Phoenix Fire (Book 2 in the Winter's Series)

Chapter Thirteen: Little Red Boat

"How are they finding us so fast?" I ask, my frustration growing as the boat draws near.

"I'm not sure." He replies, getting up and standing beside me.

"Can you fight?" I ask nodding toward his limp arm.

"I don't need the metal arm to be useful. It's just an asset that I use and I can hold my own without it." He says confidently. I shouldn't underestimate him like I did. I know he's capable with or without his arm. "How many are we looking at?" He asks and I use my vision to count the agents coming for us.

"Nine. Should be easy." I say rolling my shoulders back and cracking my neck. "Hand me that rifle." I say pointing to the duffel bag. He noisily goes through the bag and pulls out the rifle. Handing it to me, I open the window and take aim at the base of their boat.

"Lets see the damage this baby can do." I say as I pull the trigger. The entire boat blows up in a ball of flames. "Told you it would be easy." I say standing up from crouching to aim through the window. I hear two other motors coming. "They weren't alone, to more boats coming in." I say opening the door to head to the roof.

"Be careful if they have those rifles too we're done for."

"Right good point." I say tossing the rifle up so that I can pull myself up on the roof. My leg burns from being used but I push past it. I lay prone on the roof while I search the water for the boats. I hear one from behind me and I flip over to look down the sights. Eyeing the boat I take aim and pull the trigger. The other comes in from my left and I turn to aim. They fire a shot toward the house and everything happens in slow motion.

Moving entirely on instinct I switch my sights to the medium sized bullet coming this way. I pull the trigger and immediately switch back to the boat before firing a second shot. I wait for a few minutes to make sure that the last boat was actually the last one coming for us. I move to the edge of the roof and look down. Bucky stands below me and looks up to me. I hand down the rifle before attempting to lower myself down.

I feel a warm hand on my waist and a strong grip helps me touch down on the wooden platform of our balcony. Silently he helps me inside and sits me down. His lips are moving but nothing is coming out of his mouth. He shakes my shoulder and I knit my eyebrows in confusion.

"What are you saying? I can't hear you." I say tilting my head to the side. The sound that starts to come through is like I'm stuck underwater.

"Hey... Wake up." An extremely muffled voice says to me.

"Wake up? I am awake." I reply in deeper confusion.

"Eden wake up love." A southern accent fills my ears and I recognize the voice. Jesse, but he's not here.

"Eden wake up please. Wake up." I shake my head to try and clear it. What's going on. Why is Jesse telling me to wake up. I clutch my head and bang it against the back of the couch.

Suddenly I'm jolted awake. I spring up and knock my forehead against someone else's. I hissing noise draws my attention and I look up while clutching my throbbing head.

"Wha- Who- Bucky god you have a hard head." I spit out rubbing the ache away. He only grunts in response and moves away from me.

"Eden, love, I'm glad you've returned to us. You gave Soldier Boy here a scare earlier or so I've heard from him at least. " Jesse says, greeting me with a smile. I've missed him so much, it's been way too long since we last spoke but with everything that happened I hope he can understand why.

"I wasn't scared, I was just taken by surprise when I heard her fall in the kitchen." Bucky corrects Jesse's statement from before. I fell?

"What are you talking about? I didn't fall. There were agents coming to get us I used the rifle to shoot them down. Don't you remember? There were three boats. I- You helped me. You remember right?" I ask dumbfounded. I look at Bucky desperately to confirm my account of what happened, but I'm met with him shaking his no.