He swept his hand through his hair. “He came to get me, found the bodies and I told him what happened.”
“Was that Trap?”
“No, it was Joe. He sent his father to help me.”
His loyalty to Joe made sense now. Joe had helped him at a very critical time. She didn’t know why Joe hadn’t called the police and distanced himself from Draden, but he hadn’t.
“What did Joe’s father do?”
“He got rid of the dead bodies.”
That was a bit of a shock as well. She gave him a faint smile. “Is that how you ended up in the military?”
Draden nodded. “Yes. I just followed everyone in. Trap. Wyatt. Joe. Gino. And then I found out Whitney had a tape of me killing everyone. Joe actually found the camera before the bodies were taken away, but it was too late, my part had already been sent to a remote location. Fortunately, Joe’s dad and Joe were never captured on it.”
“They’ve never told anyone?”
“As far as I know, they never have. Joe is close to Gino, but I’m not certain even Gino knows. If he does, he’s never said anything.”
“What about Trap? I can tell you really matter to him.”
“Trap’s kind of like me in that he’s essentially a loner. Or he was. Wyatt got in there, probably because he’s smart like Trap and they could bounce ideas off each other until all hours of the night. He let me in because I don’t talk much to anyone. And Cayenne. That woman is all about Trap and Trap is all about her.”
“In what way?”
“No one will ever tell Cayenne what to do, with the exception of Trap. She’s lethal as all get-out and a little scary.” For the first time since he’d decided to reveal his past to her, he flashed her a little grin. “I can see why that sort of thing gets Trap hot and bothered.”
She would have rather he got hot and bothered when she was playing the seductress. Clearly, she was using the wrong tactic. She had mad assassin skills, but she clearly lacked the ability to get him excited enough to want her. Or maybe she just wasn’t reading the situation right. Perhaps she needed to let him see she could wrap him up in silk and tie him to the ceiling. Or better yet, build a funnel web and cocoon him in a burrow.
She sighed. That smile of his was dangerous, at least to her. She walked over to the window again to watch the wash of water spilling across it in great gusts. It wasn’t droplets that hit the glass, it was more like a mini-waterfall. She traced the pattern on her side of the glass, not looking at him. The storms in Indonesia were rarely intense. They had thunder and lightning, but this was quite strong. The gusts of wind hit the cabin and rattled the windows. The rain hit hard, pelting the glass and roof, threatening to drive right through the structure. Unease crept down her spine.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like storms—she did. She often sat outside and watched them coming at her. This one was unusual for the area. Lightning was overhead now, streaking across the sky and lighting up the rolling black clouds. This was the type of weather where all the creatures hid, making certain they had somewhere dry to ride it out.
“I think you did what any of us would have done under the circumstances. In any case, it was self-defense. They couldn’t let you go after what you’d witnessed. You do understand that, don’t you?”
She remained facing the glass, trying to see through the storm. It was midday and yet dark enough to make it hard to see much of anything. That bothered her on an elemental level.
“It doesn’t matter whether they would have or not. I detested them. I detested that people who already had everything they could possibly want would step on others who had nothing. Would use them and crush them. I’d lived my life mainly in the streets and found out the hard way that people who could have helped just hurt us.”
“Do you believe Whitney destroyed that video?” Shylah swung back to face him. “If you don’t, I can go back and find it. I’m pretty good at getting in and out of tight places.”
“You’re not going back there.” His features darkened to match the storm raging outside the cabin. Fury burned in his eyes.
“I said I could go back, not that I planned to.” Unease slid through her again. She glanced toward the window and then rushed to her jeans. “I think we need to check outside. I don’t know why, but I can’t shake this feeling that something’s wrong.”
He didn’t argue, already dragging a T-shirt over his head and catching up his weapons, shoving them into the loops on his jeans. She was doing the same.
“Is there a back way out of here?” There hadn’t appeared to be when he had explored the space. He’d looked for exits, but the building didn’t appear to have another exit.
“We’ll have to go through the window at the far back. That’s the biggest one and I think you can fit. I don’t know if anything’s outside that shouldn’t be, Draden. It could just be me getting a vibe from this storm.”
“I must be getting the same vibe you are,” he said. “It isn’t strong, which leads me to believe the threat is some distance from us, but it’s there.”
“There’s a ring of soldiers around us, supposedly guarding us,” she said, catching up a small pouch and pulling the drawstring over her head. “Maybe they decided they were too scared to allow us to live.”
She didn’t care about the reason—she only knew that her heart was pounding, letting her know they were in trouble. She hurried toward the back of the cabin, thankful Draden wasn’t the kind of man who wanted to tell a woman she was crazy or full of nerves. He hadn’t even asked questions, and he was right behind her. She felt his breath on the nape of her neck.
She listened for a moment first, and then she pushed the window up cautiously. The rain hit her upturned face, droplets gathering on her lashes.
“I’ll cover you.”
She didn’t turn to look at him, but she wanted to. She took a breath and let it soothe the adrenaline rushing through her veins. She dove out, headfirst, her hands in front of her to cushion the dive. As she hit the soft ground, she somersaulted and came to her feet, stepping to the side to give Draden room. The moment she was in position by the side of the building, she let her eyes adjust and then gave the forest a long scan for danger.
I’ve got you covered.
Her concentration was mainly on the eastern side. Her radar went off in that direction. To the east. Something’s coming at us via that route. Your friends didn’t warn you about company, did they? A purge? Was that the reality? They had the virus, and everyone wanted them dead. Whitney might even decide he had to kill them for the sake of the world.
She should have heard Draden come through the window, or at least land when he hit the ground. He was a big man and it didn’t occur to her that anyone, even a GhostWalker, could get through that window without a great deal of noise, but he’d managed. One minute she was covering the forest and waiting for him to launch himself through and the next he was right beside her.
He signaled to go up into the trees. She nodded in understanding. The closest avenue of escape was a good twenty feet away, a tree whose strong branches reached out toward neighboring trees, providing access to the arboreal highway. She was tempted to sprint for it, but she held herself in check, mainly because Draden was holding his closed fist in the air, the universal military sign for freeze. She waited, inhaling, the storm crashing around them.
Hit the ground, baby. Lie flat and don’t move. The next flash of lightning is going to rip across the sky. Stay focused on the trees just to the left of that little dip where the vines are thick.
She eased her body all the way flat, feeling the water saturating the shirt she wore and her jeans. She hadn’t put on underwear and the water soaked right through the material to her skin. It wasn’t cold and with the heat, it made her feel sweaty and dirty instead of clean.
She didn’t take her gaze from the cluster of trees just to the left of the dip, but she did ease a dart out of the bag that hung around her neck. Very slowly she placed the blowgun between her
teeth and loaded it. Already she could see the shadows fanning out from those trees, at least six of them. They didn’t look like soldiers to her. She had excellent night vision, at least six times better than most humans’. She knew Draden had just as good or better. She was equally certain the approaching enemy couldn’t see them.
Be ready. Draden sounded as if he were counting down.
The hair on her body stood up and then lightning forked across the sky, spear after jagged spear spreading through the heat and clouds. It registered that they were members of the Milisi Separatis Sumatra as the one in charge turned his head to look up, exposing his carotid artery. She blew the dart and reloaded to blow the second one before the lightning faded, the sky going dark as thunder boomed, shaking the ground. She had to wait for the perfect time when the wind was between gusts before she took the shot.