Betrayal (6 page)

She wasn’t ashamed of her body. Far from it. She’d posed nude on more than one occasion.

Yet for some reason, with this man, she felt the need for propriety. So here she stood, modest as a vapor-prone maiden, hiding the bare skin of her torso even though her sports bra covered her better than most of the bikinis she owned.

It was enough to make her roll her eyes.

But not enough to make her drop the shirt.

The soft touch of Kai’s finger against her bare skin shocked her with a flash of sexual heat that singed all the way to her core. The sound of his breathing so close to her ear as he leaned in to get a better look sent tingles of pleasure down her spine.

She gritted her teeth and prayed that he finished soon, before this stupid arousal deepened to the point she had to act on it. Turning around and kissing him would be a bad mistake.

“Is it there?” she demanded in a voice just a tad too hoarse.

“Yeah, I see it.” He paused. “The skin here is puffy.” He touched her again. “And hot.” Another prod. “There’s pus as well. You’ve got an infection.”

Susana’s blood froze, all thoughts of arousal gone. In the jungle, infection was one of the deadliest threats. Bacteria flourished in the heat and damp. A healthy person could die within days of an untreated infection.

“How bad?” Her voice cracked on the last syllable.

“No red streaks.”

Okay. That was good. She took a deep breath.

His finger explored the sore area and Susana tightened her back muscles so she wouldn’t flinch.

“Whoever inserted the device was lucky,” Kai said.

“Lucky? He’s a guano-brained, hairy-tongued rock-dweller,” she muttered. Who would do this to her?

“I can’t see the device itself but I can feel it. I think there’s a tiny dart in here. Probably shot from a blowgun.”

Oh, how very Indiana Jones.

“Since it tore through your shirt, you probably have fibers embedded in the wound.”

“This shirt is supposed to be rip-proof,” Susana said. “The fabric is an experimental weave I’m testing for the manufacturer. This will definitely be in my report.”

“Yeah.” She thought she heard the hint of a smile in his voice. “You tell them that they haven’t dart-proofed the shirt.”

She tried to summon up a smile of her own, but couldn’t manage it. Dart guns. Tracking devices.

When had her life spun so far out of control?

“You’ve got an open sore the size of an MP3 audio jack. The wound hasn’t started to heal yet and there’s pus oozing out. To get this amount of pus buildup, the device must have been inserted several days ago.”

“But—” She was very conscientious about investigating any open wounds on her body, no matter how small. A friend of hers had lost a hand’s width of muscle on her thigh because she’d ignored a tiny, bleeding bug bite. Infection had set in, and by the time her friend noticed and got herself back to civilization, some of the tissue had died. “I don’t remember feeling any irritation or pain. Wouldn’t I have noticed if they shot a dart into me?”

“Not if they dipped it in anesthetic first. It would numb the skin as it entered. Hold on while I get the first aid kit. I’m going to have to cut the device out.”

Susana spun around. “You can’t be serious!”

“Susana,” he said gently, “if I don’t remove the tracker, the rest of the mercenaries will find us.” There was too much sympathy in his eyes for her comfort. She preferred being mad at him.

She backed up until she felt the bark of a tree digging into her bare skin. “You…are…not…cutting into me!”

All she could think about was the mercenary’s blood-drenched face. And the hard expression in Kai’s eyes when he’d found her.

He’d just killed four men in front of her and she was supposed to trust him to cut open her skin? How she wished she were fully clothed, instead of still hiding behind the crumpled fabric of her shirt. It severely limited her options.

“Susana.” Kai didn’t move toward her. He just watched her with steady, compassionate eyes, all trace of the killer gone. “I’m trained in field medicine. I’ll make this as easy on you as possible, but we don’t have much time.” He held the tracking monitor toward her.

“See that third dot in the lower left corner? More mercenaries are on the move, Susana. I have no idea how many men were inside the gunboat’s cabin. Or if reinforcements have arrived. The bottom line is that as long as the tracking device is inside you, they’re going to find us. And next time I might not be able to save you.”

She stared at the tiny dot as it slowly moved toward them. Inevitability pressed against her as relentlessly as the approaching men. She wet her lips with her tongue. Swallowed. And tried to stop the tremors that wanted to shake her entire body. “By cutting into me, you’re opening me up to another infection.”

“I have some alcohol in my medical kit,” Kai reassured her. “This will be as sterile as I can make it.”

She closed her eyes in defeat. “Fine. Just do it.”

She heard him move away. He hadn’t promised her this wasn’t going to hurt and she tried to prepare herself.

“When you’re ready, please come over here and sit on the log.”

At least he had the good sense not to gloat.

She took a deep breath and walked over to where Kai was rummaging in his backpack.

“Shit.” Kai held a satellite phone in one hand and a shattered pair of night vision goggles in the other. He turned the phone over so she could see the hole where a bullet had shattered the LCD screen and exited through the back.

“I guess there’s no calling for help, huh?” she asked, wondering why Kai hadn’t mentioned he had a phone. Or why he hadn’t called for backup.

Oh. Wait. They’d been too busy running.

He shook his head. “It’s possible the GPS locator still works. You should keep this on you.” He set the phone aside and shot her a wry glance. “You’re not the only one with a microchip inside them. Only mine is meant to help headquarters find me in situations like this.”

“About that microchip,” she began.

He reached into his pack again and his hand reemerged holding a blue-and-white first aid box. Her stomach sank and all thoughts of the microchip fled.

Please give me strength.

She sat down on the log and fought not to whimper as Kai moved behind her. She heard the sound of paper tearing, then felt the cool swab of an alcohol wipe against her skin. It only stung slightly when it hit the entry wound.

“Okay. I’ve sterilized my knife. Brace yourself.”

W
ith a quick downward slice, Kai cut to the right of the infected area. Susana hissed and her muscles flinched, but other than that, she held it together.

Jesus, she was amazing. That she trusted him to freaking operate on her, even after watching him kill the mercenaries, was…terrifying. Because if she knew just how big a mess he was inside, she’d surely run away screaming.

“I’m making three incisions,” he said. “Forming three sides of a small square. Then I’ll peel back the skin, scrape the pus away, and lift the dart out with tweezers.”

Nice, clinical words. Only, as Susana’s blood flowed out of the wound, his hand began to shake.

A shaft of light caught a crimson drop, rimming it with gold. He stared at it, transfixed.

Sunlight had filtered through the canopy that day, too, glistening on the assassin’s blood as it dripped onto the jungle floor. Turning Kai’s blood-stained hands into sparkling crimson gloves.

God, he could remember the hot, tangy smell of the blood. The—

“Kai?” Susana’s voice was tight with pain.

He shook his head and looked down. The tip of the knife was digging into her skin. Blood ran in a thin trickle down her skin.

Kai jerked the knife away. “God…sorry.” Shit. He had to stay in the present.

“Are you done yet?”

“Ah…no. I…uh…”
I don’t know if I can cut you again.

He raised the knife. For a god-awful moment his hand remained suspended while his mind fought images of another day when his knife had brought death.

He swallowed heavily, forcing back the memories.

What had she said? Just do it. He could do this. He
had
to.

He made one more quick cut, then peeled back the half inch by half inch flap of skin.

Christ, there was a lot of pus. He used the tip of his knife to scrape it away, then poured some of the filtered water over it.

Susana whimpered, but immediately bit the sound off.

“It’s okay. You can scream if you want to. I know this hurts.”

But she only shook her head.

The water carried the last of the pus away and there it was. A black metal dart with smooth flanges, embedded in Susana’s muscle.

Jesus Christ. She was innocent in all this, yet someone had shot the dart into her as casually as a hunter tagged a deer.

He took a deep breath and pushed aside his anger. To minimize the damage along its exit route, he needed to stay calm and steady while he removed the dart.

He picked up the tweezers, swabbed them with alcohol, and clamped them around the end of the dart.

“Hang on.”

S
usana felt the prod of the tweezers, then white-hot pain as Kai yanked the dart out. She couldn’t stop herself. She screamed.
Ouch. Ouch. OUCH.
That
hurt
.

Little silver dots danced across her vision. The metallic taste of blood flooded her mouth. Dammit, she’d bit her tongue.

“I’ve got to get some debris out now.”

The knife pricked deep and Susana swayed under a new wave of pain. Darkness crept along the edges of her vision and she closed her eyes so she wouldn’t pass out. But the swirls of color dancing across her lids made her light-headed and nauseous, so she opened her eyes.

“Bend forward.”

She tilted her torso until her chest rested on her thighs.

“Good. Right there. This is going to hurt.”

As if nothing yet had hurt? Was he nuts? She had just enough time to wrap her arms around her knees and tighten her muscles when liquid fire poured into the wound.

This time she released a low, animal keen of agony.

“Done. Next a little antibiotic ointment…a gauze pad…and you’re all set. You can sit up now.”

Susana was too busy gulping air, fighting against the pain that hadn’t yet receded, to answer.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Just…give me…a minute. What…the hell…was that?”

“Vodka. From the mini-bar at the hotel. I wanted to make sure the wound was flushed.”

To her surprise, she felt Kai’s fingers gently pushing her hair off her forehead. His hand skimmed over her head and stopped at the back of her skull.

“Shit.” His fingers parted her hair as they explored the bump he’d found. “You’ve got a cut here. And quite a lump.”

She winced. “No kidding. Remember how I said I was pushed into the river? Someone whacked me in the back of the head while I was checking boxes on our supply boat, then shoved me over the railing.”

“Do you have any headache? Double vision? Nausea?”

“Of course I feel nauseous! Someone just poured vodka over a hole in my back.”

“Susana,” he chided.

“Okay, fine. I had a moment of double vision when I first woke up in the kidnapper’s cabin, but it’s gone now. No serious concussion here.”

Kai gave a noncommittal grunt, dabbed at the wound with another alcohol wipe, then patted her shoulder.

The gesture made her want to cry.

“Do you need help sitting up?”

“No.” The pain was slowly fading, so she gingerly sat up, shirt still clutched protectively in front of her. When the world didn’t tilt, she gave a deep sigh.

“Let me see your wrists.”

She glanced down in surprise, having forgotten about the cuts from her bindings.

Dried blood circled her wrists, making it appear she was bound by dark crimson rope. The skin around the cuts was puffy and bruised.

It looked awful, but her pain receptors must be on overload, because the wounds didn’t hurt much.

She watched in amazement as Kai’s lips thinned. He cradled her hand gently in his while he washed the blood away, then poured another mini-bottle of alcohol—gin this time—over the broken skin.

Susana clamped her molars together and pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth.

She’d already done the screaming thing. She’d stay silent this time if it killed her.

“Next wrist, please.”

Her stomach sank. She had to go through that
again
?

She held out her other hand and closed her eyes. Maybe if she couldn’t see what he was doing, it wouldn’t hurt so much.

“Ga-aah,” she gasped. Dammit, that stung!

“You can open your eyes now.”

She blinked. She’d been so lost, she hadn’t noticed he’d already covered the wounds with antibiotic ointment and gauze.

She looked up.

Oh. Wow.

Kai’s eyes weren’t cold or angry. Instead, they held warmth and…a hint of approval? Before she could be sure, the look was gone.

Kai picked up his canteen and shook it. “The water’s gone. Can you take a couple of aspirin dry?” he asked.

She nodded and swallowed the pills he handed her.

She’d been holding her back erect, trying not to move and jar Kai’s hand while he worked. Now she let her head hang and her back soften in a grateful slump.

Behind her, she heard the rattling of bandage wrappers and the crinkle of a plastic bag as Kai collected the waste.

“You held up well.”

Okay. That was definitely a note of approval in his voice.

It made her feel slightly warmer toward him. Plus, he’d handled the whole operation with unexpected tact and gentleness. It was still scary to think how easily he’d killed those men, but that didn’t make Kai a monster.

The men who were following them, however, were a different story. She straightened her spine.

“I want to see this tracking device,” she said.

“Let me clean it off first.” A moment later his hand appeared in front of her. In the center of his palm lay a tiny dart no longer than a pencil eraser. Next to it was a speck of black, roughly the size of a pin head. Kai pointed to the dot. “That’s the actual transmitter.”