After the Crux (3 page)

“I guess something delayed them.” Jenna met Lynn’s worried gaze before they both schooled their features for the kids’ sake. Elijah would stay clueless, but Gwen was getting sharper and more attentive by the day.

“Wish they’d get home today so they could have some of that chowder of yours. Smells like heaven.”

Jenna grinned. Both Jake and Lynn were always comparing things to heaven. She wondered if they still had any spiritual beliefs. She sure didn’t. Not since watching the Crux slash through everyone she knew. Her grin melted away. “You’re just saying that so I’ll take over cooking more often.”

Lynn shrugged. “Would leave me more time to make clothes. Speaking of which, did you see the quilt Georgia made? It’s a beaut.”

Georgia scowled, something she wouldn’t have done a few months before. “Shhh. It was supposed to be a surprise for Dorian and Jenna. A celebration for when…you know.”

Jenna quickly held her face over the hot soup pot so the heat rapidly crawling up her cheeks could be explained away. She knew exactly what Georgia was getting at. Jenna wanted a baby. Wanted one badly. But she’d become lovers with Dorian at seventeen and after eight years, she was pretty sure she couldn’t have children.

Chapter Three

Ross awoke to the kind of pain that made a person feel there’s never been anything but pain. All-encompassing, it made his skull feel packed full—like one huge throb.

“Hey, you okay, man?”

The voice came in a whisper, but it still hurt. Wincing, Ross blinked into a fog of gray. Walls that had once been white but now showed huge strips of rusty metal surrounded him. Sniffing, he grimaced. Even through the pain, he smelled the faint, metallic tang of urine. Opening his eyes wider, he realized he was inside a van. A nasty one.

“Spade hit you pretty hard. You gonna live?”

“For now.” Ross focused on the kid, taking in the skinny build covered in dirty, ragged clothes at least three sizes too big. He had shoulder-length, blond hair covering most of his face. “Someone named after a garden tool hit me?” He tugged on his wrists. Tied.

The teen stared down at him, biting his lip. His hair slid away from his face, showing a right cheek puffed with bruises nearly covering one green eye. “Trust me, be glad he only hit you. Look, I’m going to get you free but only if you promise me something.”

Eyeing the finger-sized bruises on the kid’s skinny throat, fury began a silent battle with his pain. “How do you know you can trust me?”

“Do you like to screw little boys?”

Instant disgust made him want to puke. Guess his reaction was what the kid was looking for because he picked up a knife and climbed over Ross. “I had a feeling you weren’t like that. You have to get out of here fast. Don’t try to fight them—there’s too many. But you have to take the little kid with you. Name’s Colin. Won’t eat much. He’s quiet and won’t get in your way at all, I promise.”

“A kid smaller than you?”

The teen smirked. “I’m no kid. Not anymore.” He cut Ross loose, and waited while Ross sat up and shook feeling back into his hands.

Fury and disgust made a rotten, rusty mix on his tongue. “They doing to the kid what they’re doing to you?”

Shame flamed in the teen’s cheeks. “It’s just one of them. Spade. And no, not yet. I’ve managed to distract him. The little guy has only been with us a couple of weeks, and he’s been sick the whole time. That helped.”

Ross’s gut tightened. “Sick that long? What symptoms?”

“It ain’t the Crux, I swear!”

Ross had to know more. He couldn’t leave anyone to this kind of hell but he couldn’t risk exposing his family to something deadly either.

“Shit! Shhh. Hold on.” The teen carefully crawled to the front seats and peeked through the windshield. “They’re going to take your fuel. You have to be able to get out of here!”

“I’ll get my fuel back. Tell me the kid’s symptoms.”

The boy crawled so carefully back, the van didn’t so much as squeak. “Look, it’s nothing contagious. I’ve been slipping a little Bowman’s root into his food. My mother told me about it. It’s not enough to hurt him bad—just enough to make him puke sometimes so these assholes will leave him alone. They’re—” He broke off, swallowed whatever else he’d planned to say, and the bleak suffering that flooded his young face made Ross see red.

“You’re coming with me, too.”

Distrust narrowed the kid’s eyes. “I have somewhere to go. I nearly got away and would have been long gone by now if it weren’t for the little guy. If you could see the way Spade looks at him…” He shuddered.

“Which one is Spade?”

“Does it matter? Look, you gotta hurry. They don’t know about your friend yet.”

“Oh God, Jake.” Jake was probably hiding and looking for the best way to free Ross. If anyone could, it would be Jake. The man looked like a geek but like everyone else who’d survived the Crux, he knew how to be deadly. “I’m not leaving you here and I don’t care how much you’ll eat. We have plenty.”

The kid shook his head. “Not anymore. They already stole the food, ate a lot of it. But I have to go some—”

“Jake and I will take you where you need to go,” Ross broke in. “I’m not leaving you here.” He made sure the kid was looking him in the eye before he continued. “Neither of us will touch you. Do you understand?”

Distrust still splashed over his narrow features, though Ross did catch a slight bit of hope blaze through that expression. It was possible the boy had family, and that’s why he was so adamant about leaving. The fact he wouldn’t take off with a younger kid in danger said a lot about him. That, and he took on this Spade to keep him away from the other one. Ross had every intention of helping the teen and if he did have family, trying to talk them into moving to their mountain house. The more people, the safer they all would be. “Which one is Spade?”

Thin shoulders slumped. “The bald one. He’s not the biggest or even the strongest. But he’s smart—scary smart—and he… I’ll just say there’s something really wrong about him.”

Gut churning with fury, Ross nodded. “Where is the younger boy?”

“He’s in the house by the gas station, the one with all the vines cut off the sign. The van doors squeak, so as soon as I open them, you have to run left.”

“Stay with me. I’m not leaving you with these guys either.”

He nodded. “Okay, but I’ll stay only until I know Colin is okay.” Color drained from his face when he glanced toward the front of the van. “Shit, they’re coming. You have to run!”

In the next second, the boy was out the back door and running the wrong direction and Ross knew he was trying to distract them. Ross slid out of the back of the van. He’d get the younger kid, then come back for the teenager. The boy moved faster than the two thugs chasing him. Ross peeked around the other side of the van and slipped into an alley between two brick buildings, hoping it would be clear of overgrowth enough for him to get to the back. He knew exactly which gas station the kid meant. But he planned to check out who attacked him first. He wished he’d asked the kid how many there were.

Two men came around the back of the van. One carried the pistol Ross had kept under his truck seat. He pointed it inside the open back doors. “Stupid boy let him go.”

“He can’t be far.”

The second man had to be Spade. Ross eyed the bald raider, his skin crawling as he took in the narrow face, thin lips…the deep-set eyes over dark circles. No, he wasn’t as large as the bruiser carrying Ross’s gun, but whipcord strength was obvious in his wiry arms and legs.

Ross ducked back and hurried down the relatively clear alley. He had to jump one thick root that had grown through the side of a building and climb a vine-covered pile of debris—solid debris like maybe an old grill. He ran once he got to the back, skirting a Dumpster with a hole chewed through one side. He heard shuffling noises behind him and ducked behind the Dumpster. Fresh rat droppings rested on years of dried ones, and scuffling noises sounded from inside the Dumpster. Ross contemplated crawling through the piles of crap to the back of the Dumpster, but changed his mind when he saw the crowbar. Footfalls sounded close, so he grabbed the heavy weapon and swung out at the knees of whoever came around the Dumpster first.

His gun clattered to the ground as he took out the taller raider with another blow to the back of his head. He winced at the sound of the man’s skull cracking.

Ross spun around to face Spade.

The man eyed him up and down, thin lips stretching into a grin. “Love me a good fight.”

Hatred burned like living fire in Ross’s gut. “Guess that boy isn’t strong enough to be much of a challenge.”

“He has other,
better
uses.” He bent and pulled a long-bladed knife from his boot.

Ross watched as the shorter man balanced on the balls of his feet, and knew he was in for a fight. He could easily swing the crowbar and take out the knife—probably the other man’s wrist while he was at it—but he had the feeling baldy was a quick one.

Spade lunged, swerving at the last minute to sweep his knife close to Ross’s left arm. Ross jumped out of the way and swung the crowbar, but Spade evaded the swipe easily and came back around to stab again.

The knife jammed through his jeans and slid halfway into the back of Ross’s thigh. Before the pain had a chance to register, Ross swung his crowbar into the back of Spade’s knee, and then dove for the gun. The sound of running footsteps hit his ears as he rolled onto his back, aimed and fired.

Spade’s face went slack with shock as red quickly spread across his ragged, gray T-shirt. Ross kicked out with his good leg and sent Spade sprawling in rat shit—where he belonged.

Wincing as fiery pain began to streak through his thigh, Ross rolled and aimed at the coming person, but lowered the gun to the ground when he saw Jake.

“You okay?” Jake squatted, grimaced when he saw Ross favoring his leg as he pulled to his feet. “The gunshot was loud. Think the others have guns?”

Ross leaned against the vine-covered wall behind him to catch his breath, his gaze on the still, bald man on the ground. “Did you see how many?”

Jake shook his head. “I thought there were four, but I hadn’t seen these two.” He kicked at the other still body. “I did see a kid.”

“How old?”

“I dunno, sixteen? Seventeen? Kind of scrawny but ran like the wind.”

“He’s the one who untied me. Asked us to take a younger boy with us.”

Jake frowned. “We’ll take them both.”

Ignoring the pain in his thigh, he handed the crowbar to Jake, and hurried back down the alley, slowing as he reached the front of the row of buildings again. Two men stood guarding his truck. Ross didn’t hesitate, shooting the first one and taking aim at the second as he walked toward him. This one dropped to the ground and rolled beneath the truck. Ross stopped at the van, ducked behind it.

Jake halted behind him. “Do you see the kid?”

“Not yet.” Pain slashed through his thigh. Ross gritted his teeth as he felt his muscles grow weak. He turned, put his back to the van and looked at Jake. “We’ll have to do this fast.”

“You’re losing a lot of blood.” Jake frowned. “I’d take the gun but you’re a better shot.”

“Too bad we don’t have your bow.”

“I saw them stash it in their van. Wonder why they didn’t just take our vehicle. They were getting ready to unload the fuel, so they obviously don’t plan to.”

Footfalls sounded and Ross spun around the back of the van to catch a raider running toward a pickup. There was someone in the driver’s seat and just beyond the truck, he saw the teen running toward it. Confused, he frowned, until he realized someone was still chasing the boy. Ross took off running, but his leg buckled beneath him and he hit the ground. He carefully aimed up, fired and hit the first man he’d gone after. Ross groaned and pulled to his feet just in time to see another man cuff the kid hard against the side of his head, and throw his unconscious body into the back of the pickup. They spun out.

He wanted to shoot out the tires but was shaking too hard. He was afraid he’d hit the kid in the back of the pickup.

Jake helped him to his feet. “Looks like they didn’t get much more than some of the fuel and food. They didn’t touch the other stuff in the back—didn’t have time. Bastards slashed one of the tires. Who knows how long it’ll take to find another.”

Ross pointed at the house next to the gas station. “Go see if there’s still a sick little boy inside.”

“Sick?”

“The older kid was giving him some kind of root to keep him sick so the men didn’t mess with him.”

Disgust curled Jake’s lip. “Let me see to your wound first.”

Stars filled Ross’s peripheral vision. “I want to go after the other kid, too.” He stumbled. “We can’t leave him with those fuckers.”

“Yeah, after we take care of you. Stretch out in the back seat of the truck.”

“Only if you promise to go get the little guy first.”

“Okay, okay.” Jake grinned. “I’d planned to as soon as I forced you to lie down.”

“I’m doing it. Now.” Ross lay on his stomach on the back seat. “Hurts like a son of a bitch.”

“Not gonna lie.” Jake grabbed a T-shirt off the floor and pressed it to the back of Ross’s leg. “It looks bad, Ross.”