"What are they?" Decker took the offered items and knelt next to the fire to examine them.
"They're how Nicholas knew the rogues had grabbed the girls and brought them here. I'm pretty sure one is a listening device and the other some sort of tracking device."
"Hmm." Decker turned first one device over and then the other. "It figures. Nicholas always was a techie at heart. If Annie hadn't died, I think he would have given up being an enforcer to work in Bastien's tech lab."
"Annie was his life mate?" Justin asked.
Decker nodded.
"What happened to her?"
"She died." Decker closed his hand on the electronic gizmos and straightened. "Her death is what drove him over the edge."
Justin was silent for a minute and then said, "I've been thinking."
"Always a dangerous pastime," Decker murmured almost absently, his gaze shifting to the van to see that while he'd been searching the woods, Justin hadn't just removed the flat tire, he'd finished putting the spare on too. They could head out after Nicholas.
"Ha ha," Justin muttered, and then said, "I'm wondering if it's such a good idea to leave the rogues here for the cleanup crew to deal with. If they-"
"We're taking them with us," Decker interrupted. The problems with leaving the immortal rogues behind had struck him as he'd searched the woods. The downed men might wake before the cleanup crew could get there, or someone might have heard the gunshots earlier and there might-that moment-be an OPP car cruising around trying to find where the shots had originated. If a mortal cop stumbled on the clearing and found the bodies before the immortals did wake... Decker didn't even want to think about the trouble that could ensue.
When Justin relaxed beside him, obviously relieved at this news, he added, "But we aren't taking them until we're damned sure they aren't going to wake up in the back of the van and attack us."
"What are we going to do?" Justin asked.
Decker's answer was to lift the long branch he'd found in the woods. The action sent pain shooting through his chest and back, but he ignored it. It wasn't as bad as it had been and the queasiness had passed.
His gaze slid to Justin to see that the younger immortal was eyeing the stick dubiously.
"You're going to beat them?" he asked uncertainly.
"No," Decker growled, just managing not to grind his teeth together. He began snapping the branch into three pieces. "We're going to stake the three who were shot with bullets. The one with the arrow doesn't need it, but the others are a risk if there isn't something to ensure their heart can't pump."
"It could kill them if we leave the stakes in too long," Justin pointed out quietly.
"We won't. We're only leaving them staked until we can meet up with a cleanup crew," Decker assured him, and then asked, "You said you found a tarp in the back of the van?"
"Yeah," Justin said, and raised an eyebrow in question.
"After we load them in the van we'll cover them with that so that Dani doesn't see them and get upset."
"I could just keep her asleep," Justin pointed out. "There's no need to wake her up."
Decker glanced to Dani. It would probably be less upsetting for her to continue sleeping, but he didn't want that. He wanted her awake so that he could talk to her, and hopefully redeem himself in her eyes. Right now the woman thought he was an inept oaf, and he'd dearly like to rectify that impression. But he also just wanted to get to know her better. She was his life mate, or could be if she agreed. After two hundred and fifty-nine years alone, he was ready for her. He just had to change her opinion of him and woo her into seeing him as something other than the Austin Powers she'd accused him of being.
Decker shook his head. He was usually the epitome of intelligence and competency, but he'd been set aback by realizing he couldn't read her and what that might mean.
"She might be able to tell us something about the man who took her sister that could help us catch him," Decker said finally, but knew it was a lame excuse. Justin had already read her mind and probably got any and everything from her that they could use. When the younger immortal didn't call him on it, though, he handed him one of the sticks and said, "Come on. Let's get this over with and get going."
"Shouldn't we sharpen them or something?" Justin asked, accepting the makeshift stake.
"No time," Decker said. "Just put some muscle into it."
Justin moved toward one of the men, then glanced back to ask, "What about the bodies in the ravine?"
Decker glanced toward the edge of the clearing overlooking the shallow ditch. He considered the matter and then shook his head. "We leave them. Lucian will arrange for someone to find them so their families can give them a proper burial."
Dani woke up abruptly, almost unnaturally so, she thought with confusion as she sat up on the hard, vibrating bed and glanced around. It took her a moment to sort out that she wasn't on a bed at all, but lying on the hard metal floor of a van. Memory rushed in then, and for one moment she feared she'd dreamed the rescue in the clearing and was still being held by the men who had kidnapped her and her sister, but then Dani glanced to the seats she lay behind and saw the man presently smiling at her from the front passenger seat. Not Decker-Maybe-Argeneau-Maybe-Pimms, but another man she didn't recognize.