Betrayal (21 page)

Shit. She was going to try something. If this guy was good enough, fast enough, Susana was going to get hurt.

A woman stumbled through the tent door. “What’s going on?” she demanded. She had red hair and wore flimsy expedition clothes that were all look and no function, but would look good on camera.

It was the assistant. Jacie.

The soldier holding Susana turned his head toward the door, startled by Jacie’s appearance. “I thought Paco had dragged you back to the mess tent,” he growled. “Get out of here, woman. This is no longer your concern.”

His grip on the knife loosened.

Susana leaned back, forcing the man’s torso to take her weight. Then her elbows jerked. The man screamed high-pitched like a girl, dropping the knife as his hands went between his knees.

Susana rolled toward the door, knocking into Jacie’s legs and toppling the woman to the ground. Jacie’s alarmed shriek was answered by Susana’s furious snarl.

Leaving the two women to fight it out, Kai knelt beside the knife man. He was no threat now. He lay on his back, hands covering his family jewels, writhing in pain.

“Who hired you?” Kai demanded.

The man shook his head.

Kai stood, raised his foot and pressed it lightly over the man’s crotch. The man’s face paled.

“I swear, I don’t know who hired us.” But his eyes cut over to where the women were fighting.

Ah, shit. Jacie. This was going to devastate Susana.

“What was your mission?” he asked.

“To retrieve the woman, dead or alive. Or just her abdomen if she died and body parts got separated.”

The image of Susana bloody and missing limbs condensed Kai’s fury into a cold, deadly intent. “Where were you supposed to take her?”

“Belém. A warehouse.”

After a few more questions, Kai determined the soldier had nothing more useful to say, so he knocked him out. The women were still kicking and biting and screaming at one another.

“Traitor…bitch…”

Kai shook his head, mouth quirking up at one corner. Susana had apparently lost her ability for creative curses.

He hopped out of the way as they rolled by. Then he saw where they were headed and jumped forward, trying to get a hand on one of the women and stop their momentum.

Too late. They slammed into the table holding the radio. Someone’s leg tangled in the wires and a moment later, both battery and radio crashed to the floor.

The radio went dark.

Shit. He hoped Ryker had received his message.

Keeping one eye on the cat fight, he stripped the mercenaries of their weapons and radios, then tied the men using some spare cable he found in a corner.

By the time he was done, Susana sat on Jacie’s lower back. The woman’s face pressed into the floor and Susana held Jacie’s arms high above her back.

Ouch. He knew from experience how painful that position was. He rolled his still tender shoulder. If Susana wasn’t careful, she’d dislocate Jacie’s shoulder. Although, given the furious expression on Susana’s face, she probably wouldn’t care.

Susana tossed her hair back. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and her left eye was already swelling. Nail scratches ran down her cheeks like tribal marks.

She looked wild and fierce. A surge of lust roared through Kai with such power, his knees almost buckled. He sucked in a breath of air.
Not now, dammit!
They weren’t safe yet.

“Kai, do you have something I can tie her with?”

Another deep breath, and he managed to get himself under control. “Yeah.” He passed her some cabling. But after he helped Susana tie Jacie’s wrists and ankles, he couldn’t stop himself. He kissed her.

It was a harder kiss than the one Susana had given him earlier, but not nearly as strong or as deep as he wanted. Still, the flare of heat in her eyes and the way her hands jerked, as if she’d started to reach for him then stopped herself, was gratifying.

“Later,” he breathed in her ear. “Right now you have a traitor to question.”

She licked her lips and he groaned. He started to lower his mouth for just one more taste, but she moved away, focused already on Jacie.

He bit back his disappointment. Susana took Jacie’s right arm and he took her left and together they pulled the woman to her feet and dragged her over to the lone chair in the tent.

Susana’s eyes widened as she spotted the trussed-up mercenaries, both still unconscious.

Kai glanced over at Mr. Family Jewels and noticed that there was now a red stain on his crotch. “Jesus Christ, what did you do to the guy, Susana?”

The smile she shot him was pure feminine evil. She walked over to where she’d been held captive and picked something up from the ground.

“I stuck this into his groin.”

He closed the distance between them. Shit. No wonder the guy was bleeding. On her palm lay a long, thin, needle-sharp pick. “Ouch.” He picked it up and saw blood on it. “What do you normally use it for?”

“Getting dirt out of tiny crevices. It was sitting on my trunk and I thought it would make a good weapon, so I brought it with me.”

He nodded. “Good thinking. Just remind me not to piss you off again.”

She grinned. Then she turned to Jacie and her good humor evaporated.

Jacie stared defiantly up at Susana, her dark green eyes glittering with insane fury. Kai took a step back, giving Susana the field, but staying close enough to offer his support if necessary.

“I saw you being filmed earlier,” Susana said. Her tone was flat, completely unlike her usually warm, passionate voice.

“How long have you been planning to step into my shoes?” Kai heard the underlying note of pain in Susana’s voice and wished he could take this hurt away from her. “Were you the one behind the sabotage? The tracking device? Did you push me off the boat?”

Jacie tossed her head and shot Kai a coy glance out of the corner of her eyes. “Of course.”

T
rying not to show how much she was reeling emotionally, Susana searched Jacie’s eyes for some sign of the generous friend she’d loved like a sister. She found only cold ambition and madness.

How had she been so blind?

“You intended for me to die?” The anger from their fight simmered at the edges of Susana’s consciousness, barely held back by the need to understand why.

“Of course.” Jacie’s sly, satisfied smile sent a chill slithering down Susana’s spine.

There wasn’t a trace of remorse anywhere in Jacie’s eyes or expression. The hairs at the back of Susana’s neck stood on end and she was suddenly very glad she had Kai at her back.

This Jacie was capable of things Susana didn’t want to think about.

“Why?” Susana asked.

“Oh, you mean besides the fact that I’ve been waiting years for you to get out of my way? Money, of course. My contact offered me a huge payoff if I made sure he got the microchip first. But how much more satisfying to make you run scared back to civilization.” Jacie sat up straighter in the chair and tried to bring her arms in front of her, but the cables binding her wrists restricted her movement. She frowned, stuck her lip out in a pout, and glanced at Kai as if she thought he’d feel sorry for her and release her.

The woman’s lack of fear wasn’t normal. Nor was the way she jiggled her chest, trying to get Kai’s attention.

From behind her, Susana heard Kai smother a laugh behind a cough.

“It was my decision to hire the private soldiers to kill you,” Jacie said. She rocked her head side to side, preening. “The general is one of my lovers. I knew he had enough contacts that we could take the microchip for ourselves and sell it to the highest bidder.”

“And the tracking device?”

“Oooh, very cloak-and-dagger wasn’t it?” Jacie purred. “I’m surprised you found it. My lover gave it to me. I shot it into you using a blowgun the first day you were here.”

As much as Susana wanted to turn away from the hatred burning in Jacie’s eyes, she wouldn’t show the woman any weakness. “What story did you tell the rest of the crew to explain my disappearance?”

Jacie’s pitying smile made Susana want to throttle her.

“I told them the network had decided to replace you as the show’s host in favor of me.” Jacie sighed dramatically. “Poor Susana, hiding a diagnosis of clinical depression for years. When you got the news about being replaced, you committed the sabotage, determined not to let me ruin your career. But when I caught you, you committed suicide by jumping into the river.” Jacie had the gall to bat her eyelashes. “And oh, how convenient. The fishing boat had been sabotaged. By the time the boat was repaired and a search party was ready to go, you were already in the hands of the mercenaries.”

Susana clamped her molars on her tongue to stop herself from asking why no one had questioned Jacie’s tale. Why no one seemed to have mourned her. She was afraid she wouldn’t like the answer.

“I even forged a letter from the head of the network supporting my claim that you had been replaced, so when the television crew arrived, they never questioned why I was in charge. Because of the production deadline, they didn’t hesitate when I insisted we continue filming the very next day.” She tossed her head so her hair flipped back over her right shoulder. “The rest of the crew never even missed you. Not a single sad eye among them,” Jacie smirked.

“And because I’m such a better host, the viewers will never miss you.” The malice in Jacie’s eyes speared through Susana, chilling every cell it hit. Susana instinctively took a step back. “Finally, I’m getting the fame I deserve.”

“Excuse me?”

Jacie’s lip curled up. “No one looks at the rest of us poor archaeologists and offers us television contracts. They only want Susana. Beautiful Susana. Smart Susana. The golden girl of the archaeological world. Not even charges of black marketeering stuck to you, and Elena made an excellent witness.”

Spots danced before Susana’s eyes as her rage roared back. “You were behind Elena’s charges?” She’d spent five hellish months being questioned by the police and by Interpol, being trashed by the press, because of Jacie? Jacie, who at the time had given Susana a shoulder to cry on?

“Of course it was me. Elena wasn’t smart enough to think up the idea, even though she resented you as much as I do.” Jacie laughed. “At least she hurt your feelings, didn’t she? Remember all those tears?”

“You traitorous, lying, conniving, whore-bitch!” Susana lunged toward Jacie, fingers aiming for the woman’s eyes. But Kai wrapped his arm around her shoulders from behind, trapping her arms to her sides and pulling her to a stop.

“Easy,” Kai murmured. “We need her conscious to answer the rest of our questions.”

Susana shot a murderous glare at the smirking Jacie. She so wanted to fight again, but Kai was right.

She sucked a deep breath into her lungs and exhaled slowly. Four more breaths, and enough tension had left her that she relaxed her fists one finger at a time.

“That’s it, sweetheart. You’ve already done enough damage to her. She’s going to be hurting for days,” Kai said.

Yeah, he was right. Jacie’s normally perfect appearance was ruined. Deep red scratches marred the normally flawless skin on her face. Her lips were swollen and bloody. The skin around both eyes was bruised.

Susana’s lips quirked into a satisfied smile. Jacie would freak once she looked in a mirror and saw the hunk of hair missing from just above her left temple. And the bloody rips in her expensive clothes.

“Who told you about the microchip?” Kai demanded.

Well, that just made her feel small. She’d been so focused on Jacie’s intent to kill her, she’d forgotten that there was a bigger picture.

“Mmm…now there’s a man of culture. My other lover. Tall. Brown, curly hair. Looks straight out of
GQ
. You danced with him at the fundraiser last month, but it was me he took to bed.”

Kai glanced at Susana. “Ring any bells?”

Susana shook her head. She’d danced with a lot of men that night. “Did he give you a name? A reason?”

“Oh, he called himself Antonio, but I doubt that was his real name.” Jacie’s smile turned sexual. “He claimed the microchip inside of you belongs to the American government, and that you stole it. He claimed he needed to get the chip back because it contains data critical to national security.” She rolled her eyes. “So very patriotic of him. But I knew that if he wanted the data so badly, there had to be other people who would pay even higher for it.”

“You’ve lost everything, Jacie,” Susana sneered. “The potential money. The fame. You’ll never—”

“Tomás, are you there?” a male voice squawked from one of the two-way pagers Kai had removed from the mercenaries. “A black military helicopter is heading your way very fast. Get out of there now, brother. They just tried to sink us with an explosive charge.”

“Shit. Grab your pack,” Kai ordered. The urgency in his voice propelled Susana across the tent to where she’d dropped her backpack.

Kai pulled his knife and took two steps toward Jacie. Susana felt a juvenile thrill as the other woman finally showed terror.

But Kai only sliced the cables at Jacie’s ankles, then the ones at her wrists.

“Run!”

“What? Why?” Jacie sputtered.

Kai cut the mercenaries free next. Then, knife still in hand, he scooped up his pack, grabbed Susana by the arm, and bolted for the door.

“What’s wrong?” Susana gasped, trying to keep up with Kai.

“Helicopter’s almost on us. Can’t you hear it?”

Um, no, she couldn’t. Not over the sound of their pounding feet. After several yards he finally let go of her arm and she found a pace that allowed her to stay by his side.

“Head straight into the jungle,” Kai said. “Keep going no matter what happens.”

She did not like the sound of that. “What if they’re friends?” she gasped.

“There hasn’t been enough time for our side to mobilize.” They were next to the mess tent now. Without slowing down, Kai shouted, “The camp is under attack. Run for the trees!”

Susana joined his cry, thinking her crew might respond better to a familiar voice. She was afraid to risk her balance by glancing back over her shoulder, so she sent up a little prayer that her colleagues would obey.