Page 37 of Vengeful

"Remind me not to piss you off." I stepped over to the other bodies and took their guns before searching for any identification, or something that would indicate who exactly they were.

As I expected, I found nothing on them. On Casper, I found two phones. One satellite phone and one with a Bugs Bunny phone case.

"That's Parker's phone." Lila took it from my hand and tapped on the screen. "It's unlocked. He never leaves his phone unlocked."

Her brow creased with worry for a moment before she screwed her eyes shut and grimaced. A sure sign her head was giving her discomfort. The sooner I got her out of here and to a hospital, the better. Or at least into a nice, hot bubble bath with a couple of pills for the pain. Maybe an orgasm or two if she was up to it.

"He might not have had a choice." I glanced at the satellite phone screen. It gave the location of the one in my back pocket and another one, maybe a hundred metres from my SUV.

"If they're still alive, that's the last team," I said. "We need to take care of them. They may have Hunter and Parker with them."

The twins might also be dead, but I didn't need to say that. She knew as well as I did that was a possibility. This team may have killed Parker after unlocking his phone and sending us messages to tell us where to go.

The idea gave me a pain in my chest. I pushed it away. The twins were like cockroaches, I reminded myself. They wouldn't be killed that easily.

"They're fine," I found myself saying. "We'll find them. Their brother hired these assholes, they may be under orders not to kill the twins."

I'd never known Caleb to be particularly sentimental. He was a ruthless asshole, like his older brother Reuben and their father before them. Like Samuel Bell. The animosity between them was ironic given how alike they all were.

"They have to be fine," Lila said. "I'm going to be really angry with them if they're not."

"Of course you are." I managed a brief smile. "Let's find them then. We have three more assholes to take care of."

"Caleb is going to be really annoyed we killed all the people he hired," Lila remarked without a shred of sympathy.

"Caleb is going to be annoyed we're not dead," I said slowly. "He'll probably be ecstatic he didn't have to pay any of them. We've saved him a couple million dollars. He might even reward us for doing it."

She snort-laughed and followed me through the forest.

CHAPTER 14

SLADE

I dropped to a crouch. This whole practice trial was a better leg workout than going to the gym. I hadn't crouched so often in months.

"They should be right ahead of us," I told Lila as she crouched beside me. "Keep your eyes and ears open everywhere around us."

"You think they left the phone for us to find it and moved away?" she guessed.

"That's exactly what I'd do," I agreed. "Then I'd set up an ambush for us. Probably using the twins to draw us out."

"Knowing we'd guess that, they may do the opposite," she pointed out.

"That is a distinct possibility." I nodded briefly. I ran through a variety of scenarios in my head, but came to no conclusions. There were too many variables here. Too many ways they may act that I couldn't anticipate. The uncertainty put me on edge. I liked to be in control of the situation and I wasn't. Not yet. What I needed was an opportunity to force them to show their hand.

"Give me Parker's phone." I held out my hand.

She didn't hesitate to pull it from her pocket and place it on my palm. She trusted that whatever I needed it for, was necessary. I appreciated her confidence.

I tapped on the screen and opened the contacts app. I found Hunter's number and pressed on it. A second or two later, the sound of a song from Blazing Violet rang out through the forest.

"Hunter," Lila whispered excitedly. She sighed. "Or Hunter's phone."

I put Parker's phone to my ear and waited. The ringtone stopped and a voice crackled down the line.

"Hey." That was Hunter's voice. He sounded strained, like he was forced to answer the call.

"Hey, this is Felicity. We met at a party the other night," I said.

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