And then went back out.
Mayhem worked the periphery as Apex disappeared into the passageway that led to the hidden den with the spring. Kane went around back, to the trench behind the boulders.
And there, he found something, though not what they were looking for.
The burn marks of the guards they had killed in the trees marked the pine needles, the last resting places of the bodies unmarred by any disturbance made by boots. So no one from the prison camp had come to retrieve them or search for their weapons before the sun claimed them.
He wasn’t sure what that meant. Maybe nothing. Maybe there were too few left to do the job.
But there was also no sign that any wolven had been back to themountain, either. The fire pit was cold, there were no scents of food, and no one was moving around the territory.
It was deserted.
As Apex and Mayhem joined him, he said, “We head down the mountain searching for him. It’ll be a needle in a haystack, but we can try to find clues—”
“He’s at the prison camp.” Apex looked back at the den’s entrance. “Or he’s dead. Those are the only two possibilities and I don’t want to waste time fucking around out here if they’ve got him. I want to go to the source of the greatest harm.”
Kane cursed. “But you don’t know if he’s in there.”
“I can sure as hell find out—”
“Not on your own you can’t—”
“Fuck you—”
Riding a surge of adrenaline that would have been impossible to comprehend, much less generate, just a couple of nights before, Kane grabbed a hold of the other prisoner’s jacket and crammed his face directly into the other male’s.
“You think you’re going to help him if you get yourself killed? If you want to save him, you’re going to be smart about it. You’re going to search this fucking mountain with us, while Lucan gets back on his feet. And then the four of us can go together. But what isnotgoing to happen is you going there alone.”
Apex shoved him off and paced around. “They’ll kill him if they’ve found him.”
“Then what does it matter if you wait long enough to get proper backup. The four of us together can go.” Damn, he wished the Jackal were still around. “We will go together first thing tomorrow night if we can’t find him. But if you get ahead of yourself, you’re not helping him—you’re a liability I’m going to have to solve.”
“I can’t do this. I can’t bear… this.”
The admission was spoken roughly, in the kind of way that someone did when he was talking to himself.
“I’m not going to do this.”
Kane shook the male. “No, we search the mountain in case he’s injured and hiding. And then we go to the prison camp tomorrow night when we have more backup.”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever.”
When Apex broke off, Kane let him go, and he wasn’t surprised when the male just walked down the trail.
“We’re not finding the guy out here,” Mayhem said. “It’s worse than a waste of time. It’s dangerous, because who the fuck else is on the mountain? And as for Apex, I don’t think we’ll see him again tonight and he’ll either show up tomorrow or not. We can still go to the prison camp tomorrow at dark, though. You’re right. We need Lucan—because maybe we’ll end up rescuing them both.”
Great. Something to look forward to.
Kane glanced around. The sense that time was running out struck him clear as a bell, not that he could pinpoint the why of the sudden feeling of dread.
But he couldn’t ignore the premonition of doom.
CHAPTER FORTY
Well, he’d kept his promise. But Kane wasn’t really back.
As Nadya glanced at him, again, he was staring off into space, his eyes full of shadows. They were upstairs in the garage, leaving the others down below. He had been silent since he’d returned from looking around the mountain for Callum. And likewise, Mayhem hadn’t been his usual chatty self; especially after the pair of them had spoken to Lucan, who’d nodded and then gone really quiet as well.