Chapter 492 Chapter 492
He pulled his knife out and flicked it at the ground. “I’ll be back shortly.”
She watched him walk over to the tent and then lean down and take off his boots, he took the time to take his socks off and then tuck them in the boots before setting them inside so they wouldn’t get wet. When he peeled off his wet shirt, she paused to admire the muscles of his back. They weren’t overdone and huge like a lot of the men she worked with but sculpted nicely. She turned her head away and took a sip of the coffee. She had a weakness for fit male forms. Looking at the fire, she ran her tongue along her fat lip and then rolled her eyes at her own thoughts, this wasn’t a weekend getaway with another stranger she’d picked up from a nearby clan. Amari didn’t have many rules, but at the top of that shortlist was never screw someone you worked with. So that labeled Tripp Carson’s fine body off-limits.
When she turned back, he was gone. The man moved without any sound at all. She looked at the gun in her hand and then at the man watching her with a wary look on his face. “Relax. I’m not going to shoot you unless you piss me off.” She shrugged.
A large mountain lion came out from behind one of the tents, she was momentarily shocked, then annoyed that her sense of smell was impeded, or she’d have known what type of clan Tripp was from. He walked over to the man and emitted a low warning growl, basically telling him to behave while he was gone. With a quick glance at her, he took off into the trees.
He was from the same clan as her. She frowned and looked at the trees where he’d vanished, he must be from Mae’s clan, because if he was from her fathers, she’d know him. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t been back there for several years, those dark green eyes she would have remembered. Still, his name was familiar.
Setting the cup down, she got up and went over to the asshole she’d stabbed. If he had a wallet or phone on him, it might be worth a look. Doing something was better than sitting here trying not to think about being with the teams, or worse her past. She was proud of who she was and her abilities, even if some weren’t.
Tucking the gun into the back of her jeans, she eyed the other man, to make sure he hadn’t moved. She knew how tight she’d put the wires on, any movement from him would yield him sliced-up wrists, but some people liked to learn things the hard way.
She had just sat back down with the two dead men’s wallets and phones as Tripp came trotting out of the trees, a rabbit hanging out of his mouth. He came over and dropped it by her feet. She looked at it and then into his dark eyes. Most didn’t retain the same eye color when they shifted. “Good kitty.” She smirked as much as her mouth would allow her. He huffed to show he wasn’t fond of being called that and then turned and took off back into the trees.
Amari looked at the wallets and then at the rabbit, even if she did skin it, she wasn’t going anywhere near the fire to put it on. Shrugging, she opened the first wallet and looked through it. Fake ID, wasn’t nearly as good as the Alliance’s work. Pulling the cards and bills from the wallet, she tucked them into the jacket pocket and then tossed the wallet into the fire. She repeated her actions with the second wallet.
Opening the screen on the first phone, she glanced at the man watching her, “so, what you woke up one day and decided kidnapping people was a good career move?” This phone only had three contacts stored in it and a few text messages. Little man wasn’t very popular, she thought, then again, he was a jerk, so it made sense. The messages revealed nothing of interest. Sticking it in her pocket, she glanced to see he was still watching her.
“The Alliance shouldn’t turn outside clans away.” He said in a low steady voice.
She was surprised he’d spoken at all. “You came here from somewhere else and were rejected, then got all butt hurt and decided to destroy lives was the best course of action?” She scoffed, “clans take in outsiders all the time, maybe you should have improved your people skills before asking to join one.”
He looked at her with hard, cold eyes, then turned his gaze to look at the ground in front of him.
Amari shrugged and opened the screen on the second phone. Again, very few contacts, but the text messages on this one had locations. Turning, she looked at Tripp and her bags under the tarp they’d put over the tents. Going over, she got her map out of her pack to see if she could find these locations. She knew the first one, it was the little town she’d slowed down going through to gawk around. Getting the map out, she squatted and shone the light from the phone on it. She was pretty good with directions, so it didn’t take her long to figure out that the other location was a town at the base of the mountain on the other side. It had to be where the driver went. Folding the map back up, she put it back in her run pack and set it inside the tent.
She was happy Tripp had found her, but her conscience wasn’t going to let her just leave. Not with the driver still out there. The teams were up to their asses shutting down more locations and she couldn’t take a chance that this one would slip through the cracks and disappear. He could always round up another crew and continue doing what they did. She thought of her little sister and the other women on her team, one of them could be next on his shopping list. Moving back over to the log she’d sat on, she looked down at the rabbit. Her stomach gurgled with hunger. She was going to find the driver and turn him over to security to unravel his network of abduction, with or without Tripp Carson’s help—or anyone’s permission.