Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (33 page)

“
Someone’s coming.” Vin
twisted toward the street perpendicular to the front gate of the
manor. “Ten military men and two civilians. Maybe they finally
noticed you’d gone missing from their base.”

Emma adjusted her position so she could
see. “She came.”

Vin gave her a questioning look but she
didn’t take the time to explain. She stood up and walked to the
back of the building, ignoring his warning to get down.

“
Emma,” he whispered as he
caught up to her. “They’ll see you.”

“
We have to get down
there, Vin. I can’t let her go in alone.”

“
Who? That woman with the
soldiers?”

Tears filled Emma’s eyes.

Vin looked startled and backed up a
step. “What did I do?”

Emma tried to smile, but joy battled
against the fear so her mouth couldn’t quite form the right
expression. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Vin. We can’t let her
meet Ben alone. She didn’t bring enough men with her.”

“
Ten
soldiers….”

“
Against Ben’s
dozens.”

“
Lester won’t start a
fight with real soldiers. It will bring the entire base after
him.”

“
If he’s desperate enough,
he will. He’s killed before, my bodyguard and my mother’s. And you
know many others, including Moe, have died on his
orders.”

“
Those were on the fringes
of civilization. No one will ever know about them. This is a big
city on a planet in the inner quadrant.”

Emma realized he didn’t know where they
were. He’d just followed her, not pausing or caring to find out
where he was in the universe. “We’re on Brand, my home planet. This
is the city of Brand.”

“
I’ve heard of Walter
Brand. He was the original partner of Geoff Hadrason and kept him
in line. After he died Hadrason turned to his criminal
ways.’

“
Yes.” Emma searched for a
way down. How did Vin make the climbing look so easy? “Help
me.”

“
You have to stay here,
Emma.”

“
I can’t, Vin. That’s my
mother down there. Ben will kill her for real this
time.”

Chapter Twenty

Emma explained how her mother had faked
her own death after helping Emma disappear. Ben Lester had tied so
many legal knots around them that her mother, Sandra, had feared
for both their lives. With only her trusted attorney at her side,
Nate Ward, Sandra had faked a ship accident and went into hiding.
She and Emma had arranged a secret way to communicate but thought
they could better hide if separated.

Her mother and Nate had expected to
need at least a year to gather the information needed to rid
themselves of Ben Lester. The problem had been whom to
trust.

Vin helped Emma to the ground while she
talked rapidly. “Of course, you and the other Recon Marines exposed
Hadrason and my stepfather, making things easier for my mother. I
expect she would have come out of hiding earlier if you had caught
Ben before now.”

“
I haven’t caught him
yet.” Vin tried to put all the new information into context. “I
thought you said your mother was dead.”

“
I let everyone think that
to protect her.” She touched his face. “I’m sorry, Vin. I have more
explaining to do.”

By the time they rounded the corner of
the building, Emma’s mother and her escort had already passed
through the gate. Vin felt the situation careening out of his
control. Would the soldiers with Sandra treat him like an enemy?
The army believed him dead.

The lock on the closed gate would
resist any thing he could do with his heat laser. Though he could
scale the wall with ease, Emma could not. She walked up to the
identity lock and pressed her thumb on the scanner. The gate swung
open.

Confusion held Vin in place. Why would
the admiral have programmed Emma’s identity into the gate? And her
mother would have had to be an accepted owner of the security also.
His questions went unasked as the whistle of small arms fire broke
the morning stillness. Louder reports of military grade weapons
interspersed. Finally something he understood.

“
Stay here!” he ordered
Emma with no hope she’d obey. He pulled both guns and charged the
massive front door that hung halfway open.

The admiral’s mercenaries raced toward
the same spot from their patrols inside the walls. They handled
their weapons slower than Vin. He aimed for their midsections,
disabling more than killing. Three to the left and then three to
the right. The last two men to fall managed wild shots, showing a
lack of experience in shooting on the run. He leaped up the
entrance steps before all their bodies hit the ground. Emma’s light
footsteps followed a dozen steps behind him.

A dead soldier sprawled two steps
inside the doorway. The grand entrance reminded Vin of one of the
training games from his youth. A chaotic battle raged with the
soldiers cowering in a doorway to the left, firing at the admiral’s
mercenaries taking cover back a wide hallway and holding the high
ground on the curving stairway.

Vin’s first shots took out the two
shooters on the stairs and his next sent the men in the hallway
diving behind padded benches. He protected Emma with his body and
by constant fire as she cried out and hurried towards her mother
and the soldiers.

Sparing the soldiers a glance, Vin saw
at least three more were wounded and no officer crouched among them
to issue orders. So he did. “You three, cover fire back the hall.
Don’t let them move. You with the rifle, keep an eye on the front
door. Emma, stay with your mother.”

Vin took the steps four at a time.
Twelve steps up and he had a better angle on the mercenaries back
the hall. Near the front door, the soldiers gathered their wounded
as their professionalism finally surfaced. They retreated toward
the entrance.

Emma looked up at Vin and gestured for
him to join them.

Vin shook his head and caught the gaze
of the young soldier taking charge of his comrades. Waving his hand
in a short arc, Vin gave the man the hand signal meaning he would
reconnoiter and cover the retreat. To his relief, the soldier
nodded understanding and signaled back agreement with a quick touch
to his chest.

As the group inched outside, Vin
concentrated on the sounds on the second floor. None. He held his
position on the steps with its excellent view until the last
soldier moved outside the front entrance. Then Vin hopped over the
banister and charged back the hallway.

Three wounded mercenaries stared at him
with open mouths as he came upon them in a carpeted room big enough
to sleep a full squadron. Only one managed to lift his weapon
before Vin finished them. He continued through a dining area and
entered a kitchen. Civilians crouched behind a counter. He ignored
them continuing on to a small foyer with a fancy door, twin to the
front one.

Vin jerked the door inward. Backing up
a few steps he took a running jump out the door and sailed twenty
feet beyond the door and onto the thick grass. No patrols wandered
the grounds. He spun and scanned the upper windows and roof. Where
had the admiral gone?

A shout from the front of the castle
jolted him into action. He sprinted faster than he’d ever run in
his life. He recognized the admiral’s commanding voice before he
rounded the corner.

“
Do you want the blood of
these young men on your hands, Sandra?” Lester shouted.

Vin analyzed the scene between one step
and the next. The six unwounded soldiers tried to protect their
three wounded comrades and the two women in their middle. Ten
mercenaries surrounded them and cut off their retreat toward the
street. Nemon blocked the gate all by himself while the admiral
stood on the top steps of the castle and watched the desperate
battle with a dark frown. Vin shot Nemon first.

The rounds Vin used wouldn’t pass
through a body so he didn’t have to worry about innocents as he
fired shot after shot into the enemy. They fell easier than many
he’d killed in battle. Vin’s armor absorbed return fire but most of
their shots missed him as he kept running. Fear that his killing
talents might horrify Emma nagged at him but didn’t stop him from
taking out more of the mercenaries. Three of the men on the far
side of the gate ran.

Vin let the cowards flee and quickly
took out the last four mercenaries before he stopped and turning
toward Ben. Now Emma’s possible opinion stayed Vin’s hand.
“Surrender, Admiral.”

Emma screamed a warning at the same
moment Vin heard him coming. Nemon slammed into him, carrying him
to the ground.

Vin lost one of his guns in the fall
and Nemon wrapped his hand around Vin’s other pistol. Even with his
armor on, Nemon’s massive weight crushed Vin into the grass. The
high grade armor had been designed to withstand high falls and even
explosions. But it didn’t help him throw off three hundred pounds
of muscle. He blocked Nemon’s fist from his unprotected head with
his forearm, but his arm tingled with force of the blow.

Blood ran from Nemon’s side where Vin
had shot him but it didn’t slow him down. He smashed his fist into
Vin’s hand holding the pistol. Bones cracked and the pistol fell
from Vin’s grip.

Someone shot Nemon in the shoulder, his
blood showering on Vin. Nemon flinched, but he still brought his
hands together to form a double fist. A mad gleeful expression
distorted the man’s features as he swung his hands toward
Vin.

Vin crossed his arm and caught the
blow. But Nemon leaned into Vin’s block. He held the press but
couldn’t raise the weight and pressure away from his body. The
soldiers shouted at Nemon, but the mercenary ignored them. His dark
eyes looked into Vin’s with hunger, a hunger to take the life
before him. Vin’s arms quivered with the strain of holding the
giant back. His broken hand throbbed in time with his pounding
heart.

An awful grin, full of perfect teeth
but as feral as a wild beast, spread across Nemon’s face. He flexed
and called forth a reserve of strength. He grabbed Vin’s wrists,
twisting and pulling his arms apart. The armor protected Vin’s
wrists from breaking but as Nemon jerked Vin’s arms apart,
something popped in his left shoulder. Another slug burrowed into
Nemon’s body but he kept coming.

Emma screamed at the soldiers guarding
her, ordering them to stop Nemon. One of the soldiers bravely
closed in on Nemon, his gun raised. But the big mercenary released
Vin’s arm and jabbed his fist in a lightning strike against the
man’s chest. Vin heard bones crack and the man’s weak cry as he
fell into his comrades.

Nemon tore at the fastenings of Vin’s
armored chest plate. Vin struck him with his right elbow, the shock
to his broken hand causing him to almost pass out. A slug cut a
furrow into Nemon’s brow and snapped his head back. He glared at
the people surrounding them as blood ran down his face. Another
bullet tore into the center of Nemon’s forehead. He swayed for a
moment and then toppled forward.

Vin gritted his teeth against a scream
as the large body pressed into his damaged shoulder. He tried to
use his right arm to lever Nemon off of him but he couldn’t move so
much weight with one arm. Then other hands were there, cursing and
dragging Nemon away. Blood from the dead man dripped onto him, and
then one of the soldiers lifting the body stepped on Vin’s smashed
hand. Agony spread across his fingers, and the last of his battle
adrenaline scattered with it. His body answered with
unconsciousness.

* * * *

Emma broke from her mother’s encircling
arms as they dragged the giant away from Vin. More soldiers poured
into the courtyard, running around Vin and Nemon to surround Ben.
Others stopped to help the wounded. Still more jogged around each
side of the manor or entered the front doors. But all she cared
about was getting to Vin.

It took four men to drag Nemon’s bloody
body off of her marine. Emma dropped to her knees beside Vin,
horrified at the amount of blood on his chest and face. His eyes
closed, and it took her a moment to realize he’d passed out. When
she saw the damage to his right hand, her head spun also. As a
physician she knew it was a serious injury with bones sticking out
through the skin in at least three places and blood pouring from
the open fractures. As this amazing man’s lover, her heart skipped
a beat as she imagined the pain he suffered.

Someone gave orders behind her in a
stern voice that would carry across a battlefield or any political
arena. Someone important.

Emma looked over her shoulder and
recognized military rank, high rank with lots of stars on his
shoulders and a stern visage to testify to the earning of them. She
stood up. “General, I need a medic here. Right now!” She knew how
to give orders too.

He narrowed his eyes at her and kept
giving orders to his men. “Full restraints during transport and
during any medical procedures. Four guards at all
times.”

A group of soldiers with a stretcher
politely moved Emma out of the way. She allowed it only so Vin
could get some help.

“
Careful with his hand,”
she warned them, but they picked him up without regard to it
flopping around as they lifted him.