Midnight Rainbow

by Linda Howard

  Still, the sense of betrayal was staggering, and nothing would have pleased him at that moment as much as to get his hands on her. Damn her for being a lying, treacherous little bitch! He should have known, should have suspected that her patented look of wide-eyed innocence was nothing but a well-rehearsed act.

  The old instincts, only partially shelved, suddenly returned in full force. Forget about the bitch. He had to look out for himself first, then see to her. She was curling in Turego’s arms like a cat, while Grant knew that his own future was nonexistent unless he did some fast thinking.

  Part of the thinking was done for him when Turego put two and two together and came up with an accurate guess about Grant’s identity. A year had been far too short a time for people in the business to even begin forgetting him. After he’d disappeared, his absence had probably made his reputation grow to legendary proportions. Well, let Turego think that he was after the missing microfilm, too; Grant felt no compunction about using Jane in any way he could. She’d not only used him, she’d had him dancing to her tune like a puppet on a fancy little string. If he hadn’t agreed to bring her out of Costa Rica, he would have wished the joy of her on Turego, and gotten himself out any way he could. But he’d taken the job, so he had to finish it—if he came out of this alive. When he got his hands on her again she’d find that there would be no more kid-glove treatment.

  Turego was curious. With his hands tied behind his back, supported between two of the hired goons, Grant found out just how curious.

  “Who hired you? Or are you an independent now?”

  “Naw, I’m still a Protestant,” Grant said, smiling smoothly. At a nod from Turego, a fist crashed into his face, splitting his lip and filling his mouth with blood. The next blow was into his midsection, and he’d have jacknifed if it hadn’t been for the cruel support of his twisted arms.

  “Really, I don’t have the time for this,” Turego murmured. “You are the one known as the Tiger; you aren’t a man who works for nothing.”

  “Sure I am; I’m a walking charity.”

  The fist landed on his cheekbone, snapping his head back. This guy was a real boxer; he placed his blows with precision. The face a couple of times, then the ribs and kidneys. Pain sliced through Grant until his stomach heaved. He gasped, his vision blurred even though his mind was still clear, and he deliberately let all his weight fall on his two supporters, his knees buckling.

  Then he heard Jane’s voice, petulant and demanding, as he’d never heard it before, followed by Turego’s smooth reassurances. The men’s attention wasn’t on him; he sensed its absence, like a wild animal acutely sensitive to every nuance. He sagged even more, deliberately putting stress on the bonds around his wrists, and fierce satisfaction welled in him as he felt them slip on his right hand.

  He had powerful hands, hands that could destroy. He used that power against the cord that bound him, extending his hand to the fullest and stretching the cord, then relaxing and letting the cord slip even lower. Twice he did that, and the cord dropped around his fingers in loose coils.

  Looking about through slitted eyes, he saw that no one was paying much attention to him, not even the boxer, who was absently rubbing his knuckles and waiting for Turego to return from wherever he’d gone. Jane was nowhere in sight, either. Now was the time.

  The two men holding him were off guard; he threw them away from him like discarded toys. For a split second everyone was disconcerted, and that split second was all he needed. He grabbed a rifle and kicked its butt up under the chin of the soldier he’d taken it from, sending him staggering backward. He whirled, lashing out with his feet and the stock of the rifle. The soldiers really didn’t have much of a chance; they didn’t have a fraction of the training he’d had, or the years of experience. They didn’t know how to react to an attacker who struck and whirled away before anyone could move. Only one managed to get his rifle up, and he fired wildly, the bullet zinging far over Grant’s head. That soldier was the last one standing; Grant took him out with almost contemptuous ease. Then he hesitated only the barest moment as he waited for movement from any of them, but there was none. His gaze moved to the door at the far end of the warehouse, and a cold, twisted smile touched his bruised and bloody lips. He went after Jane.

  * * *

  SHE’D NEVER KNOWN such terror; even her fear of the dark was nothing compared to the way she felt now. She couldn’t move fast enough; her feet felt as if they were slogging through syrup. Oh, God, what if they’d killed him? The thought was too horrible to be borne, yet it swelled in her chest until she couldn’t breathe. No, she thought, no, no, no!

  She burst through the door, the pistol in her hand, half-crazed with fear and ready to fight for her man, for her very life. She saw a confused scene of sprawled men and her mind reeled, unable to comprehend why so many were lying there. Hadn’t there been only one shot?

  Then an arm snaked around her neck, jerking her back and locking under her chin. Another arm reached out, and long fingers clamped around the hand that held the pistol, removing it from her grip.

  “Funny thing, sweetheart, but I feel safer when you’re unarmed,” a low voice hissed in her ear.

  At the sound of that voice, Jane’s eyes closed, and two tears squeezed out from under the lids. “Grant,” she whispered.

  “Afraid so. You can tell me how glad you are to see me later; right now we’re moving.”

  He released his arm lock about her neck, but when she tried to turn to face him, he caught her right arm and pulled it up behind her back, not so high that she was in pain, but high enough that she would be if he moved it even a fraction of an inch higher. “Move!” he barked, thrusting her forward, and Jane stumbled under the force of the motion, wrenching her arm and emitting an involuntary cry.

  “You’re hurting me,” she whimpered, still dazed and trying to understand. “Grant, wait!”

  “Cut the crap,” he advised, kicking open the door and shoving her out into the searing white sunlight. The transport truck was sitting there, and he didn’t hesitate. “Get in. We’re going for a ride.”

  He opened the door and half-lifted, half-threw Jane into the truck, sending her sprawling on the seat. She cried out, her soft cry knifing through him, but he told himself not to be a fool; she didn’t need anyone to look after her. Like a cat, she always landed on her feet.

  Jane scrambled to a sitting position, her dark eyes full of tears as she stared at his battered, bloody face in both pain and horror. She wanted to reassure him, tell him that it had all been an act, a desperate gamble to save both their lives, but he didn’t seem inclined to listen. Surely he wouldn’t so easily forget everything they’d shared, everything they’d been to each other! Still, she couldn’t give up. She’d lifted her hand to reach out for him when a movement in the door beyond them caught her eye, and she screamed a warning.

  “Grant!”

  He whirled, and as he did Turego lifted the rifle he held and fired. The explosive crack of sound split the air, but still Jane heard, felt, sensed the grunt of pain that Grant gave as he dropped to one knee and lifted the pistol. Turego lunged to one side, looking for cover, but the pistol spat fire, and a small red flower bloomed high on Turego’s right shoulder, sending him tumbling back through the door.

  Jane heard someone screaming, but the sound was high and far away. She lunged through the open door of the truck, falling to her hands and knees on the hot, rocky ground. Grant was on his knees, leaning against the running board of the truck, his right hand clamped over his upper left arm, and bright red blood was dripping through his fingers. He looked up at her, his golden eyes bright and burning with the fire of battle, fierce even in his swollen and discolored face.

  She went a little mad then. She grabbed him by his undershirt and hauled him to his feet, using a strength she’d had no idea she possessed. “Get in the truck!” she screamed, pushing him in the door. “Damn it, get in the truck! Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

  He
winced as the side of the seat smashed into his bruised ribs; Jane was shoving at him and screaming like a banshee, tears streaming down her face. “Would you shut up!” he yelled, painfully pulling himself inside.

  “Don’t you tell me to shut up!” she screamed, pushing him until he moved over. She slapped the tears from her cheeks and climbed into the truck herself. “Get out of the way so I can get this thing started! Are there any keys? Where are the keys? Oh, damn!” She dove headfirst under the steering wheel, feeling under the dash and pulling wires out frantically.

  “What’re you doing?” Grant groaned, his mind reeling with pain.

  “I’m hot-wiring the truck!” she sobbed.

  “You’re tearing the damned wiring out!” If she was trying to disable their only transportation, she was doing a good job of it. He started to yank her out from under the steering wheel when suddenly she bounced out on her own, jamming the clutch in and touching two wires together. The motor roared into life, and Jane slammed the door on her side, shoved the truck into gear and let out on the clutch. The truck lurched forward violently, throwing Grant against the door.

  “Put it in low gear!” he yelled, pulling himself into a sitting position and getting a tighter grip on the seat.

  “I don’t know where the low gear is! I just took what I could find!”

  Swearing, he reached for the gear shift, the pain in his wounded arm like a hot knife as he closed his hand over the knob. There was nothing he could do about the pain, so he ignored it. “Put the clutch in,” he ordered. “I’ll change gears. Jane, put the damned clutch in!”

  “Stop yelling at me!” she screamed, jamming in the clutch. Grant put the truck in the proper gear and she let out on the clutch; this time the truck moved more smoothly. She put her foot on the gas pedal, shoving it to the floor, and slung the heavy truck around a corner, sending its rear wheels sliding on the gravel.

  “Turn right,” Grant directed, and she took the next right.

  The truck was lunging under her heavy urging, its transmission groaning as she kept her foot down on the gas pedal.

  “Change gears!”

  “Change them yourself!”

  “Put in the clutch!”

  She put in the clutch, and he geared up. “When I tell you, put in the clutch, and I’ll change the gears, understand?”

  She was still crying, swiping at her face at irregular intervals. Grant said, “Turn left,” and she swung the truck in a turn that sent a pickup dodging to the side of the road to avoid them.

  The road took them out of town, but they were only a couple of miles out when Grant said tersely, “Pull over.” Jane didn’t question him; she pulled over to the side of the road and stopped the truck.

  “Okay, get out.” Again she obeyed without question, jumping out and standing there awkwardly as he eased himself to the ground. His left arm was streaked with blood, but from the look on his face Jane knew that he wasn’t about to stop. He shoved the pistol into his belt and slung the rifle over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Back into town. Your boyfriend won’t expect us to double back on him. You can stop crying,” he added cruelly. “I didn’t kill him.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend!” Jane spat, whirling on him.

  “Sure looked like it from where I was.”

  “I was trying to catch him off guard! One of us had to stay free!”

  “Save it,” he advised, his tone bored. “I bought your act once, but it won’t sell again. Now, are you going to walk?”

  She decided that there was no use trying to reason with him now. When he’d calmed down enough to listen, when she’d calmed down enough to make a coherent explanation, then they’d get this settled. As she turned away from him, she looked in the open door of the truck and caught a glimpse of something shoved in the far corner of the floor. Her backpack! She crawled up in the truck and leaned far over to drag the pack out from under the seat; in the excitement, it had been totally overlooked and forgotten.

  “Leave the damned thing!” Grant snapped.

  “I need it,” she snapped in return. She buckled it to her belt-loop again.

  He drew the pistol out of his belt and Jane swallowed, her eyes growing enormous. Calmly he shot out one of the front tires of the truck, then stuck the pistol back into his belt.

  “Why did you do that?” she whispered, swallowing again.

  “So it’ll look as if we were forced to abandon the truck.”

  He caught her upper arm in a tight grip and pulled her off the road. Whenever he heard an engine he forced her to the ground and they lay still until the sound had faded. Her blouse, so white and pretty only an hour or so before, became streaked with mud and torn in places where the thorns caught it. She gave it a brief glance, then forgot about it.

  “When will Turego be after us again?” she panted.

  “Soon. Impatient already?”

  Grinding her teeth together, she ignored him. In twenty more minutes they approached the edge of the town again, and he circled it widely. She wanted to ask him what he was looking for, but after the way he’d just bitten her head off, she kept silent. She wanted to sit down to wash his bruised face, and bandage the wound in his arm, but she could do none of those things. He didn’t want anything from her now.

  Still, what else could she have done? There was no way she could have known he was going to be able to escape. She’d had to use the best plan she had at the time.

  Finally they slipped into a ramshackle shed behind an equally ramshackle house and collapsed on the ground in the relatively cool interior. Grant winced as he inadvertently strained his left arm, but when Jane started toward him, he gave her a cold glare that stopped her in her tracks. She sank back to the ground and rested her forehead on her drawn up knees. “What are we going to do now?”

  “We’re getting out of the country, any way we can,” he said flatly. “Your daddy hired me to bring you home, and that’s what I’m going to do. The sooner I turn you over to him, the better.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  AFTER THAT JANE SAT quietly, keeping her forehead down on her knees and closing her eyes. A cold desolation was growing inside her, filling her, thrusting aside anxiety and fear. What if she could never convince him that she hadn’t betrayed him? With the life he’d led, it was probably something that he’d had to guard against constantly, so he wasn’t even surprised by betrayal. She would try again to reason with him, of course; until he actually left her, she wouldn’t stop trying. But…what if he wouldn’t listen? What would she do then? Somehow she just couldn’t imagine her future without Grant. The emotional distance between them now was agonizing, but she could still lift her head and see him, take comfort in his physical proximity. What would she do if he weren’t there at all?

  The heat and humidity began building, negating the coolness of the shade offered by the old, open-sided shed, and in the distance thunder rumbled as it announced the approach of the daily rain. A door creaked loudly, and soon a stooped old woman, moving slowly, came around the side of the house to a small pen where pigs had been grunting occasionally as they lay in the mud and tried to escape the heat. Grant watched her, his eyes alert, not a muscle moving. There wasn’t any real danger that she would see them; weeds and bushes grew out of control, over waist-high, between the house and the shed, with only a faint little-used path leading to the shed. The pigs squealed in loud enthusiasm when the old woman fed them, and after chatting fondly to them for a moment she laboriously made her way back into the shack.

  Jane hadn’t moved a muscle, not opening her eyes even when the pigs had begun celebrating the arrival of food. Grant looked at her, a faint puzzlement creeping into the coldness of his eyes. It was unlike her to sit so quietly and not investigate the noise. She knew it was the pigs, of course, but she hadn’t looked up to see what was making them squeal so loudly, or even when the old woman had begun talking to them. She was normally as curious as a cat, poking
her nose into everything whether it concerned her or not. It was difficult to tell, the way she had her head down, but he thought that she was pale; the few freckles he could see stood out plainly.

  An image flashed into his mind of Turego bending his head to press his mouth to Jane’s, and the way Jane had stood so quiescently to accept that kiss. Rage curled inside him again, and his fists knotted. Damn her! How could she have let that slime touch her?

  The thunder moved closer, cracking loudly, and the air carried the scent of rain. Wind began to swirl, darting through the shed and bringing with it welcome coolness. The air was alive, almost shining with the electrical energy it carried. The small creatures began to take shelter, birds winging back and forth in an effort to find the most secure perch to wait out the storm.

  During the rain would be a good time to leave, as everyone else would take shelter until it was over, but his body ached from the beating he’d received, and his left arm was still sullenly oozing blood. They were in no immediate danger here, so he was content to rest. Night would be an even better time to move.

  The rain started, going from a sprinkle to a deluge in less than a minute. The ground wasn’t able to soak up that enormous amount of water, and a small stream began to trickle through the shed. Grant got up, stifling a groan as his stiff body protested, and found a seat on top of a half-rotten vegetable crate. It gave a little, but held his weight.

  Jane still hadn’t moved. She didn’t look up until the moisture began to dampen the seat of her pants; then her head lifted and she realized that a river was beginning to flow around her. She didn’t look at Grant, though she moved away from the water, shifting to the side. She sat with her back to him and resumed her earlier posture, with her knees drawn up, her arms locked around her legs, and her head bent down to rest on her knees.