Read Torrent (Cosmic Forces Book 1) for Free Online Page B

glance, then with quick hand movements disarmed the man with the machete and turned the machete on him. One slash, and the man was bleeding from his throat.
    The stranger moved with a speed and ease that could only mean one thing.
    Soldier.
    Trained in the art of killing.
    And soldiers were not typically the friends of Texans. Not these days.
    “Oh, God. You killed him. Oh my God.” Alyssa’s words escaped her before she could quell them.
    The third privateer glanced between them, wide-eyed. “Oh man, you screwed up. Man—” He dropped the weapon he’d used on Peter. “You’re gonna pay for this.” With his final word, he ran away from them, looking back over his shoulder, a fearful look in his eyes.
    The stranger glanced at the departing privateer, then back at Alyssa, as though he was making a decision.
    “I didn’t have a choice. It was you or them.” He removed a hand that had been holding his arm. The moisture of blood glistened in the dark night, black against his skin.
    “You’re wounded.” Alyssa let go of Michelle, squeezing her hand to reassure her. “Check on Peter,” she instructed the girls. “Try to wake him.”
    Alyssa stepped closer to the man—the stranger—the soldier. “Who are you?”
    “Just a man who thought he could help.”
    “You saved us. The bodies will draw attention. A search, even.”
    “Which is why you need to get on your way,” he told her, his face expressionless.
    “You’re bleeding.” She stepped closer to him. There was something about him, something about his eyes, something about everything about this man. She couldn’t even think straight around him. “Let me help you.”
    “Help yourselves. You need help more than I do. You’re risking your life to teach these…” His eyes traveled over the teens. “To teach them how to read so they can work in a factory. What use is algebra or history to them there?”
    Fury burned deep within her, all-consuming and deep. She had been a teacher. She had given her life to teaching. Who was he to denigrate that choice?
    “You don’t know if—” She balled her fists and glared into his light blue eyes, looked deep within them, trying to ascertain if this was something he really felt or if he was just being an asshole.
    It didn’t matter. His reasons were irrelevant. She turned her back on him and knelt next to Peter.
    “How’s he doing?” she asked Michelle.
    “He groaned once.”
    “That’s a good sign.” She shook his shoulder gently. “Wake up, Peter. We have to get you home.” She looped one of her arms under his, and indicated for Marie to do the same. “You take his feet,” she told Michelle.
    Peter, coming to, struggled and wriggled in their grasp. “I can walk. Let me down.”
    It would be quicker if he walked than if they carried him. Alyssa nodded to the girls, and they set him down. Peter steadied himself, a hand on her shoulder.
    “What happened?” He glanced down, saw the two fallen privateers. “What the hell?”
    “They attacked us,” Alyssa said.
    “I know, but what happened to them?”
    “One of Alyssa’s friends attacked them,” Marie piped up.
    Alyssa gasped. “No. Not a friend.” She glanced back. The man was gone.
    “You were talking to him.” Michelle frowned at her. “Who is he?”
    “Just… just someone that I… that I’ve met. Once. More or less.” She ran her hands over her jeans to dry the sweat off them. “Can we go? This is really cutting it close.”
    “What about the bodies?” Peter asked. “If the Leaguers find them—”
    “Let them assume it was a squabble between the privateers. Let’s go. Now.” She ground out the last word and glanced back once more. The man was definitely gone.
    Alyssa couldn’t get her mind off the man’s wound as she escorted the children home.
    “Don’t tell anyone about what happened tonight. They’ll be worried, and they’ll put a stop to our studies.” I don’t need it getting out that I know some stranger who