“Get up! We’re leaving!” Chase seemed to defy gravity as he sprang to his feet jerking Tessa up roughly by the back of her shirt. Flames of fire licked up the sides of trees and danced recklessly at the tops of evergreens only to bend as if to hand their destruction to other life forms around them. He nudged her firmly toward the fire. “We’re cut off, Tessa. Down the trail is our only choice!”
How a body could freeze amongst the inferno, confused her momentarily as Tessa watched in awe at the burning Hummer. She struggled with knowing the death trap crept toward them for its final assault.
Snatching her hand, Chase must have felt pieces of twigs and gravel embedded in her palm with the wet trickle of blood mingling with his own. Just as Tessa turned her wide eyes of terror up at him, Chase yanked on her arm to get her moving after him. “Move!”
The smoke swirled around them like some twisted death dance. Flecks of fire rained down so quickly that their progress became a zigzag of jerky movements to avoid being burned by the tentacles of flashing flame and dead tree limbs.
Tessa’s eyes watered so heavily that the lightly applied mascara began leaving black trails of fear down her cheeks. She yelled her lungs burned as she began coughing and staggering after the captain. He pulled her after him at a dead run. She had not expected the intense sound of burning debris, dried underbrush and tree bark, to be so deafening. Tessa found it confusing and disorienting as she clung with both hands to Chase Hunter’s outstretched arm.
If she slowed, he jerked. If she stumbled, he paused a split second to let her fall into him only to rush forward again, dragging her out of breath body with him. Besides stomping impatiently ahead, Chase failed to exhibit any fear or concern as to where he led them.
Just when Tessa thought she couldn’t take another step he stopped shortly and pulled her up beside him. “We can’t go any further, Tessa,” he yelled above the fire.
Tessa looked around her, alarmed that they’d been boxed in by the raging fire. The heat seemed to scorch their skin as it began to enclose them in a ring of hell. “Dear Lord!” she cried as Chase pulled her forward.
It was then she realized they teetered on the edge of a cliff. Below roared a river created by a waterfall still full of late spring rains from mid-May. The opposite side of the ravine smoldered with burnt underbrush and pine needles. Fire had already devoured its beauty and had moved on to the ripe hillside where they stood.
“What do we do?” Tessa yelled above the fire. She hadn’t realized her hands clutched Chase’s forearms in some desperate plea for rescue.
“Jump!”
Tessa pulled away, choking on her fear of heights. Shaking her head obstinately, Tessa pointed at the water below. “I can’t! I won’t! There’s gotta be another way!”
Chase reached out and grabbed her roughly by the arm and jerked her forward. “You’ve got two choices. Jump or I’ll have my way with you here and now like I should’ve done in the middle of the night. I’ve got nothing to lose,” he grinned sardonically as he narrowed his eyes. “I’ll burn now or burn in hell. Makes no difference to me.”
Horrified at the dilemma, Tessa opened her mouth to protest when Chase jerked her into his arms and squeezed so hard, she felt faint. Struggling wasn’t an option as he stepped off the cliff and began to drop into the churning waters below. Something like a scream escaped from deep inside her.
She felt Chase release her seconds before water swallowed her, knocking the breath from her seared lungs. Feeling the flow of liquid into her throat caused Tessa to fight at the invisible hand of death until a cloud of eternal darkness began its final hold on her soul.
~ ~ ~
Chase fought his way to the top of the turbulent pool and looked around for Tessa. Diving back under the water, he saw her stop fighting and grow limp with surrender. Grabbing her around the waist he swam upwards and then to shore where he dragged her limp body out and began CPR.
When she began to spit and cough up water he rolled her over not caring that he had straddled her body with his legs. Gently, Chase pushed the matted blond curls away from her face along with the soot and smeared mascara. Realization slowly swam up into her eyes that Captain Chase Hunter had only been scaring her into a decision she couldn’t make alone.
Tessa coughed one more time and wiped the spit and water from her mouth as she smiled weakly up at her protector. “I was going to choose having your way with me.”
Chase laughed. “Next time I feel like bursting into flame, I’ll remember that,” he said standing up and pulling Tessa up into his arms where he steadied her wobbly legs.
~ ~ ~
She weakly pushed at his chest, not liking the way he made her feel so safe and something else she couldn’t identify. “Lost your chance, big guy.” Tessa staggered a bit as she pushed her hair back and tied it up into a knot. “But,” she smiled in spite of herself, “thanks. I’ll try and save you some day.”
Chase started down the burnt trail. “We’ve got to get to Global. Can you do it?”
Tessa squared her shoulders. “Do I have a choice?” she said trying awkwardly to keep up with Chase’s already long strides.
For every one step he took, Tessa scrambled to take two, sometimes three. “Freakin’ robot,” she muttered under her breath. When Chase turned and frowned back at her as if he also possessed some supersonic hearing capability, Tessa decided to keep her thoughts to herself.
She kept a vigilant eye on the ridge above them knowing that the sweep of fire could very well cut off their escape further up the trail. The pungent smell of smoke clung to her body as she tried to spit the taste of ashes from her mouth. Sweat mingled with the remaining river water evaporating from her torn blouse and jeans.
The trail meandered upward for what seemed an eternity. Tessa felt like they’d been walking far longer than was true. The squish of wet tennis shoes managed to make her steps awkward and unsure as she followed after the captain like a lost puppy.
Resentment returned to her consciousness, knowing that once again, she depended on a man to save the day. All her life men stepped in to protect their little Tessa; her father, brothers, her husband and now the mighty Captain Chase Hunter.
A part of her just wanted to be given a semiautomatic and turned loose. Maybe she could be the next Tomb Raider or female Jason Bourne. Scenarios played rapidly in her head when something large and hard loomed in front of her. “Oh!” Tessa found herself stumbling backwards until her feet flew out from under her.
~ ~ ~
“What are you doing?” Chase asked with his arms folded across his chest. He had turned back to see Tessa falling behind, staring into oblivion, barely putting one foot in front of the other. He waited patiently, not an easy task for him, so she could catch up only to have her plow into him with a glazed look in her eyes. Hearing a grunt from her parched lips, he watched her sprawl backwards onto her bottom.
Tessa quickly masked her embarrassment by a cynical retort. “Trying to figure a way to get us out of this mess.
She began a clumsy attempt at trying to stand only to slip and land on her butt harder than the first time. The uncontrolled laugh of the captain and his large frame moving to assist clumsy attempt at standing halted before reaching out to touch her.
Chase understood the hands-off gesture and folded his arms across his chest again, forcing patience upon himself. “And how will you save the day, Mrs. Tessa Scott, because up until now you’ve been a great deal of trouble.”
Tessa took a deep breath as she shoved at his chest. “Trouble! Trouble!” Throwing her hands up in the air, she elbowed her way past him and headed up the trail. “You don’t know what trouble is, buster. When we get done here my husband, the lawyer, thank you very much, is going to fry your high and mighty attitude in court.” Chase had easily caught up and remained quiet. “I’ve been attached to a bomb…”
“It wasn’t a bomb,” he added.
Tessa waved him off. “I thought it was a bomb! Shut up!”
“Sorry. Continue.”
“Kidnapped. Dragged half way across the country and back, delivered a baby, shot at, forced the indignity of sharing a motel room with you…”
“Now that hurt,” Chase said drily as he laid a hand over his heart.
“A cheap motel room at that,” she snorted. “I’ve been hog tied, left for dead…”
“With all due respect, if you had only listened…”
Tessa held up a hand to silence the captain, “nearly burned alive, and pushed off a cliff…”
“I gave you a choice,” he said with an amused shrug.
“Nearly drowned and now forced on a death march through an eerie scorched land that leads to nowhere!. I’m tired, I stink…”
“I noticed,” he smiled.
Tessa halted suddenly as she reached down and picked up several rocks. Hurling them at the captain seemed to give her much pleasure when one hit him in the leg. Only a minute flinch of Chase’s eye indicated it smarted. He leveled on of his wide, disarming grin which managed to force her to reach for another rock. He overpowered by his unexpected grip on her wrist. He squeezed the wrist so tightly that the rock dropped to the ground.
“Feel better?” he said in a condescending voice.
“Don’t patronize me, you over grown Neanderthal. I want to go home. I want to see my family.”
A tidal wave of regret washed over Chase, knowing that he kept the truth of Robert and the kids hidden from her. He couldn’t risk Tessa being paralyzed with the stark reality of getting involved with all things connected to national security. In the end the price of her sacrifice would be greater than the gratitude of the thousands she helped save.
Tempted fate never revealed a happy ending and Tessa plummeted toward a revelation she’d have to live with the rest of her life. If only you’d gone to Tahoe with Robert, he thought regretfully. I can’t save you from what’s ahead.
~ ~ ~
Jerking her hand free, Tessa rubbed the wrist furiously to start the circulation of blood again. That strange contemptible look of danger Chase so often exhibited dropped on her. In the last week she’d watched him pummel a man on her kitchen floor, unload his weapon into a dead man, or so he claimed, shoot with deadly aim in a fire fight at one of the most secure laboratories in the country, and save her life on several occasions.
He showed no fear. Paranoia crept into the back of her mind. When this all came to a conclusion, what then? Realizing that she knew too much about all their secret shenanigans at Enigma, buried inside a California university, would she become a victim? The phrase ‘silence is golden’ began to take on new meaning as Chase nodded up the path, expecting her to follow blindly.
~ ~ ~
“What’s going on, Chase? Who shot at us? Where’s Zoric and Mr. Crawley? Shouldn’t we be seeing the cavalry swoop in by now?” Already she found herself panting. “Join a gym” kept popping up on her to do list.
Chase continued steadily up a steep part of the trail, reaching back occasionally to pull Tessa forward so he didn’t have to wait for her to navigate the pit falls of the eroded trail created by spring rains. “Donno.”
His tone, matter-of-fact, failed to end Tessa’s stream of endless questions. How much further? Can we stop a minute? How do you know Honey Lynch? Does Carter still work for NASA? How did you come to work for Enigma? How did Enigma originate? How do you know Essid? Blah. Blah. Blah. Chase stopped listening until he realized Tessa no longer trailed behind him. He turned to see her propped against a boulder, hands on her knees, trying to suck in more oxygen.
Patiently, he waited for her to lean back against the boulder. Even now, disheveled, ripped clothes, smudged face and stinking of river water and burned wood, Tessa looked like an angel to him. That pain tapped at his chest again just as he diverted his eyes to survey the surroundings. Out of shape and exhausted, Tessa remained a trooper when it came to pressing on in the face of adversity. He saw resolve in her eyes but her body screamed ‘enough’.
“Let’s rest,” he said standing so still all sounds became magnified.
“Are you…” she began hesitantly.
Chase turned his laser-focus toward Tessa, causing her to swallow with a gulp. “More questions. I would’ve thought you’d run out by now,” he snapped.
“It’s not like you’ve answered any of them,” she said softly, hoping to disarm him like she did Robert. He frowned and took an angry step toward her confirmed once more, he hoped, that he man was nothing like her Robert.
“One question. Then no more,” he warned.
“Are you going to kill me when this is all over,” she said so casually that Chase hesitated to answer.
The realization that this woman thought him a cold-hearted monster caused that tap of pain in his chest again. Got to see the doctor, he thought with disgust.
He’d left his weapon at the Hummer and it most likely looked like a piece of melted plastic by now. He’d just removed his gun from the holster moments before to make sure it was loaded and ready. Laying it on the front seat he’d turned to go to the back of the Hummer for extra magazines. When bullets began flying Chase’s first instinct was to protect Tessa. By the time the bullets stopped, retrieving the weapon was out of the question.
His hand slid to his belt, where the soft, damp sheath holding his knife, easily pulled free with the tug of his fingers. Holding it up in front of him, Chase walked quickly to Tessa. The sound of shock escaped her mouth as she started to edge off the boulder and down the path only to feel Chase’s hard grip on her elbow that jerked her to a stop.
The raw fear looming in her eyes softened his anger enough to openly search her face with confusion. Why Tessa Scott? Why me? The thought of losing her in this fight because of his obstinate attitude and ego sobered him. The tremble in her arm as he pulled against the resistance Tessa exhibited, encouraged him that just maybe she’d be able to take care of herself if he were captured or killed. Squeezing her wrist so hard that the palm of her hand popped open, Chase laid the knife gently within her hold.
Quickly removing the sheath from his belt, Chase unzipped her pants only to feel her squirm away. “Look if I wanted you, which I don’t, I could’ve easily taken care of that last night. Now stand still. I’m trying to hide this inside your pants in case we’re taken. They’ll tear me apart looking for weapons, but not you.” Tessa nodded in surrender as Chase unbuttoned the last barrier before slipping his hands inside her jeans.
The steady movement of his hands caused Tessa to divert her eyes up through the trees at first but ultimately curiosity forced her to watch his face. The skillful way Chase looped the sheath to lie next to her skin sent shivers up her spine. A fleeting thought of regret at not taking advantage of the two for one sale at Victoria Secrets managed to cloud her confidence when she remembered the panties Chase slid his hand against were the St. Patrick’s Day special from Wal-Mart. Nothing said sexy like a bunch of smiling leprechauns holding shamrocks. Dear God, let me live until I can go to the next lingerie sale.
“There.” Chase carefully, almost slowly, zipped up Tessa’s jeans and buttoned them before she had time to protest. “In the event we’re captured, hopefully the luck of the Irish will be with you,” he grinned. Embarrassment edged up into her face giving Tessa a healthy rosy color. “Robert’s a lucky man,” he said in his best Irish brogue.
Tessa smoothed her ragged blouse over the edge of her waist. “Very funny. One more Irish comment…” Tessa pushed at Chase’s close proximity to no avail. His warm laugh caught her so off guard that she couldn’t complete the empty threat.
“You seem to forget pretty quickly that I’m the good guy,” Chase said realizing his nearness unnerved her. “We’re in this together and no, I’m not going to kill you when this is all over. However, you’ll not be able to access anything that has gone on with this mission.”
“So, are you going to put on dark glasses and flash me with some Pentagon pen that erases my memory?” Tessa said flippantly.
“Something like that,” he said as he turned away.
“What? Seriously? You can do that?”
His warm laughter spilled unexpectedly out again. “Someone watches too many movies.” He started back up the trail. “Come on. We’re not that far now.” He suddenly stopped and turned to face her as she tried to catch up. “Tessa, you’ve got to trust me from here on out. I need one hundred percent from you no matter what I say or do.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. If all hell breaks loose, I need to know I can count on you. Things are not always what they seem. You’ve got to believe in me. No more doubting, escape attempts, complaining or trying to out maneuver me. Got it?”
Tessa nodded as she licked her dry lips nervously. “I owe you that. I’m,” Tessa pulled back her shoulders, “I’m sorry I accused you of…”
“Forget it. We get through this and I’ll get you some big girl panties,” he laughed as he heard Tessa’s exasperated snort.
The day faded quickly in the mountains as did the thought of escape in Tessa’s mind. This man really meant her no harm. It just was unnerving being so close to a real American hero. Captain Chase Hunter would remain unknown to millions for his efforts. His team carried on the work without them, hopefully safe at Global, waiting for help to arrive without incident so the mission could be put to rest once and for all.
Essid would be captured and dealt a blow of justice. Her family, vacationing at Tahoe, would never know how close to disaster the country had come and the roll she played in saving it. A pride began swelling inside her. Finally, her life made a difference. Nothing would ever be the same for her.
Chapter 25
B enjamin Clark could smell the smoke of the burning fires around Auburn and the nearby foothills even before he saw the flames devouring hundred-year-old trees. From the helicopter he could see firefighters scrambling to cut its march short as smaller fires were lit and debris pulled away from the hungry monster that Essid created to insure no outside interference compromised his recovery of the isotopes.
The Enigma Series Boxed Set Page 27
