Page 88 of Beyond Redemption

I brought my hand up to call out but thought better of it. The last thing I was about to do was flag our position and give them a reason to look up. I jogged over to the ladder instead, hands finding the rungs, finally feeling the pain in my aging bones from my sprint there. I took the steps three at a time, anxious to reach my wife. The metal groaned under the impact of my boots, each landing sharp and unstable with the tower already rattling. I ignored it, keeping my eyes on the platform above, praying that all was well when I reached the top.

A quarter of the way, movement crossed the edge. Kansas first, a quick check over the side, then Liis beside her, both of them staring down at me. The barrel of a rifle dipped toward me before Liis recognized who she was looking at. She reached out to Kansas’s weapon and pushed it aside, relief breaking across her face.

I cleared the top and came up fast, the soles of my boots meeting splintered planks as I closed the space between us without thinking. My hands found Liis’s shoulders, then her back, pulling her in, enveloping her in my arms.

“You didn’t respond,” I said, breath still uneven, the edge of it breaking into something close to irritation.

“We were busy,” she answered, her cheek pressed against my shirt.

“Didn’t you see our friend starfish taking a dirt nap down there?” Kansas asked, reaching into her pocket and popping a cube of pink gum into her mouth.

“I did,” I said, my attention returning to Liis. My hands cupped her face, pulling her in just enough to kiss her quick. I pulled back, scanning the platform. “These beams aren’t stable. We need to mo—”

An explosion hit the base of the tower before I could finish. The force came up through the structure hard enough to throw all three of us off balance. The planks jolted under my feet, the railing at the ladder shearing away with a sharp, metallic tear before dropping out of sight. Kansas and Liis both went back with it, losing their footing in the same instant.

I dropped with them, sliding to the edge, catching both of them by the wrists before they cleared the platform. The impact of it tore through my shoulders, my grip locking down on instinct as their full weight and the momentum pulled against me. Below us, the ground spun into motion—debris, bodies, movement—none of it something I could afford to look at for more than a fraction of a second.

“Hang on,” I strained, trying to brace to pull them up.

Voices broke out somewhere below, panicked and overlapping, then another blast followed, this time bursting open whatever weapon the Carlisis had used on the tower. The shockwave punched up through the tower and into my arms. My grip slipped a fraction, then tightened again, every muscle in my back and shoulders straining to hold them where they were in the midst of the blast wave.

Liis looked down once, then back up at me. “Déjà vu,” she said, a breath of a laugh under it.

Kansas glanced between us, her mouth twisting. “You two do this often?”

“Well?” Liis asked, still looking at me. “Who are you letting go?”

“Saywhat?” Kansas’s head snapped toward her.

“Neither,” I said, the word coming out through clenched teeth as I pulled, dragging them up together until their boots hit the platform again.

Kansas straightened first, brushing dust from her fatigues. “You had me for a second. Thought I was about to be another stain in the yard.”

“How was I going to explain that?” I said, glancing at her before scanning the structure. “You think I was going to tell Marcel I dropped you to your death because I couldn’t lift two hundred pounds onto a platform?”

She wasn’t amused, already looking past me at the action below.

I followed her line of sight, taking in what was left of the tower. The ladder was gone, part of the railing was gone, the frame had taken the hit and was still standing but not in a way I trusted for long.

“The tower’s served its purpose,” I said. “Now it’s just an elevated coffin. Ladder’s gone, so we’ll need to—”

“There’s a back way,” Liis and Kansas said at the same time, both already turning toward the enclosed section.

Chapter Seventeen

Liis

We opened the floor hatch to what looked like a vertical access ladder fitted with staggered grips instead of full rungs. Kansas dropped in first, and I wondered how she thought it would be easier to lower an injured full-grown man down it than the other way until I saw her descend quickly and without effort. The vertical ladder was narrower, tighter, meant for controlled movement, not speed. But Kansas wasn’t built like most people, either. Compact, strong through her center, trained to carry and descend without losing balance. It made sense.

I followed, hands and boots finding each hold without hesitation, Thomas close behind. When my feet finally hit the ground, I lifted my gaze and scanned the quad. It looked worse from here than it had from above.

Heat pushed through the soles of my boots, carrying the stench of burned fuel and spent powder as I trudged through the chaos. A truck near the tower had been devoured by flames from the cab forward, smoke rolling low before it climbed. A man lay beside the rear tire, facedown, arm stretched toward empty space, reaching for help that would never come. Around him, everything kept moving. Marcel’s men dragged ammunition into new firing positions, hauled the wounded in the opposite direction, adjusted lines with control that only came with years of tactical training and live exercises.

We found Travis cutting between low concrete with Trenton offset behind him, both of them working to push back hostiles still coming in from the gap in the fence. Zeke, Taylor, and Tyler were working a new fire, motioning toward the bunker.

Bodhi wasn’t where we’d left him. He’d moved out from the door and into the fight, bracing a position with one of Marcel’s men, firing in controlled singles to anyone getting too close. He didn’t look polished, but not sloppy, either.

Naomi would be proud.