by Cherry Adair
“I knew.” Only because he’d been called by one of the Cape Town operatives minutes after Beth had been snatched from the hotel. When he’d asked that they keep an eye on her, Sam hadn’t specified just how closely he’d wanted her watched. Close enough not to be kidnapped would have seemed logical. To him anyway. Thank God they knew who to notify.
Sam had someone following the kidnappers’ trail while he’d jetted halfway around the world to retrieve Beth from her captors.
“Thank God,” she said with utmost sincerity.
“Ready?”
In answer she took hold of his belt, and Sam moved out.
“That OR was state-of-the-art, and equipped for anything and everything. I can only imagine how many millions of dollars it cost to install that way out here in the middle of nowhere.”
“Could you have done it?”
“Nobody could have done it in his time frame. Interesting that he targeted Lynne Randall, but didn’t research how long that procedure would take. And to answer your question: If I’d had to perform the surgery I could have done it, I suppose. But not well. The last time I did that sort of thing was during a five-month rotation in med school. Plastic surgeons—goods ones—are part practitioner, part artist. I can’t even draw a stick figure.”
Sam chuckled. Thadiwe was a butt-ugly individual already. He didn’t see how anything could make him look worse.
“Fortunately you won’t be doing any surgeries. You’ll be out of the country before he realizes you’ve gone.”
“From your lips…”
Sam had already extrapolated Thadiwe’s location to the next action. Without Beth he’d find another doctor. Somewhere. Right now Sam was the only one who knew where the son of a bitch was located. He’d have to return and take him out. But first things first.
Get Beth downriver by boat, then drive her the ten miles to the waiting chopper. Get her on board and on her way to Cape Town where a private jet waited to return her to Montana.
“How soon do you think they’ll come after us?”
“Long after we’re gone.” No point anticipating the worst. He figured he had until daylight to reach the boat Desi was bringing to a preassigned location. They’d be cruising down the Congo River before Thadiwe’s men realized she’d escaped. Three hours. Tops.
They needed five.
CHAPTER FOUR - TROPICAL HEAT
A gorilla, sounding oddly doglike, barked in the distance. A warning? Or was the primate merely heralding daylight?
While it was still oppressively dark, Sam could almost feel the rapid approach of morning as the animals started to stir. Soon they’d be moving toward water. There was an elephant trail somewhere around here he knew from his earlier trek in. Walking on that open trail would save time, but it also meant encountering animals who had the same idea.
Mosquitoes and gnats, flies and other insects didn’t give a damn if it was night or day. They swarmed and dive-bombed them as they walked. The gorilla barked again, and this time it was answered by its mate. Beth stepped in closer to him, her fingers tight on his belt.
He chuckled.
“Good grief, Sam,” she whispered. “How can you laugh at a time like this?”
“I’ve finally got you where I want you.”
“Kidnapped and running for our lives in a rain forest?”
“Alone. Without distractions.”
“Boy, you live a crazy life if you consider this a place without distractions.”
“No ex-husband. No clinic. A few tangos and a few plants are nothing.”
She laughed. “A few p—Crazy man.”
“The divorce was final a year from last week, right?”
She didn’t say anything for several seconds. “How’s that relevant?”
Sam held aside a branch, tugging Beth under his arm to clear it. Instead of replacing her hand on his belt, he shoved the NVGs out of the way on top of his head and turned around to curl her into his arms. “Plenty enough time to get over any lingering regrets or Monday-morning quarterbacking about your marriage.” Screw resisting. Having Beth this close in the steamy darkness was like waving crack under an addict’s nose.
Resistance was futile.
He’d held off for a full year. He was done waiting for her to catch up. Sam brushed her lips with his. She kept her mouth firmly closed. Lifting his head, he said softly, “Put your arms around my neck and open your mouth.”
“Mosquitoes,” she mumbled, tightlipped.
He chuckled. “Tongues are mosquito-free zones,” he assured her, nibbling at her now parted lips, which were firm and warm and tasted like promise. He tightened his arm around her waist until her body was pressed flush against his. Hell, she felt good. Better than good. Imagining them both naked, Sam closed his eyes and savored the moment while around them the darkness seethed with life. And death.
He drank Beth’s sigh and deepened the kiss, sweeping his tongue into the warm recesses of her mouth. The first stroke of her tongue against his sent a shudder down his spine. His body went from a gentle, bearable simmer, to a full-out boil.
Sam kissed Beth the way he’d wanted to from the first time he’d met her. Full throttle. No holding back.
Burrowing his free hand in her hair, Sam tilted her head back while he feasted on her mouth. Her arms slid around his waist, and she hugged him to her with the same ferocity he was feeling. Sam raked his teeth across her bottom lip, and she made a low sound of need as his tongue tangled with hers.
A macaw swooped between the branches over their heads, squawking loudly. Beth pulled away with a high-pitched shriek.
Hardly flattering.
Sam tightened his arm around her waist, feeling the thump-thump-thump of her heart against his rib cage. “Keep it down, sweetheart. It was only a bird.”
“Sorry,” she muttered. “It took me by surprise. I hate birds.”
He brushed a kiss to the top of her head and hugged her more tightly. “You hate—How can you hate birds?”
“They’re like rats with wings.” Her entire body shuddered.
The place was a minefield of venomous snakes, flesh-eating animals and warring tribesmen, and she was afraid of birds? Sam shook his head. “Better get used to them.” He pulled the NVGs back over his eyes. “There are over a thousand species in the rain forest. You’d better not scream every time you see one.”
Good thing she couldn’t see the hundreds of birds perched in the trees surrounding them. Three curious round-faced chimps had been keeping pace with them, swinging from branch to branch, their eyes gleaming white in Sam’s NVGs. Now they stopped to watch, tails and fingers wrapped around branches.
“You couldn’t be more out of your element if you tried.” Sam resumed walking. The wet, muddy ground and vegetation underfoot made walking exhausting. Add to that her stress, and fear, and she needed a break. A break he didn’t have time to give her. A moment or two kissing would have to do as both a break and a distraction.
He waved away a swarm of tiny moths dancing inches from his face and hoped Beth wasn’t spooked by everything with wings. “Remind me again why coming to deepest, darkest Africa was a cool idea?”
“Adventure.” This time her voice was dry, but it held a faint thread of nerves.
Adventure, for God’s sake. He didn’t remind her that he’d pointed out all the dangers inherent in going to one of the most dangerous countries in the world. And South Africa was a cakewalk compared to Huren. “You’re lucky you weren’t killed. Next time you want goddamned adventure, take me up on my offer.”
“Which offer was that? A ride on your motorcycle? Or the ride on you? I don’t consider sex an adventure. Sorry, Sam, but that can’t compare with this experience. Other than in both instances I’d be sweaty. Possibly panting.”
“I’m insulted,” he said, amused as hell. She’d be panting and sweaty, all right. He couldn’t wait. “You find sex boring, do you?” A statement like that from a woman, especially this woman, was like waving a red flag at
a bull.
“It’s pleasant,” she muttered, damning one of life’s greatest perks with faint praise.
“With Bob it was pleasant.”
“Rob.”
“Because you weren’t that into each other.”
“We were married.”
“Sex between two people who want each other more than their next breath can be explosive.”
“I’ll take your word for it. I’ve taken life far too seriously up until now. School, school, and school. Opening my practice, building my practice. Long hours at the clinic—I’ve been living life in black and white. I want a little Technicolor.” She sounded resolved if not enthusiastic.
“Admittedly not as much Technicolor as being kidnapped at gunpoint, but something a few notches down from this would suit me just fine.”
Sam vowed she’d have as much Technicolor as she could handle. Soon. “What does your family think about this wild idea you got about coming to Africa?”
“My sister’s been in Mallaruza for a couple of months, and loves it. I thought starting out slowly by going to Cape Town would give me the flavor of Africa. I also wanted to experience the people and different culture—”
“You were kidnapped and taken to a country even more dangerous than the first.”
“Thank you for reminding me. I’m already scared out of my wits. I bet my sister would love every insane second of this. Kess isn’t scared of anything.”
“Then she’s a moron,” Sam told her bluntly. He hadn’t met Beth’s sister. But she sounded like a flake with a death wish to him. He had no idea why Beth was so determined that she could or should match her sister’s rash behavior. Especially when she didn’t have the stomach for it.
“So you’re the sane one, and she’s the wild one?”
“I’m the boring daughter, and Kess is the bold one. She’s always taking exciting vacations, which is why I wanted to do something bold for once.”
“But why Africa? With your love of Italian food, why not Italy?”
“I’m saving that to go with—”
“With?”
“Somebody.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know yet,” she said, sounding cross. “Someone special. Probably my sister.”
Liar. If she were going to go with her sister she would have done so already. “Why didn’t you go with your husband?”
“He liked American vacations.”
“Yeah? How many of those did you take together?”
“We were too busy going to med school and starting the practice. There are plenty of places in the States where you can learn new techniques. Plenty of places that are exciting and different. Didn’t have to be Africa.”
“Didn’t have to be. But was.”
He set a grueling pace to make up time. When necessary, he slashed a path through the vegetation with the machete. Gnats and mosquitoes swarmed around them, heard but unseen in the dark. He’d made sure that every inch of exposed skin was covered in DEET, but the chances of getting bitten anyway were high.
Thank God she was able to keep up, her hand a small, hard ball of a fist clutching the back of his belt. He’d always wanted Dr. Goodall’s small hand down his pants, Sam thought wryly as he shoved a large leaf out of the way, then held it so it wouldn’t lash back. This wasn’t what he’d had in mind.
He was aware of her every breath as she trudged along behind him. He was pushing it, trying to put as much distance as he could between them and the compound before they realized she’d flown the coop. Trying to get to the river. Trying not to give her the tongue-lashing she deserved for coming to a war-torn country in the middle of fucking nowhere to prove a point that wasn’t even important.
A rustle in a nearby shrub made him turn his head just in time to see the horizontally striped butt-end of an okapi. The deer like animal, closely related to a giraffe, darted through the underbrush unleashing a troupe of chimps, who chatted and screeched their annoyance at being woken.
A glance up at the jigsaw puzzle pieces of charcoal-colored sky now visible between the tree canopy told him dawn was on its way. Once the sun rose, the animals would be in search of food and water, making them even more alert to predators. Which was precisely why Sam had set up the extraction point at the most likely spot they used to drink.
The original plan had been to arrive hours before the beasts of the jungle came down to the river. Letting the activity of the animals mask their departure. So much for that plan.
Changing strategy as he walked, Sam decided that he’d park Beth somewhere upriver, and go down and get the boat on his own. He’d move faster and could, if necessary, misdirect anyone on their tail.
They would come after her. Thadiwe had worked too damn hard to get a physician here. He wasn’t going to let Beth go without a fight.
Well, Sam wasn’t going to give her up without a goddamned fight either.
“How did you know where to find me?”
“I know people in low places.” He didn’t bother mentioning that he’d almost puked with fear when those people had informed him who had snatched Beth.
He’d come to Africa to bring her body home.
CHAPTER FIVE - TROPICAL HEAT
Sam had said it would take three hours to get to the river. Surely they’d walked for longer than that? While Sam moved through the stygian darkness with a lithe, powerful sure-footedness, Elizabeth’s calves and lungs burned, and her skin itched despite the temperature-regulated suit. She was damn sure Kess wouldn’t be huffing and puffing, mentally begging to stop so she could sit down and rest. No, her sister would be leading the way. She might not know where she was going or how to get there, Elizabeth thought with a small smile, but no one following Kess would know it.
The only reality in Elizabeth’s world was her grip on Sam’s belt as she stumbled blindly in his wake, stubbing her booted toes on roots and vines. And while she could easily picture him in her mind’s eye, that image didn’t in any way gel with the man who’d come to rescue her. With the man who’d kissed her so passionately it had made her blood race through her veins and her heart hammer.
She hated not being in control. And she hadn’t been in control of her own fate from the moment she’d been snatched from Lynne’s hotel room.
“How’s the hand?”
It throbbed, but that was to be expected. “Okay.”
“Tell me if it isn’t. Don’t try and be brave. An infection here can kill you.”
“I’m a doctor, Sam. I know. Thanks to you, it’s f—”
Suddenly his palm covered her mouth. Elizabeth gulped down the reactive scream, but felt it vibrate in her chest as he whispered against her ear. “Shh. Company.”
She froze. Oh, God. She hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary. If walking in the pitch dark through a rain forest filled with snakes and monkeys and more birds than anyone could imagine could be considered ordinary.
“Down.” He tugged at her arm, bending low with her. His voice was so muted it was almost more a feeling than a sound. His arm brushed hers and she realized he was removing the pack from his back. She heard a soft thud as it landed on the damp ground next to her. “Know how to fire a gun?” he whispered, his lips against her ear.
Elizabeth shook her head. “I sew up holes in people, not make them.”
“I’ll give you a crash course.”
She shook her head again. A tiny thrill of adrenaline swirled in her belly. A big believer in self-defense, she’d spent too much time in the ER to actually pull a trigger. Or so she thought. Life or death.
Despite her refusal, Sam wrapped her non-sliced hand around what was clearly a big gun. A very big, very heavy gun. Her fingers closed around the ribbed stock. It felt weird, foreign. “I’d rather you take it,” she whispered back urgently. It was only as she flexed her stiff fingers that she realized just how tightly she’d been gripping his belt.
Sam positioned her fingers, his touch playing havoc with her good judgment. “Won’t need it. S
afety’s off. Point and shoot. Fires eight hundred rounds a minute. You won’t miss. When I come back I’ll whistle like this.” He whistled a sweet, sharp, incredibly realistic bird call. Elizabeth hoped to hell no birds came to see who was calling them.
“Wait—you’re leaving me?”
Screaming sounded more humane than aiming a gun and taking a life. The scream was again building in her chest. She tamped down the fear. She needed to think rationally and be alert. Being scared right now wasn’t an option. She eased into a slightly more comfortable crouch by millimeters.
Now she heard them. Footsteps. Leaves rustling. Breathing. She wanted to plead with Sam to hunch down with her, to wait until whoever it was passed. But she knew he’d be proactive.
He brushed a quick kiss across her nose, light as a butterfly’s wing. “Stay low.” One second he was right there, the next he was gone. She knew he’d left, not because he made any noise, but because she could no longer feel his presence beside her.
“Be careful,” she mouthed.
The raucous sounds of the jungle closed in on her, as did the oppressive darkness. She’d outgrown her fear of the bogyman in her closet long before her tenth birthday, but this darkness scared the bejesus out of her. The dangers here were very real. And imminent.
Crouched uncomfortably in the thick, inky darkness, Elizabeth waited, her heartbeat sounding like thunder in her ears, her jaw clenched to prevent crying out every time something crawled over her bare hands, or some creepy critter brushed her face. She tried not to imagine what that was sitting lightly on her cheek, or what the weight was on the instep of her right boot. She bit off the scream that surged up her throat as a bird shot out of a nearby shrub as if catapulted. Dragging in a shuddering breath, she held it until her heart settled down. She was dammed if she’d have a freaking heart attack because a bird flew past her.
Better than thinking about men tracking her with guns, mile-long centipedes, poisonous ants, poisonous frogs and, of course, a multitude of poisonous snakes.
