Ultimate Prey (Book 3 Ultimate CORE) (CORE Series)

by Kristine Mason

  “From the Skype call, I’d guess he’s about as tall as Vlad.”

  “This man also work alone. Vlad see no other print.”

  “I didn’t think about him having a partner,” Lola said, following the boot trail until it disappeared into the water again. “Looks like he entered here.”

  They stepped into the water again. Thank God Ryan had extra pairs of boots for her and Harrison. As they moved along, the water level rose to mid-calf. Mindful of whatever might be swimming around her legs, she watched every step she took. When she reached the shore again, she looked up to where Ryan stood about ten feet from them, his dark boxers soaked and clinging to assets she might enjoy under different circumstances. Either the water was warmer than she’d thought, or Ryan was naturally well-endowed. Her cheeks grew warm and she quickly looked away. Yes, very well-endowed.

  “We picked up tracks,” Harrison called to Ryan.

  “I did, too,” Ryan said, taking the backpack from Harrison and pulling out his clothes and boots. “I’ve got three sets of prints. All of them look like they’re leading in that direction.” He pointed toward a wooded area.

  “Are we calling Barney for the boat?” Lola asked, keeping her eyes diverted until Ryan put on his pants.

  “Not yet.” He fastened his pants, took a few steps, then squatted. “Come here and look at this.”

  She knelt next to him. Water droplets clung to his broad shoulders and dark blond chest hair and stole her attention until he pointed to the ground. “That’s the print we’ve been following.”

  “Good. But do you see how the other two smaller prints have dried around the edges in comparison to the boot print?”

  She did and was overcome with a rush of hope. “My mom and Ian are ahead of him.”

  “Appears so,” he said with a grin. “But Jackass’s have dried a little too, which means he’s well ahead of us.”

  “So we don’t need the boat?”

  Harrison’s backpack rang. She stood and turned, just as he pulled the satellite phone from his pack. “Harrison,” he quickly answered. “Yeah, Dante, hang on.” He looked to her, but handed the phone to Ryan.

  Ryan pulled his t-shirt over his head, then took the phone. While Ryan listened to Dante, he sat in the grass and put on his socks and boots. “Okay, that’s a game changer,” he finally said. “But it’ll work. I’ll make sure he calls you.” He stood and handed Harrison the phone. “We’re splitting up.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked, wishing she could have heard Ryan’s conversation with Dante. He might be the lead, but her mom was the one being hunted.

  “Dante says they think they might know who Jackass is.”

  “How?”

  “The Mazda I found. The license plate is registered to Jordan Marquette, whose last known address is in Fort Lauderdale. Instead of sending someone from CORE to Marquette’s, it’s faster to send one of us. Since I’m acting as tour guide, I’m staying. Lola, I figured you and Harrison could go. You’re going to have to head back to my truck and—”

  “I’m not going to Fort Lauderdale,” she said, shaking her head. “Vlad can go with Harrison.”

  “Vlad think Asian Lola should go with Harry. This place not good for woman.”

  “Well, Russian chauvinist, I don’t really care what you think.”

  Harrison shrugged and looked to Ryan. “Lola can handle herself, if that’s what you’re worried about. She took out five guys all by her lonesome a few months back. I’d say that’s pretty badass.”

  The Russian raised a blond brow. “Vlad impressed.”

  Ryan studied her, his gray eyes penetrating, questioning. “Fine. We can’t waste time arguing. But remember what I said about keeping your emotions in check. There’s no room for that here.”

  Kiss my ass hovered at the tip of her tongue, but she refrained. She’d ended up with what she’d wanted, and saw no point in countering his comment.

  After Ryan took the supplies from both Vlad and Harrison’s packs and transferred them to his and hers, he said, “Call Dante once you’re at the truck. He’ll give you the address and necessary details. You have the number for my sat phone, right?”

  Harrison nodded. “Does Dante?”

  Ryan slung the pack over his shoulders. “Yep.”

  “What about the boat?” Harrison asked.

  “At this rate, we might not need it. If we do, I’ll worry about it then.”

  She gripped the straps of her pack. “But our gear is on the boat.”

  “No worries. We have enough supplies with us to last a day, maybe two if we’re careful.”

  Maybe two days’ worth? If her mom wasn’t part of this hunt, she would have jumped at the opportunity to leave the Everglades and head to Fort Lauderdale. Except the control freak in her couldn’t stand not knowing that someone was doing everything in their power to bring her mom home. She knew nothing about Ryan. What if, after a couple of days, he decided to hell with it and ended their mission? Other than whatever Dante had decided to pay him, what drove Ryan to help CORE, or her for that matter?

  “Good luck,” Ryan said to Harrison and Vlad, then started walking toward the trees.

  She glanced from his retreating back to Harrison. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” he asked. “Can we trust this guy? I mean, I’m not suggesting he’d do anything…inappropriate, but—”

  “Vlad would.” The Russians brows tugged together as he frowned. “Vlad see how Ryan look at Asian Lola.”

  “Please,” she responded with heavy sarcasm. Apparently Vlad hadn’t noticed the way she’d been looking at Ryan when he’d been half-naked. “It’s been dark eighty percent of the time we’ve been around him. You didn’t see anything.” She looked over her shoulder, just as Ryan disappeared into the cluster of trees. “I gotta go. Keep in touch and be safe.”

  “Hold up,” Harrison said, grabbing her by the arm. “Please be careful.”

  “I told you I’m not worried about Ryan.”

  “I saw what Vlad did, too. The guy was totally checking you out. But I’ve watched you practice Jiu Jitsu and know you can take care of yourself. I’m more worried about the hunter.”

  “Then you two had better find something we can use to help stop him.” Lola kissed Harrison on the cheek. “Thanks for caring.”

  The Russian offered his cheek. “Vlad care too.”

  She grinned. “Sorry, Vlad, I have to catch up with Ryan. Take care of Harry for me,” she said, then jogged toward the trees. With the pack heavier than before, she couldn’t run fast and hoped Ryan hadn’t gone too far ahead. She wanted to hear exactly what Dante had told him.

  Once she ducked beneath the low-lying tree branches serving as a barrier to the woods, she climbed over a large bulbous root and quickly scanned the area for Ryan. When she spotted him to the right, she picked up her pace.

  “Hey,” she called. “Do you still have their tracks?”

  He nodded and pointed to the ground.

  Relieved that they hadn’t lost her mom and Ian yet, she fell into step with Ryan. “How about letting me in on what Dante said.”

  “I told you what I know, except they’re thinking Jackass might’ve worked for CORE.”

  “Jordan Marquette used to be a CORE agent?” A frickin’ disgruntled employee? She hadn’t thought about that, and had figured the hunter had been someone CORE had sent to prison.

  “Yeah, he quit about seven years ago. I take it you know him?”

  She’d been in college at the time and living in LA. “No. And I honestly don’t see the point in sending Harrison and Vlad to Fort Lauderdale. I think their time would be better spent here, with us. More eyes, more ears, more guns.”

  He cracked a smile. “That’d be nice.”

  “Then again…if CORE can confirm Marquette is the hunter, that’ll give them the green light to finally do what they should have in the beginning—get the authorities involved.”

  “The way Dante explained it to me was t
hat they had about thirty or so minutes to gather everyone together at CORE before Jackass put a bullet in Ian and your mom’s head.”

  “True. But once that Skype called ended, we all should’ve—”

  “I’ve known Dante for a long time. He doesn’t stand down from the enemy unless he has good reason.” He glanced at her. “With a baby on the way…I’d say that’s reason enough. Otherwise, I’m sure he’s itching to get down here and bring his boss home. Don’t forget, Dante might not be related to Ian, but he’s known the man for a long time. This is personal for him, too.”

  She hadn’t thought about that. Her concern had selfishly been only on her mom, not how the other agents might be coping with the threat of losing their employer and friend.

  They hiked along for a while in silence. Sweat began to trickle down her back and coat her forehead. She stopped, hefted off her pack, then began to remove her gun holster.

  Ryan stopped, too. “It’s definitely getting warmer,” he said, looking up.

  After she removed her sweatshirt, she followed his gaze and noticed blue skies between the tall treetops. “What’s the temperature usually like at this time of year?” she asked, then stuffed the sweatshirt in her pack.

  “Not bad. About eighty. It’s the evenings we’re going to have to be concerned about.”

  She remembered the chill in the air when they’d stepped off the jet. “I take it the gear we’d need to camp overnight is on the boat.”

  “Most of it, but there’s a small tent and sleeping bag in your pack. We can make it work.”

  One tent, one sleeping bag. Damn. Hopefully they’d find her mom and Ian before nightfall and she wouldn’t have to worry about sleeping arrangements.

  The realist in her called her a fool, but the optimist wouldn’t listen. She had to keep her hope alive and her fears at bay. Right now, she and Ryan were the only ones who could help her mom and Ian.

  As she replaced her shoulder holster, Ryan pulled out a two-liter jug of water from his pack, then took a drink. “Here,” he said, offering her the jug. “I only have two of these, so we’ll have to ration ourselves.”

  She took enough to quench her thirst, then handed the jug back to him. “What?” she asked when he stared at her, amusement lighting up his eyes.

  “I guess I figured you’d wipe my germs before taking a sip.” He knelt and stuffed the water back into his pack. “When we’re through here, you’ll have to make sure you brush your teeth before you kiss Harrison.”

  “Harrison?” She pulled the pack onto her shoulders. “What are you talking about?”

  “You kissed him before he and Vlad left. I just assumed—”

  “You assumed wrong,” she said, brushing past him and taking the lead. But then slowed when she realized she’d lost the tracks they’d been following.

  “This way.” He pointed to the right and started walking. “I’m sorry if I assumed wrong, but he is kind of protective of you.”

  “That’s because we’re friends. He started working for CORE about a month or so after I did. It’s a tightknit group, so it was natural for us to gravitate to each other.”

  “Gravitate? See, now a comment like that makes me think you’re attracted to him.”

  Vlad see how Ryan look at Asian Lola.

  She ignored the Russian’s words, and said, “I’m not, and I don’t understand why you’d even care.”

  “Who said I did? I’m just making small talk to pass the time.”

  “Maybe we should change the subject or not talk at all. If we move faster we could catch up to Jackass.”

  He grinned. “You’re stealing my name for him.” He stopped and crouched. “I don’t see the smaller prints, but I still have a partial of the big boot. I think this is where things are going to get tricky.” He stood. “Hopefully when we reach an area where there are fewer plants on the ground and more dirt, we’ll pick up their tracks again.”

  He continued walking, but as they moved through the wooded area, the vegetation grew thicker and thicker. Large ferns, bigger than she’d ever seen, were all over the ground. She approached one of the many bald cypress trees Ryan had told her about when they’d first begun the search. Grayish, brittle-looking, straw-like vegetation hung from several trees, reminding her of what Rapunzel’s hair would have looked like if she’d been old and lost her brush. She reached out to touch one.

  “I wouldn’t do that.”

  She quickly pulled her hand back. “Why not? What is it?”

  “Spanish moss.”

  “Why shouldn’t I touch it?”

  “Some people say they’re loaded with chiggers, which are basically mites that like to feed on the skin.”

  She shivered and rubbed her arms. “But are they loaded with them?”

  “I’ve never bothered to find out. You’re more than welcome to it if you want,” he said, looking over his shoulder and grinning.

  “I’m good, thanks.”

  Ryan hadn’t been kidding when he’d told Lola things could become tricky. While he’d never been in this particular part of the Glades, he had explored enough to know they were nearing water. They could run into mangrove forests, which, with the way the tree roots grew, would be difficult to hike through, or sawgrass marshes, home to gators and snakes. “So tell me about those five guys you took down,” he said, hoping to keep her distracted.

  “There’s not much to say. I was working a case—a boring one—while I was training under Dante. He had to skip out for the day to work on something bigger, so I continued with our original plan and investigated storage units that we suspected might hold stolen merchandise. What I didn’t know was that the owner of the storage company was in on the crime ring and totally set me up.”

  “Wait, so you were still in training when this went down?”

  “Yeah, but even Dante didn’t think much would come from checking out the storage places.” She hopped over a decaying log with the grace of a ballerina. “Anyway, I get there, the owner opens up the garage, and bam! I’ve got four guys inside, aiming guns at me.”

  He slowed and looked over at her. Those weren’t good odds—at all—and he wondered what the hell Dante had been thinking to let a trainee work alone.

  “So I reacted.”

  “Define reacted,” he said, falling in step next to her.

  “Let’s see. I shoved the owner into one guy, grabbed my gun as I side-kicked the man closest to me and busted his nose, started firing…I don’t know. It happened so fast.” She glanced at him. “I ended up with a concussion and a couple of broken ribs. When I was in the hospital, I tried to play the whole scene out in my mind, but there are pieces missing.” She shook her head. “You’d think I’d remember, but I don’t.”

  “That’s called adrenaline.” Which he totally understood. There’d been times after a SEAL mission when he’d had to report his actions and he hadn’t been able to recall every minute detail. In the thick of the moment, like Lola, he hadn’t thought, he’d reacted.

  “Whatever it was, I was full of it that day.” She cocked her head as she looked over at him. “I’ve been doing martial arts since I could walk, but never had to use them in real life.” She shrugged. “It’s good to know my skills actually work,” she finished with a smile.

  Damn, she had a pretty smile. Hell, she was pretty, period. Her smooth-looking skin was a shade darker than his natural tone, and she had these eyebrows that arched in a way that could stop a man dead in his tracks. Once he’d finally seen her in some natural light, he realized those eyebrows of hers spoke volumes even if she remained silent. There was the quick lift of one brow that said, ‘Really? You’re an asshole.’ Vlad had been on the receiving end of that one.

  Then again, she’d raised that same brow before when he’d started stripping down to swim across the marsh. He’d told himself that raised brow was more out of interest than, ‘You’re an asshole.’ He’d been wrong about what women thought before, though, and probably shouldn’t put much thought into
a simple eyebrow raise. But he couldn’t discount Lola’s eyes. They were…exotic. Was that the right word? A home-grown Florida boy, born and raised in the Everglades, the closest he’d come to exotic were the snakes he and his brother had found when they’d explored the Glades as kids.

  Whatever the word, exotic had popped into his mind. Lola’s eyes weren’t a true brown, but a hypnotic shade of golden-brown with flecks of blue.

  And absolutely beautiful.

  “No comment?” she asked, pulling him back to where he needed to be. Thinking about what they were discussing and keeping up with the random boot prints.

  “Sorry, I got distracted.” Another time, another place, he’d do his best to charm her. It had been a while since he’d hooked up, and the only female who had shared his bed during the past five months had been his dog, Sadie. “Hopefully you won’t need to use your skills while you’re here.” He glanced at her toned body. “How’d you get into martial arts anyway?”

  “My dad taught me.”

  “He must’ve been proud to know his daughter could protect herself.”

  “I’m sure he would have been. He died about ten years ago.”

  Which made finding her mom all the more important. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said, wishing now he hadn’t been nosey. He’d been to plenty of funerals and had lost his own dad a few years ago, yet still never knew the right thing to say.

  “Thanks. I miss him, but I’m glad my mom found Ian.” She looked his way. “Considering our circumstances, I’m not so glad about it right now. Who would’ve thought something like this would happen?”

  “Not me.” He quickly stopped and swung his arm to the side, halting Lola. “Take a few steps back and move to the left,” he said, pulling his gun from his belt.

  “Is it him?” she whispered.

  He shook his head. “No, it’s him,” he said, aiming his weapon toward the large Burmese python constricting a small white-tailed deer.

  She jumped back, smacking into a tree. “Oh, my God, Ryan. We’ve gotta—”

  “Ssh. Just keep your cool. He already has something to eat and probably wouldn’t have bothered us anyway. Let’s just go around him and let him do his thing.”