She pursed her lips. “Happy now?”
Hell no! The happy dance didn’t start until they reached Colorado and she was safe.
She banged his helmet against his upper arm. “Don’t forget your party hat.”
David pinched the side and ducked to get the thing on. “Happy now?”
She winked at him. “Now, let’s play a game called why don’t we give Mavis Spanner a weapon.”
Lister snorted. “You’re not getting a weapon, Doc. You’re ducking and covering when the shooting starts.”
“I’m very good.” Mavis crossed her arms and glared at the general. “And I’ve shot pretty much every weapon you have.”
“When you pry the gun from my cold dead hand, it’s yours.”
Damn. David sincerely hoped that didn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy. “I could use another set of eyes on the left.”
Mavis sighed. “Thanks. I need something to distract me from the Earps gearing up for the shootout at the OK Corral.”
David crested another rise and tapped the brakes. The Humvee’s rear end slid to the right. He eased off the pedal and his borrowed pistol clunked against the wheel as he steered into the skid.
The lieutenant slammed against the door.
“What do you see, Sergeant-Major?” Lister leaned into the opening between the bucket seats.
A trailer shifted to the side of the pick-up behind him and a horse whinnied.
“Company’s around. Somewhere.” After getting the vehicle under control, David eased to a stop in the middle of the road. Three green John Deere tractors, two white monster trucks and a crumpled Toyota straddled Fossil Creek Road leading into the town of Strawberry. “Looks like they want us to stop.”
With one foot on the brake, he kept the other over the gas and his hand on her shifter. One way or another, he’d keep Mavis safe.
Lister looped his comm around his ear. “Convoy halt. We have an obstacle in the road. I repeat, there is an obstacle in the road. Stand by.”
The channel was left open so everyone could hear, including Trent the bastard’s people if they had stolen a Comm off his men.
Mavis cleared her throat. “We’re going to have to clear it.”
Lister flipped open his laptop. “Give me a minute and I’ll get us some Marines to sweep the area.”
She shook her head and pointed to the balcony on the A-Frame house on the ridge and the bell tower on the stucco church at eleven o’clock. “They’d be picked off on their way up here.”
“My men can handle it.”
“You send a group of well-armed Marines up here and whoever’s out there will interpret that as a hostile move.” She checked the zipper at her throat and slid David’s borrowed gloves on her hands. “Two people, preferably women, will move the vehicles.”
“Oh hell no!” The words roared from his throat. No fucking way would he allow her to risk her life.
Lister aimed his weapon at Mavis’s legs. “I agree with the Sergeant-Major. You even reach for that door, Doc, and I’ll shoot both your kneecaps off.”
Mavis covered her knees. “Then who is going to go?”
“I will, Ma’am. Sir.” Gripping his M-4, Lieutenant Rogers opened her door and slipped out.
Slamming the Humvee into park, David gripped the lieutenant’s wimpy pistol tighter. Such a stupid weapon. “I’ll be back.”
He shoved open the door and had boots on the ground in two seconds.
Rogers cleared the Humvee’s hood, the sweep of the assault rifle tracked the motion of her head. “I’ve got bogeys from ten until two.”
Hunching as he walked forward, he double checked her findings. Adrenalin pulsed through him, sharpening his senses. “Two on the A-Frame. Two on the bell tower. One had high noon. Three at one behind a mobile home. And another two behind the shed at two o’clock.”
And them smack dab in the middle. He’d admire their brilliance more if he wasn’t about to get his ass shot.
“Nice job laying down the crossfire.” Lieutenant Rogers edged closer to the first tractor. “Think any of them have military training?”
What the fuck did that matter? Whoever was out there could be blind and they still had a pretty good shot at hitting them.
She released the barrel of the M-4 and reached for the John Deere’s door handle. Bullets strafed the ground in front of her boots. She jumped back with a yelp. “Fall back! And hold your fire.”
David’s finger twitched on the side of his gun. Like he was a green recruit that needed to be told those were warning shots. Without turning, he retreated to the Humvee and slammed the door shut.
Mavis’s hands patted his shoulder then his arms. “Are you hurt? Did they shoot you?”
“I’m fine.” He squeezed her hand through the gloves. “They were warning us off.”
Lister hurumphed. “Maybe they’re just damn bad shots.”
Lieutenant Rogers grinned. “Oh, no, Sir. If they’d wanted us dead we would be. We were sitting ducks out there. We counted ten enemy combatants.”
“Now I’ll call in the Marines.”
Mavis grabbed the mic, holding it in her fist. “We can’t afford to lose any more people. We’ll try talking to them first.”
Lister snapped his teeth near her hand. “I bite, Doc.”
“So do I.” She let go of his mic. “And I’ve been exposed to a lot of very scary diseases. Things that will make your testicles turn purple and shrivel up.”
That’s his girl. David straightened in his seat. Mavis wouldn’t be bullied by the damn jarheads. “Orders?”
Rogers sucked her lips between her teeth but he caught the flash of dimples.
“Sorry, David. Sally. I need you to go out there again.” Mavis’s fingers spasmed on his shoulder. “And I’ll need you to put your weapons on the hood of the car before you approach.”
Fucking A. Even the pistol was better than nothing.
Lister scraped his fingers through his buzz cut. “Are they supposed to invite the enemy to a tea party?”
“No, the enemy is going to invite us to a tea party. Ask them for ten minutes of their time to speak to all survivors. Talk. That’s all.” Mavis sat back in her seat. “Now General, I know how much you like phallic symbols so you have your men unpack those hand grenade launchers you brought with us. Don’t load them, just, you know, flash them around a bit.”
“I like showing off my toys.” Lister grinned.
Satan probably wore a similar expression when he retrieved the damned. But as David wasn’t about be have his soul collected, he focused on the most immediate problem. “Who’s going to talk to them?”
“Me.” Mavis shook her finger under Lister’s nose. “And don’t threaten my kneecaps or any other piece of my anatomy. They haven’t rolled out the welcome mat for the military, so a civilian needs to go in. Like it or not, that’s me.”
“I don’t like it. Think of something else.” Lister practically chewed on the mic. “The toys are being unwrapped.”
“What civilian do you trust? What civilian knows about Palo Verde?”
Lister’s eyes narrowed and his jaw thrust forward.
“Go!” Mavis waved him away. “We’ll have this sorted by the time you come back with their answer.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” After a quick nod to the lieutenant, David opened his door and pushed outside.
Rogers unwound his M-4’s strap from her arm. “You should talk. If they are vets, they might prefer stripes over bars.”
David set his pistol on the hood and held his empty hands in the air. The snow hissed when it hit the hot metal. “Understood.”
She laid the carbine to rest, pointing at his weapon then raised her hands. Mavis’s and Lister’s muffled voices drifted out the closed windows.
After a quick nod, they advanced in step. Four feet to the front bumper. Three. Two.