Justin was sitting sideways in the front pa.s.senger seat, the door open and his legs hanging out. He stepped down as they reached him and let the door swing closed, his eyebrows rising in question.
Dani smiled brilliantly and announced, "It just occurred to me that we don"t have to wait for this Lucian person to track the SUV. Nicholas can tell us where it is. He"s following it."
"Nicholas?" Justin asked doubtfully, his gaze sliding to Decker.
"Decker told me he doesn"t know your cell phone numbers, but what if you were to speak into the bug and tell him your numbers? Then he could call."
"But..." Justin began, and then paused when Decker caught his eye and shook his head.
"What?" Dani asked. When Justin remained silent, his gaze locked on Decker, she sighed and said, "You want to talk. I"ll wait in the van."Both men remained silent as she pulled the back door open and got in. The moment it slid shut, Justin urged Decker a few feet away from the van and then admitted, "I"d forgotten about the bug and tracker."
"Me too," Decker admitted, and then raised an eyebrow when Justin suddenly frowned and glanced back to the van. "What"s wrong?"
"Maybe I should get them," Justin suggested. "Just to make sure she doesn"t try to get a message to Nicholas."
Decker shook his head. "She doesn"t know they"re in the cup holder. She"ll wait for us to try speaking into it."
Justin nodded, but then pointed out, "He won"t call."
"No," Decker agreed. "But it"s better to let her try than to have to come up with an explanation to give her for why he won"t. I"m hoping Lucian calls quickly and she"s sufficiently distracted by chasing after her sister that she doesn"t notice when Nicholas doesn"t call."
Justin was silent for a moment and then said, "We could let her try... or we could tell her they were broken and save the bug and tracker to set a trap for Nicholas later." When Decker"s eyebrows rose, he pointed out, "If he is listening, by now Nicholas probably believes we"ve forgotten all about the bug and tracker because we"ve talked in front of them. If he continues to think this we might be able to use it to lay a trap to catch him."
Decker was shaking his head before Justin finished, and once he fell silent, said, "As you pointed out, Nicholas probably heard my phone call to Lucian and knows we"re going to track the SUV. He"ll know we"re on his trail anyway and be on the lookout for us. Nicholas is one of the best. We are not going to sneak up on him without a d.a.m.ned good plan."
Justin paused briefly before suggesting, "After the next call you could tell me that Lucian said Bastien was unable to track the SUV, that the GPS isn"t working for some reason. If we did that and deactivated the bug, Nicholas wouldn"t know we were coming. Although," he added, "I wouldn"t suggest trashing the bug, just trying to remove the battery if there is one. Bastien may be able to use the bug to reverse track Nicholas somehow."
"Could he?" Decker asked with surprise.
"I"m not sure," the younger immortal said. "I watch a lot of sci fi stuff, but I"m not a techie."
Decker stared at him with a frown. The ideas were good ones, and he wished he"d thought of them himself. First Dani had recalled the bug both he and Justin had forgotten about, and now Bricker had come up with a plan to use the bug to trap Nicholas. Where had his brain gone? He was usually the one to come up with these ideas.
"Don"t be too tough on yourself," Justin said lightly, slapping a hand on his shoulder. He then added tauntingly, "Finding his life mate made Mortimer an idiot too."
Decker scowled. Finding a life mate had also made Mortimer so scattered that they had easily read his mind, he recalled.
Decker decided he didn"t like his mind being an open book to others and that he"d have to take greater care to be less distracted and keep his guard up.
"If you can," Justin commented, apparently still reading his thoughts. "Mortimer isn"t very good at it anymore. I doubt you will be either."
Decker opened his mouth to tell him where to get off, but Justin forestalled him by asking, "Are you hungry yet?"
He almost said no, but in truth, his stomach cramps were getting worse, and in the end he admitted, "I could do with a bag of blood or four."
"Four, huh?" Justin chuckled. "Unfortunately, we don"t have any handy right now. I meant for food.""Oh. No, I"m not." He frowned at the realization. Aside from not being able to read the mate, and having difficulty keeping your thoughts your own, a reawakened appet.i.te for food and s.e.x and various other things usually came with finding your life mate.
That being the case, the fact that he wasn"t suddenly hungry was a bit worrying and he asked, "Why aren"t I?"
Justin didn"t look nearly as concerned. Shrugging, he said, "Maybe it takes longer for that to kick in. Or maybe you have to actually be around food. How long has it been since you ate, anyway?"
"I stopped when I was one hundred and twenty," Decker admitted.
Bricker looked horrified. "That means I"ll, only be eating for another twenty years or so." He considered that and then shook his head firmly. "No way... although," he added with concern, "that last burger I had when we stopped at the cafe didn"t seem quite as good as usual."
"That cafe was a dive," Decker said dryly. "The burger was probably roadkill."
"Hmm." He fretted over it briefly and then asked, "How old were you when you stopped having s.e.x?"
"Eighty years ago," Decker answered.
Justin grinned. "Took you a little longer to get tired of s.e.x than it did food, huh? I"m not surprised. I still don"t understand how it"s even possible to get tired of s.e.x. I can"t imagine a day when I will. I"m pretty sure I could do it every day, even twice or three times a day for the next millennia and not grow tired of it."
Decker shrugged, thinking the younger immortal would understand in another century or so.
"No., I won"t understand in another hundred years or so," Justin said with certainty, still reading his mind. "I"m gonna want s.e.x till I die. Women are incredible. Every one a different shape, size, color, even texture."
"Texture?" Decker asked, eyebrow rising.
"Sure. Some are softer, some harder, some in between, but all are beautiful in their own way."
Decker supposed he"d have to agree with that. His gaze slid to the van and the woman just visible through the gla.s.s, and he thought that while all women were beautiful, some were more beautiful than others.
Dani waited until Decker turned back to Justin to continue talking and then reached out and eased the window fully closed.
She"d cracked it the moment the men weren"t looking so that she could hear what they were saying... and had gotten an earful.
She sat back on her heels and considered what she"d heard. The last part had been worrisome. Decker had stopped eating at one hundred and twenty? And stopped having s.e.x eighty years ago? The man couldn"t be more than thirty years old. What nonsense was he spouting out there? And Justin"s answer about having twenty more years before he reached one hundred and twenty and stopped eating? Dani didn"t need her medical training to realize the two men were completely and utterly delusional.
A rustle of sound drew her gaze to the tarp-covered pile behind her as she shifted and brushed up against it. Dani grimaced.
Okay, delusional was too mild a term. It seemed she was, after all, presently in the company of two crazy men. Not a happy thought, she decided, especially since their being crazy didn"t change the fact that they were still her best chance of finding her sister.
Unless, Dani thought suddenly, her gaze sliding to the cup holder between the two front seats. It was where she"d heard Decker say the bug and tracker were, and she peered at it silently, her mind churning. According to Decker, he and Justin had followed Nicholas to where she and her sister were being held. So Nicholas was the one who had actually set out to save them, not these two. And Nicholas was the one now chasing after her sister. He was still trying to save her, while these two seemed more interested in catching Nicholas than helping her sister.Nicholas had also been the one with a crossbow rather than a gun. He"d been holding the unusual weapon as he"d rushed after her sister and the man dragging her away from the clearing. But these two had been popping out from behind their trees firing guns, though she hadn"t seen a single gun since waking in the back of the van. She didn"t worry overmuch over that, however, and was more concerned with the fact that-as far as she knew-it wasn"t legal for citizens to carry handguns in Canada. The only people who usually carried them were cops... and bad guys who bought them on the black market or various unsavory ways. Dani was pretty sure these guys weren"t cops. From what she"d just heard, they"d never pa.s.s the psych exam... which meant they were probably also bad guys and Nicholas was the only good guy around.
She glanced out the window and-finding the men still deep in conversation-shifted forward until she knelt between the two front seats. She cast another nervous glance out the window and continued to watch them as she spoke close to the cup holder.
"Nicholas? If you can hear me, this is Dani, the other woman you saved tonight." She paused and licked her lips and then continued, "Decker and Bricker are going to set a trap for you using the bug and the tracking device you left in the van. They know you probably think they don"t remember the devices are here and are going to try to use them to catch you."
Dani paused again and closed her eyes briefly before continuing, "I"m scared. Decker told me he works for CSIS, but there"s no way he could. He"s crazy. I overheard them talking and he seems to think he"s hundreds of years old.
"I don"t know what to do," she admitted. "I"m torn between fleeing for my life and sticking with them because they can track the SUV that Stephanie is in. I have to find my sister, but want to get out alive with her. If you"re what I think you are, some kind of bounty hunter or private detective or something, please call me."
Dani rattled off her cell phone number, and then waited a minute and repeated it. She said it once more before finishing with "Call me right away if you can, I"m not sure if they"ll leave me on my own again, and I need to know just how dangerous these men are. Hopefully you can tell me that."
Much to her amazement, Dani had barely stopped talking when her cell phone began to vibrate in her pocket.
Chapter Four.
"Dani?" The voice on the phone was a deep growl that Dani didn"t recognize.
"Nicholas?" she asked hopefully.
"Yes. They probably won"t leave you alone for long. We have to keep this short so listen to me. I don"t know the younger kid, but I know Decker and you"re safe with him. He would never hurt you, and I don"t think the fellow with him would either. All right?" he asked. "You"re safe."
"But they"re crazy," she protested, and then bit her lip and glanced out the window, afraid she"d spoken too loudly. Justin and Decker appeared not to have heard, however. In fact, they were now walking as they talked, moving away from the van.
"They may seem crazy, but they aren"t. You are safe with them. Trust me on this."
"You don"t understand," Dani said with frustration. "They stuck branches in the bodies of those men who took us, and-Are they CSIS?" she asked abruptly.
"No, they are in law enforcement, but not any organization you"ve heard of."
"What organization?" Dani asked anyway, unwilling to accept that explanation this time.
After a hesitation, Nicholas answered. "They"re Council enforcers."
"What are Council enforcers?" she asked at once.
"It doesn"t matter. What matters is that you know that you are safe with them."
"But my sister-"
"She"s alive and well. I"m still following them. Your sister should be all right. He can"t hurt her while he"s driving, and I don"t intend to lose them so he can hurt her."
Dani closed her eyes with relief at his words.
"You haven"t called your family on your cell phone, have you?" he asked suddenly.
Dani"s eyes popped open as amazement shot through her. She should have called them at once... and the police. "No," she admitted finally, and then added fretfully, "I should have done that right away. I don"t know why I didn"t."
"They probably put the suggestion in your mind that you shouldn"t," he said calmly. "I don"t know why they didn"t take the phone away at the same time."
She was frowning, wondering whose side the man was on here, and then he said, "Dani, I risked being caught to save your life, so trust me. Stay with them."
"Caught?" she echoed with a frown. "Why are they trying to catch you?"
The pause this time was very long before he said, "I made a mistake a long time ago. I"m afraid I killed someone. They were sent to find me and bring me in for judgment. They are the good guys Dani, I"m the bad seed."
"And you"re asking me to trust you?" she asked dryly.
"Yeah" Nicholas said with what sounded like bitter amus.e.m.e.nt. "So who"s the crazy one here, huh?"
Dani didn"t say anything. She didn"t know what to think now. He"d killed someone?
"I know you"re scared, Dani, but you really do need to trust me and stay with Decker. And it would probably be for the best if you didn"t try calling your family. At least not until we get your sister back, and I promise I will get her back for you, but in return you have to not contact your family. They"d just worry anyway. It"s better they don"t know until it"s over and you"re both safe. All right?"
She bit her lip, not sure what she should do.
"All right?" he repeated.
"All right," Dani responded quietly, though she wasn"t sure she would keep her word.
Another moment of silence pa.s.sed, and she suspected he was worrying that she wouldn"t keep it, and then he sighed. "I won"t call you again. They"ll know we talked."
"No they won"t," she a.s.sured him, not wanting to lose this connection with her sister. Nicholas was the only one who could rea.s.sure her that her sister was still safe and not lying at the bottom of a ditch like one of those women back at the clearing.
"They"re outside. I can see them. They don"t know I"m talking to you.""It doesn"t matter. They"ll know," Nicholas a.s.sured her solemnly and then added for good measure, "They"ll read your mind and know everything you"ve thought and said and heard."
"Read my mind?" Dani asked uncertainly, beginning to wonder if the whole world had gone mad while she was in that grocery store.
"I know none of this is making sense to you, but you just have to trust me," Nicholas said firmly. "I"ll do what I can to get your sister back, but they can do more. Tell them we just pa.s.sed Georgian Bay on Highway 400. My guess is he"s going to take the highway all the way to Toronto and try to get lost in the crowds there."
"Georgian Bay," Dani echoed faintly. That was almost an hour away. She frowned, confused by how they had gotten so far so fast. Surely she hadn"t slept for that long, had she? And what had the men been doing during that time for her sister"s kidnappers to get such a head start? Her gaze slid to the tarp-covered bodies behind her.
"Nicholas," Dani began, but before she could get any further she heard the click as he ended the call. She pulled the phone away and stared at it, her thoughts returning to his claim that he"d killed someone and that Decker and Justin had been sent to bring him in for judgment. Oddly enough, the claim didn"t worry her as much as the one that Decker and Justin could read her mind. It seemed to suggest Nicholas was just as crazy as they were.
As for the bit about them having put the suggestion into her mind not to call her parents, that was just crazy too. She hadn"t called because she"d been too distracted with other things, Dani told herself and began to punch in the number of her mother"s cell phone. She had to call and tell them what was happening. They needed to know. She didn"t look forward to explaining about Stephanie, but it was the responsible thing to do and- Dani stopped and glanced up swiftly when the front pa.s.senger door opened and Decker slid inside. She immediately snapped her phone closed and slipped it quickly in her pocket, afraid it would be taken away if they saw it.
When Decker pulled the door closed and then turned to glance at her as Justin got in on the driver"s side, she forced a smile and asked, "Is everything all right?"
"Yes," he said at once.
It was Justin who added, "I just wanted to talk to Decker about something. Guy type things."
Dani nodded and tried not to look like she had heard a good deal of their conversation and now knew they were crazy. She was relieved by the distraction Justin offered when he said cheerfully, "So, while we"re waiting, why don"t we go into town and get something to eat?"
Before Decker or Dani could shoot down the idea, Decker"s phone began to ring. The two men peered at each other silently, and then Justin reached for the tracker in the cup holder nearest him and began to fiddle with it as Decker pulled out the phone and placed it to his ear. Knowing Justin was removing a battery or otherwise deactivating the tracker, Dani concentrated on Decker as he said, "h.e.l.lo" and then listened briefly, before saying, "Can you repeat that for Bricker?"
He held out the phone and Justin set the tracker back in the cup holder and then took the phone. He too said, "h.e.l.lo" and listened briefly before saying, "All right."
Decker took back the phone and had a short conversation that consisted of mostly listening and the occasional grunt and then he snapped the phone closed. As he slid it in his pocket, Decker leaned to the side to glance back at her and said, "They weren"t able to track the SUV. We"re to head back to Toronto to coordinate and come up with a plan to track down the man who has your sister."
"I see," Dani murmured, and despite the fact that she"d expected it, found she was disappointed by his lying. Obviously, both men had just been told that the GPS on the SUV had been tracked and was on Highway 400, heading toward Toronto.This was proven to her when Justin started the engine and asked, "You don"t happen to know how to get to Highway 400 from here, do you? We had GPS in the SUV to get up here and I didn"t find a map in the van when I searched it before we left."
Dani nodded and peered out the window as she said, "I can direct you. Head straight up here and I"ll tell you when to turn."
Dani was staring blindly out the back side door window, lost in thought, when a curse from Justin made her glance curiously his way. She noted the frown on his face and the way his gaze kept dropping to the instrument panel.
"We need gas... like now. The warning light is on."