Page 15 of Raven Blackwood (Cyborg Guardians #2)
Raven
Hannah had fallen asleep by the time I carried her into the house and our bedroom. I gently laid her in our bed, took off her boots, and covered her with a worn blanket. I stood over the bed, just watching her sleep for several minutes.
Although I wasn’t tired, I wished I could lie down at her side and just hold her while she slept.
I always knew I would love her when I found her, but I never fathomed how much or how deeply she would become ingrained within my soul.
I’d spent years imagining what my life with her would be like, and now, I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without her.
Finally, I leaned down and kissed her cheek, then forced myself to turn from her sleeping form and walk out of the room. If we were ever to have the kind of life I dreamed of for us, I had to finish what I started and stop Jenkins once and for all.
Hannah’s brother Zach met me in the living room as I was about to leave the house .
“Raven, I want to thank you for what you’ve done for me and my sister. I know you’re going after Jenkins. I want to help.”
“I understand that, Zach. But you are in no condition for a strenuous mission. You have been starved and tortured for weeks. You need time to rest and recover, and I am sure that Grace needs you here. My team trained for this. I have a dozen other ranchers to back us up. I’ll get you Hannah’s com tablet so you can contact me if you have any problems here.
Hannah has been up for twenty-four hours without sleep, so if you could keep an eye on things while I’m gone, that would be a great help. ”
Zach hung his head for a moment, then looked up to meet my gaze. “You’re right; I’m not really up to it. I’m just so mad at what they’ve done to our lives. I want to make them pay!”
“As do I, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” I assured him.
Then I went back into the bedroom to get the comm tablet for him.
Some of the ranchers were going to stay behind to keep watch over the ranch while we were gone.
However, with Hannah sleeping, I wanted to make sure someone could contact me if there were problems.
“Do you want to see the baby?” Zach asked as I handed him the tablet.
I’d seen babies before, but this one was special. Hannah delivered him, and I’d watched Grace struggling to hold herself together, pining for her husband. These were two strong women.
Zach led me quietly into the room. Grace and the baby were both sleeping. She was in the bed, and their son was in his cradle beside it. He was such a tiny little thing. I could only imagine having one or a few of my own someday.
“You’re a lucky man. They are why you need to stay here and look after things. Tell Hannah I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I left the house thinking about the future offspring Hannah and I would have together. They were more than worth fighting for.
The sun was barely cresting the horizon when my team gathered outside the ranch. The rest of my cyborg unit assembled in the front yard—Sgt. Daken Rowe, Phoenix Blaze, Steele Nova, Orion Storm, and Trinity Vega. Each of them was battle-tested, dangerous, and eager for some action.
Tom Barrows and eleven other displaced ranchers stood alongside them, rifles slung over their shoulders. Their faces set with determination. They had lost too much to Jenkins to sit this fight out.
“We’re taking the town back today,” I said, my voice carrying over the small crowd.
“Jenkins’s men won’t give up easily, but we’re not giving them a choice.
Our team will go in first and neutralize the bulk of his gang.
You wait at the edge of town for my signal before moving in.
We use stun settings where possible. We want them alive to face justice. ”
A round of nods met my words. No one wanted a bloodbath—not if we could avoid it.
The ranchers rode their horses, and the rest of the team took the massive transport while I rode my sky-cycle into town. We figured that we would have things under control by the time the ranchers arrived by horseback.
Our team split into three groups, Trinity and Steele taking the northern side while the rest of us cut straight into the heart of town. The streets were quiet, but the tension in the air was thick. Jenkins’s men were inside the town’s only saloon, waiting.
The first shots rang out before we even reached the main square. A gang member posted on the saloon’s balcony opened fire. My enhanced reflexes kicked in—I ducked low and returned fire, my stun bolt striking him square in the chest. He crumpled without a sound.
“They know we’re here,” Orion said over the comm.
“Good,” I replied. “Let’s finish this.”
We advanced in a tight formation. Because of our nanite armor, we didn’t use cover.
Jenkins’s men only had projectile weapons.
Their bullets would simply bounce off. His men had dug in at key locations—the sheriff’s office, the general store, and the saloon.
It didn’t matter. We had them outgunned and outmatched. They couldn’t stop us.
Phoenix blasted the saloon doors open with a heavy kick, sending two thugs scrambling.
He stunned one before he could reach his weapon, while Daken took out the other.
More gunfire erupted from the upstairs balcony, but Steele was already moving, crashing through the upstairs window with the force of a battering ram. Seconds later, the firing stopped.
“They’re down,” Steele’s voice came through the comm. “Moving to clear the general store.”
I pivoted toward the sheriff’s office, where Jenkins’s second-in-command holed up.
The door was barricaded, but Orion had a way of handling obstacles like that.
A well-placed explosive charge blasted the door clean off its hinges.
We surged inside, overwhelming the gang members before they could react.
With the main pockets of resistance crushed, I sent the signal for Tom and the ranchers to move in.
They stormed the town, rounding up the unconscious and stunned thugs, tying them up to be dealt with later.
One by one, the people of Brislow emerged from their homes, watching as we broke Jenkins’s grip over them.
But we weren’t finished yet.
“Jenkins had his men kick people out of their homes,” I told my team. “Now it’s time for us to evict them.”
We went house to house, moving fast. Most of Jenkins’s men had holed up in the homes they’d stolen, figuring the town would never fight back. They weren’t ready for cyborg justice.
At the first house, a couple of thugs inside tried to put up a fight, but Steele simply punched the door off its hinges. A few well-placed stun shots later, and they were dragged out, tied up alongside the others.
At the next house, we found a desperate gang member using a frightened family as a human shield. Orion’s enhanced speed got him through the window before the man could react, and a single strike to the back of the head put him down without harm to the hostages.
One by one, the houses were reclaimed, families stepping over their former oppressors as they waited to be escorted out in cuffs. It was basically no contest between an experienced team of cyborg warriors and a bunch of street thugs. The people of Brislow were free.
By midday, we accounted for most of Jenkins’s men. The town was free, but we still had to find Jenkins and his inner circle.
His turn was coming.
Hannah
The sun was shining brightly through the bedroom window when I woke alone in our bed. I felt a bit of disappointment that Raven was absent, and I didn’t know when to expect his return. Although I still felt tired from 24 hours without sleep, I needed to get out of bed and get some work done.
I went to the kitchen and found some leftover bread and a hard-boiled egg for breakfast. Apparently, Zach made coffee, and I was happy to see there was still some left in the pot.
I poured myself a cup, added a little honey, and strolled out onto the porch to drink it.
It was a warm summer day; it was not hot, but just pleasantly warm.
As I looked over toward the barnyard, I noticed that no one had gotten the horses out.
When I finished my coffee, I went to check on Grace, Zach, and the baby.
And as I thought about it, I wondered if they had chosen his name yet.
They had talked about many different names for girls and boys, but hadn’t settled on any.
Their bedroom door was open just a bit, enough so that I could see they were all sleeping. Zach and Grace were in their bed while my little nephew slept in a handmade wooden cradle his father had made. I left without disturbing them and headed out to the barn for chores.
When I went to get my horse out of her stall, someone grabbed me from behind with a hand over my mouth and nose and one around my arms and waist. I struggled to free myself as Raven had taught me, but he was too strong.
Plus, the way he held his hand over my mouth and nose, I couldn’t breathe, and that was the last thing I remember.