by Billi Jean
“I keep telling you that, but you won’t listen.” She stumbled on a rough patch of higher sand bar and Mac caught her arm, steadying her.
“You’re only a pain in the ass because you won’t listen to reason.”
“I don’t hear reason. We’re both out here in the middle of the freakin’ ocean. We’re both tired. You were in a gunfight before we made that crazy sprint for the helicopter. If we’d simply hid, like I said, we’d not be here, would we?”
“Damn, baby, we’re in the ocean not da Nile.”
“Smart-ass.” She hated that denial joke. She knew he was trying to get a rise out of her. Probably so she wouldn’t fall to her knees and stop moving. It was hard walking. The sand made it difficult to walk and her combat boots only made it harder, but she knew Mac wouldn’t let her take them off so she didn’t even ask. Her pants were too big and the ocean kept tugging at the material, making walking a chore. “I’m tired, but so are you.”
Brushing her wet hair off her forehead with one big hand, he focused on her face. “I’m also trained to carry packs in water heavier than you, small fry. Under fire. For days. In hurricanes, not bright, sunny days in the tropics.”
Sheesh. “Fine. In a bit, okay?” She could be stubborn too.
He dropped his hand and shook his head. “All right. But if you slow down, your ass is up and over.”
That shouldn’t be sexy, but with everything else about Mac, it was. She concentrated on wading through the waves and off him as much as possible.
The mountains of the island began to slowly take up her view, blocking everything else, but the closer they grew, the more alert Mac became. Without warning, he picked her up and hauled her on his back.
“Hey!” She hadn’t even slowed down.
“Shoulders, now.”
Mac jostled her so she had a leg hooked over his shoulder and hoisted her the rest of the way up at the same time that she saw the two fins above the surface twenty feet from them.
“Oh, God, oh, God, oh, Mac, don’t you dare get bitten by a shark.” As a child she’d hated it when he and Robbie had gone out into the ocean, diving under where she couldn’t see and too far out for her to tag along. She’d always thought they’d both get eaten by sharks.
“Shhh, baby, shhh. It’s okay. Just let them go on their way. Look and see if you can spot some beach on that mountain for me.”
“Beach?” she whispered. Her teeth began to chatter and she felt her breath catch. The combination of the breeze and her wet clothes with sharks circling was not good for her asthma and she fought the rising panic—or tried to. “Mac, they’re getting closer!”
“Mandy, let me deal with the sharks. They won’t come near us if I stand still. Now, the beach. Tell me what you see.”
Mandy tightened her legs on his neck, then panicked that she’d hurt him. Trying not to watch the large sharks moving closer in a circular pattern, she focused on the island and spotted white. Jerking her attention back down, she saw the sharks had moved off a bit. “Are they leaving?”
Mac shifted her but didn’t move his lower body. “Let’s just give them some time. You see beach?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Good, good. Where?”
“Straight ahead and to the left of that big, rocky, dark brown part? See that craggy rock? Twelve o’clock, I think?”
He nodded and squeezed her calves with his hands. “Yep, got it. Not far. Half hour, hour tops we’ll be out of this water. You’re doing great, Mandy.”
She stayed quiet. He didn’t appear troubled by giving her a ride on his shoulders, but she knew he had to be exhausted. His training made him tough, but he was only a man. From her vantage point she saw the sharks swimming farther away until she lost sight of them. “They’re gone, right? It’s safe now?”
Mac patted her knees. “Yep, let’s make a break for it.”
Mandy wiggled down and eased back into the water. It felt warmer now, after she had been out of it in the cold air for so long. Taking a deep breath, she was going to tease him when she felt something hit him and knock her backwards a step.
“Don’t move!” Mac didn’t shout but his voice had turned so rough she froze. A second later and she held in a scream as he drew a big, jagged-edged knife out from his belt.
Life felt like it had slowed down. She spotted a fin on her left then Mac’s knife rise up and slash downward. He dived under immediately after and her scream burst free.
Chapter Fifteen
The shark was a big one. Mac let its side swipe him again to get a feel for just how big. The salt water stung his eyes but he could clearly see the grey shape circling him. At least it wanted him and not Mandy. He waited until the beast circled back and punched it hard in the snout. It shook its head but came around again quickly for an attack this time. A tiger shark—alone, he hoped. Mac hit it with his knife on the left and struck out again with his knife under its belly before it could swim away.
The wound would bleed and that meant he had to get Mandy away from the tainted water before the sharks near the two crash sites got wind of the fresh blood. The shark circled back around fast. Mac brought his knife down with both hands, nearly losing the blade when the beast swung away. Thank fuck it had decided they were too much trouble because he knew Mandy was panicking.
Surfacing, he was met with a scream of his name and Mandy jumping on him in relief and dunking him under again. Any other time he’d be happy she seemed to be unable to keep her hands off him. Now, in this mess, he had to pull her frozen hands off and shake her to get her to stop sobbing. She sniffed and he brushed a wet lock of blonde hair off her scared face. The bruise on her cheek looked darker and her lips were turning blue.
“Don’t you ever—”
Mac cut her off with a quick kiss. “I got him but we need to move now. Get on and don’t argue. Kick if you still can.” She didn’t argue but he saw the fire burning in her eyes. She was pissed off at him. The idea pleased him in ways he couldn’t get, but he found he liked. She let him drag her slight body on his back and he took off at a powerful stroke he knew was limited. The rush of adrenaline from his small fight with the shark still surged through him, though, and he used that to cut through the rough waves.
Mandy tucked her head into the back of his neck. He felt her giving some good kicks in rhythm with his. The sandy beach she’d spotted was farther than he would have liked, but they made it to the deeper water with some good speed. He unlocked her from his neck and nodded to the shore.
“Swim just that little bit. The surf should help. Just stay—”
“Close. I will.” She sounded tired. She looked drained, and the quieter Mandy scared him. He’d got used to her fire. They needed shore, a fire, food, and she needed rest. Water. He ticked off all the things they didn’t have and cursed silently.
Mandy floated on the next big wave and he stayed with her, making certain they were close. A bigger wave came and she easily went under to lessen the impact and bobbed up after, riding the wave with him.
As impossible as it was, they were going to make it. The cartel was still a problem—they’d not give up easily—but, for now, he had her safe. He worried over who her attacker could be as they rode another wave in, but pushed the concern aside. Whoever the bastard was, he wouldn’t be here.
If he could get them to some shelter, they might survive this. Maybe tomorrow they could find a town on the island. A rougher wave broke over Mandy and she spluttered up after and got her feet under her. The sandy bottom rose sharply and he stood, helping her stand more securely. The little cove was a half-circle of emerald water, beautiful with lush vegetation and pale white sands. Paradise. He hated it. There were so many possible dangers here—people, snakes, lack of drinking water. Mandy reached the sandy shoreline and sat heavily, her head down, her arms loose between her outstretched legs. She looked exhausted.
There was no one around. The beach was deserted, the seas the same. Still, something made him nudge her to her fe
et. “Come on, up.”
“Mac, please, stop. I’m tired. Give me a minute here to realise you’re not shark bait, or shot up, or crippled, or…anything else that might have happened to you.”
“Damn, that’s some kind of list.” He grinned, though. That list included anything that might happen to him. She did care. She more than cared.
He stripped the packs off, tossed his jacket down on a pile of rocks, and unpeeled his T-shirt. She lay down on her back, hands over her eyes looking like a drowned cat.
“If you don’t get up and undress I’ll have to do it.”
She took one of the hands off her face and glared up at him. “No, you won’t. You just landed in my ‘I like him a lot’ column, don’t move over the ‘what a jerk’ one again.”
“Whoa, sugar.” He chuckled and squatted down next to her. She was catching her breath quickly. He lifted the hand she’d replaced and tilted his head to scan her face quickly. She looked better. At least her lips weren’t as blue and she glared hard enough to make him think she just might follow through with that threat. He wanted in that ‘I like him a lot’ column. “Suit yourself, but I have dry clothes in the pack.”
“Mac, you were almost shot, nearly eaten by sharks, and I almost died. I’m tired.”
“That’s a lot of dying,” he teased, wanting her up and finding the only way to do it was to push her into a bit of anger. “Maybe we should celebrate with some naked fun, huh?”
She made a frustrated breath and muttered a low ‘fuck you’ under her breath.
He grinned. He could count on one hand the times she’d said that around him. Now, after surviving an attack—three attacks—jumping out of a ‘copter and swimming to an island, her spunk settled the panic he’d felt since first reading that damned note.
“You know, that’s all I want to do, right? Then we’ll both feel a hell of a lot better.”
“I said, fuck you, not me.”
“Same difference.” He grinned and stood when she groaned at their childhood joke. She always used to say that, drove him nuts, but now he could see why. Silly shit felt damn good.
“Now, here, drink this at least and here”—he handed her a bottle of water and an energy bar—“not the Ritz, but it’ll work.”
She sighed heavily and struggled to sit up. “I packed some food too. I hope it’s not all soggy. Sandwiches.” She nodded to her pack near her but didn’t move to reach for it.
“That’s great, baby. Let me see what’s happened to them after our jump.”
“Okay,” she sighed, rubbing her hair quickly. Her white tank top did nothing to hide the sharp points of her nipples.
He rubbed his jaw and heard her snort. She rolled her eyes when she got to her feet, then eyed his hips and gave him a knowing smile He could tell he shocked her with his erection and wasn’t about to explain he was always hard around her again, or that missions sometimes drove him to such a heightened state of arousal he had to jack off until his cock felt numb from all the rubbing. What would it be like, though, to sink into Mandy, feel her arms around him in the heat of such arousal?
“You are one odd man, Mac.”
A grin tipped her lips, making him suddenly ache to kiss her again. “Sugar, there isn’t a time of day I don’t want you, you’re going to have to get used to it.”
Instead of cussing him out she took a drink of water, nearly drained the bottle and handed it to him with a grin. “Huh. I’ll have to remember that.”
Did she realise how close he was to tossing her down and easing the temperature mounting between them? No, she didn’t. He took the bottle, her hand, and her mouth. She smiled against his lips.
“Damn, you make it hard not to take those pants off your pretty body right now and ease this fire. If I didn’t need to get you to shelter, I’d have you riding my cock right now, Mandy. Ease this ache we both have.”
“What makes you think I want a ride?” She slid a cold hand down his hot stomach and gripped his erection through his pants. “What if I think too many women have used this little pony for me to want any.”
“Little? Sugar, if you need me to remind you how big this pony is, keep that up.”
“I know how big it is. So does every other woman in the western hemisphere.” She let him go and shoved away with that. He heard the hurt in her tone, though, and it pissed him off just like it had at the club. Hadn’t she listened to him then?
“Mandy, I explained all this earlier. Either you believe me, or you explain why you still hold this kind of pissed off anger.”
He watched her inhale sharply then, slowly she dropped her head and exhaled heavily. “You’re right, I’m sorry, Mac. It’s just hard, all that time. Time I wasted. It’s all my fault, you know? And I guess—” She broke off and shook her head, not looking up at him again.
“Guess what, Mandy? Talk to me.”
She looked up, biting her lip and looking near to tears again. “I saw you with that woman, it’s just hard to readjust my thinking, you know? I’m sorry—”
“Baby, stop saying that. You—” He broke off as a thought occurred to him. How had she known to go to that bar? She’d gone to Snowzie’s, a pretty sleazy place, and she’d gone alone or Lacey would have had his balls on a stake. “Mandy, why did you go to that bar that night?”
She glanced up, swallowing hard and looking at him with a frightened, anxious expression.
She didn’t have to say a word. Suddenly all the clues fell into place. The stalker. He’d first begun his sick shit in Florida. He’d called her. This meant he knew Mac. Only a few men had the intel on where that bust was going down. Only the team and a few other, outlying response teams.
“The bastard, he called you, didn’t he? Told you to go to Snowzie’s.”
After a silent moment, she nodded miserably, hugging herself tight around her stomach, and shook her head. “I didn’t want you to know. I never wanted you to know.”
He reached out and tenderly cupped her arm, rubbing along her skin. “Mandy, shit, I need to know all this. All of it. If he’s been after you since Florida, I need to know.”
“No, he hasn’t contacted me again, not until that note.”
“What? What do you—?” He shut up, the truth staring him in the face. Three days, three days after the bust, he’d gone home, to Mandy’s house, and she’d been gone. Her stuff missing from the house, only his shit and Rob’s still around. The place had been silent, missing the only thing that made it home. Mandy.
The attack had happened when she’d left the bar. The bastard had set her up. Called her and somehow lured her to the bar.
“He called you, didn’t he? Told you I’d be at the bar?” She didn’t respond and he moved closer, feeling like he was nearer a cliff that if he didn’t stop, he’d fall off, but he couldn’t stop, couldn’t still the need to hear her tell him what had happened. He gently tipped her head to look down at her and winced at the pain in her beautiful eyes. “Mandy, I need to know, sugar, I need it.”
“He pretended to be you, the line had so much static. I believed him. I went—”
“You thought I called you to come see me with another woman!”
She shook her head and pressed her hands to his chest, right over his heart. The touch did things to him, made him feel alive, but so full of anger and pain at what had happened to her, he couldn’t breathe properly.
“No, I mean, yes, at first, but no, I realised it was him right away. You were never cruel to me, just—” She broke off and looked away but he saw the tears. She didn’t have to finish. He knew. He’d just pushed her away.
He pulled her close, holding her smaller body to his, and tried to battle back the rage. Right now, though, he needed to hear this, then he could work on making sense of it all. “That’s where you were attacked, at the club.” Anger threatened his sanity. He wanted to hit something, kill someone, anyone at this point, but Mandy simply wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight.
“Yes. That’s where. It
was over fast, and I’ve put that behind me. But you—” She paused and he felt her rough breath and tears wet his chest.
He’d hurt her more than that bastard. It was over fast. Her attack was over fast, but not what she’d thought he’d done to her.
He’d never forgive himself. “I was inside, dealing with that scumbag, and you were—”
“Don’t, Mac, please, don’t.”
What could he say? Nothing. Her shoulders were trembling and he knew she was crying again, silently, but crying. It killed him. She was wet, tired, and needed shelter. This island might be deserted, and hell if he knew where they were. He brushed the sand off her and simply held her.
“Baby, you have my word, I never let that woman touch me. She definitely didn’t go down on me in a bar.”
“I know that now, Mac, I do. I’m trying. I have no idea why I have to keep remembering you were on a mission, that what I saw wasn’t real,” she sobbed.
“Baby, you saw what he wanted you to see. He did this, to us, to you.” He broke off and held her tighter, probably too tight. “Did he…?” He swallowed and tried to force the words from his throat.
“He didn’t rape me, Mac. I swear it,” she cried, holding him tighter.
He felt her tears and simply held her. He cursed himself for doing this to her, now, of all times. She needed to rest. The attack, the crash, the swim were all catching up to her. The reaction was normal—the shivering and tears—but it still scared the shit out of him. This was Mandy, so easily he could have lost her. She’d proved to be tougher than he’d ever believed. Ever dared hope. Part of him realised that he’d always worried she’d be too fragile for him. She’d practically kicked his ass the past couple of days. He smiled and kissed her throat. “Baby, I believe you. If he had, I’d not think differently of you, you know that, right?”
She nodded, simply holding him and crying.
“Just give me a chance to get us out of here, okay? That’s all I ask. Then we’ll deal with this bastard. I can guarantee you he’ll be caught. Absolutely. If he’s on our team, he’s going down. I promise, okay?”