Grounding Gracus (First Wave Book 6) (8 page)

Grai hushed everyone with a scathing look before he turned to Blanche and smiled. “I apologize, we were hoping to catch him. He’s been unexpectedly called back in for duty and we’re supposed to have him back pretty quick,” Grai lied, hoping the kind woman would tell them what they needed to know without much prodding.

Blanche’s face fell. “Oh Grai! I’m sorry. I had my cousin drop him near Becca. You should have seen the look in his eye,” Blanche said with a sigh. “He’s in love with her.”

Niklosi burst out laughing while Scaden punched him in the side to try and get him to shut up as Blanche looked at them strangely.

Grai cleared his throat. “Becca? You mean little Becca Carson?” Grai asked, remembering the adorable little girl she had been and his promise to her grandfather.

Blanche smiled and nodded her head. “That’s her. She turned into a real beauty since the last time you were here. Been running her grandpa’s business just as well as he ever did. That girl has the forest in her blood so your guy is in good hands,” Blanche said with a proud smile.

Grai smiled back at her and nodded his head, he knew exactly what the young girl had in her blood. “You know what route she takes? We really need to find him,” Grai said, hoping that they could get to Gracus quickly.

Blanche looked at Grai oddly. “Can’t you call your other guys and have them find him? They have to be closer.”

Grai looked up sharply. “What other guys?” He asked, trying to sound casual.

Blanche’s smile faltered at his tone of voice. “There were five of them. Came in about a week ago. They were all really big, dressed the same and kind of looked the same, so I just assumed they were some of yours,” Blanche said, wondering why Grai seemed so tense.

Grai forced a smile and nodded his head. “It’s hard to keep up with them all. Everyone loves coming here for a break,” Grai said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Blanche heard Frank’s kitchen bell and headed off to go get their food. As soon as she left, Grai turned to the table, “I don’t have anyone here but Gracus.”

“Oh damn,” Scaden said as he sucked in a sharp breath.

“What would they be doing here?” Amun asked.

Grai shook his head, unwilling to say anything else unless he had to. He pulled out his comm and sent a message to Traze as Blanche came back to the table with their food.

Grai smiled at the kind woman. “Blanche, this smells wonderful! Thank you.” The others all politely muttered their thanks as well.

Blanche beamed with happiness. “Now you guys eat up and I’ll get you a map of Becca’s usual route. You want me to call my cousin to drop you where he left Gracus?” Blanche asked with a smile.

Grai shook his head. “Thank you Blanche, that won’t be necessary. Just the route. We have our own chopper on standby to get him anyway. You’re a wonderful woman and I can’t thank you and Frank enough for taking such good care of my guys,” Grai said, meaning it.

The townsfolk here had always been wonderful to him and his people when they came here to use the cabin to rest or take a break from the endless missions. He hated to think that he might have put the humans in danger. But, he would take care of the threat now among them. And deal with little Becca Carson and Gracus.

Blanche’s smile lit up her whole face and the men at the table couldn’t help but smile back at the lovely woman. “Nonsense, you know we love your guys. Now, you all eat up! I’ll go get that route for you,” Blanche said, before she turned and headed towards the kitchen.

Grai looked around the table. “She’s right. Eat up. Our gear will be waiting for us in the transport. We’ll be picked up at the cabin.” Everyone nodded their heads before digging in to their food.

“What the hell would they be doing here?” Scaden asked the table.

Niklosi turned to Grai. “Would Dagog be after natural resources in the area?”

Grai shook his head. “There isn’t anything here that can’t be found elsewhere,” he said as he looked around the diner to make sure no one was in hearing distance. “We can discuss this further after the drop.”

Everyone nodded and finished eating as Blanche came back to the table with a colorful brochure in her hand. She stood next to Grai and opened the trifold paper onto the table.

“This is Becca’s normal tourist route. She was supposed to do her annual route check, but she was acting real fidgety all winter and she had been reading her grandpa’s journals again. Becca said she’d be going the same route, but I think she planned to make a detour to the Burnt Tree Ridge, so I noted the possible route if that’s where she was going. I’m sure you’ll find them long before they get that far though,” Blanche said with a smile before she started clearing the empty plates from the table.

“Thank you Blanche, I am in your debt,” Grai said with a smile at the woman.

Niklosi waited until she had the tray loaded with the plates before he stood and took it over to the kitchen for her while Grai laid several hundred dollar bills on the table and pocketed the brochure. He wouldn’t be needing it though, he knew exactly where they were going, since he was the one who had found the route with Becca’s grandfather, long ago.

They headed outside and Grai led them to the battered SUV where Niklosi laughed again at the various impacts the vehicle had taken before getting in the back seat with Decano and Amun.

Grai was preoccupied with his own thoughts and it took him a few minutes to realize that Scaden had asked him a question. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” Grai asked turning to Scaden.

“I asked how long you thought it would take for us to find them,” Scaden repeated, watching Grai closely. Something was up, he could feel it.

Grai shook his head and pulled out of the parking lot, heading back to the cabin. “We can get close, but it’s a big forest. We could end up walking a few hundred yards parallel to them for miles without even knowing it,” Grai admitted, not telling them that it wouldn’t matter since they were all going to end up at the same place in a few days anyway.

Niklosi looked at Grai in the rearview mirror from the backseat. “I don’t understand why the Relian’s would be here. What could they possibly be going into the forest for?”

Grai shook his head. “I guess we’ll find out,” he said, as he headed down the road to the cabin in his now rattling and battered SUV.

He honestly didn’t know why the Relians were there. But, he damn sure intended to find out. Grai couldn’t think of anything that his brother Dagog, would want in this area. Although the natural resources were plentiful and something that his brother would want, Grai knew that Dagog would not come this close to a tourist destination such as this one. His brother, Dagog, was a coward and would not attempt to terrorize and subjugate an area as large as this.

The only other thing that Grai could think of, was the same thing that Rebecca was searching for in the mountains. If that was the case, then it was more important than ever for them to reach them both. Once outside of the city limits, Grai hit the gas and raced to the cabin.

Chapter Seven

Gracus had been walking for hours before he smelled the distinct scent of smoke on the air. He followed the faint traces on the wind and ended up peeking through a line of trees at a well laid out campsite.

A red tent was set up, several feet from the small but strong fire that was surrounded by a ring of stones, a small pile of sticks and small branches laying nearby. But, there was no one around and no indication of where the owner of the campsite had gone.

Gracus was tempted to go through the tent and see if he could determine if it was Rebecca’s, but decided not to in case it wasn’t. Instead, he stayed hidden in the tree line and waited for a few minutes for the owner to return.

After several minutes, Gracus felt more than heard someone behind him and he turned sharply to confront whoever it was. He sucked in a breath as he stared into the light brown eyes of his mate. Who was holding a gun on him.

Rebecca was momentarily stunned by the man standing in front of her and her hand lowered the gun seemingly without her consent. She’d known that she was being followed for the last hour and had decided to find out why, but this man was the last person she ever expected to see. Again.

Tamping down her sudden excitement and racing heart, Rebecca said, “How the hell did you get back here?”

Gracus grinned at the beautiful woman and held his hands up, not wanting her to shoot him. “Blanche has a cousin who knew where you would be,” he said, unable to stop the smile from spreading across his face.

Rebecca lowered the weapon completely. “Grrr, what the hell was the woman thinking?” She shook her head, put the gun in the waistband of her jeans and looked up at the large man in amazement.

“How are you even alive? And so soon?” She asked, looking him up and down and noting that he looked yummy in clothes too. He was dressed all in black and
damn he made the color look good
, she thought as she tried to keep her eyes above his waistband. Which was harder than she ever thought it could be.

Gracus smiled, his mind trying to think really hard of what to say. He hadn’t thought this far ahead and the excuse he’d had earlier about wanting to thank her for saving him just didn’t seem to fit now that he’d tracked her down into the depths of the forest. To his still paranoid mind, it seemed really creepy and he was surprised that she had such a lack of self-preservation that she’d put her gun away.

Rebecca watched the silently staring man and noticed his glassy eyes and the very slight sway of his body and she cursed in frustration as she stomped over to him and pulled him into the clearing where she’d set up her camp for the night.

“Sit,” she said as she led him near the fire and pulled his arm towards the ground to encourage him.

Gracus smiled up at her as he sat heavily, not realizing until that moment that he was tired. More tired than he would normally be and he wondered if it was a side effect of the drug.

He watched Rebecca move away from him and into the tent and took the canteen she came back and handed him. His dry mouth was barely satisfied after several long drinks but he didn’t want to take all of her water. He had his own, but hadn’t thought to stop and drink it. He’d been too intent on finding her.

Rebecca paced on the other side of the fire from him, wondering what the hell Blanche had been thinking to send a still stoned man out into the wilderness, alone, to find her! It wasn’t like her friend to be so careless about someone’s safety like that and she just couldn’t figure out why Blanche would have done it.

But, she couldn’t deny that Blanche had. The man sitting in front of the fire was proof of that.
He was too stoned to have found her any other way
, Rebecca thought as she watched him still swaying slightly as he sat in front of the fire.

She stopped pacing and threw her hands in the air. “Ok, what the hell did you say to Blanche to make her think it was a good idea for you to come out here? In your condition?” she asked, dying to know what the hell she was expected to do with the guy now.

Gracus shook his head and tried to remember what he had said to the older woman, but it was a little fuzzy. “I don’t remember,” he admitted with an embarrassed grin.

“Oh my God, you’re freaking kidding me, right?” Rebecca said as she stomped around the fire, pissed as hell.

She was still at least two days from where she suspected the cave system to be and half a day from the river and her raft where she could have the fool back in town by tomorrow night if they left first thing in the morning.

Rebecca sighed, knowing she didn’t have a choice. She was going to have to end her trip and take him back to town. There was no way she could leave him out here alone and she couldn’t take him with her.

“I’ll get you back to town tomorrow,” she said with a sigh and couldn’t help but add, “Again.”

Gracus didn’t want to leave her and he didn’t want to go back into town where he knew his people were probably looking for him. “No, I’d like to continue on. I came here to go on a long hike and I intend to do just that,” Gracus said, trying to think of a way to convince her to let him stay with her.

Rebecca shook her head. “You’re in no condition to be hiking out here. You’re still high as a kite!” she accused.

Gracus wasn’t sure what the phrase meant, but he had an idea. “The doctor said the drug is almost completely out of my system and I should be better by morning. I also have all of my gear so I won’t be a burden on your supplies. In fact, I have more than enough for both of us,” Gracus said, desperate to change her mind so that he could stay with her.

Rebecca resumed pacing, chastising herself for even considering taking him along with her. He could be a danger to himself and to her.
It would be stupid
, she thought, shaking her head, trying to get the idea out of her mind.

Gracus thought he saw her resolve wavering and tried to push her in his favor. “I will not slow you down at all. I will even pay you when we return,” he said and immediately realized it was the wrong thing to say when Rebecca erupted at him.

“Are you stupid? You have no idea where I’m going or how long I intended to be out here! Nor would I take you anywhere, money or not, if I thought you were dangerous to yourself!” She said before a thought occurred to her and she fingered the gun at her back.

“Are you wanted by the law?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously.

Gracus put his hands up when he saw her hand at her back, near her weapon. “No! I am not wanted. I swear. I hadn’t had a… vacation, in a very long time and I came out here for a break. The candy…,” he said shaking his head. “I didn’t know it was a drug. It was definitely not how I wanted to spend my time here at all. I just… I just want a chance to relax. To get away from it all,” Gracus said, his hope flaring as he saw her eyes soften and her hand move away from the weapon at her back.

Rebecca shook her head, wondering why she was even considering it. She looked him over and nodded towards the two packs of gear sitting beside him. “Do you at least have a tent in there?”

Gracus nodded his head. “Of course.”

Rebecca sighed. “Fine, let’s get it set up for the night. It’s not like we can go anywhere right now anyway,” she said, reasoning that he had to stay the night no matter what she decided to do with him in the morning. And no matter how sexy he was, she had no intentions of sharing her tent with him.

Gracus stood and reached for the pack his tent was in, before he began pulling out the pieces and laying them on the ground. He smiled to himself when Rebecca walked up behind him.

“I’ll help, it’s probably best if you sleep off as much of your… excess, as possible,” she said as she reached for the tent poles and started to assemble them.

“How long had you intended to be out here?” Gracus asked, wondering what his mate would be doing out here alone and why.

Rebecca smiled. “About two weeks. I was looking for a cave system that my grandfather had found a long time ago,” she admitted. She saw no harm in telling him since he had no idea where the caves were and she was taking him back to town in the morning.

Gracus looked up with interest since he had planned on exploring some of the local caves while he was here. He had to wonder though, what was so special about these particular caves that was so interesting to Rebecca. She had to have been in more than a few caves in the area, but the way she spoke, led him to believe that this one was important to her.

“I was hoping to do some spelunking while I was here. Tell me, what is it about this cave system that interests you so much?” Gracus asked, trying to fight through the fog in his head and his tiredness.

Rebecca shook her head, unwilling to talk about the cave art her grandfather had found. “It’s just a place I heard of, but haven’t gone to yet.”

Working together, they had the tent up in no time and Rebecca moved back to the fire to warm her chilled hands. She pulled out a dehydrated pack of food for dinner and looked at the beautiful, but confused looking man on the other side of the fire from her.

“Are you hungry? Did you bring any food?” Rebecca asked as Gracus swayed a little as he sat in front of the fire.

Gracus smiled, his hazel eyes twinkling as he grabbed his other pack. “I have plenty of food and supplies,” he said as he pulled out an almost identical pack of dehydrated food and showed it to her.

Gracus grinned as he opened the top of the large pack and tilted it so she could see inside. Sure enough, it was stuffed full of different foods and water.

Rebecca looked at him with raised eyebrows and he shrugged his shoulders. “I’m a pretty big guy and I told you I had already planned to be out here for at least a few weeks and tried to plan appropriately,” Gracus said by way of explanation.

Rebecca stared at him through lowered eyes as they both added water and set their pouches of food near the fire to warm them. She couldn’t figure him out. He was a bumbling fool who’d accidently overdosed on enough marijuana that he should be in a coma. Yet, he’d been smart enough to make sure he was well prepared for an extended trip in the forest.

She’d seen inside the pack with his tent and knew he had everything from a hand ax, to fishing gear. Besides the fact that he had to be incredibly strong to carry all that gear, it showed a level of preparation that she wouldn’t have expected of a pot head. They were more inclined to run for the border for tacos, not the mountains with near tasteless dehydrated goop.

Her curiosity was killing her. “What happened yesterday? You don’t strike me as the kind of guy who is so careless…,” Rebecca said, hoping she didn’t offend him.

Gracus blushed and grabbed his dinner from the fire before it burned and watched from across the small flames as Rebecca did the same. He wasn’t quite sure what to tell her. And his eyes were captivated by the way she looked so beautiful on the other side of the fire with the flames looking like they were dancing in her hair.

He didn’t know if his mouth was so dry because of the drug or if it was a reaction to being so close to his mate, within touching distance of her creamy skin and soft, pouty lips. He shook his head to clear it so he could concentrate on her question. There was no reason to prove his foolishness, not when he was trying to convince her to take him with her.

Using the Earth history that Grai had created for him and most of the off-worlders, he tried to salvage his pride and answer her question.

“I work for a private security contractor and have been undercover outside of the country for… years. More years than I care to admit,” he said with a shake of his head before he continued.

“I’ve been gone so long that it’s been difficult to catch up on all the news here at home and to re-acclimate. I honestly didn’t realize the drug had become legal here. I went from being undercover, to being at a cabin, all within hours. It was supposed to help acclimate me to being back on…,” he said, stopping himself from saying the word earth. “American soil.”

Gracus looked at her with a half grin. “Hell of a welcome home. I am very sorry that I put you in a position to have to risk yourself for me,” he said, unwilling to scare her by telling her that he would do it again just to meet her.

Rebecca openly stared at him, trying to figure him out. She had to admit that he did have that look in his eyes that she’d seen in a lot of veterans who had come home from the Middle East. And he was also as geared as well as the veterans usually were too. There was no doubt that he was also as large and well-built as most of the military men that she’d seen.
It did explain a lot
, she thought.

Unsure what to say and unwilling to put him through painful memories in order to get more details, Rebecca just nodded her head and they both ate in silence for a few minutes as the darkness deepened around them.

“Do you enjoy taking people out here?” Gracus asked, trying to fill the silence and wanting to know more about his beautiful mate.

Rebecca smiled and nodded her head. “Yeah. I love sharing this place with people and seeing how much it changes them,” she admitted a little self-consciously. There was more to it than that, but she wasn’t about to tell that to a complete stranger.
Even one as gorgeous as this one
, she thought.

Gracus looked at her curiously. “What do you mean, ‘how it changes them’?” he asked, captivated by the adorable blush that came over her cheeks as she’d spoken.