Endless Flames (Surviving Ashes, Book Four)
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Authors: Kennedy Layne
Tags: #Romance, #military
Surviving Ashes, Book Four
Kennedy Layne
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ENDLESS FLAMES
Copyright © 2016 by Kennedy Layne
Kindle Edition
eBook ISBN: 978-1-943420-18-6
Print ISBN: 978-1-943420-24-7
Cover Artist: Sweet ’N Spicy Designs
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
Jeffrey—our love is like an endless flame that will forever burn bright.
Cole—dreams are endless…have many and never stop enjoying the journey!
Betrayal and desperation are a dangerous combination in this thrilling continuation of the Surviving Ashes series by USA Today Bestselling Author Kennedy Layne…
Berke Daniels has learned to live as if there is no tomorrow, because he knows firsthand it can all be taken away in a moment. His only family consists of those men he’d served with in the Corps, and he’s been thinking about leaving Texas and being closer to his brothers-in-arms.
Maxie Denikin has lived up to her father’s expectations and more in her achievements thus far as a decorated police officer. She’s dedicated her life to the law, yet had little desire to raise a family after watching her own pull apart a piece at a time. Imagine her surprise when she became a surrogate mother to a one-year-old boy who’d basically been abandoned in her arms.
Berke learned long ago to be prepared for anything, but an eruption at Yellowstone National Park hadn’t been on his top ten most likely list. He’d planned on getting out on his own and making his way to where his team had gathered, but Maxie made that impossible when she did the unthinkable—she took him into custody. Desire burns deep as they both do their best to protect a young child while eluding the fiery elements around them to reach a safe haven that isn’t as secure as they once thought.
B
erke Daniels quietly
listened to the wind as it whistled through the pillaged grocery store of Lost Summit, Washington. The unnerving sound reminded him that nothing would ever be the same. He directed the beam of his flashlight down the deserted aisle. The shop looked a far sight different from what he remembered just a few weeks earlier.
The cracked windows did nothing to prevent the choking, ash-filled air from entering the building, but at least the thick boards that were predominantly still in place managed to keep most of that grey, carpeting crap at bay. The shelves were nearly empty, assorted garbage littered the filthy floors, and the odor of spoiled dairy products was still somewhat evident in the chilled air.
It brought to mind the smell of an office fridge that someone forgot to clean out for the last month. It was still a hell of a lot better than being outside and breathing through a mask to keep out the pulverized rock and shards of glass. Volcanic ash was not something a person wanted to inhale. The resulting cement it could form in their lungs would eventually drown them and he sure as hell didn’t plan on going out in such an agonizing manner.
“What happened wasn’t your fault. You had no way of knowing.”
Berke ignored the soothing voice declaring his innocence. He’d lost his claim to any type of moral standing long ago and far away. Her implication couldn’t be further from the truth. He dropped the radio mic in his lap as he rested his head back against an empty shelf and closed his eyes, wishing it were that easy to shut out the guilt eating away at his soul. How could he have been so foolish and naïve as to give someone enough ammunition to use against those he’d sworn to protect? They were his family and he’d unknowingly betrayed them.
Eight years. That was how long Berke had served in the United States Marine Corps with a small, tight group of men who had become more than friends over the years—they had become brothers in all ways that mattered. Never once in his many past combat tours had he made such a fatal mistake as to put his unit in jeopardy. Now? He might as well have signed their death warrants.
“Berke, are you listening to me? You are not responsible for what happened today.”
“I gave Paige Olivier every piece of information she needed in order to infiltrate our bunker,” Berke confirmed with self-loathing, not wanting the woman sitting in front of him to think he was some kind of savior when he was anything but to those who had placed their trust in him. He didn’t need her solace and he certainly didn’t need to be pitied. “And because of my stupidity, a foolishly trusting young man is dead while leaving behind a frustrated brother and father to grieve. That’s totally on me.”
Berke stood abruptly, needing to do something other than sit here and listen to Maxie Denikin tell him lies to placate his conscience. She was just grateful he hadn’t left her behind in Texas—not that he’d had much of a choice at the time—but now he was starting to think that might have been for the best. Who knows what she might have done? Maybe she and her son would have been able to cross into Mexico and have some kind of future. What had made Maxie think she and Jacob were better off with him instead of carrying out the instructions of the United States government’s emergency management service?
“You opened up to an ex-lover about your life,” Maxine declared firmly, as if she needed to remind him of something he was already well aware of. She unfolded her petite frame and stood to her full five foot five meager inches, setting her palms on her hips in some crazy assemblage of his old drill instructor’s pose and attempted to project her version of confrontation. Her raven-colored hair shaped her round face in a feminine style, but she had the personality and attitude of a Master Sergeant in the Corps at the moment. It didn’t surprise him considering she’d been a cop for a good ten years before the end of the world. He couldn’t see the color of her blue eyes because the dim light of the small LED lantern wasn’t that bright. Her irises currently looked like sapphires when he knew them to be the color of the sky on a cloudless day. “That makes you human. That makes you like the rest of us. You aren’t perfect. No one gets to be without sin these days.”
“The fact that I disclosed the location of the team’s shelter here in Washington State has nothing to do with being human, Maxie,” Berke barked loudly, only to be reprimanded when she quickly placed her index finger against her dry lips. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the one-year-old boy who was curled up in Berke’s sleeping bag, but he did lower his voice. “It was poor Operation Security, or what we call OpSec. I put the lives of numerous people in danger. A twenty-year-old man, no more than a boy barely off of his mother’s tit, died because I dropped the ball while getting my dick wet.”
“You seem to be taking a lot of responsibility on those broad shoulders of yours, Berke,” Maxie bit back, crossing her arms and widening her stance to apparently make a point he didn’t want to hear. He resisted the urge to brush off the grey residue still embedded into the cuffs of her shirt. “Maybe you aren’t responsible for everyone and everything that’s happened recently. Just maybe the fault is with those who did the actual killing. The Yellowstone Caldera erupted all on its own and has plunged us into nothing but ash, darkness, and chaos. A natural disaster is not something you get to control and you mentioning an old silver mine that was in the process of being converted into a bunker because your old tank commander was some kind of prepper is not something you most likely thought very relevant at the time you were in Paige Olivier’s bed. Get over yourself. A tragedy has happened and now those people—your family—are waiting on you to help secure their sanctuary from any further assault. It’s not like we have all the time in the world for you to sit around here playing old home week and feeling sorry for yourself.”
Berke had no response to the lecture he’d just received. The look on her face said it all. Honestly, he’d never had a mother or father to preach at him and he certainly never listened to his drunken uncle who had died a slow, painful death at the age of fifty-two from continual systematic alcohol poisoning.
The Marine Corps had been Berke’s parents—his savior that had built him into the man he was today. Maxie wasn’t anyone’s image of either of those authority figures and he certainly didn’t visualize her as a parental figure in his nightly dreams. She was all woman, but now wasn’t the time to address the underlying attraction they’d both avoided these past three weeks—especially seeing as one of his ex-lovers was currently lying dead among a multitude of others who had thought Lost Summit was an easy target. The lead had taken its toll from those who lived by the sword. Warriors who understood the fortunes of war were now untried civilians learning the lessons of daily survival in this new hostile reality.
“Get some sleep,” Berke instructed in a tone that brooked no argument as he reached down for the small modern lantern, careful not to disturb Jacob. Berke ignored Maxie’s agitated sigh of desperation. He wasn’t going to discuss this anymore. He’d keep his promise to get her and her son to the relative safety of the lodge, where everyone who was left from the town was currently holed up and waiting for the next shoe to drop. Only then would he discuss what needed to happen with his teammates…his brothers. “We leave at daybreak for the last few miles.”
Berke turned on the heel of his boot, not worrying about leaving a scuff on the worn tiles that had once been meticulously maintained. There was nothing to salvage here anymore, anyway. This fantastic new world they were living in now was all about survival and nothing short of life and death was in the cards on a daily basis. All of the materialistic items in yesterday’s world didn’t come close in comparison to enough food to eat, clean water to drink, and shelter to stay warm. He continued walking to the front of the store, where he would have a good vantage point to identify any potential threats to their personal safety. There were many these days. Marauders were now a daily occurrence.
