Page 82 of Fatal Thrill
“Watch your step,” Jon said to her, pointing at a brown plant. “That’s poison oak. It looks dead, but it’s only dormant. You can still get a rash fromit.”
“Lovely.” Not only did she have murderous kidnappers to worry about, the weeds were out to get her too. “Just don’t tell me there aresnakes.”
Colton snorted as she passed by him. “Of course there are. Copperheads, corn snakes, rattlesnakes…this place is full of ’em.”
Jaya punched his arm. “Stop already. They’re hibernating or whatever,right?”
Jon shook his head. “Rattlesnakes don’t hibernate, technically. It’s called brumation and if there’s a sunny day, they’ll come out of their nests, even in the middle ofwinter.”
Great.
As they neared the front door, songbirds overhead began a wake-up call to the forest, the lovely notes drifting through the thick branches of pine, oak, and poplar. She tried to focus on that rather than the poison plants and venomoussnakes.
At the door, Charlotte stopped and looked back at Jon. He nodded. “They know we’re here. Goahead.”
“Just didn’t want to end up cannon fodder,” she said with a grin before reaching for thedoorknob.
She’d barely grabbed it when the wooden door creaked open and a man filled the threshold. “Charlotte! What the hell happened toyou?”
Jaya barely recognized Trace, who was dressed in combat gear and had smeared paint on his face. He pulled Charlotte inside quickly, nodding at Percy, and waving Jaya to hurryup.
Once they were in, her eyes needed a moment to adjust. Charlotte gave a quick explanation about her injured arm, Percy was introduced, and Colton and Miles locked up thedoor.
Still not able to see well in the dark interior, Jaya was glad when Jon took her hand and put his arm around her waist, guiding her through one room and intoanother.
This one was lit and two other men, dressed like Hunter, stared at the newcomers from a table where a map was spread. A dog rose from the corner and rushed forward, greeting Jon with enthusiasm. He crouched and ruffled its fur, kissing the flat head. “How you doin’ Nyx? I missedyou.”
Nyx. Was this a tracking dog, or possibly a pet he’d neglected to tell herabout?
The men rose with greetings and leaned across the table, Jon accepting handshakes from them. “Good to have you back in one piece,” a burly guy with reddish hair and a close-cropped beard said. “Looks like you broughthelp.”
He introduced everyone to them. “Jaya, Percy, this is Rage, and that guy over there”—he pointed at the other man who sported spiky champagne-colored hair, a beard, and piercing blue eyes—“is his brother,Clash.”
Brothers? Jaya exchanged handshakes, as did Percy. She guessed underneath the face paint and beards, they might appear to berelated.
“Rage and Clash?” Percy said. “Interestingnames.”
“Code names,” Hunter told him. “We’re RockStars.”
As if that explainedeverything.
The redhead dropped back into his seat. “My band is Rage Against theMachine.”
Blondie saluted them. “The Clash, in case mine isn’tobvious.”
“Lost my virginity listening to them,” Percy said with a grin. “My favorite bandever.”
Clash held out a fist and Percy bumped it with hisown.
Trace and Miles rounded up chairs and the group sat at the table, eyeing themap.
“Okay,” Jon said, blowing a deep breath. “Tell me what we’re lookingat.”
Four hundred acres,and at last count, thirty-five survivalists all making their homes there. Most had some form of security—dogs, fences, traps, and trip wires. The three most likely places kidnappers would take Finn included two Jon knewwell.
His father’s cabin, abandoned since his dad had gone to prison, and Dalton Watt’s, which had been empty for just aslong.
The third place Jon immediately X’d off the map, even though Hunter had circled it—a camper trailer near the riverhead. From his summers in the area as a kid, campers and RVs had come and gone, but this one, according to Rory had only been in that spot for the past five years and was registered to a woman named Goss. Since Jon had no prior links to the camper or woman, he knew it had to be one of the othertwo.
