Page 77 of Her Delta Force Protector

“Copy that,” Cupcake said.

Please, dog. Do your thing.

Chapter Forty-One

Harper guessed they’d been walking down the middle of the creek for almost a mile. Her Chuck Taylors and socks were soaked, and her feet were freezing. Walking through the water wasn’t helping her problem. “Please, can we stop a minute so I can go behind a tree and pee?” Maybe she could manage to get far enough away to run.

His sigh sounded angry. “You can go right here.”

She hadn’t turned around to ask because she didn’t want to see those dead eyes again, but she did now. “That’s not happening, asshole.” There was a good-size tree to her left, and to hell with him. She marched out of the creek, heading for that tree. He could shoot her if he wanted, although he wouldn’t. She’d already figured out that she was his ticket out of this mess. Or so he thought, but he hadn’t factored in Kade and his teammates. Or her determination that he was going to answer for his crimes.

“Stop right there.”

“Go to hell.” When she reached the tree, she looked back at him. “You stop right there. If you keep following me, I’ll just go to the next tree and the next one and the next one.”

He glared at her, but he stopped. “You have one minute.”

“Aren’t you generous?” She shouldn’t be goading him, but he was making her angry.

“You have a mouth on you, Harper,” he said as she walked behind the tree. “It’s not attractive.”

She really hated hearing her name come out of his mouth. Partially hidden from view, she did her business. As she pulled her jeans back up, she scanned the area around her. There was a thicket of rhododendron bushes about twenty feet from her. If she could make it to them before he caught her, she had a good chance of getting away.

“Don’t even think about it.”

How had he sneaked up on her like that, and how had he known she planned to make a run for it? She flinched—darn it—at seeing his gun inches from her face. “Think about what?” She was proud of her voice for not trembling. That was something, anyway. As she glanced down at her jeans to button them closed, she noticed the necklace Chase had given her. She’d forgotten about it, being a hostage and all.

Okay, new objective. Get him to admit to what he’d done to Lisa, but more importantly, his involvement in Abby Warton’s death. With his gun pointed at her, she had no choice but to walk back down to the creek. She used to love creeks, but he’d ruined that for her. Another thing to never forgive him for.

They traveled another ten or so minutes, while she mentally ran through things to say that would have him confessing the crimes that would send him to prison for the remainder of his rotten life.

“What’s that?” he said, interrupting her mentally planning his demise. “Go up there.”

She looked up to where he was pushing her. A structure that appeared to be nothing more than someone’s hunting shack was halfway up the hill. Her closet was bigger, and she shuddered at the thought of being in tight quarters with this creep.

He poked her with the gun. “Move.”

There was a tiny stem on the necklace that Chase had told her would activate it. While her back was to the creepo, she reached up and pushed in the stem. She sure hoped this worked. When they reached the shack, he kicked his foot at the door to open it, startling her, and she yelped.

“In.”

He pushed her, and she stumbled in. The two windows, one on each side of the shack, were so dirty that they hardly let any light in. It didn’t smell so great, and she wrinkled her nose. There was a paper-thin mattress on a rusted metal frame, a small table, two metal folding chairs, and that was about it. Whoever stayed here must have used the woods for a bathroom and the creek for water.

“Sit.”

Although tempted to give him a snarky salute, she turned her back on him instead and went to one of the chairs. She wasn’t about to sit on that filthy mattress. He pulled the other chair to the opposite wall, turned it to face her, and sat. Before she could decide how to get him to talk, he dropped the rifle and his handgun on the mattress, pulled out his phone, angrily punched the screen, and then put it to his ear.

“Answer the fucking phone, Rex. Damn it. Call me back.”

“Trouble in paradise?” she said when he slammed his phone down on his leg.

“Shut up.”

“You should believe me when I tell you that Kade Church is going to kill you.”

He laughed. “You think a blockhead soldier is smarter than me?”

Sure, he could go ahead and laugh, but she’d seen the flash of fear in his eyes. It was the first sign of life she’d seen in them.

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