Savage Redemption

chapter 7



“Kat!”

She batted at the big hand that was gently shaking her shoulder, trying to make it go away, but to no avail. Burying herself under the covers didn’t help, either.

“Damn it, Kat, wake up!”

It finally sank in that unlike so many times in the past, she wasn’t dreaming that Conlan was there with her. He really was standing next to her bed unfastening the shackles on her ankles.

She raised up high enough to squint at him in the dim light. “Conlan, what’s going on?”

He loomed over her, the green of the nearby monitor emphasizing the harsh lines of his face. “Get up and get dressed. Now.”

Then he walked away to stand in the doorway with his back to the room, as if unable to face her. Fear ripped through her mind, clearing out the last of the cobwebs and leaving her shaking. Had Ambrose and his men arrived so soon?

She’d meant what she’d said about not wanting to be taken away in chains in front of Maggie and Rose, but she’d counted on having a chance to at least say goodbye. Was one last hug too much to ask? Instead, her last memory of them would be Maggie crying hard enough to break Kat’s heart and Rose staring back at her with such fear in her eyes.

Kat managed to sit up on the side of the bed, but once again she was afraid to trust her legs to support her. She considered asking Conlan for help but rejected the idea. She might not have much left in her life, but her pride was worth something. There was something odd about all of this. As far as she could tell, there was no one else around. Had he really turned his back to allow her that small bit of privacy?

Sliding down off the table, she asked, “Conlan, what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain later. Hurry up and get dressed. We need to get the hell out of here.”

She stripped off the hospital gown and tossed it aside. At least Conlan had brought her some of her own clothes. He’d gone for comfort rather than style, but she guessed there wasn’t a dress code for the condemned. It showed how far gone her thinking was that she found some humor in that.

Conlan had also brought the bag that held all of her toiletries, so she took advantage of the moment to make a trip across to the bathroom. At least this time she managed it on her own. She felt better after brushing her teeth and running a comb through her hair. A shower would’ve been even better, but she’d settle for what she could get.

She slipped her feet into her shoes and carefully bent down to tie the laces. So far, so good, except for the paralyzing terror that was making it hard for her to think straight. A couple of deep breaths helped to calm her nerves.

“I’m ready.”

Conlan walked back into the room and held out a pair of handcuffs. “Hold out your hands.”

She raised her arms, which still bore the scars from the shackles three years ago. Conlan froze briefly, staring down at the circle of ridges around her wrists. He gently slid the pad of his thumb over her skin as if in apology, but that didn’t stop him from clamping on the cuffs. She shuddered at the familiar feel of cold steel snapping tight but drew comfort that at least Conlan was keeping his promise about not doing this in front of the girls.

His pale eyes met hers. “If we run into anyone, all they’ll see is me escorting a prisoner to the gate to be retrieved by the Coalition chancellors.”

With that cryptic remark, he picked up her bags and led the way out of the clinic. What was he talking about? When she started to ask, he hushed her.

“Not now, Kat. We need to play the part. I’ll explain more when I can. Now come on. We don’t have much time.”

Outside, the bright sunshine all but blinded her. She stumbled into Conlan, who muttered something under his breath even as he put his hand on her elbow to steady her. The brief touch heightened her awareness of him walking close beside her. He was running hot, his body thrumming with tension. Once her eyes adjusted to the unexpected brightness, she saw they were headed toward a transport parked at the end of the sidewalk. At the moment, there was no one else in sight. Since she’d been unconscious when they’d brought her to the infirmary, this was her first real look at the O’Day estate. From where she stood, she could see only a handful of well-maintained buildings. The rest of the area was divided between woods, pastures and cultivated fields. All in all, a very different world than the one she was used to.

Conlan hustled her down the path, guiding her into the transport with his hand on her head to make sure she didn’t bump it. Once inside, she didn’t have much time to look around anymore, but her impression was that the estate was a good place, a peaceful place and maybe a place where her nieces could thrive. No matter what lay ahead for her, she drew comfort from that.

Once she was buckled inside, Conlan tossed her pack in the backseat and hurried around to the driver’s side. He remained grimly silent as he maneuvered the vehicle along the road. Although she was certainly not in any hurry to reach their destination, she wondered at the slow, steady speed he was maintaining. The Conlan she’d known three years ago had driven like a maniac.

Not to mention they were going in the wrong direction to reach the main gate. She might not have been conscious after being shot, but she had studied a map of Rafferty’s estate before setting out, and based on the sun’s position in the sky, they were actually headed in the opposite direction.

“Are we stopping at Rafferty’s house on the way?”

If so, she needed time to prepare herself. How in the world was she supposed to say goodbye to Maggie and Rose for the last time? She held up her shackled wrists and rattled them to get Conlan’s attention.

“If so, you promised Maggie and Rose wouldn’t have to see me in these.”

“No, we’re not going to Rafferty’s house.” Conlan glanced in her direction. “We’re making a run for it.”

Okay, maybe she was still asleep and this was one of those dreams that felt way too real. How many nights had she spent tossing and turning, caught in the nightmare her life had become and wishing that Conlan would ride in to save her?

“If this is all a dream, don’t wake me up.”

Conlan clenched his jaw. “You’re already awake, and you heard me right.”

He pointed in the direction they were headed. “Just ahead here we’ll reach the back end of the estate. After Rafferty had the security fence installed, he added a second gate back here that doesn’t show up on the grid or even on the schematics for the system. I’ve programmed it to shut down for ten minutes for routine maintenance.”

“Then what?” she asked, hanging on his every word.

“Once we’re on the outside, we’ll head for a rendezvous point that I set up with a friend of mine where we can hide the transport. With luck, no one will spot it until after we’re long gone. My friend will drop us outside of New Eire. After that...we’re on our own.”

She couldn’t let him do this. He’d already lost too much because of her. She grabbed his arm. “No, stop! Take me back, Conlan. Turn me over to Ambrose O’Brien or even Eddington if you have to, but don’t throw away the life you’ve built here. Not for me.”

He shook off her hand and downshifted to drive the transport off the road and up a steep slope. Her stomach lurched as they crested the top and roared back down the other side. Conlan drove on in silence, ignoring her as he maneuvered the vehicle over the rocky terrain. Or maybe that was simply his excuse.

When they reached the bottom and the ground leveled out, he finally spoke. “I haven’t had a life of my own since the night you left my bed.”

He turned his fierce gaze in her direction, looking frustrated and angry. “I’ve had it good working here for Rafferty and Joss, but whether you meant to or not, you’ve managed to tangle me up in your problems again. About an hour ago, some heavily armed mercenaries showed up at the front gate with a warrant.”

She ached to reach out to him, to smooth away those grim lines that bracketed his stern mouth. “You could’ve turned me over to them and saved yourself and Rafferty a lot of trouble.”

His answering laugh was harsh. “True enough, but the warrant also included your nieces. Even if I was a big enough son of a bitch to hand you over to a bunch of mercs, I wouldn’t let them near those little girls. God knows, it’s not their fault that you’re their aunt.”

All the blood drained from her face as her heart stuttered and then started racing along so fast that all she could hear was her pulse pounding in her head. “They wanted Maggie and Rose, too? Why?”

“Evidently, whoever you’ve pissed off this time is the kind of bastard who’d use them as weapons against you. He knows once he gets his hands on the girls, you’ll do whatever he asks to protect them.”

For the first time, there was a softer note in his voice, reminding her of his passionate whispers the one night she’d spent in his arms.

“Rafferty will do what he can to keep that from happening, but he can’t afford to put everyone on the estate at risk. Those mercs today weren’t expecting us to have them outgunned. They won’t make that same mistake again.”

“So are you turning me over to Ambrose O’Brien or to Eddington?” Not that it mattered. She was as good as dead either way. “Once they have me, maybe they’ll leave everyone else alone.”

“If it were that simple, I could’ve shoved you through the gates when they came knocking.”

Conlan stopped the transport and turned in the seat to face her. “Three years ago, I knew there was something wrong with the evidence against you. That hasn’t changed. I figure you’ve got something they want. It’s the only explanation of why they’d still be hunting for you.”

He released a ragged breath. “I want to get to the bottom of this whole mess once and for all. That means we’re going to retrieve whatever it is you took from them and hand it over to Ambrose O’Brien. Then I can walk away clean knowing that you won’t be haunting my footsteps ever again.”

Then he dangled the key to the handcuffs in front of her. “If I trusted your word at all, I’d make you swear to follow my orders and that you won’t run out on me again. However, I do believe you won’t willingly do anything that would put Maggie and Rose at risk.”

“No arguments there.”

He nodded. “Fine, so here’s the deal—you jump when I say jump, you never lie to me again, and when it’s over, we go our separate ways. If you really want my help straightening out this mess, I’ll take off the handcuffs, and we’ll get started. Otherwise, I’ll turn around right now and haul your backside back to my headquarters to wait for Ambrose and his men. It’s your choice.”

Before she could answer, he went on. “But know one thing, Kat. If you screw me over again, I will take you down myself.”

Fine, she got that. “So this is your offer—I go with you and see if the two of us can figure out how to prove my innocence. If we fail, most likely we both die. Does that pretty much sum it all up?”

The jerk actually smiled, taking years off his handsome face. “It would seem so.”

She didn’t even hesitate. Holding out her wrists, she smiled back. “Guess we’d better get moving, partner. We have a long, rough road ahead of us.”

* * *

Okay, that went well. Kat accepted his explanation at face value, at least so far. He needed her to believe his primary goals were to protect her nieces and to get back some of what he’d lost when she’d run out on him. He might still be harboring some feelings for her, but she didn’t need to know that. He’d never act on them anyway.

He put the transport back in gear and drove the last little distance to the hidden gate. He’d programmed the interruption in the circuit to start when he pinged the system from his onboard computer. After they shot through it, the gate would slam shut again with no one the wiser. Eventually Rafferty would figure it out, but hopefully not too soon.

It would only be another fifteen minutes of driving to reach the rendezvous spot. From there, Lucius would fly them to New Eire. He wondered what Kat would think of his old friend. For sure, Lucius wasn’t the kind of guy that most law-abiding chancellors who worked for the Coalition normally hung around with. More often than not, he was the kind of human criminal they hunted down.

But a few years ago, Conlan had done Lucius a good turn back when Conlan had been working a case involving a knife-wielding druggie. After tracking the low-life scum to a bar on the outskirts of New Eire, he found the bastard stoned out of his head and about to gut Lucius with a combat knife. He’d been too busy preparing to slice Lucius from stem to stern to notice they were no longer alone.

Conlan had called for backup as soon as he’d spotted the druggie but couldn’t wait for them to arrive. After a brief but vicious fight, he’d finally managed to knock the guy out with a stunner. As he’d offered

Lucius a hand up off the ground, the big man had shouted out a warning. The unconscious man’s wife was about to crack open the back of Conlan’s skull with a piece of rusty pipe. Although he deflected most of the force with his arm, Conlan had gone down hard. Lucius took the crazy bitch out just as reinforcements arrived.

Conlan and Lucius had ended up in adjoining beds at the hospital. After the docs had cleared them both for discharge, they’d stopped at a neighborhood bar for a couple of cold ones. Over drinks, they forged an unlikely friendship that had lasted even after Conlan’s disgrace. In fact, Lucius had been the only one of Conlan’s friends besides Joss to visit him during his two years behind bars.

He hated dragging the big man into this mess now, but at least his involvement would be minimal. Once he dropped Conlan and Kat off, that would be the end of it. Besides, Lucius was smart enough to cover his tracks well enough to avoid the best efforts of the chancellors on Ambrose’s payroll for this long.

Conlan hoped Lucius’s luck didn’t run out now.

He double-checked the coordinates Lucius had given him when Conlan had called him after leaving Finn at the gate. They were almost on top of the spot. Just as Lucius had promised, there was a cluster of trees that would provide good cover for the transport. Conlan had already disabled the GPS chip in the vehicle, so it should remain hidden unless someone happened to stumble over it.

Under the cover of the trees, it would be almost invisible from the air, too. Besides, Rafferty didn’t have the manpower to search every inch of the area, so they stood a good chance of making a clean getaway.

“We’re here. Grab all your stuff. It’s unlikely we’ll be coming back anytime soon.”

She climbed out of the transport and pulled her pack out of the backseat. “Are we walking from here?”

“Not exactly.”

He pointed toward a black speck in the sky. “Our ride’s on the way.”

She leaned against the back end of the transport with a tired sigh. Shading her eyes with her hand as she tracked the helo’s progress. “How do you know we can trust whoever is piloting that thing?”

Conlan laughed as he crossed his arms over his chest and watched his friend’s approach. “What can I say? Lucius might be a thief and a complete rogue, but he has a strict code of honor when it comes to his friends. My advice, though, is never get on his bad side, because he carries a mean grudge. Rumor has it that people stupid enough to cross him don’t usually live long enough to do it a second time, not that the law has ever been able to prove that.”

He waited to see what Kat’s reaction would be, but she actually managed to surprise him.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

A slow smile spread across her face. “Sounds like a good man to have on our side. I can’t wait to meet him.”

Both of them ducked back under the trees as the chopper swooped in for a landing, kicking up a huge cloud of dust and debris. Conlan grabbed his pack and weapons bag and took off running toward the helicopter, leaving Kat to follow behind him. Trust Lucius to know they couldn’t afford to waste time on introductions. He kept the rotors turning as they tossed their gear inside and climbed in.

As soon as Conlan tapped the big man on the shoulder, the helo shuddered a bit and then lifted off. Once in the air, Conlan settled into the copilot seat and put on the spare headset, leaving Kat alone in back where the noise would prevent her from overhearing their conversation. For the first couple of minutes, Lucius kept busy entering coordinates and scanning local transmissions.

Finally, he grinned at Conlan, his teeth gleaming whitely against his black beard. “So far, no noise about us on the official frequencies. With luck, we’ll make the return trip without anyone noticing.”

“That would be good.”

Lucius jerked his head in the direction of the passenger compartment. “You didn’t tell me you had a new woman in your life. She’s quite a looker. Glad to see you’re finally over that bitch who screwed you over three years ago.”

Conlan winced. Given Lucius’s strong opinions on loyalty and friendship, this could get interesting fast. On the other hand, he wasn’t about to lie to him about who Kat was, either. Better to go with the truth while the man was busy flying. Hopefully the trip would take long enough for Lucius’s temper to cool off if he took this the wrong way.

“Uh, buddy, I hate to tell you, but she is the one who screwed me over three years ago.”

When Lucius jerked around to glare in Kat’s direction, the chopper did a sudden drop and dip that left Conlan’s stomach hovering somewhere near the ceiling.

“Prison must have seriously messed up your sense of humor, lawman, if you think that’s funny.”

“Do you see me laughing?”

“Damn it, Conlan, she almost got you executed! How mad are you going to be when I drop her over that lake up ahead? It’s what she deserves.”

“Maybe she does, but here’s the thing—there’s some heavy hitters gunning for her.”

“Yeah, so?” Lucius clearly wasn’t impressed.

His friend was still heading straight for that lake. Conlan needed to make his case quick, so he played his trump card. “They were willing to go through her two little nieces to get at her. When the first attempt to kidnap all three of them failed, they tried again. I’m telling you, Lucius, I’ve never seen mercs this well outfitted before.”

“They actually threatened the kids?”

“They did more than threaten. Kat was bringing them to Rafferty’s place, hoping that if he’d adopt them into the clan, it would keep the girls safe. The mercs caught up with her half a mile outside the gate and laid down a barrage to keep them pinned down.” He took a deep breath. “Before I heard the shots and rushed over there, Kat did a hell of a good job holding them off single-handedly. She took a bullet to the shoulder warning me that they were strafing the area from a helicopter. The whole time, Rose and Maggie, the nieces, were kept pinned down and terrified under the transport.”

Underneath his rough exterior, Lucius hated bullies of all kinds. “Those bastards deserve to meet up with my Lady Belle.”

Conlan nodded at the mention of his friend’s favorite shotgun. “I’ll even buy the ammunition. One more thing, Lucius.”

“What’s that?”

“Kat didn’t know I was living at Rafferty’s place. Bottom line, it was my decision to get involved. Hell, I’m not one for believing in fate, but I figure there’s some cosmic reason our paths crossed again. I’m getting another chance to complete what I started three years ago.”

Something else Lucius understood: once a man gave his word to do something, nothing short of death itself should get in the way. In this case, that might just happen, but Conlan still had to give it his best shot.

Lucius stared at Conlan briefly, his dark eyes weighing the strength of Conlan’s resolve. Just that quickly, the helo banked to the right and back on course to New Eire.