The giddy flush of pleasure at hearing he was single threatened to reveal her lack of indifference, but she managed to keep her voice level. Just two friends chatting. "But your friend has managed to have a family?" What did his friend do differently to allow him that happiness?
"Not many are able to...escape our profession." A sadness colored his voice when he spoke.
He seemed a lonely man. His friends were few, and he'd been shot. One of the first things he’d done when he regained consciousness was to clean his rifle, and he’d spent a few minutes every day, disassembling and cleaning it. "Are you a criminal, Isaac Cooper?"
His eyes snapped to her and his body tensed. He shook his head. "My organization works within strict confines. What I do is sanctioned. I am not a criminal." He was emphatic with his words, punctuating each one.
Lyric lifted her eyebrows at the intensity of his declarations. She stared at him, trying to read why he was so adamant, but she couldn't. Finally, she nodded her head. "I believe you."
Isaac held her stare for a moment before he nodded. For whatever reason, he needed her to believe him. She did.
Asp woke and rolled onto his side, barely flinching at the movement. Lyric wasn't sitting in her normal spot across from him. He rotated so he could look at the fire. She wasn't there either. He stretched carefully, feeling his muscles pull. It had been three days since he'd showered under the waterfall adjacent to the back entrance of the cave. His strength had started to return, no doubt because Lyric kept him fed, hydrated and corralled. She made an exacting mother hen. She kept a sharp eye on him. Hell, he told Lyric every day he was solid. She ignored him, every day. Why she was so damn stubborn was beyond him. She needed to get off this mountain and as far away from him as possible. He reminded her of that every chance he got. A small piece of him, however, was happy each time she rebuffed him and then fussed at him for not taking care of himself. Not since he’d left home had someone fussed over him. Was it wrong of him to covet it? Probably. Strike that. Try definitely.
He stank, and he wasn't the only thing that stank. He stood and risked bending down to remove the blankets from his pallet and toss them over a pile of rocks not far away. Those blankets needed as much attention as he did. He moved across the cave and rummaged around in his pack for his bar of soap, his toothbrush and powdered toothpaste and his straight razor. It was time to clean up and rejoin the land of the living. He also pulled one of his glow sticks out of the bottom of his pack. The chemical reaction lasted twelve hours so they could use it all day without draining her flashlight's batteries.
At the waterfall he stripped. A small flow of water still poured over the rock shelf. He stripped and grabbed his bar of soap and his straight razor before he washed quickly and sat down under the stream of water. God...he was finally clean. Asp caught a flash of movement. Dark pants and an arm. He pushed into the face of the rock. The waterfall area was concealed, still he moved further under the rock that hung overhead. It took no time to collect his belongings and move his ass back into the interior of the cave. Once inside, he threw on his jeans, stuffed everything in a blanket and grabbed his glow stick. He sprinted to the front of the cave, expecting to see Lyric. Only, she hadn't returned, and that was a huge fucking problem. Winded, he sucked air and tried to focus. Asp grabbed his boots and stuffed his feet into them before he snatched up his weapon. He grabbed a handful of rounds, shoved them into his front pocket and headed out of the cave.
His eyes bounced around the upper valley. Holy fuck, where was Lyric? There was someone out there, and chances were that particular someone was hunting for him. He moved to his left, looking for a way out of the bushes that would still keep him covered and at minimal risk. That was when he saw her. She was crouched down between a tree and one of the flowering marmalade bushes. She’d made herself as small as possible, and from above she may not be have been seen, but from the floor of the canyon, she was exposed. Her head shot up, and he knew she'd spotted him. She lifted her hand and made a small motion to point above him. Asp made the OK sign with his hand and then held it up in a stop sign fashion. Lyric folded into herself again, becoming as small as possible. That was one a smart woman.
Asp shifted back to the cave opening. It offered the most concealment if someone looked down from above. He worked on steadying his breath and listened for anything that was out of the ordinary. He heard the ghost whispers of gravel shifting. Too much to be from the breeze. The sound came from up above him and to his right. Carefully and quietly he drifted back out of view. The rattle of rocks became louder. There…the catch of a boot on rock and a muttered curse, in English. Whoever it was had no idea Asp was below him. Glancing to his right, and left, he weighed his options. Of course, he chose the most difficult, but quieter, of the two available avenues he could use to take the man out. He could shoot the bastard or kill him with his hands. Firing the rifle would have anyone in a five-mile area heading their direction. So, a close-in kill. Asp didn't have the strength for a long fight. He needed an efficient and quick kill.
He pressed against the rock and waited. A flurry of loose rock and dirt preceded the inelegant thump of the man's feet, not three feet from where Asp waited. He had a millisecond to determine if the man was friend or foe. The half-assed uniform and Russian made weapon strapped to his back told him everything he needed to know. Asp stepped out and sent a quick thrust of the butt of his weapon toward the man's head. The stock collided with the man's face. Blood and teeth sprayed across the rock surface. The man choked or gagged an inaudible plea or perhaps it was a curse. Asp didn't care. His target dropped to his knees. Asp planted his bad leg and swung violently with his good, kicking the man's chin back and up with all the force he could muster. He couldn't hear the telltale sound of the man's neck snapping because he was breathing too fucking hard, but the guy dropped like a bag of rocks, and the position of his head on his neck told the story. Asp dropped his hand to his knee and sucked air. He shook from the small amount of energy he'd expended and sweat sheened his body. The blank eyes that stared back at him told him nothing. Asp rifled through the man's pockets. No identification, nothing but a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He stayed in his hidden position for twenty minutes, listening and waiting. There was no further movement. Taking the risk of revealing himself, he pushed away from the wall and the man he'd just killed. He'd deal with the dead body after he got Lyric back inside the cave.
Asp carefully slid along the wall of the cave and made it back to where he could see Lyric, but she was no longer there. Every nerve in his body tensed as he scanned the area. He moved from one bush to the next, carefully moving limbs to expose a wider expanse to his view. There was nothing. Fuck! Where was...
A scrape of a boot against a rock to his left plunged him into full attack mode. He spun and lifted his rifle ready to kill. Lyric skid to a stop, her eyes wide and her face pale. Asp lowered the weapon, reached out and pulled her into his chest. He cradled her there, relieved he didn't deliver the blow he'd intended and was fucking thankful she was alive.
"I'm sorry." She whispered the words over and over into his chest.
He held her to him and rocked her back and forth letting her seek comfort. She had to be terrified. He made shushing noises in her ear, before he spoke, "You have no reason to be sorry."
She pulled away and looked up at him, tears rolling down her face. "If I'd have stayed in the cave, he never would have found us. He was up by the fruit trees. I think he saw me and followed me. You had to kill him."
Asp nodded and pulled her against him again. He'd been honest with her. He'd told her he had enemies, and she'd just witnessed that in a front row seat fashion. "I'm sorry you had to see that."
"I'm sorry I made you do it." She leaned into him and fuck him if he didn't revel in the feel of her against him.
"You didn't make me do a thing. I killed him to keep both of us safe." Asp rubbed his hand up and down her back, still holding his M-21 in his right hand.
"We
need to leave. By his uniform, he's FARC. If they are this close, it’s only a matter of time before they find us. Are you well enough to travel down with me?"
Asp leaned back and frowned. "I can’t come with you. I can't bring this shit to your family's door. If anyone saw us together, it wouldn't go well for you, your father and grandfather." He backed away slightly and herded her toward the cave entrance. He would follow her and keep an eye on her, but he wouldn't go with her.
There was a sniper out there, somewhere. One of the basic tenants he’d always followed was to confirm your kill. He'd confirmed his kill. The sniper who shot at him, could not. The marksman hadn't been able to track him either. If the bastard was working for Halo, outside the law, he'd probably take missing the kill personally. That meant Asp had to assume the man was out there, somewhere, and that he would still be hunted. Even if he made it off the mountain unseen, he still had over fifty vulnerable miles to travel to where he left his vehicle and his satellite phone. Asp wouldn't give up if the roles were reversed. He didn't expect the bastard who shot him would give up either. He'd deal with the dead body and get a game plan started.
He continued to shield her view as they entered the cave, and thankfully, she didn't try to go around him. Death was never something innocents needed to see. Death scarred. It ripped lives apart, and it was the one thing in which he excelled.
She spun on him once he managed to get them in the cave. "You, I..." She shivered and rubbed her hands over her arms before she looked past him to the entrance of the cave.
He moved to block her view. "What? What were you going to say?"
A small shake of her head preceded a deep breath. She straightened her back and tilted her chin up in a show of defiance. "Nothing. It is almost nightfall. I need to get my things together." She spun away from him and started gathering her belongings.
He watched her jerky movements as she picked up items that had migrated from the area around her pallet to the far corners of the cave. She didn't turn back to him. Instead, she ignored him. No surprise there. He'd killed someone in front of her. She was probably terrified of him. Asp set his rifle down near the mouth of the cave and returned to the corpse. He grabbed the man's leg, tugged him away from the entrance, and into the thickest stand of marmalade bushes. He used his boot to scrape out the soft bed of leaves under the bush. He rolled the man under the limbs and kicked the leaves and dirt over him. It wouldn't do anything to protect the body from wild animals, but it might hide him from anyone looking down from above, and right now, that was Asp's only concern. Exhausted, he made his way back to the cave. They'd sleep for a few hours and then leave during the dead of night.
Chapter 11
She’d tried to lose the man on her trail this afternoon. She'd circled past the valley twice and thought she'd lost him before she came over the ridge and down the far side of the valley, but he must have seen her and moved to cut her off. He’d come down the face of rock that held her grandfather's shrine to her grandmother. She watched as he almost dropped on top of Isaac. She wanted to scream to him in warning, but fear kept her silent. She watched as Isaac reared up, struck the man with the stock of his weapon and then...the man's head snapped back from Isaac's kick. She knew at that moment Isaac had killed him.
The entire situation was her fault. If she'd just been more careful. Tears kept a steady flow down her cheeks. She swiped at them as she shoved her belongings into the pack.
Isaac wasn’t coming with her. She would have to make her way alone down the mountain. Alone. Lyric's hands shook, and her mind raced. For the first time since she'd traveled up the mountain, she was really scared. She couldn’t believe he was simply going to abandon her. He said he “wouldn't bring his enemies to her family’s door.” Yeah. How noble of him. So what if that left her traveling alone down the mountain, dodging the FARC who were hunting him. If they found her? Oh, god. Lyric shivered and rubbed her arms with her hands. At the farm, her father and grandfather were armed and kept her safe. Here, with Isaac, she was safe, but a single woman traveling down the mountain alone, unarmed...she rubbed her arms harder trying to warm herself. She searched the area looking for anything she couldn't leave behind. There was nothing.
"You're probably in shock."
Lyric startled at his words, not realizing he'd come back into the cave. He draped a blanket around her. Lyric threw the blanket off her shoulders. "I'm not in shock, I'm..." She was in shock—but it wasn’t for the reasons he thought. Her shock stemmed from pure disillusionment about the character of the man she’d saved. She shut her mouth and shook her head. So…she had to make her way alone down the mountain. Okay. She could do this. She was smart, resourceful and she'd be careful.
"Look, I know you're upset, but it’s for the best."
The sound of his words hadn't faded before Lyric pounced. "Really? It’s for the best? Sending me down the mountain alone when the FARC are out there, beating every bush looking for you? It’s for the best?" She glared at him. "Don't worry, I hear the women they take don't last long." She spun on her heel to grab her pack and was jerked off her feet and pulled into his chest. His massive arms cradled her even when she kicked him. "Let me go!" Everything settled on her heart. The mistakes she made this afternoon, the man who lay dead because of her and the heartache from the realization Isaac wasn't the champion she'd built up in her mind—all of it crashed down on her. She crumpled, and he held her up. She cried, and he rocked her in his arms. This was the Isaac she thought she knew. Why had he refused to help her down the mountain?
"You're safe with me. I won't let anyone hurt you." His words rumbled through his chest.
She shook her head. She really wasn't. She was terrified and she... “Wait, what?” She sniffed. "You said you wouldn't take me home."
"No, I said I couldn't bring this to your family's door. I would never leave you unprotected." He tipped her head up, and she blinked back her tears. “I can’t be seen with you, but I’ll be there.”
"I don't understand."
"I'll be watching, but you won't see me. I will be there for you."
"Oh…you shaved." She had no idea why she said that. Perhaps relief had left her giddy.
He chuckled and nodded. "I did." He cupped her face with one massive hand. "Trust me?"
She stared at him. "I do."
"We’ll sleep for a couple hours, pack up, only the necessities, and we'll head out. Staying here isn't safe any longer." His eyes flicked from hers to her lips.
Lyric ran her tongue over them because they were suddenly very dry. His eyes trailed the movement. Pressed against him as she was, there was little he could hide from her. His body wanted her, maybe as much as she wanted him. She lifted onto her toes and pressed her lips against his. He stood, stoic and still. Lyric threaded her arms around his neck and pulled away a fraction of an inch opening her eyes to see him. "Stop trying to protect me from you, Isaac. Kiss me."
She rubbed up against him. His body had reacted to her, and she was going to use that fact to her benefit. His hardening length against her stomach told her he wanted her, too. Logically, this was a bad decision. Logically, she knew he was a man who wouldn't be tied down to a woman like her. He'd traveled the world and worked doing something mysterious and dangerous. Something that put them both in danger. Maybe it was stupid to push him, but she'd always wonder what could have been if she didn't. She'd learned from her mother's death, life was too short to live with regrets. He stared at her, the indecision in his eyes was easy to read. "Kiss me, now." She whispered her demand.
He lowered to her. The first sweep of his lips lingered for a few precious seconds. She opened for him, inviting him deeper. He clutched her tighter, kissed her softly once more and dropped his arms. "We need to pack up and get ready to go. When it is full dark, we move." He turned and walked out of the cave.
Lyric lifted her fingers to her lips. The kiss was everything and nothing. She wanted more. At the same time, she was terrified of more. More of Isaac Cooper
meant certain heartbreak. He would leave her and she’d go back to her small existence in the foothills of the Andes.
She rubbed her arms again and looked around the cave. She had what she needed to travel light. Everything else could be left. Twilight was fading into early evening outside. To pass the time, she made some dinner. She ate and waited. Hours passed, and he still hadn't returned. It was full dark now. Lyric made her way to the entrance of the cave, careful to keep concealed along the darkest side of the entrance. She snuck a peek out and to the right and then left. She found him sitting against the outside wall of the entrance.
"Hey." She sat down beside him. "I have food for you." He nodded but continued to look forward, through the bushes. She tried to see what he was looking at, but the night was inky dark. Clouds shadowed the moon and the stars. "What are you looking at?"
He rolled his head and looked at her. A sadness had settled around him. It was easy to see and to feel. "I'm trying to estimate where a sniper would be, what he would be looking for and where. I believe he'll be looking for my entry point. That means we should have three, maybe four days of relatively safe travel."
"Sniper? The FARC has snipers?" Lyric shivered at that thought.
"No, the man who was organizing the remnants of the FARC had a sniper, and he was the man who shot me. Everything we do outside this cave will become a game of strategy. What would they do, versus what we will do? I completed my mission. I killed his boss. He missed me. He knows he failed. People like me don't like to fail. So, he'll try to guess what I will do, and he'll try to manipulate the terrain and environment to make me do what he wants me to do."
"You killed his boss?" Her throat tightened as she said the words.
"I did. He was my assignment. He...he was a monster."
"Your government sent you here to kill him?"
"No. Not the government."
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