Hunter's Woman

by McKenna, Lindsay

  Heart hammering, Catt closed her eyes for a moment. She gripped the bulkhead to steady herself. “Oh…nothing. I’m just tired, Ty, that’s all. It’s been a helluva run, you know? I’ll be glad to get back to civilization this time.” She saw the glitter in his eyes. He didn’t believe her. Catt swallowed convulsively.

  “Look at you.”

  Alarm spread through her. Instantly, her hand went to her belly. “What?” Her voice was off-key.

  “You’ve lost weight,” Hunter noted, gesturing toward her body. “If I don’t miss my guess, at least five pounds, maybe a little more.”

  “I, uh, just haven’t felt like eating much lately. It must be the humidity, Ty. You know I don’t do well in humidity.”

  He nailed her with a dark look. “As if Atlanta, Georgia, doesn’t have the same humidity as down here?”

  Heat swept across her cheeks and Catt refused to look at him. “Well…it’s just everything,” she whispered.

  “Us?”

  Wincing, Catt chewed on her lower lip. Truthfully, Ty had been wonderful, and she felt partially healed by the turn of events between them. She didn’t want to lie to him. The silence strung tautly in the cabin.

  “I thought so,” he rasped harshly. “It’s me. It’s our past.” He knotted his fists, feeling impotent to change it or to change Catt’s mind about him. It was on the tip of his tongue to say, We could have a future, a beautiful future together if you’d just let me in. If we could just talk about the past and get it out in the open…But one look at Catt’s averted features, and Ty felt a horrible sense of hopelessness wash over him. This reemerging love was one-sided, his only. She didn’t love him. She never would allow herself to because of his very stupid, unthinking mistake so long ago. He’d never win her trust again.

  “Okay,” he said in a low tone, “I understand. Come on, I’ll help you pack. Maybe getting you back to Manaus will help you feel better. I hope so.”

  Catt sat at the bow of the twenty-foot aluminum motorboat, the humid air racing past her. Rafe sat in the rear, his capable, guiding hand on the rudder. Ty sat between them. They were going home. Even Manaus sounded good to her! Still, her heart was heavy. Catt felt badly about Ty thinking her physical condition was due to his presence. Somehow, when they reached Manaus, she would have to let him know it wasn’t due to him. But right now, she couldn’t tell him more—the thought of sharing the news gripped her with fear. Confused, she sat rigidly on the aluminum seat as the boat hugged the shore of the river. They were a good half hour into their trip back toward civilization.

  “Look out!” Rafe’s warning carried over the noise of the motor.

  Catt twisted around in surprise. To her horror, she saw two black-and-red cigarette boats barreling up behind them at high speed. She heard Ty curse. Without warning, gunfire winked off the deck of the nearest boat, which was less than a quarter mile away from them. The pinging of bullets hitting water sounded around the boat, sending up geysers of spray.

  “Pull ashore!” a voice on a bullhorn demanded in Portuguese.

  Ty jerked a look at Rafe. “Do it. We don’t have weapons on us.” The Brazilian government forbade foreigners from carrying weapons. Rafe had a rifle, but it would be no contest with the heavier, more powerful weapons aimed at them.

  Rafe nodded, held his free arm high in the air to let the drug runners know he’d heard their demand. He swung the boat toward the shore.

  Ty leaned forward. “Keep your mouth shut. Let Rafe do the talking,” he whispered fiercely to Catt.

  Frightened, Catt saw that the men aboard the two boats were armed with assault rifles. Obviously they were drug runners. As Rafe’s boat hit the shore, she felt Ty lift her upward. Together they stepped out of the boat onto solid ground. The deep, throaty engines of the speedboats filled the air as the leader, a man in an army fatigue uniform, moved arrogantly to the bow of the closest one. He was in his early thirties, his face deeply pockmarked, his skin tobacco brown and stretched tightly across his high cheekbones. The thick, black mustache could not hide his sensual, full lower lip, and his ebony eyes were slitted and fierce looking. Catt shuddered as his gaze raked the three of them standing onshore, their hands in the air.

  “I am Juan Fernandez,” he crowed, striking his chest. “You are my prisoners. You and you, climb in. And you, woodsman, you go to the other boat.”

  Catt gave Ty a wild look. Could they run for it? The jungle was only fifty feet away. Yet she knew the drug runners would follow them and kill them. Oh, Lord, her baby! At all costs, Catt realized, she must protect the baby she carried deep within her body. Her mouth went dry. Catt could barely hear above the adrenaline-charged beat of her heart. When Ty’s hand settled on her elbow and propelled her forward, Catt went without a fight. They climbed up a small ladder at the back of the cigarette boat. Rifles were shoved in their faces, reminding them that they were now prisoners.

  Once on board, they were frisked for weapons. Rafe’s rifle was thrown into the river by one of the guards. Then Fernandez strolled toward them and jumped down into the cockpit, the butt of his weapon riding on his narrow hip. He smiled savagely at them, disdain written in his hard features.

  “We know who you are. Dr. Alborak, yes? And her assistant, Señor Hunter? Yes?” he asked in broken English.

  Catt nodded convulsively. She cringed as the drug leader strutted over to her. His gaze provocatively raked her body, lingering an excruciatingly long time on her breasts before moving down to her crotch, where it stayed for the longest, most humiliating time of all. Slowly, he looked up again, his gaze meeting her wide eyes. “You, señorita, are mucho woman. Very pretty.” And he reached out and placed his hand on her cheek.

  Before Catt could cry out, she heard a commotion behind her.

  “You son-of-a-bitch!” Ty snarled. He lunged forward, regardless of consequences, and slapped Fernandez’s arm away from her.

  Pain split through his head. He saw white, flashing light, and then darkness. The last thing Ty heard as he fell to the deck was Catt’s scream of terror.

  “Uhhh…”

  “Don’t move, Ty. You’ve probably got a concussion.”

  Catt’s voice was low and strained.

  The pain in his head made him groan again. Raising his hand weakly, Ty touched his skull. He forced his eyes open. Where the hell were they? How much time had elapsed? As he slowly looked around, he realized they were no longer on the boat, but in a small room. Catt was sitting on the edge of the bed, a cloth in her hand, gently dabbing the top of his skull. Her face was blanched, her eyes dark and fearful.

  “What—where…” he grunted, and tried to rise. Catt instantly placed her hand on his shoulder and forced him back down on the thin, dirty mattress.

  “Stay still….” She took the cloth, leaned over and placed it in a small, chipped bowl that held bloody water. “Fernandez took us to a villa. From what I could pick up from their English, it’s one of the Valentino brothers’.” Wringing out the cloth, she again placed it gently against the gash in his skull. “We’ve been here about four hours, Ty. You were cold-cocked from behind by one of those assault rifles.” Catt swallowed hard and held his pain-filled gaze. “You’re damned lucky you survived it. I thought they’d killed you, they hit you so hard. You damned fool.”

  Tears glittered in her eyes, and Ty forced himself to try and think straight. Little by little, the events were coming back to him. Anxiously, he reached out, wrapping his fingers around her lower arm. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

  Catt shuddered. “I’m fine, Ty. Fine. I think Fernandez was scared when you suddenly lunged at him. After that, they threw us in the hold of the boat. We must have been on the move for about half an hour, and then they docked in a channel by this villa. It’s a fortress here in the jungle, about a quarter of a mile from the channel where the boats are tied up. They carried you here and I walked at your side. We’re prisoners. Fernandez spoke in English for my benefit, so I was able to understand everything t
hey said.” Catt dabbed at his wound and examined it gently. The bleeding had finally stopped and the blood was coagulating. She knew Ty must have one hell of a headache.

  “They knew all about us. Fernandez was bragging that they were just waiting for us all along. Apparently, once one of the Valentino brothers gets here, they’re going to ransom us to the U.S. government. They’re going to ask for ten million dollars for our release.”

  With a groan, Ty sat up. He gently touched his aching head. “Our government won’t pay it. We’re on our own,” he told her as he dragged his feet across the bed and onto the floor. Catt got up, giving him more space. The room they were in was small. Bars stretched across the only window, which gave them some air and provided a small relief from the humidity that lingered heavily. Still, the room was stifling with leftover heat from the afternoon, Ty realized, when he saw it was almost dark outside.

  “What about Rafe?” he asked, his voice raspy. It hurt to talk. It hurt to think. His heart was pounding with relief that Catt was all right. He’d known from the look on Fernandez’s face that he was planning to rape her. Ty wasn’t sorry for what he’d done. He’d die trying to keep Catt safe. Studying her now, he saw that she was very pale, her hands trembling as she washed the cloth out in the bloody water.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered wearily. “I asked but they just laughed at me.”

  Ty held out his hand. “Come here, let me hold you?”

  Tears stung her eyes. Catt allowed the cloth to drop from her fingers. Hunter’s voice was low, strained and filled with care. The raw look in his eyes made her slowly sit down next to him once more. Welcoming his arm around her shoulders, Catt released a ragged sigh and sank against him. Burying her face against his neck, she murmured, “Oh, Lord, Ty, I’m so scared…so scared for you…for—” She choked as she moved her hand gently across her belly.

  “I know, I know….” he rasped, and pressed a small kiss meant to make her feel safe on her silky red hair. Just the way her arms wrapped around his waist made him groan with pleasure. Without thinking, Ty slid his other arm around her so that she was completely within his embrace. Catt did not fight him; she acquiesced to his unspoken demands, his need of her. They were in trouble. Serious trouble.

  Terror moved through Catt as she sat there wrapped in his arms. Yet the sense of protection, of love emanating from Ty soothed her fear for their lives. He had to know, she realized. It was only fair under the circumstances. They could die at any time. Ty had to know she was with child—his child.

  “I have to tell you something,” she whispered unsteadily. Catt gripped his heavily scarred hand and looked into his dazed eyes. “You need to know this, Ty…. I only found out just recently….” She stopped.

  Puzzled by her reaction, by the fear he saw in her wide blue eyes, Ty reached up and touched her flushed cheek. “What? What are you talking about, Catt? What’s wrong?”

  Choking back a sob, she slid her hand over Ty’s, which lay against her cheek. “Not what’s wrong, what’s right…. Oh, Lord, Ty, I’m pregnant. That night we made love, I got pregnant. I—I’m carrying your baby again….”

  Chapter Eleven

  Ty felt the blood drain from his face. It felt as if someone had pulled the floor from beneath his feet. He saw the tears in Catt’s eyes, her uncertainty over what his reaction might be. It felt as if a bolt of lightning had ripped through him, through his heart and chest. In its wake was an incredible sense of agony followed on its heels by joy.

  “A baby?” he rasped unsteadily, his fingers closing tightly over her hand. “Our baby?”

  Sniffing, Catt murmured, “Yes…again…I’m sorry, Ty…I—we…just didn’t think.” She pulled her hand from his and wiped the tears from her eyes.

  He gave her a shocked look. “Sorry? I’m not sorry, Catt. Why would I be?”

  Now it was her turn to look stunned. Catt studied his pain-ravaged face, the tears swimming in his narrowed eyes. The line of Ty’s mouth spoke of suffering. The sound of his low voice moved through her like a storm on a quiet spring afternoon. “Well…” she mumbled hoarsely, “you didn’t want the first baby—”

  “No…that’s not true!”

  Her lips parted. She reared back at the anguish in his tone; it was almost a moan of pain. “But—”

  “Listen to me,” Ty growled harshly as he placed his hands on her slumped shoulders, gripping her firmly and holding her wide gaze with his. “I made the worst mistake of my life that day, Catt. I wasn’t unhappy you were pregnant. I was elated. Yeah, I was scared. I was fresh out of the academy. I was trying to show my superiors I could handle a tough assignment. I tried too hard to please the wrong people for the wrong reasons,” he told her bitterly, his fingers digging more deeply into her shoulders. “You’ve got to believe me on this. I never meant to send you running away like you did. I tried—” He swallowed hard, looked away, trying to gather his wildly fleeing feelings.

  Ty felt his lower lip tremble. It took everything in that moment not to cry. Fighting the feelings, the tears, he looked at Catt, who had an incredibly pained and tender expression on her features. “I tried to find you. You have no idea how long I searched, how many phone calls I made, how often I drove up to Stanford to try and find you. I finally hired a detective and he tried to trace you. I spent the next six months of my life in a hell I never want to go through again. I thought you might go to another university or college to complete your medical education. I wrote letters. I made phone calls. When I could, I would fly to a campus, rent a car and just drive around with your photo and ask people at the dormitories if they’d seen you. This went on for almost two years, Catt, until I finally realized that you would have graduated, and I had no idea where you would go after that.”

  Wearily, he sighed and allowed his hands to drop from her shoulders. Gathering her hands, Ty stared down at her long, capable fingers. “I gave up, but I never forgot.”

  A sob choked Catt. She pressed one hand against her mouth. Hot tears flowed across her fingers as she stared at him through a veiled, blurry mist. “Oh, Lord…I didn’t know, Ty. I’m so sorry…really I am….” And she was. At the agony in his eyes, the way his mouth was set with suffering, Catt began to realize that he, too, had suffered as horribly as she had.

  Whispering his name, she moved into his arms, throwing her arms around Ty’s shoulders. Wildly pressing herself against him, her fingers sliding into his hair, she held him with all her womanly strength. The tension in him was explosive. It was only then that Catt realized it was grief that had never been released, grief for the loss of their first baby. She sobbed softly, her face pressed against his neck. His arms went around her, tight and sure. The air rushed from her lungs as he held her as if he’d never embrace her again.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you like this, Ty, I really didn’t,” Catt whispered brokenly. “You made it clear that you didn’t want a family right away. Remember? I asked you how you felt about getting married and having a family. It was out at the beach, about a month before I knew I was pregnant.”

  Hunter nodded, his eyes tightly shut. Just feeling Catt’s strength, her slender, giving body against him was all he needed. The knowledge that she carried his baby deep within her was more than he’d ever dreamed of. “Yeah,” he managed to answer in a low, bitter tone. “Believe me, I remember every conversation we ever had, Catt. Over the years, I played them again and again in my head. And I remember that night. We’d made love and we were wrapped in a blanket by the fire, drinking wine afterward. I remember you wistfully asking me about how I felt about having a family. I remember telling you that I wanted a family, but not right then. I was a young lieutenant fresh out of the academy. I wanted a couple of years to get my feet on the ground and to establish my career.” He lifted his head, framed her face with his hands and looked deeply into her tearful eyes. “I had no idea you were pregnant. We’d taken precautions….”

  Sliding her fingers over his, she tried to smile but failed. “I gu
ess the IUD I was wearing didn’t do its job. I really didn’t want to be pregnant at that age. I wanted to finish medical school and then have a family. I remember that, at the time you told me, I really felt your commitment to your career. I could tell from your tone of voice you meant it. And I couldn’t disagree with you, Ty, at the time…until, well, I found out I was pregnant. And then—” Catt’s voice lowered “—then I was scared. I remembered that conversation when I picked up the phone to call you. I was so frightened. I was making ends meet with the money left by my father’s will, but I had no way to support a baby. I knew I’d have to leave med school. I wasn’t sure how you’d take the news. I loved you. I knew you loved me. But I wasn’t sure if you wanted to commit to living together and raising a baby.”

  Taking her hands into his, Ty held her grief-stricken gaze. “You had every right to be scared at the time,” he told her gravely. “It was me that screwed up, Catt. I should have told that White House secret service agent to wait, that I’d call him back. I was scared, too—the captain was there in the room with me. He was tracking my calls and what I did. I knew he was rating me, judging me on my performance.” Ty shook his head. “Hell, if something like that happened now, I’d tell the White House to wait and I’d tell you that I’d call you right back. Then I’d get out of that room to somewhere more private, where we could talk without that captain looming over my shoulder.”

  “I didn’t know….” Catt moaned softly. “I’m at fault in this, too, Ty. I didn’t have to overreact like I did. I assumed a lot of things that weren’t true at all. It was a knee-jerk reaction from my past. I never asked for help after Mama died. I just got used to doing everything for myself.” Miserably, she held his gaze and said, “It’s not all your burden to carry. I have a share of that load to carry myself. I ran away instead of asking for your help. I’m so sorry….” Achingly, she whispered, “Can you forgive me?”

  Reaching out, he grazed her flushed cheek unsteadily with his fingers. “Forgive you? Can you ever forgive me?”