Chapter 498 Chapter 498
It was a good plan, but he still didn’t like it. It might be the only plan that would work, but if anything went bad, his ass was going to be on the line—with Kenzo, Jesse, her father—
“Come on, how else are we going to get him to stop?”
Tripp looked over at her, trying hard not to look at her boots again. Damn Kenzo for saying that. “Using you as bait is a bad plan. What if he’s not alone?”
She shrugged, and looked back down at the trail, “shoot whoever isn’t driving.”
“We need the contact too.” He set his pack down and squatted down behind a tree, “from here they wouldn’t see you...”
“He’ll stop if he sees me down there,” she pointed to the only place the vehicle could drive back up to the campsite.
Standing up again, he moved over to stand in her way, blocking the view of the trail, “it’s generally frowned upon to use the one you were sent to rescue as bait.”
Her eyes brightened as a slow smile formed, “and you always follow the rules?”
Tripp frowned, “no, but—” if he’d been smart, he would have left her tied to a tree at the camp for the crew to take her back with them. “Fine.” He pointed his finger at her, “we need him alive though, so we can find out who he’s dealing with.”
She looked at his finger, the smile gone from her face, “okay, I won’t kill him.”
Dropping his hand, he studied the look on her face, trying to figure out if she meant it or was just trying to placate him. “You know, revenge isn’t the answer, right? It will eat you up inside,” he should know, it had fed him for years, “until you can’t think straight.” He turned away from her when his cat started warning him not to upset her.
“That’s your advice? Revenge isn’t the answer?”
He opened the pocket that held his binoculars and took them out, “yeah.”
“You’ve never wanted to get back at someone and settle the score?”
Tripp lifted them to his eyes and searched down the mountain, following the trail any vehicle would have to take, “I have.”
“And how did it feel when you settled it?”
Tripp ground his teeth together for a minute, “I wouldn’t know.” He hated to admit it, but he couldn’t exactly tell her that his unsettled score involved her father. Because of that man, he couldn’t go home to his family, and he had to meet them off clan land anytime he had free time. He couldn’t tell her that his whole reason for being on the team had been fueled by his hatred of that man. At the start at least, now he did it because it was what he was good at and—he enjoyed it.
“I see, well no one crosses me and gets away with it.”
The sound of a chopper had them both searching the sky to see where it was coming from. They couldn’t see it from where they were, but the direction it was going could only mean it was the clean-up headed to the camp.
“Hope they’re fast.” She said quietly.
“If we can’t see them, no one on this side will either.” Tripp turned back to look down toward the town at the bottom. He followed the road that led from the town. With the low light of dawn, it was easy to see any lights that way. There was one set that looked like they were starting up the long trail, but he couldn’t be sure until they went past the last turn-off outside of the town. “This might be our target.”
“Good. You watch, I’m going to make some footprints in the snow.”
Tripp turned to see her running down the incline toward the trail. She was doing what? Less than a minute later, he understood. She was making it look like she had come down the vehicle trail and was wandering around. His guts were tight, his cat anxious. This was a bad plan. He looked back down to see the lights going by the last turnoff. It was too hard to see what kind of vehicle it was, but the chances of someone going for a leisurely drive up the mountain at dawn in the snow were pretty slim. “Shit.” Squatting down, he turned to see where the best vantage point was for him to see the trail. If she went too far up or down it, he wouldn’t have a good shot. He silently cursed every swear word he could think of as he looked. He’d have to use the darts, and the accuracy with those wasn’t as good as live ammo. Amari stopped and looked up at him and pointed to the ground in front of her. At least she knew to find out where he could see. He lifted his arm in the air giving her a thumbs up. Nodding, she backtracked on her own footprints and then headed back up toward him.
Tripp was watching the lights come up the mountain when she came up behind him. “This has to be our guy.”
“What’s the plan after we get him?”
He figured they had at least fifteen minutes before he was close enough to execute the plan he was hating right now. “First, we’re confiscating his jeep,” he flashed a quick smile, “so we can get down off here with dry feet.” She smirked. “Then we’ll find somewhere to hole up and ask him a few questions.”
Amari nodded, “there’s bound to be a motel down there.” She took off his jacket and set it on her backpack then glanced at him, “wearing an Alliance-issued jacket is a huge tell that things have changed since he left.” She tapped her finger on the emblem on the shoulder of the coat. It was grey and hard to see right away, but she was right. “Hopefully he doesn’t realize I’m wearing different clothes. Do you have any zip ties?” She held out her hands.
Tripp raised an eyebrow at her, “I’m binding your wrists?” That was a stupid plan, taking away her options for defending herself.
“Not for real, just make it look good, leave one loose so I can get my hands out.”
His cat was in the process of gouging his insides to shreds and Tripp couldn’t blame him at all for it, he wasn’t happy with this plan either. Leaning down, he opened a pocket on his bag and pulled out the carefully looped zip ties, that were always ready to slip over hands and tighten. He showed them to her and then turned and lifted the binoculars, “let’s see how fast he’s navigating the road.”