Chapter 704 Chapter 704
When Taggart reached the bottom, Deva changed her mind. This was a bad idea. As his animal, he had no weapons. She moved closer to the edge and found him with the scope. He didn’t even have his run pack on. Why had she agreed to this? He moved fast but still wasn’t faster than a bullet. They had no idea what weapons the man had. Taggart had teeth and claws at best but had to be too close to use either. Aside from shooting him, she had no way to let him know that this plan was not a good one.
“Just watch his back.” She whispered and blew out slowly. Moving along the tree line, she checked for animals or man. This was far enough North that bears could be down there having an after-hours party, and he wouldn’t be able to defend himself against something like that. When her sights were on the camp, she moved a fraction of an inch at a time, pausing long enough to see if anything moved or caught her attention.
The man was inside one of the tents. With the light on, she could see his outline. He obviously wasn’t concerned with being seen. Turning her head, she kept her eye on the scope and blew on her hand to warm it up. Her gloves were too thick to feel confident if she needed to pull the trigger. Flexing her hand a few times, she put it back against the trigger guard and exhaled.
Should she keep watch of the tent and make sure the guy stayed put or scan the area and watch for any unwanted critters or people? “Bad plan.” She mumbled.
She hadn’t looked at the time when he went down, so she had no clue how much had passed. It felt like a week, but she knew that logically it was probably five minutes. “Where are you?” She backtracked in the direction of her location, looking for Taggart. She didn’t see him anywhere. “It’s a good thing I can’t see you.” Moving slowly, she paused to check if she could find him. “It betters your chance of me not shooting you, so you’ll stop taking these risks.” She snorted softly. “Like that would stop you.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, she huffed out a breath. “Get it together.” She opened them again and looked through the scope. As she was adjusting her position, she saw something move. She froze and stared at the spot. It was him. He was creeping along, close to the ground. It was a smart move and explained why it was taking him this long.
He probably did things like this for kicks. With his lifestyle, she didn’t doubt it at all. She flexed her hand quickly, trying to warm it. If she didn’t have to watch him, she’d cut the finger off her other glove, so the rest of her hand was warm.
She sucked in a breath and held it as he reached the back of the tent the guy was in. Why wouldn’t he go around it and stay in the shadows of the trees? Her breath left her body all at once when he was by it. That was the good part. The bad was she didn’t have a visual of him now. It wasn’t like she could move to a different location to get a better look. This outcrop wasn’t big enough to offer a lot of options.
“Where are you?” She tried to relax her shoulders, but it was hard laying on the cold ground. She finally saw him on the other side of the second tent. There were no lights on in it. “Their count better be right.” Her eyes widened when he shifted right there beside the tent. If it hadn’t been for the light from the other tent, she wouldn’t have been able to see him. “He’s insane.” She moved to check the other tent. Shifting wasn’t a loud show, but if another were nearby, they’d hear the bones snapping. The outline of the guy showed he was still sitting in the lit tent. He’d moved from where he had been but was still inside it.
“Okay, Taggart, time to come back now.” She moved to find him again. She found him as he went inside the tent. Going into the tent was not part of any discussion they’d had before he went down there. If Cassius’ people were wrong and there were more than five, he could be walking in on someone. Naked, with no weapons.
She was up here half frozen while he was down there strolling around the enemy’s camp without a stitch on. Did fate think she was bored and needed excitement in her life? Was that it? Because at this moment, she couldn’t think of a single thing she’d done to warrant a mate that was going to give her a coronary or mental breakdown—or both.
She blew out a breath, trying to stay relaxed, even though she knew that was not happening. She wasn’t even cold now. Her adrenaline was pumping so fast she was surprised she wasn’t sweating. It was hard not to feel disappointed. The talk they’d had when he said he would consider what she said—had it meant nothing to him? Sure, she’d asked him not to continent hop and put himself into dangerous positions, getting others out of bad situations across the oceans. This wasn’t crossing the sea, but the principle was the same. Maybe it was a language barrier, and she should have said, Do not take stupid risks. Would that have changed anything? Probably not.
“Okay. You need to get your bare butt out of that tent and get back up here now.” If she didn’t have to keep one eye closed, she would have glared at the tent and willed him to listen.
When the flap moved, she stiffened. He came out, and he was carrying something. What was it? It was hard to make out.
“You’d think with all the toys the Alliance has, they’d have a scope with night vision or something.” She didn’t even know if that was a real thing, but it definitely needed to be. She watched as he closed the tent back up. “Oh, come on.” She knew he had to, or it would alert them to the fact someone had been there, but hello, human footprints in the snow was a pretty big neon sign.
She watched him walk backward over his prints as he reached down and swiped his hand over them. For a split second, like faster-than-a-blink, she wished for more lighting so she could see him in his current state of undress. She clicked her teeth together when she realized her cat was right under the surface and probably had been since he’d gone down there. She was just too freaked out to notice. “His nakedness isn’t going to mean a damn thing if he gets dead before he gets back up here.” Deva clenched her teeth together. He might even get dead when he gets back up here, she thought for a second.
When he reached the side where he’d shifted, he dropped down and let his animal out again. Picking up the sack or pack, she wasn’t sure that he’d just liberated from the tent. He turned and moved quickly into the darkness of the trees.
Checking the guy in the tent hadn’t moved, she lifted her face from the cold gun and moved her head from side to side, hoping to release some of the rock-hard tension in her muscles. She let her head drop forward until it rested on her wrist. They better get this done tomorrow, or she was going to march down there, tranq that guy, and then go hunt the other four down. Exhaling for a few seconds, she lifted her head and looked through the scope again.
What was going to happen tomorrow when that guy realized there was a missing bag from the tent? That was going to change things. Did she tell Calum? Gnawing on her lip, she continued to look to find him. She’d wait until he got back up here and see what was so important that he had to take it. “It better be so important that they write songs about you, Taggart.” She whispered.
Her phone buzzing startled her. Shifting, she awkwardly dug it out of the suit, trying not to have to reposition completely. Holding it inside the fabric so the light wouldn’t be a beacon, she unlocked it. It was a message from Taggart. Is good. Catch breath. Be back. She clicked it, so it was off. He had his phone? Where did he have it? He wasn’t wearing his run pack. Did he carry it in his mouth?