He walked out into the stiff breeze, leaving an uncomfortable silence.

  “He’s checking the perimeter again,” Angela explained. “We’ll wait.”

  Marc wasn’t gone long and no one missed the note of accusation as he spoke.

  “Dale’s moving this way with enough panic on his face to draw attention. People are already peering from flaps and tables.”

  Angela sighed. She had missed something. She’d assumed Marc had taken care of the final threat, but it was clear that there’d been another.

  Angela glanced at Kenn first.

  Kenn knew who the problem was, too. “The odds were low on it. I should have said it might happen.”

  “We handle it like Adrian would.”

  Kenn’s eyes went to Kyle’s frown and then Marc’s thickening glare. “Some of us can.”

  Angela took another leap into the role she’d been given. “Negotiation attempt?”

  “Maybe,” Kenn agreed as Dale ducked into the little mess, voice almost a squeal.

  “I can’t find Ray and I’ve been searching for hours. He was shot. He’s supposed to be resting!”

  Neil hurried over to quiet him.

  “Two-man Recon team?” Angela asked, still looking at Kenn.

  In his mind, the words were very different.

  Take Marc and show him what’s expected of Safe Haven’s XO.

  Kenn hadn’t been ready for that, but he covered it well. “I think that’s best. Unless you want to let Brady loose on them.”

  Angela caught the question–Should I make him do it? She didn’t answer.

  Marc scowled. “How many fucking walking plagues did you guys bring back from that city?”

  “Too many,” Angela grunted unhappily.

  “Where is he?!” Dale demanded from around Neil’s arm.

  Kenn was waiting for Angela’s final choice, but Marc didn’t. He knew what had to be done–the same thing it always came to. More blood had to spill.

  “Let’s go,” he ordered. “Fill me in while we recon.”

  Kenn slowly rose, giving Angela time to say no. When she didn’t, his respect for her went up.

  Kenn turned back before reaching the flap. “If he balks?”

  Marc spun around, snorting out anger, but Angela and Kenn agreed on this. She would be surprised if Brady could handle the chore. It would take an asshole.

  “You do it.”

  Kenn accepted the direct order without any reaction, but inside, there was a small cry from the old Kenn. He didn’t like taking her orders and that wouldn’t ever change.

  They left as Neil took Dale out of earshot for a private talk.

  “Quarantine him,” Angela ordered lowly, looking at Kevin. “Do it now.”

  Kevin didn’t like the idea, but he understood why. He approached Neil and Dale, quickly coming up with a story. “Dale, come on over to the next tent. We want John to check you out. If someone got Ray by drugging his food or water, you were probably hit with it, too.”

  Dale didn’t protest, didn’t think it was anything other than what he’d been told. He left with Kevin, muttering lowly, but allowing himself to be comforted.

  Angela turned to the remaining senior men. “I want a full camp check-in, the QZ shut down, and our perimeter shrunk by half. Make it happen.”

  3

  “Tell me–all of it.”

  “It will be easier to show you,” Kenn answered. They’d found the prints outside Ray’s tent easily enough and followed them to a small town that neither of them could find on their maps. Only two streets and roughly a dozen buildings, it wasn’t hard to pick out Ray’s Eagle jacket hanging from a rope on the rusty flagpole. It bothered them both to know the threat was camped so close to Safe Haven.

  “Be ready with your rifle, and if you find you can’t pull the trigger, make sure I’m alive to do it.”

  Marc hated not knowing, hated it that Angie thought he wouldn’t get the job done. “Just tell me what’s going on. Why is his jacket up there, but no ransom call or security visible?”

  “They think we owe them this. When they’re done with him, he might have been returned. But our new boss,” Kenn mocked. “Doesn’t want a peaceful ending.”

  Marc wasn’t sure how to take that. “Done with him, how?”

  Kenn shuddered. Cara being dead was little comfort. “Just cover me as well as you would her, or I won’t make it back to Safe Haven. And while I may not be missed, Ray will.”

  Marc blew off the warnings. He didn’t intend to be responsible for Kenn’s death, directly or not. Someone else held that place of danger now.

  Before Marc could ask anything else, Kenn left their cover for full view of the town, hands up.

  Marc swore under his breath as he ducked down and got set to fire, frustrated that he still didn’t know who the target was.

  The hundred or so snake women streamed from inside and behind the buildings of the town, all with various weapons in hand. Kenn was encouraged that none of them were being fired or thrown yet.

  “Coming in!” he shouted. “Get your leader.”

  A tall woman wearing bright orange scales sewn over a long trench coat walked from the town hall and down the walkway.

  Kenn saw her protection moving closer and began planning the ways in which he would take them out–by himself. He was assuming Brady had frozen at this point. A woman killer, Marc wasn’t.

  “Why are you here?”

  Kenn blinked at the heavy English accent. “To collect what’s been taken, of course.”

  The woman’s expression said that wasn’t allowed. “Your friend will be returned when he has satisfied the debt.”

  “I can’t allow that,” Kenn argued lightly. “He belongs to someone else and they’ve paid well for his return. Unless you’d like to make a better offer?”

  The woman’s protection crowded closer, but she didn’t flinch. “What did you have in mind?”

  Kenn slowly pointed toward the jacket flapping harshly in the wind. “You return him and that, now, and we won’t kill all of you.”

  Weapons were being aimed and Kenn didn’t give them time to think. “When I go for my gun, the rest of his team, and mine, will open fire. I might be hit, Ray could be killed in the crossfire, but I promise that two thirds of you won’t walk away. Being female means shit to us now.”

  “You will belong to me,” Tiffany declared. “Take him inside.”

  The snake women weren’t about to be cowed by threats, and their leader’s reaction said so clearly.

  Kenn made a subtle gesture to Marc and allowed himself to be taken into custody. “Remember what I said, ladies. When I go for my gun, seventy of you will die.”

  4

  Marc recognized the heavily used ploy from their time as Marines, but he wasn’t sure he could go through with it. Now that he understood, he was reluctantly forced to accept that Angie might have been right. He wasn’t okay with killing women.

  But Angela would expect all three of her Eagles to return, and that meant covering Kenn when he came out with Ray over his shoulder. Or just going in after them, like the motion had demanded. How could he do that without killing?

  You can’t, his demon replied brutally. But I can. If these women are allowed to roam free, they’ll become as dangerous as any group of men.

  Marc wanted to protest, but couldn’t. There was no arguing the truth. “Okay,” he muttered. “But you’ll have to help me.”

  I take no pleasure in killing, the demon replied. Sex makes no never mind to the color of blood. It all tastes the same and it’s always required. You know that.

  “Yes, I do.”

  Marc adjusted his scope to the main door that had swallowed Kenn, then pulled both Colts and made sure they were ready to cover the other directions. Marc thought briefly about calling to camp for reinforcements, but realized Angela and Kenn had known the threat and hadn’t wanted anyone else involved.

  “Also means these women are dangerous,” he stated, still convincing himself. “If they weren’t, she might have sent a team as a training mission.”

  He wasn’t sure why he thought that, only the similarities he was noticing. She’d picked up Adrian’s style quickly, but Marc was already noting subtle differences, and was sure the other alert-minded males in the Eagles were, as well. He suddenly had no doubt that Angie had her own agenda to accomplish before giving up control.

  5

  Kenn let the women search him for weapons, take what they found, and lead him into the area where they had several couches and desks placed along the walls. Except for Ray’s slumped form in the corner, the rest of the room was empty.

  “Don’t get comfortable. We leave in an hour.”

  Kenn settled onto the side of the longest couch, aware of how the woman’s needy gaze lingered on his body instead of his face. “Where you headed?”

  Tiffany frowned. “We, my pet, are going west.”

  Kenn shrugged evenly. “Your funerals. It’s dead there.”

  “Why did you come? We would have returned him.”

  Kenn lay back, putting his hands under his neck. He hadn’t been on real furniture since the war and it felt better than he remembered. “We have a new leader. She wants him returned now.”

  The woman was startled, giving away how interested she was, and Kenn grinned. “She’s a lot like you, only she has an army of lethal killers at her disposal. I’d return her property. It’s not too late. We don’t have to be enemies.”

  Tiffany was starting to get the same uneasy feeling she’d had in Little Rock and suddenly wished they’d kept going. The lure of healthy men to impregnate their females had been impossible to resist and the vote to try had been unanimous. The expected sterility from the experiments had finally appeared and it was brutal.

  “Our kind has been hunted for a long time and we always survive. We’ll take our chances.”

  “And Angela will take your lives.”

  Kenn waited for an answer and looked over to find that the snake woman had left the room. What the hell? He still wasn’t used to quiet females.

  Kenn went to Ray, not sure if he was alive. “You okay?”

  Ray glanced up, bruised face thick with misery. “No.”

  Startled at the immediate answer, Kenn checked him visually for other signs of abuse, but only found red cheeks over pale skin. “What’s the problem?”

  Ray’s lip quivered. “I’m not really an Eagle, am I?”

  Kenn let out a breath in annoyance, glaring upward. “Not now, okay? I can only be so nice and then people get hurt.”

  Ray took that as an answer, shoulders slumping. “Always knew, anyway. He told me–said I may never get what I wanted, no matter how hard I tried. He was right.”

  Kenn settled into the chair across from Ray, glad the man’s arm was still bandaged, though dirty. “Don’t know how you figure that. You have a set place that you’ve earned. Wasn’t it what you wanted?”

  “I wanted to be accepted!” Ray snapped. “And for Dale to be accepted. That can’t happen now.”

  Kenn began to realize the women had already abused Ray, that he was feeling guilty for betraying his lover.

  “Don’t tell him, Ray. That’s all you have to do. It’s okay.”

  Ray peered up with eyes glimmering. “No, it’s not, you idiot. I couldn’t do it. I failed. I’m not worthy!”

  “Even with the pill?” Kenn questioned in shock.

  “I got sick,” Ray confessed miserably.

  Kenn snorted ruefully. “Wish I had. Then maybe I could get that sound out of my brain…”

  Ray had expected scorn and answered hesitantly, “They would have gone away.”

  Kenn didn’t like Ray beating himself up, but wasn’t sure what to make of that. He chose to examine it later. “No. If you’d serviced them, they’d have known it would work and taken more of us next time, then kept returning for raids. Not being able to perform goes in Safe Haven’s favor.”

  Ray hadn’t considered that, but it wasn’t enough to relieve him of the failure. “I’ll hand in my jacket.”

  “You’ll have to get it from the women first,” Kenn reminded. “I think it’s their totem or something.”

  “Still hanging from the flagpole?”

  “Just flapping there in a direct violation of Adrian’s rules. Made us want to open fire.”

  That remark got more of Ray’s attention and began to pull him out of his misery. “Who’s out there?”

  Kenn didn’t care if they were overheard. It wouldn’t matter. “Just Brady.”

  Ray paled. He knew what that meant. “She’s willing to spill blood to get me back?”

  “Yes. Did you doubt it?”

  “I expected to fight my way out when I realized I couldn’t do what they wanted.”

  Kenn slowly stood up, hearing footsteps. “That may still be required. You feel up to it?”

  Ray’s voice was full of depression. “I feel like dying.”

  Kenn slung an arm around Ray’s strong shoulders, careful of the injury. “Then you’re gonna hate what I’m about to do, but if you don’t play along, I’ll hurt you.”

  Kenn tightened his grip until Ray winced, and dragged them up and around to be facing the women as they came in.

  Finding the two men so close, Ray clutching at Kenn, sent scowls across female faces.

  “I told you!”

  “Kill them both!”

  “Wait.”

  Kenn tugged Ray closer, pretending an affection that was more than friendship. “We’re ready to go home now, ladies. We can’t give you what you need. None of the men in our camp can.”

  The females remembered that Kenn and Kevin had been able to, but before they could protest the lie, Kenn glanced at Ray.

  Ray felt that spark, the heat that usually told him Dale was close, and blanched. He didn’t want to feel an attraction for Kenn, for any reason, but it was too late. That golden flow of magic swarmed over him and Ray was helpless but to respond.

  He dropped his head in shame. He liked to be in control in his relationships, but the best sex he’d ever had was before the war, with a powerful man who hadn’t been afraid to ‘handle’ him.

  “Enough!” Tiffany commanded angrily. “We don’t care. When the drugs take effect, both of you will give us service.”

  Kenn dropped his arm, but kept his big body pressed against Ray’s hip. “Okay.”

  Tiffany stared in surprise at the quick agreement. “What?”

  Kenn got set. “We will provide you a service.”

  Tiffany’s scale-covered face relaxed a bit. “Good. Okay, then. We’ll bring you a pill.”

  As soon as they were gone, Kenn nudged Ray toward the unbarred window. “Stay low.”

  Kenn shoved Ray through the screen, not listening to him land. If he didn’t get out of here, he might puke.

  Marc saw Ray hit the ground and quickly waved him toward the sparse trees, out of the way. Seconds later, female shouts came and Marc knew the time for choosing had come and gone. He was here. He would protect his man.

  Kenn’s big frame didn’t appear in the window, but the women running after Ray stopped as soon as Marc began to pepper their feet with shots.

  Marc aimed and fired, reloaded. Where was Kenn?

  Ray made it to Marc’s side a few seconds later, panting, “He’s still…in there.”

  Marc motioned him to get down, and then stood up. He could see someone struggling in the lobby behind the door.

  Marc came from his hiding place with a Colt in each hand.

  6

  “Let him go. Now!”

  Marc’s angry voice outside the main door made Kenn freeze. “You got him to come out. Holy shit, lady. You’re all dead now.”

  Tiffany slapped him. “Shut up!”

  Kenn growled at her, the sound menacing.

  She quickly retreated.

  “I’m counting to three…” Marc’s warning was followed by a blurred count and then all hell broke loose.

  Bullets slammed into the wooden door, causing women to duck and Kenn to hit the floor.

  Marc used a sharp kick to take out the door.

  His voice was set in stone. “Surrender or die.”

  Tiffany raised her gun.

  Marc shot her in the throat.

  He looked around with a deep glower of resentment as she slid to the dusty floor. “Next?”

  There was silence and stillness for the space of five seconds, a space in time where only one life would have been taken.

  Then the woman behind the door lifted her gun to Marc’s chest and fired.

  Grunting with pain and effort, Ray shoved Marc out of the way and took a trim.

  Marc spun off the wall and let the demon loose.

  Kenn grabbed Ray and shoved him down. That Ray had returned to help wasn’t surprising. When he grabbed a fallen gun and began firing left handed to cover Marc, that was.

  Bang! Bang!

  Those Colts snapped out death and punishment with each sharp bark, and Kenn herded Ray outside. No need to draw Brady’s fire.

  Ray followed Kenn’s lead and didn’t get involved any further in the one-sided fight. These weak women were no match, but they were realizing it too late.

  Marc picked them off before they could get under cover, their horses long gone in the chaos. He didn’t pause, even when they began to flee in terror. He took out anything that moved, the demon in charge of his guns.

  Kenn listened to the crashing with a growing worry. Would Angela be pissed that he’d forced that side of Marc into the light? He’d thought to be the one out there doing the killing. He honestly hadn’t thought it would work. Too late now.

  Kenn waved Ray toward camp. “Stay low and go straight to Angela. Tell her there was a small gunfight, then they let us go and left. If you don’t, Brady will know.”

  Ray paled, hearing the screams as Marc massacred the remaining women. They’d refused to leave or surrender, and they’d probably really intended to take him and Kenn when they fled, but did it justify this?

  Kenn wasn’t thinking that, but he was considering how important Marc was to the camp. If Marc lost that edge, the good man inside, it would hurt Adrian’s dream.