“When did you call your brother?”
“When we first got into Lacanjá.”
“Did you tell him anything about me?” Her voice held an anxious edge and he sensed it had everything to do with that pack and not with their hooking up. He would’ve preferred her anxiety be due to the hooking up for some reason.
“No, I didn’t say anything. Just that you were a client and we ran into some trouble.”
“Good. Please keep it that way,” she said, visibly relieved. “Let’s go find you a phone.”
He wanted to say something about her relief, but he kept his mouth shut. They had bigger fish to fry.
They walked into the small store, and as luck would have it, there was a wall of pay-as-you-go phones with international calling capabilities. Hope threw down her American Express card and they were good to go.
“Is there a limit to that thing?” he asked, curious. Hope didn’t answer, just gave him a short smile. “All right, I get it. Anything associated with your work, your employer, that damn pack on your back is off-limits.”
“It’s just better that way.”
“Better for who?”
“For us both.”
Somehow he doubted that, but now was not the time to pick at that particular issue.
“You call your brother and I’ll go get some more cash,” she said, cinching up her pack, then pointing to the small bank across the street.
“I’ll go with you,” he said, uncomfortable with the idea of Hope traipsing around with wads of cash in this neighborhood.
“It’s just across the street. I’ll be fine.”
“Look around, Hope. This isn’t exactly Middle America. Don’t be dumb. Dumb pretty ladies get snatched off the street and sold into slavery and it’s not a Pretty Woman type story.”
Hope paled and quickly nodded. “Okay, maybe you’re right. Except about the dumb part.”
“You’re right—you’re not dumb,” he corrected himself. “But you’re damn stubborn and in the wrong situations that can be just as dangerous.”
“You’ve made your point,” Hope said, glowering. “Can we just go get some cash?”
He pocketed the phone and they hustled across the street to the small bank. Within a relatively short time, Hope had managed to procure a sizable amount of cash, which she promptly stuffed in her pack, out of sight, but J.T. was a bit leery of having all the cash in one spot. All it would take was an industrious thief to swipe her pack and all of their resources would disappear.
Still, he knew it was pointless to try to convince her otherwise, particularly when she was so paranoid about that damn pack, so he didn’t waste his breath.
Outside the bank, J.T. called Teagan.
“J.T.?” Teagan answered. When J.T. confirmed it was him, Teagan’s relief was evident in his tone. “Man, I was starting to sweat.”
“We lucked out and managed to find a store where I could buy a phone. I called you as soon as I could. Did you find us a plane?”
“Yeah, it took some string pulling, but I found a plane you can charter. It’ll cost you, but you said your client has enough green?”
“Yeah,” J.T. answered. “She says her company will pay whatever it takes to get her to the facility.”
“Have you found out exactly what you’re transporting?” The worry in Teagan’s voice mirrored J.T.’s own growing anxiety about Hope’s package. “I mean, you know something feels off about this. Why the hell were you getting shot at?”
He couldn’t answer his brother, because he still didn’t know. And he certainly couldn’t go into detail about the situation with Hope standing right there listening to his every word.
“Who’s my contact?” J.T. asked, changing the subject.
Teagan took the hint. “Your contact is Alejandro Ruiz. You’ll find him at a private hangar at Comitán. He’s agreed to take you to South America.”
“Good work. Thanks, bro. I owe you one.”
“Don’t worry about that. Just come home alive. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“You and me both,” he agreed in a low tone. “I’ll be in touch.”
He hung up and pocketed the phone. “We’re good to go. Our contact is Alejandro Ruiz and he’s waiting for us at Comitán.”
Relief spread across Hope’s features. “Thank God.” Impulsively, she lifted on her toes and brushed a kiss across J.T.’s lips. The sudden action startled them both and she immediately started apologizing. “I’m so sorry. That was inappropriate. I was just so happy...”
He knew the smart thing was to agree with her, but he liked kissing her and he liked that her first impulse was to kiss him.
J.T. ignored the voice of reason in his head and reached for her. “If you’re going to do it, might as well make it worth your while, right?” And then he sealed his mouth to hers, drinking in the feel of her soft lips pressed against his, the taste of her tongue in his mouth. When he finally released her, she looked thoroughly well kissed, and it was a good look on her. Sexy as hell. But then, Hope didn’t need any help in that department. He grasped her hand, saying, “Let’s go. Time’s wasting,” before she regained her sense and started blathering on about rules and appropriate behavior.
Because, honestly, he didn’t want to hear it.
She didn’t want to be honest about what was in that damn pack and he didn’t want to stop kissing her.
They both had problems.
8
ALEJANDRO RUIZ WAS a short, stout man with a ready smile and a twinkle in his brown eyes that immediately put Hope at ease after their bumpy ride to Comitán.
Hope paid him an exorbitant sum without blinking, just happy they were on their way. The faster they were up in the air, the faster they got to South America, where she could destroy this ticking time bomb on her back.
J.T. helped Hope climb into the small plane and then, after they were buckled in, Alejandro started his preflight checklist. Both Hope and J.T. slipped on headsets to protect their ears from the sound of the engines as well as to communicate.
“So where is this research facility located?” J.T. asked once they were airborne.
Hope hesitated to answer. Originally, she’d planned to turn J.T. loose as soon as they landed in São Paulo, Brazil, trusting that she could find transport to the remote location on her own. But since the situation had changed drastically, she wasn’t sure heading off on her own was such a smart idea.
“It’s a remote area in Brazil, not very populated.”
“Makes sense for a supersecret privatized pharmaceutical facility,” J.T. remarked with his signature dry humor. “So, what’s going to happen when we get to this undisclosed location?”
This was the part that had her awake at night. The fact was, no one knew she was going to the facility to destroy the samples. She’d been ordered to report to the South American lab to protect the samples, but when her supervisor, Tanya, intercepted a message that someone within Tessara was brokering a deal for the dangerous bioweapon, she’d sent Hope off under the guise of bringing the samples for protection.
The plan had been for Tanya to accompany her, but then Tanya had been gunned down in broad daylight outside a sandwich shop, changing everything.
She was doing J.T. a disservice by keeping him in the dark, but she couldn’t think of any other way to accomplish what she’d set out to do without putting him in even more danger.
“You seem on edge,” he said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good.” Hope faked what she hoped appeared to be a bright smile. “Just relieved to be back on schedule.”
J.T. settled against the worn leather chair with a nod, but there was something behind his eyes that told her he wasn’t buying her act.
If only she could tell him. She’d known J.T. for only a
few days, but she trusted him more than she trusted anyone else in her life.
Maybe it was that extreme-situation-hormonal-chemical thing striking again, because she just wanted to lean into him, tell him everything and ask him for advice on what to do next.
Even if her situation hadn’t required her silence, her stubborn refusal to play the damsel in distress would’ve kept her from sharing, too.
Sometimes being a strong, independent woman had its drawbacks.
Exhausted, both mentally and physically, Hope drifted off to sleep, happy to forget at least for a little while that her life would never be the same after they landed in São Paulo.
* * *
J.T. WAS GLAD for the sleep he’d snagged in the back of the truck because he wouldn’t have been able to sleep on the plane with a pilot he didn’t know. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Teagan’s connections; it was that he didn’t trust anyone in the cockpit besides himself or his brother.
In other words, it wasn’t personal.
Hope was fast asleep. He felt vaguely bad for keeping her up all night, but then, he couldn’t exactly feel too bad, because he’d do it again in a heartbeat.
That woman was hotter than any woman he’d ever been with. The smart-and-sexy-scientist gig was working for him, better than what he’d thought was his thing.
But now that he’d been with Hope, he found his usual taste distasteful.
He used to like a woman who wasn’t too smart.
He didn’t want to discuss politics or global warming when he was stripping down. He wanted a woman who liked it dirty and hot and didn’t waste time trying to have an intellectual connection.
Now?
Hope had ruined him.
J.T. found her smarts incredibly sexy. He liked the idea of seducing her mind and body.
Tall order for a woman as intelligent and highly educated as Hope.
And the challenge fired him up in a way that’d been missing for quite some time in his life.
So what did that mean? After this gig, assuming they made it out alive, they were destined to go their separate ways.
Hope hadn’t once suggested that after this was all over they would continue to see each other.
Well, he hadn’t, either. But he hadn’t received any green light on her end that she’d be open to that suggestion, so he wasn’t about to put himself out there only to be shot down.
Yeah, not so crazy about the idea of being rejected.
But he was equally bothered by the idea of walking away, never to see each other again.
Hell, he was turning into a woman.
He knew a little about Brazil and figured they were going to land in São Paulo, but as they flew over the main city, J.T. got a bad feeling in his gut.
“Where are we landing? We just passed São Paulo.”
“I don’t have clearance for São Paulo. I have a friend with a small airfield, off the grid. We will land there. No worries, friend. I will take care of you and your lady.”
Yeah, J.T. didn’t like the sound of that. But what could he do? They had no choice, but to ride it out and hope that Alejandro wasn’t about to murder them.
All for that damn pack. He wished he were a different sort of person and could rifle through the pack without her knowledge without suffering a bout of conscience.
He wanted to tell himself that it wasn’t the fact that she had secrets. Hell, they all had secrets, right? There were things in his past he didn’t want people poking around in, but his secrets weren’t shooting at them. Or was he just being a whiny baby, pissed because she was keeping some things close to the vest?
He wasn’t accustomed to women holding themselves apart. Usually, women were pushing for a deeper connection, when he was the one trying to get away.
He liked to tell himself that he was a confirmed bachelor—a happily confirmed bachelor—but the fact was, it was easier to remain without strings than to trust another human being with something as battered and bruised as his heart.
He wondered what Hope would think of his past if she knew everything he’d been through while serving in the military. He wasn’t one of those people who lamented the loss of his innocence when called to serve his country, but there were some things in his past that he would love to forget.
J.T. knew basically nothing about Hope aside from what she had told him. Hell, she could be lying through her teeth and he wouldn’t be the wiser.
Hope was rapidly becoming like a drug in his system. He wanted more even though he knew more would likely kill him. Everything about her set him on fire.
Even her secrets.
It had been a long time since he’d had to use his military training, but it came back like riding a bike—the threat of a sketchy situation had him on alert. He didn’t like the idea of landing in some airfield in the middle of nowhere. The fact that somebody was trying to kill them didn’t make him feel very safe, despite Alejandro smiling and nodding as if everything was kosher.
“So where is this airfield?”
“No worries, friend. I’ve done this before. You are in good hands.”
Yeah, that didn’t fill him with relief. South America was nearly as bad as Mexico with illegal drug running. They might have just gone from the frying pan to the fire. J.T. thought of the wad of cash Hope was carrying and he couldn’t have felt more like a Christmas hog than if he’d been bound and trussed up with an apple in his mouth.
He would’ve felt more assured if he’d been able to talk to Teagan’s contact first.
Hope stirred and yawned as she awoke. She blinked blearily at J.T. with a sleepy smile and he returned a brief smile so as not to worry her.
“Are we there yet?”
“We’re not landing in São Paulo,” he told her. She reacted with a flutter of alarm, but he quickly tried to reassure her, if only to keep her calm. “Alejandro doesn’t have clearance for the city’s airfield, but he has a friend with a private airstrip. We’re landing there.”
“Private airstrip?” she repeated, echoing his own trepidation. “No, that’s not going to work. We need transportation. How are we going to get to the facility without someone to take us?”
Alejandro was listening and interjected, “No worries, senorita. We have it all worked out. My friend will meet us and he will take you to your destination.”
Hope settled against her seat, but retained an air of worry. She sent him a look that asked, Are we in trouble? and he couldn’t rightly allay her fears when he shared them.
But he couldn’t do anything about the situation from where he sat. They’d just have to ride it out and remain on their toes.
Maybe he was overreacting.
Maybe Alejandro was truly a good guy, and when this was all over, they’d laugh and laugh about their suspicions.
But maybe the joke was on them and they were being delivered to the very people they were trying to avoid.
His gut told him they were screwed.
9
HOPE WANTED TO believe J.T., but she sensed he was lying for her benefit. The deal had been transport to São Paulo, not some unidentified airstrip in the middle of the Amazon rain forest.
This felt as messed up as the police report that said Tanya had been killed in a random robbery gone wrong.
Her mouth dried of spit and she wanted to cry. So much for being a strong, independent woman.
J.T. reached over and squeezed her hand, and she gratefully squeezed back, needing that human touch.
If J.T. had a plan, he certainly couldn’t share, given that Alejandro could hear their every word. Every muscle was tensed and her stomach threatened to rebel.
It’d been only a week, but she hardly remembered her old life of being blissfully unaware of the intrigue and danger that was just around the corner
.
Had it been only three weeks ago that she and Tanya had shared a frozen pizza in the lab cafeteria, too excited about their breakthrough to spend more than fifteen minutes wolfing down some carbs so they could power through to the next step?
Her life had consisted of work and science for so long she couldn’t remember much else.
And she’d loved it.
A social life had been secondary to the important work they’d been doing.
Tanya had shared her enthusiasm, her thirst for discovery. Neither had questioned whether they should’ve kept going.
And now Tanya was dead.
Her family grieving.
And Hope was flying in a bucket of bolts to some uncharted airfield in the middle of South America with no idea whether or not they were heading into a neatly laid trap or finally heading into a safe zone.
Well, if the sick tremble in her stomach was any indication, they were not arrowing toward safety.
She pulled off her headset, needing space from everything.
Even J.T.
He seemed to understand and didn’t press her. Under normal circumstances, a man like J.T. would’ve been fun to get to know, but then, under normal circumstances, she and J.T. never would’ve circulated in the same circles, so they never would’ve met.
Memories of their intimate times flashed in her mind and her cheeks warmed considerably even as she savored them for the tiny reprieve the remembered pleasure provided.
Good Lord, that man could make a woman forget her own name.
A quick covert glance at J.T. confirmed that he was ridiculously handsome. Having sex with him had only intensified the sexy quotient by half. She wasn’t the kind of woman to lose her head over a guy.
But then, J.T. wasn’t like most guys, either.
She shouldn’t have been ruminating about sexy times with her hot pilot when they were potentially flying to their doom, but maybe that was the best time to think of better things.
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