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Earlier that day, I’d seen Cuckoo’s prisoner costume and the shrunken heads on his belt. Now, he switched out his jeans for khaki pants and wore his cut over a brown leather jacket. It didn’t make sense, but neither did Cuckoo half the time. A coiled whip was attached to his belt. He even wore a brown fedora like Indiana always had in the movies. For once, there wasn’t any blood on him. No vampire teeth, either.
“You almost look respectable,” I mused.
Cuckoo shrugged. “I like to keep everyone guessing.”
“What’s in the bag?” I asked, looking at the prop messenger bag he’d draped across his shoulder.
“Dynamite and snacks.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Let’s keep moving.”
Another long, mournful howl like the one we heard before we entered this forest echoed from somewhere ahead of us.
“Bella,” I whispered, running in that direction, only to burst from the line of trees and enter a clearing with tall grass that reached my hip. Anything could be concealed here—even wolves.
“Shit, pres.” Hawk ticked his chin. “We’re goin’ in blind.”
“We move slow. Stay close,” I ordered.
I noticed movement to our right and paused. Something scurried along the ground. We moved in that direction only to startle a flock of geese. They flew upward, honking and cackling as they took to the air, immediately flying in formation.
“Christ.” Claw scrubbed a hand down his face. “Fucking geese.”
“Be glad it wasn’t a bear,” Hawk joked.
Yeah. Wolves probably weren’t the only predator in a hundred acres of forest. After Gail found the deed, I looked at a map of Undertaker’s land. The forest was dense in spots. I knew Lake Alpine was remote enough to work for Undertaker’s pack. They had the advantage of knowing the terrain.
We were too fucking vulnerable.
“Head to the trees.”
We re-entered the forest, trying to keep track of the ground we already covered. Hawk used a compass on his phone. The more we walked, the deeper into the forest we traveled.
I stopped with a sigh. “Undertaker is toying with us.”
“We’re gonna end up lost,” Claw agreed.
“What do you want to do, pres?”
I could feel eyes on us. The Dirty Death was out there. They were tracking our movements. Undertaker held them off. But why? And for how long?
“We need water,” Cuckoo announced. He pulled a couple of canteens out of his bag.
“And to track Bella. She’s the priority.” My ol’ lady was intelligent and resourceful. She’d get to a water source, too. Maybe she was at the lake, hiding and waiting for me to find her. It was worth a shot. “We get to the lake and look for any sign that Bella has been there.”
I refused to believe that she was dead. Undertaker wanted me here. It didn’t make sense to harm my woman. He wanted to maintain control, and he did as long as she was alive. The second she was harmed, that ceased to be his advantage. We both knew only bloodshed would follow.
He didn’t kidnap her to kill her when he could have accomplished that without bringing her four hundred and fifty miles away to his pack land. The ancestral land he loved. No, he wanted that fucking deed and Bella was his insurance that he’d get it back, which proved this hunt was nothing more than a ruse. A distraction. He was playing a game.
For his pack members? Were they bored? Restless?
This grew tiresome. I didn’t come all this way to hike through the fucking forest and delay finding Bella.
“Where are you, Undertaker?” I shouted. “Come out and stop hiding like a coward!”
Only silence greeted me. Fuck!
We managed to find the lake an hour later. The surface glittered like thousands of clustered diamonds below the sun’s bright rays. Crystal clear, blue-green waters were postcard-perfect, simply beautiful. The backdrop of lush green forest provided a view that dazzled the eye. It was the perfect escape from the world.
