Tracker: A Rylee Adamson Novel (6 page)

I ran a hand over his head. “We love you too, buddy.”

A minute passed and I pushed her away. “I have to go.gge have t Before Liam wakes.”

“If you think he’ll let you go, why don’t you wait to tell him?” Pamela wiped her cheeks, her eyes questioning me.

I shook my head, unable to tell her the truth. It wasn’t just Liam I worried about; I had doubts about myself, too. While being dependent on Liam wasn’t totally bad, it was making me soft. I had to be strong enough to do things on my own, like before I’d started my own pack.

Good practice for when Faris showed up and I had to leave.

Again.

Fuck, this shit was getting old.

I slid on my heavy winter jacket, the leather-lined coat had as many stitch-up jobs as I did. Weapons already on, I nodded at Pamela. “This time tomorrow, I’ll be back. Don’t worry, okay? You just help Liam get the info he needs, however he needs to do it. I’ll leave the Jeep for you three. Alex and I can make it on foot.”

She gave a quick nod, but the doubt was in her eyes.

“Come on, Alex, let’s go.”

He and I headed out the side door. I turned back on the threshold to see Pamela standing in the candlelight, Giselle behind her.

Go, Rylee. You must.
Giselle’s words hummed inside my head, a reassurance I needed. I lifted my hand to them both, and stepped into the blowing snow.

Chapter 6

S
leep, though it
stole him away from his worries, was not restful. Giselle’s words haunted his dreams, and a myriad of ways to die filled his mind. He couldn’t tell Rylee, he knew that, but he hated to keep secrets from her. Hated how her eyes had filled with distrust when he couldn’t tell her. Hated that he pushed her away, even if it was for a good reason.

Morning sunlight woke him as it snuck past the drawn sash and bathed his face in weak winter light. Liam groaned and rolled to his side, his hand reaching out for Rylee’s body. Nothing but a cold spot beside him. Not really a surprise, she was probably downstairs working out already—the woman could rarely be pulled from her routine, even when the shit hit the fan.

And hit the fan it had. The entire local coven wiped out, Dox and his friends skinned alive, Eve dead and then brought back to life. Giselle’s Reading of him. Liam ran his hands over his head, still not fully believing everything they’d seen.

Not to mention Rylee was as pissed as a cat in a rainstorm at the moment. Nothing he could do about any of that now, so he shook it off and got out of bed. His spine cracked as he stretched and his eyes were drawn to Rylee’s weapon stash.

Her two best swords were missing.

The winter ice might as well have slid down his back. He threw on his clothes and was in a flat out run in a matter of seconds, down the stairs and into the kitchen where Milly and Pamela stood side by side, heads bowed together. The murmur of Milly’s voice as she explained something about subtle magic to Pamela. No Rylee and no Alex. Maybe she’d just taken the submissive werewolf outside.

Maybe he was just trying to delay the inevitable once he finally asked the question.

“Where is ad eshe?” He drew in a deep lungful of air, trying to scent Rylee. She’d been here, but it was faint, like it had been hours since she’d last been in the house.

Pamela turned and pulled something from her back pocket, handing it to him. He noticed the red around the rim of her eyes, the smell of sadness clinging to her, and anger.

He took the note and flipped it open.

I won’t be long, twenty-four hours at the most. Take Pamela and see what you can find out about those fucking guns. We can’t let Orion or his lackeys get their hands on them.

That was it, nothing about where she’d gone, or what she’d left for. But he knew this was a dig at him. He hadn’t opened up to her, and so now she was fucking off on her own. Having a fucking snit.

“You know where she is, don’t you?” He folded up the note and tucked it into his pocket as he lifted his eyes to Pamela.

She tipped her chin up ever so slightly. “Yes, I do.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

Uncertainty flickered through her eyes, her age showing. “If I do, you’ll go after her and then she’ll be angry with both of us.”

Milly said nothing, just watched them, her green eyes thoughtful.

Liam put his hands on his hips and dropped his chin to his chest, thinking, as he tried to work his mind around the anger coursing through him. A few deep breaths and he managed to get himself under control. He’d told Rylee that she would have to make choices and he trusted her to deal with Faris on her own when the time came. There weren’t a lot of options and, though he and his wolf were pissed as hell, what Rylee was asking him to do made sense. Even if her reason for leaving on her own was stupid and more than a little childish in his eyes, he did understand why she’d done it.

He hurt her, pretty much told her he didn’t trust her, and she’d run away.

Fuck it all.

Through the anger, the logical side of him—his FBI training—said what she’d done was the best division of labor. Whatever task she was after wasn’t dangerous; at least, that’s what he told himself. Trusting her was one of the hardest things he did, mostly because he knew how quickly she found trouble, whether she wanted it or not.

The faster he tracked down where the guns were coming from, the faster he could go after Rylee. If he had to. But no matter what, he couldn’t tell her what Giselle told him. Hell, he needed to make something up. Twenty-four hours was enough time to come up with a plausible reason he’d held back. Right?

“Let’s get this done and get back here.” He turned and headed for the side door.

“I’m coming with you,” Milly said, stopping him in his tracks.

Pamela cleared her throat softly, only loud enough that Liam heard. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Milly. It’s not like you can actually help now that you have no magic, and besides, Liam wants to kill you.”

Ah, for the simple honesty of a teenager.

He looked over his shoulder. “Pamela’s right.”

Milly lifted an eyebrow, then dropped her gaze. “I can still teach her as we go, and I don’t want to be left alone. I am totally vulnerable without my magic. At least if I am with you and Pamela I have a chance.”

Teeth clenched, he tried to see how he could deny her. Hellid ny her., he could have Pamela tie her up and leave her in the hallway closet until they got back.

His wolf paced inside him, snarling at the very thought of sharing close quarters with Milly. Then again, she had no magic, so he could kill her if he had to. With ease, actually. She might even give him just cause to break her tiny little neck. His wolf settled with that thought.

He gave a sharp nod. “Fine, you can come. Teach the kid, stay out of the way, and don’t touch me.”

The two women grabbed coats and followed him out. Rylee’s Jeep was parked in the same place she’d left it last night. His eyes dropped to the ground, looking for tracks, but the falling snow had covered them firmly. Her scent pulled him forward a few steps, drawing him down the path she’d gone.

“Liam.” Pamela’s voice drew him back. “How are we going to use the Jeep?”

His eyes flicked over the compact vehicle, and he wondered the same thing. Whatever he was, he packed far more of a ‘supernatural’ wallop than the others. “We’ll have to try, see if it will start with all three of us.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

Well, that should be obvious, but he said it anyway. “Milly stays behind, regardless of how vulnerable she is.”

Milly lifted her chin, and he saw the fear in her eyes. Orion wasn’t just coming for Rylee and her pack; he was coming for Milly and her child too.

Shit, he was not going soft on her.

He wasn’t.

Before we left Giselle’s, I took a wrapped torch, lighter fluid, matches and a long coil of rope from my Jeep. Looping the rope around Alex and tying it firmly, he was able to carry it easily. Everything else was light enough for me. At least I’d thought ahead enough to take the majority of my gear from the root cellar. Alex and I ran for two hours, until the light stained the snow around us a faint pink. With the snow falling steadily, I wasn’t worried about leaving tracks, though I knew Liam would be able to scent us. I had to believe he would do as I asked and wouldn’t follow me. That, and I was pretty sure he would get the subtle jab that trust had to go both ways, or it didn’t work at all. The run with Alex helped with the anger and the hurt.

Going to New Mexico on my own wasn’t a big deal, there was no danger waiting for me. But Doran loved to poke at Liam, loved to drive his wolf into a rage. Which was one more reason to send Liam in a different direction. I could handle Doran on my own.

It wouldn’t be long before we hit the highway, and from there we would snatch a ride to the badlands exit with one of the big rigs, they were always headed along that route—

A blood red, meticulously clean pickup truck rolled to a stop beside us, the windows tinted pitch black. The passenger window rolled slowly down to reveal Faris sitting in the driver’s side, a grin on his face, fangs fully showing. “Fancy meeting you here, Rylee. Get in, I’m losing heat.”

The shock didn’t last long, a mere split second before my rage spilled all the way to my fingertips. The only thing that kept me from launching myself at him was knowing Charlie was alive.

Seven days, he’d promised me seven days before I had to help him. I wrenched open the door. “How am I not surprised—you fucking liar—that you didn’t keep your word to me?”

His grin didn’t falter. “I thought you would be grateful fot l gratefr the ride, seeing as you mistakenly left your Jeep behind.”

He still thought I thought he’d killed Charlie, threatened my family, forced me into oaths that bound me to help him, and he wanted me to be fucking grateful?

Then again, it was morning, and the sun was shining, if dimly. “Actually, I am grateful.” I smiled at him and opened the door fully, yanking it backward until the hinges squealed. Oh, what a joy it would be to see him fry to a crisp in the early morning sunlight.

His eyes narrowed and the grin settled into a snarl. But that wasn’t what pissed me off the most, no. That fucking asshat jumped the veil. Just sitting there, he jumped the veil.

My temper cooled and I realized it was probably for the best anyhow. After all, I needed him. Sure, I wasn’t happy about it, but without Faris I wouldn’t be able to unify the vampires—or worse yet, Berget would gain true control. Add to that I was really hoping to find a way around killing my little sister.

I slapped my hand on the door. “Get in, Alex. We have a ride now.”

As I slid into the driver’s seat, I wondered if somehow Faris had done this on purpose, if I was already falling into a trap he’d carefully laid out. I gripped the steering wheel reflexively. No, I couldn’t worry about it now; I had a way to get to the mineshaft and that was all that mattered.

Still, knowing he’d suckered me into my oaths while not actually hurting anyone only compounded my belief he was far smarter, and far more devious, than any of us gave him credit for.

The truck spun out as I gave it gas, the back end fishtailing before the tires found traction in the wet snow. Probably had four-wheel drive, but it wasn’t that nasty out. I’d save that for going through the badlands, which would be rutted and snotty at best.

Alex all but vibrated beside me, claws tapping on the dashboard. “Alex hungry.”

“You can eat when we get to Dox’s.”

He slumped in his seat, bottom lip sticking out. “Bugger.”

I ignored him and peered through the darkened windows, the tinting making it look like midnight than morning. The passenger door had closed better than I thought after I wrenched the shit out of it and the interior heated up nicely. In the center console, a cell phone beeped. I grabbed it and held it up. The color still stayed on, the cell phone still worked. A tingle of apprehension slipped along the surface of my body. I flicked the phone open and it continued to give me the high definition color screen. The connection was simple; Faris had something to do with the guns being used. Yes, I had an old cell phone, but it was ancient and as simple as they came, and even it chose not to work sometimes. This phone was shiny and new and hurt my eyes the screen was so damn bright.

I flicked the “answer call” button.

“Who is this?”

Faris laughed softly. “Be careful, Rylee. I need you in one piece, and there are new enemies coming your way. Not that you should be surprised, Tracker.”

“Why the fuck would I believe you?”

I could almost hear the smile in his voice. “Because I believe they were following me, and now they are following you. Since you stole my truck, that is.”

“Fucking idiot!”

I hit the end button and quickly dialed in a number, holding the phone gingerly to my ear. It rang three times before picked up.

“This better be good,” he grumbled, sleep heavy in his words,ry.n his w the sound of static belying the fact he was a supernatural using a phone.

I snorted. “Doran, I need ride.”

The phone was so damn sensitive I heard the slide of sheets over his body as he moved around. Unreal.

“Do you know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that?” Doran all but purred into the phone, all trace of sleepiness gone.

“From the cave, to Dox’s. Then maybe to Louisa’s. I’m not sure yet.” Always best to ignore his less than subtle innuendos. His rocker punk boy style wasn’t really to my taste, even if I hadn’t been with Liam. Not to mention, being a Daywalker did nothing for his stock with me.