“My brothers are out there. Clearing a path for you. Leaving now endangers you both.”
Mac’s eyebrows collapsed into a scowl. “Wolf and his men are here? Now? Outside?”
Jude simply nodded.
“Son of a bitch . . . ” Mac’s grim voice trailed off.
“I’m all for taking the initiative for a change, but with Wolf and his team already in the field . . . ” Zane shook his head, frustration and regret flashing through his eyes. “It’s ripe for friendly fire.”
“No shit.” Mac looked even less happy than Zane. He turned his scowl back on Jude. “We need to grab one of those bastards who attacked us. Preferably someone up the food chain. Someone with answers.” He paused, pinned Jude with a hard look. “It’s the best shot we have of tracking these bastards down.”
Jude’s expression didn’t alter. “What you seek already walks among you.”
Rawls rocked back on his heels in surprise. The ambiguous warrior had to be referring to Pachico. But just how the hell did he expect them to pull answers from the surly ghost? Pachico was hardly in an accommodating mood.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Mac exploded. “And while you’re at it, you want to explain how you even know your buddies are out there? You have no radio. No sat phone. No motherfucking technology to contact your brothers, but you somehow—by osmosis, apparently—know where they are?”
Jude simply shrugged, that enormously annoying aura of serenity surrounding him again.
But the question niggled at Rawls.
How did Jude know his team was out there? What mystical technological advances did their new allies have up their sleeves?
* * *
Chapter Fourteen
* * *
IS SHE OKAY?” Faith asked, hovering above Kait, torn between wanting to help and not wanting to get in the way.
“She’ll be fine,” Cosky said gruffly. He glanced up, his face tense, his left hand resting on the back of Kait’s head. And then his gaze sharpened. After a quick up-and-down scan that took in Faith from head to toe, he raised dark eyebrows. “How are you holding up? You had Rawlings pretty damn freaked out back there.”
She had?
“I’m fine,” Faith assured him.
“Good to hear.” He turned his attention back to the woman beside him. There was a world of worry in the gray eyes watching the blonde goddess lying so limply on the rough-cut stone floor.
Judging by the glimpse she’d caught of Kait’s face earlier, he had reason for his concern. His girlfriend had looked awful—bright red, sweaty face, exhaustion evident in the curve of her shoulders and limpness of her muscles. She’d barely been able to hold her head upright. And then there was the condition of her shirt. It was soaked with sweat down the length of her spine, as well as under her arms.
The woman was obviously running a fever. She must have been hit with a nasty flu. What terrible timing. Running for your life was bad enough, doing so with a high fever and dogged by the flu had to be even worse.
Suddenly Rawls’s account of what had happened earlier burst into her mind. He’d claimed she’d died and Kait had healed her. But Kait had been in a different cabin, with separate tunnel accesses. Which meant she must have doubled back in the tunnel system to look for her.
Even burning up from a fever, exhausted to the point of collapse, she’d still braved a collapsing tunnel system to find and help a virtual stranger? Granted, they’d spent the past week in somewhat close proximity, but they’d hardly interacted enough to become friends—mild acquaintances at best.
Would a con artist do that? Driven by self-interest, a con artist wouldn’t put their own life and health in jeopardy to help someone else, would they? Not when they had a perfect excuse to stay put and avoid additional danger.
After that talk with Rawls in the kitchen, she’d been convinced that Kait was playing everyone—although how had been uncertain. According to Rawls, she refused monetary reimbursement for her self-proclaimed healings. But maybe she received other benefits from her con.
Faith glanced at Cosky as his mother came bustling over with a bottle of water. The lieutenant didn’t seem the type to fall prey to a con artist. He appeared far too guarded and intelligent for that. But then, beautiful women had been beguiling men for thousands of years. He wouldn’t be the first wary, smart man to fall for the wiles of a temptress. He wouldn’t be the last either.
“Here you go, sweetie,” Marion said, leaning down to pass her son a bottle of water. “Amy brought a bunch, so there’s more if you need it.” She straightened with a hand on her back. “I just don’t understand it. The poor dear was fine when we reached the hub.” A confused shake of her head sent her silver bob flying. “I’ve never seen anyone get so sick so fast. She was fine when she left with you to find the stragglers. You weren’t gone even fifteen minutes. What made her so sick? The flu wouldn’t attack that fast.”