by Dana Marton
And Jase was definitely the wrong kind of man, just like Pedro, her brother-in-law, even if on a smaller scale.
All the little niceties he’d done for her flashed into her mind. She pushed the images away.
He had to be the same as the others at camp to work for someone like Pedro. She couldn’t start wishing for some fairy tale, then start believing it. She’d done that with Julio and that had ended pretty badly.
She wasn’t going to fall for Jase’s temporary kindness. She would follow him until she recovered her vision, then she would get away from him again as soon as they neared the research station. This time, more carefully. In the meanwhile, she could work on making him forget her first attempt, make him trust her once again.
“I’m sorry I left.” The pure truth, no lying there.
A moment of silence passed, his grip on her hand tightening slightly. “This can’t happen again. You could have killed yourself. You put each of us at risk.”
“I was scared. I don’t know where you’re going. What if someone there will take me straight back to Pedro in hopes of a reward?” She swallowed. All he’d told her was that he was off seeking other employment somewhere up north.
Silence stretched between them.
“You can trust me,” he said at last.
She couldn’t trust him, obviously, but she didn’t want to insult him. He’d just saved her life. “My father will be very grateful to you. He’s well off, financially.”
Her father had been dead for years and had always been an underpaid educator. But she had to give Jase some incentive. “As soon as you take me to civilization, I’ll contact him.”
Another stretch of silence followed.
“You don’t have to run away from me,” he said at last. “I’m not who you think I am.”
Even the worst criminals often had delusions like that, she reflected. Pedro fancied himself as some godfather-like figure who gave work to hundreds. He thought himself strict but benevolent. He was a folk hero in his own mind, helping the poor and evading the government.
“You do what you have to. You don’t really have another choice.” She made sure to sound accepting and understanding.
He muttered something she couldn’t make out. Sounded like he was swearing under his breath. Okay, here it came. The yelling. She’d tried to do the opposite, but somehow she’d managed to make him angry at her anyway. She couldn’t afford that at this stage.
She wrapped her free arm around her belly. “Please don’t be mad at me.” She needed his help to survive.
“I’m not mad.” He stopped walking. Fell silent for a minute before he spoke again, his voice grave. “I work for the U.S. government. So please, don’t run away again. I’m your best bet here.”
Sure he was.
He must have read the skepticism on her mud-covered face, because he continued, “I’ve been doing undercover work at the Don’s compound.”
It surprised her how much she wanted that to be true. She wanted him to be different from the rest. She wanted to believe that she was safe with him. She could talk herself into believing him so, so easily. Which was why she had to make sure she didn’t do that. She had to use common sense.
“You don’t believe me.” Frustration rang through his voice.
“I do,” she lied. She was blind and completely dependent on staying in his good graces.
“Okay. Doesn’t matter. The important thing is that I’m going to take care of you. All right? Whether you believe it or not. All you have to do is hang on to my hand and follow me.” He started walking again.
She did what he told her, her mind buzzing. Okay, he was somehow different from the rest of the men at camp, and he had busted her out. She supposed she could give him the benefit of the doubt.
“So you came to the camp because of the drugs?” She might not have been allowed in the packaging building, but she wasn’t stupid.
“That, and because Don Pedro is now supplying weapons to terrorists. We also think his human smuggling ring is planning to smuggle terrorists into the U.S. There’ve been movements of some suspicious payments into his Swiss accounts. I don’t suppose you know anything about that.”
The words hit her square in the chest. Everything inside her railed to deny what she was hearing. She didn’t want to believe that someone she was related to—even if only by marriage—would do something like this.
But why would Jase make it up? What would he have to gain?
Try as she might, she couldn’t come up with a satisfying answer to those questions. And when she considered all she’d seen from Pedro and all she’d seen from Jase, she was tempted to believe Jase over her brother-in-law any day of the week.
Pedro was capable of involving himself in absolutely anything that promised to make him money. He considered himself above the law. He thought he was invincible.
But making a deal with terrorists…
Oh, God.
She just found a whole bunch of new incentives to make sure that she got herself and her baby as far as possible from her brother-in-law, to do whatever she could to make sure he would never find them again.
Of course, first she had to survive the next couple of days.
“Who do you work for?” she asked. “Are you some kind of special forces?” She didn’t have a lot of trouble picturing that, actually.
Bringing the kid and the puppy along made more sense in that light. Any mercenary might think that they’d get a reward for an American like her. But a mercenary wouldn’t save Mochi from camp, and certainly not a three-legged puppy.
He moved slowly as he led her, making sure she could keep up. “I can’t really talk about this. I only said what I said to make sure you won’t run away again.”
She made no promises. She wanted to believe him, and she did to a point, but fully trusting anyone didn’t come easily just now. “Is Jase your real name?”
“Yes.”
Okay. That was something. “Are you really from Texas?”
“Wouldn’t lie about that, no, ma’am. Who’d want to be from anyplace else, anyway?”
That sounded about right, spoken like a true Texan. She felt better hearing the grin in his voice. “Where are you really taking me?”
“To a research station not far away. Apparently, a chopper comes monthly with supplies and fresh staff. They can take you out of here.”
Dear God, let that be true. “And you?”
“I go back to doing what I’ve been doing.”
Her mind buzzed with questions more specific to his mission, but she was pretty sure he wouldn’t answer any of those, so she followed him silently, trying to ignore the pain and the stink of the mud that covered her face.
He held her hand firmly and made sure she didn’t fall every time she stumbled. “I’m going to make sure you get out of here all right.”
She wanted to believe him.
Her bunched-up muscles were starting to ache. She needed to relax. She couldn’t. She found walking through the jungle nerve-wracking on her best day. Walking through the jungle blind was downright terrifying.
But the touch of Jase’s hand, his long fingers folded around hers, anchored her, kept her from panicking. If he really was who he claimed…
She thought of the clumsy way she’d tried to seduce him back at the hacienda and embarrassment washed over her.
“I’m so sorry for kissing you.” She blurted the words without thinking, embarrassing herself all over again.
A long moment of silence passed, during which she wanted to sink into the earth. She hated that she couldn’t see his face.
“Don’t ever apologize for a kiss like that.” His voice held amusement.
“I thought—”
“I know what you thought. We’re okay on that. Believe me. No man on earth would complain about that kiss.”
She drew a quick breath, flustered. “Probably no need to talk about it at all, then.” Please, God.
“Can I at least think about it?
” His voice held a grin again.
She was sure her cheeks were fire-engine red. Her only hope was that he couldn’t tell with all her stings and all the mud.
“If I don’t overdo it?” He pushed. “Maybe just once or twice an hour?”
And then, against all odds, she found herself smiling, some of her pent-up tension disappearing. “You can think of whatever you want if you guarantee that we won’t run into any more hornets.”
He was silent for a few seconds. “The thing to do in a bee or hornet attack is to get in water, if there’s any nearby. Submerge yourself completely for as long as you can. They do give up after a while.” He kept talking, as if he knew that hearing his voice soothed her, somehow made up for her lost sense of sight. “Or go into a very dark place. Like the back of a cave. Bees can’t see in the dark.”
He must have learned that in some jungle-survival training class, she decided, glad that he was prepared for all the hazards that faced them.
“Is this side trip going to mess up your mission?” she asked, as the thought occurred to her. And realized that she believed him more with every passing minute. “How are you going to explain taking me and Mochi out of camp when you go back to Pedro?”
“I’ll find a way to make it work.”
But she wondered if he only said that so she wouldn’t feel bad about derailing his undercover operation. “Are there others like you at camp?”
He stayed silent.
Of course, he probably couldn’t tell her anything about that.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“I’m the only one,” he said at last.
He would say that either way, she figured. Bad enough that his cover was blown, he wouldn’t betray a teammate. Although, she was tempted to think that he was telling the truth. She’d seen most of the men who worked for Don Pedro, and she hadn’t seen anyone remotely like Jase.
Putting one foot in front of the other blindly was as scary as anything she’d ever done, but she trusted him more with every passing second, and was soon walking forward without thinking too much about it. She had the overwhelming feeling that he would keep her safe.
And she was pitifully grateful for that, if not a little disappointed that she’d gotten herself into this situation in the first place.
“I was going to take care of myself,” she voiced her thoughts out loud. “I shouldn’t have to rely on you for everything. This was supposed to be my big break for independence,” she added, unable to help the irony from her voice. “I was going to grow up before the baby came.”
“You’re pregnant and blind. In the middle of the jungle. Give yourself a break. And you’re plenty grown up already. You survived a bandit camp. Hell, you survived Don Pedro. There are hundreds of rough guys, now dead and buried, who can’t make that claim.”
“I am going to be independent someday. I can handle it.”
“I have no doubt about that whatsoever. You got away from me, didn’t you? Not many people can say that, either, believe me.”
His declaration made her feel better.
She hung on to his hand and followed, lifting her feet clear of the ground with each step so she wouldn’t trip over anything. Although it felt like an eternity, she was pretty sure half an hour hadn’t yet passed when he called for their next break.
“I can walk,” she protested immediately. “Walking is the recommended exercise for pregnant women.” She scratched her neck, her skin getting itchy now that the sun was higher in the sky and the mud was drying.
“We’re close to a creek. We should take advantage of it,” he told her.
She couldn’t hear water. Wasn’t losing one sense supposed to sharpen the others? They walked a little more. Then she did hear a faint trickling at last that grew progressively louder as they got nearer.
He stopped. “Sit here.”
She felt her way around, finding what she thought was a large, flat rock. She sat, and he let her hand go. She hadn’t been prepared for it. She immediately felt lost.
“I’m going to check the water,” he told her, and kept talking. “Nice little creek. Maybe six feet wide. Water is brisk. Wish there were some edible fruits around, but I don’t see any.”
He spoke to Mochi next, told the kid to look for food.
She focused on his voice and tried not to think of all the possible dangers surrounding her that she couldn’t see, like poisonous plants, bugs and snakes.
He came back in two minutes. “I’d like to wash you off.”
She would have given anything to feel cold water on her skin. “Okay.”
He tugged on her bootlaces. “I’m going to take you in up to your knees. All you have to do is hang on to me.”
She was more than ready to wash off the grime and sweat, except— “What about piranhas?” She hesitated.
“Not in a quick little creek like this.”
“Parasites?” She didn’t worry about only herself, but had to worry about her baby as well. She would put up with any amount of discomfort rather than risk something bad happening to her unborn son.
“Fast-moving water is usually safe. It’s the stagnant pools you have to worry about.” He worked her boots and socks off, then took her hand again.
She followed him timidly, especially when they reached some smallish rocks, which were wet and slippery.
Then he stopped at last when the water reached just below her knees. “Stand still. I’ll take care of everything. Your center of balance is off with that belly. I don’t want you to bend down, lose balance and pitch headfirst into the current. Okay?”
When he put it that way, how could she protest? “Did you just call me fat?” she joked to ease her awareness. The man was about to bathe her!
“More like curvaceous, in a blessed way.”
“Very smooth.”
He gave a flat laugh.
She liked the sound of it. His voice lost most of its South American flavor and sounded a lot more American now, the Texas twang more noticeable. And she realized that, before, he’d probably talked like the men in camp just to fit in. But now there was no reason for pretense.
He removed the cloth from her eyes first. She tried to open them, but couldn’t. Disappointment washed over her.
“How long am I going to be like this?”
“A couple of hours, at least. Maybe days.”
Oh, God. But she appreciated that he gave her the truth.
He washed her face first, careful with her swollen eyes, his fingers barely touching her, the cold water feeling like heaven as it ran down her skin.
Then he washed her hands, her arms, her neck—probably bringing water in his palms to pour over her. She couldn’t see, only feel. His gentle care felt comforting and intimate at the same time. All sorts of sensations skittered along her skin every time his fingers brushed against her.
* * *
THE MATERIAL OF her light slacks and shirt clung to her skin, emphasizing her curves. She might as well have been naked. His body was as hard as it had ever been, but he ignored that and kept bathing her, knowing the cold water had to feel good on her burning stings.
Mochi played around in the water a short distance up the creek, ignoring what must have seemed like a strange ritual to him. Then he grew bored with that and ran ashore, searched through the undergrowth with a stick, careful to keep the puppy on a short leash.
A strange little dog, that one. Chico refused to accept his disability and darted around with enviable agility, despite his missing front leg, as in love with Mochi as Mochi was with him.
But the dog and the kid didn’t hold Jase’s attention for long, not when Melanie stood right in front of him.
He could have kept up playing in the water with her for a good long time. But he wanted her to have plenty of time to sit and rest before they had to get going again. So, after another couple of minutes, he took her hand and led her out of the water, sat her down on the flat stone at the creek’s edge, in the sunshine.
He tugged her clothes away from her skin here and there for modesty. She would have done that if she could see. “Let’s stay here a little while and give your clothes a chance to dry.”
Not that a person could ever completely dry off in the jungle.
Mochi ran over with some kind of a mushroom, smiling wildly. “Señor?” He pointed to his own mouth, as if asking permission to eat it.
He’d found it, he could have it. That was only fair. For all Jase knew the mushroom was a local delicacy. He nodded. He didn’t worry about the thing being poisonous. Mochi knew the edible plants in the area better than Jase and Melanie put together. They would have to rely on the kid for advice, and not the other way around.
The boy shoved the mushroom into his mouth and chewed it hard, but didn’t swallow. He spit the gooey mess into one hand, then stepped up to Melanie and smeared the slop over her eyes before Jase could stop him.
She sniffed the air. “What is it?”
You don’t want to know. “Medicine.”
“Thank you,” she said politely.
Mochi went on to treat the rest of her stings, looking mightily pleased.
* * *
MELANIE UNWRAPPED THE cloth from her eyes at the next rest stop. It needed to be wetted again. She tried to open her eyelids, as she’d done every time the cloth came off. And this time she succeeded. They didn’t open fully, but they did open a slit. Even that sliver of bright light seemed blinding. She closed her eyes again as relief swept through her.
Then she tried again, more careful this time, holding her hand above her eyes to shade them.
“Hey.” Jase smiled at her. She was sitting on a log and he stood just a few feet from her.
That smile was the most wonderful thing she’d ever seen in her life, even if his face was unshaven and his hair a mess, as if he’d been running his fingers through it. None of that detracted from his ruggedly masculine good looks.
He seemed different, and she wasn’t sure if she thought so because she was appreciating seeing again, or because now she knew that he wasn’t just one of Pedro’s thugs, or because she was beginning to like him. They’d been through a thing or two, at this point. Some tenuous links of trust had built between them.