“That’s how Mac got you down here? He hired you?”
He nodded, and she saw his anger in the stiffening of his posture. “I had no idea it was Mac. Some guy I’d never met called and said he wanted me to go to Chipultipe. I said no thanks, because I didn’t want to come back to San Marcos. But he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, as they say.”
“What was that?”
“Money,” he said bluntly. “My business is growing, and I want to expand. But to do that, I need a chunk of money. With what this guy was going to pay me I could hire an associate and get more office space.”
“Weren’t you a little suspicious that he was willing to pay you so much for such a simple job?”
“I suppose I was, but I told myself he was rich and desperate. The job sounded easy enough, and I really needed the money. I figured it couldn’t be that tough to escort a woman and her kid to the capital city.”
“Famous last words, Remington?”
“Nah.” He turned around and gave her a grin. It was the first time she’d seen him smile, and her breath caught in her chest. “So far it’s been a piece of cake.”
“Yep, it’s been a real Sunday stroll in the park.” Paolo stirred on her lap, and she looked down at him anxiously.
“Is he all right?” Chase asked.
Andi looked at him, startled. “Why do you think he’s not?”
Chase shrugged. “He’s been moving around a lot. He doesn’t usually do that when he sleeps.”
“You’re right.” She stared at him. “That’s very observant of you. I didn’t think you paid that much attention to Paolo.”
He shrugged again. “He’s the wild card in this out-fit. We can’t control what he does, but it affects us big-time. I have to pay attention to him.”
His voice was offhand, but he turned around again and looked at the baby. Andi could see the concern in his eyes. It made her soften inside.
“Remington, you are a big fraud,” she said with a smile. “You’re nuts about him, aren’t you?”
Chase scowled. “He’s a kid and kids are cute. What’s not to like?”
Her laugh bubbled out of her throat. “He’s got you wrapped around his little finger, hasn’t he?”
“Cut it out, McGinnis. Just make sure he’s all right.”
Her smile faded as she looked down at Paolo again. He was still sleeping, but he was indeed moving restlessly. “I don’t know,” she said. “And every once in a while he whimpers in his sleep.”
“My dog does that sometimes. Maybe he’s just dreaming.”
In spite of her worry, she had to stifle a snort of laughter. “He’s not a dog, Remington. He’s a baby.”
“Who says babies can’t dream?”
“I’m sure they can. But I don’t remember him acting like this before.”
“Do you want to stop?”
Andi looked down at the sleeping Paolo for a moment and wondered if they should. She was worried about him. “No,” she finally said. “We need to make up the time we spent plugging the hole.”
“All right.”
The canoe slipped silently through the darkness, and Andi brushed a hand over Paolo’s downy hair. His mouth pursed in his sleep, and he let out another whimper. She wondered if he was getting hungry again. As she was reaching for a bottle from the backpack, he opened his eyes and stared at her.
Picking him up, she cuddled him in the curve of her arm and offered him the bottle. After one taste he turned his head away. Andi nuzzled his neck and murmured, “What’s the matter, sweetie? Are you just restless like Chase and me?”
Paolo gave a short fretful cry, then reached for Andi’s face. But instead of smiling and gurgling like he usually did, he cried out again. Andi shifted him so that he was resting against her shoulder and patted his back. After squirming for a few minutes he belched, then seemed to settle down.
“How’s he doing?” Chase asked.
“Well, he didn’t want to eat and he’s still restless. I’m afraid something’s wrong, but I don’t know what.”
At that moment Paolo let out a piercing scream and his tiny body went rigid. As Andi patted his back, his muscles finally relaxed, but he began sobbing.
“I think we need to stop,” Andi said to Chase. “I need to find out what’s wrong with him.”
Chase turned the canoe toward the riverbank and, reaching for the rope, quickly secured it to a tree that hung over the water. Then he jumped out and reached for Paolo.
Andi handed him the baby and watched as he tucked the infant carefully into the crook of one arm. Then he extended his hand to Andi and helped her out of the canoe.
“Let’s get a look at him,” Chase murmured. He nodded at his backpack. “My flashlight should be right on top.”
Andi found the flashlight, then took a blanket out of her pack. She spread it on the ground, then waited for Chase to lay Paolo on top of it.
He seemed reluctant to put the baby down, but he finally set him gently on the ground. Andi trained her flashlight on Paolo, being careful not to shine the light in his eyes.
There were tears on his cheeks, but she didn’t notice anything else unusual. She laid a hand on his forehead. “He doesn’t feel feverish,” she said after a moment.
“Maybe he has some insect bites,” Chase suggested.
“Let’s look.”
They lifted his shirt and examined his tender skin, but they didn’t see any bites. “I’ll check his diaper,” Andi said.
A few moments later she rocked back on her heels. “That’s the problem,” she said. “He has diarrhea. He’s probably got cramps. No wonder he’s been restless.”
“Why would he have diarrhea?” Chase leaned over the baby, frowning with concern.
“Because I haven’t heated the water for his formula,” she answered grimly. “I worried about it, but I knew we couldn’t take the chance on building a fire when we were so close to the village. I was afraid it would give us away. So I just gave him the formula without boiling the water.”
“I put the water through the purifier.” Chase looked up at her and she saw the worry in his eyes.
“I know. And that works fine for us, but I guess not for an infant.” She picked Paolo up and held him closely. “Poor baby. No wonder you’ve been restless.”
“What can we do for him?”
“We can start by heating the water we use to mix his formula.”
“We’d still be taking a chance if we build a fire at night,” Chase said.
Andi rubbed Paolo’s back and was pleased when he belched again. “Then I guess we’ll have to wait until daylight. I’ve changed his diaper. I don’t think he’s going to want to eat much right now, anyway.”
“I have some diarrhea medicine in my first-aid kit,” Chase said. “Should we give him some of that?”
Andi stared at him, unsure. “I don’t know. It’s medicine for adults.”
Before Chase could answer, Paolo began to cry again. His painful hiccuping sobs tore at her heart. Finally she said, “Let’s give him just a little and see what happens.”
Chase tore through his pack and finally pulled out the first-aid box. Opening it up, he took out a bottle of liquid medicine and held the flashlight on the directions.
“This says to give an adult two to three teaspoons, three times a day.” He looked up at her. “So how much should we give a baby?”
“Maybe just a few drops.” Andi glanced down at Paolo, fear churning in her stomach. “We can always give him more.”
“All right.” Chase put the flashlight on the ground and held the bottle. “How should I do this?”
“Pour a few drops into the cap, and I’ll dribble it into his mouth.”
She watched Chase carefully measure out a few drops of the medicine and realized his hands were shaking. He was just as scared for Paolo as she was. Even through her worry, her heart warmed at the thought.
Paolo choked and cried when she dropped the medicine into his mouth, but she rubbe
d his back and murmured to him, and he finally calmed down. She and Chase sat on the bank of the river watching him until his eyes drooped and he fell asleep.
“Is he all right? Should he fall asleep like that?” Chase asked, leaning over to look at Paolo.
“I have no idea. But if he’s sleeping, he can’t be in pain.”
Chase looked up at her. “What do you want to do? Should we wait here and see what happens? Or do you want to get back into the canoe and continue down the river?”
“What do you think?” Andi asked.
“As long as he’s sleeping, I think we should keep moving,” Chase replied. “We can stop again when he wakes up. But there’s really no reason to stay here if he’s going to sleep for a while.”
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
They continued down the river as the sun rose. Before long, its heat beat down on them, and sweat poured off Chase. Andi could see he was tiring. He kept up his steady strokes of the paddle, but they weren’t moving as fast.
“Why don’t you let me take a turn paddling the canoe?” she said. “You can hold Paolo for a while.”
“I’m stronger than you, McGinnis. It makes more sense for me to paddle.”
“I know you’re stronger, but you’ve been paddling all night. You need to rest.”
He met her gaze. “McGinnis, it doesn’t make any sense for you to paddle the canoe. That’s not using our resources to the maximum.”
“Our resources won’t do us a damn bit of good if they collapse from exhaustion,” she said as she leaned forward and handed him the sleeping Paolo. He took the baby automatically and she grabbed the paddle. “I’ll do this while you rest for a while and eat something.”
He stared at her for a moment, then looked down at the baby. “You always were a bossy one, McGinnis,” he murmured. But he didn’t sound angry.
“You haven’t seen bossy yet, Remington,” she retorted. “You lose the paddle because you’re too tired to hang on to it, and you’ll find out just how bossy I can be.”
“I’m shaking with fear.”
“You’re a smart man.”
After a few moments Chase rummaged in his pack and pulled out a packet of freeze-dried food, then dumped some of the water from his canteen into it. When he’d finished eating, he looked at her and said quietly, “Thank you, Andi.”
She felt her face heating. “What for? Bossing you around?”
He studied her for a moment, then gave a half grin. “Among other things. Everyone needs some bossing around once in a while.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, almost stumbling on the words. She didn’t really want to see that light in Chase’s eyes. She didn’t really want to feel his approval—and bask in it.
She needed to change the subject and she needed to do it now, before she made a total fool of herself. She looked away and nodded at the jungle that pressed so close to the river. “I haven’t seen a sign of anyone since it got light.”
His eyes shifted, but not before she saw what could have been a flicker of disappointment in them. “With any luck we won’t see a soul for a long time.”
He shifted on the hard seat of the canoe, but held Paolo carefully against his body. She noticed that he hadn’t set the baby on his lap once. He’d held the infant in his arms ever since she handed Paolo to him.
“I’ll just keep going, then.”
“I can take over again,” he said.
She shook her head. “I’m fine. It feels good to do something after sitting still all night.”
“Yeah, you’ve been doing nothing but sitting around and eating chocolates for the past two days. You sure do need the exercise.”
She grinned. “I’m glad you understand.”
They moved along for the next hour as the sun rose steadily higher in the sky. Andi’s arms were tiring, but she’d die before she admitted that to Chase. He’d been murmuring in a low voice to Paolo, and when she wasn’t scanning the jungle, Andi watched them.
Paolo, awake now, began kicking his legs and waving his arms, his gaze on Chase, and pretty soon Andi could hear the baby giggling. She saw that Chase was making faces at him. Paolo was delighted.
Chase eventually turned around and said, “He’s getting pretty lively. Do you think we should stop?”
“I don’t want to stop, but we probably should.” She kept paddling, although her arms felt leaden. “I’ll keep my eye open for a good spot.”
In another fifteen minutes she saw a small clearing on the edge of the river, large enough to pull the canoe ashore. She paddled toward it.
As they reached the bank, Chase turned around and handed Paolo to her. Then he jumped out and pulled the front end of the canoe onto the bank. He reached for Paolo, and Andi realized that her arms were shaking as she handed him the baby.
After setting Paolo on the ground, Chase turned back to Andi, lifting her out of the boat. She thought his hands lingered at her waist for moments longer than they needed to, then he let her go and pulled the canoe all the way onto the shore.
“Why don’t you stay here with Paolo for a few minutes? I’m going to take a look behind us and find a spot to rest. I’d rather not be in full view of anyone going down the river. We haven’t seen a soul, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
She nodded, too exhausted to answer. Chase disappeared into the brush, and she turned to Paolo.
“How are you doing, big guy?” she crooned as she bent over him. She tried to pick him up, but her arms still shook too badly. She could manage a diaper change, though, and as she worked, he beamed at her. “I think you are feeling better,” she said. “Wait until Chase hears that.”
“Wait until I hear what?”
She spun around to see Chase standing behind her. “I didn’t hear you.’
“I know. You were just too busy with junior.”
“I think he’s feeling a little better. That medicine must have helped.”
“Should we give him more?”
She nodded. “A little, perhaps.”
He filled the cap of the bottle and handed it to her. But her hands were still shaking so much that she couldn’t get the cap close to Paolo’s mouth. After a moment she felt Chase’s hands on hers. “Let me do it.”
He set the capful of medicine on the ground, then picked Paolo up. More gently than she could have imagined, he bent over the baby and got him to open his mouth. Chase then dribbled the medicine in, patting Paolo’s back while he swallowed.
“You do that like a pro,” she murmured, touched at Chase’s gentleness with the baby.
He shrugged. “I just watched you last time.”
He kept Paolo in his arms, rocking him almost absently. “Your arms are still trembling from all that paddling.”
Andi looked at her hands, then hid them behind her back. “I’m fine. Are we ready to leave?”
Chase continued to rock Paolo. “Not yet. I think we need to heat some water and eat something as long as we’re stopped.”
“All right.” She looked around for firewood. “Where do you want to build a fire?”
“We don’t have to do that. I have a small stove in my pack.”
Andi stopped and stared at him. “Why would you bring a stove for what you thought was going to be a simple trip by car?”
“I’m always prepared, McGinnis.” His face hardened. “I learned when I was working for Mac that if something can go wrong, it will. So I think of everything that can go wrong on a job, then add ten more things. And I make sure I have everything I need for all those problems.”
But he hadn’t had anything in his pack to save his partner from being killed, Andi thought. Nothing could have prevented Richard’s death. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing. From the forbidding look on his face, she suspected he was.
“I’m glad,” she said quietly. “It’ll be a lot easier than trying to start a fire.”
The hardness on his face eased. “Why don’t you take the kid and I’ll start heating some
water.”
Andi took Paolo out of his arms. The baby’s eyelids were starting to droop again, and she wondered if the medicine made him sleepy.
“I’m sorry if I brought up painful memories,” she said quietly. “I didn’t think.”
“Don’t worry about it.” His face closed again. “I don’t intend to.”
Chase scowled as he watched Andi murmur to Paolo. It was a damn good thing she’d made him remember what had happened with Richard. He’d almost forgotten the lesson Richard’s death had taught him—never get involved with someone you’re working with.
Andi was dangerous. She made him forget the rules, forget lessons he’d learned too early in life. He’d survived for thirty years by trusting no one, and he didn’t intend to change his habits now.
He deliberately turned away as she crooned to the baby. Sure, it made his heart twist in his chest to look at her with the kid. Hell, he’d already more than half fallen for Paolo himself. But Paolo didn’t count. He was just a baby, and babies couldn’t let you down. He was safe. And he wouldn’t see the kid after Monterez, anyway.
That made him wonder what was going to happen to Paolo, and he scowled again. He didn’t care. There were all kinds of agencies to handle things like that. It wasn’t any of his business.
He stomped down to the river to gather water and waited while it ran through the purifier, trying to put the image of Paolo alone and afraid out of his mind. He busied himself by watching the river and the surrounding area, watching for signs of human presence. When he’d filled his canteen, he poured the water into the small pan that sat on top of the stove and waited for the water to boil.
It took an hour to boil a sufficient quantity. Finally, when everything was stowed away in their packs and the canoe was hidden from sight, he knew he had to get some sleep. Both he and Andi had been running on adrenaline since they’d left Chipultipe, but they were going to crash soon if they didn’t take care of themselves. He pulled a package of mosquito netting out of his pack, then lay down next to Andi and Paolo. After covering the three of them with the netting, he allowed himself to fall asleep.
Chapter 7
Family on the Run Page 7
