"I brought home underwear for you and the others every time I came back," Zara said, piously, loving that she was part of the camaraderie. "And really, should we be talking about my underwear? I came with zero pairs."
Bellisia feigned horror. "Are you telling me that you're going commando right this minute? Zeke, cover your ears."
"You were the one who brought up my panties and how Gino wanted in them," Zara said. "And I have plenty. Gino has very good taste in underwear and other ... delicate garments."
"Gino, you are a despicable kind of man," Ezekiel said. "Looking to get into your woman's underwear."
"It wasn't her underwear I was looking to get into," Gino clarified.
Ezekiel raised his beer to his friend, and Gino raised his back before they drank. Bellisia and Zara laughed together over the ridiculous conversation. Zara was just happy that she and her beloved "sister" had come to an understanding.
15
Z
ara sat outside on the porch after dinner with the women while Trap, Ezekiel, Gino and Wyatt went into the laboratory. She didn't even care that the topic the men were discussing was her. They'd asked her hundreds of questions and she didn't want to be with them anymore. She'd spent yesterday answering queries most of the day until Gino finally called enough. She was grateful to him, because discussing anything relating to Zhu or Whitney was upsetting. Talking about how she could steal from the machines and seeing their faces light up made her uneasy, so she was doubly grateful Gino recognized she needed a break from the men.
She found herself sitting beside Nonny with the other women surrounding her. It felt good to be in female company and she was glad that she had gotten to the point that she could totally enjoy herself without the safety net of Gino right there. It was restful. Pepper had already put the triplets to bed, and the women were watching the sun set over the swamp. She found she loved the nights there even more than the days. Being surrounded by the women she was growing to care about made for a perfect evening.
"Gino mentioned to me that when things settle down, Zara, that all of us, Nonny included, should have a girls' night," Bellisia said. "I've never been on one and don't know exactly what girls are supposed to do."
They all looked at one another, apparently clueless. Zara broke the silence. "He talked about that, and I should have asked him. I was waiting to ask you. He mentioned drinking."
"I would have said I was too old." Nonny tapped tobacco into her pipe from a spicy-smelling cloth bag. "But if you girls don't know what that is, then it's my duty to show you. As soon as the boys say it's safe, we'll go. It's fun."
"Gino said they'd come along but stay in the distance," Zara admitted, half expecting the others to be upset.
"Did you think those boys would let you go unescorted when Whitney spends half his time trying to get you girls, sends his soldiers to try to scoop you up when no one is looking or just plain when he's feeling onery?" Nonny asked.
"I didn't know what to expect," Zara said.
"Zeke would skin me alive if I went into town without him or one of the others," Bellisia said. "He's not half as protective as Gino, and no way would he let me go."
"Not Wyatt," Pepper said, rubbing her belly.
"Trap wouldn't either," Cayenne said. "But then I wouldn't let any of you go without an escort. It really is too dangerous. Whatever girls' night is, we'll have to do it with the men across the room from us."
"Being all macho," Bellisia added, rolling her eyes.
Zara really loved having the other women around her. She was used to female companionship, but spending the evening in such a picturesque place with them was surreal.
"This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Zara said, gesturing toward the river, meaning it.
The trees were black silhouettes against a fiery red orange backdrop. The sun had poured fire into every space around the stationary objects. The pier appeared black, the trunks and knees of the cypress trees rising out of the water were black so that the red in the sky only accented them. The moss hanging like fringe from the branches seemed like a lacy black shawl against the red.
"Is it always like this?"
Nonny shook her head. "Sometimes, it's purple or gold. Other times it's a combination. It's never the same and yet, you can always count on the swamp to be the same." She took her pipe out of her mouth. "I've never wanted to be anywhere else."
"I can see why," Zara said.
"I love it here because I'm surrounded by water," Bellisia admitted. "Everywhere I go, I can just slide into the water and feel my body absorbing it. It's a perfect location for me."
"I love it because the girls are safe here," Pepper said. "Wyatt convinced me that if we raised them here, not only would they have family to watch over them and love them, but we wouldn't have to worry so much about them making a mistake and hurting someone. This place has been a miracle for us."
Zara glanced over at Cayenne. She was looking out into the swamp, her face impossible to read with the shadows playing across it.
"I love it because Trap is here," she said softly. "He feels like home to me."
Zara hadn't thought of it that way. She didn't know what home felt like. She smelled it in Nonny's house. That smell of fresh bread and spices. Nonny's pipe. She heard it sometimes in Pepper's soft laughter when she was talking to the triplets or Wyatt. It was only when she was with Gino that Zara truly relaxed. Was that because he was already home to her the way Trap was to Cayenne? She knew it was certainly becoming that way, and that sometimes, she could barely breathe without him.
"Nonny, this place definitely makes me feel safe and happy," Zara said. "It's magic."
Cayenne turned her head, one arm around the porch column. "Happy is good, Zara, but we're never safe. You have to always remember that. If Gino tells you that you need an escort somewhere, you have to believe him."
A dog barked in the distance as if punctuating Cayenne's words. A frog croaked and several took up the chorus. The frog croaked again very loudly, trying to outsing the others. Zara found herself smiling. Of course she believed Gino, and she really didn't care if he wanted to watch over her when she went out with the others, but she needed to know that Bellisia and the others would be okay with it too, if they were there. Clearly, they were already used to the protection of the men.
Nonny stood up and walked down the steps of the porch to knock her pipe clean against the thick trunk of a tree before walking toward the pier.
"She takes a walk every single night," Pepper said. "She never seems to slow down. I hope she never does. It isn't just this place that's magic, so is Nonny."
Cayenne turned her head to smile at Pepper. "I have to agree. She's amazing. I still can't cook very well, but she hasn't given up on me, and she never would. I didn't know it was possible, but she taught me how to let others in. I really love her."
Zara kept her eyes on the older woman as she walked along the river and then out along the pier. A fish jumped and plopped back into the water. Nonny appeared to be a black silhouette along with the trees and the pier itself. Around her was that fiery backdrop, making her the center of a beautiful painting. Zara wished she had a camera. It was all so beautiful. As many times as she'd been allowed out of the compound growing up, she'd never experienced anything like this. The quiet, sitting surrounded by others, just watching the sunset and the woman who was the glue that held a very large, extended family together.
She wanted to be like Nonny. Not the same person, of course, but a woman others would feel comfortable around. A woman dedicated to her family. She knew Nonny was fiercely protective of all of them. Her shotgun was leaning right against the house, beside her rocking chair where it always was.
There was another splash in the water. Something larger moved. Zara narrowed her eyes and leaned forward, trying to get a better look. Alligator eyes appeared red at night. Around her, the women talked, but Zara no longer heard what they said, intent on the water surrounding the pier.
"Nonny." She raised her voice to carry across the yard to the long dock. Wyatt's grandmother had walked out onto the wooden landing as she did every night. "Come back."
Zara was on her feet, heedless of the pain. She caught up the shotgun as she began her dash, and actually leapt off the porch, running. She'd always been fast. That was one of the advantages of her long legs and she'd always had the ability to sprint, covering distance faster than anyone else in the compound. Her cat DNA probably helped.
Nonny spun around toward her just as something big and black, the fiery glow behind it, heaved itself out of the water onto the pier, reaching for the older woman.
"Drop!" Zara screamed it. "Drop, Nonny!"
Nonny did as she was told, and Zara pulled the trigger just as her feet hit the wood of the pier. The kick in the gun drove the butt into her shoulder hard, but she didn't feel that either. She threw herself over Nonny's body and fired again as a man dressed in a black wet suit came at them. The slug drove him back, but he didn't go down.
"Run," she hissed at Nonny.
Nonny got up slowly to face the big man who had stumbled nearly to the end of the pier. He straightened. Time slowed down as he looked over their shoulders, a smirk on his face. Bellisia slipped into the water as three more men in wet suits came up on either side of the pier. Calmly, Nonny took the shotgun from Zara.
"This was a present from my grandson," Nonny said softly. "Never knew why that boy wanted me to have a shotgun with the capability of shooting so many rounds. Never needed such a thing. Thought it was overkill." She lifted the barrel and shot the same soldier point-blank, this time in his throat.
The man's eyes widened and he toppled over backward. His body hit the end of the pier, rocked there for a macabre moment and then fell into the water. Wyatt, Gino, Trap and Ezekiel hit the dock running. Ezekiel went into the air, knees to chest. He shot his feet out and both hit the soldier just coming out of the water. The man flew backward into the river. Bellisia was on him instantly, her poisonous injection paralyzing him immediately and then killing him as he floated away.
Gino sliced the throat of the third man, one cut, the laceration so deep it nearly severed his head. He spun toward the fourth man, but Trap had him down into the water, holding him for Bellisia. The three GhostWalkers went into the water, going under as the last of the fiery sunset sank, leaving them in the inky light.
Wyatt reached down to help Zara up. She could feel her feet now. Every bruised and mangled inch, the torn, mangled tendons. It hurt like hell. She wasn't positive she could run as fast getting back to the porch as she had getting to Nonny. She glanced at the pier. There were bloody footprints she knew were hers. She forced herself not to wince as she took that first step. Wyatt had his arm around Nonny as he started her in the direction of the house.
Cayenne was there, one arm around her. "Can you get on my back?"
Cayenne wasn't the tallest woman in the world. Zara would feel ridiculous climbing on her back. She shook her head.
"I'm really strong. Get on and let's get back to the safety of the house. It's you they're after," Cayenne reminded.
Zara stepped close to her, closing her eyes, forcing her feet to work as Cayenne turned around to allow her to climb up like a child getting a piggyback ride. She put her hand on Cayenne's shoulder and something wrapped around her ankle like a vise and she was jerked backward off the pier. She hit the water hard and was yanked under before she had time to really take a breath.
Whoever had her by the ankle swam fast, propelling both of them through the water at a rapid rate of speed. It was so dark beneath the surface that Zara couldn't even see the soldier taking her away from safety. Her lungs were already burning, feeling raw, and panic began to set in. She fought, trying to get the fingers from around her, trying to indicate that she was going to drown if he didn't take her to the surface. She would have used the venom, but she couldn't get to his hand with her fingernails. The soldier swimming with her ignored her. She realized his orders were to bring her back dead or alive. Whitney didn't need her alive, he only needed her dead body, or more precisely, her head.
Something small shot past her, brushing her body, streaking toward the soldier. An arm slid around her waist. Gino swam with her, not at all dragging so the soldier setting such a frantic, fast pace would have no idea Gino was swimming with her. He caught her face and then his mouth was over hers and he was pushing air into her lungs. His eyes looked directly into hers and she could feel his calm. Instantly, the panic in her subsided.
He signaled that he was going up for air, and she nodded. The little rocket that had brushed against her arm had been Bellisia and she knew the soldier hauling her through the water so fast was going to be dead very soon. No one was as good underwater as Bellisia. She stopped fighting, stopped thrashing and just let the soldier drag her dead weight, as if she had drowned.
Suddenly his fingers tightened on her ankle, a rigid shackle, and then the soldier was dropping to the floor of the river, taking her with him. Bellisia was there, trying to open his fingers. Knowing he was dying, the soldier gripped her ankle harder. It would take him some time to die, some time for the tetrodotoxin to paralyze him completely, and it looked as if he wanted to take her with him. She wasn't certain she could survive until his body relaxed completely. Gino signaled her to look away. She saw the knife in his hand and she closed her eyes tightly. The moment her ankle was loose, Gino and Bellisia rose to the surface with her.
Air had never tasted or felt so good. Around them, she heard gunfire out in the swamp. A sniper rifle, probably from up on one of the roofs. A bullet hit the water and zipped under. Something big sent waves crashing around them.
"They have a submersible," Gino whispered in her ear. His arm was around her waist, holding her close.
"They won't have it long," Bellisia said. "As soon as you two are clear, I'm blowing it up. I have a stash of weapons hidden in the bank, just behind that huge root system. Get her clear, Gino."
"Wait and I'll help you."
She shook her head. "Like you, I work better alone."
Zara couldn't help herself. There was no longer a red sunset to tell her the world was on fire, but she felt like it was. She hugged Bellisia hard. "Make it back to us," she whispered.
"I will. Now get out of here, they're trying to make a run for it." Bellisia pushed off them, swimming toward the root system.
Gino put his hands on Zara's waist and pushed her toward shore, toward the thickest part of the swamp, but where there was enough of a lip on the bank for them to climb up. The moment they made it to the steep bank, he waited, pushing her close to the wall of muddy dirt, his body covering hers, his head down as they heard three soldiers whispering into a radio.
He leaned into her. "Don't move."
She nodded her head to indicate she wouldn't. Gino moved around her to climb up onto the bank. There wasn't a sound. Not a single piece of dirt slid back into the water. He used hands and feet to climb, and then it was like the swamp opened up and devoured him. He disappeared. She was looking up so she could see two of the three soldiers looking out over the water, trying to spot anyone swimming without giving their own position away. The third looked behind them into the woods.
Zara tried to make herself smaller without moving. She was too afraid to move. She could only stare up at them, hoping they wouldn't spot her. As they turned away, one dropped a holdout gun from inside his coat. It fell into the mud just above her. He crouched down to pick it up as the others hissed at him to be quiet.
Her eyes met the soldier's gaze. Shock showed on his face. She tried to push away from the bank just as he reached down with both hands, caught her around her neck and yanked her out of the water.
He had her on the ground, one hand over her mouth, the other squeezing her throat closed in warning. She stared up at him, tears blurring her vision as her body fought for air. Above him, the tree came to life. Something heavy dropped onto his back and a huge gash opened up from on
e side of his neck to the other. Red blood poured onto the ground around her, dropping into her hair and even hitting her face.
The soldier slumped over top of her, his heavy weight pinning her to the ground. Turning her head, she saw the soldier's two partners aiming guns at Gino. Then Gino wasn't there and shots reverberated through the swamp.
"Get up!" the second soldier shouted to her while the first continued moved into position behind her. "If you don't want me to blow your head off, get up, Zara. Right now." There was just a little panic in the soldier's voice.
She knew he would shoot her. She knew it absolutely. Zara shoved the dead weight of the fallen soldier up while she rolled out from under him. She got to her feet slowly, and he caught her arm and yanked her to him. She reached up to his face and scratched deep claw marks down his vulnerable throat and neck. He gave a hoarse shout and slapped her hard enough to send her stumbling back a couple of steps. He screamed in pain and turned, pulling his weapon up. Two holes appeared in his throat simultaneously. She glanced toward the Fontenot home, knowing two snipers were somewhere in that direction watching out for her.
"Zara, get over here now." She recognized him as one of Whitney's go-to men, Glenn Ridges. He was always with Whitney, always ready to do whatever the man said. He liked his job just a little too well. He had moved back into the safety of the swamp, but aimed his semiautomatic at her head. "You know I'll kill you if you don't get your ass over here."