“Why’s that?”
“Because I’m thinking things I shouldn’t be thinking this early on in our relationship. There’s still quite a bit I need to tell you before my mind goes where it’s going right now.”
I grin while very trying very hard not to let myself think about what he might be thinking about, and he lets out a chuckle.
“So, what things do you need to tell me?” I chirp, my smile only growing as I snuggle into the man I love.
He lets out a deep breath, and then he pulls my hand up to his lips. I smile as he kisses it, and then he turns the music up instead of spilling whatever it is he has to tell me.
“I want to tell you, but not here, not now. I just want to enjoy this. I like the way we are right now.”
I love the way we are right now.
“Good,” he adds, his smile returning to banish some of the unexplainable worry he had.
Then the song fades into static when we distance ourselves too far from the city. He turns it down, and he has a devilish little grin appear. I start to question it when he starts humming. Immediately my face turns red when I hear him humming the tune to my wire cutting song. I didn’t even think about that.
“Crap,” I gripe as I think back to how loud I had sung it in my head that day.
He starts snickering, his chuckles interrupting his humming, and I roll my eyes.
Damn mind reader.
“These treads are wrong,” I murmur almost to myself as I feel the tire treads through the dried mud.
“Why?” Jase asks while joining me in my crouched position.
I dust my hands off, my eyes staying on the odd trail, as I stand back up.
“Because the Unaligned use a deeper tread for thick mud. This swampy region almost requires them. The crew we’re chasing are from this area originally. There’s no way they would be here with this smaller tread. It slows the vehicle, and it leaves the potential for getting stuck, which is what happened over there,” I murmur while pointing to a large rut.
Jase walks over to investigate, kneeling in front of the mess of prints. There are footprints all around it where very large men got out and pushed the car free.
“These don’t even look like professionals. I think Abby messed up somewhere along the way. Are you sure this is the trail she found?” I huff while turning around.
“Positive,” a captain asserts.
“Then she was wrong," I say distractedly, trying to figure out how someone as seasoned as Abby was able to miss this.
“How well do you know Abby?” Jase murmurs as he walks back toward me.
“Not too well. She trained in the eastern region of the United. I’ve only ever met her in passing a time or two. I’m not even all that well versed with her tracking exploits to be honest.”
He sighs out and then walks back toward the cars. Something feels wrong. No matter how Abby was trained, she should have caught onto this. This is far too easy to catch. Unless…
“Unless she set us up." Jase’s eyes grow wide as he finishes the thought he was listening in on, and then he whirls around to yell, “It’s a trap. Get out of here now!”
He starts sprinting toward me but bullets begin raining down on us, blocking him from me, as the hidden army descends upon us.
“Aria!” he yells as a grenade lands beside me, but I use my gift to force it airborne before it explodes.
More bullets pelt against our ambushing ground, and we’re all forced to dive and take cover. Jase fires rapidly in the direction of the fight, but I can’t fucking see a damn thing.
My uncle grabs a grenade launcher, and suddenly he’s firing massive uranium filled grenades toward the multitudes of unseen attackers. Jase is pinned down behind the lead vehicles now, and I'm on my own behind a hummer.
The grenades that are coming at us don't look right. They’re solid chrome. There are no symbols the Unaligned so proudly mark all their weapons with. Who the hell is this?
“Damn it, Aria, get down!” Jase screams just as a bullet grazes my side.
