Mission Made For Two (17 page)

Di
rect hit.
 

The muscle in his jaw ticked with his annoyance.
  “It’s not about proving yourself, Sierra.”  Jake slowed briefly and turned onto another road.  By the looks of things they were heading
north
toward the mountains.  He glanced at her.  “It’s about not charging headlong into trouble.”

Sierra frowned.  “Is that what you think I do?  Charge in without a plan or without the capabilities to pull my missions off?”

Jake let out a breath and shook his head.  “Just forget it, Sierra.  I don’t want to fi
ght with you right now.  Open
my bag and get the
first aid
kit out.  There’s some gauze you can use to push against your side to stop the bleeding.”

Sierra looked
down at the wound. The bandage that covered it was completely red.  She did what he said, but no way was she dropping this conversation.  He was going to tell her exactly what he meant.  Maybe not right this minute, but she would get the information.

Sierra ripped the bloody gauze from her side and threw it i
n the floorboard.  Using a
clean
pad, she pressed it to the wound.  What she wouldn’t give for a
shot of whisky.
  After the bleeding slowed, she fished out another clean bandage and
taped it over the wound
.

Jake glanced at her several more times, but he kept quiet. She did too.  Where they were go
ing really didn’t matter
.
  She trusted Jake.  Unlike him, she believed him capable of doing his job. 
 

~
***~

Si
erra jerked awake.  She hadn’t meant to fall asleep.  Jake cursed beside her. 
A minute ticked by before
her feverish brain
could
assimilate the situation.  Jake had hit the gas, which is what had yank
ed her back to reality,
along with
the
whup
-whup
of chopper blades
.

She leaned down enough to see out the side window.
  A
black helicopter
hovered to their left.  Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a green suburban
behind them.

“How far away from Santo Domingo are we?” Sierra asked and cleared her throat.

“Not far enough apparently.” Jake glanced in the rearview mirror. “Liste
n, we’re going to have to dump the car.”

Sierra looked to her left.  A thick stand of tree
s ran
p
arallel to road
.  Turning back toward Jake, she encountered serious blue eyes.

“When we
stop
, we’re going
to have to run for it.  That f
orest
spans about thirty miles
, but when we get to the
other side, we’ll be
close to
Cotui
.  I know someone there who’ll help us.
  It’s where I was headed.
”

Sierra understood his words perfectly. He didn’t think she could handle it. “I’ll keep up with you, Jake.”

She said the words and uttered
a silent
prayer she could follow them
with actions.  She’d run on nothing more than sheer determination before. She could do it now.
Failing wasn’t an option.

The suburban rammed them from behind.
  Jake
pressed
the gas pedal
harder
.
  A bullet ricocheted off the cab’s bumper. 

“Jake, if they hit our tire,
we’re dead
.”

“I know,” he muttered.  “
I’m going as fast as I can.”

He swerved as another bullet b
ounced off the trunk
.  “Hang on!”

Sierra clutched the door handle.  Jake jerked the steering wheel, spinning the car in the road a hundred-eighty degrees.
  Their tires left a cloud of smoke.

Jake
floored it and whipped past the suburban.

“You’re pretty good at that
move,” Sierra commented.

The big SUV couldn’t turn as fast.  It followed, but they had a little breathing room. 

“Okay, one more time,” Jake murmured.  He slowed just enough to let the bad guys think they might catch him,
th
en
whipped the cab around again with a squeal of tires.
  They shot past the green monster.  Jake didn’t slow at all this time.  He had the gas pedal to the floor.  The maneuver bought them precious distance.

Automatic weapon fire hit the road in front of them
, kicking up chunks of asphalt that tinged the car.
    

“Jeez,” Sierra looked out the window again. She’d almost
forgotten about the damn chopper. 

Jake swerved to the left,
stirring
up dust along the shoulde
r
to give them at least a little cover
.  “
Be ready to run.”

“I’m ready.”

More bullets rained down
, hitting the hood.  Sierra’s side mirror took a hit
.  Jake swerved several more times.  He jerked the wheel hard
and they shot off the road, bouncing over the rough terrain
.
  Sierra unbuckled her seat belt as Jake
slammed on brakes beneath the cover of trees. 

Grabbing their bag
, she scrambled out of the car.  Jake was at her
side instantly. He took the back pack
from her and they ran.

The sound of the chopper stayed above them, but they’d entered a thick canopy of tree
branches.  The
chopper
couldn’t
see them.  That didn’t mean that the guys in the SUV couldn’t catch them if they didn’t move fast enough.

Sierra was very aware of her side.  It throbbed with each jar of her footfalls and her head wasn’t much better.
She was dizzy and slightly nauseous.

She focused on Jake’s back and made her legs move fast enough to keep up.  Jake wouldn’t leave her and
she
would
n’t
be the reason he got killed.

They came to a small incline. Jake slowed enough to grab her hand and haul her up behind him.
Good thing.  Even as
determined as she wa
s,
she
didn’t think she could
make it up the hill on her own.
 

Jake didn’t release her hand when they made it to the top.  Instead, he held on as th
ey basically slid down the other side
on their butts. 

“There’s a small stream up ahead.  We can follow it a ways.  If Diaz’s men come after us they won’t be able to follow our tracks.”

Sierra nodded, too winded to vocalize anything.
  Like how the
heck he knew this place so well?
 

Sierra could hear the water running now that he said that.  Jake pushed through a small thicket of bushes. 
The branches scratched her arms, the little stings actually reviving her a little.
 

The water came up to their knees, slowing them a bit, but Sierra knew the importance of covering their tracks.  Her labored breathing covered any sounds their pursuers might be making
, yet the
noise
of the chopper was still evident in the distance
.  She risked a quick glance over her shoulder.

Jake jerked her hand.  “There’s no one back there. But we need to put more distance between us
and them, just in case.”

Again all Sierra could do was nod.
 

She was pretty sure they covered
five
miles
or
more
before Jake halted them. Sierra went to her knees, her side aching, her head about to explode.  The green vegetation blurred.

“Sierra?”
  Jake knelt beside her and touched her cheek. 

She turned away from him and puked up what little food she’d eaten before they’d left the cottage until on
ly
dry heaves were left.  Great, just what she needed to do to instill confidence.  Using the bottom of her butt ugly shirt, she wiped her mouth,
then
sucked in several deep breaths of the warm, moist air before she could talk.
  “I just need
a moment.”

Jake shook his head and plopped down,
his breathing heavy as he leaned
against a sturdy
tree trunk.  “Come here
.”  He took her hand and tugged her against him.  Sierra couldn’t resist. She wa
s in too much pain and too dizzy
.  She se
ttled her head against his
chest, not even minding its quick rise and fall
and closed her eyes.  Just a few minutes
was
all she needed…

“You did good, sweetheart.  Just rest,” Jake said softly.  At least Sierra thought that’s what he said as she drifted off to sleep.
 
 
      
 
 
 
 
    
 

Jake stroked Sierra’s
cheek,
then
removed her hat and touched
her hair as she essentially passed out.  He marveled at her strength.  He was also wo
rried
.  Her cheeks were flushed, and even with the exertion of their trek, she was warmer than normal.
 

E
arlier in the car, when she’d fallen asleep, he’d known then
she w
as
feverish
.
 

Damn it!  She needed rest and antibiotics, neither of which he could give her.
  He didn’t think her temperature was that high, so he could only hope it was caused by the trauma of the gunshot and she wouldn’t end up with a life threatening infection.
  Being in the jungle wouldn’t help though.  If she was going to pick up an infection this was the place to get it. 

He’d let her sleep a little while,
then
they’d have to move again.  They needed to make ground before nightfall.
  There was a good chance Diaz’s men were calling in reinforcements to flush them
out of the trees
.
 

He looked down
at the stubborn woman in his arms.
 
She refused to give up.  He’d seen bad-ass
Special Forces
soldiers
collapse under less strain. 

Her breathing had ca
lmed, though it was still heavier
than normal.  One thing she needed was water. 
Shifting enough to remove his
back
pack
from his shoulder, he pulled
out a canteen
.  He’d prepared for the worst, hoping not to have to resort to running through the countryside
, yet knowing it was a possibility.
Diaz wielded too much power in this part of the world
. 

Fishing
a bottle of aspirin
from a side pocket
, he shook out a couple pills,
then
unscrewed the top to the water.  “Sierra, honey,” he said gently and moved his legs to jostle her. 

She mo
aned and snuggled
against him.  Her hand slipped to h
is crotch.
Damn.  Sierra was sick as
a dog and he was getting a hard-
on from an innocent embrace.
 

“Sierra.
  You have to wake up.”  He raised his v
oice and bounced his leg again.

Her eyes blinked open.  Confusion, then
recognition fluttered in her chocolate brown gaze.  She lifted her head and immediately squeezed her eyes shut.

Jake pushed the canteen to her lips.  “Drink a little water and take some aspirin. It’ll help.”

She looked at him again and did as instructed.  After she’d swallowed the little white pills he’d pushed onto her tongue, she spoke.
“
We
should activate my compact.  Headquarters will be able to track us and with any luck be waiting for us on the other side of these trees.”

Jake nodded.  “I think that’s a good idea, but I’d feel better if we could actually communicate with Trent and tell him what they’re getting into.”

“Trent’s smart enough to come in prepared.”