The Unseen (12 page)

She tried to toss the runaway thoughts from her mind. She wondered if it was unusual to feel strong attraction to another man so soon after a previous relationship had ended. She’d heard people talk about rebound—and never in a positive way. She chided herself for imagining a relationship with Winston. He was probably only being nice because he felt obligated.

She’d stay for a day or two until it seemed clear they were safe and then she’d fly back to North Carolina. The man had done too much for her already. She couldn’t burden him any longer than absolutely necessary. But still . . . the thought of an enormous ocean separating them made her chest ache.

He laid a gentle hand on her arm. “You look distracted. Is something wrong?”

His touch made her feel giddy with excitement. “Oh, no, I’m fine.” She reprimanded herself.
I have to stop reacting to his touch.

His fingers slid up her arm, tickling her senses like a soft, sensual feather. “I can tell something’s on your mind. Are you worried about your friends?”

I should be, she thought, angry with herself all over again. Kent’s request to call the men who’d set out after the smugglers popped back into her lust-inhibited brain. “Oh, crap. I almost forgot I was supposed to call someone. Can I use your phone?”

“Shh.” Kent jerked to a halt and held a finger to his lips. His facial muscles strained as he cocked his head to one side and then the other.

Rebecca couldn’t hear a thing above the roar of pummeling rain. She clung to the back of his shoulders, terrified. Snakes and four-legged creatures now struck her only as a minor worry. Ghosts haunted her mind—but they weren’t ghosts she’d read about in books that you could stick your hand through or that announced their presence through a waft of ice-cold air.

These ghosts were murderers who could stick a knife between your shoulder blades before you had a chance to cry for help.

The heavy rain clouds and thick canopy of trees threw them into darkness. Even her see-in-the-dark goggles didn’t provide much comfort. She continued to imagine ominous shapes lurking behind every tree. Tremors of fear reverberated through her body. She’d always been terrified of the dark, but walking through this forest of ghosts felt more ominous than anything she’d ever imagined.
But my best friend’s life is at risk.
She sucked in a few deep breaths of muggy air and vowed to focus on one soggy step at a time.
If I don’t, I’ll go completely insane.

“Do you hear that?” Kent turned toward her, brushing his lips by her ear.

Rebecca heard the faint echo of voices. She nodded. “At least now we know where they are.” Her terror dropped a notch.

Kent angled his head forward. “Let’s go.” He reached for her hand. Quickening their pace, they stepped as silently as they could through the dark forest.

Soon, Rebecca glimpsed the group through a curtain of branches. She tapped on Kent’s shoulder and pointed to make sure he’d seen them. She watched the group forge their way through the forest and clenched her fists when she saw the blond haired man holding a gun to the pair’s back.

“I think it’s safe to say no one’s pursuing us,” said one of the men.

“Yeah, I agree, Grant. Let’s stop for the night. We’ll finish the trek to the cave in the morning.”

Still holding Kent’s hand, Rebecca watched the men unpack hammocks from their backpacks. It seemed like a good idea, given that the ground was soaking wet. Within minutes, they had slung them in trees.

“We don’t have enough hammocks,” said one of the men. “I guess she’ll have to bunk with me.” He grabbed Amanda by the waist and hauled her toward a tree.

“Stop that—Leave her alone.” Tom ran toward Amanda, his face dark with anger.

One of the other men grabbed him around the waist and pulled him back. The man who held Amanda ripped the front of her shirt so her bra was exposed. The others burst out in raucous laughter.

The stress of the day was too much for Rebecca. She slipped her hand from Kent’s grasp and sprang from the bushes. He lunged toward her, but she stepped out of range. “You better not lay a finger on her, you scum.”

An overweight, balding man ran up to her and pushed the barrel of his gun deep into her belly. “And what are you going to do about it if we do?” He laughed and turned his head to spit out a glob of brown tobacco.

Amanda screamed. “Oh my, God, please just let her alone.”

Rage surged through Rebecca’s bloodstream. “I’ll fucking kick your ass.” She swung at the short, pudgy man, but he blocked the punch with his gun. “Ouch.” Her knuckles bled from the impact with the metal. While she reached for her injured hand, the man socked her hard in the belly, knocking her to the ground.

“Nice job, Doug. Let’s see that again.”

Rebecca peeled herself up from the sticky mud. She wiped glop from her lips as Doug grabbed her around the back.

“I wouldn’t try that again if I was you,” said Doug. “If you take another swipe at me, I’ll gun butt you.”

“Hey, wait a minute, Doug. She can’t be alone. I want you and Dan to sweep the area and find whoever’s with her,” said another man. “I’ll cover her while you’re gone.”

The man with long dark hair and a scarred, misshapen mouth gripped Rebecca by the arm.

Dan gave Tom a shove. “Grant—keep an eye on him.” The skinny blond-haired man—so emaciated he looked like a drug addict—clenched his teeth and released the safety latch on his weapon.

“Okay, I’m ready, how about you?”

“Sure, let’s go.” The dark-haired Dan leered at Rebecca. “Save some of her for me will you, Grant?”

“No problem.”

Dan and Doug disappeared into the trees. Rebecca remembered the vial in her pocket. Kent had split the contents in half so she could use it if she got in trouble. She wriggled herself free from the man’s grip. “Can you just let go of me long enough to hug my friend? I’ve been worried about her all day.”

The man gave her a shove in Amanda’s direction. “Why don’t you take off your clothes and hug naked? Afterwards, we can dive in and enjoy a two-for-one fuck.”

Grant burst out laughing. “I could go for that, Burt.”

“The hell you will.” Rebecca gave the men her best drop-dead look and walked toward Amanda, one hand in her pocket. Little light leaked through the trees this late in the day. She hoped to use that to her advantage.

She had worked the lid off by the time she reached Amanda’s side. “Oh, Amanda, I was so worried about you.” She clutched her friend to her chest, grabbing one of her hands and pouring some powder into her palm. Amanda instantly vanished. “Hold onto that stuff, okay.”

She hurriedly poured some in her own hand. The instant Rebecca disappeared, she pushed Amanda behind a large tree trunk and whispered. “They can’t see us now. Let’s hang out here and see if this distracts them enough to let Tom escape.”

“What the hell is going on?” said Burt. “How did they get the stuff?”

“Oh, fuck.” Before Grant had a chance to aim his gun, Tom butted him in the back of his head with his elbow.

“Okay, now run,” Rebecca whispered.

Hearing footsteps behind them, Rebecca looked over her shoulder to see Tom running, closely pursued by the four men.

Shots rang out in the forest and leaves sliced into their calves as they ran. Invisible or not, making this much noise made them too easy to track. A bullet whined over her head. “Come on, Amanda, you can run faster than that. Let’s pick up the pace.”

All at once, Tom veered in a different direction “Oh, crap,” cried Amanda. “He’s trying to route them away from us.”

Rebecca whipped her head around. Realizing they were safe for the moment, she leaned forward, resting her hands on her thighs to catch her breath. Sweat poured down her face and her lungs burned from sucking the humid air so deep in her lungs. Exertion here felt more like breathing liquid than oxygen. Amanda was no longer invisible, so Rebecca placed a hand on her shoulder. “You must have dropped your powder. I’ll give you some more in a second.”

Amanda’s pale face seemed to glow in the dark forest. She waved her arms in frustration and her voice rose in panic. “We’ve got to do something and fast. It’ll only take one shot to kill him.”

“Don’t worry. Tom will be fine—Kent’s out here somewhere, too. But let’s pursue him just in case. But first, take this—and hold onto it this time.” Rebecca tipped some powder into Amanda’s hand.

The women crept through the forest. Running footsteps and gunfire intermittently interrupted the sound of falling rain. Rebecca slowed her pace and whipped her head around, trying to determine the source of the sound.

Amanda stepped around her and strode ahead. “This is so awful. Where is he?”

“Wait, I see two of the men over there,” said Rebecca in a whisper. She pointed over Amanda’s shoulder.

“Bloody hell, the other one disappeared, too,” said Grant. “How did that happen? I thought you said they didn’t know about those rocks. How did these people get their hands on the stuff?”

Rebecca patted Amanda’s arm. “I told you Kent would get to him.”

“Beats me, but we can play the same game.” After spitting another glob of tobacco into the surrounding grass, Doug pulled a vial from his pocket. “It’s time to go undercover boys.”

Bunny dialed the number Kent had written down and drummed her fingernails on the kitchen counter. A gruff man answered.

She cleared her throat. “Hello, this is Bunny Miller. I’m one of the assistants on Kent Dunbar’s mission. I’m calling because I have some information you need to know right away.”

Bunny strained to hear Rich’s voice—he sounded like he was talking from another solar system. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I can barely hear you.”

Bunny rubbed her sweaty hands together and fidgeted on her feet. From across the room, Winston gave her a
thumbs up
sign.
Keep trying.

Shouting to make her words more intelligible, she introduced herself. Once Rich urged her to continue, she launched into her story. She told him Amanda and Tom had been kidnapped, that Kent and Rebecca had gone after them, and that people had tried to kill her at the Sheraton in Dong Hoi.

“Where are you now?”

Bunny explained how she’d been rescued by a man outside her door and taken to his residence.

“Are you sure you’re safe there?” Rich asked.

That all depended on how he defined
safe
. Her life wasn’t at risk with Winston, but her heart was anything but secure. “Yes, I’m positive. There’s no need for you to worry. This Winston has been more generous than you can imagine.”

“Very well. Can you give me a phone number I can reach you just in case?”

“Sure, just a minute, please.” She stepped out on the patio and held the phone away from her mouth to ask Winston for the number. Once he answered, she shook her head, mimed
thanks
and spoke back into the phone. “I’m really worried about my friends. Will you call here as soon as they’re found?”

“Yes, as soon as we have some concrete information, I’ll be in touch.”

Bunny thanked the man before concluding the call.

She walked out on the deck, which offered a stunning view of the South China Sea. Winston stood leaning on the railing, one foot crossed over the other ankle. She wasn’t sure what looked more tantalizing, the turquoise water glistening under the sunlight or the sculpted shape of Winston’s backside in dark-blue swimming trunks. “I just finished talking to Rich, the leader of the Vietnam Vets who is tracking those smugglers. He’s out in the jungle with a bunch of other soldiers trying to get to their cave camp. But now he’s going to double back and see if he can help rescue my friends who have been kidnapped.”

Winston turned toward her and took her hands in his. The sudden skin-to-skin contact caught Bunny by surprise, making her feel light-headed. “I’m sure they will rescue them before you know it. You’ve done your part now, so why don’t we go enjoy the sea?”

“I’d like that. Let me run and get a swimsuit.” Bunny pouted, more to get attention than anything else. “I bet your sister’s skinny like you, though. Maybe they won’t fit me.”

Winston’s one-sided smile and wandering gaze suggested he imagined her body outlined in a swimsuit already. “If it shows a little more skin than it’s supposed to, I won’t mind in the least.”

Bunny blushed and bolted up the stairs toward her room. She peeled off her clothes and rifled through the top drawers. One was crammed with swimsuits. She decided to pass on the string bikinis—one wave would carry it away and leave her naked.

Sparks danced over her body as she imagined standing unclothed beside Winston. The man had brought her libido back to life. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like to experience flying high feelings of attraction after four years with Jason.
Now I feel alive again, not to mention barely able to think or speak coherently.

She wriggled into a confining black maillot, accented with sheer panels on either side and between her breasts. She admired herself in the full-length mirror, liking how the suit accented her curvy shape. She descended the stairs and joined Winston on the deck. “I’m ready.”

He gazed at her over the rim of his sunglasses. “Yes, I see that. You look brilliant in that suit.”

Bunny felt her whole body blush. She batted her eyelashes and dropped her eyes to the ground. “Thanks.”

Winston cleared his throat and slid his sunglasses back into place. “Well, let’s walk on down to the beach then.”

“Great, let’s go.” As he walked past her, a rush of tingles raced up her neck. Bunny wrung her hands, feeling suddenly awkward. This man stole all her control, which she found both frightening and exciting.

He turned toward her after he stepped inside. “Let’s go out the front door so I can secure these sliders. On a day like today, you can never be too careful.”

After sliding the glass door shut, Winston stretched the gate of bars across and bolted it. Wrought iron bars were already in place on all the windows. He opened a drawer in the kitchen and grabbed his gun and waved it in the air. “This should keep those buggers away.”