From The Ashes (Life After War) (41 page)

Jeremy scrambled toward the safety of Neil's truck as batteries started flying.

Sam missed with all of them–he was zig-zagging to avoid her aim.

As he ducked into the safety of Neil's backseat, Sam held up the keys to the wounded jeepster.

Instead of the throw they all expected, Sam dropped the keys just behind her and took up a familiar cage stance. It said come get them, coward.

Jeremy thought about it. Those keys opened any number of toolboxes and devices, and he would definitely enjoy rolling around on the ground with Samantha. But...

Jeremy wiped the blood off his ear and held it up for her to see through the window, shaking his head. “You play too rough.”

Samantha laughed, calming down now that she'd had a release. She scooped up the keys and gave them a shake. Then she slid them into the front of her shirt where they poked her. “When you want 'em, you know where they are.”

She walked by the truck to take a backseat in Seth's truck, and the Eagles watching burst into another round of crude laughs and taunts.

Jeremy stared at jeepster as the others got in.
My baby!

“
I guess you know not to do that again,” Neil said.

Jeremy took the napkins the trooper handed him. “Yeah. There were some signs.”

Neil chuckled, motioning for Greg to get them moving. “Head for the rendezvous point. We're done here.”

The four teams met up under a green sunset that didn't dampen their mood. They'd gotten all the list items and a few others. The kids they'd rescued were between the ages of five and twelve, and Jeremy thought Adrian would put them with the slaver children, sensing the bonds that might grow between the two abused groups. The adult females they'd also hoped to help, were dead. They'd found the graves and corpses upon exploring the school grounds. Adrian wouldn't be told that part.

Adrian would be pleased by their successes, and that meant a good time at the second half of the tests that would take place just after mess.

It took half an hour to get back to camp, where they unloaded, sorted, and cleaned up. It had been a long day for these refugees and they were ready for the quiet drama of camp life.

11

On her way to watch the tests, Samantha paused at the sight of Jeremy coming from the workout tent that Marc and Charlie were stepping into. Jeremy looked like he'd just...

“
Grrrr...”

Samantha flushed as her stomach growled. He looked like he'd just come from the bed of a woman who was sore and smiling. Desire pushed into her thoughts, the kind she usually suffered at night or found a distraction for, and Sam recognized the moment. She'd felt lust before the War and sent out for a stranger, like the other females in her class bracket had, but now...

Sam tuned out everything but the man who'd just spotted her. Now, she had two sweat-layered, muscle-bulging, gun-packing Eagles at her fingertips, hard killers that would delight in easing her torment. It was going to be harder to resist taking one of them up on what their eyes always offered.

Jeremy was caught in the heat blast, drawn to her side against his will. He'd come to the conclusion that she was likely done with him now, but the open want in that gaze said differently.

Jeremy took a quick minute to ask himself if he wanted to try again, to keep playing the role. It only took a few seconds of her looking at him like he was hanging on a butcher's rack to find the answer.

Jeremy gave her an easy grin, but stayed back. “You still pissed about what I did?”

Sam blinked, but the haze didn't clear. She watched a drop of sweat roll down his neck and trace a fiery path over his shoulder. “No. You?”

“
No.” Noticing where she was staring, Jeremy immediately stiffened the muscles in his chest.

Sam's hands clenched.
Think! Keep talking
. “Are you sorry for it?”

Swallowing the grin, Jeremy couldn't lie. “No.”

He was sorry to lose the Jeepster, though. He didn't tell her that.

Sam shrugged. At least they had honesty. “Then, I can't be either. You didn't understand the lesson, so it wasn't harsh enough.”

Jeremy didn't know what to do with a female that used logic instead of emotion. How was he supposed to...
logic.
Jeremy began running through the signs in his head, those little things that were either putting him off or making him uneasy.

Sam seemed to sense that he was about to open a painful subject and quickly spoke up. “If you do it again, I won't be able to get over it.”

Jeremy already knew that. He'd gotten the lecture from a number of Eagles, but it was Cynthia who'd clued him in first. By threatening to cut off his balls if he interfered with the dream again. “I don't have another Jeep.”

Sam sighed in mock reluctance. Leave it to a man to say the wrong thing. “Guess I'd have to let Cynthia handle you the way she wanted to when she found out.”

Jeremy took a step back. “If you want to kill yourself Sam, you'll have to do it when I'm not around.”

“
Okay.”

Jeremy stared in exasperation. “You get that you're not ready, right? That we would've been busy watching out for you instead of helping Neil?”

“
Bet if it had been Angie you'd have handled it differently.”

Jeremy spotted the ambush too late. “Yes, but she's...”

Jeremy snapped his mouth shut as Sam's eyes glowed brighter.
Mistake!

Instead of blasting him, Sam spoke softly. “I have Adrian's approval, too. You know that. Treat me like everyone else or stay away from me.”

Jeremy shook his head, heart thumping. “I'll never be able to do that.”

Sam caught the tremor. “Stay away or treat me the same?”

Jeremy went for the kill now that he'd evaded the trap. He took a step closer, leaned in. “Both.”

Sam stiffened and he pushed, hand going out to brush a wild curl behind her ear.

Sam shivered as his finger slid along her jaw before dropping.
That was cheating!

“
You're not the same. Stop being ashamed of it.”

Sam wanted to scoff, but he seemed to know what effect he was having on her as he let the sweat drip instead of wiping it away with the thin towel around those big, hard shoulders.

Sam felt that new heat scorch her insides, and began fighting back. If he still wanted to play, she had his part picked out this time.

Jeremy braced for it, reading the intent as she reached out.

Sam grabbed the ends of the towel, slowly pulling until his mouth was within inches of hers. Tension crackled. She let her lips brush his.

“
Will you be one of my relief sources?”

One of my relief sources. One of. One...

Jeremy was ice in her space an instant later. “No.”

Sam let go, shrugging. “Okay.”

When she turned around like she'd just finished an unsuccessful interview, Jeremy's inner asshole broke out. “Whore.”

Samantha stopped and Jeremy got ready to run. Her aim was too good to bother with ducking.

Sam scrolled through a hundred responses before she answered, bitterness supplying the lines faster than she could reject them. She finally chose the one that would keep him awake tonight, worrying if it were true.

“
I'll have a stable lined up in a week. You'll fight alongside them, eat with them, save their lives maybe, and Neil will be first.”

You Bitch!
Jeremy gave her his second thought instead. “Neil won't go for this, either. You're asking too much.”

“
Really?” Sam's hand went to her hip, oblivious of their gaping witnesses. “How many guys is Leslie providing comfort for?”

Jeremy shook his head, glaring. “That's not the same.”

“
Okay, then. How many of the 'older' women in camp is Daryl seeing to?”

“
They have an arrangement!” he snapped.

Sam grunted in exasperation. “So would we if you could accept that I have the same rights as everyone else.”

“
It's not that you don't have the same rights,” Jeremy protested. “It's that I don't...”

When he stopped, she filled it in. “Want to share.”

Jeremy nodded, face tight. “If I didn't care, it wouldn't matter.”

Sam twisted it around, as females are so adept at. “It doesn't matter that you care. That's your issue to control, not mine.”

“
And I don't think I can,” he confessed angrily. “So go ahead and line up your stable. I won't be in it.”

Samantha watched him go, understanding he was hurt, but unable to change her nature. Since the War, she needed more to stimulate her, and that was true in so many ways that she wasn't able to count them all without a score-sheet. If she had to do her old job now, she'd never be able to tolerate it. Without the thrills and the close calls, what was the point of being alive?

“
I haven’t forgotten, you know.”

Sam stopped, but didn’t turn to face Neil, not wanting the observant trooper to notice her crimson cheeks. How much had he seen? “Forgotten what?”

“
I’d like to spend some time with you, Sam.”

Her shoulders stiffened. Great. Another awkward conversation. “In what respect?”

“
A date. I’ll swing by your...”

“
No.”

“
What?” Neil’s mouth snapped closed.

Sam sighed, moving toward the crowd. “You guys will figure it out eventually. I believe that.”

Neil sighed. The attraction wasn’t going anywhere. He’d hoped for it to fade in the beginning, but the more she said no, the harder he was pulled.

“
Who set it up this way?” he muttered bitterly. “Must be a female up there, I swear. No man would ever be this cruel!”

12

Charlie studied Marc as the bare-chested man pushed the bar up in quick, hard repetitions. The workout tent was empty–the camp and Eagles now gathering on the other side of camp for the second half of the level tests.

Charlie drew on his courage as the silence continued. “Do you and mom get close when you're alone?”

Marc’s grip on the slick weight shifted and he caught it awkwardly. Damn tent shadows.

He grunted as he shoved the weight off of his chest and set it in the groove. “Interesting question.”

Charlie shrugged, tossing him a towel. “Just heard something and it made me curious.”

Marc sat up on the bench, wiping at his light beard. “Guess it depends on your definition of close.”

“
Sex.”

Charlie’s cheeks reddened, telling Marc he had an itch that needed scratching.

“
What’s up, boy?”

Charlie was relieved at the willingness. “I have this idea about men and women, and I’m kinda watching you guys to verify it.”

Marc took that in, trying not to grin. Being a teenager was confusing. The last thing he needed was his father’s laughter filling his mind.

“
Why don’t you tell me and I’ll give you my opinion?”

Charlie agreed eagerly, sitting on his bench. “It’s about how to recognize a mate.”

Marc immediately wondered who had caught his eye. “Go on.”

“
Well, it’s a myth until you and mom are in a tent together. People notice it, and I started studying the other couples here. They don’t have the same connection that you guys do.”

Marc studied his son in the softly swaying light. Growing into a man already, and he hadn’t seen him as a boy. The thought made Marc blurt out a question of his own. “Does that bother you?”

“
No. Matt teases me, but I think it’s great you guys like each other so much.”

“
And…”

“
I’m watching, that’s all.”

Marc chuckled. “No pressure.”

Charlie grinned, looking away from his dad’s new injuries. It made his own desire to be an Eagle more complicated, but hadn’t dimmed it at all. “Not like that. I mean for myself. I won’t go through the crap everyone else is. I’ll be sure of my choice the first time and stick with it. Like Kyle.”

Now Marc did frown. “What Kyle’s doing may not be right.”

“
But it is,” Charlie protested. “He can't help who he loves. Jenny won’t believe it yet, but....”

“
How is that possible?” Marc interrupted angrily. “He’s a grown man and she’s just a kid…”

Marc let his words trail off, realizing he and Angie had started very close to the same way. Was Kyle’s attraction so different than his own? Hadn’t he acted on his desires and found a love beyond compare?

Marc looked over to find Charlie changing his shirt and smiling happily.

“
You did that on purpose.”

Charlie admitted it with satisfaction, “It's a psychology thing I have to practice, and I know you liked being friends with Kyle.”

When Marc didn't blow up at him, the teenager moved for the flap, giving his father the rest of the truth as he saw it. “Kyle deserves the same chance that Adrian made sure you were given when everyone thought you and mom were having an affair.”