Family on the Run

by Margaret Watson

  Andi watched Chase disappear into the dense greenery. When she could no longer hear him, she rested her head against the tree and fought to keep her eyes open. She couldn’t fall asleep. She had to pay attention, had to listen for the sounds of hunters in the jungle. She glanced down at Paolo, but he was sleeping soundly. Poor baby. He hadn’t slept much as they’d walked through the jungle, and he was probably tired, too. With any luck he would sleep until Chase returned with water for his formula.

  Several times she felt herself nodding off to sleep, and she jerked her head up and opened her eyes. Finally the heat and humidity combined drained away the last of her strength. Her head dropped onto her chest, and this time she didn’t open her eyes.

  The sound of someone moving through the jungle snapped her out of sleep, and she began to scramble to her feet. She caught herself in time, though, and lowered herself back against the tree. Paolo was still sleeping. She gently moved him so that he was behind her, hidden by the roots of the tree. Then she pulled out her gun and waited.

  Whoever was out there hesitated, as if not sure which way to go. Andi gripped her gun more tightly and prayed that Paolo didn’t choose now to wake up. She took a shallow breath and waited.

  After a few minutes the sounds came closer. Andi didn’t dare call out and ask if it was Chase. And she knew that Chase wouldn’t identify himself, either. They had no way of knowing who else was in the vicinity.

  With an almost silent rustling of the bushes, Chase slipped back into the tiny clearing. His gaze flickered over her gun, and she watched him tense.

  Dropping down next to her, he whispered in her ear, “What’s wrong?”

  She shivered involuntarily as his breath danced in her ear. Her skin burned where he touched her, and she wanted to move closer to him. Instead, she edged away. “Nothing, I hope. I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until I heard someone moving through the bushes. I had no idea if it was you.”

  He stared down at her, and she thought his green eyes darkened. Then he nodded and sat down, moving away from her. She sighed in relief. Or was it disappointment? She tried to ignore the thundering of blood in her ears.

  “Go ahead and go back to sleep. We’re going to be here for a while.”

  “Why? What did you see?”

  “It’s more what I didn’t see. There was no trace of those men in the village across the river. From what I’ve heard of El Diablo, he doesn’t give up that easily. I’m afraid they’re going to start hunting through the jungle. So we’re going to stay put for the time being.”

  “Maybe they moved on to the next village.” She knew she sounded too hopeful.

  “We can’t afford to assume. We have to know for sure.”

  She nodded slowly and reluctantly. “You’re right. I just feel terribly vulnerable sitting here in the open.”

  “That’s because we are vulnerable.” His tone was grim. “But I think we can fix that.” He nodded to her left. “See that group of trees over there? Those are fig vines growing on them. The figs strangle the trees and kill them, and they die slowly from the inside out. Sometimes the center of the tree is hollow. It would give us a little more protection.”

  He eased away from her, and she wanted to reach out and touch him, to ask him to stay. But she curled her hands into tight fists and kept her lips pressed together. She was being foolish.

  “Stay here,” he whispered without looking at her. “The canteens of water are in my backpack. I’ve already run them through the purifier. I’ll go check out the trees.”

  He went into the undergrowth without looking back. Andi listened intently, but she couldn’t hear a thing. Chase had disappeared into the darkness like a wisp of smoke in the air, silently and without a trace.

  She was being fanciful. There was nothing between her and Chase, and there couldn’t be anything between them. They shared too much history, all of it bad.

  Her boss had sent her to San Marcos to find a traitor, and Mac had suspected Chase and Richard. The two men had been innocent but there had been nothing innocent about the attraction that had flared be tween her and Chase. A week later, Richard had been killed. No, the memories they shared weren’t happy ones. And they had no time for the bad ones.

  She eased away from the tree and opened his pack. She might as well pass the time by making up more bottles of formula for Paolo.

  When she’d finished, Chase reappeared as silently as he’d left. Squatting down next to her, he said softly, “One of the trees has a hollow base. It’ll be perfect for us. Let’s move over there.” His breath caressed her neck, and she closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to stop herself from swaying toward him. “You take the kid, and I’ll get the packs.”

  She swallowed once, then nodded as she forced herself to move away. It was stress, she told herself. Stress was why her hormones seemed to have gone crazy.

  She busied herself with Paolo to give herself some breathing room. She was amazed that he didn’t wake up when she put him into the sling, but he continued sleeping as she followed Chase through the undergrowth.

  She paused once before she left the clearing to look back and make sure they hadn’t left any evidence. When she turned to go, she saw that Chase had done the same thing. Their eyes met briefly, and then he nodded.

  “I’ll go back for a final check,” he whispered. “Let’s get the kid into a safe place first.”

  She nodded as he turned to lead the way. At least professionally they seemed to agree. Chase was cau tious and careful, and Andi had to admit that, had she been by herself, she would have done very much the same as Chase was doing.

  They didn’t stop at the first tree that was covered with fig vines. Chase led the way through the tangled mass of vines to the center of the grove. There he pushed aside a snarl of vines to reveal a gaping hole in the bottom of the trunk.

  “Have you looked inside?” she asked, hesitating.

  “Yes—with my flashlight. Nothing alive in there,” he answered.

  Without another word she hunkered down and climbed into the tree. It was darker than El Diablo’s soul, but she moved aside to make room for Chase. He eased his way in next to her, giving her a strange look.

  “Don’t you check places like hollow trees before you go in?” he asked.

  “You said you’d checked it. I figured if there was something I needed to know about, you would have told me.”

  His eyes were intent on her face. “I didn’t think you trusted me.”

  She sighed and leaned back against the wall. “We’re in this together, Remington. I may not have wanted it to be this way, and I don’t think you did, either, but we have no choice. If I don’t trust you with small things like checking the tree before we get inside, how can I ever trust you on the big things?”

  “I didn’t think you would be so reasonable,” he muttered.

  She turned to him and gave him a tight smile. “I can be very reasonable, Remington. But I have a feeling that your definition of reasonable and mine are quite different.”

  His eyes flashed at her in the semidarkness of the tree, and a shiver of anticipation ran down her spine. “Oh, I think I can be very…reasonable.”

  His low voice scraped against her nerve endings, igniting fires everywhere. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we?” she murmured.

  “I guess we will.” In the dim light she thought she saw hot need in his eyes. Then he looked away, and the moment was gone.

  “You might as well get some sleep,” he said abruptly. “We’re not going anywhere for a while.”

  Her breathing was ragged and her heart pounded in her chest. She swallowed once and looked down at Paolo, lying next to her. She had to remember what was important. “All right.” Exhaustion weighted her limbs and fogged her mind. She didn’t tell Chase that she’d been up most of the previous night, worrying about Paloma.

  She lay down on the ground and pulled Paolo close. “Wake me up so I can take a turn watching and you can get some sleep.” Her voice sounded
heavy. Sleep was already overtaking her.

  “All right.” His voice sounded tender in the darkness, and she wondered if she was already dreaming. Then she closed her eyes and gave herself up to the bliss of sleep.

  She awoke slowly, surrounded by heat and feeling completely secure. A hand was on her head, stroking her hair away from her face. The fingers were slightly calloused, and they left a trail of fire as they moved down her cheek and lingered at the angle of her jaw. Then they moved back up her face, touching her lightly as they went.

  Her head rested on a hard pillow that carried Chase’s scent. She felt herself smiling as she snuggled closer, then turned over. The hand on her face froze in place.

  Memories came flooding back and she opened her eyes. She was supposed to be hiding in a hollow tree with Chase. She looked up and found him staring down at her.

  She was lying on his lap, staring at his belt buckle. Heat washed over her face, and she scrambled to sit up.

  “Take it easy,” he whispered. “You’ll wake the kid up.”

  Scooting over to the opposite side of the little cave, as far away from him as she could get, she said, “What the hell were you doing?”

  “Not much,” he said. “I haven’t heard a thing.”

  “You know what I mean. What was my head doing in your lap?”

  He gave her a cool smile. “Using it as a pillow. And you’re welcome.”

  “Just tell me what’s going on.”

  He shrugged. “You looked damned uncomfortable on the ground. So I put your head in my lap. I thought you’d sleep better.” He must have noticed the panic on her face, because he gave her a taunting grin. “Was it good for you, sweetheart?”

  “I didn’t know you were into cheap thrills, Remington.” Her heart was still thumping and her skin felt jumpy. “I hope you enjoyed it, because it’s not going to happen again.”

  His mouth curled up in a half smile. “I’ll remember you said that.”

  “You do that.” She glanced outside, hoping he wouldn’t see how much she’d been affected by waking up in his lap. “Is anything going on outside?”

  His smile faded. “I haven’t heard one sound that shouldn’t be there.”

  “When do you want to leave, then?”

  “It might be a while. It’s getting light, and I want to make sure no one is going to be waiting for us.”

  “All right.” It was the smart thing to do, she grudgingly admitted. She wanted to get out of the narrow confines of this tree trunk and away from Chase, but he was right. They needed to wait.

  Glancing down at Paolo, she saw that he was still sleeping soundly. “He should have woken up already,” she said, worry in her voice.

  “He did. I gave him one of the bottles, and he fell asleep again.” He looked at her defensively. “I didn’t change his diaper, though. I didn’t want him to wake you up.”

  “That was very considerate of you.” Her voice softened as she looked at him and saw the weariness in his face. “It really was. Now you should get some sleep, too. I’m rested and I can watch.”

  She saw him hesitate. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m positive,” she said firmly. “I’ll wake you if I hear anything unusual.”

  He watched her for a moment, then nodded and lay down. In moments he was asleep, his breathing slow and even.

  Andi leaned back against the trunk of the tree and stared out into the blackness that was the jungle at night. She wondered how Chase could tell the sun was coming up. The curtain of vines blocked her view, but it was so dark she wouldn’t be able to see anything, anyway. But she listened. Early morning sounds filled the air, the low hooting of predators, the sharp scream of prey abruptly cut off.

  She wasn’t sure how long she sat, listening to the rhythm of the jungle, watching the light gradually filter through the trees, watching Chase and Paolo sleep. Chase looked different in sleep. More approachable, she decided. He was undeniably handsome. And since he was sleeping, she allowed herself the luxury of looking at him.

  His wide shoulders seemed to fill the entire space. His long legs were curled too close to her, but he couldn’t help that. She’d been studiously ignoring their heat ever since Chase had lain down.

  The hard planes of his face smoothed out in sleep, and she saw that he had tiny lines around the corners of his eyes. Were they laugh lines? Was Chase a man who laughed frequently?

  She hadn’t thought so, but then, she didn’t know him all that well. And what they did know about each other was colored with the dark brush of deception and death.

  Suddenly her attention was jerked to the opening in the trunk. There were sounds coming from beyond the veil of vines that didn’t belong in the jungle. The sounds of humans moving quietly through the mass of green.

  She leaned over to look at Paolo. He was sound asleep, and she slowly slid him behind her, making sure he was protected.

  Then she laid her hand over Chase’s mouth and bent to whisper in his ear. “We have company.”

  He came awake instantly. She felt him nod his head, and she took her hand away from his mouth. He pulled himself to a sitting position, then his hand found her head and pulled her close.

  “What did you hear?”

  “People, more than one. They’re moving around.”

  He nodded again and let her go. It seemed to Andi that his hand lingered on her neck for an instant longer than necessary, but she pushed the thought away. Chase edged closer to the opening in the base of the tree and listened intently.

  Andi heard the men more clearly now. They were coming closer. Silently Chase pulled out his gun, and Andi did the same. They sat on either side of the opening, using the tree to shield them. Andi pushed Paolo farther behind her.

  The men came perilously close to their hiding place, then the sounds began to fade. Andi breathed out once and closed her eyes, then she heard a tiny sound behind her.

  Paolo was awake. She saw his eyes gleam in the dim light inside the tree and heard his soft gurgling in the heavy silence.

  She held her breath as she scrambled for her pack. Please, God, she prayed. Don’t let him start crying.

  Her hand closed around one of the bottles, and she turned and pushed it into his mouth. Her hand was shaking so badly that the nipple fell out of his mouth. She felt rather than saw him open his mouth to scream, and she shoved the nipple back in. He choked once, then gave a satisfied grunt and began sucking on the bottle.

  She waited until she’d stopped shaking before scooping Paolo into her arms. Cuddling him close, she watched as his eyes began to droop. He finished the bottle and fell asleep at the same time.

  After she’d carefully eased the baby back onto the ground, Chase wrapped his arm around her. “Good job,” he said, his voice no more than a whisper of air. “You saved our bacon there.”

  Too drained to move away, as she knew she should, Andi slumped against him. “I was afraid he was going to scream again.”

  “He was. You got that bottle into his mouth in the nick of time.” His arm tightened around her. “You saved all of us, McGinnis.”

  Even in the darkness she could see the intensity in his eyes, see him watching her. And she saw the flame that leaped to life in his eyes.

  He moved again, and she knew he was going to kiss her. Her heart stuttered, then began to race. Instead of moving away, as common sense told her to do, she moved closer. He touched her face gently, and she sucked in a breath. Then his mouth came down on hers.

  Chapter 4

  His mouth was hard and punishing, taking rather than asking. There was no gentleness, no seduction in his kiss. His mouth consumed hers, stealing what was left of her sanity.

  Memories swamped her of another kiss three years ago, one that had shaken her to her very foundations. Andi had tried hard to forget that kiss. But her body hadn’t forgotten a thing, and she swayed toward him.

  She knew she should push him away, reestablish the boundaries between them. She had no business kissing Chase Re
mington. But her body betrayed her. Desire flowed hot and sharp through her veins and thickened her blood. Her skin pulsed where he touched her, and fire licked at her nerves. Instead of moving away, she kissed him back with passion and need.

  She felt his hesitation, his attempt to pull away. Then with a groan he dragged her closer, spearing his hands through her hair to hold her close for his kiss. His mouth gentled on hers, and instead of bruising her lips, now he nibbled at them. He touched his tongue to the corner of her mouth, and she moaned as desire throbbed deep inside her.

  When she opened her mouth, he slipped his tongue inside to taste her. She could only lock her arms around his neck and hold on as tremors shook her. His hands roamed down her back, lingering at the bottom of her spine, lightly shaping the curve of her hip.

  She had to touch him. Sliding her hands beneath his shirt, she allowed herself to explore the muscles of his chest, hard and hot and slippery with sweat. She lingered in the thick hair on his chest, letting the silky strands slip through her fingers. When her fingertips brushed over his small hard nipples, he sucked in his breath and arched against her.

  His hand was shaking as he bunched her T-shirt and shoved it up, then skimmed his hand over her breasts through the material of her bra. She quivered in his arms. When he pressed one finger against her nipple, she cried out and he swallowed the sound with his mouth.

  She lay on his lap, his arm supporting her, his erection burning into her thigh. Her legs were trembling, and as he bent to kiss her nipple, her thighs parted for him. She heard a high-pitched moan, and recog nized with a shock that the sound that had come from her.

  The realization was like a dash of cold water in the face. She was sprawled all over Chase Remington, letting him touch her intimately. In a few moments she would have been begging him to make love to her.

  She sat up abruptly and Chase lifted his head. “What’s wrong?” His voice was harsh and guttural.

  She tried to pull down her shirt, but Chase bent and took one nipple in his mouth again. Spasms of need shuddered through her, but she pushed him away.