by Pamela Clare
Certainly not Allie. That scientist had cared so little she’d stomped on his heart and strolled away laughing.
In the next instant, Jin’s saucy mouth was back. “Yes. I worry you will fall on top of me and I cannot move a mountain.”
He took short steps, picking his way up the rutted incline. She wasn’t kidding about it getting rocky here. “So I’m a mountain, huh?”
She looked away, embarrassed, a smile teasing her lips. “Yes, too big and thick with brains made of rocks.”
But she’d been so busy bantering with him that she hadn’t noticed how he’d turned her in his arms and was carrying her. Otherwise the little hornet would demand he put her down.
She still shivered, but her teeth weren’t chattering.
It took until the water had fallen to his waist before she sat up and looked around. Taking in her situation, she cocked her head at him. “Why are you still holding me?”
“Guess I like it.”
He’d shocked her into silence again, but when she wiggled and demanded to be put down he lowered her feet to the rocks.
She turned to walk and stumbled forward.
He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her to her feet, turning her to face him. “Don’t get in a rush. We still have to wait on the others.”
She didn’t fight him. In fact, she put her hands up on his chest and every muscle inside him clenched. Just when he was sure the water had taken the starch out of his hard-on and he could walk straight again, she had to touch him.
He was in a country with a deadly dictator and his team still didn’t have a clear route out, but his body evidently didn’t care about those little insignificant details when it came to wanting a pretty woman.
Because his body wanted this one.
That just proved that there wasn’t even a small brain in the little head.
Chapter Eight
Jin couldn’t make herself move with this mountain holding her arms. His hands were strong and careful at the same time.
His touch turned her body into one big mass of nerves that had apparently gone crazy, if she was thinking about the tenderness hiding in this man’s gruff voice instead of the threat he represented. He’d thrown her off balance in the water and still had not said a thing about her wanting to defect.
What did that mean?
He would refuse her.
She was not on his mission plan. But how could he leave her here knowing what she’d face if she returned to the lab? By now, they had searched her research area and the sad place she called home. Going back was out of the question. She had risked all, thinking the Americans would welcome one more defector.
No, you risked all to save your sister.
She would not be left behind when Pang and Har were the only way she could locate her sister.
Jin had been so careful. How could she have come this far without negotiating a deal? It was this mountain’s voice. She had yet to see his entire face, but she’d let his voice and protective actions convince her he was somehow different from all the other men she’d ever known. That he was not the kind of man who would leave her to fend for herself the way her father had left her mother.
But the longer this Bo took to confirm he was taking her with him all the way, the less she believed in that possibility.
Women should never trust men, no matter what.
This one cared only about his mission.
Her heart argued that he’d been genuinely concerned about hitting her head.
Speaking of that, between the cold and her roller coaster emotions, she’d forgotten about cracking her skull against that rock ceiling, but it was starting to hurt. When she reached up inside her hood, her fingers touched dampness too sticky to be water.
Long fingers wrapped her wrist and tugged gently. “Let me see your head.”
He had the advantage of that night-vision eyepiece and she was still moving around blind in the dark. She shook off his hand. “I am fine.”
“I’ll tell you when you’re fine.”
He was grouchy as a bear. A mountain bear.
He turned her around slowly and eased back her hood then prodded lightly at the top of her throbbing head. She hissed in pain and reached up to pull the hood back in place.
“Dammit all to hell, woman. What a mess.”
She stepped out of his reach and turned on him, hands on her hips, snapping her words in the direction of his voice. “Do not curse at me. This is not my fault.”
“No, it’s my fault.”
This man kept surprising her.
What male, especially American, would ever admit anything was his fault? Her father had not used protection when he slept with her nineteen-year-old mother, then pointed out that it was her fault she’d become pregnant and thus, getting unpregnant was also her problem.
The mountain bear grumbled, “I’ll get you taken care of as soon as the others catch up.”
The words were hardly out of his mouth when Har started coughing and flailing his arms. It sounded like he was thirty or forty meters back.
She had only a moment before the entire group would once again be assembled. Drawing a calming breath, she gave another try at convincing this cowboy to take her with Pang and Har. First she reached for his arm, but her hand landed on his chest.
He moved with lightning reflexes and grabbed her wrist, firmly this time. “What do you want?”
“To talk to you.”
“What were you reaching for?”
“Your arm, to gain your attention. Do you not realize I am still blind in this darkness?” He must have thought she was trying to take something off of his vest. Some of his gear or a weapon maybe. Proof that all of her efforts to help him had not won even a small bit of his trust. She clamped her lips shut to keep from ripping into him again. How many times had her mother told her that one who baits a trap with vinegar instead of honey captures only frustration? Jin had not experienced much honey from others in her life and found it difficult to play the sweet female even now.
He released her wrist. “You have my attention.”
“I must go with you. I was in the lab with Pang and Har. I know much about their assignments.” More than the Americans realized existed. “You may not recognize my value, but your State Department will.”
Taking his time replying, he asked, “What exactly did you do?”
“Research and testing, just as they did.”
“So you are a scientist, too.” He had not asked a question, but made a grim declaration.
Why was her admission disappointing to him? “I am a researcher.”
He muttered, “Potato, potahto. Same difference.”
She had no idea how it had happened, but admitting her background had not improved her chances of leaving with these men. Pang and Har could not arrive in the United States without her. They were Jin’s only hope for locating her sister.
She’d promised her mother she would keep her sister safe no matter what. Upholding that promise might end with Jin’s death, but her sister would do the same for her. Ten months apart in age, they’d been closer than twins growing up and always protected each other.
“Hold your hand out, Jin.”
When his voice broke into her thoughts, she snapped out a quick, “Why?”
“Are you suspicious of everything?”
“Just as you are. Would you not be, in my shoes?”
“Point taken. I’m handing you the penlight so you can see where you’re going, but remember to keep the beam pointed down.”
She held her hand out and the tiny flashlight landed in her palm. The moment she turned on the light and saw the others in the ambient glow, her chest relaxed with a tiny bit of relief.
Had this cowboy realized she needed something to feel back in control?
That would mean he’d shown her consideration she didn’t want to assign to him.
“Take a look at her head,” he told the shortest man on his team, who was still a lot taller than she w
as. “She hit it on the rock ceiling.”
She wanted to say, You hit my head, but instead suggested, “I can wait until we reach the storm drain. It connects to this and is large enough for us to stop and rest.”
She could see her mountain’s face, or at least his one eye that stayed focused on her as he considered her words. He finally asked, “Everyone ready to move out again?”
Har’s coughing sounded awful and he was shaking. “I am cold.”
Blade stepped up, reached into a pocket on his vest, and pulled out a thin silver material folded in a square. He shook it open and put the covering around Har’s shoulders, explaining, “That should warm you up quick once you get moving.”
Pang hunched his shoulders, probably not as cold as Har with his extra body weight. He lifted his head and speared Jin with a look of contempt.
The same look she’d faced for weeks now.
But this time his gaze held something more than hate. His eyes said he’d figured out what she was up to and would not allow her to reach her goal. He did not want her to leave Korea with them and he knew what she’d face with his boss being interrogated.
At least, he did not know the real reason why she had to follow him to America.
Once again, she led the way through a tunnel that zigzagged back and forth as the floor constantly rose. They stopped three times for Har to catch his breath before she found a wooden ladder that climbed up to a grate access for the storm drain.
As usual, the cowboy scaled the ladder first and unlatched the grate in the wall of the storm drain that had been re-engineered to open into the tunnel area by the people she knew. If someone looked through the grate from inside the storm drain, they would only see the dirt wall two feet away, or a black hole if they looked down.
Jin was second to reach the opening. Once she stepped into the open space that was twice as tall as she was and just as wide across, her stomach turned at the stench of stagnant water six inches deep. She hurried out of the way as the other men came up next.
Pang needed help dragging his bulk through the narrow space.
She shouldn’t have enjoyed his moment of panic at possibly being stuck, but even a diamond came with flaws.
She was no diamond, but she could live with hers.
As each member of Bo’s team emerged from the tunnels, they went into action with little said between them. One guided Pang and Har to the side where a rectangle of two-foot-thick concrete running down one side of the drain allowed a place to sit.
The other two men set up observation points in each direction with their weapons ready.
These men worked in sync as if they read each other’s thoughts. Even if she had not come along, she now believed they would have found a way out of this country. It was hardcoded in their DNA to never stop trying to succeed.
But they should realize that she’d saved them time, even if they had ended up being chased by soldiers.
Who were these men?
She’d expected a military team to take Pang and Har safely from the DPRK to the US. The fact that this team’s leader had denied being military when Jin’s instincts were screaming that he was, gave her plenty of reason to worry.
What if they were private operators who had nothing to do with the US government? What if they had intercepted the message intended for the US State Department and were here to kidnap Pang and Har to use for a trade?
Or to use the information promised to the Americans.
For the first time since getting grabbed in the Ryugyong Hotel, she had a moment to sort through what she’d walked into, but she couldn’t turn back now.
She’d left damning evidence against Myong, Pang and Har’s boss, that had been located too soon, but she would not feel bad about that. Not after she’d learned the real reason a young woman, four years younger than Jin, had committed suicide last year. Myong had kept the technician late one night, saying she had made mistakes in her lab tests that had to be corrected.
Then he’d raped her.
The young woman could not face her husband so she’d sliced her wrists. As bad as that was, Jin had learned that Myong had a thirteen-year-old niece coming to live with him after her single mother had died in a freak accident. Jin suspected it had not been a true accident. Myong had always been mean to small children, but his eyes would turn lecherous when he saw a teenage girl.
He would not survive interrogation to harm another girl, but Jin was not sure just how much he knew about Har and Pang’s defection.
The real surprise had been finding soldiers outside her apartment when she’d rushed home from the lab to take what she needed to leave.
The only reason the DPRK would have gone hunting Jin was because someone had tipped off the soldiers that she was not attending the ceremonies, and cast suspicion on her.
But now Jin had to consider a new possibility.
Pang or Har could be working secretly with the DPRK to catch defectors. One of them might not be loyal to the secret organization that arranged this defection.
Her skin chilled at the idea that everyone present could be heading toward an ambush at any moment if one of these two physicists was not really defecting.
Should she tell her mountain or just keep her eyes open for anything unexpected?
Would anyone on this team believe her when she was not part of their mission? No.
If they were sent by the US or even another country, they would suspect her before casting a questionable look at Pang or Har when even she could not determine whether either of those two men was playing a role.
Her head ached with so many conflicting possibilities.
She couldn’t function if she allowed fear or suspicion to drive her thoughts. For now, she would assume that this team was from the US and that the two physicists were still on task to reach America.
But she would be watching every man here with a new set of eyes and stand ready to question anything that did not sound true.
The cowboy walked up with one of his men. “Let him take a look at your head, Jin.”
Did everything have to be an order? She didn’t even know what to call these men. Was it too much trouble to give her a name, even a false one? “Do the rest of you have names?”
Before the mountain could snarl at her, the other man said, “I’m Blade. You already know he’s Bo.” Next, Blade pointed at the tall one standing guard. “He’s the Italian Stallion and the other one is Dingo.”
Bo the mountain let out a sound that was part sigh and part growl. “Back to your head, Jin.”
She lowered her hood, but sent him a warning glance about ordering her around. He wouldn’t notice, though.
Blade flipped up his night-vision eyepiece and stepped over to her. He had a nice face that belonged on a doctor, but on a team like this, he would be only a medic. He reached inside his vest and pulled out a flashlight smaller than hers. “Turn around and let me take a look.”
She did as told. This time she pulled the pin holding her hair in a knot.
Their medic made noises of concern. “You can get by without stitches, but I need to clean that and put some antiseptic on it.”
“I understand,” she said, giving her permission for him to proceed.
Bo stepped into view. He’d lifted his night-vision eyepiece, too, and pulled the hood back from his head as well. Dark hair sprang loose around the straps of his headgear. He had a strong jaw, something she’d always thought necessary for a man to be attractive.
Not that she considered this one attractive.
And now you are lying to yourself.
Blade touched her head with something cold that stung. She flinched.
Bo reacted by glaring over her head at Blade. “Be careful.”
“Think you can do better?”
“No.”
“Then shut the hell up.”
She waited for the backlash from Bo, but he just rolled his eyes and shook it off. Odd. She was considering that when she lifted her gaze to check his r
eaction again and found him staring down at her, studying her face with great interest. His gaze shifted with concern one minute and annoyance the next.
Everything about this man confused her except for one thing.
She found no acceptance in his eyes.
He would leave her behind at the first opportunity.
Chapter Nine
A scientist.
Okay, researcher in a lab, but the same difference as far as Tanner was concerned.
He needed a shovel slapped upside his head for having a momentary attraction back in the tunnel. This Jin had shown up at the last second ready to lead him out of the city. She’d convinced him that their mission had been blown.
But the bottom line was that she wanted a free ride to America.
What if she’d been the one to alert the soldiers to Pang and Har’s defection just to destroy Tanner’s first exit strategy and undermine his faith in any other plan?
If so, that had worked brilliantly.
She’d been involved somewhere in the communication line for this extraction and must have decided that as long as Pang and Har had friends helping them, she’d jump on the same ticket out of town.
Tanner could appreciate wanting to leave this place after the atrocities the world saw committed upon these people every day, but something about the way Jin had inserted herself into this mission hadn’t set well with him since he’d dragged her out of that bogus hotel.
Maybe she had nothing to do with any of the fallout tonight and just wanted to defect.
She had a sister somewhere.
If Jin were captured, her sister would end up in a prison camp even if they killed Jin, because the DPRK punished everyone related when anyone dared to break their laws.
Tanner would condemn one woman to death, and another to a life of hell if he made the wrong decision.
He dropped his gaze to Jin just as she looked up at him with soulful eyes that searched his face for answers. Her hair pooled around her shoulders and for the first time tonight, she looked desperate.
