Betrayal (22 page)

As they passed the shower tent, she finally heard a deep thrumming that had all the hairs on her body leaping to atavistic attention. The helicopter!

She lengthened her stride. The jungle seemed no closer, while the helicopter drew nearer until the noise from the rotors pressed against her back like an invisible wall.

Just a few more feet. She put every bit of effort into breaching the distance between her and the trees, then gave in to fear and leapt the last foot.

Yet even within the shelter of the jungle, she still felt hunted. Caught up in the urgent need to get away, she panicked at the slow pace forced on them by the increased darkness. She turned and looked back at camp, hoping she’d see her crew evacuating.

But there wasn’t a person in sight, not even Jacie or the mercenaries.

No!

Susana started back toward camp.

“Stop,” Kai ordered. “Susana, there’s nothing you can do about your crew now. We have to keep moving if we’re going to stay alive.”

As if to prove Kai right, the sound of the helicopter became an engulfing roar. Then two headlights rose over the tree line, following the road into camp from the river.

The desire to save the people she’d considered her family warred with her need to stay alive. She took a step away from Kai.

The roar of the helicopter was punctured by the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire.

Someone screamed.

Her crew. “No!”

“Susana, we have to move!” Beside her, Kai switched on a flashlight.

Susana kept her eyes on camp, praying for someone to leave. Finally, she saw Jacie race out from between two tents. The helicopter swept in behind her, and like a slow-motion scene in a movie, Jacie’s body arched back, then fell to the ground.

The helicopter zoomed on, heading straight for Susana.

She turned and sprinted after Kai.

S
hit. Kai hadn’t expected the helicopter to be a military gunship.

He heard the impact of bullets tracing a path in front of the helicopter. The bird was close enough now that the rotor wash blew leaves off the surrounding trees and molded their clothing to their bodies.

Bullets slapped into the trees behind him.

He glanced back and felt a surge of relief to find Susana at his heels. But the helicopter was almost to the edge of the jungle. Dammit, if it didn’t turn away soon, they were dead. A few more yards and those bullets would find them.

Or the helicopter would crash into the trees, creating a fireball that would burn them alive.

Come on, come on, pull up, dammit.

He grabbed Susana, ready to throw her on the ground and protect her with his body, when the helicopter veered up and to the left.

Thank you, God
.

But shit, whoever was piloting that thing was crazy. The camp barely had enough cleared space to allow the helicopter to swoop in, shoot, then pull up before hitting the trees.

The pilot had waited until the last possible minute to retreat, but Kai suspected the helicopter would be back.

He led Susana up a slight embankment into even deeper tree cover. The narrow beam from his flashlight proved a meager guide in the thick darkness, but using any light at all put them in danger. Remove the tape covering the lens would give the helicopter a larger beacon to follow.

They’d only run a hundred yards or so, when someone back at camp started screaming. The helicopter zoomed overhead, accompanied by a loud whoosh.

Kai threw Susana on the ground and dove on top of her just as a flash of fiery light illuminated the woods. After a minute, he spared a look behind him.

Shit. A wall of fire surged toward them.

Kai leapt to his feet, dragging Susana with him. He grabbed her hand and ran full out, not caring where they went, as long as they outran the flames.

The smoky air was sticky with the scent of burning resin, and underneath that the sickly chemical smell of an accelerant. Heat expanded out from the burning trees, pushing at their backs as if someone had opened an oven door behind them.

What the fuck were the idiots doing? The chip wouldn’t do them any good if it melted.

Susana pulled his hand and turned right. Kai didn’t know what she’d seen, but he trusted her jungle knowledge a hell of a lot more than his own. A few feet later the ground dipped. They skidded down the sandy slope and splashed into a shallow stream.

Susana turned left. The pull of the calf-deep water hampered their progress, but at least the air here was less smoky.

Without the accelerant to fuel it, the fire behind them slowed, having to work harder to burn the water-dense vegetation. The glow from the flames seemed farther away now, leaving them barely enough light to see by.

When the air finally cooled around them, Kai pulled back on Susana’s arm, slowing her to a stop.

“What?” she asked.

“Hold on a sec.” He listened. If the helicopter was still out there, maybe scanning the jungle with infrared, staying within the above-body-temperature air closer to the fire would hide their heat signal.

Angry birds squawked their alarm and animals roared in fear, but he didn’t hear the thrumming of helicopter blades.

“Okay. Keep going.”

She nodded and continued wading upriver. But after a few minutes her steps began to drag.

Dammit, they both needed to rest, yet the farther away from her camp they moved, the better their chance of survival.

Susana tripped and went down to her knees, Kai set her back on her feet and conceded they had to stop soon. He removed her backpack and slung it across his chest. The fact that she didn’t protest proved her level of exhaustion.

They’d moved far enough from the fire to need the flashlight. The pale light shimmered across Susana’s face, illuminating the blank, slack look of a person in shock.

His anger flared back to life, coupled with a fierce protectiveness. He wanted to pull her into his arms and lend her his strength. Instead, he hooked her fingers into the rear pocket of his backpack, then continued wading upstream.

With each step he took, the need for retribution burned through his veins. He wanted to turn around and confront their enemies. To kill as Susana’s friends had been killed. His muscles trembled with the need to act. A bellow of rage made it up to his throat before he managed to contain it.

No.
He was not one of Nevsky’s monsters. He believed in law and justice.

He dug the fingernails of his right hand into his palm. His left hand tightened around the flashlight as he reached deep inside himself and dragged sanity out from its hiding place. Used it to bludgeon his savage instincts back into their cage.

He had to stay in control. Be calm.

Susana needed him.

Slowly, his anger faded. But the fight to master his temper left him as drained as an attack of malaria.

Chapter 18

R
afe lay on his back and blinked up at the hellish shadows dancing across the jungle canopy. Where was he?

Reddish light. Smoke. The crackle and pop of living things exploding. His mind struggled to make sense of his surroundings. To remember…

Fire. Helicopter.

Right. He’d been moving around the perimeter of the camp, intending to intercept his targets, the man and the woman, when the helicopter attacked. The targets dashed into the jungle. He’d followed for several minutes, the light from the fire making his job easy. But the helicopter had returned, firing into the jungle. Something had slammed into his shoulder. He’d tripped. Fallen. And…then what? He must have blacked out, because he couldn’t remember.

What was he supposed to do next? Wait for orders? Or go after the targets?

Sweet Jesus, he couldn’t remember past the pain in his head.

He tried to sit up, but the pain throttled him into oblivion.

“S
top,” Kai whispered.

He’d heard a sound behind them. Like…

There. A wheezing,
human
cough.

Someone was following them. Ten minutes ago, rapids had forced them to leave the river, entering this clearing dappled by faint spots of moonlight.

Kai reached out for Susana’s hand, but met empty air. He swung his flashlight up and back.

Shock body-slammed him.

Susana stood three yards behind him. A man’s arm encircled her throat, his forearm shoving her chin up. His other hand held a pistol to her temple.

Kai recognized the more intelligent soldier from the communications tent, and cursed himself for being careless. His M-4 was strapped to the top of his backpack. He hadn’t expected pursuit, not by foot.

He’d assumed everyone died in the fire.

What a friggin’ amateurish mistake.

The man snarled a demand in Portuguese. Kai didn’t bother trying to translate. His focus was on Susana’s terrified eyes as she clawed at the man’s hands, trying to break his grip.

Trying to breathe.

The man tightened his grip, cutting off Susana’s air. She sagged against him.

Rage erupted within Kai. He pushed a button on his flashlight, triggering a laser pointer. With a flick of his wrist, the light shone directly in the mercenary’s eyes.

The man cried out and turned his head away, letting his arm fall to his side.

Susana dropped to her knees, then onto her stomach. Kai could hear her gulping for air. And suddenly he was very glad he didn’t have his weapon in hand.

The mercenary took several stumbling, circular steps. His hands rubbed at his eyes, as if the pressure could bring his vision back.

Kai lifted Susana up and set her on her feet. “Can you run?”

She nodded.

“Good.” He planted a quick, hard kiss on her mouth. “Go!” He pushed her in the direction they’d been heading. “I’ll catch up with you later. Don’t stop.”

The mercenary used the sound of Kai’s voice as a beacon and charged.

Kai met him head on.

Even blinded, the mercenary was a strong, fierce opponent. He fought dirty.

Good. Because Kai wanted to fight. Wanted to feel his hand strike bone. Wanted to hear the man grunt in pain when Kai slammed a knee into his kidney.

God, he felt so alive, so powerful, he barely noticed the pain from his opponent’s punches.

Two years ago, he wouldn’t have been able to hold his own in the fight, despite self-defense training. His assignments had been in labs, where all fighting was verbal. But after Nevsky’s lab burned down, he’d been hunted by the government’s top agents. To avoid detection, Kai had hidden in the roughest places on earth. He’d quickly learned how to defend himself, and win, against men who fought to kill.

He dodged an elbow aimed at his throat. Channeled all his fear and rage through his nerves and muscles. He took a blow to the face that slammed his head against the ground. The mercenary’s hands went around his neck.

Kai let his body go slack, pretending to lose consciousness.

The mercenary eased his grip. Kai brought his hands up inside the man’s arms and swept outward, breaking the man’s hold. Then he grabbed the man’s neck.

The man snatched at Kai’s arms. Tipped his body sideways so they rolled.

Kai grappled for a secure hold. Feinted.

The man fell for it, and Kai pinned him on his stomach.

Kai straddled the mercenary. His knife was at the man’s throat, although he didn’t remember pulling it.

“Where’s your friend?” Kai demanded.

“Ran…back…to river…”

“Why did you come after us?”

“Woman…dead…worth money…”

“Wrong answer, asshole.” Kai’s knife jerked, slitting the man’s throat.

“Kai! Kai stop. What are you doing?”

Kai growled. His knife hand whipped around, slashing toward the intruder.

Susana’s scream cut through the murderous haze filling his head. She jumped back just fast enough to avoid being cut.

Kai was trapped by the fear in her eyes.

Trapped, and humiliated. She was his to protect. Yet he’d almost cut her.

The savage inside him tucked its tail between its legs and slunk back into its cage.

His fingers opened. The knife dropped to the jungle floor. “Jesus. I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

Kai reached for her, but she shook her head and stepped away. Her gaze flicked between him and the mercenary.

Even in the stark shadows cast by the beam of the flashlight, he knew she could see the man’s blood streaming out of the wound. “Susana, I—”

“Can we move out? Or…do you…want to bury the body?”

Dammit, her voice was thin and shaky. She’d already seen Jacie’s death tonight. She didn’t need to be reminded of the violence he was capable of.

He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her everything was going to be okay. He’d never hurt her. But why would she believe him?

He picked up his knife, cleaned it on the back of the man’s shirt, then re-sheathed it. “We’ll leave the body,” he said as he stood up. “If his partner is out there, we need to keep moving, not waste time on a burial.”

Keeping her eyes averted, Susana nodded.

He retrieved his flashlight and started to walk past her into the jungle. Helpless, frustrated anger tightened his throat and squeezed like a fist around his heart. When he was beside her, he paused. “This is who I am, Susana,” he said in a low, furious voice he barely recognized. “A killer. This knife isn’t for show. I kill to protect and I kill to avenge.” The words came out in a rush, forced by a sudden need to expose all his darkness. To just get it over with. Susana would push him away, but that was okay. She lived in the spotlight. He lived in the shadows.

They had no future together.

“The men who murdered my family?” he growled. “I hunted them down, slit their throats and scalped them. Just like they did to my parents and the twins.”

He risked looking over at her and saw her eyes on him, wide with shock and denial. Her lack of acceptance only pissed him off further. “I will never hurt you, but if anyone threatens you I will kill again. Count on it.”

He didn’t wait for reply. Just stalked into the jungle.

T
hey needed to make camp. Kai pushed forward through the shallow stream, Susana trudging like a drone behind him, so exhausted she didn’t even lift her feet out of the water. He wanted to tell her it was more work to push forward through the water that way than to raise her feet, but he was afraid to speak. He didn’t want to give her a reason to focus on him and remember what he’d done.