Shadow Falling (The Scorpius Syndrome #2) (25 page)

Lynne opened her mouth, no doubt to argue, but Vinnie grabbed her arm and tugged her to the road. “Let’s regroup when we’re not facing down five twitchy men.” She didn’t allow Lynne to halt and kept on walking down the road, finally releasing a sigh of relief when the men didn’t follow them.

“For a petite little thing, you sure have a good grip,” Lynne murmured, tugging her arm free. “How crazy is that guy?”

“As a cult leader, I’d say he’s motivated, ordained, and buck-assed nuts,” Vinnie said.

Lynne chortled. “Is that your professional opinion?”

Vinnie nodded. “Close enough.”

Lynne slipped an arm through Vinnie’s. “I saw you reading a letter. It had to be the mysterious one from Raze. What did it say?”

Vinnie pressed her lips together, wanting to confide in her friend but needing to give Raze options. “I’d prefer to discuss it with Raze first, if you don’t mind.” Then maybe she could talk Raze into going to Jax.

Lynne sighed. “Fine, but I can only give you the day. At that point, I have to tell Mercury. My loyalty is to him.”

Vinnie nodded. “Agreed. For now, we have a meeting to get to, and we’d better report on the Pure. I’m worried about the women and kids, and maybe some of the other men. That guy has an agenda that might include taking out Scorpius survivors. He’s looney.”

Lynne barked out a laugh. “Is a shrink supposed to use that term?”

Vinnie shrugged. “Only when it fits. And in this situation, believe me, it fits.”

Raze
kicked back in the chair in the Vanguard meeting room as the rest of the group filed in. Somebody had brought in an executive conference table with inlaid oak paneling that morning. The thing probably weighed a ton and looked as out of place in the dismal room as a tuxedo or ball gown would have.

Vinnie sat across from him, next to Lynne, not meeting his eyes. Had he been too rough with her the previous night? He tried to get her attention, but she focused steadfastly on Jax, who stood near the head of the table.

Sami sat at the foot, and Tace loped inside to pull out the chair next to Raze. “Where’d we get the fancy table?” Tace murmured, shoving the last bite of what looked like a Pop-Tart into his mouth.

Lynne stood and crossed to a rickety card table holding coffee. “Jax told a scouting group to get more tables for the mess hall, as well as for the dining room inner territory, and they got their wires crossed.” She poured a glass and absently stirred in what looked like brown sugar.

Jax sighed. “I meant picnic tables or even kitchen tables.”
He frowned at the decadent monstrosity. “This is big enough to fit us all, though.”

Raze pushed away from the table and crossed to drop into Lynne’s vacated seat next to Vinnie. She stiffened and still didn’t look at him.

Lynne smirked and kept stirring as she walked around the table to claim his former seat.

“Reports,” Jax said, remaining on his feet. “Tace.”

Tace leaned forward. “Five new cases of Scorpius inner territory hospital. Two died yesterday, three still hanging on. Vitamin B stock is holding steady. We have four hundred and twenty people who need monthly injections, and at that rate, we have enough B to last one more month.”

“That’s good,” Jax said.

“Not really.” Tace shook his head. “When new folks get the fever, or when people show up fighting the fever, which keeps happening, we have to give them at least five doses during the dangerous phase. At this rate, going on statistics, we’re out of B in three weeks.”

Raze slid his boot beneath Vinnie’s chair to touch her foot, and she kicked it away. He bit back a grin.

“Blue?” Jax asked.

Lynne sipped her coffee. “Tace and I are about three-fourths through the newest research, and it’s confirming two things. First, with the right concoction of the mutated squid that turned my heart blue, combined with several substances, we can make an inoculation of sorts so we won’t need injections any longer. With the right lab, which I do not have.”

“And second?” Jax asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I think the Bunker does exist. There are too many references to it in the lab documents, and there are shipping manifests where important samples came from a place just called ‘TB.’ It’s out there, and it probably has not only a working lab but samples of the mutated squid.” Lynne
tapped her fingers on the table. “Our prime mission has to be finding the Bunker. Period.”

Raze tugged on Vinnie’s hair, and she jerked her head free. His eyebrows lifted of their own accord.

Jax nodded. “Noted. Sami?”

The pretty brunette twirled a knife in her nimble hands. “We just finished training a new group of scouts. They’re all older than sixteen, but man, some of them are young. New missions will focus on food, weapons, and medicine. Like usual. The self-defense training is going well, but the Pure group has backed out of all involvement.”

“Raze?” Jax asked.

Raze breathed out. “Ripper attack last night, as I already told you. These were rough and tumble—crazy with the drive to kill. I’m concerned there are more organized Ripper groups out there being led by smart, logical, calculating sociopaths, and they’re going to hit us from a surprise direction.”

“I agree,” Jax said. “Right now, the president is the Ripper I’m most concerned with, but we need to keep our ears to the ground for other threats.”

“What about sending out scouts to encampments?” Raze asked. “When I was traveling west, I stopped often to get news. You’d be surprised at how many nomads out there are going from camp to camp, trading wares.”

“Come up with a strategic proposal, and we’ll work on it,” Jax said. “Any news on the Mercs?”

“No,” Raze said, nudging Vinnie’s chair with his knee.

She kept her back to him and her face to Jax.

Jax eyed the two. “Vinnie? News?”

She jerked. “Um, I’ve been meeting with people and trying to help. No threats to report.” She cleared her throat. “Except Lynne and I had a run-in with Reverend Lighton as well as a few of his men. And I emphasize the word
men
for a reason.”

Raze
grabbed Vinnie’s chair and spun it in his direction. “You did what?”

Jax’s gaze slashed to Lynne. “What?”

Lynne cleared her throat. “Vinnie and I decided to take a walk because it stopped raining, and we ended up in what’s now considered Pure territory. The reverend nicely told us to leave.”

Raze’s body clenched, and he rolled Vinnie’s chair flush against his. “Did he threaten you?”

Vinnie shook her head, tried to turn her chair around, and gave up with a muffled curse. “Not really. I mean, he said not to come back, but it wasn’t exactly a threat.”

“It was a threat,” Lynne countered. “He tried to intimidate us with talk of purity and survival, and he had four other guys with him. Only guys. He said Pure women know their place.”

“That’d be convenient,” Raze snapped.

Both Lynne and Vinnie turned harsh glares on him.

He ignored Lynne and met Vinnie’s gaze evenly.

Vinnie lowered her chin in pure defiance. “We need to get inside that group to see what’s going on. If there are women or kids being abused in this new world order of his, we need to stop it.”

Jax cleared his throat.

Raze reluctantly allowed Vinnie to turn her chair. Oh, they were nowhere finished with this discussion.

“I created Vanguard to be a safe place for its citizens,” Jax said. “There should never be a threat inner territory, and you should all be able to freely move around. This is a problem.”

“What do you want to do about it?” Sami asked. “I think we should kick the reverend and his flock out.”

“Not with women and kids, if they want to stay,” Jax said. He drew out a chair and sat. “Suggestions?”

Vinnie leaned forward. “We need to meet with the
members of the Pure individually to see what they want to do. Make sure nobody is being coerced.”

Jax nodded. “I agree. We still don’t have any idea who’s involved and what kind of weaponry they’ve accumulated. I know what’s missing from the storage units, but these folks might have been scouting and hiding weapons for months.”

Tace nodded. “I have no clue who has been infected and who hasn’t, so I don’t know who’s in the flock. Many of his so-called order could be our soldiers. They’re armed, and they know how to fight,” Tace said.

“So even if I decided to kick them out, we don’t know how spread out they are or who the members are. Damn it.” Jax slammed his fist on the table. “It’s bad enough what’s left of the government is going to launch an attack on us, not to mention Twenty and other rogue gangs and the fuckin’ Mercs up north, but now I have organized resistance
inside
Vanguard?”

“We need a mole,” Raze said.

Jax clasped his hands on the table. “All right. We move forward on both fronts. Who’s close to April Snyder?”

Vinnie nodded. “I’m not close to her, but she was one of the people who came in yesterday.”

“Did she mention Pure?” Jax asked.

“No. She talked about loss and pain.” Like most people. “She seemed so alone, I don’t think she’s part of any group.”

Jax wiped bruises on his knuckles. “Okay. Tace? Set up a meeting with the good reverend here at headquarters to happen tomorrow after we have more information. He comes to us. Raze? Please find April Snyder and send her in right now. We’ll meet with her to see if she’s up to working with us. Doc Vinnie? I’d like you to stay here and profile her while we chat. That’s different from meeting with her as a shrink, right?”

“Definitely,” Vinnie
murmured. She straightened in her chair.

Raze could almost see the wheels in her head turning as she realized that Vanguard needed her. She’d finally found a calling in this new world. Her small smile lifted his heart and warmed him throughout.

“What about me?” Lynne asked, dropping her plastic cup in the garbage.

“Keep researching. I don’t want you near the reverend with that blue heart. Not right now anyway. We might put you two together later and let the doc watch and profile.” Jax kicked back. “Raze? I believe we have a meeting around suppertime?”

Raze pushed away from the table. The meeting where he was supposed to confess all to Jax. “Yep. See you then.” He had to figure out a way to put Jax off for the night, so he could go find Maureen and bring her home. For now, Raze had another woman to deal with. He pulled out her chair. “Vinnie? We need to talk.”

“I need her here,” Jax said levelly. “As soon as we’re finished with April Snyder, you two can chat.”

Vinnie turned then and looked at Raze for the first time that afternoon. To call her gaze chilly would be a gross understatement. “You can count on it.”

Raze paused. Why did that sound like a threat?

The room temporarily cleared, leaving only Vinnie and Jax. “Thank you,” she said as he slid a full cup of coffee between her hands. A battery-operated warmer had kept the coffee warm all afternoon. “Can we afford the battery usage?”

“Byron says we can,” Jax said, blowing on his cup and retaking his seat. “Have you met him? Brilliant seventeen-year-old nerd who’s going to be a father. Hopefully. He can
create batteries out of nothing, but he can’t remember to sheath his dick. Knocked up a sixteen-year-old girl.”

Vinnie nodded. “I’ve seen them around. Cute kids. Besides, since when do teenagers remember condoms? Really.”

“Good point.” Jax straightened as April Snyder walked into the room. “Hi.”

April hovered near the doorway, a pretty woman with sad blue eyes and classic features. She appeared to be in her early thirties. “You wanted to speak with me?”

“Yes.” Jax’s voice gentled. “Would you come in and sit down?”

April sat down and crossed her arms in a clearly defensive posture.

“It’s okay,” Vinnie murmured, keeping her voice soothing. “Jax just has a couple of questions and a job for you to do, but only if you’re interested. He needs some help.”

April’s arms uncrossed, and she leaned forward just a little. “Oh. I’m glad to help.”

Jax glanced from Vinnie to April, his gaze thoughtful. “Are you familiar with Reverend Lighton and his, ah, group?”

April straightened, and a tinge of pink colored her high cheekbones. “Um, well, I know who they are.”

Jax’s gaze narrowed. “Have they approached you?”

Vinnie leaned back to draw his attention. He needed to be gentle with April.

April swallowed. “Yes, the group has approached me.”

“When and how?” Jax asked.

April glanced at Vinnie.

“It’s okay, April. You haven’t done anything wrong.” Vinnie reached out and patted April’s arm.

April’s head snapped up. “About three weeks ago, before my daughter passed, a woman named Violet struck up a conversation with me about Scorpius. She hadn’t been
infected, and neither had I, and we talked about how likely it would be for us to catch the bacteria.”

“Go on,” Jax said quietly.

“Well, that was about it. Just a conversation, you know?” April drummed her trimmed fingernails on the table. “Then a few days after my daughter’s funeral, the reverend approached me and offered to pray with me for her soul.”