“In a heartbeat,” Catt sobbed.
Closing his eyes, Ty pulled her into his arms more firmly. A sheet of weight that had felt like a lead apron around his shoulders miraculously dissolved as she whispered those words of forgiveness. Pressing Catt gently against him, he buried his face in her soft, mussed red hair. Breathing in the scent of her, the scent of a woman he loved so fiercely, Ty rasped, “There’s nothing to forgive you for. You were young. You came out of a tough past. You had no parents. And you were struggling hard to make something of yourself, darlin’. I admired your guts. Your courage.” He smiled brokenly as he moved his hand along her shoulder. “You made the best decisions you could at the time, that was all. Neither of us were mind readers. If I were in your shoes, and I’d got that response from me, I’d have thought the same thing—that I didn’t care if you were pregnant, that you were not that important to my life and career.”
Kissing her damp cheek, Ty placed his finger beneath her chin and forced her to meet his gaze. “I loved you too much throughout the years, Catt, to blame you for whatever choices you made after that phone call.”
He loved her. She blinked through her tears. “Y-you…loved me?”
“I still do,” Ty told her helplessly, a slight, boyish smile softening the grim line of his mouth. “I never stopped loving you, darlin’. Ever.”
The words felt like soothing rain across the heat of her parched, starving heart. Gripping his hands, Catt gazed into his vulnerable eyes. “You never stopped loving me?”
“No…never.” Ty looked around the small, darkening room. “Maybe that’s why I could never get married. Oh…I had some affairs, but when it came time to get serious, I just couldn’t do it. I remembered you, Catt. I remembered very well what we had. The laughter on the beach. Sitting by the fire roasting marshmallows—dumb things, but important things….”
“I never realized….” she admitted painfully. “I just put you in the category of another hotshot military officer whose eye was on making general someday. I thought the women in your life were strictly secondary.” Rubbing her furrowed brow, Catt admitted, “I really screwed up.” Her mind whirled with what-ifs. What if she had stuck around and been there when Ty came to her dorm room? What if she hadn’t run and stayed instead to work it out with Ty? Would she have miscarried? Catt had no way of knowing. But the fact that he’d come all that way up to San Francisco from his naval station to find her hours after that phone call told her everything. If only she hadn’t bolted like she did. If only she hadn’t been so afraid to trust his love.
“All my life, my dad rejected me because I was a girl and not a boy. I wasn’t his son, Ty, and I felt like being a girl was second choice. Second best. When I fell in love with you, I felt like I was the most important thing in your life. I felt like number one and not number two. Rightly or wrongly, when I called you and got the message loud and clear that I was number two again, something inside me broke. It just broke….” Catt touched her breast. “I loved you so much. You were my first and only love…. I soared on wings of happiness when I was with you. You treated me like I was some marvelous gift in your life…every time we were together.”
With a ragged sigh, Catt whispered, “Why, oh, why didn’t I see it then? Why didn’t I ask you for help? If only—”
“No,” Ty said, “don’t do this to yourself, Catt. Let the past die a quiet death. We both know the rest of the story now. What’s important,” he murmured, “is what we do from this moment onward.”
Looking around the room, Catt said, “We’re in trouble. We could die. That’s what I’m seeing.”
Ty’s hands tightened around hers. “Listen to me. And listen very closely. I will do everything in my power, with every breath in my body, to see that you and our baby get out of here alive. Do you understand me, Catt?”
The way his eyes drilled into hers sent a shiver of terror through her. Catt saw the mercenary in him now. She saw the marine. She felt the warrior, prepared to protect and defend her and her baby. His mouth was set hard. There was no mistaking the look in his eyes, either. Suddenly, she became very scared.
“Don’t you do anything foolish, Ty! Damn you! Don’t do something stupid in trying to save us.” Catt gripped his thick, massive shoulder and shook him as hard as she could with her womanly strength. “Don’t you dare give your life away to save ours! I just found you again,” she sobbed. “I don’t want to lose you! I couldn’t stand it. Not again…oh, Lord, not again, Ty. Please don’t do anything that would rip you away from us….”
Her plea tore through him. “Hush,” he ordered harshly. Gripping her by the arms, he gave her a small shake, just enough to get her full attention. “Stop it. Stop all the possibilities here.” His breathing was ragged and short. “Dammit, Catt, hear what I’m saying. I love you. I love the baby you’re carrying. I’m not going to see anything happen to you or the child again. This is my second chance. I’ve been praying for a long time for this opportunity to make peace with the past, to undo what I did to you.”
“You’re not going to throw your life away!” Catt cried. She pulled out of his arms and stood beside the bed. Wrapping her arms around herself, trembling, she repeated hoarsely, “You’re not going to die for me…for the baby! Don’t you dare!”
Ty gave her a stern look, as she stood there wavering, her chin held high, her eyes blazing with unshed tears, her lower lip trembling. “Why not?” he asked.
“Because I want a life with you, that’s why!” Catt cried. Looking toward the door, she tried to lower her voice. Leaning over, she jabbed him in the chest with her finger. “How thickheaded are you? I’m carrying your baby. I want the father to be around. Does that compute with you, Hunter? Or do I have to spell it out on this damned stucco wall for you?”
He stood. The pain in his head was voracious, but he ignored it. “What are you really saying, Catt?” He was afraid to say it. He was afraid to suggest it, afraid to think it. Could she love him? Could she see him back in her life? It was almost too much for him to hope for, and Ty stood there, feeling raw and naked as she glared up at him through the tears burning in her narrowed blue eyes. He saw the stubborn set of her chin, the way her delicious mouth compressed. She was breathing hard, too. They stood like two prizefighters squaring off with one another, tense and rigid.
“Oh! You are thick as a damned block, you know that?” Catt claimed. “And don’t give me that naive look. Don’t you realize I love you, too? Did it ever occur to you that I never stopped loving you, either, through all these years? Did it? Of course not! Sometimes men are thick as bricks!”
Ty felt a tremendous surge of relief tunnel through him. His heart banged hard against his ribs. Joy suffused him as he held her angry look, studied that petulant set of her kissable lips. A silly smiled tugged at one corner of his mouth. The tension began to drain out of him. “You love me?”
Catt rolled her eyes. “Of course I do!”
The other corner of his mouth lifted a little. “You really do love me?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Catt breathed angrily. Jabbing her finger toward the door, she hissed, “Why do you think I’m so upset that you might throw your miserable life away on us? Men! They just drive me crazy sometimes!”
Humility avalanched through him. Hunter stood there in those silent moments just looking at Catt, at her righteous fury, at the bravery in her heart and the courage it took for her to admit her feelings to him. “Darlin’, you’re a hellion. You know that?”
Catt glared at him. “Where I come from, Texas women don’t mess around with diplomacy, Hunter. You and I love each other, so let’s figure out how to get out of this fine mess we’re in. You’re the father of my baby. I want you around.” She moved her hand across her abdomen. “Our baby wants you around. So don’t you try anything stupid like getting your head blown off, okay? Don’t play hero. Heroes get killed. I—” Her voice cracked and all the anger went out of her. “I couldn’t stand to see you killed. I almost lost it when t
hey hit you on the head with that rifle butt. I thought for sure your skull was cracked and you had a cerebral hemorrhage….”
“You have a wild imagination,” he chided with a silly, boyish smile, “but I love you, anyway. My head’s too damn hard to break.”
Catt stood there, feeling suddenly weak, happy and frightened. Ty towered over her and looked so strong, confident and powerful when she felt just the opposite. The joy in his eyes was something she desperately needed at that moment. He wanted her. He wanted the baby she carried. Suddenly, life was very precious to her.
Lifting her hand toward the door, she said, “How can we escape?”
Ty moved over to her and placed his arm around her. “First things first,” he rasped, taking her into his arms. This time, he brought her gently against him. This time, he felt every soft, firm touch of her body meeting and melting against his tall, hard frame. She came willingly and surrendered herself utterly to him, to his protective, shielding body, to his powerful, embracing arms. There was such unspoken beauty in her surrender. Lifting her chin, Ty slid his hand across the slope of her cheek.
“I love you, Catt Alborak,” he breathed, leaning down and kissing her parting lips.
His mouth was tender as it moved across hers. Catt felt the warmth and moisture of his breath flowing against her as he spoke those beautiful words to her once more. Moaning his name as his mouth met and clung to hers, Catt slid her arms around his shoulders. Just the way his strong mouth glided against hers sent an ache of fire through her belly. Every cell within Catt cried out for the effortless love he was now sharing with her as his mouth rocked her lips open even more to taste her, to relish her, and most of all, to worship her as the woman he loved and wanted in his life.
Within those heated, vulnerable moments, the past dissolved, and with it, the sense of abandonment Catt had always felt. His mouth was tender, searching and filled with the promise of a bright tomorrow. As their breaths mingled and their heartbeats thundered in unison, they eagerly tasted the wonderful differences between them in that deepening kiss.
Ty eased his mouth from her soft, glistening lips. Her eyes were drowsy with desire, with love—for him. It made him feel strong and capable once more. It made him feel a kind of masculine power he’d been missing ever since Catt had fled from his life. Now it was surging back through him, making him feel even more protective of her and his baby, more confident to face the future, though it promised only death.
“I love you, darlin’….”
His words rumbled through her like a rainbow after a terrifying thunderstorm. Only the storm was fear for their safety, for their lives. Catt reached up and slid her hands across the dark stubble of his beard. She caught and held his fiery, narrowed eyes. “And I love you…more than you’ll ever know. But I want to spend the rest of my life showing you—”
At that moment, the doorknob jangled. Catt jerked her head to the left. Hunter tensed. In seconds, he had placed her behind him. The brass doorknob moved again. Moonlight filtered in between the iron bars and gave them just enough light to see across the room.
Catt held her breath. She clung to Ty’s arm, held out in a protective gesture. The movement at the door was gentle this time. The knob twisted again. The latch clicked. The door was open. Catt’s heartbeat soared. What would happen? The Valentino brothers were known to be cold-blooded murderers. Catt was all too familiar with them raping women and then killing them. Shuddering, she worried about their baby. Could she talk them into not raping her because she was pregnant? Rafe had told her terrible stories of these two drug kingpins. They raped pregnant women, little girls and old women. They were heartless. Life meant nothing to them. Catt dug her fingers into Ty’s damp shirt, her gaze riveted upon the door. Oh, Lord, they were coming for her and Ty!
Slowly, the door opened, creaking several times in protest. Ty stood on guard. At first he saw a hand slide around the edge of the door. Stymied, he stared at it. Damned if it didn’t look like a woman’s hand! But then, maybe the Valentinos had women mercs in their employ. He wouldn’t be surprised. The hand was long, artistic and a golden color. Then he saw a slender arm, and finally a figure clothed in darkness eased into the room. With one fluid motion, the stranger closed the door as quietly as she’d opened it.
Ty’s gaze narrowed upon the shadowy figure. It was a woman; there was no doubt. She was tall—damned near six feet if he didn’t miss his guess. And she was a soldier. She wore a sleeveless, olive-green T-shirt that showed off her firm, well-muscled arms. Across her chest were two criss-crossed bandoliers of ammunition. On the web belt around her slender waist he saw a pistol, grenades, a knife and a first aid kit. As his gaze moved down, Hunter took in the camouflage fatigues she wore and the unpolished black G.I. boots. Swinging his gaze upward, he saw the assault weapon resting on her hip, her right hand wrapped comfortably around the stock. As she moved silently out of the deep shadows, her features were revealed.
The woman had an oval face, with high, angular cheekbones, and her willow-green eyes slightly slanted at the corners, giving her the look of a lethal jaguar, an animal Ty had come upon twice in his time in South America. Her face was a golden color, attesting to her Indian heritage, yet her thin nose hinted at nobility. And she could very well be nobility, Ty thought, for it was no secret that in South America, the land barons of old often took peasant women as lovers.
This woman in battle garments, whoever she was, was clearly of mixed heritage. Her long black hair, which shone in the moonlight, was captured into a long braid that fell across one of her proud shoulders, offsetting the lethal power of the bullets draped across her body. As she turned toward them, he saw a leather strap across her shoulder. On her back was a leather scabbard that reached to her waist. The dull gleam of an emerald-handled machete was lodged in the heavily scarred leather sheath.
For a moment, Ty said nothing, for the power swirling around her was stunning. He blinked. Was he seeing things? She seemed to be there in the room, and yet he could see the door behind her. Impossible! He was seeing things! Blinking again, he no longer saw the door behind her as she stood gazing at them with an expression of mild curiosity laced with irritation. The glittering look in her eyes stunned him. Ty vividly recalled where he’d seen it before: on a jaguar ready to pounce on its prey. Her mouth was full and soft looking, yet the corners were pulled in, almost as if she was laughing at something. Them? He wasn’t sure.
Her gaze moved languidly from him to Catt. Ty tensed as he felt a shift of almost palpable power around this unknown warrior woman. He saw her eyes narrow briefly and her mouth curve faintly as she lifted her left hand and pointed at Catt.
“You are with child.”
Catt gasped. She had no idea who this woman was. How could she know she was pregnant? Stunned by the ferocity of power throbbing around her, she felt battered by waves of invisible energy. As soon as the woman uttered the words in stilted English, Catt felt the invisible pounding cease. Gasping again, she stared at the stranger, who stood aloof and relaxed near the door.
“I am sorry,” she informed Catt.
Her voice was low and husky, reminding Ty of a cat growling. Ty remembered facing a big male jaguar once on a trail deep in the jungle. The growl of warning was just like this woman’s voice.
He frowned. “Who are you?” he asked, trying to brace himself for the fact that she might well have been sent by Fernandez to kill them.
Her mouth puckered and she moved her glittering gaze to him. “Inca.”
Shocked, Ty stared at her. His mind whirled. The green warrior. The jaguar goddess. So this was the woman Rafe spoke about in such glowing, worshipful terms. Now Ty could see why. He didn’t know if she was real or not. Again, he saw the door through her. It was as if she were a holographic projection, not really there with them. He had to be crazy. No, she was very real. He saw the gleam of perspiration down the long column of her throat. He saw the pulse at the juncture where her proud shoulder connected with her neck.
Inca smiled mirthlessly and allowed the assault rifle to move off her hip. She held it confidently in her right hand, the barrel pointed toward the floor. “Sí, señorita. I heard my brother’s call for help.”
“Brother?” Ty said. And then he realized she was talking about Rafe. “Rafe? Is he all right?”
“I have already released him. He is on his way out of the area as we speak.” She lifted her hand sharply. “Come, it is time to go. You are in danger. If we do not go now, we will all be killed shortly. Fernandez is a murderer. I have read his mind.” Inca gestured toward Catt. “He lusts for you. He is going to send two soldiers here, one to put a bullet in his head—” she gestured toward Ty “—and the other to bring you to him.” Her upper lip curled and exposed her strong, white teeth. “I enjoy making Fernandez unhappy. One day he and I will meet one another and only one of us will walk away from that meeting.”
Shocked and fearful, Catt gazed over at Ty. He was assessing Inca, as if he was trying to decide whether or not to trust her. Catt recalled Rafe talking about this legendary woman and as she studied the huge white claw hanging from a leather thong around Inca’s neck, she remembered how Rafe had told her the claw belonged to Inca’s jaguar guardian, an invisible being from another dimension who was at her beck and call, who would attack and kill anyone who tried to threaten Inca’s life.
Swallowing hard, Catt gripped Ty’s hand. “Listen to her,” she rasped. “We’ve got to trust her!”
Inca’s laugh was low and filled with derision. She turned and twisted the brass doorknob. “Why is it always the woman who knows best? This is no time for wondering if I am leading you into a trap or not, Señor Hunter. Follow me and do not hesitate! If you do, you and your pregnant woman will die.” Her eyes glittered in warning as she met and held his shadowed gaze, which was filled with distrust. “Is that what you want, señor? Or do you really want that second chance you have been praying for to the Great Mother Goddess for long? Eh? She has heard your prayers. She has sent me to get you to safety. Now, come! No more doubts!”
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