CHAPTER 18
Briony heard another volley of shots and increased her speed, until she was in the very center of the smoke. Visibility went to zero, but she’d mapped out the steps in her mind, holding her course as straight as she could from memory. All the while she held her breath, but couldn’t prevent her eyes from burning and tearing.
She heard Jack swear and another shot rang out. Red orange flames erupted to her left and black clouds swarmed around her. She winced each time Jack fired and the canisters leapt into the air, exploding into walls of flames and quickly turning to more smoke. It was everywhere now, thick and impenetrable, a great hiding place, but she couldn’t breathe or see and was beginning to become disoriented.
Out of the gray swirling vapor a huge downed tree trunk loomed up, nearly hitting her in the stomach. At the last moment she managed to slip under it, landing hard on her bottom and sliding beneath the narrow archway of brambles forming a tunnel over her head. She crawled fast, moving quickly past the entrance to the canyon, staying close to the ground, where there was less of the dark smoke. She gulped fresh air, drawing it into her burning lungs, trying to wipe at her good eye in order to clear her vision.
Brambles caught in her hair, halting her forward progress, dragging her head back, and pulling at her scalp painfully. She reached back to free herself, and the stickers pricked her fingers and palm. The black smoke closed in around her like a wall, the brambles like the bars of a cage, until claustrophobia enveloped her.
Just hearing his voice stopped the rising fear. Briony kept crawling. The tunnel widened a bit, but still the thorns caught on her clothes, tearing at her skin like claws. Behind her, there were more shots, and she touched the weapon inside the waistband of her jeans to assure herself it was there.
“I’m right behind you,” Ken said, his voice startling her. With the explosions and concentrating on racing through the brambles, she hadn’t realized he was so close.
“Where’s Jack?”
“Jack likes to play with explosives. He’s enjoying himself at the moment. Keep moving. We’re almost out of here.”
“I can hear the helicopter. It sounds funny.”
“I wounded it. Darn thing lurched to one side and spoiled my shot. I’ll never hear the end of it from Jack.”
“Could you tell if Luther was in the helicopter?” She asked anxiously.
“I didn’t spot him, but then Jack shot him, so he’s probably getting medical attention. Wait.” Ken put a hand on her shoulder and fell silent.
Briony held her breath to keep from making noise while he listened intently. Small sounds penetrated the tunnel of brambles-the scampering of a lizard across the rock, the hum of bees nearby, the call of a bird, and the chattering of a squirrel in the distance.
“We just have to crawl for a couple of minutes and you’ll come to a solid wall of bushes. It isn’t easy to move the tangle of brush out of the way, because it’s all stickers. If you can let me slide by you… ”
“Are you nuts? There’s no room for sliding by me. I can get it open.”
“And then when Jack finds you all cut up to hell, he’s going to get nasty with me. Have you noticed when it comes to you he has a protective streak a mile wide?”
Her laughter was muffled. “I noticed he has a protective streak for just about everyone. He just doesn’t seem to realize it.” She glanced at him over her shoulder, grateful they were away from the billowing clouds of smoke. “You’re always watching out for him, aren’t you?”
Ken shrugged. “I can handle certain things better than he can-and he’s got my back on other stuff, so it all works out.”
As Briony came up on what appeared to be a giant tangle of blackberry bushes, it suddenly occurred to her that Ken wasn’t comfortable around others any more than Jack was, but for his brother’s sake he pushed himself to deal with the everyday things in life.
She sent him a brief smile. “You drag him to the bar just to keep him civil, don’t you?”
“He’d live in a cave if I didn’t,” Ken said.
She studied his face. “So would you.”
He flashed a faint grin, but it never reached his eyes, and faded immediately. “I’m not all that different from Jack. I’ve got my father in me too. I know Jack told you about him. We both have to live with what we might become given the right circumstances, and we both work hard at avoiding any situation that could bring him out in us.”
“He isn’t in you, Ken.”
“Yes he is. I feel him there, crouched like a monster just waiting for me to let him out. Jack may have been the one to kill him, but I would have done it had I been able to. I attacked him with the bat when he was beating my mother’s dead body. He took it away and broke my arms.”
“It was self-defense. We all have a right to protect ourselves. I don’t see how either of you can possibly equate who you are with that man. Both of you have been nothing but kind to me, protective of me.”
“Jack is quite capable of violence, and so am I.”
She shook her head. “That’s not exactly a news flash, Ken. I am too. Most people are, given the right circumstances. Both of you have a much skewed view of who you really are. I’d take either of you over most people any day of the week.”
“That’s only because we’re saving your butt right now, not bossing you around.” He handed her a pair of gloves. “Put those on, they’ll help.”
“Thanks. You know, Ken, men can’t boss women unless we let them. I let Jack take the lead because I want to learn from him. He knows how to survive, and he can teach me, and that will help me keep the children safe, but trust me, I’ve always been the type to do pretty much what I wanted to do and damn the consequences. My brothers were always lulled into a false sense of security because I went along with most of what they wanted. If something isn’t that important to me one way or the other”-she shrugged-“if it’s important to the other person, why not let them have their way?”
“Is that why you were performing in public when it caused you pain?”
“No, silly, I did that because I love my family. Do you go to the grocery store and deal with the woodshops when you’d rather pull out your fingernails one by one?”
“Point taken.”
Briony caught the edges of two strands of thick tangled vines looping toward her and dragged them to her right. “I’ve never been fond of berry bushes.”
“Making an opening can be particularly uncomfortable if a bear happens to be having a little snack.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“I did offer to be manly and go out first.”
“Yes, you did. Thankfully I don’t smell a bear close by, although I think your brother is coming up behind us fast.”
Jack slithered through the tunnel at top speed, wanting to get back to Briony. He’d felt such a burst of love-of pride and admiration-when she’d made the decision to trust him with her life. He’d felt humbled by her faith in him,