by Dana Marton
He was a pretty good tracker, and they hadn’t bothered to mask their trail. Another minute or two brought him close enough to hear the two of them, and he soon realized they weren’t talking. They were fighting. Mitch rushed forward, finding them rolling in the undergrowth, glaring and swearing at each other. Paolo was doing his best to gain the upper hand while Megan fought like crazy to prevent that from happening. They were a blur of growling faces and entangled limbs.
For a moment he hesitated, unsure if Megan would want him to interfere or if she needed to beat the man herself to maintain her status on the team. He didn’t want to mess up her mission if he didn’t have to.
But then Paolo grabbed her between the legs and reason flew from Mitch, a swift wave of anger pushing him forward without allowing him time to think. The cold fury that leaped to life inside his belly surprised him. “Get your hands off her.”
Paolo glanced back with a dark look on his weather-beaten face. “You wait your turn.”
Two more steps forward and Mitch was lifting him off her, tossing him aside with more force than was necessary. He went for his gun at the same time as Paolo. Mitch squeezed the trigger first.
The shot rent the silence and sent birds flying. Monkeys screeched in the distance. Paolo’s eyes went wide and stayed that way.
“And now how are we going to explain this?” Megan’s cheeks turned pink with outrage. She didn’t seem to notice or care about her injuries, but the welts on her neck and forehead pumped a fresh supply of anger through Mitch.
His jaw tightened. “How badly are you hurt?”
She was on her feet already and searching for her gun among the decaying leaves. She found it, stashed it, then stamped over to Paolo.
Mitch didn’t need to check the body. He always hit what he aimed at. If he meant for a man to be dead, the bastard was dead. End of story.
Paolo no longer held his attention. Megan did.
“Shot through the heart. Great.” Annoyance roughened her voice. “You had to do that? Seriously?”
Her clothes were wet and muddy, outlining her tempting figure. She shook some stray leaves from her hair with an impatient flick of her head. “Did I ask for help? I could have handled it.”
He hadn’t expected gratitude, but he didn’t deserve getting chewed out for what he’d done, either. “Forget I came back.”
He tried to stare her down, but she stared right back, holding his gaze without flinching. She was fierce and wild, and he had the sudden impulse to stride right up to her, yank her into his arms and kiss her. Anger and frustration morphed into hot lust in the blink of an eye. He wanted to feel those full lips crushed under his, wanted a taste of her.
Whoa. Rein it in. He stood down and shook his harebrained impulses right out of his head. For one thing, she’d just been attacked. She sure didn’t need more of the same from anyone. For another, even if she were willing, even if she were begging for his touch, he needed to stay far away from her. He was here on a top secret mission, not on some singles vacation.
Her chin sunk back down, her shoulders too, as she calmed herself. “How is your shoulder? I didn’t want to ask in front of the others this morning.”
She didn’t want to alert them to any potential weakness on his part. Smart. Too bad he was beyond appreciating the gesture just now.
“Forget it.” Lust and frustration had him on edge. He turned on his heels and marched away.
She caught up quickly. She, too, seemed to be humming with tension. “We’ll tell Sanchez that we heard people moving through the woods and Paolo went to investigate, sending us back to let the others know. He’ll expect Paolo to catch up eventually. When he doesn’t, he’ll assume that some wild animal or one of Cristobal’s men got him.”
He didn’t like it that she came up with a plan first. Ever since they’d met, she’d always been a step ahead of him. It bothered him more than it should have. Why? He occasionally worked on teams. He wasn’t always the best and the quickest. But with her—
Was he trying to impress her? Now that would be stupid.
“How about the gunshot?” he thought suddenly. “They had to have heard that.”
“Maybe not. The vegetation is thick enough to swallow the sound. There’s a river up ahead. If they were close enough to it when your gun went off, the sounds of the water could have drowned out the shot.”
They followed the trail in silence for a while, until it stopped on the bank of a river she’d been talking about. For a second he wondered if it was the same one they’d crossed yesterday, winding its way through the jungle. If it was, then they were farther upstream. The riverbed was narrower and shallower than where they’d crossed before. Then he noticed a deep gouge in the sand that showed where a canoe had recently been pulled into the water.
Oh, hell, no.
They could only see a few hundred feet ahead where the river disappeared around a bend. No trace of the men anywhere.
He swore. This couldn’t be happening. He slammed his backpack into the mud as steam gathered inside him.
“Juarez has boats and weapons stashed all over the jungle in case of emergency.” Megan’s voice was filled with a level of frustration that matched his. “I left an ATV twenty miles or so from here. I was hoping Paolo would lead us that way, but of course he had to choose otherwise. Now we have no choice but to follow the river.”
He stared at the water, his mood getting darker by the second. The men were gone and they’d taken Zak along with them. He paced the shore, not quite able to believe it. He’d saved Megan, who didn’t in the least want to be saved, and in the process he’d lost the kid.
HE LOOKED LIKE he was ready to strangle her. Fine, so she’d stolen Zak from him at that guesthouse. But, hey, nobody told him to rush to rescue her from Paolo. “You should have stayed with the kid and made them wait.”
His lips narrowed further. His nostrils flared. He reminded her of a bull in the arena, pawing the ground. All in all, she preferred this look to the one he’d presented back in the woods.
Back there, he’d looked like the hero out of some big-budget Hollywood action flick as he’d broken through the bushes and challenged Paolo. She wasn’t used to rescue. She couldn’t say her heart hadn’t fluttered just a little. It must have been some basic, primitive female reaction to the macho display of an alpha male. But she didn’t appreciate the interference, and she definitely didn’t appreciate the flutter. That simply couldn’t happen again.
Mitch Mendoza was nothing but a giant monkey wrench in her plans. That he was hot was beside the point. She’d just have to ignore the way her hormones stood up to salute him every time she looked at him.
Because of him, Paolo was dead, and his absence might make Juarez suspicious, regardless of her cover story. And now she wouldn’t be the one to bring Zak to the mighty drug lord. Sanchez would get the credit instead.
No way. She had to get the brownie points. Juarez had to take her with him to see Don Pedro.
Her mind flipped through all the possibilities until she hit upon an idea that might work. “There are some rapids up ahead. They’ll have to take the canoe out of the water and carry it around. It’ll make them lose whatever time they gained on the river. If we move fast enough, we can catch up to them.”
He rolled his neck and his shoulders, adjusted his backpack. “Let’s move out,” he called, taking the lead.
Typical man.
When she tried to cut in front of him—hello, she was the one who knew the terrain, she’d traipsed all over this jungle in the past year—he picked up speed to prevent her.
Fine. She fell in line behind him. Carrying that massive ego around was going to get too heavy sooner or later. He followed the river, logically, so he wasn’t leading them off course. She could afford to humor him. One of them had to be the mature adult. With eight younger brothers, she was used to the role. She could handle it.
“So, out of curiosity,” he asked over his shoulder, “you would have let Paolo be
at you up or worse to keep your cover?”
“This happens to be an important mission.” But that was only part of it. She worked for the CIA, but she had her own reasons for being here. Reasons that would likely end her government career when the truth came out. The home office didn’t appreciate operatives with private agendas, regardless of the worthiness of their cause.
“You’re tough.”
His acknowledgment meant nothing. She squashed the small thrill she got from it. “Don’t you forget it.”
“Tough for a girl, I mean.”
“Well, that just ends all the goodwill we’ve been building,” she deadpanned.
“A sense of humor, too.” He mocked her. “So with all that, how come you’re not in a safer job in a nicer place?”
“I’m exactly where I want to be.”
“All things considered, I’d rather be on my couch with a cold beer, watching a game on the big screen.”
She didn’t believe him for a second. He had the look of a man who lived for action. He was always on, always ready, mind and body honed in combat. You didn’t get this good at something without liking it. “How often does that happen?”
“Once a year if I’m lucky.”
She didn’t know much about him, only that he was one of Colonel Wilson’s men. The Colonel was running some commando group that flew so deep under the radar, even Congress didn’t know about it. Which was a neat way to avoid congressional oversight, she supposed. They did lone-wolf operations, deep undercover, took care of problems nobody else dared to tackle.
The grand sum of her knowledge about the team didn’t amount to much, despite the fact that at one point, she’d tried all her CIA resources to find out more. She’d been stunned at how fast doors had been slammed in her face.
Clearly they were in the black op business. She wasn’t impressed. The U.S. had enough law enforcement and military branches already. They didn’t need a new batch of yahoos who thought they were above the law and interfered in the legitimate agencies’ business. And it was dangerous, too. She thought of Jamie at home, of the way he was now. Sorrow filled her swiftly. She put thoughts of her eldest brother away.
“Why don’t you go home?” she suggested to Mitch. “After I’m done with what I’ve come to accomplish, I’ll take Zak back to the U.S. with me.”
“You’d leave him behind in the blink of an eye.”
She shrugged. “He’s grown on me.”
He shot back on amused look. “How about me?”
“You leave now, and I’ll let you know if I miss you in a couple of weeks.”
He snorted. Then he got serious. “Without me, Zak will be dead within ten minutes of reaching that compound.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him.”
“He’s not your top priority.”
He was right about that. She was here to rescue someone else. So she changed the subject. “How long have you been in the commando business?”
“Too long. How long you’ve been with the company?”
“Since college.”
“Spook University?”
“Yale.”
He gave her the once-over. “Come from big money?”
“No money at all and nine kids in the family. Went to school on scholarship.”
“You must be the eldest.”
“How did you know?”
“Bossy and stubborn.”
She looked at the ground for something to throw at his wide back and found nothing but composting leaves. “I grew up with eight younger brothers. They needed positive direction. Anyway, being decisive is a positive trait.”
“All the bossiness could be the reason why you don’t have a man. Ever thought of that?” He was baiting her on purpose now. He seemed to get some sick satisfaction out of needling her.
“I’ve got someone back home.”
“You haven’t been home in over a year,” he reminded her.
Not that she needed a reminder. Her relationship with Vincent hadn’t been that great to start with. She had no illusions about him waiting for her. Not when she hadn’t been able to tell him where she was going or how long she would be staying.
“I’m sure your life is chock-full of women,” she shot back.
“You have no idea how grateful some of those damsels in distress I save can be.” He smirked. “You realize that since we’ve met, I’ve saved you once a day?”
Okay, he’d gone too far with that one. She didn’t need saving. Ever. Her self-sufficiency was a matter of pride. He was possibly the most infuriating man she’d ever seen, and she had eight brothers to compare him to, not to mention dozens of colleagues. She did work in a male-dominated field.
“The first time around, you weren’t saving me, I was scamming you.” She set the record straight. “And if you’d stayed with Zak instead of interfering with Paolo, we wouldn’t have lost the kid.” She would have been able to fight Paolo off. Probably.
If she hadn’t rolled her eyes, she wouldn’t have noticed the movement on the branch above Mitch. He didn’t. He’d been paying too much attention to annoying her and missed the snake. Just as it dropped out of the tree, she leaped forward and swiped at it with her machete.
He spun, alerted by the noise she made. The snake’s body fell around his neck with a small thud, the head landing at his feet. He stood frozen to the spot, wide-eyed, color creeping into his stubble-covered cheeks.
“You scared of snakes?” Megan smiled. So he did have a chink in his armor. She softened a little, closing the remaining distance between them with a short step and slipping the still-wriggling body from around his neck to throw it into the underbrush. “No good for eating. This kind has a bitter taste.”
His chestnut eyes were way too close.
His gaze fell to her lips.
The jungle heated around them. Breathing seemed extra difficult for a moment.
An electric charge ran through her. She wasn’t sure what she should hope for, that he’d kiss her or that he wouldn’t.
His tongue darted out and moistened his lower lip. His Adam’s apple bobbed up, then back down as he swallowed.
Then he stepped away.
SHE HAD NO IDEA how hot she was. How was that possible? She about short-circuited his brain every time he looked at her. Seeing her in action… She had to be getting male attention 24/7 at Juarez’s camp. Of course, it was probably unwanted attention, more worrisome than self-esteem boosting. Or downright dangerous, like Paolo had been.
“Thank you,” he told her as he moved forward. “That’s what you do when someone saves your life, by the way. Acknowledge it instead of denying it.”
“If you ever save my life, I’ll be sure to express my gratitude,” she said in snarky tone behind him.
He allowed himself a small grin. He didn’t normally work with a partner. She was annoying at times, definitely tested his patience on occasion, but she was also entertaining. And hot. Something about her made hormones flood his brain. Great. He was in the middle of a mission. He’d lost his charge. And now his thoughts made him feel like a teenager.
He’d better fix that and quickly, before he kissed her or did something equally stupid. The snake hadn’t bothered him, but when she’d stepped that close—to be that near to those lips…
They marched on in silence for a while, pushing as hard as they could. He walked in front. Walking behind her would have provided too much distraction. He needed to keep his mind clear and keep up the pace. Catching up with the men before they reached the compound was crucial.
They didn’t even stop when they came up on a mango tree. They filled their pockets as they walked. Their forced march expended a lot of energy. Replacing that was vital to remain in top fighting shape. They ate as they hiked, but also saved some for later.
She never complained once. Not about the unforgiving pace he set, not about the lack of food or lack of breaks. About an hour later, they heard the rapids, but couldn’t see much. The area around them was too overgrown wit
h bamboo to walk, so they had to turn deeper into the jungle. Long minutes ticked by before they could begin angling back toward the river.
They reached the water just as Sanchez and the others were getting ready to give the final push to their canoe on the other side. Zak was already sitting in the front, looking haggard.
“Hey,” Sanchez called over the water, straightening when he spotted them, his right hand lingering by his gun. “Where is Paolo?”
Had they heard the shot, was the question.
Mitch stayed quiet, letting Megan take the lead and make explanations. They trusted her more than him. She had quite a way with words when she was trying to annoy him. Let her use all that verbal creativity on Sanchez and talk her way out of trouble.
But instead of telling her little tale, she opened fire without warning.
She never did what he expected her to do. Absolutely never. The woman was bewildering.
Sanchez went down first, then the man behind him. Mitch, recovered at last, took care of the third.
“They would have never believed us. Zak wasn’t in the way. I knew I could do it without him getting hurt—” Megan began to explain, but fell silent when the kid began screaming, drawing their attention.
“Help!” He scrambled to keep his balance as the water got hold of the canoe and pulled it from shore. The boat wobbled, got stuck for a moment, then jerked farther away as the current took hold.
He stared back at them with horror on his face as the swift waters carried him downriver.
Without a paddle.
This must be some gigantic, cosmic joke, Mitch thought as he stared after his charge.
Except it wasn’t at all funny.
Chapter Five
“Jump,” Megan shouted to Zak, as she took off running. She kept one eye on him and one on where she stepped. “Jump and swim.”
But the kid looked too scared to do anything.
Mitch passed her. He wasn’t as much running as leaping from safe spot to safe spot. The riverbank was littered with rocks and logs and all sorts of rubble the water had deposited. Nature’s hazard course.
