The Immortal Hunter(15)

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 finding 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.

"Goddammit, Decker, what the hell is going on? What do you mean track the SUV? You lost it? How the hell did that happen? And how could you let Nicholas get away?"

Decker grimaced at that roar in his ear as he watched Dani move a little away from the van, and then said, "It all got a little more complicated than expected."

"Explain."

Decker winced at the sound of grinding teeth that came over the line. The man was pissed... to the point that he was in danger of snapping off a fang if he wasn't careful. Clearing his throat, he relayed his conversation with Nicholas and everything that had happened.