“You got it.What if they don’t leave?”
“Then we do what we have to in order to protect the cause.”Eric watched the four men eating their dinner, certain they had military training.Killing four people was a huge risk, but it might come to that.If so, he had to make them disappear.
For now, he’d wait and see what happened.If they didn’t leave the area come sunup, he would have to do some hunting of his own tomorrow.
SIX
With a yawn so big his jaw cracked and his eyes watered, Ryan bundled up the last of his gear and stowed it on the back of his ATV.
Though it had been a pretty relaxed night out here with the guys, the evidence at the site made them edgy enough to take watch in shifts.He’d taken the second one, giving him about four hours of broken sleep total, and his sleep-deprived system was having a hard time waking up this morning.
“You boys ready to roll?”Wade asked them from beside his own ATV.
“Yeah,” he said as Cam and Jackson replied the same.
He couldn’t wait to get back to the resort and see Candace.This entire area gave him the creeps, not the vibe he’d been going for on holiday.He’d scanned the surrounding trees for surveillance cameras last night before losing all the daylight and found none, but he still couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling that someone was watching them.The sooner they got out of here, the happier he’d be.
“Let’s head out.”Wade climbed onto his ATV and fired up the engine.
Luckily, the wrangler at the resort’s stable had found Ryan a full-size horse for the return trip back from the ATV drop-off point, so he made it to the barn at the same time everyone else did.Poncho was worn out from carrying him up the mountain.
After stretching their legs for a minute, they grabbed their gear and headed back to the main buildings to drop it off.He found Candace busy helping Maya, Devon, and Erin get everything set up for the welcome dinner in the glass-paned conservatory.
“Hey, you’re back early,” she said with a wide smile that flooded him with warmth as she walked over to give him a kiss and a hard hug.Their talk yesterday had obviously made her feel a lot better, and that made him feel better as well.“You guys kill anything out there?”
“Just Ryan’s ego,” Cam answered, and Jackson and Wade snickered.
She grinned up at him, deep brown eyes sparkling.“Aww, did my badass hubby’s ego take a beating, riding poor little Poncho up the mountain?”
“My ego is just fine,” he insisted, “but Poncho’s still recovering.How was the spa?”
“Blissful.After our massages we all got our nails done.Dev got a Seahawks mani-pedi, but I just stuck to plain old pink.It was so relaxing.”
“I bet I could relax you even more upstairs.”Ryan bent to kiss that smart mouth again.He sucked at her lower lip, teased her with his tongue.
She hummed and opened to him for a moment, then seemed to remember they were in public and pushed him away with a smile that promised to pick up where they’d left off later.“Give us a hand moving these tables around, will you?Spa day ran later than originally scheduled, so we’re tight for time.”
