Easy Target (9 page)

“You’re thinking too much.” She felt his words vibrate against the inside of her thigh as he kissed her there before easing up beside her on the bed. “Stop that.”

She smiled, not at all surprised that he seemed to read her mind. He sat up on the edge of the lower bunk next to her and took his own boots and socks off, then his shirt, jeans, and . . .

She closed her eyes.

He was going to be naked soon, and she had to say something first. He slid up beside her on the mattress and pulled her back to his front, with his back toward the wall. She felt the insistence of his erection against her bottom.

She started to turn in his arms, but he held onto her with an arm clamped around her waist. “Slow down. I just want to enjoy holding you a while. I’ve thought about this for a very long time.”

Really?
That came as a complete surprise. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask
how long,
but when he trailed his fingertips back and forth across her rib cage, she quit thinking. Instead, she sighed in relaxed contentment. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”

Why had she been nervous about this for so long? She could tell him now. It’d be okay.

He kissed the side of her neck and whispered in her ear, “Well, I promise we’re just getting started.”

She tensed, and he absolutely noticed but misunderstood the reason.

He gathered her more snugly against his chest. “Don’t worry, we can take this as slow as you want.”

“You’d do that?” The mixture of relief and disappointment she felt was . . . confusing.

“God, Sassy. What sort of men have you—­”

The sound of screeching brakes interrupted whatever else he’d been about to say. Sassy felt the momentum shoving her backward into his chest.

“What’s happening?” she gasped.

“I don’t know.” He tugged his arm from under her body to see his watch. “We’re not scheduled to stop for several more hours.” The stark change from relaxed lover to alert super soldier was dramatic. “Get dressed. Now.”

Bryan hauled himself forward out of bed and started shoving clothes toward her while Sassy was still playing catch-­up. Her panties were inside out, but she slid them on at his urging without fixing them.

“C’mon, Sassy.”

The horrific screeching continued, intensifying as she pulled her jeans, sweater, socks, and boots on. She was lacing up as a rumbling shuddering started.

“Fuck,” Bryan mumbled.

“What is it?” She finished with the boots and looked up from her crouched position as the screeching abruptly stopped.

“Hang on!” He grabbed for her.

The rail car shifted, and she felt like she was in a carnival house ride as the compartment swayed wildly from side to side. The car tilted, and the bed she was sitting on flew up in the air. She hit her head on the bunk above, and the world went black.

Chapter Nine

B
RYAN THREW HIMSELF
toward Sassy’s body as the car un­coupled from the train. Everything was happening in slow motion. He watched in horror as she flew through the air and cracked her head on the bottom of the top sleeping shelf. The contents of their compartment flipped while the car rolled.

The bathroom door swung open, banging into his back, but he focused on getting to Sassy. He managed to grab her, and he wasn’t letting go, even when battered by bits of the disintegrating compartment that came loose while the sleeper car tumbled from the tracks. Pieces of broken mirror and plastic, seat cushions, something that looked like pink insulation, and blankets swirled around them in a maelstrom as the car continued to roll. The lights went out in the midst of the chaos. Metal screeched in an ear-­splitting cacophony of sound.

He thought he heard someone shouting. Like a nightmare, things took forever to stop moving. When they finally rolled to a halt, the compartment—­or what was left of it—­was pitch black. Bryan heard more screeching metal, as if part of the rail car was settling now that it had stopped tumbling. Distinct screams and calls for help accompanied the eerie aftermath.

He was on his belly and turned his head, squinting into the darkness. Only now it wasn’t quite so dark. The moon shone through clouds and their compartment window with an odd sort of white glow. They’d landed right side up, but that was where any similarity to “right” ended.

The door to the bathroom was lying across Bryan’s back while also balanced partially on the bed. Sassy was under his chest. From his vantage point, he couldn’t determine the extent of her injuries. But he could feel dampness on her forehead as he ran his fingers over her face. She was out cold.

His back hurt like a son of a bitch, and his left shoulder stung, as if from some sort of cut. Everything else felt in working order. He took a moment to figure the best escape from the wreckage before rising in an odd sort of cobra push-­up to move the door and other debris off both of them.

He rolled off Sassy toward what had been the bed, resting on his knees beside her. The moonlight was now a vivid silver. The window, though not broken up completely in the crash, had a spider’s web of cracks running all across it that seemed to amplify the light.

He sat back on his knees and looked Sassy over. There was a cut just above her temple, at the hairline. It didn’t look deep, but it was bleeding like mad as most head injuries were prone to do.

Before the crash, his backpack had been hooked over an arm of the reclining chair by the window. When he turned to look for it, he noted the strain in his lower back. The chair wasn’t there anymore. There was simply a metal spike poking up from the floor of the car.

Miraculously, his pack was there, too, underneath a broken armrest and other debris. He grabbed for it and pulled the padded strap onto his shoulder, despite the discomfort. The duffel bag was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t matter. Once he got Sassy away from the wreckage, he would see to her head and any other injuries. He tried to stand but found it challenging in what had now become a very confined space.

“Sassy?” He touched her face. She still wasn’t moving. “Sassy, baby, wake up.” He heard the thread of panic in his voice.

Bryan Fisher, who never got rattled, was flipping out. Nick and Leland would give him hell if they could see him. And he’d happily take all their shit and more if he had one of those guys here with him to help.

He could smell smoke . . . and gasoline. There had been an automotive railcar several cars back. He’d seen more than a dozen vehicles loaded after their stop in Washington, D.C. Since they’d derailed, there was no telling where those vehicles were now. He had to get Sassy out.

Still hunched over her, he looked around for the quickest exit. Their compartment was a ticking time bomb of a death trap. He pushed more debris away and stood. Balancing on one foot, he cleared the remaining rubble off her body. A metal pole with the circumference of a wide broom handle was across her lower legs. He had no clue where that had come from, but he picked it up and moved through the wreckage to the intact window.

Smoke was now curling around his feet, lending an even greater urgency to the task. Where was it coming from? Holding the metal pole like a baseball bat, he slammed it against the glass.

He glanced back at Sassy.

Still no movement.

His throat was dry with fear.
She’s okay. She has to be okay.

He whacked the window again, and it gave way. Shards of glass made a musical-­like tinkling sound that was at odds with the piteous screams and moans around them.

More smoke filled the room, but the fresh air did as well. He heard the sizzle and hiss of flames but couldn’t see the actual fire yet. He hurried back to Sassy, wincing as he bent over her. With his back hurt, he wasn’t sure he could safely carry her. The last thing she needed was for him to drop her.

The smell of gasoline was stronger. From behind them, an orange light suddenly flickered across the wreckage in the broken hallway of the car. This thing could explode any moment. His gaze fell on the door now lying across the bed.

That could work.

He took the thin metal door and balanced it on the ledge of the window, then shoved Sassy’s body on top of the door like a bizarre teeter-­totter. He looked out the window to double-­check. With the car listing to the side, it was only about a four-­foot drop to the ground.

Smoke poured into their compartment. Despite the open window, he was choking. Sassy’d be okay . . . as long as she didn’t hit her head.

Fuck
.

He couldn’t think about that now. Holding onto the door with one hand, he took one of the cushions that had flown around the compartment earlier and placed it under the door.

Balancing Sassy precariously with one hand holding the door, he slipped his backpack off the other shoulder and tossed it out the window away from the train. Still holding onto the door, he slipped over the side of the ledge, only letting go of the door when he dropped to the ground. The jolt jarred his entire body, from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Shit
. He might be hurt worse than he’d thought.

The orange glow of the flames was quite visible now, licking along the ceiling of their trashed compartment. For a moment the door and Sassy remained perfectly balanced on the train’s window ledge, then it began to tip toward the ground. He stepped in front of the door, catching Sassy before she could slide onto the rocky terrain.

He went to his knees and knelt a moment with her sprawled across his lap. He glanced over at his backpack a few feet away and weighed the pros and cons of leaving it. Their passports were in it, along with his weapons. Not an option. He’d just have to move his ass.

God, why was he so incapacitated?
He was used to running miles at a time for PT and lifting weights. What was wrong with him? He looked back up at the window, now completely engulfed in flames.

This wasn’t over. They needed to get away from the train. Sassy was still out cold. He gently laid her on the ground and went for the backpack, settling it on both shoulders. Taking a deep breath, he lifted her back into his arms.

Sassy was ridiculously light, a good thing in this situation. The ground around the train track was covered with rocks, but he couldn’t take his time to pick a way through the rough terrain. He was thankful again for the full moon and thin cloud cover.

Fires burned from the wreckage all around them and passengers moved about, some more slowly than others. At least six cars had derailed. With Sassy in his arms, he walked at a right angle to the track, putting as much distance between himself and the flames as possible. He had no idea how volatile the other cars might be. She moaned when he set her down in a field about fifty yards from the devastation.

It was like every derailment photograph he’d ever seen with the immediacy of being there in person. The sights, the sounds, and the smells were all too real. The back of the train appeared to be untouched, while the front looked like he imagined a model train would if an angry toddler stomped on the engine then beat the front cars with a baseball bat.

From where they stood, some pieces of the wreck were unrecognizable as part of a train. Bryan swallowed hard. He couldn’t do anything for those folks.

“Sassy? Can you hear me?” He picked up her hand and started rubbing it between his fingers.

It was damn cold out here, and their coats were somewhere back in that morass of twisted metal. Bryan marveled over how the tail of the train was completely stable, with cars still on the tracks. He was considering the possibility of going back for a blanket or something from one of those stable cars when a rumbling explosion detonated toward the back of the wreckage.

Shrieking metal was drowned out by a thunderous roar as what could only be an automotive railcar was caught up in the conflagration, resulting in a small mushroom cloud. Even from fifty yards away, the concussion knocked him on his ass, jarring his back once again.

Where the hell had that come from?

He sat up slowly, staring at the carnage. That part of the train hadn’t even been involved in the accident. Now it was completely obliterated, just like . . .

Jesus
. It looked just like bombing attacks he’d seen in Afghanistan. Flames stretched toward the sky from the ruins, and what could only be bodies lay beside the tracks.

What was going on? He had no idea where they were. He wasn’t even sure what time it was. He’d been cross-­eyed when they’d boarded at Richmond. The only upside was that Sassy was awake, blinking and looking at him in total bewilderment.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“You remember the train?”

“Train?” She wrinkled her brow. “I remember . . .” She stopped talking. Even in the shadows he recognized her discomfort as she recalled exactly what they’d been doing before the train wreck.

“What happened?” Her voice was flat.

“The train derailed. Must have hit something at the crossing. Ten minutes later, the back end of the whole thing exploded.”

And just like that, he knew this had been about them. It sounded paranoid, but no one survived doing the things he’d done in the Middle East if they didn’t consider the outrageous options. And what he was thinking was fantastically outrageous.

Still, you weren’t paranoid if they truly were out to get you. This had to be related to the events in Africa. Otherwise, who could be this unlucky—­to board a train that derailed, then spontaneously blew to kingdom come?

Wild, improbable thoughts swirled in his head as he looked down at Sassy. She was still trying to shake loose the cobwebs and figure out what the hell was happening, too. Her sweater was torn, her face was bleeding, and it was cold as hell.

When he glanced down at his phone, he could see his breath on the night air. He should call Leland, but he wasn’t going to do it. Something wasn’t right.

While he didn’t think Leland was dirty, he did suspect some part of their communications had been compromised. Bryan had texted him right after they’d boarded in Richmond. Leland was the only one who knew he and Sassy were on this particular train. Barring outright betrayal, corrupted communication was the only explanation for this cluster. So what Bryan was thinking was beyond all reason. He couldn’t tell anyone yet, or they just might put him in a straightjacket.

But first things first.

He had to get them out of here before he could do anything about his suspicions. He studied the darkened field. ­People were rushing in all directions, away from the wreckage, while a few were gathering behind the train about forty yards beyond where he and Sassy were.

Bryan’s instinct was to go to ground, but Sassy needed help. He glanced at his watch. It was 1:00
AM
.

Sirens sounded in the distance. They must be near a town. He just wasn’t sure which one. Sassy’s head worried him. He needed to get her looked after before he did anything else.

“Let’s see if we can join those other folks,” he said. “Think you can walk?”

“Of course I can.” She tried to sit up and snorted a grim laugh. “If you help me up, that is.”

They started toward the knot of tattered travellers, passing the more extreme devastation along the way. Bryan put his arm around her waist and held on across the uneven ground. Acrid-­smelling smoke was thick in the air. They approached two bodies, a man and a woman. It looked as if they’d dragged themselves to this point and just stopped.

“I have to check them, Sassy.”

He bent down and put his fingers on the woman’s neck, then the man’s. Neither had a pulse. He shook his head and sighed. God, this all felt so horribly familiar.

Without speaking he straightened, put his hand back around Sassy’s waist, and kept walking up and down over the furrows in the field. The remains of whatever crop had grown there this fall stuck up from the cold surface of the dirt like an old man’s stubbly beard.

A little farther ahead, a dozen passengers huddled together. Four others were either sitting or lying on the ground beside the group and being tended. Several of the survivors were staring off into space. One was cradling an ominously silent toddler. The sirens grew louder; lights splashed color across the field from a distance.

“Where are we?” Bryan asked as they approached the group.

An older man answered. “We’re outside Kingstree, South Carolina, near as I can tell.”

Kingstree
.

The name tickled the back of his memory, but Bryan couldn’t recall how he’d heard of the place.

The man smiled at his blank look. “It’s a small town. Population’s a little over three thousand. Agriculture community mostly. Tobacco and cotton. We’re near the Francis Marion National Forest.”

Bear Bennett.
That’s how he’d heard of it.
Damn. Of all places.
But Bear was the last person Bryan needed to be worrying about right now.