Following the incident at the school, Aaron has disappeared, and after finding Cynthia's body and not knowing that Horn perished with the rest of the Patriot soldiers, Miles, Rachel, Bass and Charlie still think Horn has Aaron with the intention of using him as a weapon. They head back into Willoughby and find some antibiotics in Gene's house for Miles, and when he's back on his feet again, the four of them set off to track Aaron.

North Texas, near the Plains Nation boarder

The churned earth was damp beneath her fingertips, not yet dried out from the day's mild sun.

Charlie pushed to her feet and glanced behind her. Monroe stood a few steps to her left, while Miles and her mom stood just beyond him.

She passed a glance over Monroe, and focused on Miles. "The wagon passed by not too long ago, but it stopped here for a few minutes."

Miles glanced up and down the empty dirt road. "And the million dollar question is, was Aaron on it, or not?"

"Do you really think Horn took him across the boarder?" Rachel put in. "Why go to the Plains Nation?"

Miles shrugged one shoulder, a hand braced on the hilt of his sword. "Why go anywhere? Horn is desperate, and I stopped trying to guess what desperate men will do a long time ago. We need to find them before Aaron cooks anyone else from the inside out, or does something stupid."

A low surge of surprise jolted through Charlie. "You don't really think he'd hurt himself?"

Miles shook his head. "At this point, I've got no idea what Aaron might be capable of, or what Horn might do to him. We just need to find them."

"Someone's coming." Monroe drew his sword and nodded toward a nearby ditch, edged with low bushes.

Charlie wrapped a hand around her crossbow as she followed Monroe into the cover of the trench, with Miles and her mom close behind. As she crouched behind the shrubbery and brought her bow up, Munroe came down beside her, his shoulder brushing hers as he pulled out a pair of binoculars.

He cut her a brief glance, before lowering his gaze to the scope.

Charlie swallowed down the wave of tingling awareness she got any time he turned that intense blue gaze her way. By now, she wasn't surprised to find him right next to her when things were looking dangerous. If it'd been ay other guy, she might have got offended, might have thought he was pulling some chauvinistic macho bullshit protective crap on her. But she knew Monroe wasn't doing anything more than watching her six, and though she'd never admit it out loud, the idea that Sebastian Monroe had her back was better than her own personal army.

Ever since he'd burst into that ramshackle excuse for a bar and busted up the bastards that had drugged her, Monroe had seemingly become her guardian angel, as though Lucifer had decided falling hadn't been such a good idea after all and was now trying to drag his sorry, sinful self up from hell to find some kind of grace.

"Eight men, coming up from the west," Monroe murmured, before handing the binoculars onto her.

She grabbed a quick look through them, easily spotting the tan uniforms of the Patriots in amongst the sparse forest trees. Cursing under her breath, she passed the binoculars onto Miles.

"Patriots." Miles added a few swear words of his own. "But what the hell are they doing this far out from Willoughby?"

"My guess?" Monroe reached across to take the binoculars back. "Now that Texas is the US government's bitch, they're looking to firm up their assets, probably put more men on the boarder, monitor everything and everyone coming in and going out. It's what I would have done."

Charlie shifted, unease slithering through her. These past days, it'd been so easy to forget who Monroe really was, what he'd done, and who he'd done it to. The stark reminder of his recent past revived the sick feeling she got whenever she thought too closely about Danny. However, the sensation didn't strike as deep as it once would have, time numbing the feeling and distancing the memory. Didn't change who was responsible though, which was a good way to remind herself of the bigger picture. Monroe might be playing nice at the moment, but she couldn't trust him, and every time she felt anything other than nothing toward him, it was a betrayal of what Danny had died for.

"You're probably right, Bass." Miles rubbed his injured hand, the movement agitated. "Which means this eight here won't be the only Patriots in the area."

"So how are we going to get across the boarder?" Rachel asked in a low voice.

"We still don't know for sure that's where Horn and Aaron went." Miles sat back from the embankment. "So obviously we won't be going anywhere until we get a few questions answered."

The patrol had moved out of sight and Charlie turned, sitting up against the slope of the ditch.

Monroe tucked the binoculars away before pulling out a canteen of water. He held it out toward her with a questioning expression.

She reached out and took it from him in a slow movement. Even something as simple as the offer of water could have underlying implications when it came to Monroe.

He grinned, as though he could read her thoughts, and shook the canteen slightly. "Its just water, Charlie."

She closed her hand more tightly around the bottle, before taking a quick mouthful. "Yeah, its just water."

And he was just a displaced general, wanted for war crimes against humanity.

"What's the plan, then, Uncle Miles?" She handed the canteen back to Monroe and turned her attention away from him as he took a drink.

"We need to scout the boarder, work out which way Horn might have taken Aaron and see how many of these Patriots we're going to be up against if we are going to cross over."

Miles glanced at Rachel, who nodded, before returning his attention to her and Monroe.

"Your mom and I will head east, you two go west. We'll meet back here in four hours."

Charlie nodded and pushed to her feet, ignoring the way her heart stuttered in her chest. What did it matter if she and Munroe were going off on their own for four hours? They'd traveled alone half way down the map, as Munroe had put it, and he'd gone out of his way to help her, help what was left of her family.

She wrapped a hand around her crossbow, finding her equilibrium in the familiar weight of it, and then turned to find Monroe standing right behind her.

"Well, what are you waiting for? East is that way." She gestured for him to lead the way, but he just stood there, and shot her a half grin.

"Thanks, how did I ever find east before without you acting as my compass?"

She sidestepped him, sending him an unimpressed glare. "If you could keep the sarcasm to a minimum, that'd be great. In fact, how about we just forgo the whole talking thing altogether?"

"Okay, feisty-pants. Boy, did you get up on the wrong side of the wagon today."

He started to take a step, but Miles grabbed his arm.

"Bass, you watch out for her, okay? Don't let her go off and do anything impulsive."

"You know that's funny, the fact you're asking me that, right?"

Miles sent him a flat look. "You're right. Charlie, make sure Bass doesn't do anything idiotic. Actually, how about the two of you just stay as far away from stupid as you can?"

"See you in a few hours, Uncle Miles." She sent him a short smile, before ducking around the bushes to head east, Monroe falling into step beside her.