It warmed his heart to hear such good news. People in the state would have given David and his band of merry assholes a helluva fight if it had been a fair war. Still, the people were gone, but not the guns. “It’s not necessary to know all that. What matters is I bet every other house on this street has guns inside. We only have to find the one with the most.” He stressed the word most.
“Which one will have the most?” She scanned the street, though he hadn’t told her how to identify a potential target.
Several houses had pickups and four-wheel-drive SUVs parked in front, but he looked for a certain one. A few houses down, across the street, a bright red Ford pickup called out to him. It was lifted, with tires bigger than the ones he had on his Jeep Wrangler. The back window was littered with American flag stickers, an Iraqi campaign service ribbon, and an oversized Gadsden flag with its angry don’t-tread-on-me snake. The truck was parked on the man’s lawn, he was sure it was a guy, and not on his driveway.
“That’s the one.” He glanced over to her, held out his hand, then asked, “You want to go for a walk?”
She held out her hand in return. “Lovely morning for it.”
As soon as they touched the pavement and were out of earshot from the house, Emily casually switched gears in the substance of their conversation. “So, you haven’t said much since last night.”
“What do you mean? I’ve talked you all to death.” It was true. He tried to include the three women in as many decisions as he could. They were all able-bodied ladies, with good heads on their shoulders. He’d wanted their input on almost all the critical choices he’d made during the escape from Minot.
“I think you know what I mean.” She squeezed his hand, confirming what she meant had nothing to do with the others. Emily went on before he needed to answer. “You clammed up after Kyla caught us kissing like a couple of seventh graders. Are you embarrassed by me?” She chuckled in her typical way, but he interpreted the subtext as her being a little hurt.
“You may have just said the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard you say. What man would be embarrassed to have the eye of the first female president of the US of freaking A?”
“Then what’s the deal? I know you feel the same way I do. I could tell by the way you kissed me.” She leaned against his arm and bumped his hip. It was charming coming from an attractive woman like her, but it also cut to the bone of what had him bothered. He could have pushed on and pretended like it was no big deal, but he also wanted to work through it.
“Step into my office,” he said quietly as they strode by the big red truck and to the side entrance of the prospective house. The door was unlocked, so he went inside, Emily trailing. “Honey, I’m home!”
No one answered.
He went into the living room and had a good look at the bedrooms and kitchen from where he was, but he stopped and faced Emily as she joined him. “I’m having a hard time processing you being my boss—the boss of the whole nation. I wouldn’t date a female superior in the Air Force for the same reason it feels wrong to show feelings toward you.”
She stepped closer. “You’re saying it’s you, not me.”
He was taken aback. “Yeah, I guess.”
“But if you were interested in me, would you let me step closer, like this?” She closed the distance to within inches and looked into his eyes. She was a bit shorter, so she had to look up.
“Yeah, this is fine.”
“And if you were interested in me, despite being your boss, would you want me to do something like this?” She leaned in to kiss him, and he willingly went to meet her, but before their lips touched, Emily halted.
“You were right! Look at that!” She pointed into an adjacent room.
He was disappointed to miss the kiss, but she’d found the jackpot. A black gun safe hung wide open. The large number of rifles inside seemed to beckon him like a cornucopia of goodies at Thanksgiving. The owner of the giant truck had proved him right.
“Thank you, Montana,” he said dryly. Ted moved to go look at the treasure, but Emily caught his arm.
“This is to be continued. I’m going to seriously think about firing you from the Air Force to get you out of my chain of command, you hear me? Anything to get you to stop thinking this is weird between us.”
In the moment, that sparkle in her eyes was meant for him alone. It was infectious and irresistible. Despite his misgivings, he knew the weirdness was already melting away. It was always nice to be wanted.
At the same time, they had work to do.
“To be continued,” he agreed.
NORAD Black Site Sierra 7, CO
Dwight had spent a considerable portion of his later years with bruises and cuts all over his body. Life on the streets was brutal and a relentless struggle. Other homeless folk pushed and shoved when the demons in their head told them to. Drug addicts would come down an alley kicking and screaming looking for their next score. Police would sweep through every so often, oddly enough also kicking and screaming. All of them eventually inflicted some degree of pain.
However, nothing compared to the beating he vaguely remembered getting the night before. He did recall the fire; it had been branded into his eyes. Bernard had gone up in flames, along with the rest of his fire team in the city of Folsom. His memory got fuzzy after that…
There was the escape.
A liquor store.
Lots of drinking.
A bunch
