Page 77

John

I love you.

Those were the last words I said to her, begging her to run. I didn’t have any illusions that I’d survive this fight. There was one of me and at least a dozen of them—soldiers, too, from the look of it. But I could give her time, and I could give these bastards a taste of what they deserved.

When Claire screamed and ran, I wanted to shake her. At the same time, I was terrified. They had a clear shot at her, and she was barely armed. The opposite of everything I’d taught her.

What the fuck were you thinking?

But when the soldiers chased after her, I understood. She was trying to protect me. To lead them away from where I was still hidden. Hoping they would never know I was there.

Too bad for them that they were dead the second they said they were looking for her.

I silently tracked the soldiers chasing after Claire through my scope. My finger itched over the trigger. They were far enough behind, but when one grabbed her by the hair, I fired. Blew his head off without a second thought.

Chaos broke out. Men yelled at each other, seeming confused about what the hell just happened. After a beat, they split up. The ones in tactical gear chased after Claire. Fuck. The regular uniformed ones stayed behind to investigate.

Claire bolted for the woods. At least she’d have cover there…for a while, anyway.

The makings of a plan formed. If I stayed behind the boulders, I might have a shot against them. Not a great one, but better than nothing. I could stay low in the ditch behind the rocks and try to use that to get to the woods, where I’d have the upper hand.

I peeked over the top of the rocks and let out a breath.

Most of them were fumbling with suppressors, except for one that advanced toward my hiding spot.

Perfect. I aimed at where he’d be with my pistol and listened to his footsteps.

When the lone soldier rounded the corner, I damn near emptied it into him.

He let out a wet gasp, staggered, and collapsed.

More shouting, more confusion. I took advantage of their surprise and popped up, snapped a sight picture, and fired.

I didn’t stay to watch, but knew he was down.

A barrage of return fire whizzed over my head.

It looked like maybe four men and one body.

I hunted bears with this rifle, so it was going to be two bodies pretty soon.

After unloading at me, they all stopped to reload. Idiots.

I shot another one as he fumbled with his magazine.

They paused again after returning fire, as if trying to decide what to do.

There was more shouting back and forth, and I heard them moving toward me.

I palmed a rock and tossed it in a high arc over the boulder as hard as I could to buy me precious seconds of distraction.

Staying low in the gulley, I dashed up the hill toward the treeline.

Shots followed me, but with the cover of the ditch, they only hit dirt or trees. Distance and terrain were my only advantages.

I’d intended to follow Claire, but having to cover myself meant that I was off-course, and I didn’t know the exact way she’d gone. I heard gunshots in the distance and had to force myself to take a breath. One problem at a time. The sooner I dealt with these bastards, the sooner I could find her .

They followed me into the brush, but they were clearly out of their element on the rough terrain. I hunted them silently. The trees provided decent cover, and I could tell by the way they spoke to one another that not having eyes on me spooked them. Good.

We danced around each other through the trees, and I stayed out of sight. Waited for the right moment. Two of the three finally broke away to search, and I picked them off before they knew what was happening. As soon as he realized he was alone, the last guy broke away and ran.

I had one last shot. I let him run, watching him through the scope. Just when he was about to reach the beach—just when the dumbass thought he was safe, putting distance between us—I gently caressed the trigger and put a bullet through his head.

I reloaded my guns and waited just long enough to be sure no one was left, that reinforcements weren’t coming. The forest was eerily quiet. The distant gunshots I’d heard earlier were silent now. There was no rustling, no sounds of anyone running through the brush. Silent as a grave.

My breath caught. Don’t think like that.

I ached to call her name, but I couldn’t risk giving away my position to the surviving soldiers. If I had to fight them, surprise and stealth would be the only things on my side.

Instead, I’d have to track her, the way I would on a hunt. I made myself go back out to the beach and find my pack. I only stopped to fish out a few cartridges of ammunition before running back toward the woods.

I retraced Claire’s steps, following the impressions in the sand and then the trail of disturbed soil and broken branches she’d left behind in the woods.

Her small footprints in the dirt reminded me that she was barefoot, and somehow, that made my blood boil all over again.

Attacking a woman so defenceless that she wasn’t even wearing shoes when she fled—what brave soldiers these men were.

The kind of guys I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire.

There were bullet holes in the trees as I silently followed her trail, and nausea crept up on me.

A sputtering noise came from up ahead, and a low moan of pain.

Lying up against a tree, clutching a uniformed leg soaked with blood, was one of the tactical soldiers.

I waited a beat to see if anyone was with him, but no one appeared .

I walked over to him and before he could react, held the barrel of my rifle against his forehead, under the tactical helmet.

“Where is she?” My voice was deadly quiet.

“Who the fuck are you?”

I kicked his wounded leg, and he screamed in pain. A small, dark part of me enjoyed it.

“You heard me.”

“Gone,” he gasped out. “Little bitch shot me. She ran that way.”

He pointed east, and I moved my finger over the trigger.

“Hey, man, that’s the truth!” he sputtered.

“I believe you,” I answered, and executed him.

I headed east and discovered another soldier bleeding in the dirt, but he was dead, a bullet through his neck. Good girl. Just like I taught you.

I finally made it to a large clearing, where it became obvious that something had gone down.

I followed the impressions in the grass to a spot right in front of a big oak tree.

My stomach twisted as I spotted drying blood on the bark.

It was about Claire’s height, and though there was no blood anywhere else, I had to push down another swell of nausea.

Her pistol was on the ground by the tree, and that didn’t help.

I kept pushing until I reached the edge of the forest, where it met the Old World highway. There were boot prints and drag marks in the dirt, and then fresh tire tracks on the crumbling asphalt. They’d had multiple vehicles. Any hope of catching them was gone…just like her.

I threw my rifle down and slammed my fist against the nearest tree, a shout of rage and horrible emptiness escaping from me. My knuckles came away bloody, but I didn’t care. My chest heaved with every breath as I tried to calm down. Think rationally. Not fall into the trap of despair.

I headed back to the lake to investigate. I collected everything I could from the corpses I’d left behind, desperate for anything that might hint at where they were going.

Several of them had printed maps crumpled up in their packs, along with identical mission briefings from somewhere called the Delta.

I didn’t know where that was, and the maps didn’t mark its location, but the area it highlighted was small enough that Kimmy and I could figure out where it was most likely to be based on where resources were—fresh water, hunting grounds, and the like.

They had working vehicles—something I’d never seen anyone besides the Valley have before. Except the cult…who had access to them because they came from a compound.

It stood to reason that this Delta was probably another one. That meant it’d be fortified and guarded better than anything I was used to. And no Claire to get me in this time.

I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to follow their trail until I found my wife. The reality was, though, that I wouldn’t catch them before they got to this Delta. I needed to prepare.

As I got ready to leave, I spotted something crumpled in the grass. The big white flower I’d put in Claire’s hair, torn and crushed by the chaos. I knelt next to it and cradled it in my palm. I saw the flash of her sweet smile in my mind, and something inside me suddenly broke—just like that.

My hand clapped over my mouth. I tried to stop the ragged sounds of pain that broke through, but it was useless.

For a long moment, I just stared at that stupid flower, lying broken in the palm of my hand.

It was everything I’d been afraid of—the loss that was going to destroy me.

In an instant, everything good in my world… gone.

My hand closed into a fist around the flower. Get a grip. I wasn’t going to grieve her as if she was already dead. I had work to do. I stood and walked in the direction of the highway, hardened now by determination.

I’d get my girl back, or I wasn’t coming back.