She gave him a one-shouldered shrug. “Since when did a Travers hide from the dragon? You sure haven’t. Look at you—you’re an army ranger.”
“I was,” Jake said heavily. “That’s done. I can’t go back.”
Tal gave him a gentle look. “I was thinking, Jake…about contacting Morgan Trayhern. I know he has a service, bodyguards, I think. What do you think if I ask him to send someone along down there, to stay with me? Guard me? It would be temporary, of course…maybe two or three months until I can get my feet under me…”
He saw Tal’s brow wrinkle, and noted the searching look in her wide blue eyes. His heart was thudding hard. Ana’s face loomed before him. How badly Jake wanted to see her. And he realized that Tal was lifting the responsibility from him to go down there with her. She was honoring the fact that he had a life to live, too, and she wasn’t going to ask him to come with her. His mind raced. If he went down to guard Tal, he would not be able to see Ana. No, he’d have to remain by his sister’s side at all times, vigilant and alert. He couldn’t just take off when he wanted to, to go visit Ana. That would leave Tal wide-open and vulnerable, and he wouldn’t do that to his healing sibling.
Rubbing his jaw, he said, “Yeah…that might work. I like the idea of you having a merc at your side.”
“I thought you might.” She managed a crooked smile. “Could you call Mr. Trayhern? I don’t know what something like this costs. I’ve got some stocks and mutual funds I could sell to pay for a bodyguard.”
Jake held up his hand. “Let me talk to him, okay? I know he has a fund for people like us who aren’t rich or famous, to pay for his services.”
Reaching out, Tal gripped his hand. “Thanks for being here for me, Jake. I love you so much.”
Squeezing her hand gently, Jake moved over to Tal and gave her a brief hug. Even he, her brother, could feel Tal retreat when he touched her. Oh, it wasn’t really obvious, but Jake could feel her cringing inwardly. He was a man, after all, and a man had wounded her deeply. Jake tried to understand that and tried not to take Tal’s retreat from him personally. “Let me call him. Let’s see what he says,” he whispered as he released her.
Later that night, after a dinner of fried chicken, peas slathered with butter, and mashed potatoes, Jake sat with his family around the kitchen table. His parents, both in their fifties, kept giving him and Tal questioning looks. They knew something was up. Jake cleared his throat and began.
“Mom, Dad, Tal has made up her mind to go back down to Peru.” He saw the shock and worry in their eyes. Holding up his hands, he added quickly, “But she’s going to have an escort, a mercenary who will be with her twenty-four hours a day. Morgan Trayhern is doing this gratis for Tal…for us. The mercenary Mr. Trayhern has chosen will be with Tal for however long she needs him.”
“But,” Susan Travers said as she reached out and gripped her daughter’s hand, “what about Rojas?”
“Mom,” Tal said, “he’s still down there. Mr. Trayhern said in the after-action report he received from Lieutenant Cortina that Rojas was still in business.”
“That means,” Roy Travers said heavily, his gray brows drawing downward, “that you’re still in danger, honey.”
Jake held up his hands. “I’ve got a plan…one that I think will work for all of us.” He gave Tal a hopeful look. “The merc Morgan has assigned has a lot of years in the business and he’s an ex-Navy SEAL. That’s as good as it gets. The man knows his stuff and he’ll protect Tal or die trying.” He managed a slight smile. “And I’ll be traveling back down with her.”
Tal gasped. “You will?”
Jake nodded. “Yeah, but I’ve got a dual reason for it, as you know. I need to find out about Ana and myself. If she doesn’t want to pursue a relationship with me, well, I’ll hang around for a month or two with you until my savings account runs out, and then I’ll have to come back up here and find a job in order to live.”
Gasping, Tal clasped her hands, joy in her eyes. “Oh, Jake! That’s wonderful! Does Ana know you’re coming?”
Shaking his head, he muttered, “No. I asked Morgan Trayhern how to contact that spec ops place she works out of, and he gave me some information. I’ll track her down that way.”
“And if she does want a relationship with you?” his mother asked gently. “What then, Son?”
Holding his mother’s watery blue gaze, framed by her gray-and-black hair, he said, “I don’t know, Mom. It will be one step at a time. I don’t have a job and I’ll have to get one. I have no idea where or how…. There’s a lot of complexity to the situation and I don’t have answers right now. Everything depends upon Ana….”
“Well,” Roy said, picking up his coffee cup between his spare, weathered hands, “what if it does work between you and Ana?”
“Then,” Jake said, giving Tal a warm look, “I can be nearby. I can go visit Tal maybe once a week, maybe on weekends, and just see how she’s doing. Maybe be there to support her, or just let her talk. Whatever she needs…”
Tears glimmered in Tal’s eyes. “Oh, Jake, this is such a wonderful idea! I’m so glad you’re coming back with me!”
Jake nodded. He was scared to death. How would Ana receive him? Or would she? Ana probably thought he’d forgotten her. Forgotten their warm, life-giving kisses, their long, searching talks.
“Well,” Susan whispered, blotting her eyes and giving her husband a warm look, “you kids have a plan. And I think it’s a good one. We’ll worry for you, honey.” She took her daughter’s hand and squeezed it. “I know you’ll have a bodyguard, but we’ll still worry.”
Tal nodded. “I’m not sitting here and telling you I feel great about my decision, Mom and Dad. But I know in my heart and gut that I’ve got to face that monster, face the situation in order to be released from it once and for all. I’m scared, but I’m going forward.” She gave Jake a grateful glance. “And having Jake down there, even for a little while, will make me feel better, too.”
Jake sat there, his heart pounding like a sledgehammer in his chest. He was worried for Tal. They would meet the mercenary down in Peru, at Agua Caliente. Apparently the man that Morgan Trayhern had in mind was a hard-as-nails ex-SEAL officer who was in the midst of returning from a harrowing mission over in Serbia. He would touch base with Morgan and then hop another flight out for Peru. The paperwork and airline tickets were already in motion. Jake had the name of the man: Sloan Griffin.
More than anything, Jake tried to wrestle with his own feelings about Ana. What she meant to him. How would she react to seeing him again? Would Ana be angry? Maybe. Disappointed that he’d showed up like a bad penny in her life again? Probably. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Jake admitted to himself that he was scared. He loved Ana. And he knew it. Did she love him, though? So many questions, and no answers…and the only way he’d find out was by showing up at that hidden base deep in the Peruvian jungle.
“Maya? You wanted to see me?” Ana held her helmet in her left fingers by the chin strap. It was early evening and she’d just come off a mission and was exhausted.
Her C.O. was hard at work in her tiny, cramped office in the two-story headquarters building within the cave. She looked up, a slight smile on her full mouth as she set her pen aside. “Yes, Ana. How’d the mission go? Did you make those two civilian helos turn back from the Bolivian border?”
Ana nodded and stepped inside the office. She ran her fingers through her mussed hair. While on the flight roster for a twenty-four-hour period, she always braided her hair into one thick strand so it was out of the way. “Yes, we turned them back.”
“Faro Valentino’s Russian mercenaries?”
“Yes. We got a visual on them. Same merc pilots posing as civilian pilots.” Ana grinned a little. “Can’t shoot ’em out of the sky, but we can turn them back by staring them down with our missiles, rockets and cannon on board the Apache.”
“It’s a deterrent,” Maya agreed. She folded her hands on her paper-strewn desk. “I’ve got one helluv
a surprise for you. Are you prepared for it?”
Puzzled, Ana shrugged. “Surprise? A good one, I hope?”
With a shrug, Maya murmured, “I don’t know…It’s up to you to decide that.”
Frowning, Ana said, “My parents? Are they okay?” They lived in Rainbow Valley, and ever since the run-in with Rojas, Ana had been fearful for them. If Rojas ever found out she was one of the people that had sprung Tal Travers, he would go after them and kill them. That was what drug lords did—they always got even with the offending party by murdering their whole family. She’d had some nightmares about that off and on in the last three months since Tal had left Peru.
Holding up her hand, Maya said, “Whoa…good news, I think. Your parents are fine. Go to your office, Ana. There’s someone waiting there to see you.” And she grinned warmly up at her.
Stymied, Ana said, “Who?” Who would visit her at their hidden base? No one that she knew. The look on Maya’s face reminded her of a jaguar that had caught its quarry and was quite pleased with herself. And the indulgent look on her C.O.’s features only deepened her confusion.
Waving her hand, Maya said, “Go find out, Ana. If we get lucky, you won’t have any more missions tonight.”
Turning, Ana moved wearily out into the narrow hall. Most of the offices had their doors open, which was Maya’s policy. And most of the clerks had left for the day, except a few who had night duty. Frowning, Ana saw that the door to her office was closed, which was unusual. She always left it open. She twisted the knob, opened it and pushed it aside.
“Jake!”
Jake shot out of the chair he’d been sitting in. Ana’s voice echoed oddly through the small room. He saw the shock in her face and the pain that came instantly to her cinnamon eyes.
“Ana?” His voice was off-key. He’d purposely worn the chalina around his neck, the ends of it hanging down across his bright red polo shirt. How beautiful she looked to him. She wore the one-piece black flight suit that lovingly outlined her tall, proud form. From it and the darkness beneath her eyes, he knew the mission she’d flown had been long and intense.
“W-what are you doing here?”
He slowly approached her. He ached to kiss her. He saw the shock and fear and joy in her eyes. Was she glad to see him? Jake wasn’t sure. “Tal is back down here,” he told her quietly. “I came with her.”
“What?” Ana gasped. “Tal’s back here? So soon after…after what happened to her?”
“I know it’s crazy,” Jake said as he halted a good two feet away from her, “but she wants to face her personal demons. I couldn’t let her come down alone. She’s got a merc bodyguard who will be with her all the time, but I didn’t want her down here by herself…. At least…for a couple of months, until I can make sure she’s going to be okay.”
“But,” Ana whispered, her heart beating hard in her breast, “Rojas is still around! If he finds out she’s back, he’ll swear blood vengeance against her.” Ana searched his dark face and saw exhaustion in Jake’s eyes. But she also saw longing there, too—for her. When her gaze fell to the chalina, she didn’t know what to say, so she stood there feeling helpless beneath his hungry scrutiny. Jake was back here because of Tal. Not her. Wrestling with that painful realization, Ana wondered why he was wearing her chalina, then. To give it back to her? Probably. Grief shattered her. Her love for Jake had not died quietly—had not died at all. No, since he’d left, she’d grieved deeply. There wasn’t a day that went by that Ana didn’t think of him, or what might have been between them if things had been different.
“I know he will,” Jake admitted heavily. Holding out his hand toward her, he got up the courage to tell her why he was here at the base to see her. “Listen, I tried to write to you…three letters…and they were all returned to me as undeliverable.”
Ana’s eyes widened. “You did? You wrote to me?” Had he been following tradition by writing her the all-important letters, just as her father had to her mother? Her heart bounded hard. How badly she wanted to take those last steps and simply throw her arms around Jake and kiss him senseless. She saw the darkness in his eyes. By the way he moved his mouth, she knew he was nervous.
“Yeah…” Jake dug into his pocket and pulled out the badly wrinkled letters. “Did they get here? Did you see them?”
Confused, she stared at them as he held them in his hand, and then up into his unfathomable, dark eyes. “Why, no…I’ve never seen them….”
His heart pounded fiercely in his chest. His hopes rose with his fear. “I see…. Well, here—I want you to have them. So read them, to see if…Well, you need to read them, Ana. Please?” He hesitantly offered them to her.
Staring at the dog-eared letters, and then up at Jake again, Ana slowly reached out. Their fingertips met. Heat rushed up Ana’s arm as she broke the contact. “I—I just got back from a mission, Jake. I’m on duty for twenty-four hours….”
“I know you’ve got duty tonight. You have a lot of things going on right now. Maybe, when you’re done with your shift, you could read them and get back to me?”
Swallowing hard, Ana closed the door. She set her helmet down on her desk behind Jake. “I’ll read them now. I don’t have a flight unless the warning bells ring. Please…sit down?” She gestured to a chair near the desk.
Jake sat with hope filling his chest. He watched as Ana took the chair behind the desk. It creaked loudly in protest. His heart hurt. How would she react to them? To sit here and watch her was agony. Jake didn’t know how he was going to handle Ana’s reactions. They were love letters. Letters telling of his love for her…and asking whether or not she would reciprocate. They were long, painfully penned letters. He wasn’t a letter writer and had struggled ungodly hours finding the right words and phrases to describe what lay in his heart for Ana. The first envelope she opened up had six blue-lined sheets of tablet-size paper in it, and there was a lot to read, since he’d used the front and back of each sheet. He had poured his heart out to her in those letters and said the things he hadn’t had the guts to say to her face.
As he sat there tensely, his fists on his thighs, Jake watched every nuance of expression on Ana’s face as she slowly read each page. What would she say? Closing his eyes, exhaustion pulling at him, Jake knew his life—the life he dreamed of every night since he’d left Ana—was about to be decided.
Ana stole a look at Jake’s dark, exhausted features as she finished the first letter. Her hands shook as she delicately refolded it and slid it back into the envelope. She saw hope burning in his eyes. Pain and joy savaged her. The silence thickened. Holding the envelope tenderly, Ana closed her eyes for a moment.
“You wrote this letter a week after you left here?”
“Yes,” Jake rasped. “Because I hadn’t heard from you, I wrote a second one.” He pointed to where it sat on the desk in front of her. His voice trembled with barely checked emotion. “Another month rolled by and I was desperate, Ana. The other two, I guess, were being held in the Agua Caliente post office. I wrote a third one hoping you’d received the first two.” Mouth quirking, Jake whispered, “I got all three of them back in late May, unopened. Undelivered.” He saw the hurt burning in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Ana. I tried…really tried to contact you.”
Wiping her eyes with her fingers, Ana’s voice cracked. “I thought…I thought you’d walked out of my life forever, Jake.”
Hanging his head, he rasped, “I’m sure it seemed that way.” When Ana looked at him, he mustered a faint smile. “But you gotta admit, trying to send letters to a spec ops base that’s not supposed to exist…well, I think the Peruvian post office tried, but they didn’t know where you were at, either.”
Ana slowly rose. “You’re right. What’s important to me is that you tried.” She held out the envelope as she approached him. Kneeling down in front of him, Ana set it aside and placed her hands over his. “In the letter, you said you loved me.” Her heart thrashed in her chest as her gaze dug into his hooded eyes.
“Is that true, Jake? Did you?” She held her breath, unable to prepare herself for his answer.
Reaching out, Jake tenderly slid his hands around her face. “Did? I still do, Ana. I never stopped loving you.” He met and held her tearful eyes. “I don’t know when or how it happened. All I know is it did. At the time, neither of us could talk about it. Hell, for all I know, Ana, my love for you is one-sided. I could be down here on a wild-goose chase. But I had to find out. I have to know….”
Sniffing, Ana closed her eyes and simply absorbed his warmth and strength from the hands that framed her face. “I gave you my chalina, didn’t I, Jake?”
“Yes…yes, you did….”
Opening her eyes, Ana saw the tenderness burning in his. “When a Quechua woman gives a man her chalina, she’s serious. I gave you mine. And I’m still serious about you. I love you. I never stopped loving you, either….”
Chapter Eleven
Just as Jake leaned down to capture Ana’s lips, he heard a sharp, clanging bell reverberating loudly throughout the building. Ana gasped. She leaped to her feet. “What? What’s wrong?” Jake demanded, quickly standing. He saw Ana’s expression change to one of sharpened focus, her brows drawing downward.
“It’s the warning bell, Jake.” She hurried over and grabbed her helmet. Jerking the door open, Ana turned. “I’m on duty. That’s the call for me to get to the Apache. They’ve spotted drug runners in our vicinity and we’ve got to intercept. I’m sorry…I’ve got to go. Wait for me?”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she was gone, running down the hall toward the exit. Jake saw several other on-duty crew race past Ana’s door. Standing in the doorway, Jake saw another woman pilot, dressed in a black uniform like Ana’s, rush past him. Her face was set, too, just as Ana’s had been. Women in combat. Suddenly, it was a reality for him.
His heart pounded with fear—for Ana. This was the first time he’d gotten a taste of her life as a U.S. Army pilot. He saw Captain Stevenson walk out of her office and stand in the hallway. Her darkened emerald gaze settled on him.
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