“What the hell is a generator doing on down here?” Jase asked.

My eyes narrowed on a tarp against the wall. Unlike the other tarps that sat squarely over pallets, this one seemed misshapen and tight against the side of the hull. There, on the edges of the tarp, warm light bled through the edges of the tarp.

“I don’t like this.” I raised my Glock and turned the light on and off three times. A light from the deck above did the same back at us.

Jase turned off his light to have both hands on his rifle. Seconds later, I heard the sounds of boots pounding down the steps.

The tarp moved, and a masculine shape crawled out from under it. “Lay off. I said I’ll check it out.”

As he stood, I leveled the light in his eyes. “Don’t move!”

Philip from the Lady Amore held a hand over his eyes, and then spun around. “Run!”

The tarp was thrown open and two more shapes bolted out.

Jase stepped up to Philip and coldcocked him with the butt of his rifle. The man fell to the ground with a solid thud. The other two ran behind pallets, and we both took off after them.

Jase quickly took the lead and cut between the pallets while I ran straight ahead and took the next chance to get behind the pallets just in time to see Jase tackle a smaller shape.

As he yanked her to her feet, I noticed it was Nikki.

My mouth dropped. Son of a bitch.

“I’ve got her,” Jase said. “Quit wiggling, dammit.”

“Do you need help?” I asked, glaring at the woman.

“No, I’ve got it covered,” he quickly replied.

“Right!” I took off running in the direction the two had been headed. When I reached the end of the barge, I made a hard right and climbed over a pallet of boxes. Pain shot through my scarred leg, reminding me that it wasn’t fully healed. I needn’t have hurried. Several feet away, Kurt had Bill from Sorenson’s crew restrained, while another scout was dragging an unconscious Philip across the shadowed floor.

I headed back to Jase to make sure he had Nikki under control. She must not have behaved, because he now carried her lax form over his shoulder. “The other two guys are secure,” I said. “I’ll check the generator.”

I jogged toward the tarp now hanging limply off to one side. Under it sat two work lights and the small, still-running generator they’d snagged from somewhere. Hooked up to it was the acetylene torch I’d seen Wes use many times. Confused, I went down on a knee and examined the wall of the barge. Chalk lines were drawn to make a large square on the wall, large enough to slide a crate through. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered and jumped to my feet.

I zigged and zagged around pallets and up the steps to the deck, where a small crowd had gathered near the open bay to barge Three. Tyler stood next to Clutch in his wheelchair.

Bill and Philip stood before them, while Nikki—held tight by Jase and Tack—was just coming to.

“—too busy doing whatever it was they were doing, they didn’t even see us coming,” I heard Jase tell Tyler and Clutch as I approached.

“They were going to cut a hole through the hull!” I said breathlessly. In spring, when the water levels would rise, the barge would likely flood. Until then, where the barge was currently located, it made a perfect exit point for dropping supplies onto a small boat hidden between the barges below. “These bastards were going to rob us.”

Frost shook his head slowly. “With all the grain dust around here, they would’ve set the whole barge on fire.”

Tyler cocked his head at the three prisoners. “I made a generous deal with Sorenson for your time and assistance. Tonight, you’ve broken a trust between our communities. We have zero tolerance for theft.”

“It’s not like you don’t have enough to share,” Nikki spat out.

Clutch guffawed. “Does it look like we’re any better off than you? We’ve had to completely uproot our home and are camping on a shipwreck.”

“That barge is full of food and ammunition. I’ve never seen so much in my life,” she retorted.

“Aside from sharing the location of this shelter, the Lady Amore crew hasn’t offered my people a single thing without demanding heavy payment in return,” Tyler said, his voice steady and calm but laced with anger.

“You don’t understand. We are struggling to get by,” Bill said. “Every day, we don’t know if we’re going to find more diesel or more food.”

“Grow a pair,” Clutch scolded. “We’re all fighting to survive here. The world’s a shithole. Deal with it.”

Nikki grunted and twisted out of her captors’ grasp and sprinted forward. Tack reached for her, but she jumped to the side. She must’ve twisted her ankle because she tumbled down and fell partway over the edge. Jase lunged after her, sliding on his belly to grab her, but she swung him away, loosening her hold, and she plummeted into the darkness below.

“Nikki!” Bill shouted.

Her scream was cut off by the sound of her body hitting the hard steel floor nearly twenty feet below. No one ran down to check on her. A drop from this height wasn’t just deadly, it would’ve been messy deadly.

Everyone stood in stunned silence.

“What the hell just happened?” Tyler asked.

Jase climbed to his feet. “I don’t know. She’d been standing so still. Then she just freaked out and tore away.”

“You killed her!” Bill yelled, trying to lunge forward, but his scouts yanked him back.

“No,” Tyler said harshly. “It was an accident. You saw for yourself.”

“The captain’s not going to see it that way,” Philip said quietly. “That’s his daughter down there.”

Clutch grabbed his crutches and pulled himself to his feet. “He’s going to see it that way because you’re going to tell him the truth. You’re going to tell him what you were doing here and exactly what happened. I’m going with you to make sure you do.”

Tack stepped forward. “No, Clutch.” He sighed. “I need to go. She was mine to watch.”

“Bullshit,” Jase said. “She was as much my responsibility. I’m going.”

Tyler watched Tack and Jase for a moment before speaking. “Okay, by morning, the Lady Amore shouldn’t be more than thirty miles or so south of here. You are both going, but under no conditions are you to board the Lady Amore. You drop Sorenson’s daughter and his men in a raft and double-time it out of there. I’ll write a note to make sure he knows the truth. It’s our only shot at keeping our trade agreement. Whatever you do, don’t let them get a bead on you. That’s Sorenson’s daughter lying on the bottom of Number Three. I don’t trust him to be rational when he sees her. You drop the package and run. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” they both replied.

“You-you can’t just dump us in the water,” Philip said. “There are zeds in the water. If it’s shallow at all—”

“You should’ve thought of that before you tried to steal from us,” Tyler interrupted. “The only reason I’m allowing you to return to the Lady Amore—instead of staying on the Aurora for trial—is because of our trade agreement.”

“Just let us go,” Bill cried out. “We’ll tell the Captain the truth. I mean it. You don’t have to worry about anything. Please. Just let us go. Nothing will happen. I swear!”

Tyler ignored Bill’s pleas and instead looked at the scouts holding the thieves. “Get these two out of my sight. Put them in the galley for tonight and keep at least four armed scouts on them at all times.” He then looked to all of us. “I need volunteers to prep Sorenson’s daughter for the trip in the morning.”

Deb, one of the Fox survivors who volunteered for everything, unsurprisingly stepped forward. “I’ll take care of it.”

“I’ll help,” Tack said in a rush.

Deb gave him a sweet smile. “Okay. Thank you.”

As the two headed into the barge, I couldn’t help but grin. Deb may have been ten years his senior, but Tack didn’t seem to care. The two had hit it off the moment she’d arrived at the park, and even though they thought they were hiding their relationship, everyone knew about it.