Betrayal (23 page)

What he wanted was a safe place for her to crash.

He halted, listening for sounds of pursuit. Still nothing. The dead man had probably told the truth, then. His buddy had run the other way. Which meant it was safe to make camp.

At the next break in the trees, Kai led them out of the river and up a shallow bank. When the trees finally thinned out around a small clearing, he stopped. They were far enough from the water not to be bothered by animals out for their nightly drink.

“Let me set up the hammock,” Kai said.

“No. I can help.” Without meeting his eyes, Susana picked up the hammock and walked over to a tree.

Her fear kicked him in the solar plexus.

Dammit, he wasn’t dangerous to her. He just…

Stop.

You’re both exhausted. Tomorrow you can make her understand.

Yeah, but understand what? That he’d killed without making a conscious decision? How could he expect her not to be afraid when he wasn’t in control of himself?

Shit.

He jerked the trip-wire system out of his backpack and strung it around the perimeter of the clearing. When he was finished, he turned toward Susana, expecting her to already be asleep.

But the flashlight showed her standing in front of the tree, the hammock dangling from her hand. And, dammit, she was shuddering.

He reached her side in two seconds.

“Susana? What’s wrong?”

She turned to him, her face crumpled in grief.

“Ah, sweetheart.”

He held out his arms. With a low keening cry, she rushed into his embrace, burrowing against him like she wanted to climb inside. Which was right where he wanted her. Tucked behind his heart so no one could ever hurt her again.

“They’re all dead,” she sobbed. “Because of me.”

He closed his arms more tightly around her and rested his cheek against her forehead. “Shh. Don’t think about it. I’ve got you.” Her whole body bucked on a sob so violent, she almost threw off his hug. He shifted his body, entwining his leg with hers and snugging her more securely to his body with an arm at her shoulders and hip.

She tightened her arms around his back and pressed closer.

Damn, but she felt perfect against him.

Mine.

For once Kai agreed with his primitive instincts. Susana was his to protect.

Just like that, all the dark, powerful emotions he’d thought satisfied when he killed the mercenary, reappeared. He burned to make Susana’s enemies bleed for scaring her. For making her feel a guilt she’d carry the rest of her life. And for allowing her to see him at his worst.

He nearly howled in frustration.

It wasn’t safe to leave her and hunt down the men responsible. Which meant her enemies would continue to live.

For now.

S
usana couldn’t sleep.

Maybe half an hour ago, Kai had tucked her into her hammock like a child, then settled the mosquito net above her. Despite feeling physically and emotionally drained, she’d been staring into the dark ever since, shivering with fear and fighting back panic.

Night under the shield of the canopy was completely devoid of light. The darkness pressed heavily on her, making it difficult to breathe.

And it was too quiet.

Usually, forests had myriad night sounds. But tonight the critters were silent, perhaps scared away by the fire. Without the comforting harmony of chirping insects and rustling leaves, she felt isolated. Terrified of what waited beyond the boundaries of her hammock.

Up to now, she’d never considered herself afraid of the dark.

And what did that mean, anyway? If you’d asked her yesterday, she would have said being afraid of the dark really meant someone was afraid of the bad things that can happen in the dark. Such as being attacked.

But now she understood. The truth was that the darkness—this utter lack of light that denied her the ability to know where she was in relation to her surroundings—was something to fear in and of itself. Because with the darkness came the certainty of her own lack of power.

Robbed of the comfort of seeing, she remembered the look of triumph on Kai’s face as he’d knelt over the dead mercenary. The way the blood had…

No.

Her mind shifted away from that image, but immediately pictured Jacie as she fell, shot by the helicopter. Imagined she could see the faces of her crew as they died, flesh burning, voices screaming. Swore she could sense men creeping through the trees, trying to find her. Waiting for a chance to kill her.

She pressed her fists to the rims of her eye sockets.
Stop it!

If anyone threatens you I will kill again. Count on it.
Kai would protect her. But what if something happened to him? How did she even know he was still out there, guarding her?

The only way to fight the fear was to use light. And to break the silence with talk.

But only two light sticks remained and Kai’s flashlight was losing power. He’d also ordered her not to speak until morning, unless it was an emergency. He didn’t want anyone locating their position.

Riding the edge of hysteria, she wondered if he’d consider her potential loss of sanity an emergency.

Ashamed at her weakness, she bit her lip until she tasted blood.
C’mon girl, you’re stronger than that.
She could keep silent. Ignore her desperate need for Kai to say something. Say
anything
. Heck, she’d be satisfied if he simply recited the alphabet. She just needed a reminder she wasn’t alone.

She shifted position again. Her eye caught movement off to her left and she jerked upright, banging her head on the mosquito net. A hard male hand against her lips stopped her from crying out.

Oh, God, they’d found her!

“Shh, sweetheart, it’s only me.” Kai’s voice was a barely audible thrum against her ear.

Everything within her relaxed. She nodded and he moved his hand away.

“Can’t sleep?”

“No.” She tried to be as quiet as he was, but to her ears, her whisper sounded like a shout.

“Here.” The hammock tipped slightly as he raised the mosquito net. She heard a soft crack, then he passed her a glowing light stick.

“Keep your hand shaded around this. Or better yet, hide it under your shirt so you only see a faint glow.”

“But…that leaves only one.”

“We’ll be extracted soon. We’ll be fine.” The mosquito net settled back into place and she sensed Kai moving away.

She bit her lip to keep from crying out in disappointment.

What did you expect? That he’d hold you?

She opened her shirt and tucked the light inside. Yeah, fool that she was, she wanted his arms around her again.

She didn’t cry often, but when she did, it always left her feeling alone and vulnerable. Having Kai’s body pressed against hers during her earlier crying fit had staved off the loneliness. She’d felt safe. Cherished.

The protectiveness of his embrace had buried her fear. Had broken through the shock of seeing Kai slit that man’s throat.

But apparently, his earlier show of comfort had been a one-shot deal. Holding her had probably been damage control. A way to make sure she didn’t have a noisy meltdown and draw the attention of the mercenaries.

She knew better than to believe that if a person offered you comfort, your emotions were safe with them. Jacie had given her many a reassuring hug over the years, but all along, she’d been plotting to destroy Susana.

Now she was dead.

My fault.
Tears burned down her cheeks and pooled in the corners of her lips. If only her father had never put the damn microchip inside her. If only they hadn’t returned to her camp. If only…

Depressed by the direction of her thoughts, Susana concentrated on blanking her mind and focusing only on the light. After a long while her mind calmed and her fear receded.

Well, a little bit, anyway. She was still aware of the darkness crouching just outside the reach of the light, waiting for its chance to pounce.

Get a grip, girl.

This sudden fear of the dark was ridiculous. She should be grateful to it for hiding her from the men in the helicopter.

That’s it. Think positive.

She tried to picture holding a massive party after the chip was removed. There’d be a live dance band belting out pulsing Latin rhythms. Streamers and balloons and bright, cheerful clusters of flowers would decorate the room.

All her friends…

The vision popped. Too many people she cared about would be missing.

Including Kai.

T
he fiery light had diminished to a warm glow when Rafe next regained consciousness. This time he managed to sit up. When the world didn’t tilt or whirl, he worked his way to his feet.

The mission.

He had to complete the mission. Not remembering exactly what the mission was, he nonetheless checked to make sure his weapons were still in place.

Check.

But he couldn’t locate his night vision goggles. The fire’s glow made it too bright to use them now, but he’d need them when he walked deeper into the jungle.

Dammit, what was he supposed to do?

He glanced around him and finally spotted the goggles hanging from a bush to his right. As he reached for the strap of the goggles, a long-forgotten voice cracked the shell holding his memory.

Get the lead out, Andros! Rangers don’t sit around on their butts. Grab your gear and move out.

“Yes, sir, Sergeant Miller, sir!” Rafe snapped to attention, only to realize his sergeant wasn’t there. He wasn’t back in the jungle of Costa Rica with his former Ranger team.

A different voice echoed through the darkness in his brain.
Forget who you were.

An older man wearing a white lab coat tightened the chains holding Rafe to the wall of his cell. Rafe flinched, trying to escape the pain that invaded every muscle and speared through his brain.

Obedience is the only reality. Stop remembering, do as we order, and the pain will stop.

Rafe put his hands to his head. God, his brain felt like it was tearing apart.

He didn’t know who he was. What he was supposed to be doing. He…

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He opened it and listened. Each word brought a higher level of calm. “Understood,” he said.

For several minutes after he ended the call, he stared blindly into the night.

He knew his mission again. Find the woman. Kill her escort. Kill anyone else who got in the way.

Bring the woman out alive…or dead.

Some closed-off part of his brain struggled to tell him something. There was a reason he shouldn’t move forward. There was…

Rafe shook his head.

No. Complete the mission. Then there’d be no more pain.

Rafe took a step. Then another.

Within four steps, the thrill of the hunt overtook him and he ran.

Chapter 19

Sunday, Night

Amazon Jungle

K
ai stood next to Susana’s hammock, watching her nose scrunch up and her lips purse as she slept. The light stick added an otherworldly radiance to her face that highlighted the many cuts and bruises on her skin.

She’d never seemed more precious to him.

Her hand moved restlessly along the edge of the hammock, batting at the mosquito net.

It was hot under the protective covering. The tiny holes didn’t allow much air to circulate.

Knowing he shouldn’t, he knelt down beside her and slipped his hand underneath the net. He captured her fingers in his own and was surprised at the strength with which she grabbed on.

And how the contact settled her down.

One thing he’d learned from nights spent awake, guarding her until he was forced to take a few hours’ rest, was that in sleep, as awake, Susana was rarely still. Sometimes only her lips moved, but moments of complete immobility indicated something was deeply wrong with her.

Odd, how quickly he’d come to treasure her idiosyncrasies.

He sighed. She was part of his mission. He wasn’t supposed to like her. He certainly wasn’t supposed to be haunted by how it had felt to lie naked with her. Or to be so desperate to have her again that the only thing stopping him from waking her was respect for her exhaustion.

That…and the fact that he’d viciously killed a man in front of her. When she woke up, she’d be afraid of him again.

Yet a little voice demanded that he ignore her condition and take her anyway. Kai turned away, sickened by the constant struggle to control the violence within him. Knowing that until he figured out a way to rid himself of this savagery, he had no business getting involved with Susana.

Sunday, Night

Boa Vista, Brazil

“T
ell me again what happened,” Mark Tonelli demanded. He couldn’t believe the story the mercenary told him. It made no sense. Yet the man had no reason to lie.

“Like I said before, we followed your orders and split up. One team went into the woman’s camp. The rest of us stayed onboard the gunboat.” The man paused. So far, what he’d said matched his previous words. This next part was the unbelievable part. If the man was lying, this was where the description would change.

“But then a fucking helicopter gunship swooped in. It dropped an explosive charge next to us that nearly sank our boat, then continued on toward the dig. A couple of minutes later, flames shot up from the jungle.”

Mark hated the sweat pooling in the creases of his palms almost as much as he hated the fear that prickled through him, making his skin itch. Was Susana dead? That beautiful, vibrant woman burned to death? The chip incinerated?

Dammit, the attack made no sense. Mark paced back and forth in his hotel room, feeling trapped. He needed to know if Susana had survived. He needed to make certain this situation didn’t backfire on him.

“The man, the one with the woman, he told everyone to run when he heard our warning on the radio. My brother ran back to the river,” the mercenary continued. “He thinks the woman and the man escaped into the jungle. That’s the direction they were running.”

Susana was alive! Mark stopped his pacing, quivering in anticipation. “Go on.”

“That’s it. The helicopter made another pass, fired into the jungle, then took off. The helicopter shot your contact, the assistant, as she tried to escape. The rest of the crew were tied up in the mess tent and burned to death.”