With that, Jack turned his back on her. He didn’t think she’d try to attack him again; she would have done so already if that were her intention, and he decided to show her that he had some trust in her.
The scrape of her boot against the dirt floor alerted him that she’d risen instead of trying to knife him. Finished with the Savage, Jack rose and stepped back to stare at the hole over his head. Unlike the room he found himself in, the hole was only three feet in diameter. It would be difficult for them to get out of here.
And then… it hit him.
She’d already been in the pit when he fell into it.
Where had she come from? Or did she live in this hole, feeding off whatever fell into her trap? She couldn’t be one of the vamps who broke out of the barn with him if that was the case. So how long had she been here andwhatwas she doing here?
Turning, he surveyed the pit until his eyes landed on the tunnel leading out of it. Three feet wide and six feet tall, it wasn’t large, but it was an exit.
“Where does the tunnel go?” he asked as she knelt at the second Savage’s feet.
Charlie patted the Savage’s body to make sure Jack hadn’t missed anything before examining his clothes. The shirt was ruined and useless, but the pants would work for Mal, and the boots might work for someone else. She undid the belt and tugged the brown pants down the vamp’s thighs.
“What are you doing?” Jack demanded as he realized she’d stripped the other vamp too.
“Scavenging,” she muttered. “If it offends your delicate sensibilities, then I suggest turning away.”
Jack scowled at her. “Nothing offends me.”
“Good for you.”
He chose to ignore her hostile tone in favor of answers. “Do youlivedown here?”
Charlie didn’t answer him as she paused to untie the boots before tugging them off. At one time in her life, her face would have been on fire with mortification over what she was doing. Now, her cheeks didn’t so much as pinken as she shoved the vamp’s socks into his boots and set them aside.
She pulled the pants the rest of the way off, rolled them into a ball, and placed them next to the boots. When they came back to remove the bodies, she could retrieve the supplies.
As Jack watched her, he couldn’t decide if she was the most coldblooded woman he’d ever encountered or desperate. She pulled a flashlight off the man and turned it on before placing it in the small shoulder bag she wore.
“Does he have batteries on him too?” Jack asked sarcastically.
“Their flashlights are solar powered, which is fortunate for us.”
Did that mean shedidlive down here? “Why is that?” he asked.
She stared at him as if she were trying to decide if he was stupid or being difficult. She seemed to settle on stupid as she spoke her answer slowly.
“Because batteries don’t grow on trees and sunlight is a lot easier to come by. These assholes may not be UV fans, but they don’t deal with dead batteries. Or at least that’s what I assume, but they could have chosen solar power because they’re environmentally friendly murderers.”
Jack had no idea how to respond to her, mostly because her reply was so similar to onehewould have given. He was back to wanting to throttle her while having a grudging respect for her use of sarcasm.
“We have to get out of here,” she said.
“Where does the tunnel go?” he asked.
“We can’t take it out of here.”
“Why not?” he demanded.
“Because we need to cover up the holeyouuncovered.” She couldn’t be too annoyed with him for that; she’d done the same thing once and nearly died because of it. “If we leave the hole exposed, then more of those assholes will get in here, and we can’t allow that.”
“Oh,wecan’t?”
Malice glimmered in her narrowed eyes. “No,wecan’t. If you try going down that tunnel without me, I guarantee you won’t make it. There are traps everywhere, and since I have to cover this hole up, I willnotbe going with you.”
Jack studied her and then the tunnel behind her; he contemplated accepting her challenge, but he wasn’t exactly up for fighting his way through traps right now. Plus, he didn’t like the idea of leaving her behind. She irritated him more than a sock sliding down into his shoe, but he had the irrational urge to make sure she was okay.
