Betrayal (29 page)

Kai took Niko’s backpack, added a few items from his own pack, then slipped his arms through the shoulder straps. He drew a deep breath and Susana knew what Kai was going to tell her. And suddenly she couldn’t bear for him to say good-bye.

“Niko, this is Susana Dias,” Kai said. “Susana, meet Niko Andros, my brother-in-law.”

Niko nodded hello and somehow Susana managed a polite, “Pleased to meet you.” Although what she really wanted to do was scream at Kai not to leave her.

“That’s his brother Rafe on the ground.” Kai’s mouth firmed into a grim line. “Niko will get you out of here safely.” Kai unscrewed the top of his canteen and took a long drink.

“Niko, Susana has three days left to get to Moscow or she’ll die and the chip will be destroyed. Susana, show him the letter. The SSU will take care of you from here.”

Even though she’d been expecting it, Kai’s words hit her with the force of a tsunami. The world tilted and for a moment she thought she was going to fall.

This was the last time she’d ever see him. She shivered, feeling a bleakness that she hadn’t experienced since she turned eight and her mother shipped her off to boarding school.

Well, to hell with him. Her anger simmered up and saved her from humiliating herself with tears. “Here, you’ll need this.” She removed Kai’s watch from her wrist and held it out to him.

Kai didn’t even meet her eyes as he took the watch, the coward. As if the past several days of shared body heat and shared confidences had never happened.

“Good luck,” she snarled before turning away.

As much as she wanted to, she wasn’t going to yell at him in front of Niko. And she didn’t want Kai to see her face. Because then he’d realize she was in love with him.

What a hell of a time to realize how she felt.

“Glacier-hearted piranha spawn,” she muttered under her breath. She was done loving people who didn’t love her back. If it killed her, she’d keep her pride.

She’d taken two steps when Kai growled, “Fuck it” and spun her around.

His mouth slammed down on hers in a bruising kiss that had her arms clasping him around the neck and her body up on her tiptoes, trying to get closer to him.

When he pulled back, she whimpered and tried to bring his lips back to hers.

He gave her a fast kiss, then removed her arms from his neck. “Stay safe,” he ordered. “You can trust Niko.” Another quick kiss. “I’ll see you in Boa Vista.”

Then he disappeared into the jungle.

Niko fussed over his brother, but she saw the corner of his mouth lift in a smile. She didn’t care. Kai had promised to meet her, and she was going to hold him to that promise.

She wasn’t done with him yet.

A radio squawked behind her and she heard Niko requesting a new pickup location. When he was finished, he told her, “Our boss, Ryker, is sending a helicopter for us. They were already on the way to search for Kai. Once they locate an opening in the canopy big enough, we’ll meet them and they’ll lower ropes to pull us up. Until then, we’ll hang out here.”

Susana nodded.

“When you’re ready,” Niko said, “how about you show me that letter?”

S
usana followed Niko through the jungle toward the extraction point. She wanted to apologize to him, but what words could possibly be strong enough to take away her guilt? It had finally dawned on her that his wife—Kai’s sister—had been abducted because the mercenaries thought Jenna was Susana.

She wished the mercenaries had taken her, instead. That way Kai and the others could return safely to Boa Vista.

She slapped at a mosquito on her arm. No, given the way Kai had kissed her, she knew he’d have followed if she’d been taken instead of his sister. Because that kiss proved Kai cared. The knowledge fanned the warm glow surrounding her heart and she smiled.

Up ahead, Niko shifted his brother to his other shoulder and Susana’s good mood fizzled.

“What’s wrong with Rafe?” Susana asked. She’d never seen a man so crazed. Or heard such animal noises from a human throat.

“He was given a variation of the drugs your father created.”

She stumbled.

Oh, God, no.
“I don’t understand. I thought my father’s work was destroyed in a fire. Aren’t the only remaining notes on the microchip?”

“Dr. Kaufmann, one of your father’s assistants, stole samples of your father’s drugs then left and set up his own lab.”

Niko maneuvered through a particularly dense patch of vegetation, his hand keeping branches and vines away from his brother’s vulnerable head. “Whoever is given the drugs and put through the conditioning program,” Niko continued, “comes out physically strong and obedient to his handlers, but violent and mentally unstable. If the subjects don’t commit suicide, their internal organs fail and they die within six months.”

“And—my father knew about these side effects?” God, why hadn’t Kai told her this?

“Yeah. Sorry.”

Her mother had been right. Her father was evil. She bit her lip, trying to keep back words of anger and pity. “Is there an antidote?”

Niko’s stride faltered. “Not that we know of. We don’t even know exactly what drugs they gave Rafe. We have notes from Kaufmann’s lab, but most of his drugs came from Nevsky, so we need the data on the microchip. With the formula in hand, our scientists should be able to reverse the drugs. I’m not giving up until Rafe is back to normal.”

Niko’s love and determination made Susana feel as if a piece of glass had lodged in her throat. What it was like to have someone love you so much they’d fly thousands of miles to rescue you?

She looked at Rafe’s head flopping against Niko’s back. Did Rafe even have the time it would take to develop and test an antidote? He’d been nearly insane with rage. What if he deteriorated further? How were they going to keep him under control while the scientists worked on a solution?

“What happened to the subjects of my father’s experiments?”

“You really should talk to Kai about this. He’s the one who went undercover at your father’s lab.”

“Yes, I know. But you’re here now.” And Kai had apparently left a lot of details out of his explanation.

“As far as we can tell, all of the men from your father’s program are dead. But we think several men from Kaufmann’s lab are loose in the community. If we can find an antidote, we can save them, too.”

Oh, great. Like she needed more pressure. Now it wasn’t just her life at stake if she failed to reach Dr. Ivanov in Moscow in time to have the chip removed. Rafe and any surviving subjects of the lab also depended on her.

“You…uh…don’t show any symptoms of your father’s work,” Niko said. “Do you know anything more about what he did to you?”

“No.” She wanted to scream at Niko for reminding her of the final paragraph in the letter. The part she’d withheld from Kai. The words explaining that her father had experimented on her as an infant before her mother took her away. Her father also promised that she’d find details in the journals he’d sent to Ivanov in Moscow.

A few simple words on a piece of paper and her world had altered.

Was she even normal? Were her bursts of temper caused by an earlier version of the same drugs that had sent Rafe into an animal-like frenzy? Is that why she’d reacted so ferociously to Jacie’s betrayal?

Susana was terrified of what she’d learn.

She took a deep breath. At the same time he’d requested a pick-up, Niko had sent an encrypted text message to the SSU requesting that they locate and detain Dr. Ivanov and prepare for her arrival.

Niko assured her they’d get to Moscow in time.

God, she’d never been so afraid. As much as she wanted the chip removed, even though she swore she could feel it burning in her belly, part of her wanted to stay here in the jungle.

And she’d give anything to have Kai’s arms around her.

T
he men who’d taken Jenna hadn’t made any effort to hide their trail. As Kai followed, he fought against a nearly overwhelming sense that he’d doomed Susana by not staying with her.

Which was bullshit. Niko would get her safely out of the jungle. They’d all meet up in Boa Vista, then Kai would escort her to Moscow.

No, the real problem was that none of them knew what awaited Susana in Moscow. Would the SSU be able to find Dr. Ivanov in time? Would the man have the tools to safely extract the chip? Could he be trusted not to break the vial while extracting the chip?

Cold sweat trickled down Kai’s spine.

His mind told him to focus on getting Jenna back. But his heart wanted him to return and protect Susana.

Up ahead a boat motor kicked over.

Shit.

Kai sprinted toward the sound. By the time he reached the river, the boat had already pulled too far away from land for him to jump. He caught a brief glimpse of Jenna as her captor dumped her onto the bottom of the boat. Someone had put a sack over her head and wrapped her in netting.

He glared after the boat. It was a rubber, inflatable boat. The type that could be dropped from a helicopter. A boat that would ferry the men just far enough to be picked up.

He slowed his breathing to better listen. Yes, that was the sound of a helicopter downriver.

The boat disappeared around a bend. Kai ran after it. Jenna was going to be airlifted away and he had no idea where to start looking for—

An explosion tossed Kai to his knees.

What the hell? He glanced up in the direction the boat had taken and saw a cloud of smoke.

“Jenna!”

Tuesday, Afternoon

Boa Vista, Brazil

“W
e got the girl,” the mercenary told Mark Tonelli next time he radioed in. “A group of soldiers had her on a boat.”

Mark cursed. Jamieson’s men. Had to be.

“When a helicopter arrived to pick them up, we blew it out of the sky. While the soldiers on the boat were distracted by the explosion, we opened fire. They’re all dead.”

“Good. And the girl?” God, Mark couldn’t wait to see Susana again. His eagerness was pathetic, yet he couldn’t stop his blood from racing with excitement. He didn’t want her scared when she first met him, so he’d rented this small bungalow where they could get to know each other without strangers upsetting her. Once she felt comfortable with him, he’d fly her back to the States. To a surgeon Mark trusted to remove the microchip and keep his mouth shut.

A man with no connection to Jamieson. Mark would take the chip and use it to bargain with Jamieson to give him the name of his father’s killer.

“The girl’s tied up in the cabin.”

The mercenary’s words jolted Mark out of his reverie. “You haven’t hurt her, have you?”

“No, man. ‘Course not.”

Damn. He wanted to order the man to untie Susana. Yet he couldn’t take the chance of her escaping again.

“Call me when you’re close to arriving and I’ll meet you at the dock.”

Amazon Jungle

K
ai sat on a rock at the edge of the river, staring at the wreckage of the helicopter. Bodies floated among the debris.

Jenna, thank God, was not among the dead. He’d arrived in time to see a familiar gunboat nosing away from the overturned inflatable. One of the mercenaries who’d kidnapped Susana had carried Jenna’s wrapped figure into the cabin.

Kai then used Niko’s extra satellite phone to call for extraction, and to notify the SSU of Jenna’s abduction. They promised to track the boat.

Waiting for his ride, Kai had nothing to do but think. He scrubbed his hands over his face, trying to wipe away memories and quiet his brain.

He didn’t want to remember how, after the attack that had killed their parents, he’d found Jenna in the backyard and believed her dead. He refused to consider that Jenna might die now. Wouldn’t think about what new scars she might accumulate before he rescued her from the mercenaries.

Instead, he replayed Susana’s last words.
“Good luck.”
Her voice had trembled with fury and she’d muttered a curse under her breath.

Yeah, he’d intended to leave her so mad she’d never want to see him again. But when he’d seen the hurt underneath her anger, he’d wanted to wipe her pain away. So he’d kissed her and promised he’d see her in Boa Vista.

God, he missed her already.

He put his head in his hands, pressed his palms against his eyes, and fought to blank his mind.

A low thrum announced the presence of a helicopter upriver. His satellite phone beeped twice, letting him know the approaching bird was friendly. Kai walked out onto the long spit of sand that jutted into the river.

It was still several minutes before the helicopter appeared. A long rope hung from its belly like an umbilical cord. Kai grabbed hold as the rope whipped past. He swung through the air, rising quickly above the river as the helicopter continued its journey.

A man dressed in jungle fatigues pulled Kai on board, then slid the door closed, cutting off the roar of the wind.

Kai sat up. His eyes landed on a familiar group at the back of the cargo bay—Niko, Rafe and Susana. Rafe was still wrapped up and out cold. Niko sat with his knees up and his back against the wall next to his brother, eyelids at half-mast as he kept watch. Susana lay on her back on the other side of Niko, her eyes closed and a bandage wrapped around her head.

Kai’s heart stopped. For a moment he was so filled with terror, he couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear. Then his body sprang into motion. He flung off his backpack and knelt next to Susana. “What the hell happened?”

“Wind tossed her against the strut as she was being pulled up,” Niko answered. “She’s unconscious, but the gash on her forehead isn’t deep enough to need stitches.”

Kai checked her pulse, her pupils and the cut underneath the bandage. Niko was right. She’d have a hell of a headache once she woke, and the cut would hurt, but she’d been lucky it wasn’t deeper.

He lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms. And finally acknowledged the truth.

There was no way he could let her go. He just cared too damn much.

Chapter 24

Tuesday, Evening

Boa Vista, Brazil

M
ark Tonelli waited impatiently on the dock as the boat carrying Susana positioned itself for boarding. It was after dark and this section of the waterfront had emptied out when the warehouses shut down. Leaving no witnesses to the approaching boat.