He was marking the position of each guard in relation to the girls when he felt more than heard a pressure shift behind him. He’d made it clear to Lena and Jackson they should hang back. He turned, brow furrowed.
Alex froze. A neo-barb crossbow hovered in front of his face, held in an unwavering grip that kept the head of the bolt pointed at his right eye socket. Alex tracked back along the crossbow pointed at his face to meet the implacable blue eyes of the long-haired blond man holding it. Alex was aware of the scene behind the man—Lena restrained by a neo-barb behind her with a hand across her mouth, Jackson with a pair of crossbows keeping him in place. Four more men ranged at varying distances around them, and a fifth crouched behind the brush at the opposite canyon wall, focused on the guards and the girls up the river shore.
The neo-barb hunting party had moved around the buttes and circled back while Alex had dismissed them.
He knew better than to focus all of his attention on the target. It left you open to movement from the rear and sides. He’d made a rookie mistake that might get them all killed.
The man in front of Alex allowed his lips to curve up in a smile. He eased a foot back, cocking one finger along the side of the crossbow in a beckoning motion for Alex to walk with him back into the canyon.
Alex cursed himself for a fool.
Chapter 21
Lena remained still and loose. She’d rather the man behind her, with his big hand wrapped tight across the lower half of her face, believe she posed no threat. She hoped Alex understood why she hadn’t dropped them immediately. They were all too close to the group of guards. They couldn’t afford sounds or movements that risked the girls. She would be taking those girls to safety today. She’d made a solemn vow on her parents’ souls the moment before she’d told Alex the same.
The men holding them had the same general look and coloring. Their leader had lank, dirty blond hair hanging past his shoulders, pale eyes, and a nose that had been broken more than once. His clothes were a none-too-clean, hand-made combination of tanned skin and wool. He probably smelled as ripe as the one holding her.
Alex and the man backed away into the relative safety of the canyon. The two with bows on Jackson gestured for him to move, too, and all of the others but the man crouched against the far wall watching the guards and the girls moved back with them. She was ready when the one holding her unceremoniously wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted.
When the man with the bow trained on Alex deemed they’d gone far enough, he stopped. The others followed suit.
Lena stared at him, waiting. What did they want? Why were they interfering?
The man in charge allowed a ghost of a smile to cross over his face again, before he asked in a voice so quiet it was less than a whisper, “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same,” Alex answered, his own words as soft.
“Except I’ve got the weapon.” The man waited.
“We’re from the South, near old Nevada,” Alex finally gave him, “and we’re here to rescue our girls.”
The man’s square jaw jutted out and his eyes narrowed. “Your girls?”
Alex shrugged. “Not all of them. But it’s not like we’d take ours home and leave the rest to suffer with these Council bastards.” His low voice throbbed with honest emotion. “So if you’re going to shoot us, shoot us. If not, back the fuck off so we can finish this and get home.”
“Old Nevada, huh? Wanna be more specific?”
“We call it Fort Nevada. Southern end of Zone Five, far away from everything.”
“Fort, huh? Military group?”
Alex nodded, the movement slow and deliberate.
“You think you’re strong enough to take on the Council?”
He shrugged. “We already have. They just don’t know it yet.” It was the truth.
The man searched Alex’s face with a long look. “I thought you were Council yourself, or maybe LDS. Too well-provisioned to be one of us.” The man pointedly looked at their gear. He stepped back and the bow went down, although he still didn’t remove his fingers from the trigger. “I guess Fate’s working in both our favors today. One of those girls, the tall one, she’s ours. And we mean to get her back.”
The two men stood, silent, weighing each other.
“I’m Roddric,” the Neo-barb offered.
“Alex.” He nodded at each of them in turn. “Jackson. Lena.”
Roddric turned to the others, and with a lift of his chin, told them to back off.
She stepped away as soon as the Neo-barb’s arms unfolded, side-stepping closer to Alex.
Roddric kept his focus on Alex. “Plan?”
Alex hesitated. Roddric’s fingers tightened on the crossbow. Alex raised a hand. “Trust comes hard.”
“It does,” Roddric agreed. “You got a plan, or you wanna sit back here and watch us?”
“We have a plan.” Alex looked at Lena. He arched a brow at her.
Jackson made a noise of protest, but Lena grinned.