Quinn I (Undaunted Men #1) (20 page)

“I said I’d go through my own bag,” she hisses. “Serves you right.”

I shake my head at her, dismissing the whole thing, and get back to the task at hand. I'm on a mission. By the time I get to the bottom of the bag, I'm still empty-handed. “Well, fuck me sideways,” I mumble. I turn it upside down and shake it. When nothing else comes out, I run my fingers along every seam and every corner. At the very bottom of the bag, between two layers of nylon, I feel a small piece of hard plastic.
 

Quickly, I whip out my pocketknife and slice open a portion of the fabric’s seam. I grab a hold of the matchbook-sized device and hold it up for her to see. Her eyes open wide as she backs up a step with trepidation. “What is that?” she whispers.

“A GPS satellite tracker, Alexis,” I growl, over-pronouncing her name. “You want to tell me what the fuck is going on now? What kind of trouble you’re really in?”
   

She gasps, her hand covering her mouth, her eyes swirling with confusion, panic, and fear. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
 

I look around for a large rock to smash the device. My entire body is vibrating with unused adrenaline and anger. Once I bust apart the tracker, I look over my shoulder at her. She’s still standing in the same spot in shock. She doesn't know what to do or say.
 

“Snap out of it, Alexis,” I bark at her. I get up and quickly start repacking all her items, throwing stuff in haphazardly, without a care as to where it goes. After I’ve stuffed the last item in her pack, I toss it to her feet and order, “Get this on…now.” I don’t wait to see if she’s going to do it; I don’t have time. I quickly disassemble the tarp hanging by rope between a set of trees, and then roll up our sleeping bags. The entire camp has been broken down and packed up in record time, all while Lexi stands unmoving and lost in space.
That's fine
, I tell myself. She'd only slow me down, especially since I have my own method for packing things up in a certain order.

I turn around, find Kimber’s pack, and call her over to me. “Kimber, heel.” She’s been on my heels every step of the way, except now she's sitting beside Lexi. Kimber comes to me on command, heeling at my left side. I bend down, and as I strap her gear on, I glance back at Alexis, who still hasn't moved an inch. The only thing she's managed to do is put on her hiking boots. “Put your goddamn pack on,” my angered voice startles her, and then she slowly begins to move. She’s a ball of nerves as she fumbles to get her gear on. “We have some serious hiking ahead of us,” I warn her.

I quickly kick some dirt on the glowing embers. I’m an efficient machine, moving swiftly with each task. I gather the last few items, shoving them into my pack before I hoist it up, and then slip my arms through the straps.

“Let's roll out,” I snap. I need to make sure she’s functional and won’t fall behind, so I roughly bark out orders. “I want you in front of me, and I want you to move like you’ve got a thousand pit vipers on your ass.”
 

I glance down and notice her hands are trembling...profusely. I take a second to assess her entire appearance. I think the reality and seriousness of the situation is just now kicking in for her. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, telling myself I can’t go all military on her. Some people shut down when orders are harshly barked out, whereas others thrive off it; she’s the former.
 

I step over to her and carefully take her trembling hands in mine. Trying to control my high level of adrenaline-fueled ire, I force myself to soften my tone. “Alexis,” I slowly say her name, getting her to come around and focus on me. “There will be more men coming, and they’re not going to want to have a picnic. I’m not going to leave you, but if we’re going to get through this alive, we have to move out now.”

She takes in a deep, shaky breath and nods her head, still wearing a vacant expression. I don’t know what she comprehends right now, so I repeat my words, “I will protect you with my life, but you need to listen to me, okay?”

She manages to get out one croaky word, “Yeah.”

“All right.” I gently tug on her hand to get her moving forward, and she takes a small step. “Just keep one foot moving in front of the other, Sweetheart.”
 

She starts walking with me hand-in-hand, and about fifty yards forward, she’s finally got the rhythm down. I lean over and kiss her cheek, and then let go of her hand. “You’re doing great,” I encourage. “Now I need you to kick it up a notch and move ahead of me. Can you do that?”

“Okay,” she breathes out nervously. I’m thinking I might’ve let go of her hand too soon, because she’s still moving at the same snail's pace.

“C’mon, Angel,” I whisper. I turn to Kimber, and with a jerk of my chin and a snap of my fingers, I order her, “Kimber, go help her out.” Kimber forges forward, nudging her nose underneath Lexi's hand, and then barks. I’m both amazed and fucking speechless. I didn’t think she’d understand.

Lexi then begins to pick up her pace, following after Kimber, who turns around every now and then and barks at her. I look up to the sky and thank God for Kimber and for Lexi snapping to. From behind her, I bark out directions as to which way to go and which way to turn. The hike is going to be arduous, to say the least, but I've got unused energy to burn.
 

As we go off trail, we cut through all kinds of shrubbery and brush, and on occasion we cross over other trails. There is no way in hell I'm going to follow the main trails right now. We both stay silent as we conserve our energy for the hike. Every now and then, I yell out an order for her to go off the side trails and cut through thick bushes. I know snakes are on her mind, but she doesn’t say anything; she just moves. Because I’m right on her heels, I hear her heavy panting. I think half of her labored breathing is from fear and anxiety.

She’s in my t-shirt from last night, and shorts, and I wish I would’ve noticed that little fact when we left camp, but I was in a different frame of mind at the time. The skin on her arms and legs has been nicked and scraped to pieces, and I feel bad for her. She’s focused on her hiking and speed now, and I'm hesitant to stop and have her change. I fear if I do she’ll think about what happened and shut down in shock, and then we'll lose valuable time. Time that we don't have to spare.

Having crossed over the mountaintop about an hour back, we’ve now been on the decline for almost two hours. We’ve been descending at an angle, which is why we haven’t hit the base of the mountain yet. Just when I think we’re never going to hit bottom, the river comes into view between the thick trees.
 

This is exactly where I’ve been guiding us to. A half hour later, we’ve made it to the river's edge. “Lexi,” I call out in front of me. She stops and turns around. Poor angel, she’s drenched in sweat like me. I’m proud of her, though. Once she started moving with speed and diligence, she never stopped. “We’re good here. Take off your pack and rest.” We both remove our heavy burdens at the same time. Kimber makes her way to the water and drinks her fill.

I look down at my watch, which acts as a GPS, and figure out my coordinates. We hiked fast and furious, because it looks as if we’ve made at least seven miles in just under three hours. I look at Lexi, who’s now on her knees in front of the water, splashing its coolness on her face and rinsing off the back of her neck. I know she’s not used to this type of workout, but she didn’t complain once. I can tell she’s wiped out both mentally and physically.

I walk over to her and squat down beside the water's edge, looking out across the river. “How are you holding up?” I gruffly ask.

“I’m okay,” she quietly replies. She’s still scared, and she’s acting demure. I know I’ve been tough on her, cold and callous actually, but when I get taken by surprise and thrown into dangerous situations, I go into military mode and stay there. I'm still wired. I clench my fists, willing myself to calm down and soften up for her sake. “I’m sorry for some of the things I said earlier.”

Despondent, she shrugs her shoulders while wearing a frown as she stares down into the rippling water. I take a deep breath, and then slowly let it out. “I shouldn’t have accused or treated you like that.” Movement on her legs catches my eye. I lean closer to get a better look and curse under my breath, “Aww, dammit to hell.”
 

Curious, she turns her head to look at me. “What?”

“You’ve got seed ticks crawling all over you.” She looks down at her not-so-bare legs to confirm she’s covered in them. She jumps back, falling on her ass, and lets out a scream.

“Get them off, get them off!” she cries in panic. She looks like she’s been dipped in chocolate sprinkles; she’s absolutely coated in them. She stands up and tries to brush them off erratically, but I know better. There is no way those are going to come off easily. Each one of them has to be hand-picked off, and jumping into the water isn’t going to do it either.

“Calm down,” I reason. She doesn’t stop trying to brush them off as she looks up from her legs to glare at me as if I’ve lost my mind.

“Calm down? Are you crazy?! They’re freaking crawling all over me! Fricken-frickers!” she squeals out in a high-pitched rant. She’s panic-stricken as she frantically tries to get them off, and when she notices she can’t, she begins to dance and flap her arms around like an ostrich on crack. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from bursting out with laugher. “Quinn, oh, my God! Do something!”
 

I sit here as I try to think of the best method to get them off her, but apparently I’m not moving fast enough for her. “Quinn!” She stammers, “N-now!”

“All right, all right, I’m on it.” I see the light bulb go off in her head the second she turns around and looks at the water. She quickly removes her boots and socks, and then hastily heads toward the river, but I get up and stop her. I grab her by the elbow and pull her back a step. “Those won’t wash off in the water. We have to take them off, one-by-one.”

“Oh, geez.” She winces while wearing a pained expression on her face, clearly distressed.

“Hang tight. I’ve got an idea.” I head over to my backpack, searching for my can of Deet and a small cloth. “Come over here.” I nod in my direction as I find what I’m looking for, and then spray the Deet into the cloth, fully saturating it. She crinkles her nose at the smell of the spray and waves her hand in front of her face, but she doesn’t fuss about it. I’m sure she’d walk through fire right now in order to get those bloodsuckers off.

“You’re gonna need to strip,” I tell her point blank.

Her body freezes, her forehead wrinkles, and then she shakes her head. “I don’t think so, mister. Can’t you just spray me down?”

“Nope, these ticks don’t work that way.” I shrug my shoulders, my voice noncommittal. “But have it your way, Angel. No tellin’ how long they’ve been on you like this, working their way north. They’re probably all in those pretty little black lace panties by now. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to see those little critters, ‘cause they're black too.”

She shivers like she’s having a convulsion from head to toe, and lets out a shrill cry, “Ohmigod!” I turn my head the other way, trying to hide my mirth and keep from laughing at her antics. I know this isn’t funny to her, but hell, I grew up with this shit. Ticks are a normal part of life for me.
 

“Quinn,” she scolds me harshly, “this is not funny.”

“I’m sorry, Baby.” I cough, trying to disguise my laugh.

“Ugh!” Freaked out, her shoulders shiver again. “How do you know what color my underwear is anyway?” she accuses, just now realizing I know what she’s wearing under her shorts.

“I’m a very detail-oriented kind of guy. I’m very perceptive of my surroundings.” I raise my brow, my face splitting into a grin. She splays her hands wide open and then closes them into fists, repeating the nervous gesture several times as she’s still very wigged out. “Oohh…fine, just get them off me, and no ogling my naked body,” she sternly lectures.

“I’ve seen hundreds of naked women.” I tilt my head to the side, and my lips twitch. “Unless you’re an alien, you don’t have anything I haven’t seen before, so you can relax.”
 

“Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better,” she mumbles under her breath.

“You gonna just stand there and argue with me, or are you going to let those little suckers continue to crawl up your body?”

“Ahhh!” she squeals. She does another freak out dance as she strips herself bare. She tries valiantly to conceal her intimate parts, but fails miserably. If it weren’t for the circumstances, I’d be hard as a rock right now. Not staring in any one place for too long, I try like hell to act unaffected by her body.
 

“C’mon, c’mon, before someone sees me,” she demands, waving me on to hurry up. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“Nobody is going to see you, Lexi. We’re in the middle of nowhere, so just chill.” Today, I’m thankful as fuck for seed ticks. I’ve got total permission and her full compliance right now to touch every inch of her skin from head to toe, and I’m going to take my sweet time doing it.

I stand up and start at the highest point of her body, and begin rubbing the cloth carefully over her neck. “They’ll die pretty fast once this stuff touches them,” I explain to help ease her anxiety and keep my mind off her sexy-as-sin body.

“Good, the damn fricken frickers,” she calls them a string of silly names with loathing in her voice, and I chuckle at her.

“What the hell is that anyway…fricken frickers?”

“I wasn’t allowed to say fuckers growing up, even though I learned the word firsthand from my dad and brother, so I had to improvise, and now, even years later, the words are stuck in my brain.”

I shake my head at her seemingly sweet innocence. No way did this girl murder someone. Killers don’t call distasteful things pretend curse words. I add more Deet to the cloth, and work the rag into her shoulders as she shivers. “Please hurry.”

I pause to chastise her, “Woman, do you want only some of them off, or all of them?”
 

“All of them off,” she concedes.