Jungle of Deceit (12 page)

Boom boom boom
.

The unexpected knock on the door sent a shock through her. She shoved her hands in her pockets so as not to reveal the mutinous tremble of her body.

Boom boom
. “Solis!”

Alex felt the tremors persist, but it was one small victory to see Solis lose his cool.

A rapid string of Spanish revealed that it was her own men that were the subject of this interruption. She came alert as Solis charged towards the door, administered his keys and yanked it open.

A man in military surplus gear stood outside. Solis had shouldered her aside in his haste to get to the door, but Alex listened intently to the exchange and injected a few words of protest when she heard her men being referenced.

“
Callate!” Solis screamed at her and grabbed the door, obscuring the soldier from view.

With a curse, Solis looked over his shoulder at her. Alex raised her head and awaited the needless translation he was about to deliver.

“
You have ten minutes to get your group to calm down or we start doing it for you. I don’t need the disruption. It may appear like we have all the time in the world on our hands, but I am busy and I have tasks to assign to my soldiers. Tasks more important than quieting your students.”

Solis stepped back, the door still in his grasp, stabbing his finger at the soldier. “Take her. If she cannot shut her group up, then start shooting them.”

Oh God.

“
They will calm down if I can tell them that they are leaving.” Alex challenged.

A silent duel transpired until Solis grew impatient and jerked his head in affirmation. He addressed the soldier and stepped back out of the way. “Bring her back here as soon as they are gone.”

The man moved in, his hand clamping down on her arm with a grip that stung. Trying to tug free, Alex glared at him, but his eyes were unreadable behind dark sunglasses.

“
She must stay unharmed,” Solis warned as the guard yanked on her. “Kill the men to control her.”

“
Go to hell,” Alex hissed over her shoulder.

Solis slammed the door in her face.

***

Mitch felt the resistance in Alex. It was like hauling a child into the dentist office. The muscle beneath his hand cramped in protest.

Moments ago he had exhausted every key on the ring he had appropriated from the unconscious guerilla to make it up here. Solis, as he had heard the guards refer to their leader was the next obstacle. Mitch kept the rifle slung across his shoulder, but his free hand wrapped around a switchblade in his pocket should his masquerade be revealed. As Mitch expected, Solis had no recognition for individual faces in his army, he cared only that they executed his bidding.

With Alex in hand, Mitch started to relax after they passed through the ridiculously posh corridor and into the guard shack at the top of the stairs. He couldn’t let up on his grip however. If she broke free, her fate would be sealed.

“
Vamos,” he whispered, urging her through the door and into the brilliant light of day.

He felt the recoil of her body, but then she raised her hand over her eyes to shield them, seeking out the stronghold where her group was contained.

Urging her down the stairs, he noticed that she no longer resisted him. Instead, she was eager to reach their destination and ended up hauling him. They started across the open courtyard, the crunch of dry dirt beneath their boots. Mitch had to think in short-term goals. Each step across the open turf was a small goal. The major objective was to reach the first concrete structure and get behind it, knowing full well that Solis stood at his window watching their progress.

Attaining that goal by rounding the corner, Mitch yanked Alex, but it took a lot of force to break her from her track towards her students.

“
What the−”

Mitch drew her into the shadows and took stock of the nearby personnel. Within closest proximity, a guard smoked a cigarette, his shoulder propped against the front gate. Mitch pushed Alex further along the wall, out of his view.

“
Goddammit, you are
not
going to do this!” She struggled against him.

“
Look,” he began, “I know I haven’t made much of an impact, but I damn well nearly kissed you the other day. I would think you might recognize me.”

The shock was so severe he had to hold onto her as she sagged against the concrete. Her normally tan complexion paled and her breathing turned into a short succession of hiccups.

“
Hey. Easy, Alex.” He propped her against the wall, trying to make sure she didn’t slide down into a pile at his feet and draw attention. To the passing eye it might look like he was molesting her.

“
You−”

“
Look at me.” Mitch let go and tore off his sunglasses.

Her eyes devoured him with enough zeal to siphon his strength. After that initial feast he could see clarity return.

“
Mitch?” She gaped.

Who was he kidding? He was the one indulging in the sight of her. She was safe! God help him, he wanted to kiss her, but his grip gentled. His hands brushed up her biceps and across her shoulders, to cup her neck and trace his thumbs against her cheeks.

“
Are you okay?” His voice was hoarse. “Did he hurt you? I would have been up there sooner, but I couldn’t find the goddamn key.”

Alex reached up and grabbed his arms, touching him. He could tell that she was still trying to establish whether he was real.

“
I don’t feel so good.” Her eyes rolled back.

“
Whoah.” He took hold of her shoulders. “I’ve got you.”

Verdant irises slipped back into focus. “I thought−I thought you died.”

“
I know.” He shook his head. “We were split up at first, and then I saw what your destination was. Alex, I didn’t trust this place. I thought if we all went inside…that was it. We had no cards to play. No fallback.”

“
You became our fallback,” she whispered.

“
I had to. I had to stay back. Going all the way to Ramonez for help wasn’t an option. It would take too long. I needed to be an asset to you inside. I needed to get in here−away from the group. I needed to−”
protect you
.

This was not some cryptic mission bestowed by an eccentric museum director. Nicholson and his dubious intentions were not in play here. Where this need to protect Alex came from was too complex to analyze.

“
Mitch!” Alex stiffened in his arms. “Someone is coming.”

In his periphery, Mitch saw the approach of the guard from the front gate. The cigarette still dangled between his lips and the bitter tang of tobacco invaded the air. As nonchalant as the man might appear, Mitch recognized that the cigarette was in his mouth for a reason. To free his hands.

Mitch turned and growled at the man in Spanish, “It’s about time they gave us something to play with here.”

The guard spit out the cigarette and ground it into the dirt with the tip of his boot. He snorted and looked at Alex far too long.

“
Si. How long did he give you?”

“
I have to get her back up there in a few minutes.”

The guard took a step toward them and Mitch clamped his hands on Alex’s shoulders to still her.

“
What are you going to do with her?” The guard sneered.

“
Not a damn thing until you leave.”

That answer didn’t seem to work. The guard’s crusted fingers toyed with the strap of his rifle and he stared with the fascination of a snake to a mouse.

“
Solis gave her to
me
for now.” Mitch continued. “I don’t have long and there is a lot I want to do with her, so leave me alone. Besides,” he tipped his head up in the direction of the main building, “do you want him to look out and not see you at the gate?”

That threat elicited the reaction Mitch was hoping for. The guard glanced over his shoulder at the unmanned entry. He spit at the ground and gave Alex another long look, and then nodded. “No problem. I will get my turn.”

Instead of spinning to leave though, he started pacing backwards, watching them with each retreating step.

Mitch looked down at Alex and felt her erratic breath, her eyes fixed on the armed man only fifteen feet away.

“
Alex.”

Her glance jerked up to meet his.

“
Hold on to me.”

And with just that warning, Mitch dipped his head and captured her mouth. Alex jolted, but he held her steady and brushed her mouth again−growling out a need that was supposed to be for show. Christ, one kiss in a ridiculously impossible situation, and he wanted her so bad he felt dizzy. He tried to focus on the external factors. This was an act. A dodgy guerilla with a lethal rifle was scrutinizing his every move. The potential for interruption and reproach from Solis lurked at any second.

Yet, the lips that had enticed him since their very first rebuke were stoking him with desire. He had come so close to kissing her in the jungle. At that time he convinced himself it was to silence her wit−but no−he
wanted
that physical connection. She had attracted him with intelligence and bravado, but he wanted more. He wanted to touch. He wanted to feel Alex.

Again his mouth swept hers and he struggled to focus on the location of the lecherous guard. Mitch knew that his frame was large enough to eclipse Alex from view. To anyone watching it might appear that he was enacting a sexual assault.

Mitch leaned into her which was a big mistake because it revealed exactly how much he wanted her. Nestling his hips into hers only aggravated his condition. She stayed still in his arms though, and did not resist. Smart girl. She knew this was a performance. And damn, what an actress she was. She started to kiss him back. Her hands slid up his chest and it was as if her fingers were charged, shooting bolts of passion through him. Her hands slipped up over his shoulders where her arms locked around his neck so that she could arch further into him.

“
Alex,” he rasped against her mouth.

He parted her lips with his own and tasted a blend of heat and heaven. His palms fell flat on the cement wall on either side of her head as he pinned her against the rigid surface with the length of his body. The kiss became a fusion of hunger, desire and the heady sense of reassurance that both of them were safe.

***

Mitch was here. He was alive and he was kissing her−sucking the power from her limbs with each enticing sweep. She clung to him, and in the remote portion of her brain that was still coherent, it registered that he was putting on a show for their audience.

Damn, the man should get an Oscar.

Three years. It had been three years since she was last kissed, and it was not like this. At that time, the body had not been pressed against her, so hot and hard with need as if she were the only woman in the world. When Mitch touched her lips and growled out his need, she felt a heady sense of power which surged south to an area that joined in his friction. Her hand climbed the cords of his neck, her fingers seeking the hair that fascinated her the first day she laid eyes on it. It was soft to the touch as her fingers climbed higher, nearly knocking the cap from his head.

Mitch drew back.

“
Easy, baby, you’ll knock my disguise off.”

Alex kept her eyes closed, enjoying the resonation of his deep voice vibrating against her chest. Mitch was alive! She had refused to acknowledge her attraction to him. Even during their heated exchange in the jungle the other day, she refused to accept that he was nothing more than an inconvenience. But then he had made that quiet declaration that he felt something for her. And shortly thereafter he had pulled her into his arms at a time of such chaos. And when he disappeared her silent heartbreak was a physical and emotional testimony that she too had
felt something
for this attractive, annoying, and impossible man.

“
My eyes are dark enough from a distance, but I still have to hide them behind the sunglasses. And my hair isn’t black. I need the hat.”

It was tough to decipher what he said. Her ears buzzed with the lingering traces of passion, and her eyes remained clamped shut. She hauled them open only to see her reflection.

“
You’re alive,” she whispered.

“
Yes.”

His kiss was soft. So soft it hurt her heart.

“
This−” her palm rested on his chest, “−this was a show for the guard?”

He touched her lips one more time and she felt water inch up behind her eyelids. With a brush of his mouth against her forehead, he withdrew. “What do you think?”

So much pain. It hurt to take the leap.

“
It didn’t feel like an act.”

“
No.” His voice was husky. “God help us both…it
wasn’t
an act.”

Wincing from the friction, he untangled from her body.

“
We had that coming to us,” he murmured. “Of course, I was picturing something more romantic than shoving you up against a concrete building with a cigarette-slinging guerilla breathing down our necks. Speaking of which…” he paused, “−where is our shadow right now?”