Page 23 of Tracking the Alpha
“Big word.”
He glanced at her over his shoulder and grinned. “And finally, a way to use it in a sentence.”
“The wound forced the shift.”
“It did, but even better, it forced the general to release me from the manacles he had me in, and the major was slow with the tranq gun. Somehow, I got over the wall and made it to the forest, where I’ve been hiding since.”
“The courtyard you speak of has eight-to-ten-foot-high concrete walls topped in barbed wire.”
“Wasn’t any wire on it when I escaped.”
She hesitated before asking, “Are you the one who sliced open the general’s face?” Upon their first meeting, it had been impossible to ignore the dark patch over an eye and the scarring that ran down the general’s cheek to his chin.
“Yeah.” He didn’t wait for a reply before adding a vehement, “Wish I’d not frozen in shock when I saw my paws. I could have ended things right then and there.”
“Do you think if he’d died those backing the project would have abandoned it?”
“No.” A reply so low she barely heard it.
“What would it take do you think?”
“Failure to churn out a viable product, but that could take years before they admit defeat.” He resumed a brisk pace; however, Tanis suddenly paused.
“What if the general lost all his expensive test subjects?”
“We’ve already ascertained he doesn’t care how many die.”
“I mean lost, as in everyone he’s tampered with escaped.”
Barrett kept walking. “One, releasing everyone would be almost impossible. As you mentioned earlier, I’m one man against a guarded facility. The chances of me freeing one person, let alone everyone, is pretty much one in a zillion. Two, if the general has implanted trackers, they’d be quickly found. And three, what would it accomplish?”
“Those who escape could tell their stories.”
“I’m pretty sure the woman I killed back there was beyond being coherent.”
“As a coyote, yes, but what if you could have brought her back to herself?”
“That would assume the injury trick works for everyone. We have no idea if that’s the trigger for everyone Davidson has tampered with. Not to mention, what if everyone is like her and not me? Freeing what basically amounts to rabid wild animals could have murderous consequences on innocent people.”
“Are you just going to shoot down every one of my suggestions?” she huffed in annoyance.
Rather than reply, he went still and tilted his head.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered. He’d obviously noticed something she hadn’t.
“Company heading our way. Move faster,” he advised as he began to trot, agile in his bare feet, and silent. Just like her. If he weren’t so damned white, she’d have thought him Indigenous-trained.
She kept pace behind Barrett, meaning she could admire his agility as he navigated the pitfalls of the wild terrain. His body moving fluidly. His skin smooth perfection. His hair, black with slight hints of gray, lush and curling at his nape. A handsome man who, despite circumstances, stirred something inside Tanis.
Desire.
What a strange time and place for it. And with a stranger to boot. The sudden attraction suddenly made her better understand her mother, though. Her mom, Mika, a supposedly very smart woman, who’d been attending university studying to be a doctor, had come home on a break and run into Todd, Tanis’ father, while collecting some plants used in Cree healing practices.
Grandmother said Tanis’ mother had been instantly smitten to the point Mika spoke of taking a year off school to help Todd with his work. But the seducing cad took off the moment he discovered he’d impregnated Mika. Left without any way for her to contact him. And when Mika died from complications in childbirth, Grandmother chose to simply raise Tanis on her own. As for Tanis, she’d never had any interest in meeting the man without any honor.
But Barrett had already shown himself to be different in character from Todd. For one, he could have fled this area and kept running until he found a safe place without hunters or the military seeking him. Instead, he’d remained, though, wanting to free his friends and do something about the travesty happening. Second, he’d not killed Tanis, despite having every reason to. He knew she’d been sent to capture him, had no reason to trust, and yet, he walked ahead of her, his back wide open for a stabbing knife. He’d chosen to place his faith in her, and Tanis couldn’t help but respect that.
His jog brought them to the edge of a creek, where he paused as he glanced back at her. “We need to get wet for the next part, and I’ll warn you right now, that water is cold.”
