Decker frowned and glanced toward the blond again. She appeared calm, her eyes blank. The sight rather bothered him. He didn't like the fact that Justin had taken control of her like this. Unfortunately, it was necessary. He didn't have time to try to talk her out of running off after her sister alone, and they had things to do before they could leave the clearing. Things she wouldn't understand, and that he didn't want her to be a witness to.
"Have you tried your phone?" Justin asked suddenly. "I tried mine before I followed you out of the clearing earlier. I was going to call in a cleanup team to pick up the rogues, but couldn't get a signal."
"Neither could I," Decker admitted, continuing on into the clearing.
"I guess we're on our own," Justin said, not sounding terribly pleased at the prospect. "What are we going to do?" Before Decker could answer, he added hopefully, "I don't suppose we could just behead the bastards and be done with it?"
"You know better than that," Decker said dryly. It was all he had to say. Enforcers weren't like the mortal, and fictional, James Bond with a license to kill anyone they deemed it necessary. If they had a kill order on a rogue, that was one thing, but like mortals, immortals believed in due process. These men had to be taken in to be judged by the Council. Decker understood that it was necessary to ensure innocents weren't killed in error, but sometimes it was a terrible pain in the butt... as now, he thought as he contemplated how they could possibly incapacitate the men so that they didn't recover and escape before a cleanup crew could get here to collect them.
"So? What are we going to do?" Justin repeated, interrupting his thoughts.
Shifting, Decker shrugged and said, "Find something to tie up the men, search them for the keys to their van, take that to get out of here and, as soon as we can get a signal, call Lucian. The SUV has a GPS tracking system. Someone at Argeneau Enterprises will be able to track where it is so we can give chase. Lucian can also arrange for a cleanup crew to come in and take care of these guys."
As he talked, Decker had knelt to empty the pockets of the nearest prone rogue in search of the keys to the van, but paused and glanced up when Justin gasped, "One of them is missing."
"One of what is missing?" he asked.
"One of the rogues. There were six of them," he pointed out. "The one Nicholas is chasing and five others, but there are only four here now."
Decker straightened and quickly counted the men in the clearing. He cursed when he saw there were only four remaining. One of them either had faked being hit or had recovered much more quickly from the tranquilizer in the bullets than he should have. The thought made him peer warily over the others. They'd have to tie them up quickly... and didn't have the proper tools to do it. Those were in the SUV.
"Why didn't he take the van?" Justin asked, distracting him from this worry.
Decker glanced sharply to the dark van parked on the edge of the clearing, grimacing when he saw the problem. "It's got a flat."
"A stray bullet must have hit it," the kid pointed out, and then eyed Decker. "Speaking of bullets, how are you feeling?"
Decker grimaced. He was feeling a little queasy, a little weak, and both wounds were hurting like a son of a bitch, but all he said was, "I'll live."
Justin stared at him worriedly for a moment, and then released Dani's arm and turned away, saying, "I'll see if there's a spare tire in the van."
"No," Decker said quickly. "If the fifth man was hit and somehow recovered from the tranquilizer this quickly, he might not be fully recovered. He may have simply regained consciousness and enough strength to drag himself into the woods. But there's also a possibility that he faked being shot."
"Either way he's probably out there, watching us," Justin realized unhappily. They were both silent for a moment, eyes scanning the woods, and then Justin glanced to the unconscious man Decker had been searching and said, "What if the tranquilizer that coated the bullets was from a bad or weak batch? They might all be recovering."
Decker turned his gaze to run it over each rogue, looking for signs of recovery. The one Nicholas had shot with the crossbow had taken the arrow through the heart. He wouldn't recover without someone first removing the projectile. Decker was pretty sure the man he'd shot at the end of the skirmish had taken the bullet in the heart too. If the slug had lodged there and not traveled through, then it would at least keep him down a little while. However, Decker hadn't been concerned with making a heart-shot with the first man he'd hit, and doubted Justin had with the one he'd taken out either. They would have to tend to the men in the clearing before they could search the woods.
"Check the van and see if there's anything useful in there," Decker ordered, moving to examine the two men he was most concerned with. "And check for a spare while you're at it."
"Will do," Justin said, and turned away.
"Justin?" Decker called. When the kid paused and turned back in question, he added grimly, "Keep your eyes and ears open."
Justin's gaze slid to the four rogues in the clearing, and then over the woods surrounding them. He nodded solemnly, and then moved more cautiously toward the van.
Decker stepped out of the trees and crossed to the fire to drop the burning log he'd been using as a torch to search the woods while Justin changed the tire on the van. He hadn't found a thing. It seemed the fifth rogue from the clearing had gotten away too.
He glanced over the remaining rogues. They lay where they'd fallen, trussed up with some rope Justin had found in the van. Decker had insisted on it before going to search for the missing one. While the rope wasn't likely to hold any of them long if they woke up, he'd hoped it would slow them down enough that he or Justin could shoot them again before they got completely free. He might have been fooling himself, it might have been as useful as wrapping limp, overcooked noodles around their ankles and wrists, but it had made him feel better about leaving Justin and Dani alone in the clearing with the rogues while he'd searched the woods.
Decker's gaze now slid to the woman. His woman. His life mate, he thought with not a little wonder. She lay curled up and sleeping peacefully by the fire compliments of Justin. While he didn't like to keep her under the other immortal's control like this, it did seem for the best at the moment.
"Did you find anything?"
Decker glanced to Justin as the younger immortal crossed the clearing to his side. He shook his head. "Not a thing."
Justin nodded, but smiled with satisfaction and announced, "I did when I took the flat tire off the van."
When Decker raised an inquiring eyebrow, Justin held out his hand and opened it to reveal two small electronic gizmos on his palm. "These were stuck to the wheel well with some kind of Silly Putty."