Reaper would just bite the beast right back.
“You and I both know those troops are at least a few miles behind us. I have time.”
“Unless you pass out from blood loss or get taken prisoner yourself. You don’t think they put out an alert to look for a seven-foot-tall, three-hundred-pound soldier bleeding from the shoulder?”
Reaper blinked, staring at her like he hadn’t considered that possibility. Then he said, “Not possible. No one will see me. I know how to get in and out without being noticed. They’d hear you from a mile away.”
“Fine then, go on.” She pursed her lips together and arched her brow.
She would follow him at a distance. There was bound to be something she could nab and cover her head with. She didn’t know where they were, but she imaged there would be cloaks or sheets left out to dry.
“You’re going to follow me, aren’t you?” he asked, blowing out his breath in a huff.
“Yes.” There was no point in lying to him; he would discover the truth in just a couple of minutes if he did try to leave her.
“Are you ever going to do what I tell you to do?”
Caroline shrugged, “Maybe one day, if I think what you’re saying makes sense. But I’ve seen enough movies to know that when the good guys split up one of them is always killed or captured and tortured.”
“You think I’m a good guy?”
She did her best to ignore the rawness in his question. “Of course I think you’re a good guy. No matter how grouchy you are, bad men don’t risk their lives for other people.”
He turned from her then, but she could see he didn’t like taking compliments. He wasn’t used to receiving them, probably didn’t go around slapping others on the back saying, “Good job, buddy.” Well, that was about to change. She believed in positive reinforcement. And she was going to positively reinforce him right out of this country.
“Okay, stay close. See that building over there?” He pointed to a two-story adobe building that looked like it was white beneath several layers of dirt. “We’re going to run for it.”
“Got it, boss.”
He didn’t take her hand this time, but she didn’t have time to mull over that fact. She gathered the back of her gown together and sprinted after him.
The possibility that her backside might be showing in the dense forest hadn’t bothered her, but there was a very real chance someone might spot them out here and the last thing she wanted a stranger to see was her bare ass.
Even injured, Reaper sprinted at an almost inhuman pace. She hadn’t even made it halfway across the distance by the time he reached the side of the building and leaned back against it, holding a pistol that had apparently been strapped somewhere on his person. By the time she reached him, she was breathing hard and had to grab the wall to keep from collapsing. That burst of energy had cost her dearly.
When she calmed enough to achieve a somewhat normal heart rate, she tilted her head to the side and tried to listen to the commotion in the city. They couldn’t see anyone, but there was plenty of noise—people moving around, talking in a language she couldn’t understand. As a matter of fact, it seemed like the locals were right ahead of them. And the smell... “What is that?”
“Death.”
A sense of foreboding fell over her shoulders like a heavy cloak and she curled her fingernails into her palms. Reaper would probably think she was just being silly, but she had the distinct impression something really bad was about to happen. While she didn’t want to face Reaper’s wrath, she couldn’t risk staying silent. The potential cost was too high.
“Reaper, hold on. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“I do, too.”
Surprise jolted her system, like a bucket of ice water upended over her head, but she kept her mouth shut. “What do you want to do?”
“There are soldiers patrolling the streets. They’re looking for us.”
There went her dream of finding a tiny cottage where they could hole up and recover. As soon as they stepped around the corner of this building, they’d be caught and hauled back to the lab. No one on the outside would ever even know they’d escaped. Reaper couldn’t take on another patrol of men in his condition, and her fighting skills were basically on the level of a kitten. As in, she’d never been in a fight before. Never. Ever. She’d be lucky to get in a few scratches despite her heightened genetics.
She couldn’t go back there. She just couldn’t waste her life away being a human test tube. She’d rather take a bullet.
“What are we going to do?” she asked breathlessly. He rolled around her to peer into the nearest open window of the building they were crouched beside. Caroline gasped and tried to pull him back. “Someone will see you!”
“No one’s in there. Come on, I’ll help you over the ledge.”
“How do you know it’s empty?”
