He began his trek to the east side of the property and headed north again.
Along the way, he stopped and set as many traps as he could, but that wasn’t many. He heard one of his claymores trip.
Bastards, he thought. Come for my woman? Oh, hell no.
He doubled back and had just begun heading north when a figure stepped in front of him from the darkness. Another scout—had to be. Jude didn’t have time to reach for his weapon. He just dropped low and swung wide with his leg, taking the man off his feet. He followed the man down and delivered a punch to his throat that missed, grazing instead of hitting full force. The man coughed and rolled, shaking Jude off.
Jude reached behind him for his handgun as the man came up faster than Jude had expected delivering a blow that sank into Jude’s side.
Knife.
Not very deep, but it stung. Jude channeled that pain and focused. He stepped to the side of the next blow, lifted his gun, and fired a single shot to the man’s forehead. He fell. Jude started running.
He was bleeding, but the wound didn’t seem that bad. In his periphery, he could see his cabin burning.
Anger simmered in his gut.
As he crested the rise that would lead him to where he needed to be, he had a decision to make. Fight Dresden here and now, or get to Ella. Choice made, he glanced in front of him. It was a long way down, and he’d have to scale the rock wall with nothing more than his hands.
“Dagan!”
Dresden.
Jude turned and saw Dresden with one other man coming up behind him. That man bled from the shoulder wound Jude had given him moments before. It was Jude smiling then.
Jude clicked his mic on so Ella could hear.
“Where is she?” Dresden called out.
Jude cocked his head. He only had his handgun. They’d cut him down before he fired a single shot. He had to get back to Ella. He took a step back, and a shot fired at his feet. “King always said you were a pussy and a bad shot,” Jude said.
“But I’m the pussy with the upper hand, Dagan. Now where is Ella?”
“Somewhere you won’t find her,” Jude called out, and then he stepped off the rise.
Jude fell about ten feet before he was able to grab a small outcropping of boulders. It stopped him and nearly wrenched his shoulder out of its socket, but he held on, using his feet to draw himself up and over the boulders. He tucked himself into a nook against the rocks. “I’m good, Ella. Stay where you are.” She didn’t respond, but he hadn’t expected her to. She was a good soldier. Soft in the heart, but a great warrior.
Bullets rained down on his location, but Dresden and his man couldn’t see Jude, so he was safe for now.
“He’s gone,” Dresden bit out.
“Long way down,” the other man said, and there was a smile on his voice.
“I’m going to find her, Dagan,” Dresden called out anyway. “I never took the time to taste her when I had her last. I’ll make sure to correct that this go-round. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. I doubt she will.”
Jude bit his tongue and kept his mouth closed.
“Enjoy the weather, Dagan. I hope you freeze to death.”
Jude waited for two hours, sure that someone had been left to watch for him. He shed his white outerwear and threw it off the side of the rise. At some point, he’d lost the radio that gave him insight into Dresden’s next moves. Probably dropped it in the fall. No shots came his way, but he could hear Dresden and the other man scouring the remains of his cabin.
Steel and stone, that’s what remained between Dresden and Ella.
Jude’s muscles tightened with the need to move. He’d waited as long as he could. He shimmied down the rise to a small hollow, thanking his Creator that the moon was hiding behind the clouds. He pulled a packet of QuikClot out of one of his pockets and coated the rip in his side with it. It wasn’t bad. The knife hadn’t gone deep before he’d wrenched the other man’s arm so hard his elbow had popped. Jude drew in a deep breath and eyed the night around him. A creek ran the length of his northern property, and he followed it up, farther into the mountains. He walked for an hour before he found the entrance to the cave system.
Pulling out his flashlight, he peered into the opening. It was winter, and there were bears in these mountains.
He hit his ear mic. “Ella?”
“Talk to me, Jude.”
“I’m here. I’m coming to you. You okay?”
“I can hear the earth shifting above me. I heard the cabin go. I also heard gunfire. You okay?”
“Nothing I can’t handle. It’ll take me about an hour to get to you. Hold on, baby.”
“I’m here,” she said.
He entered the caves cautiously but swiftly. He needed to see her. Touch her. Just be with her.
He didn’t encounter any bears, thank God, but it took a little longer than an hour to make it to the comm room. There’d been a rockslide inside the natural tunnels, and he’d had to clear it enough so he could get through.
He made it to the room, hit the code on the pad on his side, and sighed in relief as it opened.
She was on him right then.
“God, Jude! You’re bleeding,” she cried.
“Just a surface wound. Come here,” he ordered as he closed the door and hit the code again. They were as safe as he could make them until the cavalry arrived. He dropped his weapons and held out his arms.
Ella jumped into them, and all he knew was her.
He took her mouth, probably too roughly, but he had to have her. Right. Now. And she responded so beautifully.
Jude pulled her shirt up, going for her skin even
