Read Armed And Dangerous (The McKinnon Legends - The McKinnon American Men Book 2) Online
Authors: Ranay James
Although, he would never joke with her safety. “Keep that damn hat on, Barbie Doll,” he barked as he saw her pull her hat off again to use as a fan to keep the bugs away. “Here, put more sun block on. You will burn without it.” He tossed her the block from his bag.
She rolled her eyes. “You are barking orders like a drill sergeant, Mase. This is my second day on the job, not the first,” she said, catching the block with ease and then slathering it on her arms, shoulders, and thighs. She also knew that he was right, and as a result, she was not about to sit down on this particular issue. She would pick her battles with him and strategically choose where she would resist him. This was not one of those times. Dehydration and sun poisoning were both deadly. She was no good to the team or Jesse if she was not one hundred percent.
“Fine. But I don’t want to hear one single complaint out of that lovely mouth of yours if you don’t follow my orders and end up burned. Or worse,” he added. The “or worse” was unthinkable for any of the team, but especially for her. He could well imagine what Del Torres and his men would do to her if they got their grimy hands on her body. He was beginning to wonder exactly what he would do if he got a hold of her body.
“Down Boy,” he mentally commanded himself. Barbara is right, he thought, I am a hound.
“Mason?” she asked placing her hand on his forearm and looking into his beautiful blue eyes. She just could not envision those eyes staring lifeless in death all in the name of liberty and freedom. Noble it would be, but a death nonetheless, no matter how honorable the cause.
“Yeah?” he answered back wondering why her look was so solemn.
“Did I ever thank you for your service to my country and tell you I am glad you came home alive to all of us? If I didn’t, I should have.”
“You didn’t and you did not have to either, Barbara. It was my honor to serve.” Her comment had taken him by surprise, just as many things had taken him by surprise over the last twenty-four hours. “And I’m glad I came home alive, too.” He tweaked her nose. “I would not have missed seeing the bugs suck the life out of you for anything.”
She laughed softly and then slapped him on the cheek.
“Bug,” she said showing him the evidence on the palm of her hand.
“Thanks. I think,” he said while rubbing his jaw and watching her as she went back to placing the sun block while trying to get the middle of her shoulder blades without much success.
“You missed a few places.” He turned her around and tucked her ponytail up under the hat to give him better access to her skin. He took the lotion and dropped some in the palm of his hands, rubbing them together before covering the exposed skin. He could not resist. He was still hell-bent on teasing her. If she liked women it was fine by him. However, he liked women, too, and she was a challenge, something he had never had before she came along.
Barbara dropped her chin into her chest as he began to knead the muscle beneath her right shoulder blade with the pad of his thumb. It was the one that always gave her just a little pain from the scar tissue. “Umm.”
“Feel good?” he whispered into her ear before playfully nipping her lobe. It was for show, he kept reminding himself.
“You have no idea,” she answered honestly.
Mason softly laughed in that way he had that any woman with a lick of sense would see was purely predatory. Barbara was too deep into bliss to even hear it.
So, Mason thought, he had found the chink in her armor. By focusing in on her scars, this was the second time that he was able to touch her without her moving away. He tucked it away for future reference. It was just another weapon in his arsenal where the war with Barbara was concerned.
“Time to load up,” Enrique announced.
He stopped too soon for her liking, but necessary as they needed to get back on the trail.
He patted her on her arm and turned without a glance to begin loading what little gear they had unloaded for the mid-day break.
The two jeeps were making slow, but steady progress east then south down the famed PanAmerican Roadway heading to Yaviza, a small town at the edge of the Chucunaque River. They would camp there at the river’s edge tonight before taking the boats west down the estuary heading back to the Gulf Of San Miguel on the Pacific side. It was an extremely roundabout way to achieve their goal. However, coming in from the jungle side would give them the necessary cover which they would not have if they went by boat straight to Del Torres’s private beach access. It also gave then culpable deniability, keeping their cover intact. Running the rapids was exactly something he would be doing on a vacation. Should anyone look into his background, they would find high adventure trips were a mainstay. They would not find this trek as out of the ordinary.
Robert’s genius strikes again, he thought.
Getting into the jeep, he glanced over at Barbara who had not uttered a word of complaint. She was holding up remarkably well considering they were in some very rough terrain. The road was as much nonexistent as it was existent and this far to the southeast they were very close to the terminus just before the marsh lands of Darien Gap.
She had asked questions from time to time and Darien Gap seemed to tweak her curiosity. He would satisfy that, if nothing else to keep the smooth lines of communication open and flowing. He was pleased he could feed her mind with knowledge that she did not have herself. Barbara was very intelligent, yet she did not make him feel less so.
“The Gap is a one-hundred mile long and fifty mile wide gap in the Pan-American Roadway. This is the only break in the road leading from Alaska all the way to the tip of South America.”
“So why stop here? Is it a native reserve?” she asked knowing there were large tracks of land expressly set aside for the indigenous peoples.
Mason shook his head. “No, marsh land. And because of the topography and habitat it provides....”
“Construction is costly, controversial, and nonexistent,” she finished the sentence.
He nodded. There was nothing slow about Barbara Allen, he mused as they hit a particularly nasty rut in the road tossing her sideways and nearly out of the jeep. The seat harness gave way. Lightning fast, Mason grabbed her arm pulling her torso back inside the frame of the jeep just as it slid sideways down the edge of the roadway.
The jeep tumbled, rolling over leaving it stranded upside down in a muddy ditch.
“Barbara, are you all right?” Mason loosened his safety harness and came around to her side to help her out.
“Yeah, I think that I’m still all in one piece.”
He helped her out of the jeep and wiped the mud from her face. “You sure you’re all right?” he questioned again. They had taken a fairly rough tumble and she had no safety belt to keep her from being tossed around. “Did you take any blows to the head?”
She shook her head. “But you did.” She took her thumb and lightly pressed against his forehead to stop the bleeding.
He had a gash along his hairline. He simply tied his bandana around it and went back to making sure she was uninjured and getting the jeep upright again.
Two hours later, they were finally able to get the jeep back onto sold ground, but only after getting both jeeps stuck first. There was not a single one of them who was not covered in mud before getting both jeeps back on the roadway.
They would be jumping off before the Gap and heading back out to sea, and at the rate the road was deteriorating that was probably a good thing. Mason needed to remember the make and model of these jeeps. They were tough and he really needed to buy himself one for his off-roading at home.
Through determination and a little luck, they arrived at their destination just a half hour before dark with just enough time to make camp before the sun dipped, disappearing for the next twelve hours into the Pacific.
Mason was on his way back to camp after taking a quick bath in the river. He had that much pity on Barbara. She probably wouldn’t like it, but she would be bedding down with him in their tent. If she were going to have to sleep next to him, then the least he could do for her was not to stink. He was thinking how she was a smart woman and would understand they had to keep up appearances. It was a bittersweet prospect for him.
Much to Mason's surprise, Barbara already had the bed rolls out and prepared for bed even before he returned.
“Mason? Is that you?” She heard him approaching. She almost dreaded asking the favor.
“Yeah, it’s me?” he answered, coming into earshot. He could plainly see she wanted something from him, and he felt he knew simply by her looking longingly over his shoulder. It surprised him she would hesitate. What was the worst he could say? Besides, he was really not seeing a downside to having a clean bed partner.
“I could really use a good hosing off myself. Any way you could give me some cover? I promise I won’t take long,” she said, looking at the sun which was making a quick escape from the day. “I know it is almost too dark for us to go wandering off.”
“Sure. You ready?” He saw the quick smile on her lips and it somehow pleased him he could give her a small token of comfort in the form of a cooling dip in the river.
“Yeah, I just need to get my clean clothes.”
He watched her dip into the tent and quickly come back out with a fresh change of clothes and a flashlight.
“Leave it,” he commanded.
“But...,” she began to protest.
“No buts, leave it. You won’t need it.”
She looked warily at him. He sighed inwardly. She was so slow to give her trust over to him in spite of the fact he was nothing other than cooperative and receptive to her company.
He took the flashlight off the top of her clothes and tossed it back into the tent closing the zippered opening. The last thing he wanted was something other than each other bedding down with them for the night.
“Barbie Doll, you have got to learn to trust the fact I will take care of you.” He held out his hand and waited for her to take it. “Now, come on. We’re burning daylight.”
He checked the clip in his gun as they moved along the pathway, and he followed her to the shallow pool which was located not far from the camp. The jungle blocked the remaining daylight, leaving the trail more treacherous than just a few minutes before. He handed her one of the two pairs of night vision goggles that Robert so thoughtfully packed. No need to alert any potential company with a flashlight to the fact the two of them were here and separated from the rest.
He stopped short bending down to make it easier for her to hitch a ride.
“Hop on my back. The vegetation gets a little rough from here on down and you are in shorts. It will shred your skin.” He was thinking how they did not have time for her to come down with a fever from an infection gained from open wounds.
“I’m too heavy. I’ll be fine,” she whispered.
He just shook his head at the comment. Too heavy? He didn’t think so. She was nothing after hauling one hundred and twenty pounds of deadweight in gear through sandstorms in the desert and a foot and a half of snow in the Afghan mountains.
“Just get up here, woman and quit giving me lip,” he growled, guiding her up onto his back and adjusting her as if she weighed nothing whatsoever. He mused she hardly weighed more than the rucksack and all his gear he carried in combat. And she was way softer than the Remington 870 usually strapped to his back or the M40A1 which was also a mainstay for a Marine Force Recon solider.
They kept conversation to a minimum as they made their way to the river’s edge. He deposited her on top of a waist-high rock allowing her to simply step off his back, and then he helped her down to even ground.
“I won’t be long,” she promised placing her hand on his forearm.
“No rush. Take your time. Tomorrow will be a hard one, and I’m not sure we will have this little luxury of fresh water at the end of the day.” He understood they would be much closer to the sea and fresh water would be scarcely available for use as bathing water.
He turned his back to give her some privacy and could hear the rustle of clothing dropping on the boulder beside him, then the gentle intake of breath as she hit the cool refreshing waters.
“You can turn around now,” she whispered quietly, understanding his desire to keep their presence as secretive as possible. The closer they got to the coast, the more danger they would face. And for all she knew there was a traitor already in their midst. It would not surprise her since the police already knew they were there in country, and if the police knew, then chances were good Del Torres did too. She did her own research of Juan Redondo while Mason was off having his dessert the previous night. She was wondering if they needed to step up the pace on this little mission. The longer they took, the more likely it was to go sour on them.
He took a sentry position on the rock as she bathed, watching as she first washed her hair and then rinsed the grime from the day from her body. Barbara decided to swim a few laps around the general area before deciding that she had probably overstayed her welcome. Besides, she was getting hungry.
“You ready?” he asked as he saw her coming closer to the shallows.
She nodded knowing that he could still see with the night vision goggles. He turned around again as she got out of the water. He closed his eyes as he felt her press her hand to his back to steady herself while reaching for the towel just past him on the rock.
“Thanks for the backup,” she said while pulling on a clean tank and jeans.
“Anytime.” He picked her up under the arms and effortlessly set her on the boulder so she could slip her socks and hiking boots back on before heading back.
“Ready?” He hesitated. She was eye to eye with him and he had the urge to crawl up on that rock with her and make love to her under the Central American night sky. She was quickly becoming an obsession with him. His desire was to know her both body and mind.
“Ready,” she said as she saw him turn his back again.
He turned around pulling her arms around his neck to pick her up to carry her back up the trail. “Put your legs around me and let me, at least, get you out of this area and back on firmer ground.”