Something to Die For by Kaye Blue

Eighteen

Angel

“We have to go,”I whispered, my voice low, but the urgency in it unmistakable. The giant shook his head but didn’t speak.

In fact, he hadn’t said a word in the seeming eternity that had passed since the first explosion.

At the first boom,he’d acted, grabbed my arm, and dragged me out of the outbuilding and into another, tucked deeper into the compound but also adjacent to the woods.

And that was where we had stayed, listening to what sounded like a war.

I’d thought about all of the programs I’d watched on television and figured that the first explosion had been a diversion and then after came the real attack.

And I had no illusions about that.

This was an attack.

I thought back, remembered seeing fifteen, maybe twenty guys milling around the grounds, but there could have been more.

I also knew from newspaper articles and TV reports that the kind of men Lucas Crowe kept company with were involved in any illegal activity you could think of. Sure, they liked to pretend they were patriots, but at base of it all was crime.

And with crime came enemies, and just as that idiot Merlin had seen an opportunity, it seemed that someone else had too.

I didn’t know how much longer this would go on, or how much longer I could maintain my cool.

I was hanging on by a thread as it was, and with each second that ticked by, I knew I was closer to falling apart.

I couldn’t let that happen, wouldn’t let it happen, but I hated that feeling, being powerless, and there was no doubt that I was.

“We need to move,” I whispered urgently.

The giant finally spoke, although I wished he hadn’t.

“Shut up. Don’t speak again.”

He didn’t look back at me, and I likely wouldn’t have been able to see him, given that we were in complete darkness.

But I couldn’t mistake the tone in his voice.

I would do as he said or there would be consequences.

I shuddered, again thinking about how I had been stuck with bad options all around, doing my best to find the least of them.

With nothing else to do, I listened to what was going on around me, tried to discern what was happening.

The gunfire had been unrelenting, what sounded like fire and return fire being traded at consistent clips.

I also thought I caught the scent of smoke in the air, probably from the explosion.

Without seeing, I couldn’t tell how much fire there might be, but I hoped not much.

Fire on top of everything else was something I didn’t want to deal with.

So I continued listening, heard gunfire, return fire, expected more shooting. But when it came, it seemed different somehow, the volley of shots at a tempo that didn’t fit the pattern.

I didn’t have the vocabulary to say how, but I knew something was different.

I listened harder, trying to figure out what had changed, and noticed that the gunfire seemed to be coming from a different direction.

The giant shifted, and I looked at him, narrowing my eyes, trying to see something.

I didn’t, couldn’t, but somehow knew he was on alert, even more so than he’d been before.

He started moving, and with nothing else to do, I followed.

I wanted to reach out, see how far away he was, but refused to do that.

Instead, I stayed as close as I could, then listened as he turned the doorknob and pulled open the door.

It wasn’t dawn, but the sky had started to lighten, at least enough for me to see something.

Something, in this case, being corpses strewn across the compound, what looked to be a small fire burning in one corner, and, best of all, Lucas.

My eyes seemed to find him of their own volition, and though he was far away, I knew it was him.

I didn’t take my eyes off him as he moved in a slow circle, his gun lifted, eyes clearly seeking out another threat.

When he seemed satisfied there was none, he turned, looked at me.

I didn’t look away.

Couldn’t.

From this distance, I couldn’t make out his expression, expected he probably would be as unreadable as always, but I still didn’t look away.

I shouldn’t have been relieved, shouldn’t have been happy, but for the first time since he had left, it felt like I could breathe.

Intellectually, I knew that I grasping for anything that would ground me in a state of normalcy, but whatever might have been going on in my mind, I couldn’t ignore the kick in my heart, the way the tension in my belly loosened.

I didn’t take my eyes away from him as he walked toward me, seeming to keep an eye on everything around him but also intently focused on me.

When he reached us, the giant looked down at me and then at Lucas.

“Merlin’s not the only one who had ideas,” he said.

“So it seems,” Lucas responded.

“You good, ’cuz?” the giant asked.

“As much as can be,” Lucas said. “You?”

“I will be as soon as I take care of something,” the giant said.

I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but the two men seemed to know. After a second, the giant nodded at Lucas with stern finality and turned and walked into the woods.

I kept my gaze on him until he disappeared in the trees.

Then, finally I looked at Lucas.

“You want to tell—”

I didn’t get a chance to finish because Lucas wrapped a hand around the base of my neck and pulled me in for a kiss.