The Perfect Witness

by Iris Johansen

Now to bring him back around and start the manipulation.

  Kobu opened his eyes. “You son of a bitch. What did you do to me?”

  Dislike. Not hatred. Good.

  He smiled. “I just did a little exploratory investigation. I told you, I have to make sure I can trust you. You don’t feel any different, do you?”

  He frowned. “No.”

  “Of course, you don’t. Now listen to me. I’m here to do us both a favor.”

  “That’s crap.”

  “No. I could have sliced your throat. I still could do that.” He took the knife away from Kobu’s throat. “But you have a better chance with me than you do with Praland. He doesn’t like failures. Has he been a little threatening?”

  Stark fear. Panic.

  Kobu moistened his lips. “Maybe.”

  “I thought so. Bruker wants you out. You’re a dead man, Kobu.”

  “Not if I bring Praland your head,” Kobu said viciously.

  “But you won’t be able to do that. You’ve tried before.” He smiled. “And what if you somehow managed to kill me? You’re still walking a tightrope. The next time you fail Praland would be your last.” He paused. “Think about another scenario. The Devanez family deposits a hefty sum in your bank account, and you go off to some other organization that will appreciate you.”

  A flicker of interest crossed his face. “Money?”

  “Iran has use for men of your experience. I’m sure you’ve thought about it.”

  “Yes,” he said slowly.

  The implants were working with slick precision, Mandak thought.

  “You could rise to the top in a place where you weren’t being smothered by Bruker. In a year, you might have a palace like Praland’s.”

  “This is all lies and bullshit.”

  But that wasn’t what he was thinking. Kobu was seeing himself with the power and the riches.

  Yes.

  It would take a considerable time to seal the deal, but he was on his way. Persuasion, bribery, a minimum of threats, making the desirable seem absolutely possible.

  Go another step.

  “You know a lot about Praland’s operation, and with the right backing, you might be able to walk in and take over. Have you thought of that?” He watched the excitement begin to stir. “You want the world, Kobu?” he asked softly. “I can give it to you. Let me tell you how I’m going to do it…”

  * * *

  “WHY HASN’T HE COME OUT of there?” Allie’s hands clenched so hard, her nails bit into her palms. “It’s been over an hour. Maybe I should—”

  “No,” Sean whispered. “Do nothing, Allie. Or so help me, I’ll knock you out and carry you back to the jeep. You said you weren’t going to take any action unless necessary.”

  But that was before she’d had to lie here in the grass for over an hour with her nerves stretched to the breaking point.

  Easy. There hadn’t been any noise. Surely, that was a good sign.

  How the hell did she know what was a good sign? Kobu could have stabbed Mandak and was watching him bleed to death.

  Not likely. Calm down. Mandak was smart, and he thought he knew what he was doing. She was praying he was right.

  Dammit, she should have forced him to let her go with him. This was tearing her apart, and she couldn’t bear it one more—

  The bonding.

  He was moving!

  He was out of the tent and moving into the forest.

  “Out.” She nudged Sean, then started wriggling backward until they reached the thicker trees. Then she jumped to her feet and started running the direction where they’d left the jeep. They moved at top speed until they were almost halfway to the road.

  She stopped. “Wait.”

  She listened.

  No sound from the camp behind them. No alert from Kobu from his tent.

  Good? Bad?

  She didn’t care what Mandak had left behind him in that tent. He was out of there. He was alive. That was all that mattered. “Mandak’s supposed to call you, Sean. But he probably won’t do it until he’s away from the camp.”

  “Why should I call him?” Mandak was suddenly beside them, and his voice had a distinct edge. “When the two of you were practically on top of me. I was too busy with Kobu to sense Allie was close while I was in the tent, but it hit me in the face when I left him. I may break your neck, Sean.”

  “Go ahead.” He sighed. “I expected it. But I might point out that she’s not very malleable, and since you’re the one who had control of her for all these years, it’s more your fault than mine.”

  “Let’s get out of here before you start arguing,” Allie said. She glanced back over her shoulder. Just the glare of the campfire. Still no movement. “It’s very quiet. Either what you did worked, or you killed him or tied him up.”

  “I didn’t kill him. I didn’t tie him up. We’ll see if it worked. He could still turn his men loose to hunt us down. If he doesn’t, we have a chance that I managed to pull it off.” He grabbed Allie’s wrist and was running toward the jeep. “There’s always a possibility of a backlash. Though I do believe I got him.” He nudged Allie toward the backseat. “Keep low.” He jumped in the passenger seat. “Get us out of here, Sean.”

  “Where am I supposed to go?”

  “Where you should have gone to begin with,” he said grimly. “That cave in the mountains. I gave Kobu his options. Now I have to keep an eye on what Kobu is going to do in the next day or so.”

  * * *

  THE CAVE WAS ONLY SEVEN TO eight miles up the winding road of the mountain, and they reached it within an hour.

  Allie got out of the jeep and walked to the edge of the cliff to look down at the jungle below. “Still no sign of activity in the camp. This was a good spot to spy on Kobu’s men. I can see Kobu’s campfire from here.”

  “You could see it a lot closer from where you decided to perch next to Kobu’s tent,” Mandak said curtly. He took her duffel out of the jeep. “You were almost on his lap.”

  “Uh-oh.” Sean looked from Mandak to Allie, then moved toward the cave. “I think I’ll get out of the line of fire and build a fire of our own inside.”

  “By all means,” Mandak said. “Maybe you’ll do that right.”

  He was still angry. He hadn’t spoken more than the bare minimum since they’d left Kobu’s camp. She turned to look at him. Even in the dim moonlight, she could see the tautness of his jaw. Too bad. She was angry, too. “I wasn’t as close to Kobu as you were,” she said defiantly. “And then you blame me for not going meekly up the mountain and letting you do whatever you wanted to do.”

  “Yes, I do.” His eyes were glittering. “Because it’s important you stay alive. I set it up so that you wouldn’t be at risk.”

  “Because Renata and your precious family say that I have to be protected, so I’m able to give my all for your ledger? That’s hogwash.”

  He was suddenly next to her, gripping her shoulders. “Renata and the family have nothing to do with it. I won’t let you—” His lips were covering hers, hard, hot. He lifted them, then his lips were on the side of her throat. “This is what it’s all about. Maybe it should be because of the family, but it’s not.” His tongue was in the hollow of her throat. “It’s you, dammit. I think it’s always been you.”

  She couldn’t breathe. The muscles of her stomach were tightening, her breasts hardening. What was happening to her? She wanted to flow into him, melt into him. She was panting as she looked up at him. “No.” It was more of a gasp than a word. “Not true…”

  “The hell it’s not.” His hands were tangled in her hair. “Everything else may be screwed up and crazy, but that’s clear as crystal to me.”

  “Well, it’s not clear to me.” She tried to back away but immediately wanted to go back to him. “Nothing about the way we are together is clear. It’s probably about that damn bonding or the way you—”

  “I’ve never wanted to go to bed with anyone I’ve bonded with before. Okay, so we’ve be
en intimate in ways that couples seldom reach. But that doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with it.”

  “It doesn’t mean there’s anything right.”

  “There’s only one way to find out.” His tongue moved delicately across her lips. “You wouldn’t be sorry, Allie. I’d make it good for you.”

  Her lips were tingling, throbbing at that touch of his tongue. Her hair held taut in his fingers was strangely erotic. Everything about him was erotic, she thought dazedly. His touch, the musk-lemon smell of him, the heat, the hardness. All so familiar and yet dizzyingly exotic and different. She could feel her breasts firm, swell, push against him. She wanted to tear open her shirt, put his hands on them, let his mouth and tongue bite and toy and suck.

  Then his hands fell away from her hair, and he started to unbutton her shirt. “Say yes,” his voice was thick. His hands dropped and went behind her to cup her bottom and draw her closer to him. “You want it. I can feel how much you want it. How much I want it. It’s always been there burning in the background for us.”

  “That’s not all that’s been between us,” she said unsteadily. “But right now, I’m so confused that I can’t tell what’s right or wrong for me.”

  “I’m right for you. Let me show you how right.” His voice was soft, persuasive, sensual. His blue eyes glittered with intensity. “I’ll come inside you, and I’ll make your body—” He stopped, his eyes shutting tight. “Son of a bitch.” His eyes flicked open. “Dammit to hell.” His hands dropped away from her, and said roughly, “Button up your shirt.”

  She stood there, unmoving, staring at him in bewilderment.

  He muttered a curse. His fingers were buttoning her shirt himself.

  Her nipples were still stinging, exquisitely sensitive, as they brushed against the cotton of the shirt. “Mandak?”

  “Give me a minute.” He took a step back. His chest was moving back and forth with the harshness of his breathing. “I can’t believe I’m being this idiotic. It’s not as if I’d hurt you. You’d like it, dammit. No, you’d love it. I could make you go crazy. There are the things I can do to you that would make you never want to stop.” He paused. “And I would use them. I’ve never wanted a woman the way I want you. And I just realized I was going to do anything and everything to get what I wanted. I could see that you were uncertain. Good God, why shouldn’t you be?” His lips tightened. “I wanted you too much to care.”

  Shock.

  She felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach.

  “How very honest of you.” She drew a shaky breath. “But then you changed your mind?”

  “I must have some vestige of conscience somewhere. It’s amazing considering my track record,” he said roughly. “After all, I bring you to this country in harm’s way. I nearly got you killed at Talboa. I fully intend to let you risk your life at Praland’s palace to get the ledger for me. Why shouldn’t I seduce you, too? Icing on the cake.”

  “There wasn’t much seduction connected to it.” It had been all heat and sexuality and that powerful magnetism that had united them from the beginning. Even now, when she had been jarred out of that erotic haze, she was having trouble not wanting to step closer to him, touch him.

  “There would have been seduction. I’d want to give you everything, Allie.”

  “Would you?” She turned away. She couldn’t take any more. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you.”

  “I’d be surprised if you did,” he said hoarsely. “But it’s true. Because I’m beginning to think that the reason I stopped was something more complicated than guilt. I can’t stand the thought of your being hurt. Not by me.”

  “Bullshit.” She suddenly whirled on him, her eyes blazing. “You flatter yourself. I’m the only one who can hurt me. All that crap about what you’ve put me through and risking me at the palace? I made the decision, not you. If I was going to screw you, that would be my decision, too. Yes, I’m uncertain. I’ve always been uncertain about you. Lately, I’ve been thinking that maybe I do have a clue to what makes you tick.” She took a step toward him and punched her index finger at his chest. “And you’re not what I always thought you were, and that’s confusing, too. But I’m the one who has to work that out in my head. I’m in control of me. I can say yes. I can say no. I won’t have you thinking you can stop and start and set the pace. Do you understand, Mandak?”

  He didn’t speak for a moment. Then a faint smile touched his lips. “Do you know how much I love to see you spark? Even when it’s against me?” He inclined his head. “My apologies. What could I have been thinking?”

  “Nothing intelligent. Maybe the sexual positions of the Kama Sutra.” She turned and strode toward the cave. “Now stay out of my way for a while. I’ve spent most of the evening worrying about whether you were going to get killed, then you spring this on me.”

  “It kind of sprung itself,” he called after her. “You have to admit you were the impetus. How could you not expect me to—”

  “Stay out of my way,” she repeated.

  “Right. Whatever you say.”

  Yeah, sure. She stopped just inside the cave. She was shaking, but she didn’t know whether it was from anger or the lingering sexual tension that was still gripping her.

  “You okay?” Sean was kneeling beside a small fire and looked up to study her face. “You look upset. Mandak must have really been pissed off.”

  “It was mutual.” She came toward the fire and dropped down across from Sean. “And it became … complicated.”

  “When isn’t it complicated with Mandak?” He handed her a metal cup containing steaming coffee. “But this seemed pretty straightforward for him. It wasn’t about having his own way. He was scared.”

  “Not Mandak. I’ve never seen him scared.”

  “I have.” He stared into the flames. “Those two days at the apartment when he was trying to keep you from going off the deep end after Lee and Natalie had been killed. He was scared he was going to lose you. Mandak’s a pretty cool customer. I didn’t expect that reaction from him.” He looked up at her. “I’d thought you were only a job to him.”

  “So did I,” she said dryly.

  “But you didn’t see him during those two days.” He smiled. “And I believe you might have changed your opinion lately. Or you wouldn’t have been so hell-bent on trying to save him tonight.”

  “He wasn’t being reasonable. Someone had to be there for him.”

  “And you were.” He finished his coffee. “And the rest is history.” He poured another cup of coffee and got to his feet. “I think I’ll go take this cup out to Mandak, and we’ll decide who’s going to take the first watch. He doesn’t appear to be eager to join us. You must have been most discouraging.”

  She didn’t answer. Nothing about her early response to Mandak had been discouraging. She could still remember the sensation of searing sensuality when he had touched her. She felt as if she could still feel it. When the hell would it go away?

  “No?” Sean had stopped at the cave opening and his gaze was narrowed on her face. “Interesting…”

  The next moment, he was gone.

  Sean was more shrewd than she had realized, she thought ruefully. Not only in his observations but in his instincts. She was glad that he had gone. She didn’t need those bright, warm eyes trying to decipher what she was feeling. She was having enough trouble trying to figure it out herself.

  She moved back from the fire, grabbed a blanket, and curled up against the stone wall of the cave.

  Try to sleep.

  Try to forget Mandak.

  Try to forget the way her body seemed to tingle and sing when he touched her.

  Sex. It was only sex.

  Or was it? It hadn’t been sex when she had been frantic to get to Mandak in case he needed her. She had felt that she would lose a part of herself if Mandak was taken from her. She had claimed it could be the bonding, but her feeling toward Mandak had been there from the beginning. Beneath suspicion and fe
ar, there had always been this closeness, this deep-seated wish to be with him. That night he had taken her to live with Lee and Natalie, she had felt a wrenching loneliness that she’d hidden from him.

  No, it wasn’t only sex.

  But now the sex was here, and she would have to contend with it. It was part of her obsession with Mandak. She could no more walk away from it than she could dismiss all the rest of her feelings for him.

  She was too tired to deal with this right now.

  I’m not going to think about you any more tonight, Mandak.

  Concentrate. Block him, the way he’d taught her to block those attacking memories.

  It was much harder because Mandak was not only in her memory but her body. He seemed to possess all of her.

  Even when she thought she had cast him out and was drifting off to sleep, he insinuated himself like a persistent melody.

  I think it’s always been you.

  * * *

  MANDAK WAS NEAR HER, she thought drowsily.

  She could feel the warmth and the substance of him even though he wasn’t touching her.

  “Mandak…”

  “Shh.” He was tucking her blanket closer around her. “Go back to sleep. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  She forced her eyes open to look at him. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

  “No reason.” He smiled. “But you’ve already told me how stupid and unreasonable I am.”

  “And you are. Sometimes.”

  “And you can be pigheaded and stubborn. Sometimes.” His hand stroked back her hair from her temple. “I didn’t mean to wake you. You told me to give you space, and I thought I had a better chance of checking on you if you were asleep.”

  “Did you expect me to be in tears because you were displeased with me? That time is long gone, Mandak.”

  “If it ever existed. I hope I never caused you tears. You were such a tough kid, I thought I did pretty well to just keep up with you.”

  “I didn’t feel tough. I was always fighting to survive.”

  “Survive me?”

  It felt strange lying here, with the fire casting leaping shadows on the stone wall and telling him things that she had never thought she would tell him. Why not? He had been an integral part of her life for years. They had gone through too much together not to be honest with each other.