Page 21 of Marks of Rebellion

"No one sleeps. You know that."

Great. I'm not sure why I expected any of the guys to be asleep.

"Drop it."

"I would, but I'm not sure I can get the sound of your groan out of my mind."

"I'm going to take a piss." I turn and walk away.

Leave it to Dirk to say something.

I do my business, and Malin joins me.

"Good night?" he asks in an amused tone.

"Not you, too."

He chuckles. "Relax. You can't do that and not take some banter from us."

I groan.

"No, it was more like this." Malin loudly groans, and I elbow him.

"Did Andre say when he's finding out the drop-off point for the ladies?" My pulse increases at letting Vanessa anywhere out of my sight. The notion of leaving her somewhere forever sends a stinging sensation through my heart.

What is wrong with me? I don't get like this about women.

Malin scratches his face. "No. I didn't get a chance to talk to him last night after we got back. But he doesn't know the coordinates yet?"

"Not to our knowledge. Besides Naomi going to the U.S., I haven't heard anything else," I confirm.

"Something hasn't been sitting right with me."

"The fact we don't know the location for the other women?"

Malin finishes and zips his pants. "That and why does the U.S. want Naomi and not the other women? Unless we didn't receive the full message, only Naomi is going to the U.S. They aren't even sending Emilia with her."

"Vanessa asked me where I was taking her last night, and it hit me that in ten years, I've never rescued a target without being told where to take them."

"Something is off."

The uneasy feeling I've had returns. I'm not sure what to do about it. "Let's talk to Andre and get his take on it. I'm going to wash up and then start breakfast."

"Yeah. From the sounds of it, you got pretty dirty last night. Make sure you use soap."

"Shut up." I go back into the tent. Vanessa's eyes are shut, so I grab my backpack and turn to leave.

"Hey," she whispers.

I crouch down in front of her and push her hair off her face. "Hi."

She shyly smiles. "Where are you going?"

"To the river to wash up."

She hesitates and nervously scans my face.

"What is it, Flower?"