by Cindy Dees
“What if someone volunteers? Is it okay then?” he asked.
She shook her head in the negative. “It’s still wrong.”
He frowned, considering her. He flatly disagreed with her point of view. But given the emotional cost to her life already, he doubted he would change her mind. “That’s why you’re so bent out of shape over me going after the RITA rifle. You’re worried I’ll crack under the stress.”
“Something like that.” She frowned. “You’re an intelligent guy. How can you buy into the whole military brainwashing thing?”
“What brainwashing?” he asked, surprised.
“This business of being a hero for your country. Mom and apple pie and Fourth of July.”
“What’s wrong with that?” he challenged.
“It’s a lie. You don’t come home all proud and happy from war. You come home totally screwed up in the head.”
“Am I screwed up in the head?” he asked.
She glared at him. “Not yet. That’s why I want you to get out now, while you still can.”
“Kimberly,” he said quietly. “I’ve been on over thirty combat missions every bit as harrowing as this one, if not more so. And I’m okay. You said so yourself.”
“Oh, yeah? If you’re so fine, why do you keep going back out? What makes you go on the next mission? And the next? And the next? You’re chasing after some elusive dream that your own government has fed you of being a hero and saving the world.”
He jumped up and paced a few steps, then turned around to face her. “What I do is important. I make a difference. I do make the world a better place.”
She threw up her hands. “See? They’ve got you just where they want you. Believing your own press releases.”
He scowled and stuffed the canteen back into the web belt. She was wrong. He and the men he worked with were heroes. It was real. And it was necessary. He wasn’t about to let her plant any insidious doubts in his mind. Doubt led to weakness and weakness led to hesitation. And hesitation led to death.
“Let’s go,” he bit out.
They walked for most of the afternoon in silence. It was a little after 5:00 p.m. when he stopped abruptly, cursing.
Kimberly came up beside him, peering over his shoulder. “What’s wrong?” she murmured.
He pointed down at the ground in front of them. “The trail forks.”
“And the significance of that is…what?” she asked.
“Ten, maybe twelve, of the rebels split off from the main party and headed to our left, while the other thirty or forty guys continued on that way.” He pointed straight ahead.
“Oh.” She stared down the two convergent trails on the ground. “Which one are we going to follow since neither one is the path not taken?”
He snorted. “Robert Frost ain’t gonna help us now, darlin’. We’re gonna follow whichever one has the rifle.”
“And how do you know which group that is?” she asked, her voice already impressed at his ability to read that from the tracks.
“I don’t.”
“You don’t?” she echoed. “Then which way should we go?”
He shrugged. “The main road’s still off to our left by a mile or two if I don’t miss my guess. The smaller group has no doubt peeled off to head for it. There’s probably a camp of some kind straight ahead of us, and that’s where most of the rebels are headed.”
Kimberly’s next question followed his thought process exactly. “Where would they take the rifle?”
“I can make an argument for either group. The smaller group takes its prize to the road where it can be picked up and whisked off to some overseas producer to be copied. Or, the main group keeps it and takes it to the rebel bosses at their jungle headquarters to show it off.”
Kimberly frowned. “Either logic makes sense.”
“Agreed.” He looked at both sets of tracks and neither gave him any clue which way they should go. He looked up at Kimberly. “So. Which set of tracks would you follow?”
She looked down both trails. “If I had to choose, I’d head for the road. If we don’t find the rifle, then at least we can hitch a ride to a city and get out of here.”
He chuckled, genuinely amused. He had to give her credit for her persistence. “Problem is, if we don’t catch the rebels before they get to the road and get picked up themselves, we’ll completely lose their trail and we’ll have no way of following them. Then we’ll have to backtrack and pick up the trail of the guys who headed deeper into the jungle.”
“How much of a head start do the guys going for the road have on us?” she asked.
“Good question.” He walked several yards down their trail and knelt, examining the ground closely.
“They’re about an hour ahead of us,” he announced.
Kimberly lurched. “I had no idea we were so close to them after that long break we took!” she exclaimed quietly.
He stood up and rejoined her at the fork in the paths. “An hour is too big a gap for us to overcome before they get to the road. We’ll never catch them. And by the time we come all the way back here, the trail deeper into the jungle will be cold. We’re better off following the larger group of soldiers toward wherever they’re going and hoping they’ve got the rifle.”
Kimberly sighed. “Somehow, I knew you were going to say that.”
He grinned at her dismay.
And then a sobering thought struck him.
The smaller, splinter group of rebels had hacked a clear trail through the jungle that Kimberly would have no trouble following all the way to the main road. If she wanted to leave him now and head for home, she’d probably be able to do it by herself. Somebody was bound to stop and pick her up. Lord knew, she could charm a dead man into taking her wherever she wanted to go. Odds were she’d be fine. Even if there was a risk she could be assaulted or raped…
It crossed his mind not to mention it to her. He hated the thought of her being harmed, not to mention being away from her. It was more than the mind-boggling sex he’d miss. He’d gotten accustomed to her presence. He even liked arguing with her. She was smart and articulate, even if some of her ideas were full of crap.
Dammit, he felt protective of her. He wanted to take her all the way home to Washington by himself, to personally tuck her back into her safe little world before he left her side. In the meantime, he wanted to keep her right here with him where he knew she’d be safe.
Except he couldn’t promise to keep her safe in the days to come. His mission was an extremely risky one.
He cared about her too much to be selfish.
He sighed and looked her straight in the eye. “Kimberly, if you want to, you can follow that group of soldiers. They’ve made a clear path you’ll have no trouble following. If you take it slow, they’ll be long gone by the time you reach the road. You can flag down a truck or a bus and get the hell out of here right now if you want. It could be dangerous, but you could be home tomorrow.”
Her green eyes darkened nearly to black as she stared back at him. She swallowed convulsively. “Do you want me to go?” she finally whispered.
“Hell, no, I don’t want you to go!” he exploded.
She stared at him a little longer, her expression softening until he swore he saw tears glistening in her eyes. “If you don’t object,” she said quietly, “I’d rather stay with you.”
His chest felt tight but he managed to squeeze out an answer. “I don’t object.”
Sonofabitch. Who’d have thought she would voluntarily stay for more of the misery and danger she had to know was coming? Relief flooded his gut and he avoided examining her motives too closely. She wasn’t bailing out on him when she had the chance.
Their gazes locked and strong emotion swam in her gaze. Something passed between them. An awareness. An understanding. An acknowledgment that their relationship had changed. They were in this together now.
He didn’t know why in the hell she’d made that choice, but he wasn’t about to question it right now.
All that mattered was that she’d chosen to stay. With him.
“Ready to go chase us an army?” he asked lightly. He grinned at her answering look of dismay.
“Cheer up, darlin’. We should catch ’em within twenty-four hours or so.” He added, “If you’re lucky, they won’t have the rifle and we can go home.”
She looked at him keenly. “Just out of curiosity, do you know what will happen if you go home without the gun?”
“Yeah, that’s easy. I’ll be court-martialed.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Kimberly gulped. “Really?”
He answered casually, “Yeah, really. Colonel Foley gave me a direct order over the phone. He was explicit. Get that rifle back. That’s my duty.”
“It’s not fair!” Kimberly exclaimed. “That’s too difficult a mission to assign to one guy. Isn’t there some law about not having to follow illegal orders?”
Tex grinned. “Yeah, there is, but this isn’t an illegal order. Like I keep telling you, I’ve got the training to carry out the order.”
She huffed. “I realize you’ve got the survival skills of Daniel Boone, and the rock-climbing skills of Spider-Man. But that doesn’t mean you can take on dozens, if not hundreds, of rebel soldiers by yourself.”
“Why not?” he asked blandly.
“This is just the sort of brainwashing I was talking about! Your boss has you convinced you’re some sort of superhero, and you’re not!”
He looked back over his shoulder with a wide grin. “Wanna bet?”
Oo-oh! Sometimes she just wanted to wring his neck.
They walked until early evening and stopped by mutual consent to camp for the night. They fell into the usual routine of Tex going hunting for a spot to sleep while she harvested what berries and ginger root she could find.
She looked up from where she dug as he approached a little while later. He moved with panther-like grace toward her, perfectly at home in this tropical wilderness. His male beauty was stunning.
“I found us a sweet little camping spot,” he announced.
She sighed. “Too bad you didn’t find us a sweet little four-star restaurant while you were at it.”
“All in good time, darlin’. Think how much more you’ll appreciate a fine meal when you get home.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll appreciate a greasy burger from a fast-food joint when I get home.”
“You’re on. I know a little hole-in-the-wall that serves the best burgers on the east coast.”
She looked up at him sharply. There it was again. The casual reference to a future for them after they got out of here. She couldn’t afford to think beyond the present. Each hour, each minute, was enough of a challenge to get through already.
“Come on,” he said quietly. “Let’s bed down early tonight. Tomorrow could be a long day.”
She didn’t need to ask why. He expected to make contact with the rebels tomorrow.
He led her into yet another thicket, but she was surprised when a small clearing opened up in the middle of it. She set up a real camp while he went hunting for water. She set to work weaving a bed like she’d seen Tex do. She had room to lay a small fire so she took care of that, too. Tex had the cigarette lighter, so she’d have to wait until he got back to light it. She laid out the roots and berries she’d stuffed into her shirt over the past couple of hours.
She stood back, pleased by her efforts. She hoped Tex would be, too. Who’d have guessed it was possible to wax domestic in the middle of a tropical jungle? She wasn’t usually the fussy, frou-frou type under any circumstances. Besides, she wasn’t actually being domestic. She was just helping with the chores.
The night noises gradually started up around her. One by one, the different creatures of the dark added their chorus to the overall din. Tex had been gone a long time. She wasn’t exactly worried about him, but she was concerned at what snag he’d run into that had slowed him down.
For once she actually heard him coming. He pushed through the wall of brush, his head emerging at knee level into the little clearing. She lowered the heavy stick she’d held poised over her shoulder.
“Hi, honey, I’m home,” he announced.
She put an irate hand on her hip. “Did you go out with the boys again after work for a drink? I told you to call me when you’re going to be late, Ward.”
He straightened to his full height, grinning. “Sorry, June.” He looked around the clearing at the camp she’d built. “Nice job.”
She felt warm all over.
Tex continued. “We may be staying here for several days, so get comfortable and knock yourself out giving it all the comforts of home.”
She frowned. “Why are we staying here?”
“The rebels are camped about a half-mile away. They’ve arrived at wherever they’re going.”
“Really? And where’s that?”
“A big encampment. Tents enough for something like two hundred men.”
“Is this the rebel headquarters you’ve mentioned seeing before?”
“No. Their headquarters had a compound of permanent buildings. This is a temporary deal. But I’m guessing they’ve been here for a few weeks and plan to be here a couple more.”
“Doing what?” she asked curiously.
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Tex replied grimly. “You’re about to get a crash course in covert surveillance.”
“I don’t think I like the way you just said that,” she responded cautiously.
“It’s tedious work under the best of circumstances, and because we don’t have any binoculars or optical gear, it’s going to be dangerous, too.”
She looked at him intently. “How dangerous?”
“Depends on how close we have to get to see and hear what they’re doing.”
She gulped. That didn’t sound encouraging at all. “Is this the part where we crawl around on the ground with twigs and grass in our hair and make like snakes?”
“Yup.”
“Does this mean more mud?” she asked in resignation.
“Yup. Not the full body deal like before, but on your face and hands for sure.”
She sighed. Well, at least she could scrub that amount of mud off herself on a daily basis.
“Normally a full team would set up a watch rotation where we each take turns observing. Since there’s only me, I’ll have to do all the watching and you’ll have to do the hunting for food and water.”
“Why can’t I take a stint at the watch?” she asked.
He blinked at her in surprise. “You don’t know what to look for.”
“So teach me. How hard can it be to make a list of stuff that I should come get you if I see?”
He considered her idea. “I suppose I could do that. You’re highly intelligent. You’d make the right call…”
A burst of heat spread through her. He thought she was highly intelligent? Cool.
“Even if you just relieved me a couple hours a day, it would let me hunt for real food for us and catch a little nap.” He nodded. “That would help out a lot.”
She grinned and stuck out her hand. “We have a deal, then.”
He took her hand in his, the firm grasp sending shivers across her body. But instead of letting go of the handshake, he tugged her close. “I’d rather seal the deal with a kiss, myself,” he murmured.
She laughed up at him in the gloom. “Why am I not surprised?”
His lips were warm and gentle against hers, kissing her with tenderness tonight. He lingered over the moment and she savored the unhurried mood of the evening.
He ran his hands up and down her arms, chasing away the chill of the night air before he pulled her slowly into his arms. His mouth molded to hers as he enfolded her in his slow heat and easy strength.
She murmured against his chest. “Do you have to go watch the rebels tonight?”
He answered into her hair, “I got close enough to hear that they’re going somewhere nearby tomorrow to enter the last phase of
preparations for something. We’ll need to follow them then. But for tonight, there’s nothing pressing going on. They were all more interested in getting drunk and sleeping in real beds than anything else.”
She groaned quietly. “I don’t even drink, and that sounds great.”
A chuckle rumbled against her ear. “That bed you made looks pretty comfortable. Have you given it a try yet?”
“Nope. For all I know, it’ll collapse the moment we lie down on it, or it’ll poke us all night long.”
He eyed it over her shoulder. “Nah. Looks good from here. Did you learn to do that just by watching me yesterday?”
She nodded.
“Are you the arts and crafts type back home?”
“Heavens, no! I can’t sit still long enough to do anything like that. I don’t have the patience for it.”
“Then I’m doubly impressed at how fast you picked that up. I learned it from bush people in Brazil. They’re very primitive but unbelievably intelligent when it comes to living in the jungle.”
“Do they wear clothes?” she asked innocently.
“No, as a matter of fact, they don’t for the most part. Fabric rots too fast in the heat and humidity to bother with it,” Tex answered laughingly. “Are you proposing that they may have stumbled on an important survival concept?”
“Maybe we should test the theory.”
She felt Tex’s grin against her ear. “I like the way you think, Miss Stanton.”
She ran her palms appreciatively over his solid chest. “I like the way you feel, Captain Monroe.”
Tex was leisurely about everything he did next. It even took him a maddeningly long time to take her clothes off. He paused between every button, kissing her and tasting the new bit of flesh exposed as he slowly peeled back her garments.
By the time she managed to push his hands aside and divest him of his clothes, she was ready to tear them off his back. But even then, he caught her hands in his and restrained her from following her urges. And then he laid her on the bed. If she didn’t say so herself, it was pretty comfortable. The boughs cushioned her body, their resilience absorbing her weight gently.
Tex’s knee landed beside her and he loomed over her, a black shadow in the dark. “Ah, yes,” he remarked. “Just the way I like my beds. A little spring and a lot of woman in them.”
