by Dale Mayer
She shook her head. “That wasn’t brave at all,” she said. “That was being a whiny and teary child. I couldn’t have done that for the life of me without you.”
“The thing is, you were terrified of it,” he said, “but you did it anyway.”
“But not without your help,” she whined. “And halfway down …” She was a little lost for words.
He smiled and tilted her head, then kissed her on the tip of her nose and said, “Now let’s see if maybe we can get you into a little better scenario.” They were almost at the village now. Andy had waited for them, once he realized they were coming, and the three of them walked toward the village. Ryker said, “I’m going ahead to the medical center to make sure that Pablo can get some care.”
“Is there any law enforcement here?”
“There will be something,” he said, “but remember. We’re still foreigners.”
“I know,” she said.
Two hotels were before them. “I’ll check which one Benjamin’s in,” Andy said. “I’ll come back in a minute.” Manila followed Ryker, knowing instinctively that he was her best bet to stay alive in this world gone crazy as he headed toward the medical center. She also didn’t want to be separated for a lot of other reasons that she didn’t want to examine too closely.
When Andy joined her a few minutes later, she asked, “Did Benjamin get a hotel room?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Good,” she said. “Do they have other rooms?”
“Yes. I’ve told the hotel manager that we’re coming,” he said. “And that there’ll be four of us.”
“Perfect. Let’s get Pablo taken care of, and then we can return and maybe get a shower and a bed.” Just the thought of it had her footsteps moving rapidly toward Ryker, who was just ahead of her. “I surely hope this is the end of the nightmare.”
“Well, we made it to the coast, and we’re in a town,” Andy said, remarkably cheerfully. “I imagine that pain is seriously over with.”
She smiled. “Now if only we had some of our own personal gear.”
“We need to make some phone calls,” he admitted, “but we should be okay.”
Ryker stopped ahead of her, and he turned to look at them and asked, “Are you coming?” She raced ahead and then turned to look back at Andy. “If you want to grab a room, go on. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He hesitated, but she waved him off. “It just means you get in the shower before us because, when we get there, there won’t be any water left,” she said as a joke.
Andy smiled and said, “If you don’t mind.”
“Go,” she said. “Just go.”
Andy flashed a bright smile at her and headed off to the hotel. As she raced toward Ryker, he asked, “Did you want to go with him?”
“No,” she said. “I want to stay with you.”
“If you’re sure,” he said.
“Yes, I hired Pablo,” she said. “I feel a need to see that he’s okay.”
“Got it,” he said. “Come on then.” They held hands and walked around the corner to the medical center. As they got there, Pablo was slowly lowered onto a stretcher. The doctor and a nurse were working on him right away. Miles looked up and smiled. “You got her down here.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I haven’t been very easy to deal with.”
Miles looked at her in surprise and said, “You’ve been very easy to deal with. Don’t ever think that. Let’s just hope that we’re in time to save Pablo.”
She listened to the conversation with the doctor, and, indeed, they definitely had some concerns about Pablo’s condition as his fever was so severe. But he was in the doctor’s hands right now.
She walked back to the door and asked, “Can we leave him here?”
“Yes,” they said.
“We’ll check on him in the morning.” She smiled. “I hope he’s okay.”
As they stepped outside again, Ryker and Miles looked at her and said, “Are you heading to the hotel?”
She nodded. “Aren’t you?”
The two men shrugged. “I’m not sure,” Miles said. “We need a good night’s rest, yes, but we have to check in with our contact first.”
She nodded. “Let’s get to the hotel and check in from there. There’s nothing quite like a solid night’s sleep. We need it tonight. Maybe you guys are used to being Superman all the time, but, for us, it’s been a pretty rough day.”
“You’re right,” Miles said as they walked toward the hotel. “Let’s get a good night under our belt and then see what our next steps are.”
“Do you think it’ll still be a problem?”
“Yes,” Ryker said. “I still think it’ll be a problem.”
“But why?” she asked softly. “You did your job. Look at where you got us to! I would never have thought this morning that there was any way we would make it to the shore or to a town by the end of the day.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But the thing is, just when you think that everything is good, we find out it’s not quite so good. So, although I get that you want to drop your guard and think everything’s okay again, still be cautious.”
They walked into the hotel. The desk clerk looked tired and harried. He frowned when he saw their clothing but dropped his gaze to the book and handed it to them to sign in.
“We don’t have any money,” Andy said. He stood here, waiting.
“I do,” Manila said. She quickly walked forward and took one of the hotel’s credit card slips, then wrote down all the details.
The hotel clerk looked at the number and said in a guttural broken English, “I’ll have to call it in.”
“You do that,” she said. He disappeared in the office, while everybody signed the register. When he came back, he nodded and ran through the remaining vacant rooms. They had only two.
She nodded and said, “That’s fine. We can double up.”
He gave them rooms that had two beds and gave them the keys. As they headed up, Andy looked at her and said, “Who are you sharing with?”
Ryker stepped in and didn’t allow anybody to argue with him when he said, “She’s sharing with me.”
“You’re still that worried?” she asked, studying his features.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I am still that worried.”
Andy lowered his voice and said, “Seriously?”
Miles nodded. “We don’t know what was going on up there in the jungle, so let’s not be foolish at this point in time.”
“Good enough,” Andy said. “I don’t care anyway. I just want a shower. It’s too late for any food apparently. I asked. But we can get a good night’s sleep and eat in the morning.”
“Exactly.”
They headed to their rooms, which were at the back of the hotel and up one floor. The good thing was that the rooms were side by side. As Manila walked in, she smiled at the quaintness of it. This was a small town and not exactly your typical North American hotel, but it was a room with two beds, and, for that, she was damn grateful. She headed to the bathroom and cried out when she realized there was a shower. “Are you okay if I clean off first?”
“Ladies first,” Ryker said, opening the patio door and stepping out on the small balcony.
“I won’t argue,” she said and closed the door. She stripped down as fast as she could and stepped under the first warm water she’d had in days.
Ryker couldn’t quite dispel that sense of unease that had permeated him since they’d first seen the village. It should have been like they said, a good thing. They were here, and they should have been safe and sound, but it didn’t feel that way. He didn’t know if the guerrillas had a stranglehold on the village, but he knew that there had to be a lot of interaction with them. The guerrillas got supplies from somewhere, and business was business. There would also be a lot of relatives to all the guerrillas, those not involved in the war per se. Ryker didn’t know the specifics here yet, but it was enough that it kept him on edge, wondering wh
at was going on, what would happen next.
Knowing that she was in the shower and realizing just how long it had been since she’d had that kind of care, he walked to the beds and checked to make sure that they were the same size and then quickly pulled back the bedding on both so that she could go to sleep immediately when she came back out again. He himself had one of his bags and a backpack still on him.
Miles had been picking up the guns off the guerrillas, so they also had a ton of weapons, but they’d stashed most of those up on the cliff’s edge with one of the bigger bags. They could carry down only so much weight on the ropes. They only needed so much down here. It would be easier to go up the pathway. In the morning, he’d grab everything and bring it back here. As a matter of fact, as he checked the time to realize it was almost midnight, he should probably plan on doing that before six in the morning. Walking around with that amount of firepower wasn’t a good idea. He’d give himself six hours to sleep and then would head back out.
As he stood here in the cool evening air, the door beside him opened, and Miles stepped beside Ryker, and he quickly discussed the plan to return and get the gear in the morning.
“Good idea,” Miles said. “Something’s off. I can’t figure it out.”
“I know,” Ryker said. “I’m not sure where the problem is, but something’s wrong.”
“We don’t want to leave all the weapons up there either,” Miles said. “What time do you want to go?”
“Six a.m.,” he said. “We’ll give ourselves a few hours of good sleep, and then one of us needs to go get the gear.”
“I think both of us,” Miles said, “but that would mean leaving these guys alone.”
“Manila’s team probably won’t even wake up until eleven, if not twelve,” Ryker said with a smile. “They’re pretty exhausted.”
“I know,” Miles nodded. “I sent out a couple messages, when I first got in.”
“Good,” Ryker said. “I was just thinking about doing that now. I haven’t heard any response yet, but hopefully, somebody’s on the way for our pickup.”
“Now the question is, is it just us that they’re picking up?”
“The company they work for, Global Mining Industries, should arrange for these guys to get out of the village, but I’m not sure what the fastest way is.”
“They may have to take a vehicle all the way back to the nearest international airport or maybe some water trip.”
“I know, but I’m still thinking that maybe we’re all better off going out the same way.”
“Depends. We can’t just use Uncle Sam’s generosity for no reason.”
“Exactly. But I highly doubt that by noon tomorrow things will look anywhere near as amiable as they do right now,” Ryker said, his voice harsh. “And I don’t know if it’s got to do with the men I had to take out today or the fact that the uncle had basically made arrangements for Pablo not to return home again. Or whether the uncle had arrangements with the guerrillas himself for the kidnapping of this group.”
“When you think about it, some decent money is tied up with holding Global’s geologist for ransom.”
“I considered that,” Ryker said with a nod. “In which case, I’m not even sure we’ve got six hours of sleep left.” Just then he heard the water behind him shut off. “At least she didn’t take all the water in the place.”
“Andy’s still in our shower,” Miles said in an amused tone. “But he won’t be long. He’ll be sound asleep in no time.”
“I wonder if Benjamin is okay.”
“He’ll be fine,” Miles said. “He always is. It doesn’t really matter what he does. He’s one of those who looks after himself.”
“I’m surprised he was out on a trip like this.”
“Probably needs to be his last trip. Nothing like having something like this happen to reassess just what it is you really want to do in life.”
“And how secure you want to live your life,” Ryker added. “As for Manila, she handled herself well.”
“I think Manila is more concerned about her rocks than anything. Although she’s very worried about Pablo.” He paused. “And, if things had gotten ugly in the guerrilla camp,” he said, “her whole priorities would have shifted. As it is, we left her backpack of rocks up at the cliff top too.”
Ryker chuckled at that. “I’ll definitely have to pick those up.”
“Absolutely,” Miles said. “Let’s hope that we can get it before anybody else does.” Miles turned and walked back. “My turn for a shower. Check in with you at six.” And he left the doors open to let a breeze flow through the bedroom. Ryker stood for a few more moments. He could hear the voices in the next room as Miles and Andy spoke. And that’s when he heard something behind him. He turned to see Manila walking toward him. She had her underclothes on again and a towel wrapped around her.
“The shower is all yours,” she said.
He nodded. “Just so you know, I’ll be heading up that cliff to gather the rest of our gear first thing in the morning.”
She sagged into the bed and shook her head. “I don’t know how you do it,” she said. “I thought I was fit and in good shape, and yet, today has finished me.” She yawned and then stretched out on the bed, still with the towel wrapped around her.
“Take off the wet towel and just crash. I’ll have a shower, and then I’ll crash too.”
She smiled and said, “Good to hear.”
He walked into the bathroom and stripped off what he had left for clothing after he had used one of his layers for Pablo’s bandages, and then stepped into the hot shower. He scrubbed down, taking off several layers of dirt, and, by the time he came back out to the bedroom, she was sound asleep. She had just the light sheet over her, and she was spread out like a little child on her stomach, but her legs and arms covered the entire single bed. He crashed down on his bed, atop the covers himself, with just his boxers on, trying to tell his mind to shut off and to stop working the angles. He wanted nothing more than to just slide over and spend the night with her. But they weren’t at that stage yet. He wasn’t even sure there would ever be an opportunity for them to get to that stage, but something was so damn special about her.
As he laid here, he heard an odd murmur. He looked over to see her head tossing and then turning, her relaxed body pose tightening up as her body curled in on itself defensively. She whispered and then murmured, only to cry out. She was caught up in a nightmare. He quickly hopped to her bed and wrapped his arms around her, then pulled her close, whispering, “It’s all right now. Go to sleep.”
She sighed, woke up slightly, and whispered, “Ryker?”
“Yes, it’s me,” he said. “Just rest and return to sleep. You’re exhausted.”
“I am,” she said. “And every time I close my eyes, I see those damn guerrillas.”
“Forget the guerrillas,” he said. “They’re nothing.”
She gave half a laugh and smiled. “To you, they may be nothing,” she said. “But that was way too close an encounter for my liking.”
“Maybe,” he whispered, “but you’re here now. You’re in bed. You’re safe now. Sleep.”
She murmured and rolled over, then wrapped her arms around him and threw a leg over his and whispered, “Or we could enjoy having a bed together.”
He sucked in his breath, his body instinctively reacting to her words.
She chuckled and pressed her pelvis tighter against his.
No way she couldn’t feel his instinctive reaction, as her leg slid up over his hips higher and higher.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she murmured and then latched her mouth tightly on his.
He shuddered as his body roared with heat, and he flipped over onto his back as she welcomed the opportunity.
Her body slid over his, and her hands and lips and fingers caressed and touched and stroked.
But he was already at the edge of his control, and the last thing he needed was more stimulus. But he couldn’t move. It was such a
novel, sensuous sensation. When he finally felt her hand sliding under the edge of his boxers, groping him gently, he shuddered. “Don’t do that,” he whispered. “It’ll be all over before we have a chance to enjoy it.”
“It’ll be all over before we have a chance anyway,” she murmured, “because I can’t wait.” And she lowered his boxers, and somehow she was without any clothing and positioned above him. With his shaft right at the heart of her, she slowly slid down until he was seated fully inside.
He twisted beneath her, his body pulsing with joy. He reached up to cup her breasts.
She pressed herself tightly against his hands, using his arms for support as she started to ride.
His focus narrowed until it centered on just one thing right now, the only thing that mattered in his world.
Her.
Chapter 9
Manila didn’t even recognize her actions, didn’t recognize who she was right now. … Her body pulsed with need, and passion had taken over. She wanted this man like she had never wanted anything in her life. … She rode hard, and she rode fast, and, when her body came apart, she couldn’t hold back her cry. She collapsed on top of him.
He flipped until she was tucked up beneath him, driving deep inside, harder and harder. He leaned down and captured her lips, and she came apart for the second time, impaling her with his own passion and leaving her possessed in all ways. He shuddered hard above her. She moaned as he collapsed beside her.
He smiled and said, “I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman caught up in her passion as you were. You were—are—gorgeous as those sensations hummed inside me in the same way. Believe me. You can do that to me anytime.”
A laugh escaped her, and she groaned. “My God. I’m so sore, and I’m so damn tired.”
“Sleep,” he said. “Just sleep.” He rolled over and tucked her up, their bodies hot against each other.
She dropped her head on the pillow and whispered, “Don’t leave without saying goodbye.”
