Chapter 8

 

The expansive prairie views around the small cottage were gorgeous, the space and quiet soothing to the overload Owen had been fighting in the months with UI. After refueling with a meal of savory beef stew Hope had found in the freezer, he stood at the open back door, staring north and wishing he could stay right here forever. With Hope.

“You’ll love the view at night,” she said. “More stars than you’ve ever seen.”

“Can’t wait.” He’d loved the vast night sky while he waited for the truck to come by. When he hadn’t quite remembered his name. Though it had only been a few days, it felt like months ago.

He hadn’t yet decided if he was miserable about what he’d done, or grateful his path had crossed hers. He couldn’t bring back the lives he’d been ordered to end, but he could start making reparations for other things. Glancing over his shoulder he watched her sort through her day pack, checking what had survived their ordeal and what needed replaced.

“It occurs to me that I owe you a camera, right?”

“Did you remember you’ve got money tucked away in a Swiss bank account?”

He chuckled. “No such luck. I feel bad.”

“Don’t. You weren’t yourself,” she said.

She wasn’t wrong, and yet… Drugs or not, he’d committed crimes on orders from the man in the gray suit.

“Equipment can be replaced,” she added, cutting into his thoughts. “I still have some time to get that assignment finished.”

“Once it’s clear,” he said. The real trick would be making that determination. He didn’t have any method of tracking the teams hunting him. With some distance, his head clearing by the minute, he could see he’d only made things worse. Now the man in gray knew he was alive and he wasn’t inclined to stop searching anytime soon.

“Would you let me stick around as a bodyguard? Just until we know they aren’t coming after you.” He had to know if she still saw him as the ruthless enemy she’d run from on the prairie. The doctors and drugs and countless injections had turned him into something unrecognizable, but he wasn’t quite the man he’d been before either.

“Yes.”

Her soft, confident reply eased the sharp prickling of his conscience. “Despite the, ah, scene at the campground?” He braced for the worst, even as he wished for the best.

She looked up from her gear, her eyes steady and calm. “That was self-defense,” she stated. “If they’d seen you first, they would have killed you, right? And me?”

“Yes.” His voice cracked on the single word as the idea of her lifeless and gone twisted like a knife in his heart. “They still might.”

“Then you can stick around as long as it takes. I like living.”

“You’re remarkable,” he murmured.

“I’m practical.” She walked over to stand with him, leaning against the opposite side of the doorway. “Growing up out here isn’t easy. I chose a career rife with pitfalls and challenges. Those perfect magazine-ready pictures are rarely easy.” Her gaze drifted out and back to lock onto him. “I’ve studied nature all my life, Owen. I understand predator and prey behaviors and I know which side of the line you’re on.”

She closed the distance, her hands resting lightly on his chest as she touched her lips to his. His hands found her hips, dragged her closer until her body was flush with his. Her breath became his, her hair silk on his hands. He felt her pulse racing along with the beat of his heart and he drank her in, memorizing the taste of her.

On a gasp, she broke the kiss and her dark eyes were dazed, dazzling when she smiled up at him. The sexy, knowing expression on her face left him aching to take her right there.

“Remarkable,” he repeated when he trusted his voice.

“Owen, I—”

He heard it then, a distant buzz in the distance more effective than an icy shower. “Trouble,” he said, drawing her into the cottage and closing the door.

“That’s impossible,” she protested. “No one but family knows about this place.”

Owen didn’t waste time arguing. “It’s a drone.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s someone looking for us.”

He grabbed his gun from the table. “Be ready. I’ll be back.”

“No.”

He stopped short, stared at her. “No?”

“This is my land.” She picked up the shotgun in the corner. “You’re not going out there alone.”

He could hear the damn thing floating closer. “Hope, this isn’t your fight.” He tiptoed to the front windows, searching for the drone operator.

“Isn’t it?” she whispered, following him. “However it started, we’re in it together now.”

Fine. “Any idea on the range of those things?”

“I think it varies.”

“Great.” He listened, pinpointing the general direction. The drone was flying in from the south, following the general route they’d taken here. “Nothing random about this,” he murmured. He didn’t know how they’d been found, but his mind quickly strategized how best to make a stand. He would gladly surrender if he thought it would save Hope, but he knew better.

Owen caught movement to the east, but when he looked in that direction, the area was empty. He closed his eyes, held his breath and tried again.

Hope laid a hand on his arm, a silent query.

“Someone is out there.” He shifted to the window that gave him a better view. “I can almost hear their footsteps.”

“Owen, I know you have super-senses, but no one’s there.”

“My eyes want to agree with you.” How to explain it? “I can hear footsteps. It’s more than in my head or my gut.” He paused. “There.” He zeroed in on the spot. “It’s like a ripple of air rising from hot asphalt.”

“I believe you, but I don’t see anything.”

After his experience with the Army and learning the illegal tactics of UI, he made a plan swiftly. “I’m going out the back door to stop the sneak attack. When the drone comes into view,” he jerked his chin toward her shotgun, “shoot it down.”

He could tell she didn’t quite believe him, but he went out anyway. Her safety was his top priority. Pausing, he listened. Mr. Invisible was less than two hundred yards away. He raised the gun as he rounded the corner. “Freeze.”

“Seriously?” a voice said, awed as the weird visual haze obeyed. “You can see me?”

“Yes,” Owen bluffed, aiming by sound more than sight.

“Then put the gun down.” There was a ripple in the air, but no footfalls. “Not armed. I’m on your side, man.”

“You’re UI enhanced,” Owen said.

“Well, I sure as hell wasn’t born this way.” The haze swore. “Yeah. I’m one of their original experiments,” he explained casually. “Skipped out ages ago, dude. I’m here to help.”

“Prove it.”

“Scott’s with me. Blackwell. Remember him?”

Hearing his friend’s name made Owen’s hands twitch and the drone was edging closer. “What is this?”

“A rescue,” the haze said. “Scott if you can hear me, tell your pal to ease up. I hate getting shot.”

“Why aren’t you invisible?”

Scott’s voice over the radio brought tears of relief to Owen’s eyes, blurring his vision, but he kept the gun raised. UI specialized in cruel tests.

“I am. He can see me,” the haze said, irritable now. “Dude, what did they do to you?”

Owen thought that was a strange question coming from Mr. Invisible.

“Is Scott on the drone?” Owen asked, hearing the sound fade away.

“No,” the haze replied. “Another friend. Is the woman a hostage?”

“No,” Owen snapped, offended.

“Great. Let’s blow this pop stand.”

What the hell did that mean? Before he could ask, he heard a truck engine closing in seconds before Hope shouted a warning. “Tell him to stop,” Owen ordered the haze.

“He won’t listen. Scott’s been on a tear to find you.”

“Owen?” Hope’s voice was cool, steady.

“Don’t fire,” he said, lowering his gun and taking the chance. “I think they’re friends.” And if they weren’t, they’d be easier to kill if they were all in one place.

He walked back into the cottage and locked the back door, joining Hope at the front window. A burly pickup truck slid to a stop in a swirl of dust and Scott leaped from the driver’s side, hands held high.

“Owen!” Scott shouted. “We’re here to help. Come on out. Or let me in.”

At the back of the cottage, Owen heard footsteps followed by a rattle as Mr. Invisible tried the door.

Hope looked up into his face. “You know him?” At his nod, she opened the door and Scott jogged up.

“Owen, man. It’s good to see you.”

Owen studied his friend’s eyes, then took his friend’s extended hand and pulled him into a hard hug. “You’re okay? You got away?” he asked when they parted.

“It’s a story,” Scott said. He introduced himself to Hope.

“How did you find us here?” she asked.

Owen shoved in front of her at the sound of someone approaching. “Is that Mr. Invisible?”

“Name’s Ben,” a form shimmered into view just outside the door. Tall, with bark-brown hair, his features were harder to decipher since he wasn’t entirely solid.

Behind him, Hope gave a start and clutched the back of his shirt. “Told you someone was out there.”

“I’ll never doubt you again.” She moved to his side, leaned close as he wrapped his arm around her. “How did you find us?”

“Friend with a drone,” Ben said. “He’s a fan of yours.”

“When Ben found your name on the campground register,” Scott continued. “Duke suggested we look for you out this way.”

Owen worried they’d led the man in the gray suit right to him. To Hope.

“Easy, man,” Ben said. “Messenger and his crew aren’t anywhere close.”

“Messenger?” Owen asked. “That’s what you call the man in the gray suit?”

“One and the same,” Ben confirmed. “We really need to get out of here.” He faded into nothing more than that ripple.

“Ben and his friends found me, saved me from Messenger,” Scott said. “You’re tracker is disabled or UI would have found you by now.”

“They know I’m not dead.” A wave of guilt hit him hard. “Scott. The things they had me do… UI won’t stop.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Scott said.

“The things they did to him are worse,” Hope interjected. “They tried to kill him.”

“I’m not surprised,” Scott assured him. “Messenger is a bastard. Let’s get you out of the area and we can take some time to go over your options. You might not even realize you have the lead we need to find Tucker.”

“Tucker’s  dead.” Scott deserved to know, in case that was the real motivation for this effort. “He didn’t make it out of the first hand to hand test.”

Scott’s face paled, then flamed with color. He opened his mouth, and snapped it shut again. “We’ll get him,” he vowed after a moment.

“Was it Bruce?” Ben asked.

Owen nodded.

“Messenger won’t get away with this,” Scott said. “Let’s get you out of here, both of you, and go over your options.”

 “Give us a minute.” Owen urged Hope back toward the kitchen. “It’s your call,” he said. “We go with Scott, together, or I stay with you.”

“I think you should go. We,” she amended. “We should go and see what he has to say.”

Owen helped her pack up, clearing away any trace of their visit, in case UI found a reason to come this way. Then they followed Scott out to pick up Duke and the drone and headed northwest to Eagle Rock, Montana, yet another place he’d never heard of.