Liberty At Last (The Liberty Series) (40 page)

“Yes, sir,” he said solemnly, but his eyes glittered with excitement and pride.

“We’ll be gone for an hour. Organize the watch. Make sure no one turns any lights on, and try to get some of the guys to take a nap.”

“I won’t let you down,” Jake said, and Matthew laughed at him.

“I hope not,” Matthew said. “You don’t have to actually do anything. So you better not fuck it up.” Jake looked deflated as we walked out. We drove back through the downtown in the van; it was probably four a.m. The sun wasn’t up yet, but the darkest part of the night had passed.

Our ride was quick, maybe ten minutes to a different, residential part of the city. “Wait here,” John said to me and Matthew at the same time. I started to protest but he gave me a look that stopped me. “I’ll be ten minutes,” he said, and firmly shut the door.

“He brought me to babysit you,” Matthew said, yawning.

“Why didn’t he leave you, and let Jake babysit me?”

“Because I’m the best,” Matthew said and shrugged. “I may talk too much, but I’m still totally the best. And only the best is good enough for you.”

I glared at him, but I didn’t mean it. He was such a goofball I couldn’t stay mad at him. I was worried, though, about everything else. “What are we getting?” I asked.

“Guns and ammo. Probably a couple of bayonets. Maybe a smoke bomb or two. Handcuffs — we definitely need handcuffs.”

“Do you think Darius knows we’re here?”

“He has to,” Matthew said. He seemed to consider it for a moment. “He probably doesn’t know that it’s now, but he knows it’s going to be soon. He’s been very careful to keep out of sight. He knows we have eyes on the ground that would have seen him in town.”

“So what happens if we kill him?” I asked, breathing a sigh of relief as John came out of the building with a large box. Matthew jumped out and helped him; they hopped back into the van and we sped off.

“That was quick,” Matthew said. “How was it?”

“Expensive,” John said and shrugged. “But I got everything we need.”

“So, you were saying,” Matthew said, leaning back and looking at me. “About Darius.”

Now I glared at him again and this time I meant it. I didn’t necessarily want to have this conversation in front of John — yet. “I was asking what would happen if we kill him,” I said. “What would that solve?”

“Well, we’d make Cruz happy,” Matthew said. “And safe. And the rest of his family would be safe — at least, from Darius. Can’t speak for the people Darius is working for.”

“Do you
have
to kill him?” I asked John. “Is that what you signed up for?”

He shook his head. “I don’t have to do anything,” John said. “I took an assignment from Cruz because I believed, and I still believe, that Darius is an extremely dangerous individual. Honestly, if you weren’t here asking me these types of questions, I would probably just shoot him and not even think about it afterwards.”

“Really?” I asked. I just couldn’t fathom that.

“Probably,” John said, sounding apologetic. “But I know what Darius has done in the past, and I know what he’s capable of. I think the world would be safer without him. If there was a jail that would take him, and keep him, then I might reconsider,” he said. “But that’s not the case. So it’s vigilante justice or no justice.”

“I’m all for vigilante justice,” Matthew said, cracking his knuckles.

“We know,” John and I said in unison. I would have laughed if we weren’t talking about killing someone and I wanted to cry instead.

I decided to drop it, for now. John knew how I felt. I also was aware that my opinion, my feelings, were of the utmost importance to him. I decided to trust his judgment. And play it out.

We got back to the safe house and found Jake crouching down below the windows, on high alert. “What’s the matter?” Matthew whispered, rushing to him, and John put his arm across my chest protectively.

“Nothing,” Jake whispered back. “I just want to be ready.”

Matthew shot John a look and John just shook his head. “Better to be safe than sorry,” I said, coming to Jake’s defense, when suddenly, one of the windows above him shattered into thousands of pieces. John pushed me to the floor and started yelling orders.

“Weapons over here!
Let’s go!
”

Everyone stayed on the floor and scrambled over; bullets were coming into the building now and more glass was shattering all around us.

Matthew was the first to get back, sitting below a broken window, waiting for more shots to be fired. Then he sprung up and returned fire with what looked like a large assault weapon — his favorite.

“My turn,” I said, looking at John as he loaded his gun and checked the levers.

“Just stay down, Liberty,” he barked at me. “Let us take care of this.” Then he scrambled off after the rest of them. It was hard to see, because there was dust from plaster floating through the air and it was dark — and I was covering my face with my hands every time I heard another bullet — but it looked like windows on all sides of the building had been knocked out. Shots were coming in from all sides.

We were surrounded.

Fuck
, I thought, making myself take my hands from my eyes and rummaging through the bottom of the weapons box. I found a large handgun. It was heavier than I would’ve liked but I opened the chamber and started loading it anyway.
I’m scared, but I’m too scared to die here, like this,
I thought. There was too much I wanted to do in life. Surrounded or not, I wasn’t going out without a fight. I scooted up next to Matthew and he looked down at me briefly. “You’re gonna get in trouble,” he said, as he reloaded his gun’s magazine.

“What else is new?” I asked, kneeling next to him. He put the gun back into the broken window and started firing. When he came back down, I went up. I couldn’t see anything out the window, just some flashes of bright light —

“
UGH!”
Something knocked me to the ground; I opened my eyes and luckily, it was just John, sitting on top of me. Not a bullet.

“Liberty,” he said patiently, bullets whizzing above our heads, “I’m going to have to ask you to stay down.”

He got off me and started to scramble to the other side of the building, where Corey was yelling something to him. I was again surprised at how unfazed he seemed. Same thing with Matthew. They were totally in their element.

I wondered if that was something you could learn.

Another bullet whizzed by my head and I yelped and peed my pants a little.
I don’t think I can learn it,
I though, so I was gonna have to fake it. I decided to behave, for now, so I went back and sat down besides Matthew. “How’re we going to get out of here?” I asked, really hoping that he had a good answer.

He just shook his head. “No idea,” he said. “We’ll figure something out.”

John came back a second later. “Good girl,”’ he said to me approvingly as I sat obediently on the floor. “Matthew. How many guys are still over here?” he asked.

“Six?” Matthew said. “I think there’s only two cars. What about around back?”

“There were two cars, but they just left. If these guys go,” he said, nodding in the direction of the incoming bullets, “we’ve got to be ready to follow them.”

“Don’t you think that’s what they want?” Matthew asked.

“Of course that’s what they want,” John said, gathering up supplies and placing everything by the door. He was getting ready to go.

“We’re going to
follow
them?” I asked, fighting to keep all traces of hysteria out of my voice. “So they can lure us somewhere else, less safe, and then kill us all?”

“John’s not gonna let anybody kill you,” Matthew said, kindly. “He might let them
think
they’re gonna get to kill you, though.”

“Oh,” I said. “Gee, thanks.”

The bullets seemed to stop and I heard the cars screech away. “Let’s go,” John said, grabbing my hand as the guys picked up all their stuff and headed quickly towards the van.

“Don’t you think they’ll wait for us?” I asked John sarcastically.

“Of course they will,” John said. “I’d just prefer to get this over with.”

We’d followed them for hours, without exchanging any gunfire, south of the city, and then west. Into lush greenery, or at least the sparsely populated area that bordered it.

And then they’d disappeared.

By then it was daylight, and we’d had to pull off the road. Some of the guys took a nap, others ate. Everybody was checking their phones and text messages, though I couldn’t imagine that there was any real service out here. Maybe it was just habit; or maybe they were all just playing
Fruit Vandal
.

“What does it mean that they led us here and then vanished?” I asked John. He was calmly reading a map, which he’d been doing a lot of this morning.

“It means they didn’t want us coming any further,” John said and shrugged. “They’ve got plans for us, but apparently that doesn’t include seeing their compound.”

“That’s okay with me,” I said and shivered, thinking of Mexico. “I’ve seen enough compounds for one year.”

“Yes, you have,” John said. He leaned over and stroked my back; fire shot through me and I shook my head at him.

“Don’t touch me,” I leaned over and whispered in his ear. I looked around, making sure no one was near us. “It makes me want you, and I can’t have you.” He turned to me and kissed me, deeply, and my whole body started to burn. I reached up without thinking and wrapped my arms around his neck; the kiss deepened and he ran his hands down my torso, briefly touching my breasts. I arched my back.

“Get a room,” Matthew called, coming around the corner, and John broke our embrace because he started laughing.

“We deserved that,” John said, and kept laughing.

Meanwhile, I had blushed from my chin up to my scalp — but what else was new? The guys were used to it. I sighed, wistfully thinking of what John and I would do if we did in fact have a room.

I shook my head, as if to clean out my dirty mind.
Good luck with that,
intoned my inner voice. I just rolled my eyes and ignored her, and started cleaning folding and re-folding the clothes I’d shed since last night. It was getting hot, about ninety degrees, and it was extremely humid. I hoped that folding my clothes neatly would distract me from worrying that we were going to be ambushed at any moment, desperately wanting to be naughty with John, and how out of control my hair was getting in this climate.

More time passed. Matthew, Corey, Jake and John were engaged in a lengthy discussion; the other guys had been cutting and gathering branches in case we needed to build a fire later, and I had organized our food and planned dinner. We were all restless.

Finally Jake and Corey stood up, grabbing weapons, bottles of water and a map. They headed off down the road without a backwards glance. “John?” I asked, walking over to where he and Matthew were crouched over yet another map. “What’s going on?”

“We sent the guys out to scout,” John said, checking his watch. “We’re going to pitch the tents soon, a little deeper into the forest, so nothing’s visible from the road.” We’d been out here for hours, and not one vehicle had driven by on the russet, dirt-packed road, but I understood. I didn’t want to sleep in the forest, but I didn’t want to be so exposed by the road. I looked towards the underbrush and trees, though, and shivered. We were going to be exposed in there, too. I just didn’t know to what, exactly.

We threw all of our stuff back into the van and drove slowly off road, through a clearing and into the forest, as far as we could go. It was maybe half a mile from where we’d been, but it was a different world. Huge trees surrounded us; a canopy of large green leaves blocked out the sky. There were lots of noises in here, none of which were familiar. I tried not to think about the wildlife as John put us to work, assembly-line style. The rest of the guys knew the routine by heart; they got all of the supplies for the tents and started setting them out in order. I stuck to what I knew and unpacked the food supplies again, and also put the medical supplies out where they would be easily accessible; while I worked I said a prayer that Jake and Corey would be back soon. And safe.

After the tents were up, the guys went back for the wood they’d begun to gather. It wasn’t dark yet, but it was almost twilight; I cringed at the idea of sleeping out here tonight, not knowing who — or what — would be crawling around, trying to get us. As if he could sense my thoughts, John came over. “You okay?” he asked.

“I’m okay,” I said. “I’m worried, though. When are they going to come back?”

A few minutes later the van pulled back up. “Look what we found,” Kevin called out the window, and Jake and Corey spilled out the back, lugging the wood the guys had loaded them up with.

“Hey,” Matthew said, coming up to them and clapping them each on the back. “Put the wood over there. Glad to see you two, I was starting to worry.”

“You were?” Jake asked. He sounded a little hopeful, like he was glad he’d been missed.

“Nah,” Matthew said. “I knew Corey would bring you back in one piece.”

“Barely,” said Corey. “Jake moved in awfully close. And then he almost shot someone.”