“Expensive tastes.”
“It’s not about wanting to spend money.” Maximus tilted his head slightly. He’d thought he’d heard a squeal in the distance. “I know what it’s like to not want to have to worry about anyone else.”
Selena gave him a concerned look before shaking her head. “By yourself?”
“Not necessarily, but at least with people I trust.”
“It’s hard to find people you trust.”
“Exactly.”
The woman continued to puzzle him. There was an ease he felt when talking with her, like he knew what she was going to say. The previous night’s course change shocked him, and their time together in the forest, looking for something suspicious felt far too much like what Tiberius had called it earlier: a date.
Maximus glanced to his side as a bird flew off a branch. The same ease Selena brought with her was feeding into a growing discomfort over lying to her. Telling her the truth about his identity and the hybrids was insane and dangerous for both of them. He needed to focus on the mission.
It was frustrating and darkly ironic. When the Horatius Group and Phoenix Corps were hunting hybrids, both the Luna Lodge hybrids and the Alpha Squad hybrids needed to be careful when they were away from their bases. With the destruction of the Group, that should have changed. They shouldn’t have had to hide their eyes and conceal their identities.
The entire world knew about the hybrids and judged humanity as wrong for the way they’d treated them, but that didn’t change the fact that pockets of so-called normal people remained who would threaten hybrid freedom and lives. It could be years before Maximus could be honest with random feisty redheads he met.
A snapping branch yanked him out of his thoughts. It’d come from the same direction as the squeal, but it was closer. He didn’t have a good sense of the distance in the unfamiliar terrain, but he’d be a fool to ignore it.
Selena’s car was miles away at this point, so sending her off to escape a potential ambush wasn’t a good plan. Without his phone working, he couldn’t contact his backup without being too obvious. Whatever was approaching Maximus and Selena was coming from the front, meaning Tiberius and the others were farther away from the potential threat.
Maximus sniffed at the air. Squeals and quick movement might mark a Glycon, one of the bestial mutants deployed by the Horatius Group against the hybrids. The Phoenix Corps were never fond of them, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t stoop to using them. There were chemicals that could be used to conceal the monsters’ scent as well.
Taking chances with his own life was one thing. He wouldn’t take chances with hers. Explanations could come later. They needed to prepare.
He reached over and placed his hand on Selena’s shoulder. She stopped and turned her head toward him, blinking in confusion.
Maximus pointed to a nearby tree covered in orange-red flowers. “How good are you at climbing? I don’t have time to explain, but you need to get up there fast.”
Chapter Twelve
Heart pounding, Selena sprinted toward the tree and leapt onto the nearest branch. She scrambled up the trunk with speed that surprised herself. She wasn’t sure why she was so afraid. Maximus spoke quietly when he asked the question, but there was something in his eyes, concern, fear for her. When a man like that was afraid, there had to be a good reason.
She sat on a thick branch, swallowing and wondering what the hell was going on. He’d not explained anything before she was running without a thought. It was like she knew he wanted her to be safe more than anything. She appreciated that, but it also terrified her.
“Wait,” Selena called out, trying to feebly keep her voice down but also make sure he could hear given she was now yards above him in a tree. “What’s going on? Are their mobsters coming? Is this the part where you tell them you won’t go through with the plan because of how beautiful I am?”
Maximus looked up at her with a grin. “I keep telling you…”
“You’re not a mobster,” Selena finished. Her cheeks heated. “Wait. Did I totally overreact to what you were saying? Was this supposed to be some cutesy game?”
Her stomach knotted. If she’d humiliated herself, she might have to slink back to the hotel and give up on life.
Maximus’s smiled faded. “No, I’m glad you didn’t spend time arguing.” He dropped his head and spun to face the forest. “Something’s coming. I don’t think it’s a human.”
“I can’t hear anything.”
Selena cupped her hand to her ear and listened. The rainforest wasn’t a quiet place between the background calls of birds and buzz of insects, but she didn’t hear anything that sounded dangerous.
“From what I’ve read, there’s almost nothing dangerous in Hawaiian forests,” she said. “I thought the only thing to worry about was things like sharks. Huh. Did you see a scorpion?”
“There’s always something dangerous, no matter where you are, and whatever’s coming is a lot bigger than a scorpion.” Maximus rolled his shoulders and moved his head back and forth to loosen his neck. He raised his arms and took a fighting stance.
Selena put a hand to her chest, trying to will her heart to calm down. “If it’s that dangerous, shouldn’t you come up here?”
“If it’s what I think it is, then I’ll have a better shot of taking it out if I start on the ground.”
“Are you insane? You think some dangerous wild animal is coming, and you’re going to fight it?”
Selena’s mind reeled as she tried to figure out what it might be. Hawaii wildlife on the land might be less dangerous, but some crazed animal might have escaped from a zoo, but if that was the case, why wasn’t she hearing anything? Maximus couldn’t be that much better at hearing than her.
As if to answer her, something rustled nearby, followed by a grunting
