Yeah, he had me there. Val could figure out what was going on in a second even if he suddenly landed on Mars.
I rolled my eyes at the man. "Fine, I'll stay here. You go check out the ranch. Just don't do anything to the duck."
"Duck?"
I wagged my eyebrows.
Just wait until he found out about Fred.
Val sighed heavily. "So, which way is the ranch?"
I simply pointed.
I waited for Val to take off into the woods before walking back over to the Jeep. I leaned my arm on the window frame and leaned in a little. "How you holding up, babe?"
Ajag gave me a pouty face, his lower lip sliding out for a moment before he said, "Tired, hungry, antsy."
"I can do something about the tired and hungry part when we get home. Not so sure about the antsy part. That may take a little thought on my part."
Ajag grinned at me, something I hadn't seen him do very often, but it was something he'd been doing more and more over the last few days.
"You seem like a smart man to me," Ajag stated, amusement lacing his voice. "I'm sure you'll figure it out."
I crossed my arms and leaned them on the window frame. "You think so, huh?"
This was a side of Ajag coming out that I really enjoyed. It made me wonder if this was what he'd been like before all this mess started.
"I do," Ajag replied. "I—"
Ajag's head snapped around so fast I heard his neck pop. His entire body went stiff and the smile fell from his lips.
"Ajag, what's wrong?"
"Vehicles," he whispered. "Several of them."
I didn't wait for him to say more. I raced past the Jeep and down the dirt road to the tree line at the edge of the street. Ireached there just in time to see the back end of a black SUV as it pulled into the driveway.
Not good, but what concerned me even more were the SUV's slowing and coming to a stop on the street right in front of me.
I turned and hurried back to Ajag just as fast as my feet would carry me. He was waiting for me, standing beside the Jeep with Sy in his arms.
"Is it Payne?"
"I'm not sure." I grabbed his arm and turned him before leading him toward the woods. "But we need to get out of here."
I hated leaving my bike and the Jeep, but they could be replaced. Ajag and Sy could not. The safest place I could think of to take them was the ranch house. Maybe the barn, although Fred would probably not like that.
I dragged him through the woods until we reached the edge of the trees that opened up to the garden area Jackson liked so much. We were on the side of the house, but I could easily see two black SUVs parked in front of the house along with a silver two-door Mercedes convertible.
I had no idea who that belonged to.
"We need to quietly sneak around to the porch entrance to Ze'ev and Jackson's room. You can hide Sy in the bathroom closet while we see who is here."
I'd spent time searching every corner of the ranch house. I knew there was a large closet in the bathroom. It usually housed towels, toilet paper, and shower products. It was big enough to fit a small boy.
Sy tugged on my shirt and then pointed to the greenhouse. "Hide there."
My eyebrows lifted in surprise until I remembered that that was where I had originally found Ajag and carried him into the house. I quickly pated his head. "Good idea, little man."
