Page 9 of Secret Gifts
“You should have said something to a captain, a general, hell… someone. This guy is beyond dangerous. He’s gifted, more so than we realized, and he flew in under the radar for centuries before he was party to leveling a damn city and all the people in it. Stringham was never equipped to handle him. We should have killed him on sight, but they thought they could restrain him with the new sedative created to subdue hybrids.”
I wince upon his mentioning of that sedative. My mother was kidnapped when that psycho who invented it used it against her. He notices my reaction, and his eyes soften.
“Sorry. I forgot-”
“It’s fine. My mother’s pain is in the past, and it’s not my burden to speak about. Anyhow, I told my Uncle Grayson. He followed the real trail in secrecy, but without a tracker, he couldn’t figure out what happened when the trail went cold.”
“And Captain Morris didn’t bother to call anyone?” he growls.
“He did, but the general told him it wasn’t his case to be worked. Like I said, Hedin is the commander’s pet. Everyone trusts him implicitly, and since he's my boss, he refused to let me take leave. I was going to go track down the real trail myself with Uncle Grayson, but Hedin suspected that. He thinks I’m after his job.”
He sighs out heavily and then slouches back.
“Politics,” he huffs.
“Politics and smug ass sons of bitches in authority,” I add with a grin.
He smirks lightly, and then he tilts his head again as seriousness returns.
“What happened today? Why did he bark at you?”
“Not laughing at me anymore?” I muse with my daring grin growing.
He smiles his full-flashing, panty-dropping smile that loves fucking with my panicky heart.
“Not at all. You have my full attention now, Ms. Banner.”
I smile lightly while blushing again, and I turn over my sketch book before pulling out my phone.
“These are some pictures I snapped earlier. See the tire treads?” I ask while handing him my phone.
“What about them?” he asks while overlooking the less than obvious.
“There’s a small, barely noticeable overlap. It happens when a car is put into park and the tires shift backwards just slightly enough to make this. That means they stopped long enough for someone to use more than just a brake. I think they changed vehicles and someone else took over driving the car we’re chasing.”
“What?” he gasps while looking closer. “That road is nothing but mud. We would have noticed another vehicle’s tracks.”
“Not if that vehicle was parked at least fifty miles away. It’s outside of our search perimeter. They could have used the trees as their best friends and made like Tarzan across the wooded area to avoid leaving footprints. That’s why the tracks shift off the straight path they were following. That tree-” I say while shifting the picture “- is low enough for one of my kind or your kind to reach from the hood of a car. If the others were waiting in the same tree, they would have just swapped places.”
“That’s a lot of information from just one slightly overlapped tire print. Where did you come up with all this?” he asks while giving me his complete attention.
“My dad always told me to never just look at something head on. He told me to view it from every angle. The obvious is always too easy. He said to think like I would think instead of following the easy trail. If I was running from someone catching up to me, I would do this exact maneuver to lose my trailers. These are professionals. Hedin isn’t as qualified as our brilliant commander thinks he is. He’s a low-baller playing in the big leagues. He thinks too small, and it’s why they keep getting one step ahead.”
“So what’s that?” he asks while pointing to my sketch.
“That’s the way I think they went. If I’m right, they would have headed north toward Lancaster. It’s a huge city booming with too many faces. By my calculations, they’ll reach the city in two days. They could disappear there long enough to meet up with whoever they went to see. We’ll never know their intended target now, but this is what I do to take the edge off. I feel like it gives me some closure, even though the case goes on unfinished. It’s a little annoying to know the answers and never have anyone listen.”
My eyes burn against the ground, my agitation seeping through my tone as I huff out my frustrations for always being overlooked and belittled. He sighs out, and then he looks at his watch.
“I should go get some sleep. You too,” he murmurs very authoritatively.
“I’m sorry if I said something wrong,” I utter apologetically, my sudden sense of insecurity surging forth. Why did I tell him all that? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. “Please don’t tell anyone about this. Hedin would never let me follow him on a big case again.”
“I promise I won’t get you into trouble. I really just need some rest. I have to head out on a different detail tomorrow.”
“Oh,” I murmur a little disappointedly, and I see a smirk edge itself on the corner of his cocked up lips.
“I’ll see you again, Ms. Banner. You can count on that,” he says with a seductive air, and chills consume me to the point I shiver.
