Betrayal (3 page)

Crazy woman
, Kai thought. How long did she think she’d survive in the river with her feet bound?

The mercenary pulled a pistol from a hip holster.

“Shit.” Kai trained the binoculars at the fast-moving current, trying to see where Susana had gone.

“Do you see her?” Giovanni shouted, giving up any pretense of stealth and increasing their boat’s speed.

“No.” Kai continued to sweep the binoculars over the water surrounding the other boat. “Where are you, Susana?” he muttered. Until she surfaced, she was in danger of being swept under the mercenaries’ boat. But the moment her head broke water, the mercenaries would be on her.

“There!” Giovanni said, pointing to starboard.

Unfortunately, the mercenaries had also spotted Susana. The one with the pistol fired into the water, barely missing her. A second man charged across the deck and knocked the shooter’s hand down before he let off another shot. The men got into a shoving match, accompanied by angry shouts.

Kai lowered his binoculars and raced for his cabin. The glasses bounced against his chest with enough force to bruise, but he didn’t care. He needed his weapon.

When he returned to his position, M-4 in hand, one of the men had Susana in a headlock and was slowly dragging her across the gunwale.

Kai set his M-4 on manual. His first shot went into the shoulder of the man holding Susana. As she dropped into the water, Kai’s second and third shots hit the hull right beneath the water line.

He might be a scientist working mainly as a spy, but the SSU made sure all its operators were excellent shots.

S
usana heard a grunt of pain, then her captor let go of her neck. She dropped back into the river and promptly inhaled water. When her head broke the surface, she snorted to clear her nose, then pulled in as much air as she could hold before letting herself sink beneath the current.

A second later she bumped against something hard. Her head breached the surface and she realized the current had pushed her right back against the hull. She shot a terrified glance above her, but didn’t see her kidnappers. What she did see was a man, silhouetted by the sun, standing on the deck of a second boat.

He aimed a menacing machine gun right at her. Her heart stuttered.

Get away!
She pushed her shoulder against the hull, trying to drive herself underwater.

Then she heard another cry of pain from above her. “Do something,” one of her captors snarled. “Before the cock-sucker shoots me again.”

She turned her head. Oh. The man on the other boat wasn’t aiming at her. He was aiming above her head. At her kidnappers.

Her relief was so great, she forgot to tread water and sank.

Come on, girl. You’re being rescued. Don’t drown now.

She pushed to the surface and a life preserver splashed down next to her.

“
Senhorita
,” her would-be rescuer shouted over the pulse of the boat engines. “Grab the line and we’ll bring you aboard.”

Her heart soared. Even though his words were Portuguese, his accent was American.

Remembering something she’d heard a long time ago about water rescues, she grabbed hold of the life preserver and turned her back to the boat. The line tightened and began to slowly pull her against the current.

As her rescuer’s boat picked up speed, her head bounced against the surface of the river making her headache flare, and she had trouble holding her head up high enough to stop water from getting up her nose. It seemed like forever before the boat slowed, then stopped so she could be dragged aboard.

For several long, agonizing moments Susana huddled on the deck, coughing up river water and shivering despite the midday heat. She was dimly aware of male voices talking above her and of the engine throbbing underneath her as the boat started moving again.

A warm male hand lightly patted her back. “Here, take my coat.”

Susana opened her eyes and sat up. A man knelt next to her, holding out a heavy rain jacket. Even though her teeth were chattering, she didn’t grab for the coat. Instead, she stared at her rescuer.

Oh. My. God.

He had the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen. A rich, clear amber. Wild and fierce, reminding her of the jaguar she’d seen last week at the river’s edge. The man’s eyes combined with lean, stubbled cheeks, a square chin and a sensual lower lip to create a picture of male strength and vitality. The lithe muscles of his arms and thighs strained against his sweat-stained clothes. Suddenly Susana felt way too warm.

Susana had known more handsome men, but none had knocked her speechless or caused this hot, aching longing.

“Ma’am? Are you okay?” Oh, God, he even had a husky, sexy voice.

Get a grip, girl.
Susana shook her head, realized she was still staring, and lowered her eyes as she reached for his coat. “I’m um…just…um…glad to be out of the river and safe. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

She wriggled into the jacket. For a second she caught him eyeing her chest and her nipples tightened. Then he quickly glanced away and she thought she heard him mutter, “Sorry.”

His embarrassment over being caught ogling her boobs restored her equilibrium. At least she wasn’t alone on this admiration train.

But he recovered quickly. His long, almost elegant fingers pushed up the sleeves of the jacket to reveal the swollen, red and purple skin at her wrists.

He sucked in a breath. For a moment something dark and fierce passed over his expression. His fingers tightened on hers almost painfully, then released.

“Let me cut your bindings away,” he said.

It was a sign of how overwhelmed she was that Susana didn’t so much as blink in alarm when he pulled a large hunting knife from a sheath on his leg.

“Brace yourself,” her rescuer said. “The rope’s embedded in your skin. This is going to hurt.” He worked with surprising gentleness, but there was little play in the rope and the blade nicked her skin despite his caution.

Susana hissed in pain. Hell yes, that hurt. Tears stung her eyes and she quickly turned her face away from him.

Then immediately turned back as she felt the feather light stroke of his finger next to her damaged skin. Without meeting her startled gaze, he repeated the process with her ankles.

Next, displaying more of that surprising gentleness, the man rubbed circulation back into her hands and feet. At first the increased blood flow felt warm and soothing. It didn’t take long for the piercing, hot-pins-and-needles pain to take over.

“Ouch!” The protest came out as a harsh croak.

“Sorry,” he said. “It’ll get better in a minute. I think there’s some salve in the cabin we can use on your cuts. I—”

Behind them, the boat’s cabin exploded in a flash of light.

T
he shock wave knocked Kai on top of Susana. He crossed his arms protectively over his head and ignored the sting from burning wood pelting his back and legs. In the silence that followed, Kai heard frantic cursing from Giovanni.

How in hell had the other boat gotten close enough to launch an RPG? They’d been sinking.

Kai levered himself off Susana while telling himself not to notice how soft her breasts felt or how if he moved his head just a few inches, he’d be able to kiss that lush mouth.

“Was that a
missile
?” Susana squeaked, effectively bringing Kai’s attention back to business.

“Rocket-propelled grenade,” Kai corrected, turning to assess the damage. The cabin’s roof and front wall were on fire, but that wasn’t crippling. “Keep your head down in case they have another one.”

“Who the hell are you and why are those men firing rockets at us?”

“Kai Paterson. I’m with a private special operations group from the U.S.” He grabbed Susana’s hand and started crawling toward the front of the boat. He needed to see what was going on.

“You okay, Giovanni?” he shouted to the pilot.

“No. Those fucking pirates tried to blow up my boat!”

Kai’s mouth twisted with a wry smile. Yeah, Giovanni was fine.

Susana slipped on the wet deck and Kai reached out to steady her.

“My name’s Susana Dias,” she said as they started crawling again. “I’m an archaeologist. So…special operations? That’s like a covert soldier, right?”

Great. Susana was one of those women who chattered when scared. “Yeah.”

“Watch out!” Giovanni shouted. His warning was accompanied by the sound of incoming automatic weapon fire. “There’s a second goddamn boat.”

The deck tilted sharply left, then right, throwing Kai and Susana sideways. Susana’s head cracked against the side of the boat and she slumped unconscious.

Kai checked Susana’s pulse and moved her into a more comfortable position. Poor woman, she’d been through a lot. The memory of her swollen, torn skin where she’d been bound threatened to send a flood of rage through him.

From the front of the boat Giovanni cried out in pain. The deck continued to tilt to the right and the pilot’s body slid into view before jamming against a spool of rope. With an ominous stutter, the engine died. Then the deck slammed horizontal again.

Kai grabbed his weapon and peered around the burning remains of the cabin. An armored gunboat was heading toward them from upriver. A man stood on the deck behind a mounted machine gun. He noticed Kai and let loose a volley of gunfire.

Kai fired back, then ducked out of sight. Shit. The cabin provided him some protection, but Giovanni lay in the open.

Kai fired another burst at the gunboat, then raced across the deck and pulled Giovanni to safety behind a stack of crates. He put his fingers to the man’s neck.

No pulse.

He turned the man over. Bullet holes perforated Giovanni’s chest.

Dammit. Kai hadn’t known the man well, but he’d been honest and as quick with a joke as he was to anger. Kai bowed his head a moment, then closed the man’s eyes. A brief glance showed the gunner on the other boat had turned his head and was talking over his shoulder to someone behind him. The gunboat blocked Kai’s view of the mercenaries’ sinking boat, but when the gunboat’s deck tilted away from Kai, he figured the newcomers were taking the mercenaries on board.

Knowing he didn’t have long before the gunboat either used another RPG or sent men to board them, Kai crawled into the remains of the cabin. He searched the debris until his fingers closed around the nylon straps of two large backpacks. Giovanni, God rest his soul, had looked at Kai like he was crazy the first morning he’d repacked his bag.
“Why you taking down your hammock, ‘migo? You pack it away, you only got to put it back up tonight.”

But after two years on the run he’d learned to have everything packed and ready to move at a moment’s notice, including bedding. Two months free from the hunt and the habit still hadn’t faded.

He hoisted one pack onto his back. He located several extra boxes of ammunition and shoved those into the second pack, then looked out what was left the door.

The other boat’s gunner stood behind his weapon with arms crossed. He faced a second man, who nodded in the direction of Kai’s boat. Cradled in the second man’s arms was an RPG launcher. Both men wore olive green uniforms without any insignia.

Special forces or private soldiers?

On the deck behind the men, the three sodden mercenaries eyed the soldiers with varying degrees of wariness. While they were distracted, Kai slid down the canted deck to the side of the boat. Susana lay in several inches of water, conscious now and blinking against the sun’s glare.

“We’ve got to get off the boat before it sinks or is blown out of the water,” Kai said as he landed beside her.

He placed his arms through the straps of the second backpack so it rested against his chest. It was going to be a bitch to navigate the river laden down with the packs, but they were going to need these supplies and she wasn’t in any condition to carry a pack in the water. He took off his baseball cap and shoved it into his pocket.

The rope he’d been coiling earlier lay in a tangled heap a foot away from him. He pulled free a length and cut it with his pocketknife. He tied one end of the rope around his waist, underneath the backpacks. Then he knelt awkwardly beside Susana and held out the rope. “I’m going to tie this around your waist so that when we go into the river we won’t get separated.”

Her eyes widened, but she nodded. Damn it, he wanted to kiss her and tell her everything was going to be okay. That she just had to hold on a little longer.

Instead, he quickly tied the rope and tugged to make sure the knot was secure. Heading into the river like this was dangerous. But he wasn’t losing Susana under any circumstances.

He heard a shout. The other boat’s engine revved.

Shit. Out of time.

He had to time this just right. He didn’t want to go overboard too early. The attackers needed to think they were dead, blown up with the boat.

He grabbed Susana’s arm. “Get ready,” he whispered in her ear. Unable to help himself, he brushed a quick kiss against her temple.

“On the count of three, we’re going into the river.”

He waited for the hiss of the rocket being released. “One…two…three!” Kai pulled air deep into his lungs, then threw himself overboard, pulling Susana with him.

Chapter 4

S
usana considered herself to be in good shape, but after being kidnapped, rescued, hurled from an exploding boat, swimming through the river while being shot at, then climbing up a riverbank and running into the jungle while her damn kidnappers got out of their boat and friggin’
followed
them, she had almost zero energy left.

“C’mon, we’ve got to keep moving,” Kai said.

Grumbling under her breath, Susana let Kai pull her into a run. Once her body got moving, she could keep her momentum going. But she didn’t know what would happen if he let go of her hand. Besides, she liked the warm, calloused feel of his skin against hers. It reminded her that she wasn’t alone.

Some sixth sense had her turning her head to check behind her in time to see the ground torn up by bullets not three feet away. Kai cursed and veered left, dragging her into an area of thick undergrowth.