Boone needed to know—
But Avery needed him right now.
Avery gave a cry. The sound on the television changed. Walker crept up another step, his Glock in his hands.
“The presentation’s over,” one of the men he’d heard before said angrily. Was that Mr. Smith? The guy who’d called him? “They’re fucking starting the vote!”
The sound on the television switched again. “What the hell? Look at those women! They’re all going to die!” the other man said.
“This is getting good,” Mr. Smith said. The television sound switched again.
“Aye,” a man said. Walker heard a man’s name read out. “Nay,” another man said. That had to be the Senate taking its vote. How had Elizabeth’s presentation gone?
The sound changed.
“The bulldozers are moving!” the second man said.
“Go,” Avery called out. Walker’s heart squeezed. She was so close—so close—
But he couldn’t blow this.
“There’s not enough of them,” the second man said. “Most of those bulldozers can go right around them and get at the other houses.”
The sound changed. “Aye,” a woman’s voice said. “Nay.” That was a man.
The sound changed again.
The cry Avery gave chilled the blood in Walker’s veins. What had she seen on the television? Walker held steady. He had to choose the right moment. There were two men in that room, both of them probably armed.
Suddenly a roar went up from the television.
“What the hell?” the second man cried. “Who are those people?”
“Go!” Avery cried. “Go! Go!”
The sound changed again. Walker steeled himself. He had to make his move.
“The votes are in,” the man on the television was saying. “The ayes have forty-nine, the nays have fifty-one. Bill 134 has been defeated.”
Avery cried out in relief, then shrieked.
What was happening?
“There goes our money,” the second man snarled.
“Fuck,” the first man growled. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! We’ve got to go. Tie her up.”
“She’ll slow us down!” A slight pause. “Bye-bye, little girl—”
Walker launched himself up the stairs and across the hall.
When the door burst open and something catapulted across the room, Avery screamed again. Owen hit the ground, his Glock knocked from his hands, and the two men grappled on the ground until Walker got the upper hand. He pulled back and punched Owen.
The man went limp.
Mr. Smith, shocked into stillness by Walker’s sudden appearance, reached for his gun. Avery, getting over her own surprise, moved without thinking. She tucked her trussed legs underneath herself on the soft mattress, rocked back and launched herself toward him.
The impact knocked the breath from her lungs, and they collapsed in a tangle to the floor. A moment later, the man tossed her aside, but someone else burst through the door—
Boone.
“Don’t move!” He trained his weapon on Mr. Smith. “Don’t even try it.” Boone advanced when Mr. Smith made to pull Avery in front of him as a shield, but Walker got there first. He plucked Avery from the man’s hands. A second later, Boone’s weapon was in Mr. Smith’s face. “Give me one reason,” he growled.
“We don’t have time for that,” Walker said. He still held Avery in his arms. She wished she could fling hers around his neck and bury her face against his chest, but her wrists were tied. “We’ve got to get back to Base Camp.”
Walker deposited Avery on the bed, pulled out a knife and cut through the bindings on her wrists and ankles. Then he cupped her chin and kissed her. Pulled back and met her gaze with his, his eyes telling her everything he didn’t have time to say.
He loved her.
He’d nearly lost her.
He’d never let her go again.
“Riley,” Avery croaked.
“That’s where we’re headed next,” Walker assured her.
“Stopped the bulldozers,” Avery managed. “People came to help.”
“You sure?” Boone had gone pale where he stood, his weapon still trained on Mr. Smith.
Avery grabbed the remote. Changed the channel back to Star News. Crowds of women were dancing and singing, climbing all over the bulldozers that stood unmoving near the tiny houses.
“Never seen anything like it,” Marla was saying on-screen. “You know, these women aren’t that bad—”
More men burst into the room, Cab and his deputies.
“It’s all right,” Boone told him. “Avery’s safe.”
As Cab took over the situation, Walker drew Avery to the far side of the room. “You okay?” he asked her gently, running his hands over her as if making sure she had no injuries.
“My arms hurt. Wrists and ankles are sore, but I’m okay.”
He wiped her cheek with a finger. Avery hadn’t realized she was crying.
“I was scared,” she admitted as he drew her into an embrace.
He tightened his arms around her until she was wrapped in a comforting fortress and bent down to speak in her ear. “I was terrified.”
As the tears ran down her cheeks, Avery breathed in Walker’s comforting scent. She never wanted to leave the safety of his arms again. Behind them the television still played, and she heard the voices of her friends mixed with others on-screen. They were safe—and so was Base Camp. Elizabeth had defeated the new drilling plan, and there was hope for the future. Maybe they could save the world, after all.
“Hey,” Cab called from across the room. “Weren’t you two supposed to get married tonight?”
Avery pulled back with a gasp. Met Walker’s shocked gaze. Turned to find a clock on the bedside table.
It was five minutes past midnight.
Chapter Thirteen
‡
“It’s not the end,” Walker told Avery again when they parked in Base Camp’s parking lot a half hour later.
“I know.”
“I want to marry you.”
“I know.” But she didn’t stop crying. Her tears had slipped silently down her cheeks since before they’d left Cab Johnson putting the two kidnappers in his cruiser. It had been a long drive back to the ranch.
“We’ll find a way to stay together—all of us.”
“I know.”
Walker’s heart squeezed at her grief.
“We’ll take Champ with us. I’ll steal him if I have to.”
“And Ruth. Champ is too young to be separated from his mother.” A tremulous smile quirked her lips before her tears overwhelmed her again. “It’s just… wherever we go, it won’t be
