Page 6 of Grumpy Special Ops Bear: Ep. 1
My second-in-command, Cutter, stepped forward and nodded toward the north. He casually flung a knife up and down as he said, “From what we can tell, they’re setting up camp about three miles that way.”
“You had a visual?” I demanded.
“No, but a campsite is there and ready to go. We waited for most of the day, but there’s been no sign of them so far,” Cutter explained. “What do you think, Fergus?”
I rubbed my jaw and gazed across the river. “We’ll stake out the camp but keep our distance. I want to be certain of how many people we’re dealing with.”
“Understood,” Cutter agreed.
“Let’s get moving, Grant,” I ordered.
Grant, the third and final member of my team, didn’t answer. He gazed toward the tree line with a dark look, his tanned fingers raking across his stark-white hair. His solemn silence was normal. But out of the three of us, he was by far more dangerous to cross, which was why I’d recruited him for my team. Grant was loyal to a fault, and he never backed down.
I trekked onward, leading Cutter and Grant toward a ridge overlooking the campsite. By nightfall, I hoped we’d have a visual of our target.
Chapter 6
Trinity
By the timethe group and I reached the campsite, the sun was going down, but there was still enough light to fish. So once we dumped our gear and got a fire going, I led them down to the riverbank. When I turned to instruct them on the proper way to fish, I saw they were already casting lines and teasing one another about who would catch the bigger fish for dinner.
I glowered, but I kept my mouth closed.
I decided when we reached the next site, I was going to call Halle to find out if she could dig up any other information on them. They obviously had more experience than they had acknowledged.
I’d just eased myself down onto a slab of rock I’d picked as my fishing spot when I got a weird feeling in the nether part of my belly. Peeking about, I winced when I found Josh staring at me so intensely the hair on the nape of my neck stood on end, as usual with them. For a second, I felt the pressing need to move away, but then it died as he worked his way over to me.
“Mind if I join you?” he asked.
“Help yourself,” I replied as he plopped down next to me. “If we catch nothing, there’s food locked in a metal crate in one tent.”
“I’m certain they’ll hook something at some point. So tell me more about yourself. Besides the fact that you like to jump out of airplanes and take random people on trips into the wilderness,” he added with a wink.
I rammed my fishing pole into the dirt beside the rock. “There’s not much else to say.”
“Oh, there has to be something. Does your love of adventure come from your parents?”
An old anger raised its head, but I promptly stomped it down.Relax, Trinity. He’s just curious, not prying.
There was no reason for me to bite his head off, but if he kept pushing, I was going to go straight New York crazy on his ass.
“I was abandoned as a kid, and I grew up in foster homes.”
“Sad to hear that.”
I shrugged and smiled. “It’s all right. I turned out fine.”
“So you don’t know who your parents are?”
“Nope, never tried to find them either,” I answered. “Figured if they didn’t want me, then I didn’t want them.”
“I can understand that. So where does your adventurous spirit come from?”
I turned to him. “Don’t you think that’s a little personal?”
Immediately, he held up his hands. “Sorry. I didn’t realize it was a touchy subject.”
“It’s not a sensitive topic.” Taking a deep breath, I let it out, straining to get a grip on my mood. “I apologize. I’m just not good with conversation. Usually I don’t talk with the people I go on trips with.”
