The thing dropped like a stone, hitting the rocky hillside with a thud, sending up clouds of dust and debris. Rain had killed her first dragon.
“MY GOD. YOU KILLED your first drag at seventeen?” Micah was not only surprised as hell, but he felt a thrill go through him at the thought. Damn, she was bad-ass. Not to mention one hell of a shot, hitting a flying dragon in the eye.
Rain blushed a little and gave a quick shrug as though it was no big deal. “I did what I had to do.”
“You’re amazing.”
She ignored the compliment and continued her story. “Things were never the same between Sutter and Elan after that. Sutter blamed Elan for Megan’s death. Elan blamed himself. Elan started drinking, Sutter turned into a hermit with an anger problem. Neither of them wanted to admit that Megan had just been an all-around bad person. Not saying she deserved to get burned alive, no one deserves that, but it certainly solved some problems for the compound.”
“But the baby. Sutter must have been devastated. Or Elan or whoever was the father.” Micah couldn’t imagine the pain of knowing that not only had the woman he loved been killed, but that his unborn child had been, as well. His biggest regret Before had been that he hadn’t had time to start a family. Have kids. Babies were precious in this world.
Rain shook her head. “She was never pregnant. Clara did an autopsy. Megan couldn’t even have children. It was just another one of her lies and manipulations.”
“Shit.”
“No kidding.”
“So did you ever discover who she was? Why she was there?” he asked.
“More or less,” Rain said. “About a week later a couple of men showed up. They were from a compound a good two weeks journey to the south. Smaller than ours, but wealthier. Turns out Megan was an old-fashioned con artist. She’d wander into a compound, find the wealthiest most powerful man and seduce him. She’d sponge off the compound until she realized they were on to her then she’d disappear. And a bunch of provisions and valuables would disappear with her.
“This compound had a lot of gold left over from before. Apparently, they were convinced the US Government would be restored and the gold would be valuable again.”
Micah shook his head. He remembered enough from his time at the base to know the United States government was long gone, along with the rest of the governments of the world. There just weren’t enough people left with enough resources to start over. Not with the drags still out there. “Ain’t gonna happen.”
She shrugged. “Some people need hope, I guess. In the meantime, they traded the gold to their local Marine base as part of a protection racket of sorts. They gave the Marines gold, the Marines left them alone.”
“Yeah, the Marines need gold for computer parts and things like that. To keep everything running like the old days.”
“Well, Megan liberated their gold when she left, and they wanted it back. The Marines had started raiding them again. No idea what she did with it. She certainly didn’t have it with her when she arrived. Then again, she didn’t look like she’d been wandering the desert for weeks, either.”
“Ah,” Micah smiled, “there must have been another compound she stopped at.”
“Yep, that’s what they figured, too. We told them the direction she’d come from and they headed that way. Never saw them again. But it was good to know there were other people in the world. That we weren’t the only ones, though maybe we’d have been better off if we were.”
“You so sure about that?” Micah reached down and took her hand. Threading his long fingers through hers, he rubbed his thumb back and forth across the back of her hand. Her palm was slightly rough from hard work, but the skin on the rest of her hand was smooth as silk. He could imagine she felt like that all over.
She glanced down at their joined hands then looked up at him, a slight flush spreading across her cheekbones. She seemed flustered at the display of affection, but she didn’t remove her hand. “I’m a woman. I reserve the right to change my mind.”
He barked a laugh at that. “Good to know. So, where are we headed?” He squinted against the sun. Nothing much to see out there but sand and sagebrush.
“We’re headed to a little place I know. A place the Marines will never find us.”
Chapter 16
RAIN SQUINTED AT THE setting sun. Fossil was still several hours’ trek north. They needed to find a place to shelter, and soon.
She led Micah down into a ravine where a shallow stream of muddy water trickled sluggishly through the rocky bottom. The ravine dead-ended about a quarter mile in, but Rain had no intention of going that far. A short way in, she began to climb back up the steep wall, using jutting rocks as hand and foot holds.
“Rain, what in the hell are you doing? We just came down and now you want to go back up?” Micah sounded exasperated.
She ignored him and kept climbing until she reached the large boulder about halfway up. Only then did she turn to smile at Micah.
Micah watched as Rain turned and smirked at him, then she vanished from sight. “What the? Rain! Rain!” No answer. “Dammit.” Powerful muscles flexing, Micah quickly scaled the side of the ravine after her.
When he reached the giant boulder in the side of the cliff, he discovered her secret. There was a space between the boulder and the cliff face just wide enough for her to wiggle through. Micah wasn’t convinced there was enough room for him to squeeze, but he was game.
Clinging to the side of the ravine, he shrugged out of his pack and tossed it through the space. Then exhaling
