Dangerous Connections (Blackthorne, Inc.)

by Odell, Terry

  As Elle had pointed out, there could be people out here, too. Bad people. With guns. He kept one hand on the strap of his AK-47 and the other moving the flashlight’s beam across the clearing and through the trees.

  “You want me to take point again?” he asked. “You cover my six?”

  “You’re saying that to show off your grasp of the lingo, aren’t you?” Elle’s tone had lightened since her frantic search of the box of clothes, and that alone was enough to boost Jinx’s spirits. He started forward.

  They’d reached the rear of the structure when he stopped short. “Damn.”

  “What?” Elle said. He heard a snap-click and figured she’d unholstered her weapon.

  “Nothing. I mean, I thought of something,” Jinx said. “They move people in and out. And fast, apparently. How? With this terrain, I doubt they’re using helicopters. We didn’t see any roads, did we?”

  “Good thought. I owe you a kiss for that.”

  Jinx felt a swell of pride. He’d figured something out without a computer. “I’m going to keep score.”

  “Better match mine.” Elle flashed a quick smile. “So, let’s hunt for evidence people have been through here. If it was recent, we should be able to find tracks.”

  “Where do we start?” Jinx asked.

  “Front door,” Elle said. “We might have obscured any footprints at the immediate entrance, but we should be able to pick something up. Stay behind me so we don’t mess up anything else. Try to stick to my tracks.”

  “I shall be tight on your six, ma’am.”

  She slugged him in the shoulder.

  Jinx played his light over the relatively clear earth leading to the front door. He recognized bits of his and Elle’s footprints, which wasn’t too hard considering they hadn’t made any effort to keep from leaving them. But the spongy earth didn’t hold prints well. He was beginning to wonder if he shouldn’t have discounted the helicopter theory when Elle put her hand behind her, connecting with his belly. “A little lower,” he said.

  “That will lose you a kiss.” She moved her light to the left. “Over there.”

  Jinx followed the beam. Yes, the ground looked disturbed, although not excessively trampled. He tried to remember if that was part of his belly-crawl route. No, he was still on the vegetation side of the clearing when he’d circled the house.

  Elle headed off in the direction of the disturbance. When she came to the edge of the clearing, she stopped short. He bumped into her.

  “I said you’ll lose points for those kind of moves,” she said.

  “Hey, it’s not like you’ve got brake lights.”

  “Stay behind a few paces and avoid the issue.”

  He put his hand on her ass. Even hiding in the oversized cargo pants, it was still mighty fine. “Where’s the fun in that?” But to prove he was sticking to business, he turned a slow circle, illuminating the jungle.

  He fixed the light on a spot that had caught his eye. Someone—or someones—had walked through here. “You think this is a regular path?”

  Elle added her light to his. “Could be. I say we follow it. You take point this time.”

  “Gee, do I have to? The view’s better from here.”

  “You’re pushing it, buster.” But an undercurrent of humor filled her tone.

  Jinx led the way. This semblance of a trail didn’t require him to get out the KA-BAR. Although there was new growth creeping onto the path, the overhanging vegetation wasn’t an obstruction. He visualized what humans walking down the path would do, concentrated on finding traces that said they’d been here. He kept his light aimed to the right. Elle had hers scoping out the left.

  “There!” Jinx shone his light farther along the path. “The trail veers off that way.”

  He picked up his pace, the AK-47 thumping against his back reminding him he needed to pay attention to his surroundings. Just his luck, this whole setup would be a trap.

  He slowed a bit and sensed Elle right behind him. Where the trail took a sharp turn, he paused. Felt a hand on his ass. Started.

  “How do you like it?” Elle asked.

  “On a scale of one to ten, I’d give it a nine. But only because I’m supposed to be concentrating on something else.” He covered her hand with his, squeezed, then followed the trail. Which ended at an effing road. Okay, not really a road, more like another two-track, but definitely amenable to vehicle traffic, assuming you didn’t mind your vehicle getting scraped by the occasional branch, or bumping over tree roots.

  “This is it,” Elle said. “How they get their people from one place to another. It took us what, less than ten minutes to get here, and we were going slow.”

  “So, by making everyone walk the last bit, they can keep their hiding places secret—more or less, since we found it. But we’re Blackthorne, Inc. It’s hard to keep secrets from us.”

  “Speak for yourself. I’m Riverside P.D. Hard to keep secrets from me, too. But shouldn’t Fozzie’s fancy surveillance equipment have spotted the road?”

  Jinx gazed upward, playing his light through the heavy canopy. “Not necessarily. By the time we were near enough for the imaging software to pick it up, we were preoccupied.” His thoughts strayed to the team—his friends—and his belly twitched with worry.

  Elle must have sensed it, because she put her hand on his arm. “They’ll be all right. Fozzie will be back for us. Let’s keep going so we can give him two extra passengers and go home.”

  Home. He liked the sound of that. Jinx set off at a pace slightly under a jog. A quick adrenaline surge erased a layer of his all-pervasive fatigue. If this trail led to the next structure, they had about a mile to cover, and that was a crow-flying mile. This road went around the trees, not above them.

  And why hadn’t he given a thought to Crystal? She was his target. Trish was an add-on. What if they found Crystal, but not Trish? Would Blackthorne approve the extra time? Elle had made it clear enough she couldn’t afford Blackthorne’s rates.

  Just see where this road leads. Don’t think. Left foot, right foot. And listen. Make sure you don’t get ambushed.

  They’d been walking about fifteen minutes when faint tendrils of shadowy light filtered through the trees.

  Then above them, branches shook. The air filled with the resonating of what Jinx could only describe as a screaming banshee.

  Chapter 23

  Without thinking, Elle had her Glock unholstered and at the ready. “What the hell was that?”

  Jinx had dropped his flashlight. He lifted it and shone it upward. His hand was shaking, but since hers was, too, she couldn’t find fault with it.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “And I can’t say I want to find out. I vote for moving. Fast.”

  She didn’t argue, simply followed as he raced along the two-track. She didn’t put her Glock away, either. Did Mexico have the equivalent of Bigfoot? Or Sasquatch? Nobody had ever proven they existed, had they? Or was someone being tortured?

  Elle forced her mind to the mission. Find Trish. Jinx’s labored breathing had overridden the banshee howling. “Slow down. All we’re doing is wearing ourselves out, and we could be missing signs someone’s been here. Whatever was making that noise, I think it’s behind us.”

  Jinx slowed to a walk. “Are you sure? Maybe it’s following us, but decided to use stealth mode.”

  “If it’s—or they’re—smart enough to use stealth, then they wouldn’t have made all that noise to begin with.”

  “There is that.”

  The same sound, but more distant, thundered through the air. Elle froze, trying to pinpoint it. No point in walking right toward it. The sound died down, then returned, but from behind them. Another burst filled the jungle, then another, until they were surrounded by a howling, roaring cacophony.

  “This is not good,” Jinx said. He slipped the AK-47 off his shoulder and held it in firing position. He turned in a slow circle.

  “Hey!” Elle said.

  He stopped, his head sna
pping around. “What? Did you see it—them?”

  She grabbed the barrel of the AK-47 and pointed it downward. “Never let the muzzle point at another person. Ever. Unless it’s your target. One slip and I’d be hamburger. And keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.”

  Although there wasn’t enough daylight to see color yet, she knew his face was the shade of the impending sunrise. She softened her tone. “I didn’t mean to snap, but that’s rule number one.”

  “You want this thing, then?” He kept the muzzle pointing downward, but tilted it so the stock moved toward her. “I told you, I’m not a gun person.”

  Wordlessly, she accepted the weapon. She tilted her chin along the path and started walking. There was a brief lull before she heard his footfalls behind her, along with unintelligible muttering. So he was miffed. Too bad. This wasn’t the time to develop Jinx’s shooting instincts.

  A moment later, he strode to her side. “I guess I wasn’t thinking.”

  Which was as close to I’m sorry as any man ever got.

  “When it comes to guns, there’s usually no time for thinking,” she said. “It has to become second nature. Instinct. I should never have expected you to become an experienced gun handler in an hour. We practice over and over… and over… until all the rules are embedded in our muscle memory.”

  “Yeah, but I screwed up, and I could have killed you.” His head hung, and his feet stomped along the road.

  “Forgiven,” she said. And because she understood his chagrin, she added, “I’ll think of a way you can atone. It might involve copious amounts of chocolate syrup. The good stuff.”

  And then she wondered why that thought had popped into her head. She’d known Jinx barely a day. She didn’t jump into bed with guys she’d just met. Heck, she didn’t jump into bed with guys she’d known for a long time. But the image of him above her, drizzling warm chocolate over her breasts, spreading it with his tongue. Licking it clean. Sucking her nipple—which responded to the thought, sending tingles far lower.

  Don’t go there! All you need is to get captured or eaten by some jungle monster because you’re thinking about having sex with Jinx.

  “You really know how to motivate a guy.”

  “Huh?” Her mind jerked to the present. She halted. “Wait. Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what? I don’t hear anything.”

  “That’s what I meant. The noise. It’s stopped.”

  “Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?”

  She considered it. Replayed the sounds. “You know what I think?”

  “When this is over, we’re going to spend quality time with quality chocolate?”

  She felt heat rise to her face, glad Jinx couldn’t see her blush. “We were hearing animals calling. Letting each other know where they are. Birds do it in the morning. Territory claiming.”

  “Those didn’t sound like birds.”

  “Probably not, but whatever they are, they’re stationary. The sounds are coming from lots of different directions, but they’re not moving.”

  “I might as well defer to your expertise here, too.” Bitterness colored his tone.

  She swung the AK-47 over her shoulder. “I’m not an expert. It’s a hunch. But it’s a whole lot less scary thinking there are animals defining their home range than to think there are mythical monsters, or people with guns.”

  “You said ‘less scary.’ Does that mean you’re scared?”

  “Of course I’m scared. You’d have to be nuts to be doing this and not be scared. We have to work past it.”

  “Can we take a quick break?” Jinx asked.

  “You need a pit stop?”

  “No.” He shrugged out of the pack and set it on the ground. After rummaging around for a bit, he flashed that grin—the one that made her insides tingle. He waved his hand. “I thought we could use a quick energy boost.”

  She laughed when he displayed a chocolate bar. He unwrapped it, broke off a piece and dangled it in front of her lips. The chocolate aroma enticed, but not as much as having Jinx offer to feed her.

  She permitted it, parting her lips. He inched the morsel closer until she gripped it with her teeth. Using her tongue, she worked the chocolate into her mouth, half in, half out. Inviting him to share.

  He did.

  His mouth moved forward, closed around the chocolate, mimicking her motions until their lips touched. Then their tongues. Jinx-flavored chocolate. Someone could make a fortune marketing the subtle combination of flavors—but no. She wanted to be the only person in the universe privy to this pleasure.

  Their tongues mingled, coated in rich, creamy chocolate. Her heart pounded. She grabbed him behind the neck and dove into the delights of the kiss.

  When the need to breathe overwhelmed her, she broke away. She stared into Jinx’s eyes, dark with desire. Or was it the dim light that had his pupils dilated? No, his breathing was as ragged as hers. She wiped a remnant of chocolate from his lips. “Break’s over.”

  Jinx stepped back, tried to catch his breath. He’d love a drink of water, but no way was he going to erase the taste of chocolate mixed with Elle. “If that’s what you can do with a simple piece of ration chocolate, I’m dying to get to the gourmet syrup.” His voice sounded strangely hoarse. He cleared his throat. Bending to reshoulder the pack, he took the opportunity to make a few discreet adjustments to his pants.

  “You think we can raise Fozzie on the radio?” Elle asked.

  Jinx checked the canopy. He rubbed a kink out of his neck. “I doubt it. They’re probably way the hell out of range.”

  “I was thinking they might be on their way back.”

  “Wishful thinking, I’d say. I’m afraid we’re still on our own, but I can give it a shot.” He made sure his radio channel was the one Fozzie would be monitoring. He keyed it, waited, and wasn’t surprised by the silence.

  “Worth a shot,” Elle said.

  The radio silence dredged up Jinx’s anxiety. Alone—although with Elle nearby, that wasn’t really true. He’d be dead by now if he was truly alone. Her skills, while perhaps not up to Blackthorne’s standards, outweighed his a thousandfold. But they had no backup.

  He’d watched enough ops, sat in on enough debriefings to know two people without the rest of a team behind them were bucking the odds. Big time.

  The unease wouldn’t go away no matter how many times he told himself he and Fozzie had done their jobs. Aguilar’s cartel minions had more important things to do than come after them.

  But they might find them anyway. Because he and Elle were trespassing on cartel territory.

  He thought about what Fozzie and Dalton had stressed before he and Elle had come down. No heroics. Locate and wait. Fozzie would be in touch, and they’d play it from there. Blackthorne ops always had plans A through at least G. Leave it to Jinx to shove them down to K. Or Q.

  Would Elle be willing to wait if they found Trish inside the other structure? Given her concern over Trish’s medical condition, he doubted it. And what if Crystal was there, too? Could the four of them evade the cartel until help arrived?

  Because help would arrive. Of that, Jinx was certain. When and how much? That was a different story, but he had faith that whenever it came, it would be sufficient. The fact that this part of the op was well into goat rope territory was the exception to Blackthorne’s norm. At the time, nobody had foreseen the need to field another team.

  Or that you’d meet Elle, and turn the plan all kinds of sideways.

  “What’s our location?” Elle asked, reminding him they had a task to perform.

  He checked the GPS. “We’re about two clicks from the house. Trouble is, it’s that way.” He pointed away from the two-track. “This road isn’t on any of the GPS base maps, so I can’t tell whether following it will lead us closer to the house, or if we should try to bushwhack our way through the jungle.” And maybe meet those howling creatures a little too up close for his taste.

  “If the next hous
e is like the last one, this road probably gets close, and then we should find another trail. It’s getting light, so we should be able to spot it.”

  “But if we stay on the road, won’t they be able to spot us? Or do you think everyone’s in the house? Or the driver dropped them off, and this road goes on to another hiding place?”

  “We could stand here all day playing what if. Better to keep moving,” Elle said.

  He trudged onward. Between the lack of sleep and the weight of the pack, putting one foot in front of the other became one of those dreams where his legs refused to move. The howling picked up again, seeming to surround them in an echo chamber. Okay, so now it was one of those dreams where his legs refused to move and he was being chased by monsters.

  Left foot. Right foot. Left foot.

  Ten minutes. Ten minutes to sit down, close his eyes. The teams always talked about combat naps.

  Don’t even think about it. You’d be out for hours. And they don’t take naps while they’re hiking through the jungle. Do they?

  How did Elle manage to look so fresh? So alert? Her feet didn’t drag. Her head moved from side to side as she undoubtedly took stock of their surroundings. She stayed a pace or two ahead of him, her AK-47 ready to demolish anyone—or anything—posing a threat.

  Praise the Lord, she waved her hand behind her, signaling a stop. Jinx stopped. He was still on his feet, but wasn’t sure that condition would last much longer.

  “Aren’t you tired?” he asked.

  “Not too bad.”

  Was she just saying that? Afraid to admit weakness? Would he appear less of a man if he admitted he was exhausted? “I don’t suppose we’ll run across a Starbucks?”

  “I’ll bet there’s an energy booster in the rations pouch.”