Page 55 of Following Their Heart

My legs go weak. Grim catches me before I hit the floor.

“Everyone!” Rev addresses the room. “Gather ’round.” He strides to the fireplace and motions for us to follow. “Brawn, Doc, keep a lookout, but listen up.”

Grim carries me to the sagging sofa and sits with me curled in a ball of denial on his lap. I feel everyone else gathering around, but I’m not seeing anything except images of Jud being shot down or blasted out of existence. My heart is shattering.

“We’ve got one enemy chopper down,” Rev says. “One that could be back at any moment, and Jud is missing.”

“Missing?” Doc says. “What do you mean,missing?”

I look up, sharply. Missing isn’t dead.

My gaze isn’t the only one glued on Rev. Everyone is staring at him, even Doc and Brawn, who are supposed to be keeping a lookout.

Rev meets everyone’s eyes, one by one, mine last. He slips something from his vest. It’s a knife.

“Is that Jud’s Damascus?” Doc asks.

Rev nods. “Found it out in the lot. Near where the chopper landed. There are drag marks, too.” He hefts the knife, weighing it in his hand.

“He wouldn’t have dropped that knife unless he was forced to,” Doc says.

“I know,” Rev says. “I think…I think they took him.”

Chapter 21

Rev

Night 11: Six in the Lodge

“All right.” I take Jud’s usual spotin front of the cold fireplace. It feels all kinds of wrong to be speaking as Eagle Peak’s leader, but with Jud missing, the position falls to me. “Here’s what we’re gonna do.”

It’s so quiet in the common room you could hear a pin drop. Everyone’s looking to me for direction. I can’t let them see that inside, I’m shaking in my boots. It won’t do anyone any good to know I’m scared to death of fucking this up.

The literal survival of humanity sits to my left on the lap of Death. Each one of the men gathered ’round me is a guardian to her. She’ll need all of us to stand by her side as we begin the task of repopulating the world. All of us, including Jud.

My decisions will determine all of their fates. My chest feels heavy with the responsibility.

Working, help me make the right choices.

Here goes nothing. “Brawn and Doc. You’re gonna search for any of Raptor’s crew that may be lurking around. That includes possible survivors from the crash site. We won’t tolerate any threats to Cora. Do I make myself clear?”

If there are any survivors, I want them dead, but I’m not saying as much with Cora here. Brawn and Doc nod, and their expressions tell me they were able to read between the lines. Priority one will be handled.

“After that, you two will rest. Then begin the clean-up around the lodge. The birds will have to be disposed of as soon as possible, or we’ll be overrun with carrion-seeking predators and disease.

“Shep and Scrap.” I split my attention between them. “No rest for the wicked. You two are gonna pack up Bessie. The three of us are going to Billings. We take every weapon we have, and we leave at dawn. If we’re all packed and ready to go, we can catch a fewZ’sbeforehand. Otherwise, we’ll sleep after we get Jud back. Shep, you’ll communicate with Bernard to get intel on Raptor’s crew. Scrap, you’ll make sure our weapons and tech keep working. We’ll overtake the convoy and get our leader back or die trying.

“Grim.” He’s already nodding. He knows what I’m going to tell him. “You’ll take Cora to the shelter and fuckingstaythere.”

Cora’s eyes are wide. She shakes her head. “No. I can’t go down there again.” Grim offers the comfort of his arm around her, but she shakes him off. “Not when so many of you are up here and in danger. Not knowing what you were going through was the worst thing imaginable. I can’t do it again.”

“We’ll keep in touch with you every minute,” Doc promises. “It won’t be like last time. You’ll have comms and vids. Everything will be working.”

She starts to argue, but Brawn, of all people speaks up. “Hate to argue, Rev, but what if this is what they want? To divide us? Make us more vulnerable. For all we know, they could have let out a team from that chopper that landed and be waiting for an opportunity to snatch Cora.”

“That’s why she’ll be safe in the shelter,” I say, looking pointedly at my recalcitrant baby girl. “Even if there’s enemy on our mountain, they’ll never get to her down there.”

“They can if they still have that jammer-guy. Scrap’ll be with you, going after Jud. Who’s to say the guy with the Gift for fucking stuff up won’t disable the whole goddamned shelter? Or some other asshole with some crazy Gift could figure out how to get at her?”

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