The Immortal Hunter(10)

"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.