Laying Ana once again into the scarf she had tied across her chest, she slung her backpack onto her shoulders and looked for Caine’s path through the undergrowth. There was no reason she had to wait in the tree trunk like a frightened child. If they had to leave Santa Ysabel, the sooner they got started, the better. If she could follow his trail through the jungle and meet him near the village, they would have that much more of a head start.
It wasn’t difficult to see which way Caine had gone. The tangled vines and low plants grew so profusely on the jungle floor that the only way through them was to cut your own path. When she found the small opening through the vines that were as thick around as a man’s wrist, she held Ana closer to her and started walking.
Chapter 4
The jungle was alive with foreign sounds. Monkeys chattered in the tops of the tallest trees, birds shrieked and cooed as they soared through the air above Lexie, and even the dead leaves on the ground seemed to rustle with life. Her arm tightened protectively around Ana. Even though she’d lived surrounded by the tropical forest for the past eight months, she was far from being comfortable with its strangeness.
But she could see Caine’s path. It was faint but definitely there, a narrow passage hacked out of the luxuriant foliage. As long as she stayed on the path, she would be safe. Keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the way back to Santa Ysabel, she tried to ignore her surroundings and concentrate on where to put her feet, one after the other.
Ana shifted in the shawl and Lexie stopped to rearrange her, trying to open the shawl so the baby got more air. She was probably too hot, wrapped in the heavy cotton and lying next to her mother’s body. Even though it was early in the morning, the heat and humidity dragged on Lexie like a thick cape draped over her shoulders.
Thank goodness Ana was still asleep, she thought fervently as she unbuttoned the baby’s shirt. If she had to carry a fussing baby, she would never be able to negotiate her way through the vines. Pushing the edge of the shawl away from Ana’s face, she adjusted her once more and began walking again.
She hadn’t taken two steps when she heard the sound of someone coming toward her. Caine. She began walking faster, more relieved than she cared to admit, when the sound of voices drifted to her in the still air.
Stopping abruptly, she strained to listen. Surely Caine wouldn’t have brought anyone with him. The whole idea was to get out of the village before anyone realized they were gone.
The words were indistinguishable, but there were definitely two voices. And judging from the deep sound, it was two men. Uneasily Lexie sidled off the path, moving closer to the huge tree that stood next to her. The two men were getting closer, the rumble of their voices louder. Why didn’t either of them sound familiar?
Their low, murmured Spanish seemed to bounce off the vegetation surrounding her, and she realized with a burst of fear that neither of the men was Caine. Her heart bounded in her chest and a shiver crawled up her back. The air that had been so oppressively hot just a moment ago was now bone-chillingly cold.
What should she do? She looked around frantically at the endless, choking tangle of green. She couldn’t simply stand here like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. In less than a minute the men would see her. They were already close enough for her to clearly hear their conversation.
A conversation in which her name was mentioned more than once.
There wasn’t any time to run, even if there were a place to go. And with Ana on her chest and a pack on her back, she would move about as fast as one of the sloths in the jungle.
She was out of time to think about her options. In another few seconds the men would spot her. Easing behind the huge kapok tree, she sank to her knees and edged backward until the low bushes formed a screen in front of her. She wouldn’t be hard to spot, if they were looking. All she could do now was pray that they weren’t and thank God that Ana was still asleep.
As Caine slipped back into Santa Ysabel, the yellow glow of lights was beginning to show in the windows of some of the houses. The day began early here in this farming village. Threading his way between houses and shops, he avoided the few people who were on the street, clinging instead to the already fading shadows.
He reached Lexie’s house without being spotted. He was very certain of that. After ten years of working in covert operations for the United States government, he could tell when someone was watching him.
A quick look into the window they’d crawled out of last night told him there was no one in her bedroom, at least. With one fluid movement he was in the room and crouched in the shadows. He listened intently for a long time, but didn’t hear anything from the other room. If someone was waiting for them to return—and he was certain someone was—they weren’t waiting in the house.
He moved silently across the floor to the chest Lexie had described. It took only a few seconds to find the clothes and diapers she needed and stuff them into his pack. Then he turned and looked for the trunk that held her pictures. Seeing its location, he swore silently to himself. It stood against the opposite wall, in plain view of anyone in the other room—or anyone who happened to look in the window of the other room.
He was tempted to leave and tell her she would have to forget about the pictures. It was the safest thing to do, he told himself. He’d been damned lucky so far, getting into the village unseen two times. Standing in front of a window to retrieve some lousy pictures was really pushing his luck.
He remembered the look in her eyes when she asked him to get the photos and swore again. If she had whined or demanded that he get her pictures, he would have turned around and left right now. But she hadn’t. She had simply asked, while trying to disguise the longing in her eyes. There was no way he could leave here without them.
Moving as close to the chest as he could without being seen, he squatted on the floor for a long time, listening intently. He heard several people pass by Lexie’s house, but there were no signs that anyone waited outside her window.
Finally he forced himself to move. The longer he waited, the bigger the risk. More and more people would be on the street, and it would be harder to get out of the village without being seen.
After a quick glance at the window to make sure there was no one there, he lifted the lid of the chest and shoved his hand through the layers of clothing. Refusing to let himself think about the soft fabrics and how they would lie against Lexie’s skin, he fumbled around until he felt the stiff manila envelope beneath his fingers. Without looking at it, he tossed it onto the floor behind him, out of sight of the window.
As he was lowering the lid of the chest, he grabbed a handful of the clothing and tossed it behind him, too. As long as he was here, he told himself, he might as well get Lexie a change of clothes, too.
Safely out of sight once more, he stuffed the clothing into his backpack and then picked up the envelope. His hand tightened around it as he stared at it for a moment, then with an abrupt movement he shoved it into the backpack as well. He didn’t want to see the pictures of his newborn daughter, he told himself. And even if he did, this wasn’t the time or place. Right now he had to concentrate on getting her and her mother out of this hellhole of a town.
It took longer to get out the window this time. It was fully light now, and more and more people were on the streets. Finally he saw his chance, and in the time it took to draw three breaths he shimmied out of Lexie’s house and hid between two buildings across the street. He slipped around behind one of the houses and was about to head for the next block when he heard voices coming from the direction he’d just left.
One belonged to a woman, and she sounded furiously angry. The men’s voices were abrupt and cold, and a curt order cut the woman’s words off in midstream. The voices stopped at the back of Lexie’s house.
Caine’s muscles tightened and he reached for the knife concealed in his boot. He waited, tensed, while the two men debated the best way to apprehend Lexie. The woman’s voice interrupted frequently with scorching
remarks about the men’s ancestry, breeding and virility, but the men didn’t seem to be paying much attention. As far as he could tell, they simply ignored her.
Caine listened long enough to make sure they hadn’t found his Jeep, then he replaced his knife in its sheath and began to move. He had to find Lexie and get out of here before anyone thought to organize a search.
It took him longer than he liked to get to the jungle, but no one saw him. Once he was hidden by the foliage, he began to lope down the path he’d cut the day before. If Lexie had listened to him, the kid would be fed and they would both be ready to go. It would take about six hours by car to get to Limores, the capital city of San Rafael, and with any luck they could get a plane out that evening.
As he jogged down the path he’d cut through the jungle, something shiny on the ground caught his eye. Stopping abruptly, he stooped to look at it and felt a cold hand clench his gut.
It was a brightly colored candy wrapper, and it hadn’t been there when he’d left earlier—he was sure of it. Someone had found his path and decided to follow it. And he was damned sure they hadn’t been on a pleasure expedition.
He began to move again, but this time he was silent as well as swift. The hole in the base of the tree had been fairly well hidden by the vines, but had the kid been crying? Had Lexie been talking to her just as the unknown person walked by the tree? And what would that person do when he or she realized that the path ended right there? Anyone skillful enough to follow them into the jungle would recognize the significance of that immediately.
Caine moved a little faster, straining to be quiet enough to hear anyone ahead of him on the path. If he was very lucky, he would hear them coming before they heard him.
He saw a flash at the base of the kapok tree out of the corner of his eye and dived into the bushes on the opposite side. Unsheathing his knife in one smooth motion, he eased the pack off his back and squatted in the dead leaves, waiting for the other person to make the first move.
“Caine?” He heard the shaky whisper and shoved the knife back in place. Listening one more time to be sure no one else was coming, he slid out of the bushes and stood.
“Lexie. Where are you? Are you all right?”
The bushes rustled in front of him, then she stepped out onto the path. The urge to hold her was so overwhelming that without thinking, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her.
The baby squirmed between them, but for just a moment he didn’t care. Lexie was in his arms again, and nothing else mattered. It felt like a lifetime had passed since the last time she’d been there. His arms tightened around her, and for the space of one heartbeat she held him just as fiercely. Then she let him go and stepped back.
“Are you all right?” she whispered, the fear still sharp in her eyes. “You were gone so long that I thought...”
“I’m fine.” His voice sounded gruff. “It just took longer than I thought to get out of the village.” Now that he knew she was safe, the fear was fading, replaced by anger fueled by the helplessness he’d felt. “What are you doing here? I told you to wait in the tree.”
“I know,” she said calmly. “But I decided there was no reason to do that when I could meet you at the edge of the jungle and we could leave that much more quickly. It was easy enough to follow your trail.”
Fear about what might have happened to her made his words sharper than he intended. “I told you to stay in the tree. You could have gotten yourself killed.”
“If I’d listened to you and stayed in the tree, those two men would have found me there,” she retorted.
“You could have walked right into them!” he exploded. “At least in the tree you were hidden.” One part of him knew he was being irrational, but anger at the two men hunting her and his overwhelming relief at finding her unharmed had swamped his reason. “I give the orders on this little expedition, Lexie. If you want to make it out of here in one piece, you’re going to have to do what I tell you.”
She tightened her lips and glared at him. “First of all, I never said I wanted to leave Santa Ysabel. That was your idea. Even now, I’m only taking your word for it that someone is looking for me. And second, I don’t recall crowning you king. I had twenty-six years of being ordered around by a man, and I don’t intend to put up with it again. If you want me to do something, you can ask me like a reasonable human being.”
“You haven’t fit the definition of reasonable since the day you were born.” He wanted to grab her and shake some sense into her. He watched her staring up at him, her face tight and determined, and with a silent groan he stopped himself from stepping closer to her.
Hell, who was he trying to fool? He just wanted to grab her. He needed to feel her under his hands, her mouth opening under his, her body softening and responding to him. He needed to reassure himself that she was alive and unharmed. Curling his hands around the straps of his backpack to stop himself from reaching out to her, he backed up another step.
“I’m in charge, Lexie. As long as I’m responsible for getting you and the kid out of here safely, you’ll do as I say.” With an effort, he managed to keep his voice level and controlled.
She smiled at him sweetly. “Since I would like to get out of this jungle safely, don’t you think we should be leaving now? Who is or isn’t in charge here is a fascinating subject, but right now I’d prefer not to meet up with the two men who are undoubtedly on the trail behind us.”
He stared at her as she picked up her pack that was lying on the ground, then swore viciously as he looked down the path behind them. There was no sign of the two men, but she was right; it wouldn’t be long before they were back. When the trail ended and their prey was nowhere in sight, they would retrace their steps. If he stood here arguing with Lexie much longer, the two men would walk right into them.
“Let’s go.” Swinging his own pack onto his back, he motioned for her to precede him, then took one more look back at the path behind them. There was still no sign of the two men. Furious with himself for allowing his fear for Lexie to override his common sense, he strode after her in grim silence.
Lexie walked along steadily, one arm shielding Ana from the vines that hung over the path and the other helping to support her weight. Caine was close behind, but he didn’t say a word. Her body was quiveringly aware of him, and when she realized she was slowing down so he would get closer to her, she deliberately speeded up. The last thing she needed or wanted was any more closeness to Caine O’Roarke.
It seemed as if they’d been trudging through the endless green forever when Caine muttered behind her, “Slow down.”
She stopped immediately and turned around. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
He cocked his head as if listening, and she instinctively moved a step nearer to him. “What do you hear?” She was disgusted with herself at the breathless, fearful quality of her voice.
“Nothing.”
She opened her mouth to ask again what was wrong, but he shushed her with one hand. After what seemed like a long time, his mouth thinned into a grim line and he stepped in front of her.
“We’re changing the plan a little. I hid the Jeep in the jungle near the road away from the village, but we need to cut a new path to get to it. I want to approach it from a different direction.”
“What’s wrong, Caine? And don’t say nothing again,” she warned. “I saw the way you looked.”
He gazed at her for a moment, then his eyes softened momentarily. “I won’t lie to you, Lexie. Whatever happens on this trip, I’ll be straight with you. If there’s something wrong, you’ll be the first to know. And I promise you, nothing’s wrong right now.”
“Then why are you changing the plan?” she challenged. She would never admit it to him, but she was fervently glad he was on her side right now.
“Because I decided the old one was too predictable,” he answered easily.
When she continued to stare at him, unconvinced, he sighed. “I swear to you, Le
xie, I didn’t hear a thing. Something just doesn’t feel right. I can’t explain it, but there’s something about the quality of the silence that—Oh, hell, I don’t know. I just know I’m not going to go the way I’d originally planned. All right?”
She nodded, fear reaching out to grip her again. “Tell me what I need to do.”
His eyes softened again, then he turned away and gazed at the wall of green in front of them. When he looked back at her, he was the impersonal commando again. “I’m going to try to find a way to get through this stuff without cutting anything, at least until we’re out of sight of this path. Stay here for a moment. I’ll be right back.”
Without another look, he crouched down and crawled into the greenery. She stood alone on the tiny path, cradling Ana with one hand and listening anxiously with all her concentration. All she heard was the sounds of the jungle echoing around her.
Surely they were getting close to the village, she thought with another stab of fear. There should have been some noises that she could identify, even if they were only a vague whisper above the forest cacophony. But it was as if the cries of birds and other animals and the ever-present rustling in the dead leaves underfoot were the only sounds in the universe.
The lack of human noises made her heart pound with terror and her head throb with the effort of listening. When the leaves swished next to her, she spun around so fast she almost lost her balance.
Caine reached out to steady her, gripping her upper arms. “It’s only me, Lexie,” he said. “I’ve found a way. Let’s go.”
She managed to nod. “I’m ready.”
“Give me your pack first,” he said, and she turned and looked at him in surprise. “You’re going to have a hard enough time getting through with a baby on your chest. You don’t need to worry about that pack, too.” He waited impatiently as she shrugged out of the cumbersome backpack, then slung it onto his shoulders as if it weighed no more than an armful of the flowers that hung from the trees.
To Save His Child Page 6