Touched by his words, she put her arms around his waist and hugged him tight. “I don’t do enough to take care of you.”
“We can rectify that after you’ve showered, eaten and rested,” he said with a wicked leer, sliding his hands down her back to cup her butt. “Work off the after action pent-up energy together.”
“Sounds good to me.” She thumped his combat vest. “Without all the hardware in the way.”
It’s a plan.” He led her toward the doors. “We are going on a pre-dawn raid, though.”
Melly stopped and stared at him, a chill running through her. “We are? What do you mean?”
“Not you, my love. My team and I are riding out with the Mayor and his town guard to eliminate the threat from Ruger. His Honor and I had a quick chat earlier and we agreed the time has come to rid Millersville of the threat. We can’t erase the infected swarms but we can certainly eliminate a cockroach like Ruger. Cody’s keeping tabs on Ruger’s camp with his drones and we’re seeing signs he might be going to pull up stakes and go somewhere else. I’m not prepared to stand by and let another poor town like Verder’s Ford get overrun by the bastard. Also word of Ruger’s end will spread so other would-be warlords need to watch their step. No one knows who we are or where we are so we could be anyplace, ready to fight.”
“I know it’s what you do,” she said, “But I’ll worry until you and the others come back safe and sound.”
“Never had someone to worry about me before,” he said, giving her a side hug. “I like it.”
* * *
It was a short ride from the hospital to the house the mayor had assigned to them. Tamsyn was grateful to see APC2 parked in the driveway as Zach pulled APC1 onto the lawn.
“They’ve only cleared a small portion of the town so far,” Cody said to her as they exited APC1. “He told the captain he sends teams out daily to go through the streets and buildings eliminating infected. It seems to be working for them.”
“Such a plan would take forever in a place like the capital city,” Melly said over her shoulder. “Street by street, building by building…”
“Well it’s not happening any time soon,” Jeff said as he held the door open for the women to enter the house. “A problem for the far future if ever.”
Buddy came bounding up to them, Mike not far behind. He wrinkled his nose at his sister’s disheveled appearance and the stains on her clothing. “Rough day?” he asked.
“The worst,” she said. “I’m headed for the shower.”
“Team meeting at dinner,” Jeff said as Melly started up the stairs. Hand on the banister, the doctor paused and turned, raising her eyebrows.
“Something I need to know?” she asked.
“Plans for the next few days,” Jeff said.
“We’re not leaving Millersville yet,” Melly said. “I told you, I have to follow up on my patients and I don’t even know what the condition of the mayor’s wife is yet.”
“I think you’ll be satisfied, doc.”
“Hey,” Cody said to Tamsyn, “I’m going to help with dinner. Can you manage okay by yourself?”
She had to laugh. “Of course I can. Today was long and hard but there were rough days at the ranch too, believe me. Not so many lives at stake there of course, thank goodness. At least I’m not saddle sore on top of everything else. As soon as Melly’s done with her shower, I’ll take one so I might be a bit late to dinner. Don’t worry.” She patted his chest and went to the stairs. “Save me a plate of whatever’s on the menu, okay?”
By the time she got to the dining room off the kitchen, the others were seated, although Ryan was missing, outside on guard duty. Cody had taken her at her word and set up a heaping plate of pasta for her, as well as breadsticks and a salad. She slid into her chair next to him gratefully.
He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Feeling better?”
“Feeling human again,” she said, twirling noodles on her fork.
“All right, now we’re all gathered, let me lay out the immediate plans,” Jeff said, tapping his fork against his water glass. Sitting at the head of the table, he was very much in team leader mode. “Tomorrow morning the team and I have a predawn mission. We’re riding with the Mayor’s forces to take out Ruger before he can regroup or slip away. Melly, Tamsyn and Mike will be at the Mayor’s home, guarded by his security forces while we’re gone. Much as I hate to leave the three of you without our protection, I need my whole team in the field. You can do your exam of the mayor’s wife,” he said to Melly.
“Good. I’ll need certain pieces of my equipment from the cargo hold before you take off,” she said.
From the calm way the doctor was taking the announcements, Tamsyn assumed Jeff had already given her a heads up. She was torn between approval that the soldiers were going to help remove the continued threat of Ruger’s thugs and not liking Cody going into combat. Which is ridiculous because whatever he may be to me, he’s a soldier first.
As if reading her mind, Cody squeezed her hand. “It’ll be fine. This is what we do for a living.”
“I plan to remain in Millersville for at least a week,” Jeff informed them. “That gives the doc time with her patients and me time to gather intel on Glastine. The Mayor said there are a few people in town who have been there and he’s going to arrange for me to talk to them, get a feel for the place. Craft an approach for insertion and more importantly for extraction. I don’t plan to get stuck there.” He had a wry grin and the other men made sounds of agreement.
