by Mia Sheridan
"Don't be."
Livvy pulled away, stepping back, her eyes large in her face as she stared at me. God, she was beautiful. She really was. She was beautiful and soft and those high, round breasts were rising and falling with each slow breath. "Who were they?" she finally asked.
"Men up to no good. I'm not going to repeat what they were laughing about." I pressed my lips together as my gaze moved in the direction from which they'd come.
She opened her mouth as if to argue, but then closed it, apparently changing her mind. Good. There was no point in her knowing how that band of animals had victimized some girl and found it uproariously funny. There was no point in her knowing that the unknown girl had begged for mercy, and they'd shown her none. I hoped to God they'd been shit-talking and nothing more.
"Let's go," I said, my voice clipped with anger. She gave me a confused frown but didn't argue. She simply fell in behind me as I started walking.
I was mindful to walk at a reasonable pace—a reasonable pace for a civilian in moderate shape with blisters on her feet—stopping for water breaks more often than we had the day before.
The town I'd been heading toward came into view right around noon. From the information I'd been able to gather, this particular village had been hit by the earthquake, but had a good source of drinking water and enough local farms that water and food were available.
When we hit the paved portion of road, it was cracked and broken off in areas. Even when the main roads were repaired, the damage sustained to backroads that went into towns and villages was going to make it difficult to gain access except on foot. These people were in for months of hardship—no medicine, no fuel, limited food and water in areas, and buildings that were either completely flattened, or had suffered so much damage, they couldn't be considered safe. In most cases, it would be years before things were back to normal. Challenging enough circumstances in a wealthy area. Most of these people were dirt poor. Still, people were resilient. They'd re-build, they'd begin again because what other choice was there? Get up or lie down and die. Life was a constant reminder that only the strong survived.
We walked past the banana farms that led into town, the trees swaying in the light wind. Today was a little bit cooler, but I'd still insisted Livvy put on sunscreen when we'd stopped that morning for a break. Her skin was so fair, she'd have burned to a crisp in a couple of hours under the relentless Colombian sun. My own Colombian heritage insured I rarely burned, which was a nice convenience when working in the field. I could thank my mother for that, at least.
Were you petting me? she'd asked. Jesus. I had been, because it was all I remembered of affection. Of comfort. No wonder I made it a point to stay away from people. Other than fucking, I had no real need to have any contact with anyone at all.
There was an old man walking down the side of the road as we entered town, and I stopped him to ask if there was anywhere we could buy some food. He turned, pointing behind him. "Rosaria's is open, but the menu is limited. Are you with the men treating their daughter?"
I had no idea what he was talking about but I said no, thanked him, and led Livvy in the direction he'd pointed.
"This must have been a pretty little town before . . ." Livvy said, her words trailing off as she glanced around at the humble but brightly painted buildings, many with balconies above them and shops below. "Before disaster struck," she finished after a moment.
I glanced at her and then away. It did appear to have been a quaint town. But the damage here had been severe with many of the buildings either crumbled completely, toppling over, or featuring large cracks down the front. Groups of men were still clearing rubble months after the quake had struck. But as we walked by, they eyed us suspiciously, muttering to each other in words too soft to hear.
I spotted the sign for Rosaria's at the end of the street, and we walked toward it. It was a two-story, green building that looked to have escaped any major damage, at least that I could see. Livvy was looking around, her expression grim as she watched a sad-eyed little boy with no shoes bite into an over-ripe tomato. She moved closer to my side as we walked, looking around nervously, obviously sensing the strange atmosphere in this town.
The interior of Rosaria's appeared clean, the tables set, though I wasn't sure it was open for business. A few tables were occupied, but the people sitting at them didn't have food or empty plates in front of them. It looked as if they were using the space more for a cool place to rest than as a dining establishment.
When we entered, heads turned quickly, we were studied for only a moment before they went back to their conversations. A door near the back opened and a woman came through, her face set in a frown, her hands wringing a dish towel. When she spotted us, she looked momentarily surprised before offering a thin-lipped smile. "Hola. Are you here with the other doctor?"
Livvy sidled closer. I let my backpack slide down my arm, catching it with my hand. "No, my wife and I are here to eat."
She approached us. "Ah. We have only limited food. The roads are still not good and—"
"Whatever you have is fine with us."
The woman nodded. "I have arepas and vegetables. That is okay?"
"That's great," I said, as the door from the back opened again and a tall man with short brown hair wearing camo pants and a black T-shirt walked through.
The man spotted us, his brow furrowing for a moment before his face broke into a smile. I laughed. "You don't fucking say." I walked toward him and he met me, clapping me on the back before stepping back. "Josh Garner. Of all the gin joints in all the towns, in all the world. What the hell are you doing here?"
Josh laughed as Livvy took the few steps to stand beside me. Josh reached his hand out and shook Livvy's. "Please tell me you're not keeping company with this nutcase."
Livvy laughed, but it was sort of a nervous chuckle as she glanced at me. "You're going to scare her, man, and it's too late. She already married me." I raised my voice when I said the last line, but gave Josh a small raise of my brows right before looking at Livvy.
Josh gave me a miniscule lift of his chin in understanding. He looked at Livvy, stroking his chin. "Damn, I'm real sorry about that, ma'am."
Livvy laughed again, looking up at me. "It hasn't been terrible so far."
"Well I'll give you my information in case it takes a turn in the future." He winked at her and my muscles tensed, but I forced myself to relax, giving Josh a tight smile. Josh watched me for a beat and then grinned.
"So, um, how do you two know each other?" Livvy asked, her eyes moving back and forth between the two of us.
"We were in BUDs together," I answered.
Josh gestured to a table by one of the large open windows, and we followed him, all taking a seat. "Yeah," he said, throwing one arm over his chair and leaning back. "The stories I could tell. This guy is still a legend among our class." He shot me another grin and a wink. "And, you've made a name for yourself since then. I've heard stories."
"Don't believe everything you hear. Seriously, man, how'd you end up here? What's going on in this town?"
Josh blew out a breath, leaning forward, his expression sobering. He glanced quickly at Livvy before he started speaking. I understood the information he’d provide while she was in earshot was limited. "I was here in Colombia with another guy working a job. We were on our way back when we were stopped by this hysterical woman, crying and screaming and saying her thirteen-year-old daughter needed medical help. We had detained someone so my partner took our prisoner and left, and I stayed behind to take a look at the woman's daughter."
I looked at Livvy. "Josh is a medic." I returned my gaze to Josh. "What condition was she in?"
"Is. This happened just this morning. She was raped." He blew out a breath. "They brutalized her." He shook his head. "She'll survive, physically, but doubtful she'll ever have kids of her own."
I flinched, rubbing a hand down my face. "Jesus."
"Do they know who did it?" Livvy asked, her expression str
icken.
"Small gang of men who've been terrorizing towns in this area ever since the quake. Local law enforcement is too slammed to deal with them and women are easy targets, considering all their men are off clearing wreckage and beginning re-building efforts so their families don't starve." He shook his head. "As if these people don't have it hard enough. This town lost thirty-two children. They were buried alive in their school. There's a brand new cemetery full of tiny graves just outside town."
Livvy put her hand over her mouth, her eyes large and pained in her face.
My muscles felt tense as both anger and sadness blossomed in my blood. "The girl who was raped, is her name Graciela?" I saw in my peripheral vision when Livvy's gaze shot to me.
"Yeah," Josh said. "How'd you know?"
"The men who attacked her passed right by us earlier. Bragging about it." A sound of angry frustration made its way up my throat.
"Sick fuckers," Josh said tightly.
"Damn it. I should have done something when I had the chance. I only caught a few pieces of their conversation but . . . fuck, it should have been enough."
"Don't beat yourself up, man. You had no way of knowing if they were a group of punks talking trash or what. Plus, they're armed. It would have been plain stupid to confront them unprepared, and you know it." His gaze moved to Livvy and back to me. "Not to mention, responsibilities of your own."
"Yeah," I breathed, still angry at myself. They'd raped a girl who was still practically a child, and I'd allowed them to pass as I'd been lusting after Livvy behind a tree not three feet away.
The woman we'd talked to earlier came out carrying a tray containing a steaming plate of vegetables and a towel-covered plate that must be the arepas. She placed them on the table along with two glasses of water. "Gracias," I said, and she gave us a wobbly smile before walking away. The woman had obviously been crying. Graciela's mother?
Josh shook his head once she was out of earshot. "I'd have gone after those motherfuckers earlier myself if I wasn't needed here," he gritted out, his jaw tight.
I moved the food toward Livvy who started dishing vegetables onto her plate as I looked back at Josh. "There are two of us here now. And we know which direction they went." I gave him a meaningful look. "How long are you planning to be here?"
His pause was brief. "Gotta leave by tonight to catch up with my partner in Bogota."
I considered the situation.
"Uh oh," Josh laughed. "If I recall correctly, that's your I'm about to go renegade look. You really want to do this?"
"You treated her, not me. What's your take?"
His expression sobered immediately, and I knew the minute hardening of his eyes meant it was bad. Real bad. "Yeah," he said. "They need to be dealt with."
Dealt with was a nice way of putting it, and I was glad for his discretion in front of Livvy. I nodded my head toward her and narrowed my eyes at him. "Will you look out for her until I'm back?"
Livvy gasped. "Until you're back? Those men passed us two hours ago. You'll never be able to catch up to them."
Josh lifted his eyebrows as he looked at her and then at me. I kept my eyes on Josh who just smiled. "Better get going. If I had to guess, I'd say they're headed toward the farming town north of here. Let me get a map, and we'll look at it real quick." I nodded as Josh stood and walked back through the door he'd come from, where his gear must be stored.
Livvy's head swiveled between me and where Josh had disappeared, confused, obviously unsure about exactly what to clarify. Good. I needed to leave before she thought of which questions she wanted to ask. I grabbed an arepa, scooped some vegetables into it and took one big bite, chewing and swallowing quickly. "I wouldn't consider leaving you here if I didn't trust Josh with my own life. But those men we passed brutalized a little girl, and if they're not stopped, they'll do it again and again. Trust me, I'm very familiar with men like them."
She shook her head, her eyes wide and pained. "But . . . how can you stop them? What will you do?"
For a moment we just stared at each other, understanding dawning in her eyes. She clenched her lids shut for a second and then opened them. "Oh."
"I'll be back later this afternoon. If I'm not, Josh will take you back to Bogota with him."
"If you're not?"
I blew out a breath. "I expect to be back, but there should always be a contingency plan."
She opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again, simply nodding. She chewed at that pretty bottom lip and for a brief, crazy moment I considered kissing her before I left. She'd probably let me, imagining I was going off to battle—which wasn't completely inaccurate, though I didn't consider taking care of three or four disorganized punks a real fight. But I didn't want her to kiss me back because she felt she had to. And I didn't want to kiss her and walk away. Aw, fuck, I shouldn't be thinking about kissing her at all.
I kept watching her chew on that lip until after another moment, she took a deep breath, met my eyes and said simply, "Go."
CHAPTER EIGHT
Livvy
Josh and Thomas had taken a few minutes to go over the map Josh brought back to our table while Thomas stuffed another vegetable filled arepa into his mouth, and then he'd topped off his canteen and grabbed a few other items from his backpack and left.
He'd given me one last intense look, paused as if considering something, but in the end he'd just said, "See you soon." I'd nodded and watched him walk away, ducking around carts and moving swiftly between people walking in the street. I glanced at Josh, and when I looked back to where Thomas had been only a second before, he was gone. I imagined him slipping into the trees beyond the town, moving like a wild thing, something agile and predatory. As I stood staring at that far-off greenery, knowing he was somewhere within it, my heart lodged in my throat. What kind of man ran—literally—toward peril to seek revenge for a girl he didn't know? A hunter. That's what he was. That was the low simmering danger I'd sensed in him the first time we met. It wasn't cruelty or malevolence, though. It was goodness. He wasn't only a hunter. He was a protector.
When I'd looked at Josh, he'd been watching me. "You care about him," he stated.
I'd blinked, taken off guard. "I . . . barely know him." I'd looked in the direction where Thomas had disappeared and then into Josh's face again. "He's doing a job for me." I knew Josh understood we weren’t married. Josh was in the same line of work—he probably understood perfectly well it was a safety measure and nothing more.
But Josh had given me a cocky sort of grin that made me bristle for some reason, as if he thought he knew something I didn’t. I almost told him the nature of the job I'd hired Thomas to do. If he knew, he wouldn't joke.
"Whatever you say." Josh had winked, and I'd shaken my head. In the end, his teasing smile had disarmed me.
I'd gone back inside Rosaria's with Josh, and he'd taken me through the back doors of the restaurant, into the relatively small kitchen and up a narrow flight of stairs to where the family lived. I didn't want to intrude where I surely wouldn't be wanted, and told Josh as much but he shook his head and said, "I need to check on Graciela and I'm not going to leave you downstairs alone. You're with me. They won't mind."
I was still reluctant, but there was no way I’d stay downstairs by myself, so I entered the room with him, stepping to the side of the doorway and leaning against the wall. That's when I caught sight of the little girl in bed, lying under a white sheet, her eyes open as she stared at the ceiling. My heart plummeted to my feet and my throat tightened. Her face was so swollen and bruised I had no idea what she really looked like. Oh God. I clenched my eyes shut, taking a deep breath. A pack of men had done this to the small girl who was barely a teenager lying so still in that bed.
Doubtful she'll ever have kids of her own.
Josh had called them animals, but they were worse than animals—they'd done this to her for fun. I felt the food I'd eaten only half an hour before rise in my throat but forced myself to swallow it down. T
he men's laughter came back to me now, the way it had sounded as we'd stood behind that tree. It'd been gleeful, and at the time, I'd had no clue what they might have found so funny, but now I was sickened at the thought of anyone laughing over what had been done to this child. My God, my God.
Now I understood the way Thomas's body had tensed, the way his jaw had hardened and the icy anger in his eyes. The need to exact justice. The desire to make sure the men who did this were stopped before they hurt anyone else. But at the time, Thomas hadn't even fully comprehended what they’d done. Now I understood why he'd gone after them. Now I cheered him on. He hadn't seen this girl before he'd made his decision, but he must have seen others like her. He must have known.
And helplessly, I handed a piece of my heart to him though he was miles away.
You care about him.
Yes. Only it felt more . . . complicated than that. I cared about the man who was exacting revenge on behalf of this helpless girl and her family. I cared about the man who was ensuring my safety as he led me through dangerous territory. I cared about the man who had so hesitantly stroked my hair, my back, as I shook in the warm cradle of his arms, my heart aching for human affection.
A man sat near the window, unmoving, his back bent, eyes red-rimmed and stark. I saw rage in his expression, but also a helplessness that cut me to the core. Graciela's father? I looked away, hardly able to bear the incontestable agony on his face.
Josh seemed to be checking Graciela's vitals as he spoke in quiet Spanish to her mother. He seemed to be content with how she was at the moment, because he patted her mother on her shoulder, gave an encouraging smile and turned toward me. I stood, following him out the door and back down the stairs.
When we returned to the restaurant, a new waitress had appeared. The young woman was shapely and gorgeous with dark hair pulled into a low ponytail, and dark eyes that featured long, sweeping lashes. I tucked my own unwashed hair behind my ear, realizing how sweaty and unkempt I must look, especially next to this goddess.