Dangerous Liaisons (19 page)

The last of the sun’s rays trailed off into the western sky and Jesse glanced at Cole. He kept pace beside her without effort. They hadn’t talked, but her mind raced. By now, word of Perez’s death would have reached other cartels, and efforts to find and seize his money would be underway. Once they located the funds, the claims their attorneys made 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 Colombian 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 use turn the tide against Lanton before he learned of Perez’s death. But 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 before he stopped. “There.” Cole pointed to a large Plumeria with fragrant white 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. Was that hope of denial in his voice? “You said you knew everything about me. You 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.

She started to turn, 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 he 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 lowest branch and reached for it. “Well,” he said, his voice straining slightly as he pulled himself up onto the branch, “it’s over. You can’t leave me behind.” He gained the branch, steadied himself against a different, chest-high branch, 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 won’t be as nice as I usually am.”

A tremor rippled through her belly. Maybe this was his way of asking her to snuggle like monkeys in the branches.

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 and make sure Amanda’s all right.”

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.

“We’ll go 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.

Jesse crawled back down to Cole, where she felt along the limb and stretched out. He caught her hand as she settled facing him. His grip lingered for a moment before he released her. She studied him. His face remained hidden in shadows. He had remained quiet while she climbed, but he might as well have been repeating over and over those words he’d said earlier:
“We’ve got to discuss how we’re going to get back and make sure Amanda’s all right.”

Surprise, surprise.
Apparently, he’d known all along that Amanda was her priority.

Jesse shifted onto her back. “With Perez dead, Lanton needs me dead. The way to ensure that is through my sister. I have to get to her before he does. So you see why I have to reach that village tonight. I’d rather you came with me. I don’t like the looks of your leg.” She paused. “You’ve been MIA for over a day. Think your men are looking for you?”

“Count on it.”

“They might have reported Perez’s death to Lanton.”

“This isn’t a Green Team mission,” Cole said. “I’m team leader, and this mission is personal. They’ll try to find me before making contact.”

Jesse closed her eyes in relief.

“If I don’t show, they’ll eventually go to Lanton,” he went on. “But we’ll get to them beforehand. Don’t worry about the team. They’ll follow my lead.”

Something in the way he said
follow my lead
gave her pause. He was still holding back. No. She was doing it again. Dammit.  Trust had never come easily. In this business, suspicion was a requirement. But she had learned to depend upon team members. With everything she and Cole had been through, why didn’t she trust him? What more did he have to do to prove himself—die? Or was her lack of trust a way of keeping him at a distance? She was already wondering what they would do after this was over. Would she drop out of sight while he went back to Green Team?

“Cole,” she began quietly.

A murmur of voices wafted on the night breeze. Jesse tensed. Cole pressed a warning hand to her arm. She instinctively reached for his shirt and found her fingers pressing the luxurious hair of his chest.

Couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried.

A day late and a dollar short.

Cole’s hand covered the hand resting on his chest. She tensed, her attention on the sounds around her, waiting for another burst of speech in order to pinpoint the location of the voices. Two seconds passed and the click of what Jesse recognized as a radio squelch kicking in was followed by a faint voice. Who the hell was wandering around in the jungle with a radio? Not Perez’s men. The only people she could think of were—

Cole abruptly leaned close and whispered, “Stay here.”

He started to pull away, but Jesse seized his lapel and pulled him back. “I know U.S. made equipment when I hear it,” she whispered. “Who are they?”

Jesse tensed when Cole brought his mouth to her ear and whispered, “I’m hoping they’re Caruthers and Fletcher.”

He’s been expecting them.

She tightened her grip on his jacket as much out of uncertainty as the desire to throttle him.

“Trust me,” he ordered, and disengaged her hand from his shirt.

He slipped down through the foliage and Jesse repressed an urge to climb after him.

So much for monkey-sex.

Right now, she’d settle for dishing out a monkey beating. He was holding out on her—had been from the start. Jesse strained to discern the path of his descent, but he reached the ground and she lost him when he melted into the jungle. With careful and silent deliberation, she rose and steadied herself against the trunk. The village lay eight clicks north. The mission was over, a failure. Her best option was to get Amanda out of Houghton House. So why was she waiting for Cole?

Natural jungle sounds chattered around her as she climbed down, pausing at each branch to listen. She lowered to the ground and stood by the trunk, patting her pockets, wondering if she had anything Cole might need. Maybe she should leave a note? She laughed inwardly at the ridiculous thought. Her reluctance to take off surprised her. This was Cole she was talking about. Injured or not, he could take care of himself. A footfall crunched undergrowth a few meters to her right. She whirled. A red lensed flashlight flicked on then off.

“Jess,” Cole whispered. “It’s me.”

She discerned his outline nearly close enough to touch.

“Caruthers and Fletcher are with me.” Cole caught her arm. “I’ve filled them in on you and Lanton.”

Jesse glanced in the direction of the village. Cole released her, then turned on the red flashlight and pointed it at the ground. Another red light flicked on directly ahead, and the outlines of two men materialized, each wearing night-camouflage, ops-vests and stocking caps. The one who stood an inch or so taller than her five-ten was built like a tri-athlete, slim, and advanced with fluid grace.

The other she recognized from the cantina: six-six and early thirties. He gripped the flashlight in one massive paw. As they approached, Jesse noticed that, without his disguise, the big guy had no beer-belly or beard. He looked like a linebacker for the New York Giants. This was the guy who had tripped her outside the cantina. No wonder it felt like a ton of bricks had fallen on her.

“Jesse Evans,” Cole said, “Charlie—Crush—Caruthers and Sam Fletcher.”

Jesse brought her gaze to rest on Crush.

He nodded in understanding. “Sorry about the tackle outside the cantina, ma’am. Just doing my job.”

He spoke with a North Jersey accent and, despite the obvious implication that he had relished
doing his job,
she couldn’t help feeling she’d met the boy next door. He was probably even a Giant’s fan.

Jesse nodded. “I should have watched my back.” And she would have had Cole not screwed up her insides with his damn kisses.

A twinge of embarrassment fluttered her stomach. She was acting like a schoolgirl after a first kiss. The flutter turned sour. She refocused on Caruthers and Fletcher. “How did you boys find us?”

“We saw you kick ass back at the compound,” Fletcher said. “We owe you big time for getting Cole out of that hellhole.” “She couldn’t help liking his San Fernando accent and the chuckle in this voice.

Despite his warmth, a chill settled in Jesse’s gut. The truck ride from the sub base had lasted four hours. The prison could have been anywhere in a two-hundred kilometer radius. “How did you know where they had us?”

“We had a friendly talk with one of Perez’s men,” Crush replied. “He gave up the location of the prison. We weren’t sure you and Cole were there until we saw you arrive.”

“That’s when we figured bonus, two for one,” Fletcher added.

“Stow it,” Crush ordered, casting a sideway glance at Fletcher that Jesse couldn’t interpret in the dim light.

Did Fletcher mean her and Cole, or her and Perez? “Two?” she asked.

Cole grasped her arm, more intimate than cautionary. Caruthers’ gaze snapped to the action. Jesse barely registered the quiver in her belly before pulling free and leveling her gaze on Caruthers.

He gave another nod of understanding. “You went inside with Perez and one guard, next thing we know you’re in the doorway, gun blazing, with Cole on your heels. We sprung our own trap before you disappeared into the jungle. We kept the guards busy while you and Cole got away.”

“Luckily, you left one hell of a trail,” Fletcher said.

Jesse swung her gaze onto him. His grin revealed even teeth in the glow of the red light. That explained why they’d so easily escaped.

“Don’t worry about the guards,” he added. “Even Perez couldn’t round up the survivors.”

“Perez is dead,” Cole said.

Jesse frowned, surprised by the hard note in his voice, then blinked when Fletcher exclaimed with a boyish, “Good job!”

A panther growled uncomfortably close.

“I say we get out of here,” Fletcher said. “We have a Jeep near the prison.”

Jesse shivered at the thought of going anywhere near the prison.

“Jesse and I have to get out of the country fast,” Cole said. “This isn’t over.”

She stared at him. The way he said ‘Jesse and I’ reminded her of his assertion that she wouldn’t be able to leave him behind.

She glanced up into the Plumeria. Only fifteen minutes ago, she’d been wishing for some simple monkey snuggling.