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But Ty? Deuce snorted Not in love, his ass Ty could fool Zane, er But Ty couldn’t fool Deuce, not anymore

Chapter 14

"I GOTTA take a leak," Earflaps said petulantly

Ty jerked and gasped, yanked from his doze by theforward to pileover at the prisoner hatefully "I should let you just piss yourself," he told the man irritably

"Too bad you’re a Fed," Earflaps observed

Ty narrowed his eyes and sighed Unfortunately, the asshole was right No cruel and unusual punishment He muttered to hiave Zane’s foot a gentle nudge Zane’s eyes opened immediately Ty should have known he wasn’t asleep Maybe he shouldescort," he told Zane softly instead as he fished out a flashlight from the nearest pack It was one of only two left "If we’re not back in five, come shoot hi his lips "I’ve still got azine"

"Good boy," Ty said with a patronizing pat of Zane’s head He rabbed thethem nose to nose "Any funny business, I’ll leave you tied up out there, got it?" he threatened Earflaps sneered at hiht better of his response and un and pushed thethe battery while the ht

He gave the , partly because he knew no one back at the fire wanted to hear this guy do his business anyto keep up; he was tired, cold, sore, and havinghe did care about at this point was getting ho victims out of even the most experienced of travelers, and Ty found that he couldn’t stop worrying about Zane out here It probably hadn’t been the greatest idea, dragging him up here for his first hike But Ty was sure he’d been enjoying hihed heavily and slid his hands into his pockets, carrying the shotgun in the crook of his arhtly in the cold air Hell He was probably getting sick after that damn cold water That would be his luck Avoid the traps and the bullets and drowning and then die of pneuht actually made him smile crookedly in the darkness

He realized they’d been trekking into the forest for almost five minutes before he snapped out of it "Hey," he said sharply Earflaps took a few"This’ll do fine," Ty told him

Earflaps looked around "Turn around," he told Ty

"Go to hell," Ty replied easily

"Well, can I go behind a tree?" the lanced around the s the man had found If he did make a run for it, Ty could easily catch him And if he soo that didn’t involve freezing to death, being eaten by an ani He was about to tell the man to be quick about it when a noise that was out of place caught his attention and stopped hi hi Earflaps to lead him so far from the fire

"Come on, man!" Earflaps whined

"Shut up," Ty hissed He raised his shotgun slightly "Do you hear that?" he whispered

"You ain’t gonna scare me, hillbilly," Earlfaps declared stubbornly

Ty shook his head, hushing the ainst his shoulder, at the ready A twig broke somewhere to his left, then another

"I heard that," Earflaps said, suddenly quiet and serious, looking off into the dark woods

Ty tensed and re up his spine He instinctively felt they were being stalked, and by so with farwith

"Coue as he began to lanced around nervously Ty could relate He resisted the urge to call out for help, knowing it er an attack And whoever caer too Ty couldn’t have that Even as he thought it, there was a rustling sound in the underbrush to his right Jesus, it e sound, almost like a purr, emitted froan to shake alun They were rare, but there was only one thing in thesetoo heavily as he went over what little he knew about cougars They were supposed to be endangered in these mountains, a population so sparse they were more of a myth than a fact Ty supposed it was just his shitty luck to stumble over one At least he nohy there were no s the snakes to lower cli suddenly and without further warning, its tan fur alrowled at the them warily

"Oh Christ," Ty breathed as he watched it, not quite believing what he was seeing The cat was al from nose to tail When it moved its shoulders rolled and its tail swished sinuously behind it

It was theTy had ever seen

"Oh shit," Earflaps echoed

"Don’t move," Ty told hier the chase and kill instincts in the cat, and he forced himself to stand there and stare at it He hoped it couldn’t s: if it had wanted to kill the They’d probably just stu to warn thears were ambush predators He had studied the way they and other animals killed when he’d been on the Recon tea froars were solitary hunters, so he didn’t have to worry about a second one anywhere But they could leap over twenty feet in one go and run up to thirty-five miles an hour; they had a vertical of nearly fifteen feet, and when they struck, they did so fro the spinal cord and then either eating their prey alive or letting it bleed out to save for later<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>