Chapter Eighteen

...

The nights on the prairie were cold. So cold, in fact, that Mira, Bryce, and Cade had decided that having the children sleep outside was not in the best interest of the group. The Autobots, ever deciding this was a good idea, made themselves available to the human "younglings".

Surprisingly, Drift had offered to house Merrick for the night. Mira found this idea hopeful, seeing that Drift was probably the most mature of the Autobots, save Optimus. She was delighted to realize that Drift had a way with children, solidified in the task of successfully picking up a sleeping child without waking them and transferring Merrick into the passenger's seat of the Bugati. Mira, gently placing a tender kiss on the boy's forehead, ruffled his hair as Drift walked by them and gently thumped the passenger's door closed. Bowing the holoform politely, he deactivated it and flicked off his parking lights, quiet and entering into a stasis sleep for the rest of the night.

Tessa, on the other hand, was welcomed by, strangely, Bumblebee. Optimus and Cade had both decided that Hound and Crosshairs were not the likely match for her for the evening, considering they were both a bit rowdy. Mira had agreed, and Tessa bedded down in the backseat of the '60's Camaro, bidding them all a very groggy-teenager goodnight. Bumblebee hunkered down as well, and soon Hound and Crosshairs were silent for the night's rest as well.

Optimus, overly exhausted, had bid them goodnight as well. He offered himself to Mira, but she declined, as did Bryce and Cade from Hound and Crosshairs. They decided to sleep beside the fire, among themselves, and not further burden the Autobots anymore. The fire was the only sound as Mira rolled onto her side, pulling up her arms under her head for some type of pillow. Bryce snored loudly to her left, and Cade made no sounds.

She watched the fire, and soon a chill ran through her body. In nothing more than a tank-top and cargo pants, she was cold. Looking to Optimus' sleeping form, she was almost willing to go and slip into the cab, but upon realizing this would most surely wake him up, declined the idea almost as fast as it had formed within her head. Her eyelids began to droop, and soon she felt movement.

"Hey." It was Cade, surprisingly. Panic shot through her body. He may have been desperate, but she wasn't that desperate. He stood above her, and then slowly moved to the ground a few feet from her, smiling softly. His amazing brown eyes were gold-flecked from the fire, and she noticed the wrinkles around his eyes when he smiled—a generational trait more than an age-related one. His presence soothed something over in her heart, and her stomach began to tingle. She hadn't felt this way since she'd first started seeing Will, and Mira wouldn't deny the idea of liking Cade in more than just a friendly matter—but was she ready for this? Ready to give up on Will's memory so quickly? Was Merrick ready for the idea of her dating again?

"Hey," she whispered faintly, "what's up?"

He chuckled. "You're teeth are chattering." She blushed and rolled over to face him, him resting an arm in the dirt, supporting his head with a palm. Mira chuckled and shrugged a shoulder, "I figured you'd be cold."

She nodded. "I forgot Montana got chilly at night. Not my best idea to refuse the warm luxury of a semi," they both snickered until Cade sat up and began taking off his button down, the one she'd provided him at her home. She sat up too and he extended to her, but she refused. "No, thanks. I'd feel horrible."

He got a disturbed look on his face. "Oh? You think I'd feel better if I let a lady freeze to death? Please," he crawled on his knees to drape it over her shoulders carefully, and she smiled at him, pulling it around her bare, freezing shoulders, "just wear it. It belongs to you, anyway."

"Thank you," she situated herself down again and they both stared at each other again until she decided to ask the next question, which she didn't even realize she was asking, "Why didn't you ever remarry?"

This caught him off guard and he rolled onto his back, "I dunno," he said matter-of-factly, "I guess the right girl never came along."

This made her wonder. Was that the real reason? Or was it because he was afraid to betray his late wife by remarrying, just as she was afraid of betraying Will? They were both getting older; Cade already with a graduating daughter, and she with a six year old son. Mira doubted Cade planned his life this way; having one child, being a widower early on, struggling as an inventor, just as she hadn't planned her life as a military wife, widow, and single mom. She'd always envisioned life with the big house, white picket fence, three or four kids, a dog, nice cars, good career. This was never how she'd planned life, not at all.

"Do you think your wife would've wanted you to?"

He rolled back over to face her. Their eyes met and locked a few moments, a locking that made Mira's insides turn over. He had such deep, willing eyes; eyes that were open and willing to give. She found his soul, and his desires in his eyes, desires that told her he wanted another woman to love, to live life with. He wanted to be able to hold someone, to guide them, to provide for a woman that would love him back. The man was starved for affection (and probably sex) and had been so long without it that he'd forgotten how to show it. Mira gulped, realizing her face was turning red from an insane blush, and he replied.

"Emily? She would've wanted my happiness," he sighed, looking away slightly only to look back, "and Tessa's. I also think she would've wanted me to love someone the way I loved her. Just because someone else's life stops, doesn't mean ours have to. Not forever, anyway. I grieved Emily for a long time before I was okay with the fact of maybe someday having another woman. It took a lot of time, prayer, and mentoring, but God found me in my grief. That's the best thing that could've happened, and if it took Emily dying to find God, I'm okay with that. She would've been too, considering she did nothing but beg me to go to church most of our marriage."

Dumbfounded, Mira's mouth dropped open, "You…you believe in God?"

Cade nodded. "After Emily died, we held her funeral in her Assembly of God church. The pastor gave a sermon talking about heaven and how an individual gets there. I realized that's where Emily was, and that I wanted to be with her." He chuckled, "Selfish reasons, I know. But, after I came to know God, life started changing. I began to read the Word to Tessa and talk to her about God, and we found…happiness. Living wasn't so hard anymore."

Her stomach did a thousand things at once. It was a mixture of happiness, confusion, astoundment, and a radical sense of belonging that rolled her emotions into a knot. In the year since Will's death she hadn't met once Christian man who was available, not that she was looking. But here was a man who understood her heart, and understood her God. Her mouth parched.

She was reminded of Ruth, a biblical woman who was widowed and left her home country with her mother-in-law. There, they lived as widows together, until a member of her mother-in-law's family came and inquired about Ruth, who worked in one of his fields. It was custom in Biblical days for the relative of a deceased husband to marry the widow, to continue on the family name and provide for her, so that she wouldn't be shamed. That man, Boaz, ended up marrying Ruth and they had loved passionately. Mira had always wondered if Ruth had ever gotten over the death of her first husband, and how she felt about remarriage.

"Do you?" Cade suddenly jerked her out of her thoughts. She was quiet a moment before she nodded and smiled.

"I do, yeah. I've believed in God and followed Him since I was a little girl."

A twinkle came to his eyes. "Well then. I see we have something in common."

"It would appear that way."

He then nodded to her and looked skyward. "It's late. We should probably get some sleep. It's been…a day."

She couldn't help but snort a little laugh, "That's an understatement. Tomorrow won't be so bad. We'll touch base with Bryce's friend and see what we can arrange. But first, we'll get cleaned up and see what we can find out about KSI at Bryce's. We can lay low there awhile."

Cade winked, "Always have a plan, don't you?"

"Good night, Cade."

He nodded and rolled over on his other side, "You too, Mira. Good night."

...

After the police issued a warrant out for Mira Lennox's arrest, he received a call from a Wyoming shop just on the border of Montana, stating that there'd been a woman and a man in with a suspicious looking vehicle matching the description of the TV program.

He'd flown out to Wyoming, only to find that lead well gone and dry. He figured, though, that she'd crossed the border into Montana, that's what his gut told him. Last Cemetery Wind knew, Mira had a brother living somewhere in the mountains here in Montana, yet they had no idea if that information was accurate or not, since the man was a technology genius.

Lockdown was getting upset. He'd talked to Attinger after their failed attempt at capturing Prime in Texas, and he was not pleased. Their deal was entering a dangerous stage, one that was shaky and not at all the way Attinger, nor James, would've liked to see it go. The stakes were changing, and they were not at all pretty ones.

Now, the three of them were just outside the Montana border. Lockdown had resumed his Lamborghini form, and had activated a holoform, which Attinger had provided him with through the KSI technological developments. A tall, muscular character slid out of the driver's side of the car, slipped a pair of sunglasses on top his head and approached them slowly, as if a predator coming in for the kill. This unnerved Attigner, James could tell.

They'd previously received a transmission from Lockdown, stating that he wanted to change the deal. He wanted something else in return for the Seed, not just Prime and the girl. Now, they stood in a little triangle just on the border of the two states, a position of not only irony but power. James tucked his hands into the pockets of his trenchcoat, and fished out a lighter and cigarette. Both Attinger and Lockdown looked at him as if he was dog-crap.

"What's this about changing the deal?" Attinger looked to Lockdown's holoform; a sickeningly wicked looking man with jet black hair and pale skin, with strikingly blue eyes that were deadly accurate and sharp. He gave a small smile to Attinger.

"As I said before, deals can expire."

Attinger was getting upset, and James decided to ask a question. "Yeah, well, what do you want now?" A stupid sounding question, but one on every one of their minds.

"Let me clarify something to you fools. I am what your people would call a bounty hunter," he said steely, "I work for prizes. I have a collection of…artifacts," he got an evil shimmer in his eyes that told James that his artifacts weren't artifacts at all, they were either living things or deadly powerful weapons, "artifacts which are unique to every job I take on. It is my custom to require such artifacts before I work, or make a deal. Well, as you now probably realize, our deal has indeed expired, and now I propose a new one."

Attinger, obviously unwilling to argue with the mercenary, sighed. "Okay. What do you want?"

Lockdown chuckled. "Don't jump your gun." He grew serious as his eyes changed from an icy blue to a deadly stare, "You may not like these terms, not that you have a choice."

James did not like where this was going. He wasn't one to be put into a position where he was forced into something, and this is exactly what Lockdown was getting at. He was playing a power card in a game James hadn't signed up to play. They were now in the position to either accept the proposition, or get their butts handed to them by this guy. He shifted his gaze between Lockdown and Attinger, the tension rising on the air so thick he could've cut it with a safety-pin. He swallowed a puff of cigarette smoke and watched.

"Don't tell me what I like and don't like," Attinger challenged. This got him a deep, evil glare from Lockdown that looked like it had come straight from hell. James was beginning to believe this character was from hell, perhaps in the guise of a Transformer. He tossed his now finished cigarette to the floor, outted it with the heel of his boot, and reached into his pocket for another. "I'll decide that for myself." Is how Attinger finished it, an equally dangerous look in his eyes as well.

No, James didn't like this.

Lockdown chuckled. "You will provide me with one Prime and one Shield," he gave Savoy a powerful, haughty look, "and in return I will give you your precious Seed, as previously established."

"That doesn't sound any different from our previous deal," James added with a snort. "What changed?"

Lockdown smiled at him wickedly, like a sadistic killer having fun with his victim, "….the only new term is that I get to keep the girl."

This was odd. And dangerous. If Lockdown was looking to keep Lennox, it put them in an entirely new position with the government. The U.S. wasn't going to let them just hand over a human female to a Cybertronian mercenary, that was for sure. It was going to stir up a heap more trouble now than Attinger was willing to pay later, James knew that much.

But, the other question burned in his head: why? What did Lockdown want with a human woman anyway? It couldn't be slavery; she wouldn't be useful there, considering the huge shift and difference in size. And it surely wasn't for pleasure, since Lockdown seemed to hate them as much as they hated him. Sex wasn't an option either…at least James didn't think it was, unless they'd discovered a new way to "get it on" with human beings, which seemed unlikely. He figured it was something having to do with deals and research, things he didn't necessarily care to know.

Regardless, it was a bad idea. Not that he wouldn't care getting rid of her, but the public would, especially since she was a huge publicity figure with the Autobots, and not to mention mother. The world would go crazy at this if they gave her up, and they'd never get any funding again. It reeked of trouble, this entire scenario.

"How will you accommodate such an…artifact?" Well, that was surprising. Attinger was on a totally different page than him, that was for sure. James raised his brows behind his sunglasses a bit, as Attinger crossed his arms in front of him, wrinkling his now Armani suit. Lockdown just smiled at him, and continued with his plea.

"You will provide me with everything I need to see that the human girl survives, in return for my letting you and your human President live." It was stated matter-of-factly.

"Harold," James put a hand on the man's shoulder. Lockdown shot him a dangerously cautious look, one that was alarming him to the point where he removed his hand. His tone was still serious, still finding reason, since Attinger wasn't at the moment. The man's greed and rage had finally pushed him past reason, a moment James had been prepping—and waiting—for. "You know we'd never get that past—"

Harold put up a hand to shut him up. He stepped forward to Lockdown and pressed a finger into the holoform's chest, which obviously had taken Lockdown off guard as much as it had James. They stared at each other a moment before Attinger gave him an answer, one that was so wickedly evil that James wondered briefly if the man had turned into a demon.

"Done."

Baffled, James dropped the cigarette from his hands and left the two of them to finish their bargain.