by Anna Hackett
She tried to jerk herself backward, twisting sharply.
“Dani. It’s me.”
She went still, air heaving in and out of her lungs. She couldn’t see a damn thing. “Cal?”
“Yes.” He yanked her close and she found herself pressed against a firm, warm chest.
Thank God. With a small sound, she pressed herself as close as she could get. She needed skin. She needed the reassurance they were both okay. She tore at the top buttons of his shirt, and pressed her face to the base of his throat. His skin was warm against her cheek, and she breathed him in. She smelled the blood, smoke and sweat, but beneath it was the scent of Cal.
It calmed something inside her, and she felt the crazy edge of fear ease a little.
“Shh.” He stroked her hair. “You’re okay.” Then he pulled back, and she could just see the flash of his face in the darkness. “We have to go. Those guys are still out there, and they’re after us.”
She nodded and realized he couldn’t see her. “Okay.”
As though his words had summoned them, a shout echoed nearby.
Cal took her hand and broke into a run.
Dani had no idea how he could see where he was going. She followed him, trying not to stumble, and kept a tight hold on his hand.
Her boot hit something large, and she tripped. She expected to hit the ground, but Cal caught her, dragging her against his chest.
But if she expected sympathy from him she was wrong. He didn’t talk, just made sure she was upright again, grabbed her wrist and kept moving.
Seconds turned to minutes. Dani lost track of any sense of time. She thought of Dr. Oakley and the others, and prayed they’d gotten away safely. Poor Jean-Luc. Her stomach did a slow, sickening roll. They’d shot him without blinking an eye. How could a single artifact, no matter its value, be worth somebody’s life?
Suddenly, Cal stopped. Dani slammed into the back of him. He spun, pressing a finger to her lips.
Dread was like a rock in her belly. She strained to hear whatever it was that had caught his attention.
Nothing. Just the wind in the trees, and not even any of the regular jungle sounds. It seemed like even the animals were being quiet.
Then she heard it…voices.
She swallowed and looked up at Cal. He took her hand, changed direction, and pulled her back into the dense vegetation.
They were lost. She knew it. They had no map, no GPS. They were running deep into the middle of the jungle on a mountain in a remote corner of Cambodia. There was no Search and Rescue team to find them. What the hell were they going to do?
Cal stopped again. They were both breathing heavily, and now Dani could just make out a dirt path twisting off into the trees. She glanced up and realized the sky was starting to lighten. That, and the path, would make it easier going for them.
Then Cal turned away from the path and pulled her into the vegetation again.
“The path will be faster,” she whispered. A vine slapped her in the face and she batted it away.
“They’ll expect us to go that way. It’ll be easier for them to track us.”
Right. She concentrated on following close behind him and staying on her feet. Large tree roots protruded from the ground, but she managed to avoid them all. They hurried on and rounded a tree with a huge trunk.
Suddenly, Cal pitched forward. Dani felt the ground turn soggy beneath her feet. She sank up to her knees in mud and swallowed a small shriek.
Cal was letting out a stream of curses. He pulled one boot free of the mud.
Damn. Dani fought to pull her boots out of the sticky stuff, but it tried to suck her back down.
“Don’t fight it,” he warned. “We’ll just end up sinking farther. Just go slowly.”
She copied Cal’s steady movements and slowly worked a foot free. By the time she was working to free her second leg, Cal was already free of the mud. He stood beside her, keeping a hold of her arm.
Dani tugged and tugged her leg, then hissed out a short breath. “I’m stuck. My boot won’t move.”
“I’ve got you.” Cal wrapped his arms around her chest, and gave a hard yank.
Her foot came free with a squelch and the momentum slammed her against Cal. They both toppled to the leafy ground.
He kept his arms around her, his face pressed to her hair. “Okay?”
She let her forehead drop against his chest for a minute. “I will be.”
He slid a hand up and down her back. “Hell of a night.”
She managed to mostly stifle a hysterical laugh. “You could say that.”
He sat up, bringing her with him. “We haven’t put enough distance between them and us. We need to keep moving.”
Dani stood, grimacing at the mud coating her trousers and boots. There were several streaks on her shirt, but luckily none on her camera. She’d gotten pretty good at making sure her camera was protected whenever she fell or got mucky. It was second nature to her now.
“I don’t understand any of this,” she said. “We told them what we know. Nobody on Earth knows where the cintamani is.”
“Silk Road are well-funded criminals…they don’t care about lives. It was exactly the same when my brother came up against them in Egypt.” Cal’s tone was hard and grim. “They’ve been working behind the scenes for a long time, but it looks like they’re stepping up their game. These guys that attacked us…they’ll take whatever risk they need to on the small chance that they might stumble onto priceless treasure.”
As they pushed through the undergrowth, Dani decided the jungle was even denser here. Vines, leaves, branches—everything seemed to have thorns that snagged on her clothes.
When they came out into a small clearing, it was almost a shock. The light was still murky, but it was enough to see a fallen tree on the ground. The large trunk was hollowed out and clearly used by the jungle animals for shelter.
Abruptly, Cal cursed. “I can hear them coming.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “We could hide.” She eyed the trunk again.
Cal was scowling. “It’s not a bad idea.”
“The fallen tree—”
“Not there.” He scanned around. “Over there.” He moved over to a tree that looked like all the other trees around them. He pointed upward. “Get climbing.”
“We’re going to climb a tree?”
“Hurry. No questions.”
Dragging in a deep breath, Dani eyed the tree. Then she gripped the trunk, and with a boost from Cal, started climbing. When she reached the lowest branches, she grabbed on and pulled herself up.
It was tricky, and a few times her boots slid off the branches. She added a few new scratches to her injuries, and the wound on her arm was burning, but finally she pulled herself up onto a thicker branch.
Cal moved up beside her. “Higher.”
Dani rolled her eyes but didn’t protest. Finally, they settled onto a larger, higher branch. The foliage closed in around them. She shivered, more conscious now of the cooler morning air on her bare skin. An arm wrapped around her, pulling her into the warmth of Cal’s body.
“What now?” she whispered.
“We wait.”
Dani had never minded waiting before. Waiting for the perfect shot, the perfect light, or the perfect expression on someone’s face was easy for her. But sitting damp, scared, and tired—not to mention in pain—in the top of a tree in the middle of the jungle, was definitely much more difficult.
She shifted, and pain shot through her arm. She tried to stay quiet but Cal picked up on it instantly.
“What’s wrong? You’ve been outstanding, Dani. Just hang in there a bit longer.”
She nodded. “But I got shot, though. It really hurts.”
“Let me take a look.” He pulled her hand away from her arm, probing at her wound. The breath hissed out of him.
Her stomach clenched. “Oh, God. How bad is it?”
“Well…it’ll need a Band-Aid.”
Dani heard the am
usement in his tone and stiffened. “A Band-Aid? It hurts more than a damn Band-Aid.”
“Dani, the bullet only grazed you.” He brushed her hair off her face. “You’re fine.”
Her hair was hopelessly tangled. “I look like crap and I’ve been shot…that’s not fine.”
The tiniest smile tweaked his lips. “Well, crap looks good on you.”
“Liar.”
“And you weren’t shot, you were grazed. You’ve got a small graze there, that’s it.”
“Quit rubbing it in,” she grumbled.
He cupped her jaw and suddenly his face turned serious. “When I saw you get hit…I was…” His voice broke off.
Something softened inside her and she pressed a hand over his on her cheek. “I’m fine, Cal. I was far more worried about you, afraid they’d kill you.”
They stared at each other for a moment and Dani felt her mouth go dry. She realized just how much her admission revealed about her feelings for this man. God, she couldn’t really be falling for him in the middle of this hellish mess, could she?
She cleared her throat. “Do you think Jean-Luc and the others are okay?”
Cal pulled in a deep breath. “I hope so. Silk Road seemed focused on you and me. If they can get out of here, and get Jean-Luc to a doctor, he’ll be fine.”
Then Cal straightened, and tapped her shoulder before pressing a finger to his mouth. She went as stiff as a board and peered down through the branches at the small clearing below. She couldn’t see anything.
Cal moved just his finger to point off to the left. That’s when she saw the shadows creeping along at the edge of the tree line. There were three of them, all dressed in black, moving silently through the vegetation.
As the men got closer, she heard them murmuring amongst themselves. There was enough light now to make out the guns in their hands.
It only took them seconds to move over to the hollow log and look inside. Dani closed her eyes and thanked God Cal had vetoed her dumb idea.
The Silk Road men did another loop of the clearing before melting away into the trees again.
Cal moved a little and she felt his lips press against her ear. “We need to stay here a bit longer. Make sure they’re really gone.”
She managed to nod, hunching her shoulders.
“Why don’t you get some sleep?” he suggested.
“Sleep?” she whispered. “After all this, you think I’ll be able to sleep? In a tree?”
She saw the flash of his white teeth. “I won’t let you fall.”
No, he wouldn’t. She knew that deep in her marrow. She knew Cal would give his life to take care of others, to take care of her.
Dani snuggled closer to the safe hardness of him. She was sure that there was no way that she would fall asleep.
But exhaustion and the dying adrenaline rush proved too much for her. Her eyelids grew heavy, and when Cal tucked her face in under his chin, the steady beat of his heart under her ear soothed her.
Sleep dragged her under.
Chapter Nine
Despite their situation, Cal was enjoying holding Dani in his arms. He sensed when she finally drifted off, trusting him to look out for her. He stroked a hand against her hair, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest.
She’d done damn well in the insanity. She hadn’t fallen apart. She’d fought back.
That horrible moment when he’d seen her get shot… He squeezed his eyes closed. He saw Marty’s bloody face as Cal held him in his arms. The SEAL, the friend, whose back he’d always vowed to watch out for.
The friend who’d died in his arms.
For a second, the thick, jungle trees around him dissolved into memory, and he heard the rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire, felt the desert sun on his face, heard the frantic shouts. Felt the sticky slide of Marty’s blood on his hands.
Cal’s hold tightened on Dani, and she made a small sound and moved her face against his chest, burrowing deeper. Cal released a shaky breath. She was alive. She was okay.
He needed to get her out of the jungle and back to safety. He wished like hell he still had his satellite phone. Still, when he didn’t check in with Darcy, she’d know something was up. All Treasure Hunter Security team members had a tracking device buried in their watches. It would lead the guys straight through to them.
But it would take a long time for Logan and Morgan to reach them. Too long.
He stroked her hair again. Fucking Silk Road. For so long they’d been just shadows, only vague rumors, whispered about in dark corners. There’d been digs where artifacts had gone quietly missing, and artifacts that had mysteriously walked out of museum exhibitions. People had really known nothing about Silk Road.
Well, it looked like they were out now—loud and proud.
Cal turned his wrist over without waking Dani and looked at his watch. The sun was rising, and they wouldn’t have the cover of darkness to help them evade their pursuers. Best case, the bastards would go and leave them alone now that they knew they didn’t have the cintamani.
But Cal’s gut told him there was no way that was going to happen. They didn’t want to leave witnesses.
Logan and Morgan would come. For now, Cal and Dani just had to stay hidden and hold on until then.
When the temperature rose and more sunlight filtered through the trees, he shook Dani awake. “Time to go, beautiful.”
She blinked sleepily. She looked damn sweet, with her flushed cheeks and sleep still sliding out of her eyes. That prickly exterior of hers was down. Her hair was a mass of dark tangles around her face, and she had a streak of mud on her cheek. Cal wondered why he found her more beautiful than ever before.
He reached out and started gently untangling her hair.
She was watching him. “We can’t stay here?”
“It’s safer if we keep moving. All we have to do is put some distance between us and Silk Road, and hold on until my team gets here. I thought we’d find a safe place to clean up and rest.”
She gave a small nod. “How will your team find us?”
He lifted his wrist. “Tracker in my watch. If anything happens to me, you take this with you.”
Her face paled a little. “I’d prefer if nothing happened to you. You promised me a comfy hotel bed with fresh sheets.”
He reached out and touched her chin, gently stroking her jawline. “So I did. I’ve got lots of things I want to do to you.” He dragged his thumb over her lips. “Naughty, dirty things.”
She watched him steadily. “Oh?”
“And after those things…” After a job, Cal liked to head into the mountains and go climbing or skiing. For some reason, he couldn’t imagine leaving Dani alone in a bed to rush off and do that. “Well, let’s just say I’m planning to not step foot in the jungle for a really long time.”
She laughed. “I hear you.”
They shimmied down the tree and Cal swung his pack on his back. The light weight of it made him frown. He was very aware they had limited supplies and food.
One thing at a time, Ward. He nudged Dani ahead of him and they set off into the trees.
It was easier going in the daylight. Cal watched and listened for any sign of Silk Road. Nothing.
“I’d really like to wash this mud off.” Dani was looking down at her boots and legs. She was caked with mud and Cal’s clothes hadn’t fared much better. “Do you think they’re gone?”
He knew who she was talking about. “No. Silk Road is stubborn. They’ve set their sights on the cintamani, and they’ll keep looking until they find it. Rumor is that the Silk Road bosses don’t tolerate failure.”
Dani shivered. “And who are the Silk Road bosses?”
“No one knows.”
“Well, I’ll be happy to never set eyes on anyone from Silk Road again.”
After a few hours, Cal fished nutrition bars from the backpack and made her eat. The deeper they went into the jungle, the hotter it got and more mosquitos buzzed around. Soon, Cal felt perspiration gat
hering on his forehead and soaking the back of his shirt. At least there hadn’t been any sign that Silk Road was following them.
“What’s that?”
Dani’s sharp voice made him turn. She was pointing off to the right through the trees.
He pushed ahead of her and could just make out a flash of white against the vibrant green. He pulled his SIG out. “Stay behind me.”
They moved cautiously through the trees. Cal pushed back some vines and his eyes widened.
Then he heard a click.
Dani moved past him, her camera held up. “Oh my God, it’s amazing.”
Nestled amongst the trees, tangled with vines, was the wreck of a plane.
By the look of it, it had crashed a long time ago. The main part of the fuselage was still intact, but the tail was long gone and the wings had been shattered. The jungle was doing its best to claim it back. Trees, shrubs and vines were growing through the broken windows and the large hole torn in the side.
“It looks like an old transport.” It was too damaged for him to tell the make and model. “Looks pretty old, though.”
Dani made a small noise but was already absorbed with taking her photos. Cal shook his head. God forbid anyone get between Dani and her shot.
After she was finished, Cal carefully climbed inside. It looked like it had been picked over a long time ago, but he took a quick look around. There might be something they could use.
He found a blanket still in a plastic wrap folded under a seat. It wasn’t much but it would do. He tucked it into his backpack.
“Let’s keep moving,” he said.
She gave the plane one last wistful glance and they moved off. He could see the tiredness etched on her face. They needed to rest soon.
Cal tried to judge their location and arc of the sun, and circle them back to head in the direction of the closest village, but the trees made it damn hard to stay on track.
But as long as they were nowhere near Silk Road, he was happy.
Not long later, Cal heard a faint noise and stopped.
Dani tensed. “Is it them?”
He ran a hand down her arm. “Nope.” He smiled. “It’s something else. Follow me.”
He moved a little quicker now, and a moment later they broke out of the trees. A shallow river lay ahead of them, and just beyond a small bend, Cal heard the soothing rush of a waterfall.