Scavenger Falters (The SkyRyders Book 2) Read online

  Scavenger Falters

  Book 2 of The SkyRyders Series

  By Liza O’Connor

  All Rights Reserved

  Any copying or recording is forbidden without the written permission of the author reproduction of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, electronic except that allowed by Amazon.

  In other words: if you buy this book anywhere other than Amazon, it’s a pirated copy. Please support Authors instead of Pirates. They often carry viruses.

  We are much nicer.

  All characters in this book come from the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names, titles or professions. They are not based on or inspired by any known individual and any resemblance to a person living or dead is purely coincidental.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  All Rights Reserved

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  A Note on Punctuation:

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Other Books by Liza O’Connor

  A Note on Punctuation:

  Long ago when colonists of the New World got their first printing press, it was evidently a piece of crap. To make the wooden blocks fit better, the operator of the printing press decided all fragile punctuation (periods and commas) would remain within the tall dialogue tags for ease of printing. And thus began the U.S. illogical punctuation rule. Convenience ruled over logic. I understand.

  What I don’t understand is why, in the digital world, we cling to this archaic illogical rule instead of returning to the logical British rule that decides the location of dialogue tags by where it logically resides.

  I’m happy to say, some U.S. e-publishers are returning to the British rule of logic in this matter, and so shall I. Here forth, logical dialogue punctuation will be willfully and purposefully used in my novels. It’s not a mistake or ignorance on my part. It’s a rebellion against illogical rules of the past. I encourage all authors and publishers to overthrow silly habits of the past.

  Blurb

  Alisha Kane, the Corps’ best flyer, is promoted to colonel, in charge of teaching the Corp’s SkyRyders her extraordinary flying maneuvers. The man she loves, Logan, continues to place the Corps first and insists they both remain focused on their work. For Alisha, this means ferreting out the best flyers in a Corps that has systematically forced great flyers into mediocrity. Logan focuses on learning Alisha’s flying techniques so that he can become the hero the East Coast desperately needs. The result includes fractured ribs and broken hearts, but through it all, they never relinquish their love of the Corps.

  Chapter 1

  The day after the devastation of the Broadtown Fort

  Logan woke to the stirring pleasure of soft kisses upon his face and a familiar hot body pressed against him. He opened his eyes, and upon realizing this was more than a pleasant dream, he escaped the bed.

  “Alisha, what are you doing in here?” he demanded of the beautiful young woman who regularly tormented his dreams and presently resided in his bed.

  “Waking you up.” She cocked her head to one side, causing her dark hair to cover her right shoulder. God, she looked so young and adorable fluttering those long eyelashes. “But before we can go any further, I need you to release me from a part of your order.” She climbed out of bed and put her arms around his waist. “The part forbidding me to engage in any physical or seductive actions toward you.”

  Logan unwrapped her hands from around his waist and gently moved her farther away from him. “I can’t. The order remains.”

  “But you love me!” she insisted. “You told me so last night before the mission!”

  Logan sighed. He led her back to the bed and sat her down on the edge. “Alisha, I’ve always loved you. I think I may have loved you from the moment I set eyes on you.”

  “It was the same for me!” she confessed.

  He smiled and stroked her face. “But all that love doesn’t change the facts. I’m your commanding officer, I’m too old for you, and you can and will do better. My orders remain.”

  ***

  Alisha didn’t understand. How could he acknowledge that he loved her and then cruelly push her away on such flimsy excuses? How could he love her yet be so cruel? “If nothing’s changed, then why did you even tell me last night that you loved me? Why did you give me hope?” she demanded.

  He stroked her hair. “I knew there was a high probability that neither of us were going to live through that battle, and I couldn’t let you die thinking I had never loved you.”

  Alisha studied his face, frustrated by his stubbornness. How could she reach him? “You seem to think that our love is bad for me, but it’s not. It’s the only thing that kept me alive—kept us all alive. That battle was won because you admitted the truth!” She could no longer control the aching pain and anger inside her, and it burst out in a river of tears.

  He gathered her in his arms, and it felt so good, so warm and safe. Yet, she knew it was all a lie. There was no warmth or safety within his arms, because he was too damned stubborn to admit the love between them was right.

  “Hush,” he soothed. “You don’t want to upset your gramps now.”

  “Don’t even try to distract me with Gramps. If he knew why I was crying, he’d kick your butt.”

  “You’re probably right there,” Logan admitted. “As much as your grandfather and I like each other, he knows I’m too old for you.”

  She struck his chest with her fist. “Stop saying that!” she demanded. “You’re not too old! And I’m not as young as I look. And our ages don’t matter. We love each other and that’s all that matters.” So she was twenty-one and he fortysomething. Who cared in a world where neither of them were likely to live for long?

  Colonel Logan captured her hand in his and turned her so she faced him. “It isn’t even close to all that matters. It doesn’t even make the top five priorities.”

  “Name one thing more important!” she demanded.

  “Your career in the Corps.”

  “I don’t care about my career…”

  “Then you’re a fool. You have a rare ability to make real changes and contributions to the Corps. Look at your first two battles. Without you, hundreds of Ryders would have died. Ginnie, Jersey, and Philly—all dead if you hadn’t been there. And don’t say anyone could have stepped up to the challenge, because you know that’s not true. At this p
oint in time, there’s only you, and until your techniques can be taught and transferred to other Ryders, there is nothing more important than your contributions to the Corps.”

  Alisha wanted to tell him he was wrong, but how could she? She’d only convince him she was a petulant child. Would she really place her own happiness over the lives of hundreds of Ryders? A part of her wanted to do just that, and her selfishness shamed her to the core. She never hesitated to risk her life for the Corps—why was this sacrifice so much harder?

  Because when you’re dead, the pain stops. Living without Logan will be a never-ending agony.

  She pushed away the thought and sighed heavily. “All right, I’ll concede that my contributions to the Corps should take precedence right now, but can’t I have both? Is there some law that says I must be unloved while I save the world?”

  Colonel Logan gave her a sad, gentle smile and stroked her face. “You’ll never be unloved, Alisha. Everyone who meets you will love you. And someday, when you can risk a few distractions in your life, you’ll meet some young man and fall in love again.”

  “I will not,” she replied, her voice quivering with emotion. “I will never love anyone but you.”

  “You think that now, but trust me, time will heal.”

  Alisha couldn’t listen to any more of this. He had made it clear that nothing had changed. He refused to see there might be a compromise, a way she could contribute to the Corps and be happy at the same time. However, to listen to him demean the intensity and durability of her love for him: that was more than she could bear! She ran from his room and down the hall.

  Her heart ached with a paralyzing intensity as she entered her bedroom and leaned against the door. Her heart hurt so much, she truly couldn’t breathe. She slid to the floor as gray dots appeared in her vision. Her last thought before blacking out was: So you really can die of a broken heart…

  ***

  She opened her eyes in confusion as Gramps knocked on her door.

  “Alisha?” he called from the other side. “Breakfast is ready.”

  “I’ll be right there,” she promised him. “I just need to change into my clothes.” What she needed was more time to pull herself together. No, what she needed was Logan to come to his senses, but that wasn’t going to happen.

  She took her time getting ready, including spending several minutes submerging her face in cold water. When she was finally convinced that she bore no obvious signs of the devastation within her, she joined her gramps in the kitchen. She hardened her heart and stiffened her backbone when she saw Logan already seated at the counter, eating.

  “Smells great, Gramps, but you should have let me cook breakfast!” she scolded. “It’s not right for you to be waiting on me.”

  “Well, it’s my house and you two are my guests, so I’ll cook breakfast if I like. Besides, the two of you needed every hour of sleep you could get after last night. That sounded like one hell of a battle. Want to tell me what happened?”

  Alisha hesitated. Her gramps had been a general in the SkyRyders, so he understood the dangers of war. Still her impossible, death-defying role in the battle might upset him. “It was pretty bad, Gramps. You sure you want to hear the details?”

  Daniel pulled out the hot buns and set them on the table. “If it gets too unbearable, I’ll raise my hand,” he promised as he sat down across from her.

  She smiled at his words. When she’d been a little girl, she would make that promise when she begged for a bedtime adventure story from his SkyRyder days. Her mother had declared the stories too frightening for a child. Alisha had insisted if it started to frighten her, she’d raise her hand. She, of course, never did.

  Reaching across the table, she squeezed Gramp’s hand. “Well, to tell the story in full, I’d better tell you about the battle at the Ridge first.” She sighed and began a slightly edited version of her trying two days. She noticed every time she mentioned Jack Sparkes, the colonel’s jaw would clench. So she mentioned Jack often. If she had to suffer, so should the colonel.

  After talking through the first battle, or a slightly revised, modified version of the first battle, when the doorbell rang, Alisha ran to open the door, saving her gramps the effort.

  She opened the door to the handsome and very tall Colonel Jack Sparks, the hero of her story. She smiled up at him, grabbed his arm, and led him to the kitchen. “Come in! There’s plenty of breakfast.”

  “You look well rested,” Jack said, clearly pleased. He shook hands with her grandfather and nodded at Logan.

  “That bread smells fabulous!” He looked at Alisha. “Don’t tell me you can cook too?”

  “Well, I can, but you’ll have to take my word on it. Gramps made breakfast, and everything is absolutely delicious. Sit down and eat,” she playfully commanded, pushing him down onto a stool next to hers, then retrieved a plate and silverware from the kitchen for him.

  Gramps smiled at Jack. “Alisha was telling me about her rather amazing battles. I hope you don’t mind if she continues. She’s left it off in a bit of a cliff-hanger.”

  Alisha sat back down beside Jack and reached over and filled his plate with eggs and bacon and two hot rolls. “We’re at the point where the compound is surrounded with snipers, the mortar shells are slowly munching away the fort, while all help is being held off by ten concussion launchers.”

  Jack looked at her grandfather. “While she tells this story, just keep reminding yourself that she’s alive and well on the other side of the table, because I can promise you that you aren’t going to like what you hear.”

  Alisha stuffed a roll in Jack’s mouth to stop him from talking. “Just raise your hand, and I’ll stop the story,” she assured her grandfather, noticing that Colonel Logan was not at all happy with the way she flirted with Jack.

  If it bothers you, then do something about it! With a deep breath, she continued her description of her mission impossible.

  The humor was gone by the time she spoke of the endless hours she’d lain on the west bank and watched the SkyRyders massacre every last one of the enemy. She hadn’t realized she was trembling until Jack took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

  He stroked her head, leaving his hand resting on the back of her neck. “When my communication officer said that a ground crew had captured a woman claiming to be Captain Kane, I knew it had to be an imposter. There was no way she could have survived the explosion and her tumble into the Cully River. I had only hoped she was unconscious when the meat-eaters reached her.”

  “So Jack asked me an annoying and personal question,” Alisha declared, wishing to move away from the discussion of the large carnivorous fish that populated the Cully.

  Jack laughed and nodded. “She answered it correctly and then proceeded to yell at me for having the nerve to ask it.”

  “The ground soldiers brought me to Jack, and then Jack brought me here. Jack was afraid you’d be upset if I came to the door all muddy and suggested I wait in the jeep.”

  Her gramps shook his head and looked at Jack. “The mud I’ve seen, but if you’d shown up on my door without her…”

  “That’s what I told him,” she said and playfully bumped his arm.

  Jack sighed and stood up. “Regrettably, I have to leave now and take Wonder Woman away with me. General Powell wants a full accounting within the hour.”

  Alisha sighed, handing the jacket back to him. “I’ll go get my flight suit…ah shit! My catcher!” She had disconnected her catcher at a thousand feet before taking her suicide-bombing run behind the concussion launchers. She’d never find it this late. It had probably blown across three states by now.

  “It’s in my jeep outside. As soon as the battle was contained, I sent a squad out to recover it.”

  “Even though you didn’t think I survived?” she asked, pleased by the gesture.

  Evidently, Colonel Logan had reached his breaking point and for the first time in the last hour, he spoke. “Of course he retrieved your catcher.
Even if you were gone, we could still learn and improve our flying techniques by studying your alterations. He wasn’t being kind, Alisha. He was doing his job.”

  Instead of replying to Logan’s rant, Alisha ran to her room and grabbed her flight suit. When she returned to the kitchen, Jack was shaking her gramp’s hand. “Thank you for the breakfast, sir, it was delicious. I’ll have to figure out more reasons to visit you in the mornings, bringing Alisha with me, of course.”

  “Try to keep in mind that Daniel is on a food budget,” Logan warned.

  “Which reminds me.” Jack pulled out a deposit slip. “I had this sent directly to your bank account this morning, sir. I hope that more than covers the costs you’ve incurred boarding these two fine soldiers.”

  Moving close to her gramps, Alisha read the slip of paper in his hands.

  “This is too much!” he insisted.

  “That’s the standard cost of housing officers during an emergency,” Jack assured him.

  Alisha kissed her gramps on his cheek. “You see. It really does pay to let muddy, stinky Ryders into your home.”

  She was glad he was so well rewarded for his efforts. “I gotta go now. The general does not like to be kept waiting,” she explained and walked out of the house, not even acknowledging Colonel Logan. He didn’t deserve acknowledgment after his hateful comment about her catcher.