Betrayal (12 page)

Thank God the snake had picked him to lie on rather than Susana.

Kai did his best not to move. It was likely the foil covering of the survival blanket would lessen the impact of the snake’s fangs if it attacked, but he really didn’t want to find out.

“Just remain still,” Susana told him. “I’ve dealt with snakes before. I’ll get rid of him.”

No!
He bit his tongue rather than say it out loud. He had to trust her abilities. She’d grown up at the edge of the jungle and spent much of her adult career here. Of course she’d have encountered poisonous snakes before.

But God, please don’t let it bite her.

He kept his eyes on the snake and his ears trained on Susana. He heard the shush of nylon sliding over nylon, followed by the soft grinding of a zipper being undone. Susana was looking in the backpacks. He wanted to tell her to grab the Biel tool. Afraid that speaking might wake the snake, Kai remained silent.

The more he looked at the snake, the more mesmerizing he found the pattern on its scales. As if sensing Kai’s regard, the snake opened its eyes. Its wide mouth yawned and a forked tongue lazily tasted the air.

Nothing threatening here, bud,
Kai thought, staring into the reptilian eyes.
Go back to sleep.

He heard a metallic click to his right. Then sensed Susana moving up beside him.

“On the count of three,” she breathed. “I’m going to knock him off your legs and pin him to the ground. Be ready to pull away.”

“Roger,” he answered just as quietly.

“One…two…three.” Susana darted forward. She hooked the claw under the snake’s coils with a speed and fearlessness that stole Kai’s breath.

Then she lifted the startled snake and held it suspended with its tail caught by the Biel and its head hanging down and out of immediate reach of Susana’s arm.

The snake twisted and hissed in annoyance.

Kai jerked his legs away.

Susana dropped the snake and planted her left foot on its head, pinning it to the ground. The snake thrashed wildly, but Susana didn’t budge. She deftly removed the Biel’s claw and put it back in the bottom of the tool. Then, in a move almost too quick for Kai’s fevered brain to follow, Susana brought the axe edge down and severed the snake’s head from its body.

Kai gazed at the snake’s death throes and the gush of blood. The darkness inside him stood up and cheered.

“Sorry about the mess,” Susana said. She used the Biel to pick up the body and took it outside. From the length of time she was gone, she must have carried the remains into the jungle. Maybe even buried them.

She returned to collect the snake’s head, again using only the Biel to touch it, then disappeared again. This time when she entered, she carried ashes in a trencher of leaves. Using the Biel, she scraped up the bloody soil and carried it away. Then she scattered ashes around the edges of the encampment.

Kai’s vision had become super sharp. Every shadow seemed magnified. Every throw of light was elongated. He knew it was the fever starting, but he let it carry him. He was content to lie here and watch Susana. Because looking at her distracted him from the ache in his limbs. And as long as his eyes were open, he wouldn’t be lost in fever dreams.

“Why ashes?” he asked. Even to his own ears, his voice sounded blurry.

“They have a strong scent that’s a deterrent to snakes,” Susana replied. She knelt down to lay the Biel next to her bed and he noticed her hands were shaking.

Alarmed, he tried to sit up, but found he only had enough strength to push up on one elbow. “Are you hurt?”

“What?” She shot him a startled glance. “No. Why?”

“You’re trembling.”

She looked away. “I’m not hurt.”

“Then what?”

She shrugged and reached for her canteen. “Are you thirsty?”

He waited several beats before answering. “Yes.”

She poured out a cup of water and handed it to him.

He made a big show of getting his arms tangled in the survival blanket. She scooted closer so she could hold the cup to his lips. He sipped, then grabbed her wrist before she could move away.

“If you’re not hurt, then why are you shaking?” he demanded.

She glared at him.

Oh, no, he wasn’t giving in to her temper. This was too important. He wasn’t going to let go until she answered him. Something was wrong, dammit, and he needed to know what so he could fix it.

“Susana,” he warned.

“I was scared,” she snapped. “Okay?”

In his surprise, he dropped her wrist and she scooted away.

“You’re afraid of snakes? But…you handled it so calmly.”

“No,” she growled, her voice tinged with such impatience he sensed he was missing something. “I’m not afraid of snakes. I’ve killed dozens of them on my digs.”

“Then what?”

“I was scared for
you
,” she huffed. “Okay? I was afraid I wouldn’t be fast enough and the snake would bite you. We’re nowhere near a medical facility. You could have died.”

He stared at her. So this was how it felt to be struck dumb. Left with a frozen brain and mouth.

She cared what happened to him? But…

“Do you want any more water?” she demanded, not looking at him.

He shook his head, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that she’d been afraid for him.

“Okay. Sleep well.” She moved over to her bed and extinguished the light.

Kai lowered himself onto his back and stared into the darkness. Susana didn’t hate him. She wanted him safe.

When the fever claimed him, he was smiling.

“J
enna! Dad! No!”

The anguished cry roused Susana from a light doze. She jerked upright on her pallet and looked around, trying to figure out where she was. Early morning sun peeked through the roof of their shelter, illuminating Kai’s head thrashing from side to side, his arms punching at invisible enemies.

“Blood…too much blood. Noooo! I’m sorry. So sorry.” His voice cracked on a sob, then his body stilled.

“I may say some things while I’m out of it. Just…ah…ignore me, okay?”

But how was she supposed to ignore such obvious pain?

Susana crooned soothingly to Kai as she crept closer. But the outburst appeared to be over. She reached out and touched the tears shimmering on his face.

“Oh, Kai,” she breathed. His torment touched some deep chord in her, turning her heart into a leaden weight. She had the sudden, fierce desire to fight his battles with him. To comfort and shield him.

Underneath her fingertips, his face burned. Sometime during the night he’d kicked free of the survival blanket. She reached behind her and picked up the washcloth that had been tucked into a pocket of his medicine kit.

A quick splash with water got the fabric wet enough to sooth over the heated skin on his face. His lips parted on a soft sigh and he turned his head to follow the path of the cloth. Tenderness spiraled through her veins. She smoothed her hand over his military-short hair, then realized she was stroking him like she would a cat and pulled her hand away, tucking it into her lap.

Kai moaned. Whether from loss of her touch, or pain, she didn’t know. But the sound helped bring her focus back to her nursing duties.

It was too soon to give him another dose of his anti-malaria medication, but she didn’t like the way his temperature kept rising. She dissolved a couple of aspirin in the filtered water, then lifted Kai’s head enough to allow her to hold a cup to his lips.

He took several swallows of water before restlessly turning his head away. She straightened the wrinkles out of the survival blanket underneath him, then lowered him back down. There was one more thing she needed to do, but she found herself drying and storing the cup, trying to avoid it.

Oh, stop being a prude. You’ve seen plenty of naked men. Just strip the man so you can brush all of him with that cool water.

She sighed, knowing that his nudity wasn’t the real issue. By removing his clothes she’d make Kai even more vulnerable and dependent on her. And Kai would hate that.

Telling herself to suck it up, her hands moved to unbutton his camp shirt. She had the shirt undone and was trying to slide it off his arms when he became agitated.

“No! I don’t know where it is. Let me go!”

She ducked one flailing fist, but as she started inching his second arm out of its sleeve, his fist caught her on her temple, just above her right ear.

The force of the blow knocked her sideways. She lost her balance and toppled to the ground, then just lay there a moment while she waited for the little silver dots to stop dancing across her vision.

“Leave her alone, you bastard!” Kai’s shout ended on a choked sob. “Jenna…I’m so sorry… please forgive me…”

And just as quickly as if someone pulled the plug, Kai’s fit ended.

Susana cautiously sat back up. Her head throbbed where he’d hit her, but her vision was steady, so she wasn’t seriously hurt.

She set about pulling off the rest of Kai’s clothes, but left his boxers on. Removing them seemed too intimate. It was one thing for her to pose nude knowing that strangers would look at her image and have all sorts of reactions from envy to lust. But it would be an invasion of privacy for her to fully strip Kai when it wasn’t medically necessary.

She folded his clothes and put them in a pile at the foot of her makeshift bed, then wet the washcloth and began his bath. She started with his face again, then moved on to his chest. Silt from the river had collected on his skin, and only after she’d worked the cloth over his entire body, twice, did she accept what she was seeing.

She sat back on her heels, fighting back nausea. Kai’s body was covered with scars.

A series of white, aged scars crisscrossed his back, legs and feet. Newer, still pink scars overlapped in a similar pattern over some of the same skin, and also marked his chest. What she knew about torture was limited to information from novels and films, but she could only think such marks had been made by flogging.

She tasted bile and just made it outside before she threw up.

Kai had been whipped. More than once, based on the difference in age of the scars.

What was it he’d said? Something about being in a warlord’s prison. In…Indonesia was it?

She bent over and was sick again.

Those weren’t the only scars he had. There were also two jagged lines she thought might be knife scars, and one puckered circle she figured was from a bullet. Plus several fresh cuts and bruises courtesy of their flight from the mercenaries.

She glanced down at her own wrists, at the bruised, torn skin from where the rope had tied her. Kai had similar scars on his wrists and ankles, although his were wider and more even than hers. From manacles?

Holy cow. Who
was
this man? Why would any sane person choose a profession where torture was a very real possibility?

If Kai hadn’t killed the mercenaries, and they’d recaptured her, would similar abuse have been her fate? Shame heated her cheeks. She’d been angry and afraid at the violence, when she should have gotten on her knees and thanked him.

Dammit, she didn’t want to go back into the shelter. She didn’t want to have to look at Kai’s scars and be reminded that she had no idea of the events that had shaped this man’s life.

Of the pain he’d suffered.

He didn’t know her from Eve, yet he was willing to risk his life to keep her safe. Suddenly, she found herself ridiculously near tears. She didn’t like the idea of Kai making any kind of sacrifice on her behalf.

Although, maybe it had nothing to do with her. Maybe he was just desperate to get the chip for himself.

Pushing that thought aside as unfair, she collected more water. Some she set into the filtering system, some she left for bathing.

She couldn’t change the bandage on her shoulder by herself, so she took some aspirin, ate another quick meal of fruit and nuts, and finally forced herself back inside.

Kai shifted restlessly on his bed, his head rolling from side to side, but he remained quiet.

Susana placed her hand on his forehead. Heaven help her, he was burning up. She fumbled for the thermometer and took his temperature.

One hundred and four.

Oh. My. God.

Susana had to work hard to remind herself that a high fever was normal with malaria. There was no reason for this heart-stopping panic. Yet, it was one thing to suffer an attack of malaria herself as a child, quite another to be the caregiver.

“Okay. Calm down. He’s not going to die. He’s been through this before.”

It was too soon to give Kai more medicine. So she decided to bathe him again.

She monitored Kai’s temperature on and off for the next four hours. It rose slowly, finally reaching 105.7. His respiration and pulse increased along with his fever. When she put her hand on his chest, she could feel that his breaths were too shallow to bring him enough oxygen.

She moved her hand. Damn, it felt like his heart was trying to beat its way out of his body.

What was almost as scary, the rest of him was still. No thrashing. No wild words. Not even a spare muscle twitch, as if every cell in his body focused solely on dragging in as much air as quickly as possible.

She sat back on her heels. Now what was she supposed to do? She’d just given him another dose of aspirin water. It was time to inject him with the anti-malarial drug, but she was scared. Because what if the pinch of the needle entering his vein was too much of a shock for his system right now?

She shoved her hand into her hair, but it got stuck in the tangled mess and she angrily yanked it out. She
hated
feeling helpless. It would be so much easier if she were sick instead of Kai.

Her eyes swiveled toward the medicine kit. She had to take the chance and give Kai the injection. She’d never forgive herself if she didn’t, and he continued to get worse.

Her hands trembled slightly as she removed the vial and prepared the syringe. Her mother had sometimes asked her to help take blood samples from the cattle, so she was familiar with the overall technique.

“I can do this,” she muttered, trying to quiet the butterflies whirling in her stomach. “I’m not a yellow-bellied coward. If I don’t help Kai, he could die.” She took a deep breath. “Right. So just get on with it.”