E j deen, p.16
E. J. Deen, page 16
“Come on,” he muttered, staring down at the building closest to him as he waited for his war to begin.
The shack held particular interest for him. Before he’d started planting his little surprises throughout the camp, he’d seen Snake go into the cubbyhole with another man. When the building caught fire, they would do what any rational thinking person would. Run outside. Where they would be easy targets. He couldn’t wait to sink a blade into the chest of his old nemesis.
Zach fought the urge to fidget. What was taking so long? Had his incendiaries failed? Had he gotten the mix wrong? The igniters? Shit, what was happening down there? If they didn’t blow soon….
A sudden shout warned him that his war was about to begin. He immediately straightened, became more alert. He repositioned himself, testing his seat on the branch. His muscular thighs gripped either side of the limb he straddled, giving him maximum balance with the freedom of movement his upper body needed in order to aim his weapons with accuracy. He was in a plum position.
Zach peered expectantly through the leaves. Yes! The first building had ignited and was starting to burn.
It wouldn’t be long now before the others followed. He’d planned the fires so a five-minute delay spaced each burst perfectly. While the men were intent on putting out the first fire, the other fires would ignite in turn and create the distraction he needed to keep the Pirates’ attention off the surrounding woods so that he could begin his war without detection. He prayed it went without a hitch. The slightest problem would be the death of him.
So far so good.
He reached for his bow, the smooth curve of the aged wood feeling like a familiar friend, and took aim with deadly precision as the first rush of men passed by below. He caught the last one in the back, and the man went down with little more than a low moan. The others were so intent on trying to figure out what to do about the burning building that they didn’t even notice the sudden absence of their comrade.
Zach felt a surge of power and tried to quell it. He would give his ego free reign when all this was over, but not until then. A swelled ego could be too dangerous at this early stage in the game.
When he was certain he wouldn’t be seen, he climbed out of the tree and dragged the dying man into the brush to hide him. Meanwhile, Snake hadn’t come out of the shack. An unforeseen event. The scum must have left the building while Zach had been dodging danger all the way back to the woods. He abandoned his initial plan and crept along just inside the tree line, circling the camp, his bow in his hand, an arrow notched and ready as he searched for his next unsuspecting victim. He was perspiring, and his heart beat a labored rhythm in his chest, his brain tortured with worst-case scenarios. This scheme of his was looking more and more insane. He was only one man against nearly seventy. How the hell could he ever hope to get out alive?
He could use some help right about now. But he hadn’t wanted to endanger more lives, so he hadn’t asked any of his friends to come along. Besides, it was his war, not theirs.
He kept low to the ground as he slunk along, relying on the bushes to provide him with adequate cover.
No time for self-doubt. He needed to focus.
Focus, dammit!
The second building was in flames now, and he could hear men shouting all around the camp. Judging by all the commotion, the leader had come out of his lair.
Zach surveyed the situation. Snake hadn’t yet surmised that the fires had been set by an arsonist. No one seemed interested in the woods surrounding the camp. He hadn’t even sent anyone out to search the area. Maybe Zach’s luck would hold out for a few more minutes. Perhaps Snake would even
suspect one of his own. That would be an ironic twist of justice.
Time to speed up the game before it was too late. With a macabre grin, Zach yanked open his jacket and reached for a homemade grenade, quickly maneuvering around to the first burning building, where at least ten men were standing around calling out questions to one another. Zach didn’t bother to identify them. He launched the grenade up and out, following its flight path through the night-darkened sky with his eyes. It landed somewhere on the roof of the building and exploded on impact, sending a good eight of the men sprawling to the ground, most of them bleeding.
Arrows followed the grenade, landing squarely in the chests of the only two men left standing. Zach didn’t wait around to do a body count. Shouts from the opposite side of the encampment forced him out of his hiding place and in search of another. No one could have missed the explosion. It had literally rocked the forest. He’d made this batch a little stronger than he’d calculated, but that wasn’t so bad.
The more damage done, the better.
Screams of agony from the injured men followed his progress through the woods. He moved at a snail’s pace, every cell in his anxiety-ridden body demanding that he run crashing for safety. He had to force himself to keep it slow and steady, silent. He couldn’t risk attracting attention to himself. At the moment he had the upper hand. No one suspected foul play. He still had a few minutes to do some damage without being detected.
By the time he circled halfway around the camp, the fourth building was in flames. A group of men had paused in the center of the compound, looking on in bewildered surprise. Zach spotted a few familiar faces. One of them was the man he’d encountered at the bar, one of Serena’s kidnappers. Snake stood nearby, shouting like a demon from hell, uncertain of where to direct his anger. Zach ignored the leader for the moment. Serena first, he thought, reaching for his blowgun. A grenade was too damn good for this guy.
He placed the poison-tipped dart into the sugar cane tube and then moved around to a more strategic position. It wouldn’t be easy hitting his target from this distance, but when he did, the man would get the shock of his life. Rattlesnake venom that would kill him slowly. No one would be able to do anything about it. He would be left behind, to die a horrible death, just like Serena.
He waited for his target to move into the proper positioning, then put his lips to the makeshift blowgun and forced a quick gust of breath into the tube. He knew his hit was a success when the man let out a yelp and slapped at his neck.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” Snake demanded, taking his attention off the burning building long enough to stare at the victim.
Zach prepared another dart, this one intended for the leader. But Snake had already seen the needle-fine weapon sticking out of his lackey’s neck and was looking around, his eyes frantically sweeping the perimeter of the encampment. Determined to make use of the small window of opportunity he had left, Zach sent a sharp gust of air into the tube and immediately began moving again, moving away from the danger of capture. He only paused long enough to glance back and see if the last dart had been true. But no. Snake hadn’t been struck. Another man had received the dart intended for him. Now everyone knew they were under attack.
As he moved through the forest, Zach heard Snake bellowing orders to his men. The sound made his guts twist.
“Get into the fucking woods. Now! Find out how many there are. This is….”
Zach didn’t hear the rest. He was busy making his way toward his perch in the trees. It was safer there.
He could rest and decide what he wanted to do next, maybe even go unnoticed long enough to pick a few more men off from high above.
Most of the men inside the camp had dispersed, presumably to fetch weapons before beginning their search. Zach tried not to think about it. He paused to lob a few grenades into the center of the clearing and was satisfied when he heard screams follow the explosions. Head down, he slithered through the underbrush, never pausing for more than a few seconds, and only then to let loose of more mayhem as he slowly made his way to his hiding place.
More grenades. And more. It was an all-out fucking war, and the bad guys were losing. He hoped the periodic assaults would buy him some time. Maybe injure or kill enough of the men to give him an edge. At the very least, cause enough distractions to confuse them about his location. If he could get them to believe they were surrounded by enemies, maybe they would run like hell instead of coming after him. He didn’t give a shit if a few stragglers got away, as long as he had a shot at Snake.
But if they realized he was only one man…. His life would end painfully. Just thinking about all the atrocities they would inflict on him made his scar itch.
When two men appeared from out of nowhere and ran past him, Zach froze in place and hunkered
down out of sight, fighting the urge to run in the opposite direction. But he couldn’t resist sending an arrow after them. He caught one in the arm. The pig let out a squeal and went down on one knee, clutching his arm. Spooked, his friend spun around and fired a gun into the brush, the bullets spreading wild, one nearly grazing Zach’s head. Zach didn’t move a muscle, didn’t even flinch. His life depended on keeping still. It was yet one more thing he’d learned from survival school. The eye was naturally drawn to movement. One had a better chance of surviving by staying put.
“I know you’re out there, mother fucker!” the man screamed, pulling off another round. In the wrong direction.
The slug’s dirty face registered surprise when his gun jammed. He glanced nervously into the trees, smacking the weapon against the side of his hand in earnest. Zach could almost smell the fear boiling off him. He was so close he could easily identify the gun as a revolver. Apparently, one of the casings hadn’t been filled with enough powder, and the primer had only managed to propel the bullet as far as the back end of the barrel. Now it was lodged there, between the barrel and the cylinder, preventing the cylinder from rotating and rendering the gun impotent. The thing was jammed solid. The asshole couldn’t even pull the hammer back. That’s what happened when dipshits pressed their own bullets.
“Shit!” the other idiot shouted, holding his injured arm, the arrow still protruding from it. His gun lay in the dirt a few feet away. Neither of the dunderheads was smart enough to reach for it. In their panic, they’d completely forgotten about it. “I can’t get this thing out! How do I get this thing out?”
Totally freaked, the uninjured man took several backward steps away from the woods, his eyes
desperately sweeping the underbrush. Then he dropped his worthless weapon and fled. One of Zach’s arrows caught him in the middle of the back before he’d gone a yard. When the other man saw it, he screamed in fear and lit off through the woods. Zach let him go. After all, he was a sporting man. And at the moment it seemed a rather unequal fight.
The gun still lay in the dirt where the dipshit had left it, catching Zach’s eye. He stared at it for a moment. He wouldn’t mind having another revolver to match the one he already had. But the damn thing was out of reach, too far into the open, and he didn’t dare expose himself for something he didn’t really need. Besides, he still preferred the silence of his bow.
Ignoring the attraction of the gun, he tossed another grenade into the clearing and started moving again.
The camp was chaos. Wood crackling as the camp burned, men screaming, some in anger, some in
agony, and Snake yelling over everything. If Zach hadnbeen so intent on war, he would have smiled.
All the hell he had created was enough to make him proud.
He was almost to his tree, where he had several more grenades hidden, when it happened. He’d been slinking along on his belly, inching through the lowlying brush when a booted foot came out of nowhere and planted itself smack in the middle of his back, nailing him to the ground and slamming the breath out of him. Damn, he hadn’t even heard it coming. All the confusion had muffled the sound of a man creeping through the woods behind him.
He was pinned so solidly to the ground that he couldn’t even turn his head, couldn’t move. But he could certainly feel the cold steel of a barrel pressed hard against his cheek, and he knew then he’d lost his war.
“Where are your friends?” the man demanded, nearly cracking Zach’s ribs with the pressure he exerted on his back.
Interesting. At least he’d been successful in foiling them about that issue. They assumed he was not alone. Of course, that wasn’t exactly in his favor. They would try to torture him into divulging the whereabouts of his colleagues, and when they didn’t find any accomplices, they would kill him slowly.
“Where?” the man demanded again.
Zach didn’t even have time to formulate an answer before a tremendous weight suddenly came
crashing down on him, forcing all the oxygen from his lungs in one painful woosh and nearly breaking his back in the process. A strange gurgling sound emanated from the man’s throat, and then deadweight pressed him into the ground with an intensity that gave him an uncomfortable dose of claustrophobia.
The guy was either out cold or dead. Zach had no idea what had just happened, but he was certain it was in his favor, and he was damned if he was going to lie around under this stinking carcass all night waiting for someone else to come along and put a bullet in his head.
“Jesus,” he grunted, trying to pull himself out from under the bulky man.
“Need help?”
What the hell?
Zach craned his neck around so fast that he heard a rather unpleasant popping sound inside his spine. A sharp pain shot up through his temple. He ignored it. All his attention was on the person behind him.
He couldn’t see who had spoken, but he didn’t really have to. He would know that voice anywhere.
With one final grunt, he managed to free himself from his human prison, and turned around to stare at her. A glance told him that her knife was embedded in the enemy’s back. She followed the direction of his gaze, looking proud of her accomplishment. Zach was charmed, but it didn’t stem the sudden rush of worry that followed.
Christ, what was she doing here? And how in hell had she managed to slink into the middle of enemy territory?
Unfortunately, there was no time to stand around and chitchat. There were still plenty of men out there looking for him.
“Come on. We have to keep moving,” he ordered, grabbing her hand and forcibly yanking her along behind him. He didn’t bother to ask if she cared to accompany him. It didn’t even bear consideration.
She was coming whether she liked it or not.
Dammit all to hell and back! She was ruining everything. She was going to get them both killed. He hadn’t even begun to exact his revenge on the scum who had cut him, and now that she was here, all his energies would go into protecting her. That wouldn’t prove easy under the circumstances. This was not good.
“No thank you, no nothing,” she complained, still allowing him to pull her along. “I just saved your life back there, and you aren’t even going to say anything.”
“Shut up,” he growled, searching the dark forest around them, looking for prowlers, and hoping he could make it back to that damn tree before there was another incident.
“Shut up?” She sounded flabbergasted.
“Shut up, or I’ll knock your lights out for you,” he reiterated, jerking her hand so forcefully that she fell against his chest. He gave a snort of disgust and shoved her off and away, propelling her ahead of him.
“Can you climb?” he demanded, practically pressing her nose into the bark of the tree he’d been looking for.
“Yes, I can—”
“Then get up there. Now. Before I leave you here alone. And in case you have any ideas of refusing, let me remind you that I don’t think you’ll like what those men will do to you when they find you,” he warned before she could protest. He knew she would try. He wasn’t so marred by the revolt that he’d forgotten complaining was second nature to women. About anything and everything.
She grunted a lot and made too much noise as she climbed the tree, but Zach didn’t say anything. He was too busy keeping an eye on the surrounding underbrush and hoping they wouldn’t be seen. Two more beats and he followed her up the tree. When they were both perched along the same heavy
branch, Zach surveyed the encampment.
“You did all this alone?” she whispered in amazement.
Zach was already reaching for more explosives, but he allowed her one brief glance. His only answer was a single, curt nod before he lobbed a grenade as far into the camp as he could, catching two men off guard and sending their guts splattering all over the ground. He didn’t have time for conversation right now. All he could think about was getting them safely out of there and how difficult that might prove to be.
“Where did you get those?” she asked, staring at the homemade grenades in his hand.
Zach ignored her, intently searching the clearing with his eyes. Something was wrong. Something was different. Something…. Then he realized what had changed. It was quiet. Too damn quiet.
“Something’s up,” he muttered without looking at her. “If you value your life, then I suggest you don’t talk. Remain perfectly still until I tell you otherwise. No matter what you see, don’t make a sound.”
When she didn’t answer, he jerked his head around to glare hard at her. “Understand?”
She nodded. He gave her a smile of approval, a gesture that was in reality little more than a grimace.
He was pleased with the fact that she hadn’t spoken. It meant she was listening to him, and obeying.
Perhaps they would live after all.
A movement from below captured his attention. Zach’s gaze swept the area and quickly caught up to the source. Two men were moving cautiously through the brush several yards away. Zach looked at the woman, worried about her reaction. She sat rigidly still and perfectly quiet just as he had ordered her to do. Had she seen the men below? Would she go nuts when she did? With as little movement as
possible, he got her attention and pointed in the direction of the two men, a warning finger pressed against his lips. If those men glanced up, they were sitting ducks. She nodded once in understanding.
He breathed a sigh of relief and reached for his bow. He was shocked when his fingers found empty air.
It wasn’t there! His bow was gone! Dammit, where?
