Vengeance
"They're too close," he muttered.
Chloe was already stuffing the last of their supplies into a duffel bag. “How long do we have?"
He glanced out the kitchen window and noticed that the treetops rippled beneath the approaching rotor wash. "Less than five minutes."
"Can we outrun them?" she asked.
"Not on the bike or in the truck,” he admitted.
She looked at him. "So what do we do?"
His smile was wicked. "We make them think we're dead."
Within five minutes, they were ready to leave.
The cabin looked abandoned as though they had left in a hurry.
Coffee still steamed on the table, the front door stood open, and one of Chloe's sweaters hung over the back of a chair.
The Harley that Vengeance had been rebuilding remained parked beside the porch.
Everything suggested that two people had fled in a panic—exactly as they intended.
“What now?” she asked as they ran out of the back door and into the woods wearing their backpacks and everything that they were taking with them.
“You’re not going to like this next part,” he admitted.
“What is the next part?” she asked.
“There is a stream about a quarter of a mile down the trail from the cabin. The cold spring water will hide our heat signatures,” he said.
“Wait, we’re getting in the stream?” she asked.
“Yeah, but it’s not too deep. We will have to completely submerge ourselves to hide our body heat if we want to make this look believable.” The idea of being completely underwater freaked him out, but this was the only way—they needed to make this look believable.
They got to the stream, and he checked his watch.
“We have about forty seconds before the cabin blows,” he said.
He reached for her hand, and she reluctantly took it.
Vengeance pulled her against his body and sealed his mouth over hers, and he wasn’t sure if he was kissing her goodbye or just for luck.
He hoped like hell that it was the second one.
“Keep your nose above water to breathe, but make sure that the rest of you stays under. This is the only way, honey,” he said.
“Okay,” she agreed. He pulled her down into the water, and they completely submerged themselves.
He could still hear the explosion and feel the aftershock as it rippled through the water.
They lay in the shoulder-deep freezing mountain water, inside a narrow creek nearly a hundred yards downhill, but he could still feel his entire world exploding into pieces.
Only their noses remained above the surface beneath a fallen hemlock as the water nearly stole his every breath, but it also hid their body heat, and that was exactly what they needed to deceive Dante.
Rotor blades thundered overhead as the first helicopter settled into the clearing.
The second landed next to it while the third remained circling overhead.
Vengeance tapped her shoulder and motioned for her to follow him downstream.
They emerged at the edge of the riverbank, closer to where the cabin used to stand.
Watching the flames lick through the roof was nearly too much for him.
It was the first place that he ever lived in that felt like home, and now it was gone.
“It’s gone,” she whispered.
“Yeah, but they think we’re gone too, and that’s all that matters, honey,” he breathed.
They watched silently as men jumped out of the helicopters and ran to the cabin.
There were about eight men, and Vengeance watched them carefully.
He had a sick feeling that someone important had come for Chloe.
He slowly turned his head and noticed that Chloe's lips were blue from the cold water.
She caught him looking at her and managed the tiniest smile.
God, he wanted to kiss her. Instead, he silently squeezed her fingers beneath the water.
"Boss!" a man called through the clearing.
“Stay down,” Vengeance whispered. He watched as the man ran over to a woman, and Vengeance’s blood froze colder than the creek water.
"I found their supplies,” the man said.
Another voice answered. He sounded older than the first guy. "Any sign of Manzo?"
"No,” the first man said.
"Search harder,” the older man ordered. Vengeance’s pulse hammered because he knew that voice. A familiar laugh drifted across the clearing. It was a laugh he'd heard in nightmares for twenty years—Dante. He was here.
Chloe must have felt Vengeance tense beside her because she squeezed his hand. “If they survived, they couldn’t have gotten far,” the first man said.
"They didn't get far.” Dante sounded amused. "They're watching us." Vengeance's stomach dropped. Dante knew him well.
“How do you know they are together?” the first man asked.
"He'll never leave her," Dante continued. "He's too sentimental."
The woman laughed softly. "You always said love makes people predictable."
"It does,” Dante agreed. Vengeance carefully lifted his eyes just enough to see through the branches.
Dante stood by one of the helicopters. And beside him stood a blonde woman.
She was elegant and wore expensive clothes.
If he had to guess, she was in her mid-fifties.
She looked nothing like the faded photographs Vengeance had carried in his wallet for years—except for her eyes.
They were the same icy blue that he remembered his mother’s to be.
His lungs felt like they had stopped working.
It was his mother—Elena, and she was alive.
She turned slowly toward the creek and toward him.
Their eyes met, and for one impossible second, neither of them moved.
Recognition exploded across her face. She knew exactly where he was.
She slowly lifted one finger to her lips, and he felt as if he were holding his breath.
Instead of pointing him out, she was warning him to run.
Before he could process what had just happened, she turned back toward Dante. "They're gone,” she lied.
Dante looked irritated. "I don't miss my targets," he insisted. “They have to be here.”
"You missed this time,” she said.
"They'll circle back, and we'll find them." She placed one hand on Dante's arm.
"We're wasting daylight,” he said as he studied the woods one last time. Vengeance forced himself not to blink.
“What about the cabin?” she asked.
“Let it finish burning to the ground,” Dante said. Vengeance looked back at the cabin as flames rolled through it. The porch disappeared behind fire, and he knew that the place where they had found two months of peace was gone. Chloe silently cried beside him, because it had been home for her too.
They watched as the helicopters lifted off minutes later, and the search teams withdrew.
The woods became quiet once more except for the sound of the cabin crashing down from the fire.
Neither Vengeance nor Chloe moved until the last rotor faded into the mountains.
Finally, Vengeance crawled from the freezing creek.
His body shook uncontrollably as Chloe stumbled after him.
They collapsed against a fallen log, soaked to the bone.
She looked back toward the burning cabin. "They found us."
"They did,” he breathed.
“Was Bowie right? Do you think that there’s a leak in the Royal Bastards?” she asked.
“No,” he said. Vengeance stared into the smoke rising above the trees. "That woman with Dante was my mother." Chloe sucked in her breath.
“So she betrayed us?” Chloe asked.
He slowly shook his head. “She looked right at us, and could have betrayed us, but she didn’t,” he said. "And she lied to Dante."
Confusion filled Chloe's face. "Why do you think she did that?
" He replayed her blue eyes through his mind.
The warning she had given him to run, and the deliberate lie that she told Dante.
Elena had saved them just like she'd apparently tried to save trafficked women years ago by working with Savage.
His entire world tilted. "What if—" he whispered. "What if she's been trying to destroy Dante this whole time?"
Chloe stared at him. "You think she's undercover or something like that?"
"I don't know,” he breathed.
"You said she put the bounty on me."
"I assumed she did."
"You don't believe that anymore?" she asked.
He wasn’t sure what he believed anymore. "No." His thoughts raced. "The bounty."
"What about it?"
"What if it wasn't to capture you?” he asked. Chloe frowned. "What if it was to flush me out?"
Chloe whispered, "She knew you'd come for me."
Vengeance nodded slowly. "And she knew Dante would follow." Everything suddenly fit into place—Savage's journal, the Lazarus File, the recording, and Elena disappearing instead of dying. She hadn't abandoned him. She'd gone underground to finish what she'd started.
Chloe stepped closer. "What do we do now?" Vengeance looked toward the smoke and then toward the mountains stretching east. For months, he’d been reacting, running, and surviving, but not anymore.
He holstered his pistol. "We stop hiding."
"And?" she asked.
"We find my mother,” he simply said.
"You think she'll help us?"
He looked at Chloe. "I don’t know." A slow smile spread across his face. "But I think she's been waiting for me to find her, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing."
Far above them, hidden among the circling vultures and drifting smoke, a tiny surveillance drone silently banked east. Vengeance spotted it, and he knew that someone else now knew they had survived. He had no idea who it was, but he knew one thing for certain—the final hunt had begun.
The drone bothered him. Not because he'd seen it, but because he hadn't at first. That wasn't like him.
For nearly twenty years, staying alive had depended on noticing the things other people missed—fresh tire tracks, a broken twig, or the scent of cigarette smoke where no one should have been smoking.
He'd survived because he saw everything, but now, he was thinking like a man in love, and that was dangerous.