Liam scooted forward and put his chin on the back of my seat.
“What’s the plan, Tracker? And yes, I’m going to keep after you about this. You do have to have one this time. We can’t go in blindly, this is dangerous enough as it is.”
I took the next right hand turn, felt Calliope’s threads settle a little, the fear easing off before thrumming back through me at high speed. “Same as always, which is a type of plan.”
“Crash the party and hope we get out alive?”
I eyed him up in the rearview mirror as he curled back into his seat and tucked both hands behind his head, his eyes thoughtful.
“There is no way to know how bad it’s going to be. Even Dox didn’t know, so there is really no way to plan this.”
After that, he dropped it. Though I could see the worry etched in his face. I was just glad my back was to him and he couldn’t see the worry in mine.
Damn her. How the hell was he supposed to keep her safe if she continued to walk into situations where her life was perpetually on the line? Leaving the ogres behind had been a bad idea, but if there was even a small chance that Milly had been telling the truth, then they had to act. He knew that, though it soured his gut with acid.
His training as an FBI agent kicked in, and he let that take over for now. They had to follow the lead that they’d been give, see it though. It would either vindicate Milly or be the final nail in her coffin. Not that she needed any more nails, but he could see that Rylee still wanted to believe that her ex-best friend was under duress. That it wasn’t really Milly’s fault that she’d caused so much damage.
Lounging in the back seat, the wolf in him struggled to rise to the surface, still raging with the proximity of Milly. He closed his eyes, thought about Rylee, about holding her tight, smelling the soft, unique scent that was hers alone. Wild and passionate, surprisingly vulnerable, even at times uncertain, which he was quite sure she didn’t show many people. The images and memories soothed the beast in him, eased the out-of-control fury that had been building.
This was closer to the truth of why he let Rylee win this fight so easily. If it hadn’t been for Milly, he would have pinned Rylee down, kept her there to wait for Dox and the others. But with Milly so close, he needed to be as far away as possible.
For all the wolf he had become, he knew it wasn’t time yet to finish the witch off.
There is a reason for everything, even for her.
He ground his teeth against the words his own mind gave him. Like an echo of someone else’s voice, the words sounded suspiciously like the Guardians they’d met in the past. He shivered. The last thing he needed was another part of himself to be sliced into a third portion, even though he knew it was there. Lurking. Easier to ignore that part than the wolf who paced inside him like a caged beast.#p#分页标题#e#
The truck rumbled along a deeply rutted back road, bouncing through mud puddles and dirtying up Dox’s ‘baby’.
Rylee’s eyes were tight around the edges and he could smell the anxiety rolling off her, the worry for the foal they sought. Fear from the encounter with Milly. Something else too, though, a hint of a new scent, one that reminded him of … damn he couldn’t pinpoint it. He wanted to soothe her, but knew from past experience that she wouldn’t appreciate it or accept it right now. Not even from him. Better to focus on the salvage.
“How close are we?”
She tipped her head to the side, a long swath of her auburn hair brushing across her shoulder. The truck slowed as the back end slid around a corner, thick with mud.
“About as close as we’re going to get with the truck.”
The trail ended against the shoreline of a lake as we rounded what turned out to be the final corner. There was a bit of an opening, suitable for turning around, but that was it.
Cranking the wheel, I turned the truck, and then backed it up so the bumper was against the tree line so that at the very least, we would have a quick getaway. Just in case.
I snorted, hell, who was I kidding? There was no doubt that a quick getaway was going to be a necessity. I opened the door and slid out, my feet landing in a big puddle I couldn’t avoid.
“Freaking awesome.” I stepped out of it and slammed the door behind me, the sound echoing around us. I could feel the heat of Liam’s glare, didn’t need to look over my shoulder to know his eyebrows would be drawn sharply over his eyes.
“You want to ring the dinner bell while you’re at it?” His voice was low, but it still carried across to me. Without turning around, I flipped him off. He was right, I was wrong; we both knew it.
Tracking Calliope, I turned my face upward, toward the mountain hovering in the distance. Terror suffused her and leaked through her threads into me. Sweat broke out along my spine, soaking through my t-shirt in a matter of seconds.