by T C Archer
“Cole!” she shouted, but he had already turned toward her.
Jesse fired two shots into the Jeep’s radiator and ducked behind the building. Gunfire spat from the west tower. Cole pointed his CR-21 at the tower and fired as he backed at a run toward her. The lone man in the tower stumbled forward, crashed through the wood railing, and plummeted to the asphalt. Shots whapped the cinderblock building beside her, and she dropped to a crouch, shielding her head from splintering concrete with her arms.
The gunfire abruptly shifted away from her, and Jesse nearly fell from her hiding place when she jerked aside to keep from being rammed by Cole as he rounded the building. She looked around the building again and glimpsed a short, dirty man lying on the asphalt, his body riddled by gunfire. Cole grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet.
“Let’s go!” he shouted, and dragged her alongside the building.
Jesse stumbled, then gained her feet. The jungle lay fifty meters ahead. Another scream split the air and Jesse realized the prisoners had decided now was a good time for a prison break.
“The east tower,” she panted.
Cole spun, facing the tower to the east, and open fired.
Twenty meters to go.
They zigzagged across the pavement. Shouts came from behind and bullets whizzed past. She pumped her legs faster. Cole pounded behind. Stones and shrapnel peppered her legs. The foliage shuttered and ripped with passing bullets. She and Cole lunged into the cover of the jungle. He faltered. Jesse jerked attention onto him, but he had regained his stride. A barrage of gunfire drowned out the men’s shouts as bullets ripped through the foliage around them. They dove into waist-high elephant ear.
Jesse tightened her grip on the Glock. “This way,” she hissed, and began crawling toward a large fig tree.
Cole crawled on his elbows alongside her, the CR-21 cradled in his arms. Branches snapped, and a man shouted for others to follow him. Tramping feet thrashed through ground cover. New gunfire broke out in the compound—American-made M16s. Jesse glanced at Cole. He held up a fist in a sign to halt. She dropped flat onto her stomach as he melted onto the ground beside her.
Leaves rustled up ahead and Jesse’s pulse jumped. An iguana shot from the bushes, racing away from them. She lowered her head onto her arm and willed her heart to slow. She startled when Cole dropped a heavy arm over her shoulders, but didn’t move.
A voice yelled, “Por aqui,” and their pursuers dodged left.
The thrashing of brush grew fainter and she turned her head and whispered, “Let’s go.” She started to push to her feet.
Cole didn’t move. She gave him a questioning look, then froze when he brushed hair from her face.
“You shouldn’t have come back for me. Too much of a risk.”
Warmth coiled inside her. Her pulse jumped into overdrive, and she mentally cursed. She was acting like a schoolgirl. “We’d better get going,” she croaked.
“Next time,” he said sternly, “if there’s a next time, don’t do it.”
She wanted to tear her gaze from his. Every team member knew you never left another behind. But that’s exactly what she had intended on doing—what she had done in Columbia.
“It’s done,” she said. “Nothing more to say.”
“One more thing. Thank you.” Cole ran a finger down her cheek.
She could get lost in those blue eyes. “No sweat. Now, if we don’t get out of here, neither of us will be any good to the other.”
His hand dropped away from her cheek and he pushed to his feet. Her heart jumped into her throat. Blood spotted the left leg of his fatigues.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Jesse squatted at a stream. She paused in ripping a strip of fabric from her shirttail to give Cole a hard look. He leaned against a gnarled banyan tree watching her impassively. His swollen eye looked worse than it had when they’d started out, and his nose hurt just to look at. The bruise on his jaw looked like faded clown paint.
“We should have tended this an hour ago,” she said through tight lips.
She ripped the strip from her shirt, then dunked the rag in the stream. The water felt like ice compared to her overheated body. Jesse leaned her head back and wrung the excess water over her neck. Water trickled between her breasts. The cool pleasurable sensation did nothing to stop the memory she was fighting to keep at bay: the memory of another time when stupid male pride had gotten a team member killed.
As team leader, she took his death personally…as had his wife and two young children. She and her team had been in the Philippines working recon on a terrorist group who had kidnapped two journalists. The team had run into scouts and got into a skirmish. A team member took a hit in the leg, just as Cole had, and didn’t say a word until they were picked up—by which time it was too late to save his life.
She didn’t intent to let that happen to Cole. He hadn’t wanted to stop, but she insisted. If he passed out from loss of blood or infection, she’d have a helluva time dragging him to civilization. She pictured herself hauling his two hundred and ten pounds over her shoulder, and grimaced. She was tough, but that would take a miracle.
Jesse looked up at him. “Take off your pants.”
He grinned. “Turnabout’s fair play.”
“We don’t want to tear those fatigues,” she replied matter-of-factly as she again dipped the rag in water and wrung it out.
He straightened, unbuttoned his pants with some difficulty given the splint they’d rigged on his broken fingers, and slipped out of them. Her gaze fixed on the muscled thighs. She’d glimpsed them when Perez’s man stripped him, but at only inches from her face, they took her breath. Her attention snagged on the blood caked inside his left calf.
“Dammit, Cole, you’ve bled like a stuck pig.” She gently wiped at the blood. “Force me to carry you through the jungle, and I’ll kick your ass.” If he died, she'd follow him to hell and kick his ass there.
“I’m telling you, Jess, it’s nothing.”
She paused in cleaning the wound and looked at him, brows arched. “Is that your professional opinion?”
“Yep.”
“You must have been some medic,” she muttered.
“Matter-of-fact, I was.”
Jesse gave him a deprecating look, then turned her attention back his leg and pressed gingerly around the wound. “I only see an entry wound.”
Cole grunted, then grew quiet as she continued cleaning away the blood. The jungle clamor of frogs and bats battling for the same food supply began to mingle with monkeys and the occasional bird squawk. The back of her hand brushed his other thigh, and heat flushed through her. Think of something else. Anything else. Like Amanda. Jesse’s stomach tightened. What did Amanda think about not seeing her for so long? Harris hadn’t mentioned anything, but Jesse knew he wouldn’t unless an emergency arose. When word of Perez’s death reached Lanton, he would wait to see if she was blamed for the murder. As long as he believed there was a chance she would be wanted for Perez’s murder, Amanda was safe—she hoped.
“How did you convince Perez you were going to kill me?”
The sound of Cole’s voice—and the question—startled her.
“Perez assumed I blamed you and Lanton for setting me up.” Not a lie, just not the whole truth. “He said he never had Maria.”
“What?”
Jesse met his gaze. “Perez claimed Senator Hamilton fabricated the kidnapping story.” Cole’s brows snapped down in disbelief. “Think about it,” Jesse said. “What better way to push the U.S. into action than to cause an international incident that puts our troops on Columbian soil? Once here, they could find and destroy the sub with little trouble.”
“The son-of-a-bitch had her and killed her,” Cole snarled.
Goosebumps zipped down Jesse’s arms. So being held captive by drug lords wasn’t the only thing that got this man riled. She refocused on the wound and began cleaning it again. “Perez said Lanton was supposed to meet him at the village.”
“Green Leader was supposed to meet Perez there?” Cole said. “There’s no chance that meeting could remain secret. Not to mention, he couldn’t be in Columbia and intercepted your call in the U.S.”
“True, but Perez said Lanton never intended to make the meeting.”
Cole shook his head. “I still can’t see why Green Leader would send his own team to die. It doesn’t make sense.”
“It does when you understand how well Lanton positioned himself inside Perez’s organization, and how badly he wanted out.” She couldn't help a laugh. “Lanton did himself in by becoming too important to Perez. The only way out, was for Perez to be dead.”
“No easy task,” Cole commented.
Jesse nodded. “Every U.S. DEA agent and competing drug lord in South America wants Perez. He’s a damn ghost. Lanton didn’t stand a chance of taking down Perez on his own. So he sends in Green Team. If he gets lucky, Perez is killed in the crossfire. Either way, your team goes down and it looks like someone leaked the information. After that, Lanton sits back and waits for me to find Perez.”
“Just like he waited for me to find you,” Cole said.
Jesse nodded. “Then, if I didn’t take Perez down, you would.” She held her breath.
“It’s so…simple,” Cole murmured.
“Brilliant, when you think about it,” she said.
“But why tip Perez we were coming if Lanton wanted us to kill him?” Cole asked. “There’s a second mole.”
Jesse realized the thin polyester rag was smearing more blood than it was soaking up. “This damn thing is useless.”
She rose, went to the stream, and knelt beside it. “With Perez gone, Lanton has nothing to worry about.”
“There’s us,” Cole said.
She grunted a laugh. “What do you bet you’ll join me on the list of traitors?”
Jesse rinsed the rag, then returned to Cole and began cleaning the wound again. The wet rag broke free a large clot of blood. She inspected the open wound more closely. The bullet had furrowed out a row big enough to fit her pinky, but hadn’t lodged in the flesh. Relief flooded through her and she startled at the prick of tears.
She managed a level voice, “Looks like the bullet just grazed you.”
“Flesh wound,” he said. “I told you.”
Jesse shot him an impatient look. “It can still get infected.”
“I’ll live,” he said. “Once we get to civilization, a little penicillin will take care of me.”
“It’s going to make a hell of a scar.”
Cole abruptly grabbed her arm. “If we get cornered again, I want you to run. Getting Perez to bring you back was stupid.”
“Listen, Cole—”
He released her arm, seized her shoulders, and dragged her to within an inch of his face. “Do what I tell you.”
He was so close she could taste his breath. His lips so close, she could almost feel them on hers, soft and warm, powerful and tender. She leaned forward—
Leaves rustled to her right. Cole pushed off the tree, shoving her behind him, but halted when the brilliant red of a Scarlet Macaw’s feathers peeked between the foliage. The parrot pushed through the bushes, the bright yellow of its wings and deep blue of its tail coming into full view before it froze and stared at Jesse and Cole as if it had never seen a human. He probably hadn’t.
Cole looked at her. He looked as surprised as the parrot, and funnier with his pants off—though, that kind of funny she could live with.
“We’d better get going,” she said, and nodded toward his pants.
He grinned. “I’ve been caught with my pants down, but getting caught red handed by a red parrot is a first.”
Jesse turned her face away, afraid he’d read the picture in her mind’s eye of her kneeling in front on his lowered pants and giving him a first.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
The last of the sun’s rays trailed off into the western sky when Jesse glanced at Cole. He moved alongside her without effort. They hadn’t talked, but her mind was in overdrive. By now, word of Perez’s death would have reached the other cartels and efforts to find and seize his money would be in motion. Once the cartels located the funds, the claims their crooked attorney’s would make on the money would blow the news wide open. Until then, however, Perez’s competitors would keep his death quiet in order to prevent the Columbian government from cutting into their action.
Perez had been such a fanatic about privacy, the drug lords might be thwarted long enough to give her a chance to get to Lanton before he learned of Perez’s death. But get to him how? Perez had given her no physical proof that Green Leader was selling information.
Cole slowed. “It’s nearly dark. We need to get off the ground.”
Damn him. She had been afraid he would say that. The boa they ran into an hour ago, along with the panther they heard only thirty minutes ago had spooked him. He began scanning the trees.
They hiked another five minutes when he stopped. “There.” Cole pointed to a large Plumeria with white fragrant flowers. He strode to the tree, patted the sturdy trunk, and ran his gaze up the thick trunk.
“I’m not stopping.” Jesse brushed past him.
She heard his quick approach from behind and whirled as he grabbed her arm. “It’s stupid to chance going on in the dark.”
Jesse felt the automatic tensing of her body and forced herself to relax. He wasn’t doing anything wrong by wanting to stop. “The chance I have to take getting back to the States ASAP is worth what I might lose if I don’t.”
His voice softened. “Your life isn’t worth it, Jess.”
She shook her head. “Something more important is at stake.”
“My men won’t notify Lanton until they hear from me.”
“Dammit, Cole. It’s not your men.”
He paused. “No?”
“No.”
“What then?” he asked.
“There’s…someone else.”
“A man?”
Jesse looked up sharply. What was that in his voice, hope she would deny there was a man? “You said you knew everything about me. You must know there’s no man.”
“Isn’t there?” he asked.
She scowled. Damn if he didn’t sound hopeful. She could change that by telling him why she went back to his cell with Perez.
“I don’t know everything about you, Jess.” He laughed. “That’s a lifetime job.”
Her heart took a dive. The way he’d said ‘job’ sounded like a jail sentence. Maybe he wasn’t hopeful after all.
She started forward again, then stopped. “You’re right, you don’t know everything about me. Here’s a tidbit for you, Perez brought me to your cell to kill you. He told me Lanton sent you along to make sure that both Perez and I ended up dead. I believed him.”
“So…you agreed to kill me?”
Jesse shook her head. “No. I thought Perez would send me back to the States to go after Lanton. He surprised me by taking me to your cell.”
Cole shrugged. “Then you weren’t planning to kill me.”
“I wasn’t planning to, but thought it might come to that.”
“You’re not a cold-blooded killer, Jess.”
“Maybe not. But I am a team member who planned on leaving you behind—and this time, on purpose.”
He abruptly turned and she flinched before realizing he was heading for the tree. Embarrassment warmed her cheeks.
He stopped under the nearest branch and reached for it. “Well,” he said, his voice straining slightly as he pulled himself up onto the branch, “it’s over now. You can’t leave me behind.” He made the branch, steadied himself with another branch chest high, then looked down at her. “Come on, Jess. We’re taking a breather.”
She didn’t move.
“Don’t make me come down for you. I’m tired and might not be as nice as I usually am.”
A tremor rippled through her belly. Maybe this was his way of asking her to snuggle in the branches like monkeys.
He hoisted himself onto the branch he’d been steadying himself with, then grabbed for the next. “After all, we’ve got to discuss how we’re going to get back to make sure Amanda’s all right.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
All sunlight had vanished by the time Jesse pulled herself onto the thick foliaged branches where Cole waited. He had climbed high enough that the canopy afforded protection from the large predators below, while allowing slivers of moonlight to filter through the thinner foliage above. Jesse grasped the nearest branch above them and climbed until she broke through the top branches. The tree grew atop a gentle rise. Hundreds of bats flittered across the deep blue sky like an intense dogfight. Jesse gave a small cry at seeing lights dotting the horizon.
“A village, maybe eight kilometers. An easy hike,” she called down.
“It will be at first light. We’ve been awake for two days with nothing to eat. I need rest. So do you.”
Jesse pushed aside a little of the foliage and looked down at Cole. Moonlight streamed through the opening and she saw he had eased onto his side and propped his feet on the trunk. The guard’s jacket he wore hung open, leaving his chest in deeper shadow. He patted the massive limb next to him. He looked a little like a monkey, and the spot he expected her to settle on was close enough to snuggle—and maybe a little more. Monkey-sex might not be so bad. In fact, it might be just what she needed. Fast, hard, and without thought.
She looked back at the village, marked its location by the stars, then scanned the terrain between. The trees thinned about three kilometers north. All they had to do was stay on course until the jungle opened up. After that, they could follow the stars to the village.