's what you said last time.”

“And I was right. You certainly weren't complaining.”

Regrouping in the room downstairs before heading out, we all wore similar kaffiyeh—the women in hijabs—disguising our hair and faces. Our lightweight robes hid our weapons well.

The mood was tense on the trip back to Omega, and the ride seemed quicker than our escape had been. Probably because we were racing toward danger instead of fleeing from it. We couldn't make a solid plan until we saw exactly what kind of shitstorm we were facing.

We stopped a quarter klick away from the coordinates Raine had gotten from Shehu's man. After hiding our transport behind a dune, we crabbed up the small sandy hill and passed three pairs of binocs around. That's when we figured out the shitstorm looked more like a full-blown she-devil in the making.

“Fuck's sake.” Cannon swiped an arm across his brow. “It's a goddamn war camp over there.”

He wasn't lying. The area we watched was a well-maintained prison camp made of tall barbed-wire fences on the perimeter that multiplied into little square boxes inside, dividing up a number of holding pens. There was no overhead cover from the sun's overwhelming heat. In the few minutes we lay at our lookout point, the searing rays baked through cloth to my skin. I could only imagine the hellish conditions inside. To make matters worse, large solar reflectors in each corner of the huge structure shined the torturously bright sunlight toward the POWs from all angles.

“That's inhumane.” His nostrils flaring, Nathaniel handed the binoculars over to Linc.

“What if they're infecting more people in there?” Liz spoke in a broken voice.

This was a doomsday scenario, especially as we timed the short intervals between the guards walking the boundary. The place was totally open to the elements. There could be no covert approach or any way to sneak inside without being made.

“It's crawling with hostiles.” I gave my binoculars to Darwin. “Shit's gonna get hairy.”

“Hairier than Satan's asshole, that's for sure,” Darwin muttered.

The guard on our side turned in our direction. Perhaps he'd caught the reflection of our binocs.

We hunched down until our faces were half buried in the sand and Linc whispered, “Fall back.”

Completely hidden by the sand dune, we took stock of the situation. The entire area—inside and out—was built to be visible from every angle. The troopers were heavily armed and not snoozing on duty, not to mention the fact almost all of us were recognizable enemies of the CO. The math was simple: We were fucked. But not a single one of us had ever backed down when the odds were against us, and with two of our people inside, we weren't about to start now.

“Plans?” Linc asked.

Nathaniel chewed his lip. “We need to be wily.”

“Bullets won't help. There's too many of them and not enough of us. We need to outsmart them somehow.” Liz drew a quick diagram of the prisoner camp in the sand.

“How many civilians do you think are inside?” I wondered.

She totaled up the numbers. “If every pen holds five people…by my reckoning that's at least two hundred.”

Linc watched his wife lift her over-robe to pull her high-powered sniper rifle from her back. “How many guards can you take out quickly?”

“Not enough.” She placed the expensive rifle in his hands. “Our position would be compromised before I was through, and they'd retaliate on the prisoners. Then they'd get to us.”

Cannon had keenly observed Liz hand over her beloved sniper rifle. “Just what the fuck are you thinking now, Liz?”

She sent a look to Darwin, who nodded in that woman-to-woman way that made absolutely no sense whatsoever to the male species. “What Nate said. Being wily.”

“Using our wiles.” Darwin sat up straight, her interest sparked.

“Yeah, I didn't mean put your life on the line, Lizbeth.” Nathaniel was the target of two sets of glares coming from Linc and Cannon.

“Hey. Caspar always did call me foolhardy.” She popped her knuckles, her wide grin nestled in her black headscarf.

“Dat's a bad move.” Leon, who had been quiet, piped up. “I'll go in. Got nothin' to lose, right?”

Linc turned his attention to Leon.

I instinctually grabbed for my lover. “Yeah, you do have something to lose. It's called your life.”

“
Mais
, it's worthless now. Might as well put my last days to good use.”

How he could be so fucking insouciant about his existence when it meant everything to me made veins pop up in my neck. “You are staying put.” Before he could volunteer for another hair-raising, heart-attack-inducing sortie, I looked at Liz. “What's the plan?”

“I thought we'd just stroll up to the place and see if we could flirt our way in.”

“Flirt? You?” Cannon almost choked.

With a harsh frown, Linc tried to shove her rifle back at her. “That's a no-go.”

“In other words, those men look hot, pissed off, and dusty. We're gonna offer up sexual favors in return for entry. Does that make it any clearer?” Darwin's explanation did not settle Linc's objections.

The two women wouldn't be waylaid. Both were highly skilled soldiers well versed in the art of undercover ops. It went without saying that none of us approved of their scheme, but we were out of options.

Darwin and Liz wriggled out of their long robes to reveal much less confining clothing underneath.

“Tell me you two weren't planning this back at the castle,” Linc said.

Liz put her hands on her hips. “We weren't planning this at the castle.”

Jumping to his feet, Linc swooped her into a sudden kiss that left her panting. “Remind me you're on my shit list later, when you get back safe and sound.”