Free Hidden Flames by Kennedy Layne Page B

their best to get the remaining residents to believe that they would be better off staying in that area than leaving. “He’s trying to keep the peace in the valley, which isn’t an easy thing to do. The town has maybe fifty residents, give or take. They’re about to have a town hall meeting to discuss their options. There are some strong personalities to deal with. You’ve heard me talk about Ernie. Well, he’s what you would call a prepper and has even managed to turn an old mine into a bunker that would rival those on that television show. Shit, he could probably give Mt. Weather a run for their money.”
    “Can that many people fit inside?” Prue asked, her head turning his way. It was dark and he couldn’t fully make out her expression. She’d arranged herself just far enough away that it made him want to shift his sleeping bag closer to her. “You can’t tell me he has the supplies to take care of that many people for an extended amount of time.”
    “Yes, but I don’t think they’ll need it,” Owen said, putting himself in Mav’s shoes and giving her a scenario of how he thought things would play out. “Ernie and Mav will probably convince those that stay to move up to the lodge. He certainly has space for all of them and from what Mav has told me, Ernie feels the fishing lodge is well enough protected by the elements that we can all survive there for a very long time. Let’s face it…the National Guard is not going to be able to search every square inch of the United States for survivors. They’ll hit the major areas in hopes that people have worked their way to the cities or to the coasts.”
    “Why me?” Prue’s question came out of left field and she’d said the inquiry so softly that he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. Owen waited a few moments to see if she’d follow up, but she remained silent and still. It was as if she was holding her breath for an answer and he wasn’t so sure she was ready to hear it. “You said you were raised in foster homes around the area, but you didn’t contact any of them before we left town. Why?”
    “I haven’t spoken to anyone I met while growing up in foster care for well over fourteen years,” Owen admitted, responding to her second question first. He leaned back against his pack as he settled in to have this conversation. It would take them some time to wind down anyway and it was the first time that she’d ever asked him about his past. He was an open book and would tell her anything she wanted to know. “I was a handful. I was in and out of foster homes for years until I joined the Marines. There was no one in particular with whom I had a connection until I met Ernie and the guys. We gravitated toward each other because all of us in some way were alone and enduring the same hardships. The military was our way of life. My fellow Marines became a family and the bond between us during our combat tours brought us even closer. They are my family…my brothers. We might have had different paths and experiences in getting to where we were, but we would lay our lives down for each other if it ever came to that.”
    Owen stopped talking, moving his head an inch to the right. He thought he’d heard something from the front of the campsite, but there was nothing now. He glanced toward Prue who hadn’t given any indication she’d caught the noise. He remained on alert as he answered what she really wanted to know and hoped that his honesty would be a catalyst to her sharing something with him.
    “You’ve been at the shop for over a year, Prue. You mean more to me than just an employee and you know it. Hell, I’m relatively sure you don’t even think of me as your boss anymore. You have your own agenda and I just happen to own the place where you work on the machines that you love. You’re a contradiction in everything you say and do. And that kiss…” Owen shifted and pushed his pack back against his bike so that he was lying flat on