Chapter 491 Chapter 491
Amari stood a good distance from the fire and sipped the strong brew. It could have been mud at this point, and she wouldn’t have cared, anything to get the taste of fuel out of her mouth. Her cat was going crazy inside her, not being able to process any scents. If it hadn’t been for—she didn’t even know his name.
He came out of the tent dragging sleeping bags behind him, then surprised her when he draped one over each of the men. She could have cared less if they were cold, wet, or breathing for that matter. He glanced at her as he picked up his cup, “I’d sooner put a bullet in each of them and head home,” he gave her a lopsided grin, “but until then, I can’t be inhumane. “
Amari lifted one eyebrow at him, “I can.”
He stepped back from them, so he was closer to her again, “Yeah, I caught that.”
Moving just her eyes she looked over at the two douchebags that were responsible for her being here. The one with the bad foot was slumped forward, he hadn’t moved in a while now. The other, Scarface, she was going to call him, just watched them. He hadn’t made a sound or moved since she’d gotten a little retribution on his friend. She tried not to smirk. She looked back at her rescuer, “they go around abducting people,” she shrugged her good shoulder, “my job mostly comprises of relocating the lives they’ve damaged, so yeah, they get no sympathy or soft touch from me.” She pointed a finger at them, “and they made me crash my van.”
He watched her, his gaze moving over her face slowly, “that’s a valid point.” He nodded his head slowly, then took out his gun, pointed it, without looking, and pulled the trigger with zero hesitation.
Amari looked to see the injured one flop back onto the ground. His friend’s eyes were so rounded now, she thought they might pop out of their sockets. Keeping a straight face, she turned back to see him sipping his coffee like this was some sort of cafe. “Special ops, right?”
His grin was slow, “good guess, darlin, what gave it away?”
“Well, you’re a little bit crazy,” she would have smirked, but it hurt to do it, “I’m not judging, it’s not a bad quality,” she looked at the other man who was staring at the dead body beside him, “and S.O. team are the only ones I know of that work solo.”
“The others are a bit busy right now.” He straddled the log, brush the snow from it, and sat down so he could keep an eye on her and the last surviving jerk.
“Hope that goes right.” She was not impressed that she wasn’t going to be there to help. There was nothing that made her feel like all the shit she’d gone through was worth it like seeing the faces of those freed when they realized it was true. She moved to the log the furthest from the flames and sat down. Her ass couldn’t get any wetter than it was, so she didn’t bother with brushing it off. She needed to get this smell off her, but even if she shifted, she doubted it would work. Her legs were cold now, which was a plus, the irritation from the fuel against her skin long had been driving her crazy.
“There’s no reason it shouldn’t. It’s all planned like a beautiful ballet.” He waved his hand around.
Amari grinned, then winced when her mouth hurt, “let’s hope none of the ballerinas fall off the stage.” She wiped at her lip, “I actually thought they’d send Calum and Blair to find me.”
“No such luck,” he was quiet for a second, “Blair—he’s the one that took out Lindon Elden in cat form?” He blew out a breath, “his own brother, I hear.”
Amari still wished she’d been there to see it. She liked working for the co-ord team, but it was a pretty chill job and she liked to be in on the action once in a while. “Yeah, the guys gave me the rundown on that. From what I hear Lindon went down in about two minutes.”
The man beside them sucked in a breath, she turned to see him giving them an intent look.
“Was he a friend of yours?” He asked him.
The hatred was plain to see on his face as he shook his head. She filed the fact that all the dirtbags knew each other. It was too organized for it to be any other way.
Her hero laughed a quiet deep chuckle at the man’s expression and then looked back to her, “I’m Tripp, by the way, Tripp Carson.”
The name seemed familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on why. “I guess I don’t have to introduce myself.”
He shook his head.
“Okay, Tripp Carson, what’s the plan here?” She motioned to the other man. “I don’t think he’s going to share much.”
Tripp turned to look at him and then nodded his head slowly like he was figuring out what was next. “I plan to chip this location and get room service to come and clean it up,” he motioned to the body of the man she’d stabbed and then the one he’d shot, “but I don’t want them walking in on their friend when he returns.”
“We’re waiting for him to come back?” She didn’t mind that idea at all, she couldn’t leave the other one breathing to do this again. She’s already decided that when Tripp had shown up. “He’s going to have the information of who they contact.”
“That’s the information we need.” He mused quietly. He set his cup down and reached up and pulled his hair loose. She was surprised it reached his shoulders. With the sides of his head shaved, she honestly didn’t expect the thick wavy hair to be in that sexy little man bun. “I’m going to go for a run and check the trail to see if he’s headed back or waiting out this storm.”
She looked at the trees, wanting to go for a run as well, but still didn’t trust she could control her cat enough to not come back and add some more scars to the man that was watching them. “Is your car nearby?”
Shaking his head, he picked up his coffee and held the cup in front of his mouth. “They made me jump from a flying tin can to come to find you.”
Amari noted the unamused tone in his voice. “Okay, I guess we have to run to get out of here?”
Setting the cup down, he stood up, “at least until we can get a signal.” He motioned to the fire, “I’ll bring back something we can cook up.” Pulling the gun from his waist, he glanced at the man still breathing, “try to leave him alive, security is going to want to have a chat with him.”
She took the gun he held out to her, “I wouldn’t want to ruin their fun.”
He grinned and then sobered quickly, “are you sure you’re okay?” He tilted his head and the way the fire reflected off his face she could see the genuine concern.
“I’m fine. Go grab dinner,” she put her hand over her stomach, “I’m starving.”