Page 55 of Hard Rain
“Find anything?” he asked softly.
“Nope,” Axel said, falling in beside him, bumping into his shoulder.
“Guess you weren’t looking hard enough.”
“I saw you checking out my ass earlier,” Axel smirked.
“I was covering your six.”
“Suuure you were.”
Axel looked entirely too pleased with himself.
“I have a SIG.”
Axel snorted a laugh and held up his hands.
Whip rolled his eyes and stopped beside a moss-covered cedar but continued to listen.
Nothing but the woods answered back.
Then Axel’s radio chirped.
“Whip? Axel? You copy?” Knox’s voice came through.
He released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and held out a hand.
Axel passed over the radio.
“Copy.”
Static crackled. Then another voice shoved its way through the transmission.
“Give me that damned thing.”
Whip winced, holding Axel’s gaze. Amusement flickered across Axel’s face.
A second later, Boone came on the radio.
“Where the hell are you?”
It wasn’t technically a bellow, but it was close. Their boss worried when one of his marshals went missing—in their case, two—so yelling was kind of mandatory.
Whip glanced toward the cabin hidden among the trees.
“Morning, Boone.”
“Don’t ‘Morning’ me. I’ve had half the county trying to find you idiots since sundown.”
Whip looked at Axel.
The smartass was trying not to smile.
“Miss us?” Axel said.
Boone made a sound that suggested violence anyway.
“Don’t poke the bear,” Whip mouthed, squinting at him.
