The Immortal Hunter

by Lynsay Sands

Chapter Two

 

  "The two girls are sisters," Justin announced, catching up to Decker as he reached the kidnappers' van. It was parked on the edge of the clearing, and while he hadn't taken much notice of it when they'd rushed by it earlier, Decker found himself considering it now as a possible way out of there. He paused to glance back at Justin, scowling when he saw that the kid was dragging a blank-faced Dani along by the hand like they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

  Justin rolled his eyes at his expression and dropped her hand to take her arm instead.

  "I know they're sisters," Decker said, relaxing a little. "She told me that. "

  Justin nodded, but continued recounting what he'd learned from reading Dani's mind. "Their family was up here for a long weekend. The two of them were kidnapped from the grocery store parking lot like Nicholas said. Their captors were a bit rough, but other than a bruise or two she seems all right. "

  Decker grunted, his attention on negotiating the uneven ground as he led the way around the van and into the clearing.

  "I gather from her memories, though, that there are more than the immortals to deal with," Justin warned, following him.

  That made Decker pause and glance back in question.

  "It would seem Dani and Stephanie weren't the first victims," Justin explained. "There are a couple of women in the ravine she fell into. Pretty messed up from what I saw in her memory. Oh, and it turns out the ravine wasn't very deep. The reason she was so desperate to get out was because of the bodies. "

  Decker frowned and glanced toward the blond again. She appeared calm, her eyes blank. The sight rather bothered him. He didn't like the fact that Justin had taken control of her like this. Unfortunately, it was necessary. He didn't have time to try to talk her out of running off after her sister alone, and they had things to do before they could leave the clearing. Things she wouldn't understand, and that he didn't want her to be a witness to.

  "Have you tried your phone?" Justin asked suddenly. "I tried mine before I followed you out of the clearing earlier. I was going to call in a cleanup team to pick up the rogues, but couldn't get a signal. "

  "Neither could I," Decker admitted, continuing on into the clearing.

  "I guess we're on our own," Justin said, not sounding terribly pleased at the prospect. "What are we going to do?" Before Decker could answer, he added hopefully, "I don't suppose we could just behead the bastards and be done with it?"

  "You know better than that," Decker said dryly. It was all he had to say. Enforcers weren't like the mortal, and fictional, James Bond with a license to kill anyone they deemed it necessary. If they had a kill order on a rogue, that was one thing, but like mortals, immortals believed in due process. These men had to be taken in to be judged by the Council. Decker understood that it was necessary to ensure innocents weren't killed in error, but sometimes it was a terrible pain in the butt. . . as now, he thought as he contemplated how they could possibly incapacitate the men so that they didn't recover and escape before a cleanup crew could get here to collect them.

  "So? What are we going to do?" Justin repeated, interrupting his thoughts.

  Shifting, Decker shrugged and said, "Find something to tie up the men, search them for the keys to their van, take that to get out of here and, as soon as we can get a signal, call Lucian. The SUV has a GPS tracking system. Someone at Argeneau Enterprises will be able to track where it is so we can give chase. Lucian can also arrange for a cleanup crew to come in and take care of these guys. "

  As he talked, Decker had knelt to empty the pockets of the nearest prone rogue in search of the keys to the van, but paused and glanced up when Justin gasped, "One of them is missing. "

  "One of what is missing?" he asked.

  "One of the rogues. There were six of them," he pointed out. "The one Nicholas is chasing and five others, but there are only four here now. "

  Decker straightened and quickly counted the men in the clearing. He cursed when he saw there were only four remaining. One of them either had faked being hit or had recovered much more quickly from the tranquilizer in the bullets than he should have. The thought made him peer warily over the others. They'd have to tie them up quickly. . . and didn't have the proper tools to do it. Those were in the SUV.

  "Why didn't he take the van?" Justin asked, distracting him from this worry.

  Decker glanced sharply to the dark van parked on the edge of the clearing, grimacing when he saw the problem. "It's got a flat. "

  "A stray bullet must have hit it," the kid pointed out, and then eyed Decker. "Speaking of bullets, how are you feeling?"

  Decker grimaced. He was feeling a little queasy, a little weak, and both wounds were hurting like a son of a bitch, but all he said was, "I'll live. "

  Justin stared at him worriedly for a moment, and then released Dani's arm and turned away, saying, "I'll see if there's a spare tire in the van. "

  "No," Decker said quickly. "If the fifth man was hit and somehow recovered from the tranquilizer this quickly, he might not be fully recovered. He may have simply regained consciousness and enough strength to drag himself into the woods. But there's also a possibility that he faked being shot. "

  "Either way he's probably out there, watching us," Justin realized unhappily. They were both silent for a moment, eyes scanning the woods, and then Justin glanced to the unconscious man Decker had been searching and said, "What if the tranquilizer that coated the bullets was from a bad or weak batch? They might all be recovering. "

  Decker turned his gaze to run it over each rogue, looking for signs of recovery. The one Nicholas had shot with the crossbow had taken the arrow through the heart. He wouldn't recover without someone first removing the projectile. Decker was pretty sure the man he'd shot at the end of the skirmish had taken the bullet in the heart too. If the slug had lodged there and not traveled through, then it would at least keep him down a little while. However, Decker hadn't been concerned with making a heart-shot with the first man he'd hit, and doubted Justin had with the one he'd taken out either. They would have to tend to the men in the clearing before they could search the woods.

  "Check the van and see if there's anything useful in there," Decker ordered, moving to examine the two men he was most concerned with. "And check for a spare while you're at it. "

  "Will do," Justin said, and turned away.

  "Justin?" Decker called. When the kid paused and turned back in question, he added grimly, "Keep your eyes and ears open. "

  Justin's gaze slid to the four rogues in the clearing, and then over the woods surrounding them. He nodded solemnly, and then moved more cautiously toward the van.

  Decker stepped out of the trees and crossed to the fire to drop the burning log he'd been using as a torch to search the woods while Justin changed the tire on the van. He hadn't found a thing. It seemed the fifth rogue from the clearing had gotten away too.

  He glanced over the remaining rogues. They lay where they'd fallen, trussed up with some rope Justin had found in the van. Decker had insisted on it before going to search for the missing one. While the rope wasn't likely to hold any of them long if they woke up, he'd hoped it would slow them down enough that he or Justin could shoot them again before they got completely free. He might have been fooling himself, it might have been as useful as wrapping limp, overcooked noodles around their ankles and wrists, but it had made him feel better about leaving Justin and Dani alone in the clearing with the rogues while he'd searched the woods.

  Decker's gaze now slid to the woman. His woman. His life mate, he thought with not a little wonder. She lay curled up and sleeping peacefully by the fire compliments of Justin. While he didn't like to keep her under the other immortal's control like this, it did seem for the best at the moment.

  "Did you find anything?"

  Decker glanced to Justin as the younger immortal crossed the clearing to his side. He shook his head. "Not a thing. "

  Justin no
dded, but smiled with satisfaction and announced, "I did when I took the flat tire off the van. "

  When Decker raised an inquiring eyebrow, Justin held out his hand and opened it to reveal two small electronic gizmos on his palm. "These were stuck to the wheel well with some kind of Silly Putty. "

  "What are they?" Decker took the offered items and knelt next to the fire to examine them.

  "They're how Nicholas knew the rogues had grabbed the girls and brought them here. I'm pretty sure one is a listening device and the other some sort of tracking device. "

  "Hmm. " Decker turned first one device over and then the other. "It figures. Nicholas always was a techie at heart. If Annie hadn't died, I think he would have given up being an enforcer to work in Bastien's tech lab. "

  "Annie was his life mate?" Justin asked.

  Decker nodded.

  "What happened to her?"

  "She died. " Decker closed his hand on the electronic gizmos and straightened. "Her death is what drove him over the edge. "

  Justin was silent for a minute and then said, "I've been thinking. "

  "Always a dangerous pastime," Decker murmured almost absently, his gaze shifting to the van to see that while he'd been searching the woods, Justin hadn't just removed the flat tire, he'd finished putting the spare on too. They could head out after Nicholas.

  "Ha ha," Justin muttered, and then said, "I'm wondering if it's such a good idea to leave the rogues here for the cleanup crew to deal with. If they-"

  "We're taking them with us," Decker interrupted. The problems with leaving the immortal rogues behind had struck him as he'd searched the woods. The downed men might wake before the cleanup crew could get there, or someone might have heard the gunshots earlier and there might-that moment-be an OPP car cruising around trying to find where the shots had originated. If a mortal cop stumbled on the clearing and found the bodies before the immortals did wake. . . Decker didn't even want to think about the trouble that could ensue.

  When Justin relaxed beside him, obviously relieved at this news, he added, "But we aren't taking them until we're damned sure they aren't going to wake up in the back of the van and attack us. "

  "What are we going to do?" Justin asked.

  Decker's answer was to lift the long branch he'd found in the woods. The action sent pain shooting through his chest and back, but he ignored it. It wasn't as bad as it had been and the queasiness had passed.

  His gaze slid to Justin to see that the younger immortal was eyeing the stick dubiously.

  "You're going to beat them?" he asked uncertainly.

  "No," Decker growled, just managing not to grind his teeth together. He began snapping the branch into three pieces. "We're going to stake the three who were shot with bullets. The one with the arrow doesn't need it, but the others are a risk if there isn't something to ensure their heart can't pump. "

  "It could kill them if we leave the stakes in too long," Justin pointed out quietly.

  "We won't. We're only leaving them staked until we can meet up with a cleanup crew," Decker assured him, and then asked, "You said you found a tarp in the back of the van?"

  "Yeah," Justin said, and raised an eyebrow in question.

  "After we load them in the van we'll cover them with that so that Dani doesn't see them and get upset. "

  "I could just keep her asleep," Justin pointed out. "There's no need to wake her up. "

  Decker glanced to Dani. It would probably be less upsetting for her to continue sleeping, but he didn't want that. He wanted her awake so that he could talk to her, and hopefully redeem himself in her eyes. Right now the woman thought he was an inept oaf, and he'd dearly like to rectify that impression. But he also just wanted to get to know her better. She was his life mate, or could be if she agreed. After two hundred and fifty-nine years alone, he was ready for her. He just had to change her opinion of him and woo her into seeing him as something other than the Austin Powers she'd accused him of being.

  Decker shook his head. He was usually the epitome of intelligence and competency, but he'd been set aback by realizing he couldn't read her and what that might mean.

  "She might be able to tell us something about the man who took her sister that could help us catch him," Decker said finally, but knew it was a lame excuse. Justin had already read her mind and probably got any and everything from her that they could use. When the younger immortal didn't call him on it, though, he handed him one of the sticks and said, "Come on. Let's get this over with and get going. "

  "Shouldn't we sharpen them or something?" Justin asked, accepting the makeshift stake.

  "No time," Decker said. "Just put some muscle into it. "

  Justin moved toward one of the men, then glanced back to ask, "What about the bodies in the ravine?"

  Decker glanced toward the edge of the clearing overlooking the shallow ditch. He considered the matter and then shook his head. "We leave them. Lucian will arrange for someone to find them so their families can give them a proper burial. "

  Dani woke up abruptly, almost unnaturally so, she thought with confusion as she sat up on the hard, vibrating bed and glanced around. It took her a moment to sort out that she wasn't on a bed at all, but lying on the hard metal floor of a van. Memory rushed in then, and for one moment she feared she'd dreamed the rescue in the clearing and was still being held by the men who had kidnapped her and her sister, but then Dani glanced to the seats she lay behind and saw the man presently smiling at her from the front passenger seat. Not Decker-Maybe-Argeneau-Maybe-Pimms, but another man she didn't recognize.

  "The name's Justin," he introduced himself cheerfully, and then pointed to their driver and added, "I'm with Decker-Maybe-Argeneau-Maybe-Pimms. "

  Dani let her breath out slowly, but didn't relax. Worry for her sister was now crowding her brain.

  "How are you feeling?"

  The question made Dani glare at the man with disbelief. How was she feeling? She'd been kidnapped, knocked about by a bunch of brutes, caught in the middle of a Shootout, and-worst of all-her sister was missing, still in the clutches of one of those brutes. How did he think she felt? Shaking her head with disgust, she muttered, "This is the best CSIS could come up with? This is the Few and the Proud?"

  "The Few and the Proud are the U. S. Marines," Justin informed her, seeming rather amused. "We CSIS men-" For some reason, he paused to cast a taunting glance toward Decker, and then continued, "We CSIS guys are the Cute, Strong, Intelligent, and Sexy. "

  "I'm sure," Dani said dryly, and then ignored him as she tried to sort out how she'd ended up in the van again. The last thing she recalled was hurrying toward the road, determined to find a house with a phone and a car so that she could call her family and do what she could to help find her sister. Dani had no idea at all how she might have ended up back in the van and sleeping.

  "It's nothing to concern yourself with," Justin said, as if she'd spoken the worries aloud. "Everything's fine. We're on the road and, hopefully, soon we'll be able to get a cell signal to call in backup. "

  Dani found herself caught by the intensity of his eyes and, oddly enough, how she had gotten where she was suddenly didn't seem that important anymore. As the worry slipped away, she pulled herself to her knees between the seats and peered curiously out the window to see that they were just coming to the end of the grassy trail and bumping onto the gravel lane. She hadn't slept long then, Dani thought, and turned to peer at Decker. For some reason they were driving with the interior lights on. She had no idea why, but it allowed her to get a better look at the man who had so annoyed her earlier. He appeared to be extremely good-looking, with dark hair, fine features, and eyes that appeared an arresting silver-blue in this light. As she recalled, he'd been tall and well built too. In the looks department the man fit the James Bond image of a spy, she thought. It was just a shame that he was missing the "intelligent" from the Cute, Strong, Intelligent, and Sexy quota.

  "Don't be
too hard on Decker," Justin said suddenly, obviously reading her expression and guessing where her thoughts had led her. "After all, the man was in shock. "

  "Shut up, Justin," Decker snapped.

  Dani ignored the driver and glanced to the other man in question. "Why would he have been in shock?"

  Justin hesitated, and when he spoke she suspected it wasn't what he'd intended to say. "He was shot when he ran out into the line of fire to pull you back onto the cliff. "

  "Ah hell," Decker muttered as Dani's head swiveled sharply back to him. She noted absently that he sounded annoyed and embarrassed, but ignored that as she leaned farther forward to peer at his chest. Her eyes widened when she saw that there was, indeed, a bullet hole in the shoulder of his shirt.

  "You are shot," she said with dismay. "Why are you driving? You should-Have you bound the wound or anything?"

  It didn't look to her as if he had. His short-sleeved buttoned shirt was black so she couldn't tell if there was blood on it, but the cloth lay flat on his upper chest without any bulk to suggest a bandage beneath. Dani reached out to pull the shirt away from his skin to check. What she found was a hole in his shoulder with dried blood crusted around it. . . and a whole lot of naked male chest. Forcing herself to ignore the naked male bit, Dani concentrated on the wound. It looked like the bullet had gone through the muscle below his shoulder blade, missing any bones. That was good news at least. There should have been more blood from the wound, though, and Dani could only think that he'd done at least something to stop the bleeding. But it really needed to be cleaned, the bullet removed, and bandaging applied.

  "Stop that," Decker muttered, knocking her hand away so that the shirt fell back into place. "I'm driving here. "

  "Yes, well, you shouldn't be," she said firmly. "Stop the vehicle so I can have a look at it. Your friend here can drive. "

  "Justin," the friend said, reminding her of his name.

  Dani ignored him and tugged on Decker's shirt. "Pull over. "

  "No. I'm fine. The bullet just grazed me. "

  Dani snorted. "It didn't just graze you, it went through your subscapularis. "

  "His sub what?" Justin asked with amazement.

  "His subscapularis," Dani repeated, and when he looked blank, explained, "It's a muscle that starts under the shoulder blade and runs to the front of the upper arm. It rotates the arm inward. "

  Justin's eyebrows had risen up his forehead in amazement, and he now asked, "What are you, a doctor or something?"

  "Yes. " She turned back to Decker. "Pull over so I can tend your shoulder. "

  He merely shook his head. "We need to get to where we can get cell reception. We need backup and we need to track the SUV. Remember your sister?"

  Dani bit her lip, torn between insisting he stop and keeping her mouth shut. On one side of the argument, he was injured. Gunshot wounds were nothing to mess with, and untreated could result in infection and even septic shock, which had a fifty percent chance of killing the victim. On the other side of the argument was her sister, who was still in the clutches of one of the men who had kidnapped them and who might even now be suffering hellish abuse.

  "I've got a signal," Justin said suddenly, saving her from having to make a decision.

  "Good," Dani said with relief as Justin held the phone up, his gaze concentrated on the screen. She turned to Decker and pointed out, "Now you can stop and let me look at your shoulder while he makes the call to track your vehicle and tell us where it is. "

  "How strong is the signal?" Decker asked, ignoring her.

  "One bar," Justin answered. "But we're getting there. "

  Decker nodded.

  "You might want to speed up," Justin suggested. "You're not going to get away without her tending to the gunshot. She's a doctor. That being the case, it may be better to let her see it sooner rather than later. "

  Dani frowned at the meaningful way he said the words. It felt like there was a silent message in there. If so, she didn't understand it. Decker seemed to, however, since he put his foot down and urged the van to a swifter speed. It made the ride much bumpier, and Dani found herself bouncing backward on the metal floor. When her foot knocked into something, she caught at both men's seats to steady herself, and glanced over her shoulder to see what she'd bumped into. Her eyes slid over lumpy shapes covered with some sort of tarp.

  "What-?" she began, and then snapped her mouth closed after nearly biting off her own tongue as they hit a rut in the road. Rather than risk losing her tongue, Dani decided to find out for herself what lay beneath the tarp, and reached back to lift the closest edge. The old van's small overhead light cast shadows across the small pile of bodies revealed, but she had no problem recognizing the men who had kidnapped her and Stephanie. She was slower to understand what was sticking out of the chests of the ones that she could see and presumably the others too. It looked like lengths of a thick branch had been punched through their chests where their hearts would be.

  "Two bars," Justin announced, and Dani glanced to the front to see that his head was still bent over the phone, watching the screen. He hadn't noticed her checking out the bodies in the back. She let the tarp drop back into place and shifted back to where she'd originally been, her mind in chaos as she tried to sort out the meaning behind what lay under the tarp.

  The sight of the bodies didn't upset her; Dani had seen a lot of dead bodies while in medical school and she knew they'd been shot and most likely killed in the shootout in the clearing. It was the branches through their chests that had her mind running around inside her head like a small dog chasing its tail. What had been done to those bodies was not standard police procedure. Dani doubted defiling a corpse was standard procedure for an organization like CSIS either, and it suddenly occurred to her that she really had no idea who these men were except for what Decker had told her. She'd seen no badges or identification of any kind.

  For all she knew, they could be a couple of nutcases as dangerous as the first six men.

  "What's under the tarp?" she asked suddenly, and didn't miss the way the two men glanced to each other, exchanging a silent message before Decker cleared his throat and admitted, "The men from the clearing. "

  Dani was silent for a minute and then asked, "And what about the women in the ravine?"

  Another silent exchange occurred, and then Decker said, "We had to leave them behind for now. Lucian, our boss, will arrange for the local authorities to find them after we talk to him. "

  Dani stared at his profile for several moments, considering his words. Arrange for the local authorities to find them seemed an odd way to frame it, but she merely asked, "Who is the man who chased after my sister and her kidnapper in the other van? Is he CSIS too?"

  Interestingly enough, that question brought about a very long pause indeed before Decker said, "He used to be one of us. "

  Before Dani could ask another question, Decker slowed the van, and she glanced out the windshield to see that they'd reached the end of the street.

  "How many bars now, Justin?" he asked.

  "Three," came the grim response.

  Decker turned the corner going left and drove up this new road, steering the van up a steep hill before slowing to a stop. "Now?"

  "Four out of five bars," was the answer.

  "Good enough," Decker decided, and steered the van off the road to park on the small stretch of grass between the pavement and the row of trees that sided it. "Give me the phone. "

  "Maybe I should call while Dani tends to your shoulder," Justin suggested quietly, and then pointed out, "She's a doctor. She's just going to pester you until you let her look at it, and it really is better if she does it sooner rather than later. " He allowed a moment for that to sink in and then added, "Unless you'd like me to"-his gaze slid to Dani before he finished-"do my thing. "

  "No," Decker said sharply, and then glanced warily to Dani. Seeing that she was listening, he turned back and adde
d, "I can make the call while she tends my shoulder. It was my decision to leave the keys in the SUV, I'll take the flack. "

  Justin shrugged and handed over the phone and then turned to Dani. "I didn't find a first aid kit when I searched the van earlier, so you'll have to make do with what we have. I have a pocket knife you can use to dig out the bullet, but I don't know what you'll use for a bandage and there's nothing to use to clean the wound. "

  Dani merely shrugged and accepted the pocket knife he dug out of his pocket and handed to her. She no longer really had any interest in looking at Decker's shoulder. There was something wrong here, and she was suddenly positive the two men weren't with CSIS or any other law enforcement organization. Dani was now afraid that she'd escaped one group of crazies only to land in the hands of two more.

  However, she'd been insistent on tending to Decker's shoulder earlier, and demurring now would look suspicious, which was the last thing she wanted. It would be easier to get away if they thought she still believed she was in safe hands and was perfectly content to be there, so Dani merely glanced to Decker and asked, "Where do you want to do this?"

  He hesitated and then shifted out of the driver's seat and moved to join her in the back. The bodies under the tarp took up most of the cargo space, leaving a very small area for the two of them. Dani turned and moved backward until she came up against the side door to make as much room as possible for him, and Decker shifted to kneel facing her.

  When he began to unbutton his shirt, she found her eyes following the action, running over every inch revealed until Dani realized what she was doing and turned her attention to the knife she held, occupying herself with opening the blade. She then stared at it, her medical training reminding her that it wasn't sterile, and poking around in his wound with an unsterilized knife might do more harm than good.

  Her gaze slid to the tarp, but Dani glanced back as Decker turned slightly so that the wounded shoulder was closer to her. She peered reluctantly at the bullet wound then, and found herself frowning and leaning closer for a better look.

  "What is it?" Decker asked, tension in his voice.

  "I-Nothing," she said quickly, but had trouble schooling her features. Dani didn't see a lot of bullet wounds in her practice. In fact, she had never seen one, but if she didn't know better she would have said the man had been shot at least twenty-four hours ago rather than the fifteen minutes or so since the Shootout in the clearing.

  "Why are you looking like that? Is there something wrong with the wound?" Decker asked before she could delve too far into the confusing questions plaguing her.

  "No," she lied. "It just doesn't look as bad as I expected. "

  "I told you it wasn't bad " he reminded her.

  "Yes, you did," she said quietly, her eyes refocusing on the wound. The glow cast by the overhead light wasn't very strong, but she could see the bullet just inside the wound. That couldn't be normal. Surely it should have traveled farther in than that?

  "Just dig out the bullet and bandage it," Decker said when she simply sat there staring for another moment. "It will be fine. "

  Dani hesitated and then admitted, "I'm reluctant to use the knife to dig it out. It's not sterile. "

  "Neither was the bullet," he said with a shrug, and then turned his attention to punching numbers on the cell phone. Putting it to his ear then, Decker added, "Just dig it out and I'll have it cleaned up and get some antibiotics later. "

  Dani sighed and then picked up the knife again, but paused once more and glanced to Justin. "You don't happen to have a lighter or something, do you?"

  "No, but I saw one in the glove compartment, hang on. " He disappeared from view, and Dani heard him rummaging around in the glove compartment. After a moment she heard a satisfied grunt, and then Justin leaned around the seat and held out a small, disposable lighter.

  Dani accepted it with relief. It wasn't ideal, but it was certainly better than nothing. She flicked the lighter and ran the flame it produced repeatedly over the blade, trying to move quickly enough that it wouldn't leave any carbon behind, but slow enough it would kill any germs or bacteria present. When she'd done the best she could, Dani turned to Decker, braced one hand on his shoulder to steady herself, and leaned in. Her mind was on what she was doing, but she couldn't help but inhale his natural scent as she worked. It was a spicy, woodsy smell that was quite pleasant and made her unconsciously close her mouth to inhale it more deeply through her nose.

  "Lucian, Nicholas is up here," Decker said suddenly, nearly startling her into slicing his chest open.

  He really should have left Justin to make the call, she thought with irritation, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

  "No. . . there were complications," Decker said into the phone, and then glanced to her and nodded to his chest, saying, "Go ahead. "

  Dani pressed her lips together, thinking it would be better to wait until he finished his call, but shrugged and leaned in again. She soon found she'd been right and it was the bullet she could see just inside the wound.

  "He was-he claimed he was tailing some ro-real bad guys," Decker said, his voice tight as she set to digging out the bullet. It was just below the skin and quick and easy to remove, which just didn't seem right at all. What kind of gun lodged a bullet just under the skin?

  "Yes, you heard me right, he says he's still hunting down. . . bad guys even though he's. . . retired," Decker said.

  Dani set the bullet on the floor of the van, but her attention was on what Decker was saying. It seemed obvious the man was editing his side of the conversation and she would have paid a lot to hear what he really wanted to say, Dani thought as she turned back to the wound. She had expected to find that it had started bleeding freely now that the bullet was out, but there was very little blood at all. It was enough to make her think she needed to go back to school and take a couple of trauma courses. This wasn't anything like she expected.

  "Before I explain that, there are a couple of things I need you to get started on," Decker said as she glanced around for something to use to bandage the wound. While it wasn't bleeding, it did seem best to bandage it to at least make an effort at lowering the risk of infection. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything to use to bandage it.

  "I need you to have Bastien track the SUV and see where it's headed," Decker said, and her gaze skittered to him. Tracking the SUV meant finding her sister, something she very much wanted to do, but she was also wondering if bad guys were organized enough to do something like that. It made her think that she might have been wrong and they weren't bad guys too, despite the odd treatment of the bodies in the van.

  Decker suddenly covered the bottom of the phone and said, "That's good enough. Why don't you get out and stretch your legs a bit while you have the chance. "

  It was more an order than a suggestion, and there was no mistaking it. It seemed he wanted privacy for the call. Dani didn't hesitate; she nodded, turned to open the door behind her, and then slipped out of the van.

  It seemed obvious he wasn't going to say anything revealing in front of her anyway, and she needed time to decide if she should be trying to escape or sticking with them.

  Justin didn't follow her out of the van, but stayed to listen to the conversation, and Dani found herself standing at the side of the road without anyone to stop her from walking away. The problem was she wasn't sure she should.

  Frowning, she began to pace up the road, considering the situation. It seemed obvious that things weren't as they seemed. It was doubtful these men were with CSIS. She was pretty sure they'd lied to her, and were withholding information.

  On the other hand, Decker had risked leaving the cover of the woods and making a target of himself to pull her back up onto the cliff. . . taking a bullet in the process. That just didn't seem like the actions of a villain. And then there was the fact that Stephanie had been taken away in their SUV and these men had a way of tracking it. They were her best bet of findi
ng her sister. Perhaps even her only hope of finding her.

  She would stay with them for now, Dani decided. . . but she was going to proceed very very carefully with these men, watch and listen and learn what she could. Her life, and Stephanie's, might depend on it.