Page 47 of Joshua's Mistake
She must have blocked him or maybe he was too distracted. He never heard her wake up or approach. She was in his T-shirt and the shorts from earlier today. Her hair fell softly around her face.
“We could run,” he said.
She moved forward and leaned against him. He slid his arm around her waist. “Where would we go that he won’t find us?”
“There are some places in the mountains that would take him a long time to find. I have a little hut in Peru where we could stay a long time before he’d locate us.”
She shrugged. “What if one of the powers he’s developed is divination? Then it wouldn’t take more than a few days. We can’t run. We have to fight.”
“Fighting may get us killed.”
“Running will get us no better.” She grabbed for the grapes.
“What about that thing you do?” Will spoke around a mouth full of fruit.
She was watching him. Her curiosity just shot up about ten degrees. He tried to ignore her stare. “I can only get off one or two shots and then I need a power source. It’s not useful in an open battle. That’s why I only use it in retreat situations.”
Will’s eyes brightened. “Could you fight with a sixty-pound pack on your back?”
“Of course. What do you have rolling around in that thick skull of yours?”
“What are you two talking about?”
His old friend was practically jumping out of his skin. “Come on. Let’s show her and maybe we can strategically place a few things.”
Joshua shook his head and grinned at his friend’s ingenuity and enthusiasm. He turned to Tessa. “We’d better put some shoes on.”
He could practically hear the barrage of questions she had in her beautiful mind. He gave her a little shove toward the bedroom. “Come on. I have a pretty good idea what Will is thinking. Get shoes and we’ll show you.”
Once everyone was more suitably dressed and wearing shoes Will made a dash for the door. As he approached someone knocked. The all looked at each other and took up defensive positions near the door. Will opened a drawer in the console and removed a handgun.
“Open up, it’s Trip and Wanda,” Trip’s voice called through the door.
Joshua relaxed and Will smiled, opening the door. “What are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
Trip said, “No way we could sleep tonight so we thought we’d come by and see what preparations were being made. I managed to talk three more troops into joining us and everyone’s coming at dawn. Were you going somewhere?”
“To the shed.” Will hadn’t lost any of his enthusiasm for the project.
Joshua followed with the rest trailing behind. Wanda asked Tessa, “What’s in the shed?”
“No idea.”
To an outsider, the grounds looked as if they were an ordinary private airport, but Will had designed it that way to keep people from poking around. Of course, he had a hangar for planes, but he had a small one for storage items and the dojo plus his unusual house. On the exterior they were blank metal buildings with few windows and no frills. On the inside almost nothing was as it seemed. They’d only crossed half the hundred-yard distance to the shed when all five looked to the sky for the distinct sound of a small airplane approaching.
Will rushed back toward the house. A minute later the runway lights popped on and he jogged back smiling. “It’s just Kane.”
It had never occurred to Joshua that he’d missed his brother or that Kane showing up would give him such a sense of relief. Still, it washed over him as if he’d been actively anticipating his brother’s arrival and with it came a sense of calm. Maybe everything would be all right.
Tessa’s fingers entwined with his. She must have sensed the change in him. When he looked into her eyes, he knew she understood. How could she know him so well in so short a time? What was it between them that made her so important to him?
One thing was certain, he could not lose her. Not now. Not after just finding her. He would find a way to keep her safe and keep her with him.
The jet engine roared as the plane came into sight and touched down on the runway, slowing as it rolled closer. Joshua moved toward where it would likely stop when another familiar sound stopped him.
“Helicopter.” He had to shout over the din of engines and propellers.
The pop of automatic weapon fire sent all but Will running back toward the house. From the front door, Joshua watched Will continue to the shed.
