For His Eyes Only (24 page)

“
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.

Jesse crawled back down to Cole, where she felt along the limb and stretched out. He caught her other 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 been quiet while she followed him up the tree, but he might as well have been repeating over and over those words he’d said as he started up the tree:
“We’ve got to discuss how we’re going to get back so we can make sure Amanda’s all right.”

Surprise, surprise.
Aside from the comment he made the night after they went to Judge Menendez’s, tonight was the first reference to Amanda. But Jesse now realized he’d known all along 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 Amanda before he does. So you see why I have to reach that village tonight. I’d rather you went 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 already 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 first.”

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. What had happened to her? 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 buried in 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?”

CHAPTER FIFTY

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 of what to do as the desire to throttle him.