Sophie Oak - Two to Love

“There’s a clearing about a quarter of a mile from Mel’s cabin. It’s isolated, but those city boys didn’t think about the fact that there are several great sniper perches. Laura was right about those two. They are dumbasses.” Stefan Talbot wasn’t hiding his tension. He was like a well-dressed, highly coiled rattlesnake waiting to pounce. “We need time though. Max, Rye, and Logan are going to have to ditch the truck at the base of the mountain, or Leander and Worthington will know they’re coming. It’s not an easy climb.”

“Do they need gear?” Nate asked.

“Max and Rye? Hell, no. They were born in these mountains. They’ll be there. They just need a couple of minutes.”

“I don’t know if we’ll have that,” Zane muttered under his breath. His knee bounced nervously.

Stef leaned forward. “She’s alive, Zane. She’ll be alive at the end of this. She’s no fainting flower. She was born in these mountains, too. If she had any chance to run, I promise she’s hiding right now. She’s tough.”

“God, I hope not.” He and Nate said the same words at the same time. And Zane knew they were thinking the very same thing. They wanted her waiting patiently to be rescued. They wanted her to play it safe and let them take the chances.

There was absolutely no way in hell she would do that. She would take the first chance she got, and Zane had to hope she was lucky enough not to get hurt.

His hand tightened on the gun in his lap. The weight and feel was comforting. There was a very real chance one of them wouldn’t come out of it. If it had to be that way then Zane hoped to hell it was him. Nate thought he was being self-sacrificing. Hell, he was being selfish. He didn’t want to live without them. He couldn’t even stand the thought of a world that didn’t include Nate and Callie. He would rather die than live with the hole in his soul. But before anything happened, he needed to do something.

“Nate, I want us to be okay about what happened to me. It wasn’t your fault. I know that. I’ve always known that.”

Nate’s jaw clenched. He swallowed before he replied. “I should have known something was wrong. I should have done something.”

“You did. You saved me. I’m alive because you got help.”

Nate didn’t look at him. His eyes were focused on the road. “You were only there because you followed me.”

“Yeah, I followed you. You didn’t make me sign up. I wanted to go. I was there because I believed in you, and you didn’t let me down. You did your job and got Ellis off the street. Now it’s time to finish it.”

Nate nodded shortly and turned the car up the long dirt road. “We finish this tonight.”

The car got quiet. Zane firmly intended to finish it. Nate might be honor bound to try to take Worthington and Leander in, but Zane was under no such oaths.

He was going to kill them.

The stinging in her shoulder was really reaching epic proportions. Callie tried to blink away her tears. Her left shoulder felt like it was on fire. She’d hit the tree line at a sprint, but now she moved slowly. The instinct was there to just run as fast and far as she could. She forced herself to stop, to hide behind a huge tree and take stock.

She needed to be quiet. The moon was blocked by the forest here, and it was very dark. She could hear one of her attackers moving through the woods like an elephant clomping around. He gave away his position with every move. He’d been behind a desk for too long. He’d forgotten how to stalk his prey, if he’d ever known how.

Callie hoped he couldn’t hear the thundering beat of her heart. It was galloping. She forced herself to breathe slowly. It was cool and getting cold.

“You better come out now, bitch!” Leander’s voice bounced around the forest.

Callie listened very carefully. She was pretty sure he was behind her and to her left. It was just like when she was a kid, she tried to tell herself. She, Max, Rye, and Stef would play hide and seek in these woods. A much younger Mel had warned her even then that she might get taken away by aliens. He’d taken them all out here and shown them good places to hide. He’d taught them how to survive.

The caves. She had to get to the caves. How was she going to climb?

She would deal with that problem when she got to it. Mel had a stash in that cave. The moonshine still he kept there might not help her, but the guns he hid might. If she had to, she would shoot those men with her hands behind her back. She would just start firing and hope she hit something.

“Come on, sweetheart. You don’t want to be out here. The woods are scary.” A more soothing voice was trying to coax her out. Worthington sounded a bit closer. “You have no idea what’s out here. Just come out, and we’ll take care of you. Nate should be here any minute, and he’ll take you home.”

Not likely. She rolled her eyes. Did they think she was a complete idiot? Probably. She hadn’t used a whole lot of common sense around them, but that was about to change. There was no way she would willingly go back to them. And she knew what was in these woods a hell of a lot better than they did. Where was a bear when she needed one?

Callie eased from her hiding place when she heard them move away. She kept her step very light, moving slowly. She moved from one tree to the next, inching toward the clearing. She would have to run once she got there, but if they were still in the woods, she should be all right if she was careful.

She broke from the woods and made a beeline for the caves. The entrance was hidden, but she had no doubt where it was located. She’d snuck into it far too often. When she was a kid, she had played there with the boys. Just a year ago, she’d snuck in and sat and cried after her mother’s funeral.

The trouble was the entrance to the cave was about ten feet up a pretty steep incline, and she had to climb without the aid of her hands. She stumbled and fell, her knees hitting the hard ground. It was so hard to balance.

“Callie, this can go easy or it can go hard.” Worthington’s voice sounded closer now.

She swung her head around, praying he wasn’t actually walking toward her. Her breath came out in a harsh pant. She saw a flash of something moving and forced herself to get off her knees. Her entire body trembled violently. Fear threatened to take over her every cell. She decided to give the cave one last shot. She backed up slightly and took the hill at a run. She fell forward, her face hitting a rock. She groaned and tried to turn over.

Get up. Move. Don’t just lay there.

She felt something tug at her shirt. She opened her mouth to scream, but a hand came down across it. She bucked and tried to get her teeth to sink into that hand because if they were going to kill her, she was going to make them feel it. She was going to fight.

“Callie, calm down.”

She knew that voice. She stilled and opened her eyes. Mel’s face loomed over hers in the gloom. She breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“Come on,” he said. He hooked his hands under her armpits and hauled her up.

“There!”

Callie heard the masculine shout as Mel was pulling her up. Her shoulder screamed in protest.

“Someone’s up there with her!”

Mel whirled her around and was setting her on her feet at the mouth of the cave when Callie heard the loud crack of gun fire. Mel’s body jerked, and he pushed her roughly away from him. She hit the hard rock of the cave on her ass and immediately scrambled to get up.

“Mel!” Callie’s voice echoed through the cave. She got to her knees and started to make her way toward him.

Mel crawled through the entrance. She could barely see the outline of his body as he struggled to get through. He turned, and Callie could see he’d managed to hold on to his rifle. He turned and fired, the report shockingly loud.

“Sorry, Callie.” Mel practically shouted the words. He scooted backwards slightly. “That should make them think twice about coming up here. You in cuffs?”

“Yeah,” she replied breathlessly. “Where are you hit?”

She could hear the pain in Mel’s voice, but it remained steady and even. If the aliens ever did come to Bliss, Callie was going to run straight to Mel. For all his paranoia, he was damn cool in a crisis. “They hit my left thigh. It’s bleeding pretty bad, but I’ll live. I won’t be running anytime soon.” He fired off another shot. “Come over here and I’ll get those cuffs off you. I can pick that lock in no time at all.”

She walked to him on her knees, wincing at the pain lancing through her. Everything hurt, it seemed.

“How did you find me?” Callie turned to give Mel access to her hands. She heard the click of metal against metal and suddenly her hands were free.

“I saw them take you from the town hall. I was getting into my truck to come home, and I saw them put you in their car. You’re a good girl, Callie. I knew you wouldn’t leave with two strange men, not when you already have two strange men.” Mel’s eyes were already facing front again, watching for the agents.

Callie winced as she started to get circulation back in her hands. Her shoulder hurt, but she breathed through it. It was nothing compared to what these men had done to Zane, what they would do to Nate and Zane if she gave them a chance. She kneeled beside Mel. “Can you take them out?”

“If they’re stupid enough to come close,” Mel replied quietly. He sent out another warning shot. “They’re playing it smart for now. Don’t worry. Your men will be here.”

That was what she was afraid of. “They’re walking into an ambush.”

Mel shook his head and chuckled a little. “No, Cal, they’re walking into what we used to call a cluster fuck in the Marines. Excuse my language. You see, these boys didn’t think this out at all. There are far too many places here to come up on a man. Why do you think I chose this spot? You have to know it intimately to know its hidey holes. Otherwise, you’re a sitting duck. Those boys are sitting ducks. I don’t know what they’re thinking.”

“I screwed up their plans. They intended to steal twenty million dollars, and I overheard them talking. Do you see them?”

Mel was still for a moment. “No. They’re quiet, too.” His voice went down a notch. “I heard someone coming up the road though. They stopped a little way back. I think your men are here.”

Callie let her eyes close and sent a silent prayer to anyone who would listen. She’d done her part. They wouldn’t be able to use her to pull Zane and Nate in. Now it was up to them to save themselves. A sudden thought occurred to her. “Mel, I need a shotgun.”

“There’s a flashlight about ten feet to your right. When you find it, move back another ten feet, and you’ll find a stash of guns.”

Callie started crawling, feeling her way along the stone floor. If it came to it, she would do whatever it took. She wasn’t going to lose them.

* * *

Nate cut off the engine about a half a mile from where he needed to be. He had no intention of walking into an ambush. What Zane didn’t seem to understand was that he had no intention of losing either of the most important people in his life. He needed Callie, and he needed Zane, and he wasn’t willing to let either of them die.

His hand curled around the gun he carried. “Stef, you take the long way around. I want you coming up on their backs. If they’re where they say they are, Zane and I are going to come out of the forest in front of them.”

Nate was watching Stef through the rearview mirror. His jaw tightened. “I won’t let them hurt, Callie.”

Zane turned quickly. “They won’t get the chance.”

“They won’t.” Nate wouldn’t let it happen. He wouldn’t even allow himself to think about it happening. “We’re going to have them in a circle. If I can’t take them out, the Harpers will. If you get a decent shot, you take it.”

Stef slid out of the car and into the woods like a wraith. Zane held his rifle to his chest.

“Let’s go,” Nate said. “You stay close to me.”

Nate got out of the car. He let his mind roam and remembered everything about the day he and Callie had come here. The place where he was supposed to go was just inside the clearing. If he and Zane were quiet, they should be able to sneak up on them.

There was the loud report of a rifle, and Nate felt his heart speed up. Zane took off, and Nate ran to keep up. He pumped his legs, adrenaline flowing through his body. There was another shot, this one sounded like a handgun. Had Max and Rye already made it into position? Why would they have started shooting without the signal? Callie. They would have started shooting to save Callie. Nate forced himself to go cold, to push the panic and terror that threatened to engulf him down. A fleeting image of Callie’s body on the ground flashed across his mind, but he pushed that down, too. He couldn’t afford to panic, and he couldn’t let Zane panic, either. He pushed himself, trying to keep up with Zane, but the big bastard was fast and had longer legs.