Free Jump Zone: Cleo Falls by Wylie Snow

basic training could have run this mission, yet Cade chose him. Made his gears turn, his skin itch. He knew Cade was acting outside of protocol—nothing new there—but he suspected he didn’t know everything he should about this little jaunt up to the edge of wilderness.
    A test of his loyalty?
    He’d seen it happen to others, lesser men than himself. He witnessed firsthand what happened to those who fell on the wrong side of Cade’s temper. They were sent back to the ranks of the general army, back to patrolling Lower Amerada, back to bashing heads of Drifters and breaking up the occasional skirmish between the human slime that populated the outlands.
    Wasn’t going to happen to him. No way was he giving up the unsanctioned pay packets Cade so generously issued. Or the perks.
    So why play the zhanging boy? It was like throwing a pansy into a cactus garden. Libra, unproven and uncontrollable, was a big fat X in the equation, and Trevayne loathed unknowns. But he didn’t get to the top of Achan’s Elite because he was stupid. He had a Plan B, and as he rendezvoused with his men at the boat, he went over the details in his head. He knew how to deal with the pup and was prepared to subdue the enemy as soon as she was within his sights. He doubted he’d have any trouble taking down a mere girl. Even if she could chuck a spear.

 
    Ten
    “I t’s starting to smell,” Libra said as they made their way back to camp. “I dragged it as far as I could beyond the clearing, but that thing weighs a metric zhang-ton.”
    “I heard a few critters getting close during the night. Last thing we need is a wolverine or a pack of coyotes near camp.”
    “We should think about moving.” He glanced down at the gash at the bottom of her pant leg before taking a decidedly longer time skimming up her body. “Though it would be better for you to stay put and let that leg heal.” When his eyes finally met hers, his tone became entirely seductive. “I could carry you.” Libra’s mouth curled into his signature half-smile so she couldn’t tell if he was being serious or cheeky. Or both.
    He weakened her resolve, her fortitude, and she couldn’t risk being around him too long lest she forget about her primary objective and do something completely foolish, like fall for this outsider. For the next day and night, she’d have to give him reasons to leave the camp, to leave her alone. Which made no sense… How could she determine his motives, separate lies from truth, if she didn’t watch him, converse with him?
    “I’ll show you how to make a travois.”
    “A what?”
    “A travois, a stretcher,” she explained. “Then I can stay put while you get the carcass farther away. And it’s going to have to go a good distance so the scavengers don’t bother us.”
    “Can it wait until after breakfast?” His silver-blue gaze caught hers. “I’m starved.”
    For the love of skunks, her knees wobbled and her head felt like the vortex that her kayak had been sucked into, spinning around and around with no way out. Logic melted into irrationality, sense became stupidity. She couldn’t think rationally with Libra around.
    “Looks like we’ll need more firewood,” she blurted.
    “I’ll see what I can find.”
    Cleo tried to concentrate on other tasks for his to-do list while he ate a press-formed bar he called “Good, filling protein.” It looked like a particle board to her.
    “How can you eat that?”
    “What? It’s good. Want some?”
    “I’d rather starve, thanks.”
    “You will if you don’t eat soon.”
    “I picked a wild gooseberry bush clean while you were getting the firewood,” she said. “Hey, if I made a few snares, could you set them? It would be nice to have some real food for supper.”
    “Nutrifood is rea—”
    Cleo’s palm shot up. “Don’t. Start.”
    “If you wanted fresh meat so bad, why didn’t you roast the cat?”
    Cleo made a face. “It’s a meat eater.”
    “So?”
    “So, meat eaters