36. Dominic
Dominic
Don’t ever underestimate the bravery of a woman
who looks at you with stars in her eyes.
I train my rifle on the trees and pick off two assholes who are rounding the far side of the shed to get to Jayk . They go down silently, with a spray of blood that snares the burning light.
Thick smoke from the treated wood hazes my view—not the worst visibility we’ve fought in, but not ideal.
The barn is starting to groan now. It won’t be long before it goes down, and Jasper and Lucky and that damn truck are too close to it for comfort.
It must be hotter than Satan’s ballsack already.
I briefly worry about drones spotting the heat signature, just to top off this shitshow, but shrug off the thought quickly. We haven’t seen any in years and there’s not much we can do about it now in any case. Fortunate or dead seem about our only outcomes in this whole hot mess.
I consider my position. My vantage from the upper-story window in the music room is good, and my rifle can handle the distance no problem, but it doesn’t give me visibility through trees, and the hunters are hidden in the shadows. I’ll be hard pressed to pick them off unless they expose themselves.
Soon enough they’ll get bold, I’m sure, but if they charge out in numbers, then my guys are fucked. No way I can take out more than half a dozen in the time they’ll take to get to them.
And that’s not counting damage the barn will do.
I eye the hole gauged in the middle of the clearing, the bodies splashed around it, and have to admire Lucky’s balls, even as my throat tightens.
Disobedient little shit had kept a frag in the house after all, despite my safety lectures, and I’m glad as fuck he did.
Right now, I’m dreaming of a dozen more just like it.
He gave Jasper and Jayk a chance with that move. A slim one, but a chance anyway.
My chest aches. For the first time, I’m not sure how we can make it out of this one.
A creak in a floorboard behind me has me spinning with a curse. I’d thought it’d take them longer to decide to come around and use the house. Reluctantly , I draw away from covering the guys and creep to the door, pulling out my pistol.
Another creak sounds in the hall, and I tense, getting ready.
“ Dom ?”
Yanking myself back, I press the grip of the Beretta to my forehead and pray for strength. “ Eden ? ”
Opening the door, I move to grab her and then have to stop. She’s ... loaded up. She has a bazooka slung heavily over one shoulder—the fucking military grade rocket launcher she and Lucky stole from my room—and a duffel bag hanging off the other. She’s panting, red cheeked and wide eyed.
“ What the hell did you do?” Reholstering my pistol, I pull her inside and take the bazooka. It’s not light, and I don’t know if I’m pissed or impressed. “ Eden , I appreciate the thought but this thing is useless without—”
“ These . I know, Lucky showed me.” She unslings the bag and unzips it quickly. “ I couldn’t carry that fancy box thing so I just grabbed a duffel.”
Nearly a dozen rounds spill out, and I flinch at the careless way they’re packed. My heart is thundering in my chest, and I decide now isn’t the time to yell at her about weapon safety. There are high explosive rounds, anti-tank rounds, illumination, smoke, area defense munitions...
“ Eden ,” I breathe, kneeling beside her.
She looks up at me nervously. “ I’m sorry, I know you said to go to the cave, but I was thinking about... anyway I remembered about all the weapons, and I thought, if I could just get them to you then—”
I yank her to me, cutting her off with my tongue and kissing her thoroughly. When I pull back, she stares at me, breathless and dazed and looking like every fantasy I never realized I had. A rumpled, repressed librarian with more courage than I ever gave her credit for.
Then I hear shouting though the window— Jayk ?—and a spray of gunfire, and I come back to earth.
“ You did good, pet. Real good. Is there more?”
Blinking a few times, she sucks in a breath and then nods. “ Yes , loads more. I just couldn’t carry them all.”
Relief and desperation spikes. “ Okay , listen to me carefully. I need you to bring me some things.”
I quickly describe the weapons I need while loading the bazooka. I have no idea what Lucky has stashed— I thought we used most of what we grabbed from the base—but the damn guy was a magpie.
Is a magpie, damn it.
I lift the loaded weapon to my shoulder, and Eden gets to her feet.
“ Eden ?” I say as she turns to go. When her eyes lift to mine, as big and intelligent as the first time I saw her, I murmur, “ Thank you.”
She gives me one slow, shy smile before she darts off, and I watch her go with a mix of pride and worry. That girl may have just saved our asses for the second time in less than twenty-four hours.
Forcing myself to refocus, I turn back to the fray. This changes everything. I have the firepower to smoke these assholes, trees notwithstanding— I just need Beau to get out of my way.
I pull out my radio, but just as I do, it flicks on, and Beau starts talking into the line before I can get a word in.
“ Okay , buddy, this might be it, and I don’t have time to argue with you, so for once you’re just going to have to listen.
You’re the best friend I ever had, the best friend I ever could have had.
I know the last while has been rough between us, and I’m sorry about that.
I never should have let anyone get between us, and I ain’t proud I let my jealousy get the better of me.
I just... I want you to be happy, Dom . You deserve it all.”
My throat closes over, and my head starts to spin. It never happens during combat, not ever, but pure horror starts to cloud my senses. I try to speak over him, but he has the line open, not letting me get a word in.
“ You take care of our girl, okay? ’ Cause that’s what she is, even if your stubborn ass wants to take its sweet time admitting that.”
“ You cut this shit, Beau . Cut it right now,” I snap into the radio, but he can’t hear me. There’s no point. I know what this is, and he’s making this one sided. “ I can take care of this, idiot, just get your ass gone. Open the damn line.”
“ I think I can take these guys out, Dom . Or most of ’em anyway. Jasper and Jayk , they’ll have a bit of time—not a lot, mind, but a bit. Now Lucky’s cleared out the other side, they should have a straight shot to you. Cover them.”
Beau swallows, and it slices through me.
“ Take care of yourself, too, Dom . I love you.”
The radio cuts out, and I immediately try to open the line so I can yell at him, stop him, something , but he’s disabled comms like I knew he was going to.
“ Fuck !” I shout, shaking.
This is some kind of sick cosmic joke. I have all the firepower I could want, but I can’t use it without guaranteeing his death.
With unsteady movements, I take my rifle and press it to my damp eye, desperately searching through the scope.
Sure enough, within minutes I make out a scuffle just beyond the tree line.
Shots are fired, metal gleams and surprised, furious shouts follow, though they’re too far for me to make out words.
My finger hovers over the trigger, but I can’t see clearly. It’s too dark and there’s too much smoke. There’s no way of knowing if I’d be shooting Beau or one of the fuckers who were trying to steal my family from me. Despair constricts my lungs.
I lift my head and see the moment Jayk makes the decision to bolt, taking advantage of the reprieve, as he should.
He pushes off the shed and runs over to the truck.
Someone shoots at him from the far side of the woods, close to where Eden should be, and I swing my rifle round.
Visibility is easier on this side, and I pick the too-bold hunter off with a single headshot.
Looking back, I see Jaykob slide in next to Jasper and Lucky like he’s just stolen second base. The spark of relief is momentary. A man backs out of the woods where the commotion is, firing into the trees—at Beau —and I shoot him in the back with ruthless efficiency.
Come on, Beau , get out of there.
Jasper and Jayk seem to be arguing as Jasper pulls Lucky’s limp body over his shoulders.
All of you, move your asses , I urge silently.
Jayk grabs Jasper’s rifle and nods at him, and I brace. They’re going to do it. They’re going to—
Something bursts from the trees and takes off at a furious run.
The figure is coated in blood and limping, but I’d recognize him anywhere.
My heart stutters, and I fire behind him wildly, hoping to deter anyone from sticking their head out, trying to give him every spare second he can get.
Jayk spots him too and turns around to join my flurry of shots, covering Beau —and covering Jasper , too, as he starts staggering toward the house with Lucky hanging heavy over his shoulders.
Bullets fly past Beau , and he begins to weave. Deciding Jayk has this for the moment, I grab the bazooka and settle it over my shoulder, lining up my sights.
Men have started to pull out of the trees from several directions, clearly deciding they have our men on the run. Beau clears the truck and keeps going, and Jayk runs backwards with him, firing in every direction. I grimace for a moment, deciding where to aim, when the barn groans.
My grimace turns into a dark, predatory grin.
Perfect .
I line up my shot and wait a few seconds, knowing timing is going to count here. I don’t want to take out our guys by accident. But when the hunters start pressing close to the barn, I fire.
It only takes moments. The fragile barn bursts open like a microwaved peach, spraying burning projectiles across the entire clearing, decimating the tree line in all directions and blasting out half the windows of Bristlebrook .
I throw myself down as a plank of wood hurtles through my window and shatters the glass across the music room.
I push myself back up and grab my rifle, breathing hard. Sweat drips down my temples. The entire clearing is annihilated, a true apocalyptic wasteland, complete with fire and bodies and limbs. I spot someone pulling themselves to their feet and blast them down. Nothing else so much as twitches.
I scan the scene but can’t see my guys anywhere.
That’s a good thing, given the extermination I’m looking at, but I hesitate, pulse pounding.
I should stay put, keep covering from up here in case anyone is stupid enough to decide that this isn’t enough—in case there’s anyone left to make that decision—but that was a big blast, and I have no idea if Beau and the others were clear or not. And then there’s Lucky ...
I grab a few grenades and my rifle and run downstairs, seeing the sitting room overturned and covered in sparkles of glass. Lucky is sprawled behind two overturned couches, Jasper crouching over him.
“ Where’s Beau , Jasper ? And Jaykob ?”
Jasper doesn’t even glance up, but I can see the raw terror in every move he makes. He rips open Lucky’s shirt, and blood makes it stick slickly in several places. I go still at what’s revealed.
Lucky’s whole chest is slippery and red, and Jasper’s hands hover over it, shaking.
“ Wake up, Lucien ,” he commands, and the snap to his voice is pure panic. “ Now .”
He begins tearing at his own clothes, then presses the scraps against the pulsing holes, looking lost. Looking at the location of the wounds, and the blue-tinged cast to Lucky’s lips, I’m guessing he has a collapsed lung and that wound is sucking in air dangerously.
Without Beau , without an emergency crike, I doubt he’ll make it. Damn it, where is he?
Cursing , I look around and spot the med kit Beau left out here while he was flirting with Eden . And I can’t believe it, but his crush might actually save the day here.
I yank it out and pull out the sterile dressing we were taught to use for this situation.
There’s one here with a valve, but that’s beyond my expertise.
It’s been years since I did my first responder training.
I clean the wound quickly with Beau’s wipes, dry it, and then place the dressing over the chest wound, securing it on three sides.
I’m leaning down, trying to decide if his breathing sounds steadier, when I hear a low growl.
“ You are dead fucking weight. I should leave you on the damn grass. Should leave all your stupid asses. Gonna get me killed like an asshole. Dicks . None of you are worth this shit.”
Jayk stumbles in through the now-open space where the glass sliding door used to be, one of Beau’s arms over his shoulder. My heart actually flutters in dizzying relief as I rush over to help.
They’re all here , I reassure myself, and it’s like feeling floods back into my numb body. All here.
Though as I glance back at Lucky , the relief fades quickly. Those wounds are far from nothing. Not to mention, there’s no guarantee the danger is over yet. I scan the clearing again, but nothing moves except flames dancing over dead grass.
“ Like anyone’s coming close again after that,” Jayk scoffs, and I just grunt, not ready to trust it.
Pulling Beau’s other arm around my shoulder, I move with Jayk to get him beside Lucky and Jasper . He’s covered in blood, but I can’t see where it’s coming from. There doesn’t appear to be a head wound. His left leg looks the worst, with a deep cut in his thigh that’s leaking blood.
“ I’m going to kill you for that stunt,” I bite out under my breath.
Beau laughs, though it sounds pained. “ Well , I wouldn’t want a good speech to go to waste.”
When he catches sight of Lucky , he sobers. “ We need to get him to the med bay. Now .”
Jasper and I lift Lucky gently. We’re moving, fast and efficient, toward the med bay when Jayk asks a question that has more violent force than any bomb I’ve set off today.
“ Where the hell is Eden ?”