Maybe that meant good things for all of them, or maybe it meant the end was finally coming. Charlie shuddered at the possibility and gritted her teeth as she determined to make sure Dylan survived.
She had no idea what her vision meant, but this was the first year not everything was going according to plan for the Savages. They might be able to use that to their advantage.
“What do you mean you saw it coming?” Jack asked as Charlie’s face took on a distant look.
Charlie startled and pulled herself out of her reverie; she’d forgotten Jack was there until he spoke. She returned to covering the hole with sticks as she spoke. “Oh, ah… that it was only a matter of time before something went wrong for these assholes.”
Something about her explanation rang wrong with Jack, but he didn’t push her on it. He suspected if he tried, she would clam up, and he wouldn’t get anything else out of her about it.
“Back to this hunting thing,” he said. “How many are hunting us?”
“That changes every year, and so does the number of victims.”
Charlie wiped her dirty palms on her jeans as she tilted her head to study him. With his nose healing and the circles under his eyes fading, his looks were improving, and he was almost handsome.
You’re an idiot!The last thing she should be noticing was a handsome man right now. The hunt had begun, this was the most dangerous time of the year, and they were aboveground. Anxiety twisted in her gut over being caught out during the hunt, she hadn’t been aboveground during a hunt since hers, but there was no other choice. Theyhadto cover the hole again.
Granted, anyone else could wander in between the trees and fall in as Jack had, but if someone glanced inside the trees, they wouldn’t see the hole and decide to go exploring. Usually, during a hunt, they had guards on all the tunnel entrances, in case someone found them, but they hadn’t expected the hunt to be thrown off this year.
Jack leaned back on his heels and rubbed his chin as he surveyed her. “They’ve been hunting you for three years?”
“Yes. Not as intensely as in the beginning, but that’s because they’re not sure if I’m alive or dead,” she said. “They may not have recovered my body, but they think some of us threw ourselves off the cliffs and drowned.” Which was entirely possible for her as she’d still been human when captured.
“They do sweeps of the island all year in search of those who have evaded them,” she continued. “They believe most, if not all of us are dead, but they do the searches to make sure.”
“How do you know this?”
“We’ve managed to catch instead of killing a couple of their lackeys and question them.”
That was the polite way of putting it, but they’d done what was necessary to get some information from the bastards. The torture had made Charlie uncomfortable, but better them than her or Dylan. Her stomach turned at the thought of Dylan back in the hands of those vampires, and she knew she would torture a hundred more vamps if it meant keeping him safe.
“I see,” Jack murmured. “And they never noticed these missing security members?”
“I’m sure they have, but we’re not exactly slaughtering them left and right. Some years none are killed, and some years there’s no choice. I don’t know how they’ve explained the disappearance of some of their followers.”
Jack rubbed his chin as he contemplated what she’d revealed. “And are all the survivors belowground?”
“They are where they should be,” she replied. She wouldn’t give away any more information until Mal met this guy.
She rose to survey the branches overhead. They were too far up now for her to break any of them off. She didn’t want to go outside the trees until they had to, but there was no other choice.
“We need more branches to cover the hole,” she said.
“I’ll get them,” Jack said.
Charlie started to protest, but he pulled the branches aside and slid through them. A few seconds later, he stuck a branch inside. She took it and placed it over the other limbs on the hole. After a few minutes, she had covered the hole, and Jack returned. Charlie knelt to put debris over the branches.
Jack found his eyes roaming over her as she worked with an intent look on her face. Despite her exasperating personality, she intrigued him. As Charlie worked, strands of her chestnut hair fell free again to straggle around her face. She absently wiped away the sweat beading her forehead with the back of her arm before returning to work.
She scattered handfuls of leaves onto the sticks, carefully arranging them to look natural as they covered the hole. Leaning back on her heels, she surveyed the hole and the area surrounding it. She couldn’t tell the difference between the ground and the pit.
“Looks good,” Jack said.
“It does,” she agreed as she stood to wipe off her hands and ass.
Unable to resist, Jack moved to stand beside her. Beneath the scent of pine and earth clinging to her, he caught a hint of lavender. When she turned, the silken strands of her hair brushed his arm and sent a strange thrill up his back. What was it about this woman…?
“We should go,” she said.
