by Nora Roberts
The train wasn’t quiet. It rumbled and moaned and swayed while conversation was a constant babble. It smelled, not too unpleasantly as air drifted through the windows, of sweat. The last time she’d ridden a train had been on impulse, she recalled. She’d had an air-conditioned roomette that smelled of powder and flowers. It hadn’t been nearly as interesting a ride.
A woman with a thumb-sucking baby sat across from them. He stared wide-eyed and solemn at Whitney before reaching out with a pudgy hand to grab her braid. Embarrassed, his mother yanked him away, rattling a quick stream of Malagasy.
“No, no, it’s all right.” Laughing, Whitney stroked the baby’s cheek. His fingers closed around hers like a small vise. Amused, she signed for the mother to pass him to her. After a few moments of hesitation and persuasion, Whitney took the baby onto her lap. “Hello, little man.”
“I’m not sure the natives have heard of Pampers,” Doug said mildly.
She merely wrinkled her nose at him. “Don’t you like children?”
“Sure, I just like them better when they’re house-broken.”
Chuckling, she gave her attention to the baby. “Let’s see what we’ve got,” she told him and reaching in her purse came up with a compact. “How about this? Want to see the baby?” She held the mirror up for him, enjoying the gurgling laughter. “Pretty baby,” she crooned, rather pleased with herself for amusing him. Just as amused as she, the baby pushed the mirror toward her face.
“Pretty lady,” Doug commented, earning a laugh from Whitney.
“Here, you try it.” Before he could protest, she’d passed the baby to him. “Babies are good for you.”
If she’d expected him to be annoyed or to be awkward, she was wrong. As if he’d spent his life doing it, Doug straddled the baby on his lap and began to entertain him.
That was interesting, Whitney noted. The thief had a sweet side. Sitting back, she watched Doug bounce the baby on his knee and make foolish noises. “Ever thought about going straight and opening a day-care center?”
He lifted a brow and snatched the mirror from her. “Look here,” he told the baby, holding the mirror at an angle that had the sunlight flashing off it. Squealing, the baby grabbed the compact and pushed it toward Doug’s face.
“He wants you to see the monkey,” Whitney said with a bland smile.
“Smartass.”
“So you’ve said.”
To satisfy the baby, Doug made faces in the mirror. Bouncing with delight, the baby knocked at the mirror, angling it back so that Doug had a quick view of the rear of the train. He tensed, and, angling the mirror again, took a longer scan.
“Holy shit.”
“What?”
Still juggling the baby, he stared at her. Sweat pooled in his armpits and ran down his back. “You just keep smiling, sugar, and don’t look behind me. We’ve got a couple of friends a few seats back.”
Though her hands tensed on the arms of the seat, she managed to keep her gaze from darting back over Doug’s shoulder. “Small world.”
“Ain’t it just.”
“Got any ideas?”
“I’m working on it.” He measured the distance to the door. If they got off at the next stop, Remo would be on them before they’d crossed the platform. If Remo was here, Dimitri was close. He kept his men on a short leash. Doug gave himself a full minute to fight the panic. What they needed was a diversion and an unscheduled departure.
“You just follow my lead,” Doug told her in undertones. “And when I say go, you grab the knapsack and run toward the doors.”
Whitney glanced down the length of the train. There were women, children, old people jammed into seats. Not the place for a showdown, she decided. “Do I have a choice?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll run.”
The train slowed for the next stop, brakes squeaking, engine puffing. Doug waited until the crowd of incoming and outgoing passengers was at its thickest. “Sorry old man,” he murmured to the baby, then gave his soft butt a hard pinch. On cue, the baby set up a yowling scream that had the concerned mother hopping up in alarm. Doug rose as well and set about causing as much confusion as possible in the crowded center aisle.
Sensing the game, Whitney stood and jostled the man at her right hard enough to dislodge the packages in his arms and send them scattering on the floor. Grapefruit bounced and squashed.
When the train began to move again, there were six people between Doug and where Remo sat, crowding the aisle and arguing among themselves in Malagasy. In a gesture of apology, Doug raised his arms and upended a net bag of vegetables. The baby sent up long, continuous howls. Deciding it was the best he could do, Doug slipped a hand down and gripped Whitney’s wrist. “Now.”
Together, they streaked toward the doors. Doug glanced up long enough to see Remo spring from his seat and begin to fight his way through the still-arguing group blocking the aisle. He caught a glimpse of another man wearing a panama tossing a newspaper aside and jumping up before he, too, was encircled by the crowd. Doug only had a second to wonder where he’d seen the face before.
“Now what?” Whitney demanded as she watched the ground begin to rush by beneath them.
“Now, we get off.” Without hesitating, Doug jumped, dragging her with him. He wrapped himself around her, tucking as they hit the ground so that they rolled together in a tangled heap. By the time they’d stopped, the train was yards away and picking up speed.
“Goddamn it!” Whitney exploded from on top of him. “We could’ve broken our necks.”
“Yeah.” Winded, he lay there. His hands had worked up under her skirt to her thighs, but he barely noticed. “But we didn’t.”
Unappeased, she glowered down at him. “Well, aren’t we lucky. Now what do we do?” she demanded, blowing loose hair out of her eyes. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere, miles from where we’re supposed to be and with no transportation to get there.”
“You’ve got your feet,” Doug tossed back at her.
“So do they,” she said between her teeth. “And they’ll be off at the next stop and doubling back for us. They’ve got guns and we’ve got mangoes and a folding tent.”
“So the sooner we stop arguing and get going the better.” Unceremoniously, he pushed her from him and stood up. “I never told you it’d be a picnic.”
“You never mentioned tossing me off a moving train either.”
“Just get your ass in gear, sweetheart.”
Rubbing a bruised hip, she rose until she stood toe to toe with him. “You’re crude, arrogant, and very dislikable.”
“Oh, excuse me.” He swept her a mock bow. “Would you mind stepping this way so we can avoid getting a bullet in the brain, duchess?”
She stormed away and dragged up the backpack that had been knocked out of her hands on impact. “Which way?”
Doug slipped his own pack over his shoulders. “North.”
C H A P T E R
5
Whitney had always been fond of mountains. She could look back with pleasure on a two-week skiing vacation in the Swiss Alps. In the mornings, she’d ridden to the top of the slopes, admiring the view from a tram. The swishing rush of the ride down had always delighted her. A great deal could be said about a cozy après-ski with hot buttered rum and a crackling fire.
Once she’d enjoyed a lazy weekend in a villa in Greece, high on a rocky slope overlooking the Aegean. She’d appreciated the height, the view, and the quality of nature and antiquity—from the comfort of a terra-cotta balcony.
However, Whitney had never been big on mountain climbing—sweaty, leg-cramping mountain climbing. Nature wasn’t all it was cracked up to be when it worked its way under the tender balls of your feet and dug in.
North, he’d said. Grimly she kept pace with him, up tough, rocky slopes and down again. She’d continue to keep pace with Lord, she promised herself as sweat dribbled down her back. He had the envelope. But while she’d hike with him, sweat with him, pant with h
im, there was absolutely no reason she had to speak to him.
No one, absolutely no one, told her to get her ass in gear and got away with it.
It might take days, even weeks, but she’d get him for it. There was one basic business rule she’d learned from her father. Revenge, chilled a bit, was much more palatable.
North. Doug looked around at the rugged, steep hills that surrounded them. The terrain was a monotony of high grass that fanned in the breeze and rough red scars where erosion had won. And rock, endless, unforgiving rock. Farther up were a few sparse, spindly trees, but he wasn’t looking for shade. From his vantage point there was nothing else, no huts, no houses, no fields. No people. For now, it was exactly what he wanted.
The night before while Whitney had slept, he’d studied the map of Madagascar he’d ripped from the stolen library book. He couldn’t stand to mar a book of any kind, because books had given his imagination an outlet as a child, and kept him company through lonely nights as a man. But it had been necessary in this case. The ragged piece of paper fit nicely in his pocket while the book stayed in his pack. It was only there for backup. In his mind’s eye, Doug separated the terrain into the three parallel belts he’d studied. The western lowlands didn’t matter. As he strode up a rocky, rough path he hoped they’d detoured as far west as they’d have to. They’d stick to the highlands, avoid the riverbanks and open areas as long as they could. Dimitri was closer than he’d anticipated. Doug didn’t want to guess wrong again.
The heat was already oppressive, but their water supply should last until morning. He’d worry about replenishing it when he had to. He wished he could be certain just how far north they should travel before they dared swing east to the coast and easier ground.
Dimitri might be waiting in Tamatave, soaking up wine and sunshine, dining on the fresh local fish. Logically, that should be their first stop, so logically they had to avoid it. For the time being.
Doug didn’t mind playing a game of wits, the bigger the odds the better. The sweeter the pot, as he’d once told Whitney. But Dimitri … Dimitri was a different story.
He hitched at the straps of his backpack until the weight settled more comfortably on his shoulders. And there wasn’t only himself to think of this time. One of the reasons he’d avoided partnerships for so long was because he preferred having one body to worry about. His own. He shot a look across at Whitney, who’d been cooly silent since they’d left the train tracks and headed toward the highlands.
Damn woman, he thought for lack of anything better. If she thought the cold-shoulder routine was going to shake him up, she was dead wrong. It might make some of her fancy patent-leather jerks beg for a word of forgiveness, but as far as he was concerned, she was a hell of a lot more attractive when her mouth was shut anyway.
Imagine complaining because he’d gotten her off the train in one piece. Maybe she had a few bruises, but she was still breathing. Her problem was, he decided, she wanted everything all nice and pretty, like that high-class apartment of hers … or the tiny little piece of silk she was wearing under that skirt.
Doug shook away that particular thought in a hurry and concentrated on picking his way over the rocks.
He’d like to keep to the hills for a while—two days, maybe three. There was plenty of cover, and the going was rough. Rough enough, he was certain, to slow Remo and some of Dimitri’s other trained hounds down. They were more accustomed to tramping down back alleys and into sleazy motel rooms than over rocks and hills. Those used to being hunted acclimated with more ease.
Pausing on a crest, he drew out the field glasses and took a long, slow sweep. Below and slightly west, he spotted a small settlement. The cluster of tiny red houses and wide barns bordered a patchwork of fields. Rice paddies, he decided, because of their moist emerald green color. He saw no power lines and was grateful. The farther away from civilization, the better. The settlement would be a Merina tribe, if his memory of the guidebook was accurate. Just beyond was a narrow winding river. Part of the Betsiboka.
Eyes narrowed, Doug followed its trail while an idea formed. True, the river flowed northwest, but the notion of traveling by boat had some appeal. Crocodiles or not, it was bound to be faster than going on foot, even for a short distance. Traveling by river was something he’d have to decide on when the time came. He’d take an evening or two to read up on it—what rivers would suit his purpose best and how the Malagasy traveled by them. He remembered skimming over something that had reminded him of the flatbed canoes the Cajuns used. Doug had traveled through the bayous on one himself after nearly bungling a job in a stately old house outside of Lafayette.
How much had he gotten for those antique pearl-handled dueling pistols? He couldn’t remember. But the chase through the swamp where he’d had to pole his way across cypress trees and under dripping moss—that had been something. No, he wouldn’t mind traveling by river again.
In any case, he’d keep his eye out for more settlements. Sooner or later, they’d need more food and have to bargain for it. Remembering the woman beside him, he decided that Whitney might just come in handy there.
Disgusted, and aching from bruises, Whitney sat on the ground. She wasn’t going another step until she’d rested and eaten. Her legs felt entirely too much like they had the one and only time she’d tried the electric jogging track at the gym. Without giving Doug a glance she dug into her pack. The first thing she was going to do was change her shoes.
Replacing the glasses, Doug turned to her. The sun was straight up. They could make miles before dusk. “Let’s go.”
Cooly silent, Whitney found a banana and began to peel it in long, slow strips. Just let him tell her to move her ass this time. With her eyes on Doug’s she bit into the fruit and chewed.
Her skirt was hiked up past her knees as she sat cross-legged on the ground. Damp with perspiration, her blouse clung to her. The neat braid she’d fashioned while he’d watched that morning had loosened so that pale, silky hair escaped to tease her cheekbones. Her face was as cool and elegant as marble.
“Let’s move.” Desire made him edgy. She wasn’t going to get to him, he promised himself. No way. Every time he let a woman get under his skin, he ended up losing. Maybe, just maybe, he’d get to her before they were finished, but there was no way this cool-eyed, skinny lady was going to shake his priorities. Money, the good life.
He wondered what it would be like to have her under him, naked, hot, and completely vulnerable.
Whitney leaned back against a rock and took another bite of fruit. A rare breeze moved hot air over her. Idly, she scratched the back of her knee. “Up yours, Lord,” she suggested in perfectly rounded tones.
God, he’d like to make love with her until she was limp and slick and malleable. He’d like to murder her. “Listen, sugar, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover today. Since we’re on foot—”
“Your doing,” she reminded him.
He crouched down until they were at eye level. “It was my doing that kept your empty head on your sexy shoulders.” Full of fury and frustration, of unwanted needs, he gripped her chin in his hand. “Dimitri would just love to get his pudgy little hands on a classy number like you. Believe me, he’s got a unique imagination.”
A quick thrill of fear went through her, but she kept her eyes level. “Dimitri’s your boogeyman, Doug, not mine.”
“He won’t be selective.”
“I won’t be intimidated.”
“You’ll be dead,” he tossed back. “If you don’t do what you’re told.”
Firmly, she pushed his hand away. Gracefully, she rose. Though the skirt was smudged with red dust and rent with a hole at the hip, it billowed around her like a cloak. The rough Malagasy shoes might have been glass slippers. He had to admire the way she pulled it off. It was innate, he was sure. No one could have taught her. If she’d been the peasant she looked like at that moment, she’d still have moved like a duchess.
One brow rose as she dropped the banana peel in
to his hand. “I never do what I’m told. In fact, I often make a point not to. Do try to keep that in mind in the future.”
“Keep it up, sugar, and you’re not going to have one.”
Taking her time, she brushed some of the dust from her skirt. “Shall we go?”
He tossed the peel into a ravine and tried to convince himself he’d have preferred a woman who whimpered and trembled. “If you’re sure you’re ready.”
“Quite sure.”
He took out his compass for another check. North. They’d keep heading north for a while yet. The sun might beat down unmercifully with no shade to fight it, and the ground might be misery itself to hike on, but the rocks and slopes offered some protection. Whether it was instinct or superstition, something was prickling at the back of his neck. He wouldn’t stop again until sundown.
“You know, duchess, under different circumstances I’d admire that class of yours.” He began to walk in a steady, ground-eating pace. “Right now you’re in danger of becoming a pain in the ass.”
Long legs and determination kept her abreast with him. “Breeding,” she corrected, “is admirable under any circumstances.” She sent him an amused glance. “And enviable.”
“You keep your breeding, sister, I’ll keep mine.”
With a laugh, she tucked her arm through his. “Oh, I intend to.”
He looked down at her neat, manicured hand. He didn’t think there was another woman in the world who could make him feel as though he were escorting her to a ball when they were fighting their way up a rocky slope in the full afternoon sun. “Decided to be friendly again?”
“I decided rather than sulk, I’d keep my eye open for the first opportunity to pay you back for the bruises. In the meantime, just how far are we going to walk?”
“The train ride would’ve taken about twelve hours, and we’ve got to follow a less direct route. You figure it out.”
“No need to be testy,” she said mildly. “Can’t we find a village and rent a car?”
“Let me know when you see the first Hertz sign. It’ll be my treat.”