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“Not really. I’ve never gotten into any of the other sci-fi or fantasy stuff. Never really read comics, but I love movies and I’ve always loved Star Wars. I had all the figures when I was a kid. Dressed up as Darth Vader four years in a row for Halloween. Just loved everything about Star Wars.”
“I like that,” Ian murmured.
“Hey Ian…when our lives go back to normal, will you come over to my place for dinner and watch Star Wars with me?”
“Sounds perfect to me.”Chapter 14Hollis knelt behind a bush that was little more than a knotted bramble of dead vines and thorny branches, but it was enough to offer cover from the two guards who were separately making rounds of the area.
They’d set out just before midnight from their rock overhang. He managed to catch only an hour of sleep after Rowe had relieved him from the watch, but it didn’t matter. He’d been happy to wrap his larger frame around Ian and hold him close as he uncomfortably dozed. The trek to White Rock had been slow even though most of it had been downhill into the narrow valley. In the thick darkness, the Appalachian Mountains rose up on either side of them, blotting out the clear sky sparkling with stars. It had taken more than an hour to reach the perimeter of the old mining town, but each step closer had tightened the knot in his stomach and ratcheted up the pace of his heart.
Before they even left the relative safety of the overhang, Rowe had declared that they’d take the schoolhouse in two teams. Rowe and Hollis would take the front while Noah and Ian approached from the back. For a moment, he hated Rowe, but he got why the devious bastard did it. If Hollis was with Rowe, he’d concentrate on the job in front of him rather than worry about Ian. Of course, he’d been surprised that there had been no talk about Ian staying behind or hiding on the perimeter of the town. He’d glanced over at Ian, his face harshly outlined by the light of his phone as he checked the time, and seen surprise widening his beautiful brown eyes.
The entire march from the overhang had been filled with endless instructions. The Rangers gave them a crash course in trekking silently through the brush, on bent knee rolling their feet from heel to toe. Noisy coats were shed and shoved into packs in favor of dark, wool sweaters. By the time they reached White Rock, they had become as close to shadows as they could in only an hour. It would have to be enough.
But even after the seemingly endless barrage of instructions and critiques and tips, nothing had prepared Hollis for actually seeing Rowe Ward in action. For a minute, he forgot about Ian and the fact that he had no idea if he and Noah had gotten into position. Rowe was equal parts breathtaking and terrifying.
From his hiding spot, Hollis watched Rowe soundlessly sneak across a barren patch behind the first guard, careful to follow in the man’s exact footprints before cutting into the yard and behind a tree. Before the second guard could come around the house from the opposite direction, Rowe was up the tree and stretched across a sturdy branch without stirring any of the small twigs. The second guard passed directly below Rowe and paused a few feet away, just as the other one had, and then he was turning, continuing his circuit around the house.
When the second guard left their sight, Rowe had slithered out of the tree and to his next hiding spot near the raised porch of the schoolhouse, disappearing completely into the shadows. The man moved as if he were pure liquid rather than muscle and bone. There was no rustle of the dead grass. No whisper of cloth. There was no sound at all. Hollis had never seen anything like it. Lucas’s boyfriend Andrei came fucking close in the way he tended to ghost through a room, but Rowe…he was just so damn used to the man being such a large presence when he was around that he couldn’t fathom Rowe as silent as the Grim Reaper.
As the first guard reappeared around the back corner of the old clapboard building, Hollis tightened his grip on the gun held down at his side. The gun was a last resort. They couldn’t use it without everyone in the place realizing they were there. And if they couldn’t take the building by surprise, then they really didn’t have a shot at taking it safely. He cupped his free hand around the bottom of his other hand to steady his aim. The temperature had dropped at least ten degrees with the setting of the sun and the wind had picked up, cutting through the valley. It rattled the trees, helping cover up any noise he made as he shifted his own stance to better brace himself. The muscles in his legs burned and his knees ached. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes and stung as the cold chilled the liquid as it threatened to slip down his cheeks. Why couldn’t they have done this during the summer months?
