Out of Plans (The Mercenaries #2) (10 page)

They eventually headed back to the river. Marc was positive they were headed towards Romerales, and that it was only a couple miles away. She prayed he was right. A couple miles in the jungle, barefoot, was too long. She didn't know how far she'd be able to go.

Turned out, they were only two miles from the small town. It still took them over an hour, what with Lily's feet. And even then, once they got there, they skirted the edges of the buildings, not wanting to be seen. Damiano would have to know they'd wash up in that town. It was the first stop along the river.

While Lily stole a pair of flip flops off a back porch, Marc found them a car. A tiny truck, Lily couldn't even tell what the make and model was, though it didn't matter. As long as she didn't have to walk anymore. She slid into the passenger side gratefully, closing her eyes as they raced off down a road.

There were several small towns to the east, and they picked their way along for a while, stealing food and clothing. They both looked like shit, covered in mud, leaves and branches in their hair. They got a lot of stares, which wasn't a good thing.

Having Marc in the driver's seat, though, that was almost worst.

What to do, what to do. What would Kingsley do? I don't know anymore.

“Turn left,” she barked, when they were almost ten miles out from Romerales.

They had driven predominantly in silence. Marc looked tense, a permanent scowl on his face. Lily stole a couple looks at him, but kept it to a minimum.

Now that the adrenaline was wearing off and the situation wasn't do-or-die, she was finding his presence …
surreal
. She couldn't quite believe he was next to her. Sure, she'd kinda sorta hoped to find him again, but bumping into him at a fancy party had not been on the menu. Getting kidnapped with him and restrained and tortured, not anything she had planned. She wasn't sure what to do with him now.

Get rid of him, you have a job to do.

Kick his ass, make him feel the way you felt when he left you.

God, the way he kissed you in that room – how did you ever forget what kissing him was like? Like a vacuum, stealing every breath from every cell.

Stupid bastard. Kick his ass.

They ditched the car along the side of the road. Marc was hesitant to leave it behind, unsure that they could find another. They were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by jungle, with only one road to follow. Lily pointed out that he could just keep driving, then thanked him for the ride.

Marc followed her when she walked away.

A couple days before the party, Lily had gotten a hotel room in Salento. A place to store a minimal amount of gear and her nice clothing, but her real headquarters had been left in tact. The camp site that Kingsley'd had set up for her, deep in the jungle, was still standing. She'd left the tent up and everything, and after a mile of hiking through dense jungle, she was glad to see that the site was still empty.

“My god. This is where you've been staying?” Marc asked, turning in a circle as they passed by the burned out and empty fire pit.

“Since I've been in Colombia, yes,” was all she said as she pushed her way into the tent. She immediately kicked off her dirty flip flops and headed to a corner in the back.

“Okay. We're free and clear of immediate danger. Damiano is miles behind us, will probably never find us out here. Talk to me,” Marc stated as he stomped up to join her.

Lily ignored him and sat in a fold out chair. She grabbed a bottle of water out of a cooler and chugged its content. Then she began digging around in a duffle bag at her feet, pulling out different pieces of clothing. A shower would've been nice, but she didn't have time. She wanted to have everything she needed packed up and ready to go in twenty minutes.

“Take what you need,” she finally started speaking after about five minutes of silence. “There's a lot of water in the cooler, maybe some snacks. I don't have any clothes that will work for you, but there's extra rain gear and sleeping bags.”

“Are you dismissing me?”

“I'm telling you to take what you need,” she repeated herself, then stood up and pulled on a pair of running pants.

“We need to work some shit out here, Lily. We haven't seen each other in six months. We can't just wind up at the same party, kiss the way we did, get kidnapped, escape, and wind up here, and not fucking say anything,” he pointed out. She shrugged and pushed past him, moving to pull out a fresh tank top from another bag.

“There's nothing to say, De Sant.”

“
My name is Marc.
”

“
Your name is irrelevant
. What do you want me to say? I'm sorry we were at the same party because it just screwed everything up. The kiss was just a means to an end. Sorry we got kidnapped, thanks for helping us escape, and that's that,” her voice had lowered to a grumble. She got her tank top in place and made her way back out into the clearing.

“Means to an end, my ass, and that's
not
that. Talk to me, Lily. What are you doing here?” Marc demanded.

She ignored him and walked to the perimeter of the clearing. There was a crude alarm set in place – yarn, tied around simple stakes that had been shoved into the ground. Every couple feet, a tin can had been tied to the yarn, creating a ruckus when anyone bumped into it. With the dense foliage that surrounded them, the contraption was actually pretty hard to see.

When she came to a can of peas with a jolly looking giant on the label, she stepped over the line and headed into the jungle. After one hundred steps, she turned right. Another one hundred steps, and she turned left again. Two hundred steps and she came to a tree that had a notch cut into its trunk. At the base sat a rock. Not unusual to the casual observer, but Lily recognized its almost conical point, its wide base. She had placed it there over a week ago. She got down on her knees and shoved it out of the way before digging her hands into the dirt.

“This is what I came back here for,” she called out, knowing Marc was standing right behind her. She pulled a large pack out of the soil, brushing the dirt off of it as it came free.

“Why'd you bury it?” he asked.

“Because. If I was caught, and if they somehow found this place, I didn't want them to find
this,
” she explained, opening the zipper and delving into the bag. A small, nylon backpack laid inside it and she pulled it out. She double checked its contents, made sure everything was still in place, and then she put it on.

“You didn't want Damiano's personal army to find your backpack?” Marc snorted. She glared as she turned around and she threw the larger, now empty, pack at his chest. He managed to catch it.

“
Your
backpack. And no, I didn't,” was all she said in response.

She watched as recognition dawned across Marc's face. She'd had the pack for a while – a large bag, with one strap that was made to go diagonal across a chest. A large chest. The bag had been made for a man, but she'd carried it with her for almost six months. A long time. She hated it, but she had to admit she felt a little sad letting it go.

It was my last piece of him. He'll take it and he'll leave and I'll have nothing left.

“I can't believe you kept it,” Marc muttered. When he lifted his blue eyes to her, she couldn't handle what she saw in their depths, so she quickly walked past him.

“I didn't really have a choice – it was the only piece of luggage you left me with, it was a while before I could buy more,” she snapped as she made her way back to the camp.

“Lily. You know I had to leave,” his voice wasn't far behind her.

“I don't know that. I was told that. I was
informed
that. In a letter. You got some big balls, De Sant. A real man, sending a '
Dear John
' letter,” she didn't even try to hide the venom in her voice.

“Hey, you think that was easy for me? Doing right doesn't exactly come naturally to me, but I knew what I had to do,” he replied. She laughed as she walked back into the clearing.

“I don't think you'd know what was right if it came up and bit you on the ass. But I think you're correct about one thing – you did what you had to do. You had to get back to work, and you had to dump some unnecessary baggage before you left,” her tone was snide. Before she could enter the tent, Marc grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop.

“You don't believe that,” he said it as a statement, not a question. She snorted.

“I
do
believe that.”

“Seriously?”

She glared and stepped up close to him.

“You want to do this, De Sant? I'm giving you an out. Take what you need and go. I don't want any explanations, I don't need you, and I can't have you slowing me down. I have spent the last five years of my life trying to complete one mission. You already almost ruined it once. I'm not letting you ruin it again,” she hissed at him.

“What do you think I've been doing these last six months? I've been trying to complete that '
mission
'. I would've ended it tonight, if you hadn't stumbled into the mix.”

“Stumbled into the mix!? I was blending in seamlessly. Ten more minutes, and I would've had Damiano half naked and begging for it from me, and then you had to blunder into that ballroom and fuck everything up, like you do
everything!
” she yelled at him.

“This is what I've been doing, this whole time. You think I like working without pay?”

“Don't blame me for you being an idiot. It's been six months for me, too, and I've been getting paid the whole time.”

“Shocker. What idiot did you sucker into helping you this time?”

“Someone smarter than you.”

“Doubtful, if he's helping you.”

“Okay, fine,” Lily raised her voice. She shrugged off her small backpack and tossed it into the tent. Marc looked surprised, but he dropped the pack he was holding, as well. “You wanna do this? Let's do it. He's better than you, smarter than you, and more talented than you. Is that what you want to hear? How about he also takes care of me. He worries about me. He keeps me around for more than my skills in bed, and for more than any potential payout he might get from me.”

Marc's eyes narrowed on her.

“You were never about a payout, and -”

“
Liar.
”

“- and skills in bed, huh? How long did you make him wait for it? I had to wait a month.”

She lashed out then and she kicked him right above his knee. He let out a strangled shout and dropped to the ground, gritting his teeth in pain. Lily slowly stalked around him, moving in a circle, and watched as he felt around his kneecap, assessing the damage. She unzipped her jacket and shrugged out of it, letting it hit the ground. He finally looked up at her.

“Such a fucking idiot,” she sneered at him. “Jealous, De Sant? Why? You're the one who left it all behind. Why do you care who I might be fucking? You wanted me to go home – did you think I would go back there and then just sit on a block of ice?”

His face told her that, clearly, he had thought she would, but he didn't say anything. He took a deep breath, then focused on the other parts of her speech.

“You're mad, and I get that, but that doesn't change what went on between us. Don't act like it was just a job, Lily. You know how I felt about you.”

“You lied to me,
that's
what I know.”

“You know it wasn't about a payout.”

“Do I?”

“You know I cared about you.”

“There's a fucking lie.”

“Were you always this bitter of a bitch? Or has your new partner had this charming effect on you?”

“Always this bitter. And if anything, Law tries to talk me down from -” Lily let it slip, showing her hand. She had been reveling in Marc's jealousy, but now that he knew that her secret partner was Kingsley, she wasn't sure how he'd react.

“
Kingsley!?
Fucking Kingsley Law has been filling your head with all this bullshit!?” Marc yelled.

“No.
You
filled my head with this bullshit. Actions speak louder than words, De Sant, and your actions say that you're an untrustworthy asshole. Get your shit, and get out of my camp,” she commanded him. He snorted.

“Fuck that. You get your shit and get out of Colombia. I'm going to finish what I started.”

“No,
I'm
going to finish what
I
started. You finished your job back in Africa.”

“I could help you.”

“I don't need your help.”

“Six months in this business doesn't make you an expert, Lily, no matter what bullshit Kingsley spouted off to you. You
do
need help,” Marc growled.

Lily's fist slammed across his jaw so fast, she even surprised herself a little. Her punch was sharp, and she knew that her bony knuckles made it painful. He jerked to the side from the impact.