“Please don’t drop that,” an American male voice said behind her. There was a trace of the South in it, a hint of Texas. “Don’t be afraid. I didn’t mean to scare you. My name is Gabriel Everest and I’ve been sent here to rescue you.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Miranda realized he was waiting for her to make the next move. He could probably smell the acrid gunpowder over the must and metal and antiseptic odours that permeated the lab and didn’t want to startle her into doing something they’d both regret.
“I’m not finished,” she said without turning around. She felt his gaze on her back and wanted to draw her shoulders in as if she could make herself a smaller target. But stopping her task might mean not finishing, so she resisted the urge. She was going to do this.
“That’s OK,” Gabriel said, keeping his voice calm and level, soothing. “It’s OK to just let it go, gently, and step back. I’m here. I’ll help you.”
“You can help me start the fire,” Miranda said and finished her job. She began to pour the powder around the lab, concentrating on the samples stored away in their sealed cases. She didn’t look at Gabriel. He wasn’t trying to stop her, so he wasn’t important right now. Looking at him would mean taking her eyes off the job at hand, breaking focus. You didn’t break focus in the middle of an operation, in the middle of surgery. People died if you did that. People would die if she didn’t burn it all.
“Dr Gray. Miranda,” Gabriel said. “Can I call you Miranda?”
“If I’m alive an hour from now, you can call me anything you want to,” Miranda said absently. But her full name sunk in. He knew who she was. None of them knew; they just called her la doctora. And sometimes la perra. “You really are here to rescue me.”
“And to make sure the biologicals here don’t get used as weapons.”
“That would be smart,” Miranda said. “The fire has to get all of it.” She turned to look at him for the first time, and was glad she’d waited. The impact of him rocked her back on her heels. Not just the visuals, but the way he filled the room with his presence. An air of command and an undercurrent of something waiting to be unleashed.
Since the total effect of the man overwhelmed her, Miranda broke him down into smaller pieces. She noted the square jaw, the watchful grey eyes, the dark hair worn in a crew cut that looked regulation. Broad shoulders. Fatigues designed to help camouflage him in this jungle setting but did nothing to disguise the powerful body they covered. Hands that looked very capable gripped a weapon she couldn’t begin to identify, but it looked lethal and probably had a loud bang.
They sent GI Joe to rescue Dr Barbie, Miranda thought. She hoped he had his Jeep handy, or some other kind of getaway machine.
“What are you burning, exactly?”
Miranda blinked and snapped back to the present moment. “Anthrax.”
“Anthrax?” Gabriel reached out, caught her wrist, and pulled her to his side in what seemed more a reflex than a planned action. “Live?”
“Sealed in the cases.”
She saw him scan the cases and register the fact that there were a lot of them. She was pretty sure if he hadn’t been in the middle of rescuing her, he would have said something that took four letters to spell. But his Southern upbringing wouldn’t let him say it in front of a lady.
“Fire will destroy it,” Miranda assured him.
He nodded. “Medical advice?”
“Don’t breathe any in, and don’t get any on you.”
His mouth twitched but he didn’t smile. “Right. How’d they get it?”
“This is Guatemala,” Miranda said, fighting the urge to scream. They needed to start the fire and run like hell, before they got caught. “It crops up naturally from time to time here. They found it when some guerillas got sick. Then they had to kidnap somebody—”
“You,” Gabriel interrupted.
“Me, yes. I could treat the victims, identify the plague and vaccinate the healthy, while the others cultivated enough to annihilate civilization.”
“I don’t suppose I could talk you into waiting to blow this place to smithereens?”
Miranda shook her head. “This can’t get out. They have to be stopped. And they’re going to move tomorrow.”
“OK, then let’s clean house. How fast can you run?”
Miranda thought of being caught in the fire, or worse, inhaling the lethal spores. She shuddered. “Fast.” Adrenaline would give her a boost and she’d burn every reserve her body had if that’s what it took.
“All right. Here we go.” Gabriel pulled something out of his jacket and slapped it on the countertop in the centre of the lab. He grabbed her and pulled her to the doorway, glued to his side. He checked the hallway. When he found it clear, he brought them both into the hall and reached down with his free hand to retrieve something from his boot. A remote trigger to get the fire started, Miranda guessed. But before he could activate it, two guards rounded the corner and they found themselves face to face with the bad guys for a silent, heart-stopping, eternal moment.
Then somebody shouted and the guards brought their guns up. Gabriel was already moving, pulling her to one side so his body shielded hers. He pushed her down while his hand came up with a weapon in it. He was faster than the guards and he didn’t miss. Miranda was still trying to figure out what had just happened when he hauled her back on to her feet and dragged her into a run. He reached for the detonator again. This time he wasn’t interrupted. She heard the distinctive crackling sound of fire erupting in the lab.
They raced down the corridor together, footsteps accompanied by staccato bangs as gunpowder went up and glass specimen cases shattered. Gabriel burst through the door a beat ahead of her. Miranda stayed on his heels, the heat from the blaze they’d unleashed pushing at her back like a giant hand.
The night air felt damp and cool in contrast. Miranda sucked it deep into grateful lungs and ran faster. They made it out of the clearing and into the jungle before the whole building went up with a whooshing sound.
Two
Miranda flopped on to her back like a fish, too spent to care what creatures might be on the jungle floor with her. Besides, if it weren’t safe, Gabriel wouldn’t have let them stop here. So she let herself rest despite the adrenaline that urged her exhausted form to keep going.
She’d sprinted before. She’d just never tried to sprint for more than a mile, and sustaining that impossible pace probably meant her body was going to present her with one hell of a bill in the morning.
But, thankfully, one group of lunatics wouldn’t be able to cause swaths of horrible deaths now, and that was something. Although most of the band of radicals who’d held her hadn’t been in the building that just burned down. Which meant she was going to have to get up again.
“How much of a head start do we have on them?” Miranda managed to ask.
“Not enough.” Gabriel finished his study of their surroundings, slid something back into what she thought of as his “Bat belt” and reached down to take her hand. His fingers closed over hers, warm and strong and comforting, despite the fact that he was only trying to get her back up on to her cramping legs. “The plan was to light up the target from a nice, safe distance. Since we jumped the gun, we’ll have to evade pursuit, get to the extraction point and wait for pickup.”
“Right.” Miranda let him pull her to her feet. That put her closer to him than the usual rules of personal space dictated. Not that she minded. He was bigger, faster and stronger than she was, and he was keeping her safe from bad guys. She had to fight the impulse to move even closer, as if that would make her safer. “Do you do this sort of thing often?”
“It’s not just a job. It’s an adventure.”
He delivered the military recruiting motto deadpan. The unexpected humour startled a laugh from her. It sounded a little dry and rusty, but she hadn’t had much to laugh about lately. It felt surprisingly good. “Thanks.”
“For helping you commit arson?”
; “That, too. But I meant, thanks for the laugh. It’s been a while.” She realized her hand was still in his and belatedly tugged it free. “And thanks for getting me out of there. I didn’t expect to be rescued.”
“You can thank me for that when you’re safely on your way home,” Gabriel said. “Right now we’re in the middle of nowhere being chased by armed, angry men. This is a rescue in progress.”
“Still. Thank you.” Miranda wrapped her arms around herself for a moment, shivering. “I’d run out of time. And if you hadn’t come for me, they would have caught me trying to burn the lab before I got the job done. You saved a lot of lives by showing up. Not just mine.”
“Let’s get you all the way saved.” He turned and led the way. Miranda scrambled to follow, wondering how long it had been since he’d gotten the appreciation he deserved for doing a thankless job. It was clearly something he was uncomfortable with.
Then again, how often did her patients or their families appreciate her efforts? No matter what she did, some cases were hopeless. Some jobs you did because it was what you were good at and they needed doing. And some days, knowing you’d done your best was all you had to cling to before falling asleep and waking up to do it all over again.
Miranda stumbled on a rut and refocused her mind on the present. Staying on her feet and staying alert took all her concentration as minutes blurred into aeons. Finally Gabriel waved her forwards.
“Through there is a small cave. We can hole up and rest.”
“Rest would be good.”
Miranda crawled through dense greenery into the rough shelter. Gabriel settled beside her, handed her some kind of snack bar and began to munch one himself. She gnawed hers and shook her head at the taste. “Makes hospital food seem like ambrosia.”
“Your body needs the fuel. Eat your vegetables, doc.”
“Are there vegetables in this?” Miranda did her best to chew and swallow without tasting. Her body did need the fuel, and hopefully the bar contained some metabolic magic to offset the stores she’d burned.
“All the essential nutrients. You could live on these. Not that I recommend it.”
They finished their meal in silence. Gabriel offered her a canteen of water. She drank a lot less than she wanted, mindful of the fact that supplies were limited. Dinner over, Gabriel spread out a thin, foil space blanket he’d unfolded from his pocket and arranged it so there was room for them to lie on it and cover themselves. He stretched out and patted the area beside him. “Come on. Sleep if you can. Rest if you can’t.”
“I could probably sleep standing up,” Miranda admitted. She crawled into the makeshift bed with him. It pretty much filled the tiny cave, so it wasn’t like she had anywhere else to go, anyway. Even if he had had a spare blanket, there wasn’t enough room for separate bedrolls. She tried to keep a little space between their bodies by settling on her side with her back to him. He flipped the cover over her without a word.
The silence stretched out. Despite her exhaustion, Miranda couldn’t make her mind stop racing. The close call she’d had with those guards. If they’d caught her . . . if she hadn’t managed to get away before their plans were in motion and she no longer had any strategic value . . . Nightmare scenarios rolled through her head as she shuddered.
“All right over there?”
“F-fine.” Miranda forced the word out, then shook her head and abruptly flipped over, facing Gabriel. “Actually, no. I’m not all right. I’m jittering like a junkie going cold turkey, my body feels like lead and my brain keeps replaying the worst parts of the last few weeks plus bonus extras of what might have been.” She sucked in a breath, expelled it and reached to take off her shirt before she thought better of it. She peeled it up and over her head, then unfastened her pants and began wiggling out of them.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting naked.”
“That’s not a good idea.”
“It’s the best one I’ve got.” Miranda finished pulling her feet free of entangling cloth and pressed her nude self up against his fully dressed form. “We’ve both had a lousy day. Tomorrow might be worse. If they catch me, they’re not just going to shoot me. They’re going to have fun with me first. I can either lie awake for the rest of the night thinking about that, or I can give myself something a lot more enjoyable to focus on.”
Gabriel’s arms closed around her in a move that might have been intended to hold her still. “You don’t have to have sex with me to distract yourself. We can talk.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk. I need to do something. Think of it as stress relief. Or a bonus for a job well done.”
“Dr Gray.”
“Nice distancing technique,” Miranda muttered. She groped for buttons and zipper, dealing with them with more brute force than dexterity. “My name is Miranda. And I don’t want to be professional or reasonable right now so you can save yourself the effort of appealing to my title.”
“This isn’t happening.”
“Yes, it is.” She finished unfastening and bared some skin to press hers against. Warm. Human. “You want it, too.”
“I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret.” But he didn’t try to push her away.
“I’m not going to have regrets tomorrow. You can’t tell me you have everything but condoms in that Bat belt of yours.”
“‘Bat belt’?” He let out a laugh, then sobered. “Miranda.” He moved to rest his forehead against hers, keeping his hands still. “Did they hurt you?”
“Not like you mean. Not while they needed me for their plans. But I knew everything would change the minute I became disposable. And, Gabriel, there were a lot of them.” A shudder racked her. “It would’ve gone on and on forever before they killed me. If they killed me.”
“You’re sure this is what you want?”
She nodded. “I’m sure.” She could doubt a lot of things, but she knew to her bones that she needed this, needed him.
He blew out a breath. Then his mouth found hers and there wasn’t any more talking for a long time.
Afterwards, Gabe rested on his back with Miranda sprawled across his chest, limp and spent. Her hair spilled on to his shoulders. He smoothed it back, silky smooth against the rough palm of his hand. His other hand stroked up and down her spine, noting how easily he could feel her ribs. “Need to feed you something better than MREs,” he murmured.
“Uh-huh,” she agreed in a husky voice. “Talk dirty to me. Tell me about Texan food.”
“Why would I know about Texan food?”
She poked him. “Had a room-mate from Texas. The accent’s kind of unmistakable. And you’re living proof that everything’s bigger there. What part are you from?”
He didn’t try to fight the grin that spread over his face at her words. “Austin. Good music. Hot food. If you eat there, don’t underestimate the little peppers.”
“The voice of experience.”
“Habaneros aren’t for everyone.”
“Just people who don’t need that layer of skin inside their mouths,” Miranda agreed. “I’ll skip the peppers. I just want a grilled steak so big it covers the plate. And a baked potato. With everything on it. Cheese. Bacon. Sour cream. Butter.”
“I think you forgot chives,” Gabe said, amused. He wanted to buy her dinner for the sole pleasure of watching her sate herself with food the way she’d just sated herself with him. That wiped the smile off his face. Somebody else would get to sit across from her and pick up the tab. Somebody else would be there for Miranda to turn to when she had other hungers to feed. She had a life to go back to, and it wasn’t one he could be part of. She saved lives. He took them.
“Them, too. And an entire cheesecake for dessert.” She yawned and stretched like a sleepy kitten, obviously undisturbed by the future she contemplated. “What branch are you, anyway? Navy?”
“No. The slogan just seemed appropriate. Used to be Green Beret.”
“Used to be?” Miranda raised her head t
o rest her chin on his chest. “Ah. Delta Force.”
“The existence of Delta Force has never been officially acknowledged.”
“Tell that to somebody who hasn’t been living in a banana republic.”
“Speaking of which, what are you doing in Guatemala?”
She laughed, a low, easy sound that pleased him a lot more than it should have. “What’s a nice girl like me doing in a place like this? Doctors are needed everywhere, not just in American hospitals. Virologists are concerned about preventing a global pandemic. I went where I was needed.”
“Some thanks you got for it.”
“You’ve significantly improved my experience.” She patted his chest in appreciation.
Her sleepy voice and relaxed form were proof that she felt secure with him, but she wouldn’t truly be safe until he got her out. Gabe was all too aware of the risks they still faced. His arms tightened around her as if muscle alone could protect her. He realized what he was doing, and forced himself to relax his hold.
So, small blonde doctors with smart mouths and more guts than sense made him feel protective. He could live with that.
He should have suggested they get dressed again, put some space between them. But that might make her tense up all over again, and she needed rest. He also didn’t want to let her go just yet. It wouldn’t hurt to allow her to sleep where she was. So he held her naked in his arms while her breathing deepened and guarded her rest.
Miranda woke up with a male body wrapped around hers and for a disorientated moment couldn’t remember what had happened. Then it all came back in a rush. She must’ve made a sound, because Gabriel was suddenly awake, gun in hand as he searched for the cause for her alarm.
The ability to go from a dead sleep to ready for action was a trait soldiers and medical professionals shared, apparently. “At ease, soldier,” she said, sitting up and stretching. She didn’t miss the way his eyes went to her chest and paused for a lingering moment before continuing up to meet hers. “Sorry. I woke up and suddenly remembered last night.”
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