Jaded Warriors book 2 (Jade Series)

Chapter 36

Chapter 36


The house was dark when we got home. He lit the fire as he always did as I went into the bathroom to freshen up. I smelled like horse from the ride and decided that wouldn’t work.  I pulled my hair up into a clip and jumped into the shower. With my eyes closed I let the warm water gently run over me without feeling panicked. I smiled. Another weight lifted.


I picked up the sponge and poured the Black Cherry and Vanilla body wash into it and lathered myself with the sweet smelling soap. The soft spray ran over me and carried the bubbles down my legs, swirling around my feet as the drain sucked them down.  As I dried off, I heard the sounds of the shower turn off to the master bedroom.


Gage sat on the couch with his hair still damp and watched me as I walked out of the room.  He looked at me in a way that made my heart jump, sporting a pair of Levis’ and a soft white tee shirt, contoured to the curvature of his muscled body. I straddled his legs and sat in front of him and smoothed his shirt with the palms of my hands then ran them up the front of his chest. His body felt warm against mine as he gently pulled me to him. His hands cupped my cheeks as he brought my lips to his and kissed me softly.


He pulled the clip from my curls and let my hair fall. His fingers combed through my hair and twisted it gently as he looked at me with a longing in his eyes, tormented eyes. I pulled his shirt off over his head. His muscled chest, still rosy and humid from a hot shower glistening in the flickering light of the fire as I looked at him. His hands settled on my hips. He gripped me tight as he restrained himself yet kept me close.


“Jade,” he paused, his voice low and husky. I placed little kisses down his neck, on his chest as I unbuttoned his top button of his pants. “Are you sure?”


“Yeah,” I whispered as I looked into his eyes. I loved him and I knew I wanted this.


He lifted me and carried me into the room. My heart hammered wildly as he set me softly on the bed then moved over me as I sank into the plush mattress. He kissed my neck with soft feather light kisses that sent chills down my spine. The space dissolved between us and I could feel his heart, bounding against my chest.  Our bodies wrapped around each other. I felt the weight of his body on mine as he pressed himself against me. He rested on his elbow and his hand moved slowly just under the edge of my shirt. His fingers brushed my belly, his hands gentle as he touched me.


Jade!


The word, a voice, chastising me in my head. Where did it come from.


I tensed and my breath caught as he explored further, moved daringly closer to places he’d never been. I tried to ignore the choking panic as each gentle touch felt sharp against my skin as if it painfully cut like a razor. My mind spun and my chest tightened. I felt smothered all of a sudden and couldn’t breathe! Why? I love Gage! I could let him kiss me, but as soon as his hands touched me, ventured to explore all of me for the first time, I felt panicked, frigid. Every soft touch, every gentle move of his hand over me invasive, I felt suffocated and restrained. I wanted so badly to feel like I did at the cabin, before… Everything. Before, when we first found love, when I wanted him to touch me and every touch was so new that it sent chills that charged my body.


A sudden image of Damian’s face flashed through my mind. Him! His words pierced my ears again as if he spoke them out loud, as if he were here. Jade! Whether I am with you or not, I will be there in your mind every night for the rest of your life. You will always be mine! With or without his own tattoo on my chest, he left his mark as he ingrained fear into my heart. The fear of intimacy, the fear of being touched, and fear of feeling this way for the rest of my life.


I experienced the terror all over again and I felt trapped. My muscles tensed and I tried to catch my breath. My throat caught and choked for the air I desperately needed. I had the sudden urge to cry. Angry at myself for how I felt! Mad at Damian at how he could overrun my mind, mad for what he did.


Gage stopped and looked at me as he withdrew his hand. “Are you okay? We don’t have to do this.” The sensitivity in Gage’s eyes left me feeling lonely. I wanted to feel all of him but I couldn’t. Damian wouldn’t allow it.


I covered my eyes with my trembling hand and clenched my jaw as I tried to hide my pain from him. I forced back the tears.


“You’re shaking,” he said, then held me close as I clutched onto his arms and buried my face into his chest.  I tried to fight back the tears but they flooded my eyes. My body shook. I was frustrated, irritated.


“I’m sorry!  I don’t know why… His face kept popping into my mind!”


“What did he do, Jade?” Gage asked. This whole time, ever since Gage came and rescued me from Damian, he never once asked me to tell him what happened. He always said for me to wait until I was ready to talk about it, and I wasn’t. I told him bits and pieces, but not that.


I shook my head. I didn’t want to talk about any of it. I wanted it to be all undone. There would be nothing that I could say that would surprise him so that meant that he’d already considered the probability of what could have happened to me. I didn’t want him to know what he already knew deep down. Whether I said it or not, he already knew.


“Will you tell me?”


“It doesn’t matter, Gage.”


“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? It matters to me,” Gage said, just as frustrated.


“He kept me locked in a room, a cold cement room. You already know what he did.”


“No I don’t… You’ve told me pieces of one night. That’s not even half of it. You were there five months.”


“And if you know that’s not the half of it, then you already know what comes next, don’t you.”


“Just try… Please.”


“Damian drugged me, he beat me... he starved me. He came at random times and harassed me. I didn’t know if it was day or the middle of the night. And he did it over and over and over again… He never let up... I wanted to be dead...”  I tried to sound as vague and as detached as I could while the jitteriness in my body revealed how much it bothered me. "Because… I thought you were dead."


I just shook my head as tears streamed back into my hair and I quickly wiped them away. Gage sighed and rolled off me onto his side and pulled me to him while I curled up and rested my head on his shoulder.


“Then Casey told me you weren’t dead and you were coming and to not give up,” I said through decreasing tears. “I wanted to believe him so badly! But I just couldn’t stand being in there anymore!” I looked at Gage. His jaw clenched tight into knots and I felt the anger in his arms as he remained silent.


“That last night, they made me and Denny kneel on the ground. I watched as Damian and Jasper, both loaded one bullet into each of their guns. They planned to kill us that night. Right then. They held the guns up to our heads and pulled the trigger. The first two shots were blank. I counted each one. Then on the third time, they pulled the triggers and Denny’s went off and I watched them kill him. He died because he helped me, Gage.”


“He didn’t die because of you, Jade. Neither did Trey. They died because of Damian and Morrison. Not you… you need to stop feeling responsible for what was completely beyond your control.”


“After watching Denny get shot I started screaming and fighting to get away… I guess I decided if I was going to die, I was going to die fighting, not on my knees waiting for Damian to do it… He pulled the trigger again… Nothing. Then you barged through the door and Damian turned the gun from me to you… And it fired! That bullet was meant for me...” My voice trailed off. “The fifth shot.”


“He wasn’t going to shoot you,” he whispered.


I sat up quickly and stared at him stunned. “I saw the gun! I watched him put a bullet in it and I felt him jam the barrel into my skull. He pulled an empty trigger four times! How can you say that?” I asked him, more hurt than angry. “I watched Denny die.”


“I know,” he said, “all of that happened… all of it. But he held the gun.”


My mind spun as I tried to follow what Gage said and sort it in my flustered mind.


“He might have shot you… that could have been what he had planned, but just listen to me for a minute and think through this with me from his sick, warped perspective…” he said as his voice trailed off, he watched me and waited for me to set my emotions aside.


  “Okay.”


“He will not kill you. He thrives on torturing you because you refused him… I can probably guess, without you telling me that he led you to believe he was going to kill you in some way, then didn’t at the last possible second… Not a lot, but several times while you were there he let it escalate that far. Enough to keep you scared, but not consistent or frequent that you would recognize a pattern. If he kills you… you’re dead! Free, away from him and he can’t hurt you anymore. Maybe he would have killed you and found another victim… but I doubt it. You told me once that he stopped Morrison from hurting you. He knows Morrison’s limits and he knows his own. He’s sadistic not a serial killer, he’s obsessed with you, only you and has been for a long time.”


“Why?”


“Women are property and are there for a purpose to serve men in however way men see fit… in their eyes,” he added as he stressed his last words. “They’re culture is so different from ours. They live in their own communities… compounds... have their own schools, and live by their own rules… They hate the government and don’t pay taxes but somehow have tons of money. The live under the radar as much as they can.”


“How do you know so much about them?”


“The best way to beat your enemy is to know every little detail about them from what they eat for breakfast to what makes them tick. Morrison is my enemy. Damian is my enemy… And since he won’t back off, I’ll learn everything I can about him and drive him into the ground.


“Damian was raised to believe that you were promised to him. It’s sick and twisted but from what Casey has told me, he doesn’t see anything wrong with the way he treated you. In his mind, he cares about you on some weird level… They also arrange marriages for families in their society and it usually happens when the kids are young. So he’s probably been told, his whole life about you. You said it yourself… Morrison has a file on your family. Pictures of you, a lot of them and when you were little… why? He’s tattooed you with his symbol, gone to great lengths to get to you and tells you he has picked you for Damian. Why he didn’t pick you for his own son… I haven’t figured that one out yet, but he picked you for some reason and engrained it into Damian’s mind. When did it start? I don’t know… I’m guessing it was when you were very young.”


I nodded absently, unsure what to say.


“You okay?”


“Yeah,” I sighed, “just thinking…” My voice trailed off and I glanced up at him. His expression changed as if his mind shifted gears, he held something back as he pushed a stray strand of hair off my brow then went to speak.


‘BAM, BAM, BAM!’ I practically jumped out of my skin as someone pounded at the door. Gage sat there for a minute, both of us a little stunned. ‘BAM, BAM, BAM!’ The knock at the door continued.


“Who do you think it is?” I asked, Gage sighed as he looked towards the front entryway over the arm rest of the couch.


“The only ones who knows I’m here is Kane and Joel, well and Casey,” Gage said, then stood and grabbed a rifle from the gun cabinet and loaded it.


‘BAM, BAM, BAM! Gage! Open up.” I heard someone say from behind the door.


He opened the door and I saw Dr. Walstrom, he talked quickly but I couldn’t understand their muffled conversation. I moved closer to the front entryway behind the wall so I could hear what was said as he said something about Damian.


“First thing in the morning,” Gage said.


“I thought you wanted to be the one to take down Damian, we don’t have much time.”


“I do.”


“Then let’s go.”


“You are going to have to give me a minute,” Gage said. I saw the doctor as he stood in the doorway. His eyes met mine and I shifted uncomfortably under his stare.  He knew I listened to their conversation and he didn’t look happy about it. “I’ll meet you at your house after I get Casey,” he said, and went to shut the door.


“When?” The Doctor asked impatiently.


“When I get there!” He said harshly, and shut the door.


Gage looked irritated as he walked back into the front room. The chill from the outside air along with my rattled nerves caused me to shiver. I watched as he knelt in front of the fire and put a few logs on the dying coals. He didn’t say anything for a while. His jaw, clenched in anger as an unforgiving, steely look settled into his eyes. With his shirt still off, draped in a heap over the armrest of the couch I watched his bare muscles ripple every time he poked at the fire with the stoker.


“What’s wrong?”


“Damian was spotted in a small town west of the Colorado border… he’s heading a large group of Militia,” he said as he set the stoker on the rust color bricks that lined the fireplace then stood and started to pace on the worn rug. “He said Kane sent for me. We lost Rubin’s location when we pushed them out of the city but apparently, they found him again… with Damian.”


He stopped pacing, stood before me and reached out his hand. I placed mine in his and he pulled me up to stand before him. I heard him sigh. Deep in thought I stared past him blankly into the flickering trance of the fire. He touched my arm and my body tensed. I took a deep breath and tried to relax as his hand slowly traveled up my shoulder then cupped my chin in his hand and slipped his other around my waist.


“I’m sorry, Jade,” he said, as he pulled me close and turned me gently to look at him. His eyes softened. “Your birthday didn’t exactly end the way I wanted it to. I had planned on staying the weekend.”


“So does that mean you’re leaving?”  I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice.


“Yeah.”


“It’s okay.”


“No, it’s not. Not for me,” he replied.  “He wants us to go right now. I guess I better go wake up Casey.”


***





The crisp night’s breeze cut through the material of my jacket and I pulled it tighter around me. The short distance between our homes seemed to stretch farther during the cold, but that was okay. The closer we got to their house, the sooner Gage would be leaving so I lessened my pace. Gage seemed to sense my lack of urgency and slowed with me. In spite of my efforts to slow the night, we made it to the front porch and Casey answered the door.


He recognized our sober faces and reluctantly let us in. The baby was in a basinet in the front room cooing and making cute baby noises. Gage walked over to the basinet and looked in as I followed. I grasped his arm as he stood in front of me and I peeked around to see her.


“She’s getting big,” he said.


She was almost two months old now and absolutely adorable.  I moved past him and picked her up. She curled her legs up under her body as she stretched and let out a big yawn, then her eyes grew big, as she looked around, pleasantly happy despite the interruption from her innocent sleepiness.


“She’s so cute, don’t you think.” I said, and held her. I looked at her closely. I couldn’t get over how much she looked like Casey even though I wasn’t sure how.


Gage looked at her and she broke into a big smile. Surprised at her expression, he smiled back.


“She knows a handsome man when she sees one,” I grinned.


“Hey! Don’t be stealing my girl, Gage!” Casey said lightheartedly and grabbed Gage as he pretended to punch him. I shook my head at the two of them and then they went into the kitchen to talk. Megan came out from the back room and the two of us sat at the table and listened to Gage tell Casey that as much as he didn’t want to, they had to leave.


***


Gage seemed to move unhurriedly as he stoked the fire, placed more wood, lit the lantern, all things that didn’t need to be done but slowed his progression of leaving. The despondency in his heart weighted heavily on his shoulders as he walked over and slumped into the cushions of the couch. 


“I hate leaving like this.”


“Take me with you?” I asked.


“No,” he said, his clipped answer came way too quickly, definite, no question in his mind. “You’re safer here.”


I walked over and sat next to him. I reached for his hand as I took the full length of the couch and pulled him down with me. I felt his warm breath on the back of my neck as I wrapped his arms tighter and let him hold me. I wasn’t sure who needed the comfort more.


“What are you upset at?”


He sighed, then moved his hand just under the hem of my shirt. I tensed as his fingers brushed the skin around my belly button lightly, he continued farther up my shirt as if to test me then stopped as my body became rigid. “It’s hard for you to let me touch you… really touch you, is that it?” He asked. “I can kiss you, I can hold you… but when I touch certain places, I trigger something.”


“I want to get past it,” I said, my voice wavered.


“Then we’ll work on it…” he paused, then kissed my forehead and whispered, “as long as it takes.”


“Thank you.”


His arm moved over across the front of me and he tightened his hold into a bear hug. “Why would Kane send for me only hours after I left? It just doesn’t feel right… We’re getting stretched pretty thin but everything was fine when I left. More than fine, we had Morrison on the move headed north and were working to pick up Rubin’s trail… I had to come back regardless to get supplies. And now, you’re finally able to talk to me and then I have to leave.”


“It’s okay. I’ll be here when you get back,” I said.


“It’s not okay. I don’t like being interrupted when it comes to spending time with you,” he said.


“I’ll be fine.”


“That wasn’t a conversation you can just pick up where you left off. I feel like there are things left unsaid,” Gage said. I could feel his jaw clench tight again against the side of my head as he rested his on mine. “I don’t like how tonight ended.”


“I know tonight didn’t end the way you wanted it to, but it started out perfect and I had an


amazing time with you today. I am glad you came, even if it was only for a day.”


“Are you sure?”


“Yeah…”


“I’m sorry I upset you earlier. I should have just known to wait…” Gage paused. He turned my chin gently towards him and looked into my eyes. “I can’t stand what he’s done to you… I swear, I’ll fix it somehow… I wish I could take everything Damian did to you away, Jade.”


The weight of his feelings pulled at me. “You do take it away... I forget about him when I’m with you. I guess I just need more time... for the rest.”


“You should have been going to your first dance in high school… You’ve missed out on so much… Being sixteen, turning seventeen is supposed to be fun. You shouldn’t have to care about anything except what you are going to wear tomorrow, or what the guy next to you in science class thinks about you… I wanted to be that guy… That took you to the dance.”


I smiled at his gesture. I turned my body to face him and slipped my arm under his. I kissed his chest and rested my head on it as he squeezed me tight. He sighed as I relaxed close to him.


“You are that guy, Gage…” I tilted my head back to see his eyes, so full of life, full of love for me, the beautiful blue eyes that made me want to be alive again. “Will you dance with me now?”


A smile tugged at the corner of his lip. “I would love to.” He moved off the couch and held out his hand for me to take as he stood. He pulled me up next to him. I moved my arms up around his neck and let him pull me close. We swayed slowly in each other’s arms. He kissed me gently and I let my mind wander as I thought of how it might have been to go to a dance with Gage.


“I can see you… Dancing close to me,” he whispered softly, his breath warm against my cheek. “You’re absolutely beautiful…  I can’t take my eyes off you.”


I nestled my head in the crook of his neck as I envisioned what he saw. I saw him, his black tux and his clean-shaven face with his strong jaw and soft lips that curled perfectly when he smiled. A certain smile meant for me.


“I wanted your birthday to be perfect.”


“It was.”


“Happy Birthday,” he said, and kissed me.


“Thank you... I couldn’t have asked for a better day.” I glanced at the clock. It was two minutes after twelve. “It’s after twelve. Was this a better ending?”


“A better ending for tonight… But it’s just the beginning of our life together.”


***


I couldn’t hide my sulking from Megan or Deanna.  And even when Olivia brought Corby and Maya over to see me I still felt distant, distracted. I tried to appear in good spirits but since Gage left I couldn’t shake my uneasy feeling. I don’t know why I felt so bad, it wasn’t the first time he had to leave to fight and it wouldn’t be the last.


His departure seemed to touch so close to my heart this time. I felt so close to him when he came and now I couldn’t feel any farther apart from him than if he was on the other side of the world. Like unseen forces, polar opposites pulled us apart and kept us from each other. As hard as we tried to find each other again we were pulled further away.


A knock at the door shook me from my thoughts and I walked with much effort to the door as my feet felt weighted to the floor. I looked through the peek hole and saw two little smiling faces who waited anxiously for the door to open and Olivia who stood right behind them. I smiled and laughed a little under my breath at their overly round faces and their shrunken bodies, distorted by the roundness of the glass. I opened the door, happy to see them and I looked forward to the next few days I would have with them. That was, if I could convince Olivia to let me stay.


“Hi Jade.” The both called out in unison. I knelt down to give them a hug. I needed it much more than they did but by their over-zealous spirits, I was thankful that they needed my hug too.


“Let Jade breathe kids,” Olivia said, as Maya squeezed my neck tight and my waist clenched by Corby. I laughed as they let go.


“It’s okay.”


“You ready?”


I sighed. I knew Olivia was only taking extra precautions by wanting to take me back to Sonja’s and as much as I enjoyed the stay, it wasn’t home. “I need more time here, Olivia… Can’t I stay?” I asked grudgingly. She looked at me and sighed.


“Kids, why don’t you go see if Ivy can play,” she said and before she finished her sentence they were already jumping off the porch as they made a dash for Ivy’s house.


“Damian was spotted close to Colorado, remember,” I said, once they were out of earshot. I watched Corby and Maya as they walked up to the front door and let themselves in without knocking, I smiled.


“He’s not the only one we’re worried about and you know this,” Olivia said. She had conformation from an inside source that Morrison had a team of three to four people searching for me, men, women, we didn’t know. But the guards patrolled our road regularly, not to mention the ones who stayed undercover in regular street clothes in the abandoned house across the way, constantly surveying the neighborhood and Gage’s home. I looked past Olivia and as if on cue, as if they knew I talked about them, the couple looked up from their gardening and offered a friendly wave. I waved back. If anyone suspicious showed up, they would know.


“Any word from Gage or Kane?” I asked, changing the subject as I stepped outside and sat on the porch swing.


“No… nothing,” she said as she sat next to me. In the week since he left, each day grew more tortuous as I waited for word of anything, Gage’s arrival, Damian’s capture, anything, but we heard nothing as if they fell off the face of the earth. An uneasy feeling grew inside of me, spurred by the potential threats that were real and numerous and my fears grew as I worried I might never see him again.


“Don’t you find that the least bit suspicious?” I asked. I pushed the swing slightly with my feet against the bottom rung of the black, cast iron railing. The chain that suspended the swing creaked in rhythm to the swaying motion, faint and repetitive in a hypnotic sound.


“I heard from Gage by CB six days ago, they were on their way east where Damian had been spotted… they can’t communicate on the radio once they get into position… it’s too dangerous,” she said as I felt her eyes watch me. She was right and I knew I needed to relax. I stared out across the lawn to the large Oak tree that shaded almost half of the front lawn with its thick branches and broad, star shaped leaves. The green grass, the chirping of birds, spring flowers that sprouted out of the earth, nothing could lift my melancholy mood. I glanced at her and offered a forged smile.


“Okay,” I said, conceding. I hated not knowing and hated not being there more. “I’ll try to think positive.”


“Good,” she smiled, the worry on her face slowly seeped away. She stood, her figure shading me from the sun, cast a bright golden glow around her. “I will let you know as soon as I hear something… I’m on my way to meet with Prescott now.”


She walked to the steps and looked back. “Let me know if you change your mind about going to stay with Sonja,” she said. “I’ll be back in three days.”


“I will,” I smiled with genuine appreciation for how Olivia tried to look out for me. She turned and walked down the drive to her solar powered car. The purr of the motor churned to life then settled, barely heard over the soft sounds of the hummingbirds as she drove away.


I slouched back and propped my head against the back of the swing and closed my eyes. All the sounds of spring potentiated in my mind and I tried to listen to each one individually to pass the time. A bee buzzed by and the sound grew near, then just as quickly faded into the song of the birds as they chirped in high branches with the rustling leaves. A light breeze brushed softly through my hair as it carried the distant cheerful sounds of children outside as they laughed. Maya, Corby and Ivy in Deanna’s back yard. Just beyond that, the bubbling creek that ran along the trail behind her house that came from the direction of Marge’s and to the lake. Soon, the stream would churn at full capacity with the winter’s run off from the mountains.


I started to drift off and barely noticed the rumble of a vehicle in the distance. I heard a door shut and it jarred me from my dream like state as I realized the engine shut off. I glanced around to the ends of the street and back and saw nothing and I wondered where it came from. I leaned forward and strained to look through the trees and saw something out of the corner of my eye. I might have glanced past and not noticed a thing if it weren’t for the bright red jacket as I saw a man walking through the screen of trees.


I lost sight of him behind the houses so I walked slowly to the steps and made my way across the street as if I were going to Deanna’s. I waved again to the guards as they watched me for a moment then went back to their business, apparently satisfied that they knew where I headed. Once in her driveway I rushed to the side of the garage and strained through the trees once again to see if I could see the man, but I couldn’t.


I walked through the next yard and stayed close to the walls. The home, abandoned with a yard overgrown with unkempt bushes and weeds that went to my knees served well to keep me hidden. I crept to the edge of the trees and disappeared into the shadows as I watched for the man with the red jacket.


I caught sight of the stranger, his back to me as he walked down the trail. Briefly, I worried about what he might do if he knew I followed him as I moved in his direction using the protection of the trees. I chided myself silently for my overactive paranoia, he probably was nobody for me to be concerned with. Apparently he didn’t care to stay hidden with the red jacket on, considering he looked more like a deer hunter in October with the bright color, the only thing he lacked was a rifle, but I followed him anyways.


He looked back suddenly then turned off the trail and I gasped as I pressed up against a tree, hopefully unnoticed, but not before I saw his face. I inched closer, more determined than ever to follow Dr. Walstrom. I stared dumbfounded as he walked up to another individual, partially hidden by the trees not far from the back side of Marge’s store. I heard Walstrom’s familiar voice involved in a muffled conversation with the other man, large and burly and properly dressed to stay unnoticed in a brown shirt and camouflaged pants, not so easily spotted and I wondered where he came from.


Deadfall crunched underneath my feet and seemed to resonate with every slow and precise step, while I crept as close as I could. Every breath I took, every beat of my heart vibrated through my ears and carried over the sounds of their voices.  I hid behind a large tree about twenty feet away. I was so close, it wouldn’t take much for them to see or hear me.


“Were you followed?” The man with his back to me asked.


“Of course not,” Walstrom said. Their conversation, barely decipherable as they talked in hushed tones and I couldn’t make out the other man’s voice, though it seemed familiar, I needed to see his face. “Did Marge get what we needed?”


“Yeah, it’s ready… Is the girl still at the house?”


“Yeah, she’s still there, Olivia left alone,” Walstrom said as my breath stilled in my chest and they suddenly had my attention as I knew they talked about me. “I’ve let Morrison know.”


I crouched down behind a fallen tree under the brush that surrounded it. The cool damp dirt absorbed through my jeans to my knees and cooled my skin as I crouched low. I took measured, deliberate breaths to slow my heart that pounded in my chest. The buzz of an irritating fly circled around my face as it attempted to land. Frustrated I unsuccessfully swatted at it to leave as I tried to stay hidden. I briefly glanced around and wondered what other little critters might have crept into the bushes with me but I couldn’t see any.


“I’ve talked to the head Militia… Gage will be the main target,” the man said. I heard him clear as his deep voice resonated through the trees. My head snapped back to the two men and I pressed my hand to my mouth to prevent myself from making a sound. He had turned slightly and I could almost see his face. “I've given the Militia specific orders for them when they break through. Casey will regret ever crossing Damian. Brother or not… Damian wants him taken care of as well.”


I held my breath as I watched them take a few steps towards me. My heart sank as I tried to place the voice of the man still hidden by thick trees. I needed to see his face. The knot sank in the pit of my stomach and grew bigger and twisted tighter as I strained to listen. My aggravation grew and panic set in as I realized Gage was in trouble.


They stepped closer, too close, the man turned and I saw his face. If he were more aware of his surroundings, he was close enough that he could’ve seen mine. Suddenly it made sense, a large man, burly in size with a deep resonating voice. An agenda of betrayal that only him and Walstrom could come up with. The familiar look in his eyes that could shoot daggers and I suddenly felt panic rise inside me as I worried about what Darby would do if he found me.


  “Damian is back now that Gage is out of the way. He insisted on coming back for her personally. Morrison wants her back in custody… I told Damian we could bring her in, but he wants to,” Walstrom said. “So, I think everything is in place.”


“Gage and Casey don’t stand a chance without Kane and his army,” Darby said. I watched frozen in place in a numbing state as he talked. “It won’t be much longer before their troop is taken over. And as for my plans for Kane,” he said with an evil smirk.


A wicked smile grew on Dr. Walstrom’s face. “I want every last detail of what you have planned.”


“It’s time we put this rebellion to rest.”