Page 55 of Bosse
He spotted what he hunted. Giant ships were lined up in a port.
But the road to the docks was a long bridge.
How could he traverse that without drawing attention?
After leaving the hotel, it took him another hour of searching to locate where to enter the bridge. He leaned against a brick building to watch cars and trucks crossing the bridge, frustrated at no simple way to get there.
Had he made it this far to be defeated by a bridge?
No. He just had to find a way to cross it without being seen.
A whiff of succulent-smelling food made his mouth water and his stomach complain. Using that as a beacon, he followed the scent to a long building and busy parking area where trucks were loading pallets of produce.
But he’d smelled something cooked and kept hunting until he found the source.
The food was locked in sealed metal carts. Damn.
Nothing to eat yet, but then he spotted a truck with the same logo and words on the side as one he’d seen cross the bridge to the port. While the men inside the building spoke and signed papers, he climbed up between the cab and the box bed.
He’d had to claw holes in the smooth metal top for a way to hold on and hope the dark slot he hid in would shield him from view.
The door to the truck opened and closed. The engine rumbled to life. Bracing himself, Bosse was prepared when the vehicle began to move.
Then a bad thought hit him. What if this truck was not heading to the docks?
He couldn’t look around without lifting his head, but with every couple of turns, he caught the lights of the port. Then the wind blew his hair to one side as the truck motored across the bridge.
He grinned like an idiot.
This was the moment to celebrate all he and Titan had done to get here, but none of it would have happened without Alifair. His grin fell. The closer he came to leaving this side of the ocean, the more his insides twisted into a tangle of guilt.
How could he sit back in another country for a month enjoying freedom when she was still a prisoner?
The truck slowed as it passed through an automated toll area and then worked through short streets until it turned on the last road to the docks.
Bosse surmised this because he stared at a massive ship at the end of the path. Up close, the idea of Titan jumping on that behemoth seemed impossible.
Lights got brighter in this area. He had to get off this truck, or someone from up on those ships would see him.
When the truck paused at a stop sign with no vehicle behind it, Bosse climbed up and over the back end of the truck, then down to the bumper, and leaped away. He ran to a side street along an office building with no lights on.
Now what?
This looked hopeless, but he worked his way to the closest point behind a long metal container ten feet wide and just as tall to observe where they loaded supplies onto one ship. It appeared to be a passenger vessel. He needed a ship made for hauling cargo. He started walking from one dark area to the next, searching around this island.
His heart was wrecking his head.
Could he really jump on a ship and leave? If he did, this was final. Alifair made promises based on escaping. It had been difficult enough for him and his wolf. How would she outrun Krol’s Lammogo or cover the ground he and Titan had?
Was the truth she knew she would not escape?
She hadn’t lied when she said she needed to rescue someone else, but Titan had pointed out that she hadn’t told them everything.
Bosse should have asked if she knew for sure she could escape.
She would not have been able to pass off a lie on that question.
He’d been exhausted and confused the night she’d come to him with a plan that had to happen right then. With some distance and time, he now saw the holes in it for saving herself. He could not leave this country and live with himself.
