The thought sobered him, but couldn't keep the sharp pull that settled around his heart from tightening.
***
Morgan's leg smarted more than she thought it should for just a flesh wound. Jack had nearly lifted her out of the cockpit and she'd hobbled to the cave, refusing to let him carry her. He'd gathered some wood and dropped it in a pile before disappearing to hide the helicopter. She didn't ask how you hide a thirty-foot black bug with a wing span of at least fifty feet, just as she hadn't asked him if he could fly it. There were certain things she just accepted that Jack could do. She didn't know why, but her experience had shown her that there were times and people she had to take on faith. There weren't many of them, but Jack was one. Faith, she thought. He made her believe they could survive.
Morgan reached over and grabbed some of the wood. She may as well get a fire started. The cave was damp and dark and a fire would add both light and warmth. Plus it would give her something to do other than worry that Jack would get caught and leave her alone.
She steepled the wood over a base of twigs surrounded by small rocks she gathered inside the cave. Then she lit the twigs and the branches caught on. Morgan hugged herself, feeling as if the coldness was seeping inside her.
"How's your leg?" Jack returned, dropping another armful of wood onto the cave floor.
"It's fine," she lied. It still hurt. She should have taken a pain pill while he was gone. She hadn't thought of it. She'd been too busy worrying about him. If she reached for them now, he'd know she'd lied. "Where are we?" she asked instead of concentrating on her leg.
"I'm not sure. I think we're somewhere in southern Ohio. These hills are the outskirts of the Allegheny Mountains."
"Do you think we're safe here?"
"For the time being," he nodded.
Morgan lifted her leg and bent her knee several times. Her leg had begun to stiffen and she wanted to keep it flexible.
Jack looked around. He grabbed her backpack and set it in front of her. "Take one of those migraine pills. It will help with the pain."
Morgan opened her bag and took out a bottle of aspirin. "This is better," she said. She swallowed two pills dry.
"Let me see it," he commanded.
"I can't. My pants are too tight."
"Take them off."
His eyes came up as slowly as his voice had been. They met hers directly. "It's not like I haven't seen you without them."
"But then your hands were busy."
He said nothing, only waited for her to comply. After a long moment, she stood, opened the fly and slipped the pants below her knees.
Jack checked her leg. His touch was impersonal, like those of a doctor, but for Morgan they were hot and sexual, caressing her skin as he examined the wound. Keeping his eyes on her injured leg, Jack opened the first-aid kit and found a sterile cloth to clean away any debris. Satisfied with his work, he nodded to her, applied an antibiotic and tightly bandaged it.
"All done, you can pull your pants up."
Morgan did as she was told. Yet she knew he saw the red-colored flush that covered her entire body.
She sat down, stretching her sore leg in front of her.
Jack faced her. He spread his hands toward the fire. "I'm going to have to go and find us some food and water soon and another form of transportation."
"I should wait here?" She attempted humor, but her voice came out strained.
Jack nodded.
Morgan knew she couldn't walk a long distance. Her leg hurt, but she wasn't an invalid. She would be fine in twenty-four hours, back to normal for sure in forty-eight, but right now she'd be an anchor around his neck. They wouldn't starve or dehydrate in that amount of time.
She knew Jack wanted to get in touch with Washington. He needed that more than he needed the food and water.
"How far do you think the nearest town is?"
"Ten miles, I'd say." He glanced in the direction she assumed he intended to go. "I saw one as we flew over. If I'm lucky I'll be able to hitch a ride."
She looked at Jack over the fire. It turned his face slightly red. "Thank you, Jack."
"For what?"
"For saving my life. For rescuing me. For helping me remember. I planned this escape alone, but I'm awfully glad you're here."
***
The urge to move next to Morgan and take her in his arms was so strong Jack had to summon superhuman strength to keep his place.
"It's a life worth saving." He thought to pass it off as a joke, but his words came out dead serious. His gaze stayed locked with hers for a long moment. She broke it first, dropping hers to the fire. "How'd you start the fire?" he asked.
"Old Indian trick. I used two rocks to create a spark."
He shouldn't be surprised at her resourcefulness. He'd seen it over and over. She, who'd left her house without even a lipstick, could survive in the wilderness with assassins on her trail.
Morgan reached into her backpack and held up a cigarette lighter and a book of matches. "Survivor's bag."
He smiled and she did too. God, Jack thought, he was in love with her. He stood up. Her eyes followed him. They were hungry eyes. His had to look the same. He didn't even try to hide what he felt. He took a step toward her. She started to get up.
"Stay there," he said. "It's time I started for town." He walked toward the door of the cave. Morgan got up anyway.
Jack wanted to help her to her feet, but knew if he touched her, he wouldn't, couldn't stop there.
"Would you leave me the phone?"
He looked tenderly at her. "It might be compromised, but other than that, it won't work without me. It needs both a thumbprint and a code."
She nodded and he saw the slightest amount of fear enter her eyes before she blinked and it was gone.
"I thought if anything unexpected happened, you would have a way of reaching me."
He pulled the phone from his pocket and handed it to her. "If I call you, it will be an extreme emergency."
She nodded.
"Are you sure you'll be fine?" Jack asked.
"Absolutely," she said her voice forceful. It told him she was capable of surviving on her own. Jack tried to read her voice to see if there were any telltale signs that she was putting on a front. She could be lying. She was good at it, but just as he wanted her to trust him, he had to trust her too. He knew with her leg she could run, but she couldn't get far.
He hesitated, giving her a long look. He wanted to kiss her and the look in her eyes told him she wanted it too. He stopped himself. There was no relationship for them. She was a job. He had to keep her safe until he could turn her over to another authority. Then she'd disappear behind a door and he would never see her again.
"You're sure?" Jack asked instead of moving toward her.
She nodded.
"Stay near the fire. Once the sun goes down it will be cold in here." He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a small gun. "If anyone comes near you, use it."
She looked at it as if it was a snake with its fangs open and ready to strike.
"Do I need to show you how to use it?"
She took the gun flat in her hands. "No," she said. "I know how to use it."
Jack could hear, in the words she didn't say, that there was a story in between her sentence. He didn't have time to pursue it The place they were in was safe, but Jack needed to get in touch with Washington and he needed to find another form of transportation. He also knew Morgan. He couldn't get her to tell him a story she wasn't ready to tell. He had to wait until she felt it was time to reveal another part of herself, a time when she was ready to open a scab and let the sore bleed out.
***
Jack had walked only two miles before finding a pay phone. He made one call and moments later the Dodge Caravan slowed along the road and stopped near him. The interior light came on as he got inside the minivan. The sun and its red and gold rays fell behind the emerald green hills in the valley where he'd left Morgan. The cave would be pitch black
now except for the small fire she'd made. Jack didn't like thinking of her alone there, but he had to do this.
"Good to see you again, Ben." Jack leaned over and shook hands. Ben Laurini retired from the CIA two years after Jack joined. He'd befriended Jack the first day Jack walked into the training facility, and on more than one occasion something Ben had taught him came back when Jack found himself cornered and facing some serious form of death or mutilation.
"It's been a while," Ben said. "Glad to see you though. I've been looking for you for a while. I got a call from Brian Ashleigh himself. He too thought you might be in the area."
Jack thought someone might have called him. Even retirement didn't really mean retired when a fellow agent was in trouble. Ben was that kind of guy. He'd taken retiring from the field hard, but adjusted at the training facility. When he moved into full retirement and returned to his native Ohio, he'd taken to life as if he savored every day the good Lord gave him.
"How's Olivia?"
" Olivia's fine. The kids and grandkids are all doing well." Ben got the small talk out of the way quickly. "Your sisters?"
"Everyone is fine." He grouped his four sisters and parents into one complete sentence.
"Did you find anything?" Jack asked the question both he and Ben knew he wanted answered. He'd called Ben when he went to the helicopter. Using the on-board radio, he checked to see if Ben was still using his short-wave radio. Thankfully, he was and Ben told him he'd already been contacted. Jack arranged to meet him.
"I only had a short time, but I found out Miss Kirkwood's gym partners are being held in a safe house. They are concerned about her. It might be a good idea if you let the young lady call them. And I'm sure the two agents protecting them would appreciate it too."
Ben reached in his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. "Remnant from a past life," he explained.
Jack took it. he would call Morgan if he trusted the phone he gave her, but she was alone and they'd been ambushed once already. "Anything else?" Jack asked.
"The people on the highway were long gone before anyone could get to them."
"What about the helicopter? I have it hidden back near the cave. We should be able to find out something from it. It's definitely military."
"I've already made the calls. They'll get the bird tonight. By morning you'll know everything it knows."
***
Morgan shivered in the cave. The fire was too small to heat the cavernous area. It gave her rudimentary light, throwing vast, grotesque shadows against the jagged rock. She felt the darkness close in on her. Fear made her tremble.
Jack had been gone a long time. She wondered where he was and when he would return. Paranoia made her think he'd abandoned her. Like her mothers, both of them. They'd left her in the world to make her way--alone.
She hobbled outside. Morgan hadn't exercised in days and she felt the need to move. Of course, running for her life, climbing trees, and into helicopters in motion, wasn't the same as cartwheels, swinging from uneven parallel bars or tumbling around a carpeted floor. With her leg cramping her ability, she concentrated on upper body exercises. She stood on her hands and balanced her weight above her head. Going up and coming down on her good leg worked fine for several minutes. Then inadvertently she fell on the bad leg. Biting her lower lip, she held the scream inside.
Getting up, she tried it again. She remembered her coach's words that she could do it if she put her mind to it and even if one part of her body was hurt, the other parts worked fine. But out here in the dark, where could she find something uneven or even parallel so she could try her routines? She had nothing. So she made do with handstands and floor stretches.
Usually her mind was totally absorbed in her exercise. She'd review the routine or recited affirmations, but now she thought of Jack. She couldn't help it. No matter what she tried, since he came back into her life she could think of nothing else, especially after he kissed her in the bathroom. Her mouth tingled when she thought of that. Her body had been hot and she could feel every inch of him pressing into her. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. She'd forgotten that in the light of what he said, but she knew Jack wasn't as immune to her as he pretended.
She even wondered if his reason for going into town was to give himself some time away from her. If they were leaving in the morning there was no need for him to go and get supplies. They could live one day without food. Her stomach growled at that moment reminding her she was hungry.
Morgan went on trying to do exercises, but with her mind on Jack she kept coming down on the wrong leg. Finally she gave up and sat down.
The sky was dark, light coming from a half moon and stars that rained overhead like tiny points of glitter spangled in the darkness. Many nights she'd spent this way, alone with only herself and the stars for company. She hadn't thought of anyone other than herself. Before she'd befriended Jean, her next meal was her only concern. Now she thought of a man—Jack.
Then Morgan did something she hadn't done since she was twelve years old. She lifted her head to the heavens and wished on a star.
***
Jack took a cart from the rows of interlocking metal carriages and headed for the produce section. Ben had left the van with him. He hadn't told Jack how he was getting home and Jack hadn't asked. Camping supplies filled most of the back cabin. The gear could act as a cover and be functional. Again he thought of Morgan in the cave. She could use the blankets that sat on the back seat.
Jack also stopped in a store to gather a few things Ben hadn't had time to gather. They needed real food. He'd found a tin of Olivia's coconut macaroons which Ben knew he was partial to. He'd buy a ready-made salad and a few non-perishable foods.
One wheel squeaked as he pushed the cart. He considered returning it for another, but stopped, refusing to break one of his own rules. Only travel the distance once, he'd told himself over the years. This was a get-in-and-get-out situation. He wasn't here to compare prices or socialize with a neighbor he hadn't seen in months, who happened to turn one end of an aisle as he turned the other. He was here to grab what they needed and return. If he was lucky no one would remember he'd ever been there.
Equally lucky for him, the store was one of those gargantuan places with aisle upon aisle carrying everything from what a person would need to diagnose most ailments to swimming pool supplies. Bananas and Mrs. Smith's Apple Pie could share space in the same grocery cart with a color television, a bottle of white wine, work boots and books. Stop and Shop, the outside sign had read. Jack saw it as a true definition of one-stop shopping.
Besides the salad in Jack's cart he added bottles of juice, water, some carrots, Parmelat milk, crackers, a pair of work pants for him and a T-shirt advertising the Cleveland Browns. He thought of getting a matching one for Morgan, but stemmed the idea as too suggestive of a relationship. Instead he got her a pair of long pants and a plain shirt. His eye for size was perfect, especially after his hands had sized her from neck to hips, but he picked up a sewing kit anyway, in case the fit needed adjustment. On his way to the cash register he threw a comb and brush combination in the basket and stopped in front of a wall of cosmetics. He selected a tube of lipstick. Women could exist without a lot of amenities and Morgan had yet to complain of their hardship, but makeup was one commodity that rivaled food as a basic necessity of life.
On the same shelf as the lipstick Jack knocked down a box hanging from a metal extension. He bent over and picked it up. About to return it to its place, he hesitated. The box contained condoms. Pictures of Morgan naked in the bathroom flooded his mind like a reel of film. He gripped the cart tighter and hesitated, staring at the box. He lifted his arm to replace it on its metal arm, then stopped. A second later he threw the box into the cart.
"What the hell?" he muttered. It was better to err on the side of safety.
Jack obeyed all the rules of the road on his drive back to Morgan. He couldn't explain his feelings at being separated from her. He thought of her constantly, wond
ering if she were all right. Grabbing the lipstick, he held it in his hand. It was as close to her as he could get.
***
When he returned he parked the van and covered it with as many branches as he could find. Carrying the bag with their food, he could see no light coming from the cave as he approached it.
She didn't come to the mouth of the cave when Jack approached. It was dark inside and anyone coming to do harm would be at a disadvantage until their eyes adjusted to the darkness. Morgan was smart. She'd know that.
"Morgan," he called her name.
"It's me, Jack."
The lipstick was still held in his. His heartbeat accelerated. Had she run away again? His legs unconsciously moved faster. He rushed toward the opening. He was sure the bullet wound would hurt her too much for her to run.
"Damn!" he cursed. She was probably lying when she said it didn't hurt. She knew one of them was going to have to go for food. She planned this all along.
"Jack." He heard his named called and swung around. She hobbled toward him, the gun in her hand.
She'd pulled her hair loose and it fell about her shoulders. Her face was outlined in the darkness. He took a step closer. The night was dark but there were still shadows softening her face. Jack controlled the breath he let out. He had to stop himself from charging over and pulling her into his arms, burying his face in her hair and taking her mouth as if the two of them needed to share the same breath.
"I brought some blankets."
"In that bag?" she laughed, indicating the grocery bag he carried.
"This one contains food. Are you hungry?"
More Than Gold (Capitol Chronicles Book 3) Page 15