Chapter 16
“Why are we leaving?”
Lily scampered to keep up with Blade.
“What’s going on?”
“I told you. I heard voices and thought we’d better head out. Our position there was no longer safe.”
She shook her head to clear the fog. Ten minutes ago she’d been in dreamland, and now they were trampling through the forest again, zigzagging around various flora and tripping over hidden roots.
Well, she was tripping. He was doing his usual Rambo thing.
“Did you see anyone?”
“Here, eat this.” Blade handed her an energy bar. “It should keep you going until I can find us somewhere else to camp, then you can have some of the rations.”
She grabbed the bar. Rations would be good too, as she was ravenous. Her last meal was a distant memory.
Blade had warned her against dehydration, so she’d been sipping her water regularly. They carried enough between the two of them to last three days if they were careful. But she was conscious that she was drinking far more than Blade.
She studied him as he turned to make sure she was keeping up. Disheveled hair, grim expression, haunted eyes underlined with shadows. The beard was an interesting addition. It made him look older, harder. More devastating. “You didn’t sleep, did you?”
“I kept watch.”
“That”s when you saw them?” She hadn’t known him for long, but she could tell when he was hiding something.
He gave a curt nod.
“Taliban?”
“I don’t know. Didn’t wait around long enough to find out.”
“So, it could have been nothing? A harmless farmer or goat herder?”
“It wasn’t nothing.” His jaw jutted out stubbornly. “And no one here is harmless.”
“Then you did see who they were.”
“They had guns, okay? Goat herders don’t sneak around armed with AK-47s.”
That was pretty definitive. Lily ate her energy bar in silence, wondering how close they’d really come. By the tension in those powerful shoulders and his constant alertness, pretty damn close.
When she was done, she scrunched up the wrapper, earning herself another annoyed look.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
“Give it to me.”
She handed it over and he stuffed it into his pocket to dispose of later. No evidence. No clues to leave their enemy.
They marched in silence, Lily barely keeping up. Blade made it clear that talking was not allowed, not now while they were potentially surrounded by the enemy.
Fine with her.
He was in a gruff mood anyway, all snarly and sullen. The men with the guns had really pissed him off.
A back-breaking hour later, they came to a dilapidated pile of stones that looked like it might once have been a dwelling of some sort. The rear wall was half-standing, but the top had toppled forward onto the rest of the rubble.
“Wait here.” Blade did a lap of the ruins. “It looks safe enough. The vegetation will give us some extra cover.” It was surrounded by foliage, providing a natural camouflage, although, if someone looked closely, they’d see the rocks through the trees.
Lily followed him behind the building and sat, or rather fell, down with a long sigh. Her backpack had caught her off-balance and pulled her down. Sometimes, gravity sucked.
“You okay?” A raised eyebrow.
“Yep.” She kept her voice light, even though she’d landed on a pebble and would have a nice little bruise later. That was the least of her worries.
They were still on the far side of the river, which meant at some point they’d have to cross back over, right into enemy territory. She wasn’t looking forward to that. It seemed everywhere they turned, the enemy waited.
Blade prowled around like a predator, the veins in his neck bulging. He seemed wired, on edge.
“Why don’t you take a nap?”
He glanced at her and shook his head. “I’m okay.”
“You don’t look okay.”
He spun around. “What do you mean?”
“You’re jumpy and tense, and you haven’t slept since yesterday. I don’t want a zombie protecting me if we come under attack.”
At his sardonic look, she added, “Don’t worry, I’ll wake you at the first sign of danger.”
He did another lap of the broken-down building, just to be sure, then came back and shrugged off his backpack. Placing it next to him, he sat, his rifle”s sling still around his body, hands on the weapon.
“You’re going to sleep holding your rifle?”
“Yeah.” Obviously, his look said. “The threat level is still high.”
She shrugged. The place seemed pretty deserted to her, but what did she know?
“Give me an hour.”He leaned back against his rucksack and shut his eyes.
A few seconds later, his rhythmic breathing told her he was asleep.
Left to her own devices, Lily took the opportunity to relieve herself, then assumed a position where she could see in all directions but was out of the line of sight in case anyone should come wandering through the clearing.
The sun was deliciously warm, and she tilted her face up to it. How different the day temperatures were from the night. Her clothes were completely dry now, and the freezing hypothermic episode of the early hours was fading into the background.
While Blade slept, she watched the tiny creatures scurrying around amidst the stones, oblivious to the plight of the westerners using their home as a makeshift camp. A squirrel, or something similar with a bushy tail, carried a nut in its mouth as it whipped across the clearing then into a crevice.
With detached curiosity, she listened to the rustling leaves and the scampering animals in the wood around them. The sounds of Blade”s steady breathing reminded her how fragile their little bubble of security was and how, without him, she was incredibly vulnerable.
He took care of everything, including her. Blade might be her late boyfriend’s best friend, but she hadn’t known him at all. Hadn’t wanted to get to know him. Maybe if she had, this would have been easier.
Maybe there wouldn’t be this crazy sexual tension between them, or whatever it was. Too late to do anything about it now. Joe was dead, and it seemed she couldn’t get close to Blade without making a fool of herself. The awkwardness would be her constant companion until this ordeal ended.
The day wore on, and after an hour—at least she thought it was an hour—she got up to wake Blade. As she reached back to the wall, a tinkling sound wafted across the dry air. She crouched beside him and listened.
There it was again. Definitely a bell.
Crap.
She poked Blade on the shoulder.
His eyes flew open. “What’s up?”
“I heard something. A bell, I think.”
He jumped to his feet, rifle positioned against his shoulder, then moved stealthily to the corner of the stone wall. Lily, stunned by how fast he’d gotten up, froze as the bell sounded again.
She met his gaze, and what she saw frightened her.
“Wait here,” Blade said for the second time that afternoon, then he disappeared around the corner.
Lily didn’t move a muscle. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink.
Who was it? Soldiers didn’t wear bells.
A shepherd? The hair on her back stood up.
Then, Blade was back, a deep frown on his face. “Goat herder.”
Lily breathed out, relieved. How dangerous could a goat herder be?
Footsteps sounded, nearing the pile of stones.
“Get down,” he whispered.
They both slouched behind the wall.
Blade, rifle over his shoulder, peered through a crack while Lily prayed the herder would go away.
He didn’t.
Whistling, the man sat on the wall and lit a roll-up cigarette he pulled from behind his ear. Without a sound, Blade unsheathed his knife.
Lily did a double take. Was that blood?
Holy crap. Was it recent?
Blade’s face was a grim mask of determination. He’d had the same look when he’d shot those two gunmen in the forest.
He was going to kill the guy. And for what? Herding goats? The goat herder had no idea Blade was less than a meter behind him.
Lily stared at the knife in alarm.
She shook her head violently, but Blade ignored her. He was totally focused on the man sitting on the wall. A loud baa accompanied ringing bells. A handful of scrawny goats gathered around the herder, pulling tufts of grass from between cracks in the stones.
Lily could smell the cigarette smoke as she squatted against the wall, gaze riveted on Blade.
He was stock-still, crouching behind the wall, knife glinting in his right hand.
The goat herder leaned back.
Lily knew Blade was going to react. Heart pounding, she grabbed his arm and shook her head violently. She mouthed, “No.”
He glared at her and shook off her hand but did pause. The herder jumped down off the wall then went to tend to his goats. A few minutes later, he walked away, still whistling to himself.
Lily only relaxed when the sound of the bells faded into the distance.