Chapter 530 Chapter 530
By the time they reached the store, the clouds had opened, and the snow was coming down so hard there was close to no visibility. Tripp yanked his hat on and looked at her, “call your guy and see how long this is going to last.”
Amari watched him set up the gas pump and then picked up her phone. Zain answered on the fourth ring, which was unusual it took that long, she was sure he sat with the phone in his hand twenty-four hours a day. “Z—”
“Hang on, Amari, I’m going to have to put you on hold for a second, shit is crazy here.”
The line went quiet. She lowered the phone and looked at it. That was a first too. Putting it on speaker, she set it on the dash, turned, and looked into the back seat.
Tripp opened the back door and stuck his head in. He gave her a questioning look.
“I’m on hold.”
The snow was caked on his hat already. “Put these seats down and take stock of our water and everything—we’ll make sure we have enough to weather this storm if we have to.” When she nodded, he closed the door.
Kicking off her boots, she climbed into the back seat. At least she knew now what had her cat so anxious, this wasn’t going to be a light snowfall.
She had both seats laying down and the supplies from the back sorted on them by the time Tripp opened the door and added three bags to it. She paused and watched him brush off some of the snow and then climb in the front seat. Zain still hadn’t come back on the phone.
Tripp took off his hat and shook it onto the floor. “In the blue bag in the cargo area are a few blankets.” He turned to look at her, “there’s a small grocery store a few miles up, do we need anything from it?”
Amari looked at the items in front of her. “We should have enough water to get us through. Some fruit and snacks other than protein and jerky would be nice.” Opening the bags, she looked to see what he’d bought. Gummy bears were the first thing she saw. When she looked up, he sat there looking at her. “Drive, they might close early with this storm.” She smiled; he’d bought her gummy bears. It was stupid, she knew that, but the idea that he had thought about her meant more than she could ever say out loud.
“Sorry about that,” Zain said loudly. “We’re dealing with a shit storm here.”
Amari moved and grabbed her phone. “We’re dealing with a blizzard here, Z. A heads up would have been nice.”
“I’m supposed to be a weatherman now? I don’t have time to send out weather reports—not with shit hitting the fan everywhere right now.”
Amari frowned, then motioned for Tripp to drive. “Because of the storm?” She didn’t like how panicked he sounded. Z was always a little bit of a drama queen, but he normally didn’t lose it over anything unless it was important.
“The team’s endeavors have come to a screeching halt, which has pissed everyone off, especially with you two nabbing a blood relative of Tomas—we’re all afraid if we pause, they’ll move everyone, and we’ll have to start over.”
Amari scowled at the windshield; she didn’t know how Tripp was seeing where he was going. “The storm can’t last that long—”
“The storm is not the only issue.”
Dropping her feet to rest between the front seats, she leaned on the back of Tripp’s and held the phone where he could hear and still focus on driving. “Break it down for us, Z.”
“Shit—okay, we have Rayne stuck at the Sanctuary, thank god they made it back before the storm—so, Devin’s pissed his mate is that far away.” He sucked in a breath, “Calum and Shaelan are out for, we can’t say how long. Obviously, Konner is stuck at home too, choppers can’t fly in this crap, which by the way is supposed to last two days.”
Tripp blew out a breath and leaned closer to the windshield. Two days of forced downtime never sat well with any of them that liked to keep moving. Or needed to keep moving, like herself and obviously Tripp.
“Asher and Foster, along with York and Jett, I don’t even know who that is, are stranded doing transports to four different clans from people rescued in the last ops, because the camp—I’m sorry, Arcadia and the other facilities are full,” Zain blew out a long breath, “Gia and Deacon have their own shit show right now with new clan members and an almost finished residence for them, but not finished enough. We have another female, Sloane, I think her name is, out for the duration of her time and headquarters is a fucking mess—secrets and hush-hush rotations of guards or team members watching your prize catch. Trying to keep things looking like it’s biz as usual so our rat here doesn’t tip anyone off—” when he sucked in another breath, she shook her head.
“Calm down, Z…”
“What? Shit. Hang on, guys.” She could hear other voices in the room with Zain now.
Amari looked out the back window to see there was no visibility and then climbed over the seat and dropped down to sit. Tripp was focusing on the road they may or may not be driving on. There were no lanes, no markers to even tell where the ended and the ditch began, the wipers were going full speed trying to keep the windshield clear, but they were failing.
“Amari, where are you guys now?”
She glanced at Tripp again, he didn’t look away from the windshield.
“Two,” he chuffed, “three hours from the border. Hard to tell when I don’t know where the road is.”
“Okay, let me look,” there were footsteps on hard tile, “coming from the Hughes clan—” he spoke slowly like he was dragging his fingers over a map.
“Do you know where the Harmon clan territory is?”
Tripp gave her a quick look and shook his head.
“I do.” She said quickly.
“Okay. Okay, that could work.”
“What could work, Z?”
He blew out a breath into the phone—
Tripp turned into what she thought might be a parking lot. How he’d found it in this storm she had no idea.
“We have a mother and her two teen daughters lost in the storm—a very upset mate and father along with an Alpha preventing him from going out searching without backup—the storm hit there before it moved across the map.”
“Shit.” She said softly.
“I know you can track anything, anywhere, Amari and I’ve heard nothing but the praises of Tripp Carson sung lately,” he huffed out a quick breath, “can you guys go help? We literally have no way of getting anyone else there.”
She looked over at Tripp when he stopped and put it into park.
“How long have they been gone?” He wiped his hair back from his face.
“Two hours, they were out on a nature walk when this hit,” Zain answered in a voice that sounded like he rolled his eyes as he said it.
Tripped reached down and grabbed his run pack and opened it. “Show me,” he handed her a folded waterproof map.
Amari set the phone on the dash and opened the map. Skimming her finger along it, she spotted the area the clan was in and tapped her finger on the plastic.
Tripp blew out a breath. “We’re looking at least an hour out in this.” He glanced out the window.
“It will be getting dark shortly after that,” she added.
He nodded and then looked at the phone. “Do the daughters shift?”
“No,” Zain answered. “They’re thirteen and fifteen.”
Amari grimaced, picturing the mother out there with two girls in what Amari thought of as the drama phase of their lives.
“Okay,” Tripp nodded, “tell the Alpha we’re on our way and for everyone to sit tight. We don’t need a dozen people lost in this.”
Zain blew out a relieved breath. “Will do.”
“Call me when you get there, Amari, Jesse will be pacing even more than he already is.”
Amari nodded and watched Tripp check the map and then reach for the GPS. “Okay, Z.”
She hung up the phone and then climbed back into the back to check that he’d gotten candles and garbage bags. A trek in the storm wasn’t something she thought they’d be doing.
“Your fruit is going to have to wait, darlin.”
She paused to see him looking at her, “I know.”
“What kind of clan is the Harmon clan?”
“Bobcat.”
He nodded his head slowly and she could see him thinking it through. “Alpha is smart not letting Dad run out into the storm.”
She frowned.
“This amount of snow and a breed that size…”
“Ah,” she nodded, “yeah we’ll manage in the deep snow better.”
“Give me a kiss, darlin, this is going to be a tense trip,” he smirked at her, already reaching for her.
Amari let Tripp pull her closer, “but you get to rush in and be the savior again. Twice in one week.” She smirked.
He gave her a playful look, “it’s what I do, babe.” He cupped the back of her head and gave her a slow, thorough kiss that she felt all the way to her soul. When he pulled his lips from hers, his eyes locked on hers, “I was hoping to get stuck alone with you in this storm.”
Her smile was slow, “if we get there, and find them, we could still get a day stranded somewhere before we head back to the teams.”
“Being stranded never sounded so damn good.” Releasing her, he jerked his chin toward the bags, “get those in the totes and then get buckled in, I’m going to need another pair of feline eyes to help me find the road.”