Family on the Run

by Margaret Watson

  “Stop, Chase,” she said, and she despised the way her voice quavered, despised the need she heard in her words.

  Slowly he sat up and stared down at her. Even in the darkness, she could see the hard glitter in his eyes, the tenseness of arousal in his face. “What’s the matter?” His hand was hot and possessive as he gripped her waist.

  “We can’t do this.” She hoped he didn’t hear the desperation in her voice, didn’t realize exactly how much she wanted to do this. “Look where we are!”

  He continued to stare at her, and she watched as his eyes cooled. She felt the exact moment when he regained control of himself.

  He set her to the side and moved as far away from her as he could get in the confined space. “You’re right.” His voice was flat. “It must have been temporary insanity.”

  She nodded, then turned away and stared out into the dim light of dawn. She couldn’t even bear to look at Chase. She didn’t want him to see any hint of the turmoil inside her. “Chalk it up to stress. Is it time to leave?”

  He was still breathing heavily, and her heart thundered in her chest. Her body throbbed with need, and she knew it would be a long time before she forgot what had happened here. But she forced herself to bury it deep within her heart. Chase Remington was the last man she could become involved with. Their survival, and Paolo’s life, depended on their care and alertness. Every one of El Diablo’s men could have walked past their hiding place in the last twenty minutes, and she would never have noticed.

  “Yeah, it’s time to go.” Chase watched the woman silhouetted at the opening in the tree trunk and cursed steadily under his breath. He couldn’t want Andi McGinnis this way, with the bone-melting all-consuming need that had taken control of his body and his mind. He tried to remind himself what she had done. He tried to conjure up an image of his dead partner. But all he could see was her face, full of passion. All he could hear were her sexy moans as he’d touched her.

  Hell, he’d barely even begun to touch her and he’d been already as hot as a sixteen-year-old in the backseat of a car with a willing girl. He’d forgotten where they were, he’d forgotten the men who searched for them, and he’d forgotten the kid who depended on them to keep their heads.

  His body still ached with need, and his skin still burned with the memory of her touch. Scowling, he tucked his shirt into his pants and practically threw himself out of the opening in the tree trunk.

  “I’m going to take a look around. Stay here and get ready to move.”

  “Be careful.” Her voice was little more than a whisper, but he heard her as he moved away.

  Careful. It was too late for that. Now he knew how Andi could arouse him. He remembered what she felt like, what she tasted like. And it was far better than the forbidden memories he’d had.

  He’d wanted her from the moment he’d first seen her. Even though she’d been working with him before, he hadn’t been able to stay away from her. And that had been his fatal mistake.

  Ever since Richard’s death, he’d told himself that he couldn’t still want Andi, but he couldn’t prevent the dreams. Andi had haunted his sleep for years. He’d awoken countless times, hungering to touch her, wanting her taste on his lips, wondering if she would taste the same.

  Now he knew. He scowled. Now he knew—but that was as far as it would go.

  His body called him a liar, but he ignored the ache in his groin. He was an expert at denial. And in the next few days he wouldn’t have time to worry about his body’s traitorous reaction to Andi.

  He forced her image out of his mind as he surveyed the jungle. There was no sign anyone else was present. Finally satisfied, he turned and headed back to the hollow tree. He found Andi sitting against the base of the tree, the backpacks on the ground and Paolo in his sling against her chest. Her face was a mask, and he couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

  He didn’t see a trace of the turmoil that filled him. Biting back a stinging disappointment, he told himself it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the job—getting her and Paolo to Monterez.

  “Ready to go?” he asked. His voice was hard and cold.

  She nodded as she rose to her feet. He wondered again what she was thinking, then told himself it didn’t matter. He didn’t want to know that much about her.

  “Walk next to me until we get to the path.”

  She met his gaze and went still for a moment. Then she shrugged. “It’ll only take a few minutes to get to the path. It’ll be easier then.”

  “God, you are one stubborn woman.” He glared at her. “You can’t afford to get any more of those cuts on your face, McGinnis,” he said roughly, trying to hide his emotion. “If they get infected, you’re in trouble. We all are.”

  “All right.” She avoided looking at him.

  They moved through the jungle without speaking after that, although he was very aware of her presence. And she was aware of him, too, if the stiff way she held herself was any indication. He tried to ignore her, but even the overpowering smell of plants and earth couldn’t mask the faint sweetness of her scent.

  By the time they reached the path, his hands ached to touch her again. Unable to stop himself, he reached out and brushed her hair away from her face, using the need to look at her cuts as his excuse. There were a few new scratches, but he had been able to protect her from the majority of the branches.

  “I’m fine,” she said, her voice brusque as she backed away from him.

  “Just checking.” He hadn’t missed the hitch in her breath when he’d touched her, and he tried to ignore his body’s immediate response. “Is the kid all right?” he asked. “Do you need to stop and change him?”

  He could see the worry in her face. “I probably should. I don’t want him to get a rash in this heat and humidity. But it can wait a little longer. I want to be well away from that village before we stop.”

  “Good.” He couldn’t disguise his approval. “You’ve done a great job,” he said gruffly.

  “You sound surprised.” Her eyes flashed a warning at him. “You’d better watch yourself, Remington.”

  Chase looked at her stiff posture and sighed. “Take it easy, McGinnis. I would have been impressed by anyone who’s done what you have in the last few months. Working undercover is a tough job.”

  She glanced back at him, then nodded. “Sorry I jumped to conclusions.”

  “Why are you in this business?” he asked, and realized he was genuinely interested. “It’s not an easy job, or one you’ll get any credit for.”

  “Why did you work for the agency?” she countered coolly. “For the glory?”

  “Of course not.” He scowled. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”

  She was silent for so long that he didn’t think she would answer. Finally she said, “I guess that’s as good a reason as any.”

  His instincts told him there was more to her reasons than that, but he didn’t want to pursue it. He didn’t want to know anything more about Andi. He scowled. He knew far too much already, and none of it was helping him keep his distance from her.

  “So we’re both just damn good patriots,” he muttered.

  To his surprise she laughed. “I guess we are, Remington. See, we have a lot more in common than you thought.”

  She laughed again as she turned around and kept walking. It was only the relief at getting past the village, he told himself. That was why the sound of her laughter made him feel so giddy. That was why Andi had laughed in the first place. There was nothing more to it than that.

  But he knew that wasn’t true. Everything had shifted when he’d kissed her and she’d kissed him back. Now awareness hummed between them, and he knew it wouldn’t go away until they’d parted. But he recognized that neither of them had any time or energy to spare for sex.

  Because sex was all it would be with Andi. That was all it could be given their turbulent past.

  The sun was high in the sky when they finally spotted the next village. As he crouched behind the
trees at the edge of the river with Andi, they watched people moving around the village on the other side of the river.

  “We can’t take a canoe now,” he whispered in her ear.

  She glanced over at him, and he saw the frustration in her eyes. “I know. We’re going to have to wait until tonight.”

  “That might be for the best.” He continued to stare at the village.

  “What do you mean?”

  “If we grab a canoe and leave as soon as everybody is sleeping, we’ll have almost the whole night to get away before they realize a canoe is missing. And we’ll have a chance to eat and rest.” He glanced at her face, pinched with fatigue. “Don’t worry, we’ll still get to Monterez in time.”

  She turned to look at him. “Yes, we will. Because we have to.” She gave him a strained smile. “But you’re right. We have to eat and rest. Let’s go look for someplace to hide.”

  He saw the effort it cost her to stop and rest. “You need to tell me what your information is,” he said quietly. “Anything that important shouldn’t be entrusted to only one person. I need to know, in case…”

  He stumbled over the words, but she nodded. “You’re right. I’ll tell you everything Paloma told me as soon as we have a chance.”

  She spoke coolly and dispassionately, and he felt another surge of appreciation for her skill and dedi cation. He’d never known a woman quite like her, a woman so dedicated to her job that she could contemplate her own death with such calmness. He’d never been involved with a woman like her before.

  And he didn’t intend to start now. After leading her through the jungle, he finally found a hidden hollow at the base of a huge liana tree. The roots jutted out like buttresses in front of it, making a spot where they would be concealed.

  “This will work.” He watched her place Paolo carefully on the ground, but busied himself with his pack so he wouldn’t see the way her hand lingered over the baby.

  “We need to eat. Do you have anything in your pack?”

  “I have enough meals for myself,” she said, not looking at him, either. As he sat between the roots of the huge tree, too close to Andi, his body hummed with awareness. He wondered if hers did, too. “How about you?”

  “I have plenty of food. I figured I’d have Paloma and Paolo back in the city in about three hours, but I always pack like it could be a couple of weeks.” He reached into his knapsack and pulled out the first thing he touched—a foil-wrapped dehydrated meal for two. “Use the water in the canteens to rehydrate it. I’ll get more water as soon as we’re finished.”

  They ate the cold unappetizing food in an uneasy silence, neither of them looking at the other. Andi tended to Paolo’s needs as soon as they were finished, and Chase gathered up their canteens and all the dirty diapers and headed for the river.

  When he returned to the liana tree, he saw Andi giving Paolo another bottle. He squatted down next to them, looking at the contented baby with unwilling fascination.

  “He’s hardly cried at all since we’ve been on the move. Isn’t that unusual?”

  She tilted her head and watched the baby for a moment. “It is a little unlike Paolo. He’s always been very ready to let me know if he’s unhappy. I do know that we’re being very attentive to him and feeding him whenever he looks like he might cry. So it may be just the regular meals that’re keeping him happy.”

  “You’re the one who’s been taking care of him,” he said gruffly. “I guess I should thank you.”

  “No thanks are required.” Her voice was stiff. “I love Paolo. Taking care of him isn’t a burden. And anyone would have done the same thing under the circumstances.”

  “Not everyone, McGinnis,” he said quietly. “A lot of agents wouldn’t have risked their lives like this, even for a baby.”

  She looked up at him. “Given the choice, would you have risked taking Paolo with you?”

  He only hesitated for a moment. “I like to think I would have. But I’ve never had to make that choice.” He paused, then added, “And even this time the choice was made for me.”

  “I told you that you had no obligation to help us.”

  She looked down at the baby, and the expression on her face was one of fierce protectiveness.

  He watched them for a moment and realized that he hadn’t had a choice, not from the very beginning. Job or no job, money or no money, he couldn’t have left the baby in that town, knowing that men would be coming to kill him. And he couldn’t have left Andi behind, either.

  Chapter 5

  Andi sat in the bottom of the canoe, holding onto Paolo and watching Chase expertly paddle the tiny craft. After sleeping most of the day, Chase had tracked down the crude craft and then brought them to where he’d anchored it downstream. His shoulder muscles rippled and bunched beneath his shirt as he stroked first on one side of the canoe, then the other.

  The baby had drifted off to sleep shortly after they’d started down the river. The total darkness of the jungle pressed in on them, and Andi could see nothing but Chase, sitting in front of her. Watching him was making her nerves jump and her stomach flutter. She tried to focus on her job, but here in the darkness, with Chase so close, it was hard to ignore him. She almost wished Paolo would wake up—anything to offer a distraction.

  Suddenly Chase stopped paddling and leaned toward her. “It’s too dark to get a good look at my map,” he said in a low whisper. “Do you know where the next village is along the river?”

  “We should be getting to it soon,” she answered, trying not to notice the way his arm brushed against her leg. “It’s about five miles from the last village. We’ve gone about that far now, haven’t we?”

  He shifted his weight. “I think so.” He gestured at Paolo. “How’s he doing?”

  “Still sleeping.” She raised the bottle she was holding. “And I’m ready when he wakes up.”

  “Good.”

  It was just one word, tossed at her in the most casual way possible, but it made her glow. She scowled at the river. He shouldn’t have that much power over her. A single word from him shouldn’t make her melt inside.

  The canoe was starting to drift toward the bank, so Chase resumed paddling. Again she found herself staring at the play of his muscles, and she deliberately turned her gaze away.

  Chase’s voice came out of the darkness. “Do you think you can get off the seat and down into the bottom of the canoe with him?”

  “Sure,” she said. “What do you have in mind?”

  “I want you hidden when we go past the next village, just in case someone is watching.”

  “What about you?” She stared at him, her heart suddenly pounding. The darkness had lent a false sense of security, as if they were invisible while glid ing silently down the river. Chase’s reminder brought reality crashing back.

  “I’m going to sit on the bottom of the boat, too, then I’ll bend way over while I paddle. We won’t move as quickly, but there’s less chance we’ll be seen if we keep low.”

  After a few moments Chase ceased stroking again. “The village is coming up,” he whispered, and Andi saw a faint break in the total darkness of the jungle at night. “Get down.”

  She slid off the seat and onto the floor of the canoe. It rocked slightly, but Chase held it steady with his paddle. Paolo gave a start from the sudden movement, then relaxed again.

  Chase looked at them and nodded. Then he looked at the approaching village and his mouth hardened. “Do you have your gun handy?”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t hesitate to use it.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be ready.”

  To her surprise he flashed her a quick smile. “I know you will.”

  Why did she feel as if she’d just been given the moon and stars on a platter? Damn! She didn’t care about his opinion of her, she told herself fiercely.

  She watched as Chase slid to the floor and bent himself nearly double. He continued to paddle steadily and silently, but his cramped position made it difficult
and the canoe slowed down.

  Suddenly he froze, his paddle suspended just above the surface of the water. At the same time she heard the low murmur of male voices drift across the water.

  She turned her head away from the village so that her pale face wouldn’t give them away in the darkness. Now she couldn’t see what was happening, but she rested her hand on the butt of her gun.

  Chase didn’t move, and she knew the canoe must be drifting toward the bank of the river opposite the village. She strained to hear the voices, to distinguish the words. Just then the men on the riverbank laughed loudly, and she saw Chase dip the paddle into the water and pull as hard as he could.

  “Hold on and keep low.” His whisper was harsh. “Those two men must be El Diablo’s. They think this is a log floating down the river. They’re talking about doing some target practice.”

  Chase had barely finished speaking when two gunshots cracked the silence of the night. Andi heard the whine of the bullets as they went over her head, smelled the acrid odor of gunpowder drifting across the water.

  Chase cursed low and long and stroked even harder.

  “Can I help paddle?” she whispered.

  “No. Just stay down.”

  She checked to make sure that Paolo was completely protected by her body, then tried to force herself lower in the hull. The two men laughed again, and she again strained to hear their words. Chase apparently heard, because he began to pull even harder on the paddle.

  Two more shots rang out, and this time the canoe rocked wildly to the side. “Chase!” she hissed. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, but the canoe was hit.” His voice was grim. “We’re taking in water.”

  As he spoke, Andi felt water seeping through the material of her pants. She lifted Paolo against her chest as the water crept steadily higher. In a few minutes the canoe sat noticeably lower in the water. “We’re going to have to stop.”

  “I want to get as far away from the village as possible.”