She stared out at the forest all around them, unease lingering in the back of her mind.
Chapter Two
Raymond
A rut cracked across the southern side of the forest service road and Raymond angled the front right tire directly for it. The vehicle hit the divot and John bounced into the passenger side door. He winced and shifted position.
Raymond hid a smile. Serves you right, you monster. If anyone told him he would not only welcome the man hired to kill his wife into his home, but rely on him for protection, he would have laughed them out of the room. But the apocalypse made strange bedfellows.
If the man sharing his vehicle actually meant what he said about protecting Gloria and her coworker Emma Cross from a company hired to snuff them out for telling the truth, then Raymond needed the guy around, no matter how much he hated the idea. But he didn’t have to make it easy.
“I’m surprised you don’t have everything you need.” John broke the silence for the first time since leaving the cabin. “You seem so well prepared.”
Raymond cut him a glance.
“That smashed out window in the Highlander have anything to do with it?”
Observant, I’ll give him that. “We might have lost a few things.” Another rut cut across the road and John tensed beside him. Raymond navigated around it. He wasn’t about to tell John about the run-in with the kids on the way to the cabin or how Raymond almost broke his hand fighting to rescue Pringles. Knowing their dog was a weak point would only play to John’s advantage.
He glanced at his hand where bruises speckled the knuckles. “It doesn’t help that now we have extra mouths to feed.”
John turned to stare out the window. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke again. “Look, I know you don’t like me, and I don’t blame you. It’s not every day you have to share a ride with a man hired to kill your wife. I get how you must feel.”
“You don’t know a damn thing about me or how I feel.”
“Fair enough. But I can guess.” John stretched his hands out on his thighs. “I can’t convince you to trust me and I’m not going to try. All I can say is that I have no intention of killing Gloria or Emma. Not anymore.”
Anger flared inside Raymond and he struggled to keep his voice even. “Why the hell not? Don’t tell me you’re a sinner with a heart of gold. This isn’t some romance novel where you get a happy ever after despite all the horrible things you’ve done.”
John snorted. “Let’s just say I’ve finally given some thought to my profession and I don’t like what I see.” He turned toward Raymond. “Thank you again for fixing me up. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Believe me, I know.” Raymond refused to look John’s way, focusing instead on the road. Another mile on the dirt and gravel and they would hit the small, two-lane highway leading to civilization and the Walmart.
“Where did you learn to be a medic?”
Raymond bristled. “What is this, twenty questions?”
John held up a hand. “Just making conversation. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Gloria’s voice popped into Raymond’s head as sure as if she were in the back seat, admonishing him for the prickly demeanor. He threw the guy a bone. “The way I grew up, it was learn or die trying. I opted to learn.”
“I take it you’re not an EMT or something?”
“Personal trainer.” He flexed his biceps as he smirked. “Can’t you tell?”
John shook his head. “Be glad you didn’t meet my boss. He’d have thought you were perfect.”
The desire to be nice snapped. “I’d never be somebody’s hired gun.”
“No, I suppose you wouldn’t.”
Raymond let the silence linger, unable to think about anything except the threat John posed to his wife. Was it all a game? Was he waiting for some piece of information before he put a bullet in her head?
As Raymond turned onto the paved road, he broached the subject. “I’m only going to ask this once, and I need an honest answer.” He slowed the SUV as he turned to look at John. “Are you going to kill my wife in her sleep?”
John stared him straight in the eye. “To be honest, all I can say is I don’t think I can kill on orders anymore. Not after seeing what happened to Zach and Holly. Not after getting to know Emma. She doesn’t deserve a bullet.” He broke eye contact to stare down the road. “I’ve never gotten close to a mark before and I swear that that’s the truth. This isn’t like the movies, where a spy pretends to be a confidante or lover and stabs a mark in the heart. I’ve always been anonymous and impersonal.”
“A machine.”
“You could say that. I’ve never let my feelings get in the way. Hell, I’ve never had feelings. At least not for years. But all this—” He waved a hand out at the world. “The solar flare, the grid collapse, it’s changed everything.”
“Has it for your organization?”
“I don’t know.” John rubbed at the stubble peppering his chin. “For the individual guys, maybe. Maybe some are like me and having second thoughts. But for Dane, my boss? For his employers? Probably not. At least not yet. In a month, perhaps. But for now, they’re probably still on mission.”
Not what Raymond wanted to hear, but what he expected. A contract-killing organization full of former military types hired by governments and big corporations to do their dirty work wouldn’t stop at the first sign of trouble. It would take more than a power outage to change the mission.
He glanced again at John. “When will they find us?”
John lifted his arm as if to run a hand through his hair, but stopped short with a wince. “With any luck at least a week. Maybe longer. I can’t say for sure.”
Raymond frowned. A week
