Friendly Fire (The Echo Platoon Series, Book 3) (11 page)

To her surprise, she read no recrimination in his expression—just the same intellectual eagerness she had remarked in him from their very first meeting.

"Why is
he
coming?" Sammy muttered in a glum voice. The bus began to move.

Emma turned her head to look at her daughter. "Aunt Juliet gave him her ticket." Sammy's sullen expression perplexed her. "Don't you like him?" she asked softly.

Sammy shrugged before turning her gaze out the window.

Emma heaved an inward sigh. Well, if that wasn't a sign, she didn't know what was. Sammy didn't want another father figure in her life, and who could blame her, given what Eddie had done? Yet the urge to defend Jeremiah, to point out his endless virtues, caught her off guard. She wanted her daughter to like him, but what was the point? They weren't going to deepen their relationship. He wasn't going to be part of their lives, so Sammy's opinion made no difference one way or another.

She stared out the window at the flat, lush terrain, her heart heavy.

* * *

Samantha Albright followed her mother up the jungle path. With her every step, the tube she carried bounced off her calves. The hot bus ride into the desolate countryside had been followed by a lunch of yellow rice and chicken. When she'd heard a rumor that the meat was actually iguana, she had lunged for the last hamburger, but some man swiped it right out from under her. As it turned out, iguana tasted just like chicken.

After lunch, they were given life jackets and headlamps and told to pick out an inner tube. Hers was almost as wide as she was tall, which meant she had to carry it on top of her head and down her back. Through the thin tread of her water shoes she could feel every rock that lined the trail. They had crossed the stream twice on their way through the jungle, and the water was cold.

"Can I carry that for you?"

"No thanks." Sammy sneaked a peek at Jeremiah Winters.

He nodded at her reply and walked around her.

He looked too old to have ever been her mother's student. She had to admit that he had a nice face, which made it hard to hate him. But she didn't have to like him, either.

Her mother liked him, though, which was unsettling. Sammy could tell by the way her gaze latched onto him as he bounded to the head of the line. He didn't shuffle along like everyone else; he bounced when he walked, like this hike was easy. He chatted up their new guide—a little guy with nut-brown skin who explained that he was Mayan.

Guilt dogged Sammy's heels. If her mother really liked Jeremiah, then maybe she should act a little friendlier. But then she'd seen what her father had done to them. Men couldn't be trusted to stick around.

After the cruise was over and they went home, her mom would forget about him. Things would settle down again—with her mother staying home alone on weekends. Sammy frowned.

"You won't see any toucans unless you look up."

Her mother's admonition had her raising her eyes to the dark fronds overhead. Though she didn't see any toucans, a monkey leaping from one branch to another captivated her. She couldn't help but smile.

At last, they arrived at the narrow beach where they would launch their rafts. When they came out from under the trees, they realized it was raining. Droplets of water dimpled the tea-colored water.

A rumble of thunder had them all glancing upward.

"Don't worry," said their guide as raindrops spattered their tubes. "You will get wet anyway."

Following his instructions, they waded into the water and climbed onto their tubes. Their guide lashed the floats together, and Sammy found herself beside her mother and in front of Jeremiah, his knees on either side of her head. Her mother pretended to ignore him, but her eyes were shining.

The guide began to pull them through the shallow water.

"Bottoms up!" he called, as he pulled their tubes over a bed of sleek pebbles.

The rain fell faster, pelting Samantha's arms and legs. As the water deepened, the guide started to swim. Holding the rope in his mouth, he kept the flotilla moving at a steady pace. The water grew cloudier as mud poured off the land into the stream.

Her mother sent a worried glance back at Jeremiah.

The rain shower didn't bother Sammy. Wiped out from staying up late every night at Kids' Zone, she rested her head against the back of her life vest, turned her cheek to the rain, and closed her eyes. The adult-sized vest rode up her skinny torso. Like a turtle, she felt her chin retreat into her shell.

"Honey, don't fall asleep," she heard her mother say. "You'll miss the
cenotes
."

"Wake me up when we get there." Sammy released the buckle on her vest so it wouldn't scrape her chin. In a semi-conscious state, she felt them moving faster. A couple of times, the rafts around her bumped into hers, rousing her briefly.

What seemed like only seconds later, a gentle hand shook her awake. "Sammy, wake up. We're going into the caves."

Dragging her eyelids open, she saw the sky give way to a high rocky roof. Darkness encapsulated them.

"Turn on your lamps," their guide called from up front.

Sammy didn't bother. For a while she listened to him talk about the bats living in holes in the sandstone. Then he spoke of the ancient Mayan rituals that had taken place within these caverns, as evidenced by the pottery shards found in the profound depths falling away beneath their rafts.

"Sammy, look," came her mother's voice. "You're missing the waterfall."

She pried her eyes open again. Craning her neck from her shell, she stole a peek. They'd come to a spot where the roof of the cave opened to the forest floor high above them. Water gushed through the opening and crashed into a basin-shaped pool. It overflowed, splashing the occupants of the tubes as the guide led them along the lip of the sinkhole.

Too sleepy to keep her eyes open, she fell back against her tube. The guide's voice sounded over the thunder of the falls.

"The sink hole is rumored to be bottomless."

His words merged into a dream about an underwater treasure.

"Can't you slow us down?" An irritated, male voice startled Sammy from her light sleep. "We're going too quickly."

The tubes jammed together as the guide put his back to the flotilla to slow them down. Jeremiah's tube bumped forcefully into Sammy's. She felt her head slip through her unfastened life vest. Her bottom went straight through the hole in her tube. She groped the slick rubber to catch herself, squeezed her knees to halt her descent, but the current sucked her entire body through the opening.

Water filled her nose and ears. The current seized her, keeping her from rising the same way she'd gone down. She clawed her way toward the surface but went nowhere. Panic jolted her wide awake. She realized she was drowning.

Chapter 7

Emma saw Sammy's feet flail in the dark then disappear. She lunged in her direction only to come away with an empty life vest.

"Stop!"

Her shriek of horror sounded over the waterfall and echoed off the sandstone walls as she threw herself over the spot where her daughter had vanished, fishing for her with panicked outstretched arms.

The flotilla of tubes gave a shudder. A light splash let her know that Jeremiah had rolled into the water, leaving his life vest behind. She swung her headlamp around in time to see him loop under the surface like a dolphin. The guide also went under, headlamp and all. Alarm rippled over the small group as they held a collective breath.

Terror kept a chokehold on Emma's vocal cords. The current continued to carry them along at a velocity heightened by the rainfall. The echo of her pounding heart beat in her eardrums as she followed the beams of light flashing under the surface. The seconds stretched into impossible proportions.

Please, oh, please, oh, please!

Suddenly, Jeremiah crested the surface bearing Sammy across his chest. The guide popped up next to them, panning their faces with his light. Sammy's ashen complexion kept Emma frozen. Her headlamp hung askew on her damp head. She sputtered and gasped.

"She's okay." Jeremiah's soothing voice echoed around them.

The crash of the falls had faded into the background, letting Emma know how far they'd drifted. He reached for the flotilla in order to lift Sammy up out of the water.

Balancing on her tube, Emma aided him, reaching for her daughter and pulling her to safety. Then she hugged her hard, hoping to quell Sammy's trembling.

The tourist who'd complained about going too fast demanded a full refund since his guided tour had been rudely interrupted.

Jeremiah, who'd resumed his seat, sent him a look so pointed that the man shut up.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Helping Sammy to put her life vest back on, she saw that the strap had been unbuckled.

The whites of Sammy's eyes shone under her mat of dark hair. "I hit a whirlpool or something, and I couldn't get out of it."

"You scared me to death," Emma scolded, squeezing int next to her on the same tube. "Why was your life vest unbuckled?"

Sammy kept quiet.

"You're lucky to be alive, baby," she added, pulling Sammy close and holding her until her shivering subsided.

The cave brightened as they drifted toward the exit. Closing her eyes, Emma sent God a silent prayer of thanks.
Thank you for Jeremiah,
she added. If he hadn't been with them...

Thrusting the awful thought aside, she turned her head to convey the depth of her gratitude. With the light of day reflected in them, his hazel eyes shone more gold than green. Affection crested with in her, prompting her to stretch out a hand and squeeze his damp thigh.

As his lips curved into a modest smile, her feelings for him lodged in her throat in the form of a painful lump.

"Thank you," she mouthed.

He sent her wink that reminded her of how good it felt to have his weight pressing down on her. Taking in the breadth of his shoulders and line of fuzz bisecting his taut abdomen, she lamented the lost opportunity to make love last night.

Imagine how blissful it would have felt to join with him, finally, after all these years. Looking back into his steady gaze, her pulse leaped at the message she read there. Carefully, slowly, she removed her hand from his knee.

Conscious of Sammy's scrutiny, Emma faced forward again. Jeremiah still intended to claim her. One part of her rejoiced. In spite of her better judgment, she
needed
them to finish what they'd started, for that was the only way to appease this persistent hankering for more.

At the same time, she cursed her weakness. Even seeing the train wreck coming, she lacked the common sense to jump clear of the tracks.

* * *

"Just remember," Tristan called. "Second place is the first loser."

Regarding him from her seat on an identical all-terrain four-wheeler, Juliet had to wonder how many times he'd taunted his opponents with that comment and just how many races he had won.

The steady drizzle could not obscure the competitive gleam in his blue eyes. He couldn't wait to show her his driving skills. However, winning wasn't all about speed. Cunning was equally involved, and she had noticed a short cut on the trail map tacked to the wall in the main cabin when they'd checked in.

By way of reply, she revved her engine while keeping a firm hand on the brakes.

He threw his head back and laughed.

Their guide, a young woman with ebony skin made her way to the front of the pack and eyed them all severely. "Are you all ready?" she shouted.

"Yeah!" chorused the dozen or so riders.

"Okay, then. On my count of three, you may go. Remember the rules and be safe out there. One, two..."

On three, Juliet released the brake and headed for the muddy track disappearing into the tree line. She could hear Tristan's engine whine as he swiftly pursued her, and she promptly increased her speed.

She hadn't realized when she'd opted for this excursion that it would entail getting filthy. Within seconds of taking off, she looked down to see her arms and legs flecked with mud. Thank goodness her hair was tucked inside her helmet.

Ignoring her feminine repugnance, she edged her speed higher, streaking past greenery and wildlife at a rate that turned the jungle into a blur and kept adrenaline cycling through her system like engine oil.