by Nic Saint
“I don’t think you’d like her when she’s upset,” opined Roland. They’d reached the other end of the clearing and when he looked back, she was still standing sentry, watching their retreat, the rifle held loosely in her hand.
It was a pity, he felt, that he hadn’t had the chance to get to know her better. He had the distinct impression he would have liked her.
As Alicia watched father and son disappear into the thicket, she felt a weight being lifted from her shoulders and she heaved a deep sigh of relief. She didn’t like these confrontations, especially with men as dangerous-looking as this so-called bird specialist. If he was a scientist she was a ten-dollar hooker. The way he talked and held himself, the guy was obviously bad news. Throughout their altercation, she’d had the impression he’d been the one in charge all along. If he’d wanted to, he could have disarmed her in a heartbeat. Why hadn’t he? Perhaps he wasn’t one of Bashar’s men after all?
Returning inside, she decided not to ponder the question. Whoever or whatever he was, he was gone now, never to return. She’d seen to that. The moment they unpacked the little surprise she’d wrapped up for them, they’d run like the devil and would never darken her doorstep again.
She grinned. One of the things her daddy had taught her before he left.
She plunked down on the bed, her rifle held over her chest, and stared up at the wooden beams she and Dad had used to shore up the ceiling. If only he were still here, things wouldn’t be this hopeless…
A tear stole into her eye, and then another, and as she lay perfectly still, gazing up with unseeing eyes, they slid silently down her cheeks.
Chapter 4
Roland thought he’d never seen an uglier thing. They’d opened the bag—on Kevin’s insistence after putting some distance between themselves and the ‘crazy person’—and had found what she’d promised: a hunk of bread and a bottle of water, a hand drawn map accompanying the meager supplies.
But it was the other thing that had arrested their attention. After emptying the bag of its contents, they’d found a small snake at the bottom, and a live one at that.
Kevin had jumped about a foot in the air, while Roland had regarded the reptile coolly, judging it harmless, and had picked it up between thumb and forefinger for a closer study.
“I told you, man! She’s nuts! Let’s get the hell out of here like frickin’ now!”
Roland studied the small snake. It was a water snake, he’d quickly concluded, the only thing posing a mystery to him what it was doing here in the middle of the jungle. And why had the woman planted it in their bag in the first place?
“She put it there to scare us off,” answered Kevin the unuttered question.
Roland had to agree with the reporter’s assessment. Most likely their benefactor had planted the snake so they wouldn’t return.
“It’s a water snake,” he murmured, placing it back inside the bag.
Kevin eyed him incredulously, his eyes almost popping out of his head. “So? Who cares, man? A snake is a snake is a snake, right? Isn’t that what the Bard said?”
“I think Shakespeare was actually referring to a rose.”
For a moment Kevin resembled a bird as he flapped his arms wildly. “Just… dump the thing and let’s get the hell out of here!” He gestured at the small map. “If we just keep following along, we’ll be back on the trail in no time.”
Roland shook his head. “Nope.” He rose to his feet, closing the plastic bag with the snake inside.
Kevin stared at him, bug-eyed. “Nope? What do you mean, nope?”
“That map’s not right.”
“What? Man, you’re not making any sense!”
Resolutely, he set foot for the clearing they’d just left behind. Gesturing with the bag, he declared, “This is a water snake, Kev.”
Tripping behind him, hollered, “You said that already. Now what’s your point, man?”
“Where there’s water snakes, there’s usually water.”
“You speak in riddles, old man. Mind to elaborate?”
He held up the bag. “She put this snake in here to scare us off, same way she drew that map to send us on a wild goose chase. Only thing that makes sense here?”
Kevin clutched at his hair. “Nothing makes sense! Absolutely nothing!”
“There’s water nearby here somewhere, buddy. A river, most likely. Find the river, find our way out of this godforsaken jungle. Capisce?”
Kevin’s face suddenly lit up with illumination and he cackled loudly. “Brilliant! That’s brilliant! Find the river and—where is this fucking river?”
He shrugged. “Let’s find it.”
“Let’s—” He looked from Roland to the clearing that had just loomed up in front of them. “Oh, no. No, no, no, no, man.” He pointed a frantic finger at him. “We’re not going back to that gun-toting maniac, hombre. No way!”
Roland merely shrugged and kept on walking. When the cabin came into view, his mouth set and he gripped the bag a little tighter. Time to return the lady’s gift.
Alicia got up from her bunk with a groan. The heat was suppressive. Even after all this time, she still hadn’t gotten used to it. She was glad she’d soon kick the dust off her feet and leave this place for good.
Things had quickly deteriorated lately. Not only Bashar’s operation was encroaching on her territory, but police had started showing up, demanding kickbacks to allow her to finish her work.
It had taken her all this time to build what she had, she didn’t intend to let those bastards take it away from her now. A sudden knock on the door had her jerk up in surprise. She quickly swung her rifle up and approached the door wearily.
“Who is it?” she hollered.
“The bird guy,” a gruff voice answered. “We’re here to return your gift.”
Her heart skipped a beat. Dammit. She should have known he wouldn’t be scared off this easily.
“What, you don’t like a little snack?” she yelled as she inched back, her weapon aimed at the front door and where she assumed the guy’s head would be. “Plenty of proteins!”
“Look, either you open this door or I’m coming in,” he warned.
“Come in and you’re dead,” she cried.
“Fair enough.”
He must have put his foot against the wood, then, for it splintered under his boot as the door swung in with so much force, she jerked back with a yelp. The next moment, two powerful hands were on her and she landed on the floor with a slam that knocked the wind right out of her. The rifle was taken from her hands, and when she looked up, she found herself staring into the barrel of what looked like the business end of a .44.
The bird guy’s jaw worked as he growled, “Now, why don’t we start over? I think we got off on the wrong foot.”
“Yeah, let’s start the fuck over,” agreed the little guy holding her rifle.
“Careful you don’t hurt yourself, pipsqueak,” she said. “You look like you’ve never even seen a gun let alone hold one in your sweaty little hands.”
“My hands aren’t—I’ve seen a gun before, lady!”
“Shut up,” grunted the big guy, and the pesky tyke closed his mouth with a click.
“At least something we agree on,” she ventured.
“What’s that?”
“Your son is one annoying little prick.”
A slow smile spread across his features and he gave her a curt nod.
“Hey! I’m right here!” yelled the man’s son.
“So you are,” agreed the man. “And I think it’s time you weren’t.” He followed this up with what must have been the nastiest look Alicia had ever seen anyone conjure up. The son had no difficulty getting the point, and with a grumble he disappeared out the door.
The man grabbed a chair and straddled it, then eyed her intently. “Now why don’t you tell me all about yourself, honey, starting from where you got that snake from.”
“I ain’t telling you shit, buddy,” she countered, but then he coc
ked that .44 of his, and she swallowed convulsively. She could read it in his eyes. This man had killed before, and he would do it again in a heartbeat. “At least let me get up.”
He nodded at the bed, and she moved over and sat down, both his intent gaze and the barrel of his gun following her closely. “Now spill,” he commanded.
She sighed. “What do you want to know?”
He offered her a wolfish grin. “Everything, gorgeous. Absolutely everything.”
Chapter 5
“I don’t think…”
“No need to think,” he returned. “Just start talking. Now!”
She gave him a dirty look and resigned herself to have her secrets exposed. This man wouldn’t take no for an answer and neither would she be able to bullshit him. “All right,” she finally relented. “My dad and I came out here a year ago. Dad’s a prominent forest ecologist and he’d been tasked by UNESCO to draw up an environmental impact assessment on logging in these parts of the rain forest. I was finishing up my doctor’s thesis on the same topic and decided to join him.”
“A year. You been out here a full year?”
She nodded. “We met with some setbacks. Local tribes didn’t want us here, and neither did the drug traffickers the place is swarming with.”
“Where’s your dad?”
Her face betrayed her distress. “I—he didn’t come back from one of his field trips.”
“When was this?”
She shrugged. “About six months ago?”
“Police?”
She barked a curt laugh. “Yeah, right.”
“Why did you stick around?”
“Dad and I started this. I thought it only fitting I should be the one to finish it. Otherwise all our work would have been in vain. At least now I can salvage something from the wreck.”
He gave this some thought, and she noticed his features had softened. Perhaps he wasn’t such a bad man after all?
“What’s your father’s name?”
“Professor Vincent Sumner.”
“And yours?”
She shot him a confused look. Why the fifty questions? “Alicia Sumner.”
“Nice to meet you, Alicia.”
“Yeah. Real pleasure,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she eyed the gun.
He laughed and lowered it. “Sorry about that.” He gestured at the door. “And that. You’re the one shoved a rifle in my face, though.”
“That’s because I thought you were one of Bashar’s guys.”
He shook his head. “Told you. I don’t know any Bashar.”
“He’s the local drug lord. Runs Coyatan like he owns it.”
He shrugged noncommittally. “That’s too bad.”
She studied him for a moment. He seemed truthful enough. Perhaps he really was an ornithologist? “I, erm, I’m sorry about the map.”
He arched an eyebrow. “And the snake.”
She grinned. “Yeah, that, too.”
Roland studied the young woman intently. A keen judge of character, he believed her story. That, and he seemed to remember reading an article on her father. Something about oil drilling in the Amazon and the disastrous effects on both the environment and the indigenous peoples. The article hadn’t made mention of a daughter, though, or the fact that she was this stunning.
Her raven hair had come undone in the scuffle and long strands fell across her face and shoulders, the bandana she’d used to tie them up with lying on the floor now. She looked wild, and a little dangerous, with her face flushed, her chest heaving, and those incredible blue eyes shooting sheets of flame across the room.
If he hadn’t been here on business, he wouldn’t have minded to make her acquaintance, and perhaps a lot more. As matters now stood, though, he needed to get back to civilization pronto, and process what little information he’d gathered. That’s where Kevin came in. The young man might be a pain in the ass, but he was an up-and-coming reporter who was hungry to break into the big leagues, and this story on the link between the Colombian drug trade and Harlan de Montesquieu was his claim to fame.
“What do you plan to do with me?” she breathed.
He watched little droplets of sweat trickle down her cleavage, and thought he could see her dark areolae delineated through the white cotton. No bra. Suddenly an image of the two of them naked and sweaty on that little cot of hers flashed through his mind, and he felt immediate liftoff in his crotch. God, she was hot, and he wasn’t merely referring to the temperature, which had risen several degrees since he’d taken a seat across from her.
He swiped an arm across his brow, his eyes boring into hers. She was panting, her chest rising and falling rapidly, and her hands pressed down on the thin mattress, ready for the spring if he dared make a move.
Alicia could sense the change in the atmosphere as distinctly as the man did. He was eyeing her with lust in his gaze and all the telltale signs of danger flashed rapidly. Her body, on full alert now, was ready to defend itself against this intruder. Men had looked at her like this many times before, and each time it had taken the threat of a knife to the gut or a bullet to the brain to ward them off.
This time was different. He was holding all the cards and she was defenseless against the brute. If he chose to have his way with her he could, she knew, and there was little she could do to stop him.
And then there was that strange sensation in the pit of her stomach that told her she wasn’t absolutely averse to his dubious charms either. He was handsome in a dark and dangerous sort of way. The strong jawline betrayed remarkable power, as did the hard planes and sharp cut of his face, his lips a malevolent slash and his eyes, a striking dark green, brooking no dissent. Here obviously sat a man used to getting his way.
He was licking his lips now, and she thought she detected a glint of menace in those eyes. She felt a shiver of apprehension and delight race up her spine at the thought of those powerful hands, now grasping the gun loosely, ravaging her body. He’d strip off her shirt in a heartbeat, and would find nothing but bare skin beneath, her nipples brown, puckered and erect, yearning for his touch.
She could feel the moistness spread between her thighs as arousal held her in its grip. It had been too long since she’d been with a man. Far too long, and she suddenly felt overcome with a startling desire stronger than herself.
“Why don’t you show me to the river,” he suddenly barked hoarsely, averting his gaze, and she weakly nodded, slowly rising from the bed that had been her home for the past year.
He’d risen to his feet same as she, and they were now facing each other, mere inches apart, her bosom heaving and falling and almost touching his chest. She felt that same strange weakness affecting her once more as her breath caught in her throat.
He reached out a hand, then, and cupped her chin, raising her eyes to meet his. Dark and foreboding, they were unreadable, and when his thumb brushed across her lips she had to fight the urge to suck its tip between her lips.
Sexual tension was crackling between them, the electricity sufficient to power a small city, and they stood there, gazing into each other’s eyes, for the longest time while neither spoke. Then he suddenly let go, and she stumbled back a few paces.
He’d turned abruptly and stalked out the door before she had the chance to recover. She took in several gulps of air. What the hell just happened? Had she almost thrown herself at this stranger’s mercy? Get a grip, Alicia, she thought. Get a fucking grip. You might be desperate to get laid, but you’re not that desperate!
Shaking her head, she picked up her bandana from the floor, and used it to tie her wayward locks back from her brow and sweat-drenched collar. She then followed the man outside, intent on getting him out of her life as soon as possible before she self-combusted or did something insanely stupid.
She’d survived twelve months in the jungle, her work almost done. Now wasn’t the time to fall apart and throw it all away on some hunky stranger. Desperate to keep it together, she stepped out from the cabin a
nd faced the two men bravely, willing her face to betray nothing of the turmoil that stirred inside.
“Let’s go,” she announced curtly, and started leading the Costners, father and son, away from her jungle home.
Chapter 6
“Don’t go anywhere without me,” warned Roland the young man traipsing beside him. “Place is dangerous.”
“No need to tell me, old man,” shot back Kevin. He eyed the young woman acting as their guide intently. “I have my eye on her. She won’t catch me unawares a second time.”
Roland couldn’t help but smile at that comment. Alicia Sumner wasn’t dangerous at all, a least not to life and limb. She was a young woman trying to survive out here, which must have proved pretty difficult when the professor had disappeared. He felt for her now, and could understand where she was coming from.
The only danger he now saw was his own attraction to her. He knew how treacherous the ways of the heart could be, and had vowed a long time ago not to fall prey to their wiles. When he ever hooked up with a woman—or rather if—he’d make sure she was a worthy addition to the Thornton family. As the heir to a large fortune, it was incumbent upon him to select the right female to safeguard the future of his family and provide them with an heir worthy of the Thornton crown.
For Scott, his younger brother, these considerations didn’t play, and he’d selected as his mate for life a woman who was seriously damaged by life and the loves she’d lost. He loved Anna Moonstone like a sister, and thought she was absolutely right for his little brother, but she was definitely not the kind of woman he’d go for. Sexually the girl was aberrant to say the least, but Scott loved her and that was all that mattered.
He eyed Alicia as she sashayed out in front of them, leading the way down a jungle trail that was well-rutted by years of passage. He imagined her taking this route every day and wondered what had compelled her to stick around after her father had gone missing. Pride in his work, perhaps. The desire to finish what he and she started.
