Buried Flames (17 page)

Brenna tried to
get rid of the irritating strands of hair brushing her cheek, wishing she’d secured her braid before falling asleep. She wasn’t ready to open her eyes and face only God knew how many hours in the saddle braving the harsh elements that were here to stay. She tried to bury her face deeper into the blanket only to find that she hadn’t gotten rid of whatever was bothering her. She gave an exasperated sigh and finally lifted her lashes, turning her head to find that Mason’s brown eyes were zeroed in on her face. It had been the back of his fingers caressing her face.

“Hi,” Brenna whispered, casting a glance over toward the other office to see if Ace was still where he’d been when she’d fallen asleep. Her adrenaline spiked, but Mason rested an arm over her waist when she went to sit up. “Where is he? Is he still in there?”

“Using the wash basin in the back,” Mason replied, keeping his voice low. Brenna inhaled deeply, doing her best to calm her racing heart. Would life ever go back to when she wasn’t scared? She didn’t even like that adjective, because that wasn’t who she was. “We need to get back out there soon. We’re only wasting time here.”

“I swear it feels like I just closed my eyes five minutes ago,” Brenna stated, rolling onto her back, but still using his thigh as a pillow. She found she wasn’t so willingly ready to give up this…closeness. Mason was usually so hard, so impenetrable. It was nice to see this side of him. “Did you sleep any?”

“Actually, I did manage to get around an hour or so.” Mason didn’t comment on the fact that Brenna had trapped his arm around her waist with hers. She wondered how long she could get away with this blanket of security he was providing her. “I was able to warn Tank and the others to be on the lookout for any hostiles. So now we just need to worry about our own safety. I get the feeling Fairfax knows more about what’s happened than he’s letting on—and I’m not talking about just his injury. He had prior warning.”

“You mean of the actual eruption?” Brenna raised an eyebrow in disbelief, unable to comprehend what Mason was suggesting. “It’s not like Ace could have done something to set it off, Mason. We’re talking about an apocalyptic natural disaster beyond anything mankind could have cooked up.”

“I know that, but it still seems to me he knew what was coming well before it became public knowledge.”

Brenna figured that was impossible, but it wasn’t like they had time to stay here and debate it. She sought out Mason’s dark gaze, more to see for herself that he’d gotten at least some rest for what lay ahead of them. She found him staring at her as if he’d never seen her before. His large hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her forward before she had time to ask him what was wrong.

“Get Sam ready while I take care of the horses.” Mason stood, somehow bringing Brenna with him. She set her palms on his chest to steady herself and her eyes went directly to the neckline of his shirt. His scars were barely visible, most of them underneath the dark fabric. “This is going to be a long stretch, so make sure you’re hydrated before we pull out of here. Top off the canteens, especially the ones with the adapters for the drinking tubes for the masks.”

“Mason, your scars don’t bother me,” Brenna whispered, closing her fingers around the material to prevent Mason from moving. “Is that what’s kept you—”

“The resulting damage to my body is nothing compared to the defects inside my head, little one,” Mason murmured, reaching for her braid that had fallen over her shoulder and gently placing it behind her so it lay down her back. Brenna noticed he hadn’t been as tense as when she’d fallen asleep, but she could tell the pressure inside of him was building by the way his jaw line tightened. “Go get Sam ready. I’ll be back in a minute or two.”

Brenna’s hands fell to her side when Mason pulled away and walked toward the back of the warehouse without once looking back. Her mind was spinning with such contradicting thoughts about the man he’d become that she wasn’t even sure how to talk to him anymore. One minute he was angry, the next he was tender…and there were times he treated her like a private back in his military days.

“It’s rare that any of us come back the way we were.”

Brenna was startled when she glanced up to find that Ace was walking her way. A scowl marred his somewhat handsome face, his eyes were bloodshot, and he appeared to be favoring his right side. He wasn’t in the best shape, but she bet he could still take on a few dangerous men and come away with his life intact. She understood what he was saying about Mason and countless other men and women who’d returned home as different people, but she wasn’t willing to discuss Mason personally with this stranger whom she didn’t trust.

“You mentioned you were Special Forces once,” Brenna casually said, calling Sam over to her from his own sofa cushion she’d given him to sleep on. Could she get Ace to talk without Mason being around? “You must love it if you’re still in the same line of business.”

“It’s all I know.” Ace grimaced as he grabbed his gear out of the second office, carrying it with his left hand. He was still favoring his right side. He walked over to where Brenna was standing and waited for her to take a couple steps away toward the makeshift corral in which Sergeant and Major were still secure farther into the warehouse. “It’s also all your man back there knows, which is why he hasn’t adapted back to a civilian life.”

Brenna wasn’t going to correct Ace’s assumption that she and Mason were together. As a matter of fact, she felt safer that way. She watched as Ace walked back to the horses and struggled to secure his bag to Major’s saddle, thinning her lips at his struggle. His side must hurt like bloody hell.

“Here,” Brenna said as she walked into the open-ended corral, making up her mind to help him. Mason wanted her to steer clear of Ace, but she couldn’t stand by and do nothing when another person was in pain. She’d just taken the bag from him when his large hand wrapped around her wrist and yanked her forward. “What—”

Brenna’s thoughts whirled once again, but this time with worries that she’d really just placed both Mason and herself in danger by doing the one thing he’d asked her not to. She struggled to break free while at the same time reaching for the weapon Mason had given her to carry at her side in its holster when she was thrown to the ground.

Brenna tried to roll away, but Ace was on top of her before she could move. All she could hear in the distance was the sound of Mason’s voice calling her name. She couldn’t catch her breath to yell back at him, wanting to tell him how sorry she was that she hadn’t trusted his instincts. She’d fucked up. A gunshot sounded and she instinctively braced herself for the impact.

M
ason was walking
back to the front of the barn, catching sight of Brenna as she walked into the makeshift corral where Sergeant and Major were given their feed and fresh well water. He was about to call out to her when something caught his attention by the overhead door next to the main entrance. He’d been shaking his head at the vulnerable position she’d put herself into by getting too close to Fairfax when he realized she might actually be safer there considering what he was seeing up front.

“Brenna, get down now!”

Mason already had his flashlight and weapon trained on the thin crack that was widening in the metal security entrance next to the overhead door when he recognized the glint of his beam off of a barrel of a rifle. He immediately fired a warning shot—aiming two feet above the barrel and slightly to the left. He muttered a few choice words when the door swung open and a barrage of bullets followed along with it.

Mason dodged next to a heavy oak cask to his left, lining his back up against the heavy frame that bore its weight, wondering if Fairfax was behind this shitstorm. It was doubtful, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. He needed to reach Brenna, but where the hell was Sam?

“Fairfax, give up. We know you’re—”

Mason closed his eyes and allowed his senses to take over. He didn’t hesitate, knowing with one hundred percent certainty that this man and whoever was with him would reach Fairfax and Brenna before he could do a thing about it. He spun on his boot heel and shut off his flashlight simultaneously, bringing up his weapon, flipping the safety to three round bursts, and pulling the trigger. He hadn’t allowed any thought to interfere with his plan, which was to eradicate the threat before it could eliminate them.

Two bodies were now lying on the ground just inside the main door, without any sign of the third man Fairfax had alluded to. Mason didn’t waste anytime grabbing his mask out of its carrier, donning it before sprinting out through the door these two men never had an opportunity to do more than breach. He’d caught a glimpse of Fairfax covering Brenna with his body as he ran past and gave the man props for getting something right.

Mason spent the next five minutes searching the area like he should have done when they’d arrived, without finding any evidence as to how their location had been discovered. The third man either hadn’t been with them or he’d fled after hearing the shots from a distance. The only tracks showing near the main entrance were made by the two now lying just inside the door. Mason carefully made his way back toward the stone warehouse.

“Where the hell did you go?” Brenna was in Mason’s arms before he’d removed his mask, making the embrace a little awkward. He wrapped his right arm around her waist, pulling her close and taking a moment to appreciate the fact that she was safe. He set aside his issues and tightened his hold on her as he managed to get off his mask. “I thought…you don’t want to know. Don’t do that again. Don’t ever go out on your own like that and leave me behind.”

“Are you all right?” Mason asked, not realizing he’d pressed a kiss to her head until afterward. She was slowly interweaving her way into his life and there didn’t seem to be a thing he could do to stop her. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. Their fire was aimed at you.” Brenna’s answer was muffled against his neck, which had to be coated in ash. He slowly untangled himself from her arms to find the greyish black soot smeared across her right cheek. Her blue eyes roamed over his body as she reluctantly took a step away. “Are you hit anywhere?”

“I’m fine, no thanks to these two shitheads.” Mason reached out and tried to wipe away the remaining residue on Brenna’s cheek, but he only managed to smear it more. “Go wash up. We need to leave ASAP.”

Brenna appeared reluctant to go, but she slowly turned around. She looked Fairfax’s way, who was currently leaning up against the frame of one of two large casks that formed Sergeant and Major’s corral. He was holding his right side and Mason had a feeling Fairfax had pulled the stitches he’d managed to put in him. He gritted his teeth to refrain from complaining they’d have to waste more time, but instead he walked to where his satchel was that contained the field corpsman master supply kit. This time he would use a local and hit Fairfax with a prophylactic shot of a polyvalent antitoxin and a crystalline penicillin/streptomycin combo, followed up with a tetanus toxoid booster. If they were going to keep him around for a while, he needed to stay infection free.

“Thank you.” Brenna was speaking to Fairfax and her voice was quite sincere. Mason wondered just what the two had been doing that she’d been near enough him to be shielded from danger. “I owe you one.”

“No, you don’t,” Fairfax stated seriously, resting his head back against the sixteen inch rough-hewn oak beam. “But I sure as hell owe your Marine.”

Mason opened the green canvas-covered medical case, pulling out the items he’d need with proper 3.0 silk sutures and sterile hypodermic packs. Brenna continued to the back of the warehouse making sure no one had slipped in the back, as well as to use the wash basin and rinse the ash from her face and hands. Sam had gone with her and his calm demeanor let Mason know she was quite safe. He didn’t bother to wipe any of the residue away from his clothes, considering they were going out in that shit shortly, but he did rinse his hands in alcohol before attending to Fairfax’s wound.

“I’m fine. You don’t need to fix me up.” Fairfax’s eyes were still glued to the two men lying on the ground, their faces covered with military issue M50 masks to keep the ash out of their lungs. Mason would certainly search their bodies before leaving this place. Brenna could do with a weapons upgrade to a fully automatic weapon. He’d strip these tangos of all the ammo and anything else of use. He was glad to see their weapons had been moved away from their bodies and were now piled next to Sergeant. “They shouldn’t have known about this place.”

“But they did find us,” Mason said curtly, not willing to be drawn into any more games. Either Fairfax told him what was going on or he would permanently be outside the circle of trust. The current plan still hadn’t changed, mostly due to the fact that Fairfax knew about Lost Summit and already had men up there in place. “Lift your shirt. We need to get this right.”

Fairfax pulled up the black material, revealing a bloody bandage. Mason got to work and decided he’d use the better sutures and cover the wound with a sterile adhesive bandage. He had only torn two of the stitches through his flesh. It was easier to patch up the wound and a hell of a lot less painful using the local.