Where were they? How the hell were they supposed to get out of this godforsaken jungle?
Vines seemed to spring up from everywhere. Hanging down from trees as tall as buildings, draped over their huge knotted roots. In so much abundance, it almost felt like she was surrounded by snakes.
She caught more than one pair of glowing eyes peering at her from the thick foliage and tucked up extra close to Mack. In this one instance, she had no problem acting girly—creepy crawly things freaked her out. She didn’t second-guess it, didn’t try to pretend like they didn’t—just accepted her fear as a rational feeling that any sane human being would have.
They moved like that for what seemed like hours, until the little bit of sunlight capable of piercing the canopy of leaves overhead faded into a dim, distant glow. Night crawlers and animals hummed and chirped and howled. Her legs screamed with fatigue.
She’d stopped thinking about how dry her mouth was hours ago, or the gnawing pain of hunger gripping her stomach. There was no way in hell she was going to plead with Mack to stop on her account.
And the man hadn’t even bothered to turn around and check on her once. What if one of those giant snakes had popped down and swallowed her whole?
He’d probably be glad he didn’t have to deal with her anymore . . .
Poor Maddie—the Air Force would’ve realized her plane was missing. Had someone called her father? Had they told anyone? Her throat closed off at the thought of the pain and suffering her family would endure from that kind of phone call. She knew from personal experience after having received a phone call like that herself. Her husband’s commanding officer had been the one to break the news that he was missing in action. And then the funeral officer had arrived at her front door to deliver the news of John’s death.
No. She would not do that to her daughter. She wouldn’t put Maddie through that kind of pain.
She’d crawl out of this place on her hands and knees if that’s what it required.
Mack came to an abrupt stop, and Marley didn’t have time to register it before slamming into his solid back. She caught her own body before falling and muttered out, “I’m sorry.” She’d have to get her head in the game if she was going to survive this place. Everything in this jungle wanted to kill her. Human and animal alike.
“Wait, we’ll sleep there.” Mack pointed up and moved toward a sheer solid gray rock face right in front of them. She had failed to notice it until this very moment because it was mostly covered in dark green vines and vegetation. There, where? All she could see was what looked like a thousand-foot wall jutting up into the treetops and disappearing into the sky beyond. He wanted her to climb that?
“Yep.”
She shook her head and dropped her chin to meet the intent gaze. “What?”
“The answer to your question is yes, I do want you to climb that wall.”
“You heard me say that?” She hadn’t even realized she’d spoken out loud.
His expression took on a look of shrewd knowledge and Marley fought to keep her own face neutral. Why did she get the feeling she wasn’t going to like whatever he was about to say next?
“You are afraid of heights.”
Marley choked and then tried to play it off as a sort of laugh. She rolled her eyes, forcing her seriously thudding heart to slow the hell down before she had a coronary. “You’re crazy, I’m a pilot.”
He nodded slowly, in an irritating, knowing kind of way that made her want to cross her arms and let out a huff and stomp her foot.
“I’ve seen it a couple of times before. I think it has something to do with actually seeing the ground beneath you. When you fly, you only see the clouds, and besides, you’re in complete control of the airplane. But when you have to jump out and parachute or you’re dangling from a tree, you don’t have much control there, do you?”
“You’re psychoanalyzing me now? Well thanks for the diagnosis, Freud, but you couldn’t be more wrong.” Dear God, the man was astute. How had he figured out her little idiosyncrasies so quickly?
Mack shrugged in an offhanded manner. “Just a hunch.”
She let the floodgates of irritation open—anything to protect her from the vulnerable feeling of this man knowing her secrets. Marley planted her fist on her hip and glared. “Good thing you’re not a psychologist. Because you suck at it.”
Mack let out a long-suffering sigh and promptly gave her his back.
Had he really just dismissed her? Oh, Marley Mitchell did not get dismissed.
“What exactly is so interesting about this cliff you keep staring at? And how do you expect us to sleep up there? There’s nowhere to sleep.”
“About thirty feet up to your left, there’s a small ledge. If you look carefully, you can see it’s a cave”
She’d be alone all night in a cave with Mack and his steely gray eyes and hard muscles. “Can we find somewhere else?”
“You have a better idea?” Yeah, anywhere that didn’t involve her being trapped in close proximity to a man who sent her heart into a tailspin every time he looked at her. She still hadn’t figured out her strange reaction to him.
With John, everything had been so natural, as if fate had lined up for them to be together. Everything in their perfect little life had gone according to her master plan—right up until he died. She’d spent years silently grieving not only the loss of her husband and Maddie’s father, but also the loss of her dream. John had been exactly like her. He had paid attention to details, made plans for everything, and run through life like a well-oiled machine.
Marley had mapped out her next fifty years.
And then a random roadside bomb had destroyed all of it.
She’d been silently struggling to find her footing ever since, carving out her new existence as a single mother, remapping and redirecting her life plan. And that new plan did not have a place for a man.
She hadn’t even really considered the opposite sex—until Mack Grey. And why him? He was overbearing, egotistical, and obviously thought his word was law. He acted too quickly for her liking, not taking the time to fully analyze a situation before making a decision. Rash decisions led to death. Her father had hammered that fact into her head since childhood, and her commander had done the same. But this guy and his team jumped out of airplanes. They climbed hundred-foot trees and dangled from ropes with as much ease as she used a crosswalk. But those rash decisions had also saved her life more than once. There seemed to be a reason to their mayhem and madness.
Maybe she should give Mack the benefit of the doubt. “Okay, let me study the wall for a minute, figure out the easiest route.”
Marley took a step back. The giant rock face shot straight up and the massive, bright green vines braided together across its surface were interspersed with huge, pink and yellow, tropical-looking flowers that smelled almost sickly sweet. Everything here seemed stronger, bigger—even the plants.
“There’s a gap about ten feet above our heads. I say we start here,” Marley breezed past Mack and his inquisitive look to touch a thick vine the circumference of her forearm. “And angle up to the left.”
“It took you five minutes to figure that out?” Mack arched his brows and his lips curled at the edges. The look gave him a boyish appearance that was charming . . . on the surface. She chose not to put too much thought to the sarcastic undertone in his words.
“Acting without a plan increases risk. Risk is what gets people killed.”
Mack closed the distance between them. His palm covered the back of her hand. Electricity zinged up her arm and she felt every callous, every rough crevice, and every ounce of this man’s strength in that connection.
“Sometimes the risk is worth the reward.” Mack leaned in and Marley stood there, her stomach floating around in a mass of nerves. This man was as bold and striking as the jungle. And equally dangerous.
As light as a feather, he brushed his lips across hers, the barely there contact sending shivers down her shoulders and arms.
“You’re not talking about heights, are you?” she whispered.
Mack hooked an arm around her body and yanked her to him so that every ounce of hard packed muscle was pressed to her curves. He brushed another featherlight kiss on her lips before answering, “I’m talking about this.”
Mack let out a low growl deep in his throat, and she felt the vibrations through her torso. That sound awakened her senses, goosebumps spread across her arms despite the heat, and her toes curled inside her boots. With this man, the risk might very well be worth the reward.
Chapter 9
Mack felt the second she capitulated and didn’t waste a second before burying his fingers into her thick mass of silky brown hair and angling her head back. Her lashes fluttered, slick and dark against rosy cheeks. Her lips parted, waiting for him to capture them with his own. His entire body went taut with anticipation.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had wanted a woman so badly. Enough that she distracted him from his mission. He had to get her out of his system any way he could. He lowered to her, and the ground seemed to shake under his feet. This connection was something he didn’t understand, but he had to explore it. Her sweet breath crossed his face, licking up his skin in a soft, petal-like caress.
Their entire world rumbled, and Mack could feel it in his bones. And then the rumbling turned into a roar that grew louder and louder. Crap, the rumbling had nothing to do with the siren in his arms. “Marley.”
With her eyes closed in a dreamy relaxed look on her face, she said, “Mmmm?”
“The guerrillas are back. Get your ass up that wall, pronto.”
Mack didn’t give her time to react. He turned her body to face the wall, wrapped his hands around her waist, and lifted her as high as he could. She flailed for a second before latching on to the vines. “Mack?”
“It’s okay. Get your grip. I won’t let go until you do.”
Men started shouting in the distance, but their voices were too close for comfort. Mack and Marley were minutes away from being discovered, and with a giant wall at their back, there would be no escaping this time. “Move it, Marley. Those guerrillas are headed directly toward us. I can’t hold off an entire group with one gun. We need to get into that cave.”
“Aren’t you coming?” She glanced over her shoulder, looking down at him with uncertainty. It suddenly struck him how tiny her waist was in his grip—this fierce woman was fragile, too. A protective instinct rose in him like he’d only felt when he’d held his newborn son in his hands.
“Right behind you, babe. Now scoot.” She rose and Mack couldn’t resist sliding his hands around to her bottom to give her an extra push up. He grunted in appreciation. She had just as much there as she had in the front—soft, womanly curves that had been hidden by the flight suit.
Mack forced himself to let go, ignoring the urge to explore her more. The shouting was getting nearer.
He strode off to the north, planting false tracks leading away from the wall. Then he covered their footprints with some loose brush. Mack dove down to the nearest vine and quickly ascended the wall, pulling up just behind Marley within seconds. He stopped when his head was beside her waist. “You’re going to have to move a little faster, honey. We are sitting ducks up here.”
They still had ten feet to go before they reached the cave and the vines were starting to thin out. He heard the trucks squeal to a stop somewhere below them. “Marley,” Mack said in a sharp tone.
The truck door slammed, which seemed to spur her to action. She scrambled the rest of the way up and over the ledge, disappearing from his sight. Thank God. He hadn’t been able to tell exactly how deep the cave went. If it didn’t hide them from sight, they’d be as good as dead. Mack heaved himself up and over the ledge, briefly taking in the small, flat cave whose entrance was just big enough for him to crouch in. He nodded to Marley, who was well back from the ledge, then lowered onto his belly and scooted forward so that he could see down below.
The rough stone dug into his bare forearms, scraping his skin raw. They were only thirty feet up, but the thick vegetation of the forest partially blocked his view. Even so, he could sense their nearness. Sense the presence of evil. These men were here to do them harm. Careful to keep the end of his rifle from hanging out over the ledge, Mack eased forward a slight bit more, enough to give him a view of the guerrilla who stood right where he and Marley had kissed moments before.
There was a slight movement behind him. Marley. He yanked her roughly away from the edge, slapping his hand over her mouth to stifle any startled gasps. She read his silent warning and stopped moving altogether, her wide eyes piercing into him again. He wanted to give her comfort, he wanted to tell her everything would be all right, but that would be a lie. And Mack didn’t lie.
Despite the footprints he’d planted below, the possibility was very real that the guerrillas would figure out they were hiding in the tiny cave and come after them. He had one clip, and while he had no idea how much ammo was in it, it was certainly not enough to kill them all. He’d be able to take down a few more with the knife in his boot, but he didn’t kid himself. It would be impossible to take down the entire army, no matter how ragtag they were.
Just because someone lived on a site without running water or electricity didn’t make them stupid or weak. And while he might not know much about these locals, enough internal reports had skated by his desk for him to know they killed without mercy or hesitation if they thought an enemy was near.
An American soldier and female Air Force pilot weren’t just any enemies either—they were trophies to be displayed in the most gruesome way possible.
If they were captured, Mack would be the lucky one. He didn’t have the same vulnerabilities as Marley. Not that she couldn’t fend for herself—she had put a bullet in that soldier’s head, saving Mack’s life. But she would be no match for a large group of men, and they would take her humanity and rip it to shreds along with her body.
Mack’s hand tightened on his gun. He would die before he let that happen. Carefully, he peeled his hand off her mouth and put his finger to his lips. Marley nodded in understanding. Mack eased himself back toward the ledge and angled his head so that he could see just over it with one eye. Two other men had joined the tracker, and they spoke in low hushed tones. They were smart. Their voices would easily carry to the jungle and alert anyone to their presence. One of the men gestured to the north.
Chapter 10
The tracker had caught sight of Mack’s footprints leading away from the wall. The two newcomers walked in that direction, exactly as Mack had hoped they would. But the tracker squatted down, using a finger to trace the tracks beneath him. Shit. The man had noticed Marley’s much smaller footprints. If he was that good, he might realize there was only one pair of prints leading away. The man’s shoulders tensed and Mack jerked back as the soldier looked up at the rock face. Mack plastered himself to the ground and controlled his breathing. Even that small variation from the normal sounds of the environment could give him away.
He glanced over his shoulder at Marley. She was huddled behind him, far from the ledge, her eyes squeezed shut, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. Any person would be afraid in this situation, but she controlled her fear.
He’d seen plenty of men and women lose their shit when their lives were threatened or when they’d been backed into a corner. Marley could give in to it at any moment, but she wouldn’t. Mack had come to realize that about her in their short amount of time together.
And under other circumstances—say, if they weren’t being hunted by a bloodthirsty band of outlaws in the middle of the Congo after their plane was blown up by a secret implant of his mortal enemy—he was sure he’d find her little idiosyncrasies cute. Not irritating as they had been earlier.
Mack listened intently for any indication that the tracker was climbing the wall. There was no way he could ascend the thick vines without making some noise. Meanwhile, he kept his gaze locked on Ma
rley’s profile, soaking in the sight of her. Her nose was dainty and curved, with a light sprinkle of freckles just across the bridge. With the setting sun glinting off her hair, he could see the multitude of warm golden highlights and deep fiery red streaks mixing in with the brown. As if sensing his perusal, Marley let go of her bottom lip and turned to stare right back at him.
He noticed those gold flecks in her rich mahogany eyes again, and how they mirrored the layers in her hair. He found himself wondering about her life. How she’d gotten to be an Air Force pilot. What her daughter was like. From the way she’d talked about her child, Mack was pretty sure the father wasn’t in the picture. She didn’t wear a ring—he’d looked—though most operatives didn’t while they were in the field.
Her tongue darted out, wetting her lips, and he followed that tiny movement, his mind immediately filling with thoughts of how soft she’d been. How much he’d like to get another taste of her. He wanted to explore her depths, find out her secrets.
Confusion swirled through him. He shouldn’t care about her personal life. He had a mission to complete. This little—okay, huge—obstacle had sidetracked his plans, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t finish what he’d started. Marley Mitchell was a temptation, no doubt about it, but he didn’t have the time or the room in his life to contemplate a relationship with a woman.
Distractions equaled danger.
He’d made a vow to himself and his unit that he would avenge them. Jack Mankel was going to die, and he would die by Mack’s own hand. Which meant Mack had to stay on task. Stay focused. He had to keep his eyes on the goal, not on the sexy woman inches away from him. Looking for a reason to break their gaze, and because he needed to find out if the guerilla had left, Mack crawled toward ledge on his stomach and peered over, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw the empty ground below. A few seconds later, he heard a vehicle fire up and speed off, heading in the direction Mack had led them.
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