“He’s a little resistant to it. He has always kept his family private, and, of course, in this case, it’s more family and far more complicated.”
She nodded. “I know.” She hesitated and then said, “I’ll go talk to him.”
As she darted past, Damon wanted to stop her, but, if they would all be working together, they had to figure out how to communicate. He heard their voices, but they weren’t raised, so that was good. He set about opening up all the boxes and doing an inventory to ensure they had received everything they’d asked for. He found the shelving, which he quickly put up, and then started setting out the equipment they needed to work each day, plus the physical security systems. But he still needed to find the cache of weapons. Only a couple more boxes to go. Had they been delivered as well? He would love it if that were the case. By the time he got through the last few boxes, he was overjoyed and grinning like a small boy.
Handguns, a couple semiautomatics, a stash of grenades, lots of artillery, lots of related ammo. He whistled when he got to the last case and found it full—a long-range rifle, with silencer, scope, the whole works. He lifted it up, placed it on his shoulder, and grinned. “Now we’re talking,” he said. “Now we’re talking.”
Of course they still needed some more wheels so they weren’t seen in the same vehicle, plus simple things, like hair dye. He’d done his hair, but he wasn’t so sure that Tasha would be up for the same. When she walked back into the room a little bit later, he looked over at her and asked, “Well?”
“He was pretty reasonable,” she replied. “So we’ve set up some database searches, looking for anything. Celia is still unconscious, so she hasn’t been able to tell anybody anything. Levi’s team did a forensic check of her, but they found not so much as her fingerprints on file anywhere.”
“Of course not,” Damon noted. “These guys are pros.”
“Would they really blow her up? An innocent woman in all this?”
“For these guys, I wouldn’t discount it as their plan B. However, we can’t assume she’s innocent,” he reminded her.
Tasha winced. “I feel like she’s probably very similar to what Wilson was.”
“You mean, roadkill?”
She gasped, and her face paled at the thought.
He winced, rubbing his face, wondering at his own stupidity. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to be quite so harsh.”
“Well, it sounds like it is that harsh,” she agreed, “but you’re right. It is roadkill. I just feel bad for her. The same as for Mera. I wish I could talk to her, but I don’t think she wants anything to do with any of us. And I can’t really blame her,” Tasha said, teary-eyed. “We were never that close, but I thought we were closer than this. I thought that, when the chips were down, we’d pull together.”
“But she’s the one who’s injured, not you,” he murmured. “And sometimes, when people are hurt, they just want to hide away until they feel better. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she makes contact down the road, asking what she can do to help.”
Tasha brightened at the thought. “That would really be great if she did.”
“It would, and we could use the help, couldn’t we?” he asked, with a grin.
She turned and looked around in amazement at the work he’d already done. “You’ve been busy. I didn’t think I was gone all that long.”
“Most of this stuff just needed to be pulled out of the boxes and placed on shelves. I figure, once it’s all on display, we can organize it better and figure out what we’ve got.”
“Did we get everything as ordered? That is the next question.”
“I think so, but I don’t know what he asked for.”
She laughed. “You guys didn’t work out the supply list?”
“Not even sure Terk handed over a supply list. I think he probably just asked them to set us up, loaded for bear.”
“And this is what that looks like, is that it?”
“I presume so,” he said cheerfully. “We have lots of ammunition now. At least we can defend ourselves here.”
She stared at him in surprise. “Anything small that I could keep?”
“Yes.” He walked over. “I thought about you when these came in.” He pointed out a pair of small pistols. “You like these in particular, don’t you?”
She smiled and nodded. She picked up one and hefted the weight in her hand. “This looks about right.”
“There’s also an ankle holster and a shoulder holster that should work with those weapons.” He quickly fitted her with both and asked, “How does that feel?”
“It’s good,” she said in surprise. “Are we wearing these all the time?” He looked at her, as she winced. “Stupid question. Of course we are.”
She loaded the small handgun in her shoulder holster, then bent down and fitted the even smaller one at her ankle, pulling down her pant leg to cover it. “I have a little bit of clothing with me but not a whole lot.”
“You’ve got more than we do,” he said. “I think that last bag there is clothes from Merk. I’m hoping something in there will fit me too.”
“Well, you’re about the same size as Terk,” she noted, “so I wouldn’t be surprised.” At that, she walked over, pulled up the bag, and found that, indeed, it was full of clothing. She unpacked it and laid it out on the table. “Looks like six sets here,” she said. “So three each?”
Terk walked in from the other side. “That was the plan. If we need more, they’ll get us more, but this was an initial order to have for right now.”
“And they were fast,” she noted in surprise.
“Yeah, that’s Levi’s company, everything at their fingertips, including information.”
“Good. In that case, do they know who did this to us?” she joked.
“They’re on it.” Damon’s voice was dead serious. “When they know something, they’ll tell us.”
She looked over at him, her eyebrows raised. “Seriously? They too are hunting down whoever attacked us?”
“Of course,” he replied. “We need all the help we can get, and that’s the only group Terk and I can trust at the moment.”
“Good.” She nodded. “If you trust them, I guess I will too. I know I wasn’t terribly supportive of the idea earlier, but we can’t do this alone.”
“No”—his voice went quiet—“we can’t, so let’s be grateful we have the help that we do.”
They exchanged glances in surprise because a camaraderie was here that Damon didn’t feel they had had between them until now.
Damon asked Tasha, “You’re quite comfortable with him, aren’t you?”
“Of course. We’ve been working together for a while.”
Damon nodded slowly. “You and I have been too.”
“Yeah, but Terk wasn’t giving me the major brush-off like you were.”
He stared at her as she walked past him. “Was it that obvious?”
“Sure it was, and, for the longest time, I wondered what the hell was eating at you. I finally figured out it was your problem, not mine,” she said blissfully.