Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
A part of her was grateful Diego wasn’t with her. She knew if he was, her attention would be divided, and that was always a risk. With just herself to look after, she felt more confident. She did wish she was a strong telepath. She knew Diego was, but she couldn’t reach him. He had to initiate. She wanted to warn him so when he made his way back to her, he wouldn’t run into an ambush. The thought made her more determined than ever to hunt and kill the approaching enemy.
She heard them when they were a mile out. They had stopped on the trail, presumably looking for tracks.
“Alex, you need to pick up the trail,” one said. He had the voice of someone used to issuing orders.
“Devin is the sniffer, Cooper, not me,” Alex protested.
She knew a sniffer had bear in him, and bears were the best at finding food, even miles away. Their sense of smell was up to three thousand times better than a human’s. She knew he would find her. How could he not? She was a human being, and no matter how many times she showered, she would still smell like a human being.
“You’re our tracker,” Cooper snapped, impatience coming through. “You can’t always leave everything up to Devin. You’re so lazy, Alex. Pull it together.”
“It’s not my fault that my DNA causes me to tire easily. You try having sloth, lion and owl monkey in you. All of them need to sleep sixteen or seventeen hours a day.” Alex sounded whiny.
Leila rolled her eyes. What had Whitney been thinking to put together a concoction like that? It was ridiculous.
“You were lazy before Whitney ever offered to have you in the program. They were going to toss your ass out because you couldn’t complete the requirements no matter how many chances they gave you.” Cooper’s voice was filled with contempt. “Did you think I wouldn’t read the evals on any soldier under me? I take my job seriously. You start looking for tracks, and you’d better find something that points us in the direction we need to go.”
“Come on, Alex,” another voice said. “We don’t want Russ’s team to find the girl before we do. They’ll get all the rewards if they bring her in.”
“All you think about is fucking some bitch,” Alex said. “Sheesh, Dillan, you can’t keep it in your pants for five minutes.”
“At least he’s thinking, not sleeping,” Cooper said. “Get moving, Alex. And don’t follow Devin. He wants to have access to those women as well.”
“More than one,” Dillan said. “Devin’s like me.”
“Lying, saying whatever you think the bitch wants to hear so you can fuck her,” Alex said. “Yeah, you two are a real winning pair.”
“Just because you can’t get it up doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t men,” Dillan snapped.
Leila shook her head. They didn’t sound like a cohesive unit. Conquer and divide. The sniffer would find her first. If he liked women, he might very well not tell the others he had found her. He might decide to take her for his own. She went over a bear’s anatomy in her mind. The placement of her shot was important. Once she fired, she would have to move quickly. The others would hear the shot. She’d have to kill the sniffer with her first shot, even if it took him a little while to die.
“What are you implying?” Alex bristled. “I’ve been married and had a kid.”
“That you abandoned,” Cooper said. “Get the hell onto the trail and find the bitch. She’s injured, so you should be able to handle it if you run across her.”
Alex let out a roar, a fairly good mimic of a lion, proving he did have that DNA in him. There was a long silence, giving Leila the opportunity to check the whereabouts of Devin, the sniffer. He was much closer than she’d anticipated. Alex was heading into the forest, clearly attempting to follow Devin’s tracks, but he was moving slow.
“I’m going to put a bullet in that moron’s head someday,” Cooper groused. “He’s just about useless. I don’t know why I got stuck with him.”
“Whitney was pissed at you.”
Leila noted immediately that the voice was calm, matter-of-fact. That man didn’t seem to be someone who would rile easily. She found it interesting that Cooper was in charge, not the one who seemed the more logical choice.
“Yeah, he was, Kyle.” Cooper immediately quieted talking to his friend. It was easy to hear that camaraderie in his tone. “Probably had good reason too.” Now there was a shared amusement. “I capped his favorite ass-kisser.”
“He’s probably hoping you’ll do the same to Alex so he doesn’t have to,” Kyle said. “You want to do it, we’ll all be looking the other way.”
“We’ll need his gun to take out her guards. Whitney said she had at least five of Chariot’s soldiers bringing her back to their compound. He wants them all dead.”