Betrayal (26 page)

N
iko followed the signal from Rafe’s tracking device through the jungle. Jenna was a comforting presence at his side. With each step he took, the tranquilizer gun strapped to his thigh bounced slightly. He knew it weighed no more than any other gun he’d carried, yet it seemed far heavier. Tranquilizing Rafe would be better than killing him, but the thought of shooting his brother like a rabid dog made him break out in a cold sweat.

It shouldn’t be this hard. Years of undercover work had hardened him. Taught him to lock away all emotion, allowing him to do whatever unsavory action was required to stay alive.

He knew better than to linger on regret. And yet…this was Rafe. His little brother. Every one of Niko’s protective instincts rebelled at the thought of hurting Rafe.

The locator beeped and Niko glanced down. The dot that represented Rafe had disappeared. Niko walked several paces in each direction until the signal was back.

This time they turned east.

Under normal circumstances, a tranq wouldn’t pose a mortal threat. But given the unknown drug cocktail sliding through Rafe’s veins, no one could predict how the SSU’s sedative would react. The sedative might increase Rafe’s aggression when he awoke. It might send him into a coma. Or it could kill him.

The deeper truth was that Niko feared the tranquilizer gun because…hell, it made this nightmare all too real. Put Rafe in the category of a feral beast.

What would he do if his brother didn’t recognize him? And if Rafe attacked him… Niko shivered and rubbed his biceps. Then he reached for Jenna’s hand.

Her sympathetic smile gave him strength. She’d almost killed Kai a few months ago. But she hadn’t.

Niko could only pray that both Kai and Rafe survived the coming confrontation.

R
afe stared at the trail leading around a particularly dense grouping of trees. No matter how many times he tried to move in another direction, he always found himself back on this trail, with no memory of how he’d gotten here.

He growled and swiped at a vine that straggled down from a tree. When the vine bounced back, slapping him in the forehead, his rage erupted. He grabbed the vine and yanked it free of its tree. Then he attacked it with his machete until there was nothing left but scraps.

An angry bellow reverberated through the forest. The ever-diminishing sane part of Rafe recognized the sound as his, and was afraid. These violent outbursts were becoming more frequent.

But before sanity could voice a warning, Rafe was swept away by an urgent need to run. Because his prey was near.

And only with the successful completion of his mission would he find peace.

Yet although he ran for hours, he didn’t overtake his prey. His steroid and gene enhanced body wasn’t tired, but night had fallen.

The scientists had failed to give him the ability to see in the dark. He groped for his night vision goggles. Realized they were gone and released another angry bellow.

He circled, needing something to hit. To destroy. Pulled out a bush. Then another. Tore leaves and branches off of trees.

Finally, his anger cooled and a bit of reason returned. He would have to make camp here. Wait until daylight to continue his hunt.

But tomorrow… Tomorrow he’d corner his prey and tear their throats out.

Chapter 21

K
ai was losing it. If he didn’t get his hands and mouth on Susana soon, he’d slip into the realm of the certifiably insane.

All day she’d been throwing him looks promising heaven tonight. But he’d been good. He’d kept walking instead of doing what he’d wanted, which was to whirl around, grab her and make love to her until they both collapsed.

Half an hour ago, he’d found a place to camp in an empty space hugging the base of a large tree. As he and Susana settled into their routine of setting up her hammock and his ground bed, then preparing a meal, he should have been relaxing. Even though it was only nearing seven o’clock it was already dark here under the canopy. He should be starting to wind down so he could catch up on much-needed sleep.

Instead, he was hyper-aware of every move Susana made. Always focused on her no matter which direction she walked.

He almost laughed. Yeah, there was definitely a part of him that was steel-hard. The urge to get between her legs again had driven away all other appetites.

He choked down his half of an energy bar, but he might as well have been eating dirt for all the attention he paid it. His focus was all on Susana’s lips as she ate her meager meal.

He imagined her taking him into her mouth and nearly ignited with lust.

Shit. He wanted her, but not like an animal. He crumpled the energy bar’s empty wrapper and shoved it into his backpack. “I’m going to make a perimeter check,” he threw out as he beat a retreat. No matter that he’d just set up the alarm system ten minutes ago. If he didn’t get away from Susana now, he was going to push her onto her back and be inside her before she could say hello.

He walked around the small circumference of their camp, but he couldn’t focus on security. All his thoughts were on Susana. He had to do this right. She deserved another gentle seduction. This could be their last time together until…

Hell. Maybe ever. Things would happen fast once they reached Boa Vista. He’d find a phone, put in another call to Ryker, and they’d be on the first plane to Moscow. Once the vial was removed, he’d never see her again.

He paced around the jungle, his flashlight bobbing like his thoughts, until he felt a measure of calm.

When he returned to camp he expected to find Susana in her hammock. Instead, she sat on a fallen tree trunk with the survival blanket wrapped around her.

“Susana, what’s wrong? Are you sick?” He hurried toward her. Dammit, she’d seemed fine all day. Was the wound in her shoulder festering, lighting her up with fever?

He was a yard away when she stood up and released the survival blanket. It drifted to the ground.

Dear God in heaven. She was naked. Looking at him with such heat, his wire-thin control snapped.

He took two steps toward her and then she was in his arms, meeting his starving lips with her own, surging against his body as if she intended to become part of it. Light from his flashlight arched through the darkness as it fell out of his hands.

He was too busy trying to touch every part of her bare skin to care. His palms came to rest on her butt. She made a purr of satisfaction and he lifted her against him.

“Want…your…clothes off…now!” Susana tugged at his shirt.

He lay her down on the fallen survival blanket, stripped, then covered her body with his own. He groaned. Her softness felt like coming home.

His tongue plundered her mouth. She nipped at his lip, drawing blood and startling a growl out of his throat.

His hands skimmed desperately across her body, trying to touch as much of her as possible. She urged him on with low moans and gasped suggestions until she was writhing underneath him.

But he wasn’t satisfied. He wanted full possession of her.

Unwilling to release her mouth, Kai levered his lower body into position. One violent thrust was all it took to sheath himself in her heat. Her legs locked around his hips and her arms encircled his lower back, trapping him right where he wanted to be. Where he needed to be.

But Jesus, this was moving too fast. He had to slow this down.

He pulled out, ignoring Susana protests. But he should have known she wouldn’t roll over and let him take charge. She leaned up and bit the side of his neck. The sharp pain snapped the chains holding down his primitive instincts. He cried out and his vision dimmed as her teeth pierced his skin. God, he’d never before considered pain a turn-on, but he didn’t want her teeth to ever let go.

His hips surged forward. “More,” he growled.

A cry tore out of her throat, yanking her teeth away. Her body nearly threw him off as a powerful orgasm ripped through her, arching her back off the ground.

His heart pounded like a stake driver as he pumped into her. One stroke. Two.

“Susana!” Kai came with such violence his sight dimmed. Then peace filled him and he collapsed on top of her.

When he could breathe again, he shifted position and pulled Susana against him. He put his lips to her throat and nuzzled. Licked. The taste of her was the final comfort he needed.

Just before he dozed off he had the thought that if their enemies didn’t already know where they were, he’d just given them a really loud beacon.

Monday, Night

Over the Branco River

“S
atellite pictures show five heat signals,” the captain of Jamieson’s cleanup crew told his team. The men sat in the back of a transport helicopter, heading down the Branco River. Last night, they’d located the crew of Kaufmann’s men that had firebombed the archeological dig. The men had been too drunk to put up much of a fight and had been captured quickly. Their extraordinary strength and speed had been dulled by alcohol, which acted as a sedative when combined with the drugs already in their systems. The scientists in charge knew the dangers of drinking yet had failed to stop the men. Instead, the scientists had been holed up in their rooms, making them even easier to kill.

This afternoon, one of his men had flown a small plane loaded with barrels of gasoline back to the dig. The cargo hold had contained the bodies of the five crew members and three scientists. Once over the dig, the pilot had parachuted out, leaving the plane to crash.

The resulting crater and fire would obliterate any evidence of the firebombing. Once the site cooled down, he and his men would return and gather any skulls and bones that weren’t destroyed in the fire, making certain nothing could tie the explosion back to the United States.

But for now, they had a different mission.

He held up a color photo of the jungle taken from thousands of miles above the earth. “Kai Paterson and Susana Dias are believed to be the dots farthest to the north. Rafe Andros is the lone signal slightly southeast of them. Intelligence suggests that Niko and Jenna Andros are the two dots following Rafe Andros.”

He pulled out a photograph of Susana Dias. “It doesn’t matter how we kill Paterson and the others. But this woman has to be intact.” He flashed a smile that would freeze the balls of less ruthless men. “Well, mostly intact. All we really need is her torso. But it will be a lot less messy to transport her if we keep her in one piece.”

The men laughed.

“Why not keep her alive, then?” a man to his left asked. “We can have some fun with her on the trip back.”

The captain felt a thrill of sexual anticipation. “Right. Take her alive and you’ll each get a turn with her.” An orange light went on over the side door, warning them that the door would soon open.

“Prepare to move out.”

With grunts of approval, his men checked the straps of their packs and positioned themselves along the rope that would soon lower them into the jungle.

Monday, Night

Amazon Jungle

T
hanks to their night-vision goggles, Niko and Jenna were able to continue moving for several hours after dark, although at somewhat reduced speed. By the time Niko called a halt, he estimated they were only a couple hours behind Rafe, and maybe another hour or two behind Kai and Susana Dias.

“Niko?” Jenna called. “The trees are too close together here. We can’t string the hammocks up.”

He pointed into the trees. “We’re not sleeping at ground level. Jump up and catch that branch. Then continue climbing until I tell you to stop.”

One of the things he loved best about Jenna was her willingness to follow his directions, no matter how crazy she thought his ideas. Such trust continually humbled him.

As she grabbed the branch and wriggled her way onto it he admired her strong, dancer’s body. And wondered how she’d feel about making love in a hammock, dozens of feet above the jungle floor.

D
eus.

Susana’s head lay on Kai’s chest, just above his heart. His heartbeat was deep and solid now, not the frantic call-to-arms of a few minutes ago. His even breathing let her know he slept.

She checked his forehead for fever, but he felt normal.

What had just happened between them had been beyond normal. Beyond wonderful.

Wild. Overpowering.

Perfect.

If you’d asked her this morning if she held anything back during sex with her previous lovers, she’d have said no. She loved sex and had always thrown herself fully into her relationships. She’d never been afraid to push the envelope.

But the biggest surprise tonight hadn’t been Kai’s ferocity, it had been her response.

She’d never bitten a man before.

Used her nails, sure. Used her teeth to nip without breaking the skin, yep. She’d never felt the urge to draw blood once, let alone twice. But tonight she’d sunk her teeth into his neck until the salty, metallic taste of blood hit her tongue, sending her into a back-bowing orgasm.

Who knew she had aspirations of being a vampire?

She smiled. It wasn’t the blood that had turned her on. What had done it for her was Kai’s trust. He’d allowed her access to his throat, leaving himself vulnerable to her, then begging her for more.

Just thinking about it, her nipples hardened. God, she wanted that again. Only this time she wanted to be on top. Wanted to use her teeth on different places.

Wanted to mark him as hers. To possess him.

Because their time was running out. Even if she made it to Moscow in time and this Dr. Ivanov removed the chip safely, her association with Kai would be over.

He lived in the shadows. She lived in the spotlight. And no compromise would get around one glaring fact.

She hadn’t told Kai everything in her father’s letter.

When he found out, he wouldn’t want to see her again.

But until then, she didn’t want to waste a single second. So she let her hand trail down his body and let her heart ignore the ache heading toward her at sonic speed.

T
wo hours later, Kai sat on the low branch of a tree, watching Susana as she slept in her hammock.