Spy Hard (16 page)

They were surrounded by an unseen enemy.

Jase waited, every muscle in his body drawn tight.

“Put the gun down,” someone shouted at him in Spanish.

Shooting had been out of the question from the start, anyway. No way would he start a gunfight with Melanie and Mochi in the middle of it. This was exactly why the average commando soldier didn’t take his wife and kid into battle with him, he thought. Not that Melanie and Mochi belonged to him, but still.

If he’d been alone, he would have had half a dozen options how to play this. In the current situation… He gritted his teeth as frustration swept through him.

As he lowered his weapon the men stepped forward, one after the other, their machine guns trained on him. He counted a dozen uniformed guys, a small army unit.

“Who are you?” Their leader yanked Jase’s weapon from him.

Since he was dressed in camouflage, holding a machine gun better than theirs, Jase couldn’t exactly claim to be a tourist.

He reached out a hand to Melanie, who’d crouched when he’d told her to get down, and pulled her up. Squatting like that with the extra weight couldn’t have been easy on her knees. None of this could be easy on her, in fact, but she was holding up admirably.

Instead of hiding behind her, Mochi stepped in front of her in a defensive move. The kid was really something.

Jase flashed him an approving look, then returned his attention to the men. He had a feeling the army was in this part of the jungle on either Don Pedro’s request or Cristobal’s. His fate would depend on guessing the right man. Don Pedro was the bigger boss. He was more likely to have the money to buy off a general.

“I’m taking this woman to Don Pedro,” he told the man.

“You’re in luck, amigo.” The man gave a dark, gap-toothed grin. “That’s exactly where we’re going. You’ll come with us.”

“
Gracias,
but we’d just slow you down. You better go without us if you’re in a hurry.”

“Always have time for friends of the Don.”

An offer of protection was a big thing in the jungle. The man would have become suspicious if they showed reluctance to accept help. Jase tried to look happy.

He ran through all the options in his head, all the ways this could play out. He distinctly hated some of the possible endings.

But they should be safe for the night, at least, he thought. Then they would have to break away at one point the next day, escape the men and head to the mission.

They could never outrun the soldiers if they were pursued. Which meant that he’d have to get his weapon back and kill the dozen men. Without Melanie and Mochi getting hurt in the process. He tallied up his ammunition.
Plenty.
He had made sure to prepare for the trip before he’d left the camp.

“What’s with the kid?” The man gave Mochi a speculative look.

“Bought him off some loggers we came across. Needed a guide,” Jase said, then nodded toward Melanie. “We were about to stop. She needs rest. She’s the Don’s sister-in-law.”

“What is she doing here?”

No choice now but to lie all the way through. “They’re expecting trouble at camp. I was supposed to take her to safety.” He named the nearest town he knew of in the direction from which they were coming. “But my jeep busted an axle on the logging road we were taking. I have to walk her back to the Don. Figured we better take a shortcut. Still, damn slow going.” He made sure to sound put-out and annoyed as if he hated getting stuck with the task.

The man’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded after a few seconds. “We’ll stop for the day at the next clearing we come across. She can rest there until morning.”

He led the way, gesturing them to follow. Jase did just that, and then so did Melanie and Mochi. The rest of the men fell in line behind them, with the exception of two who ran ahead with machetes to clear their path. And there they went, marching down the trail again.

They didn’t have to go far before they found a suitable place near a creek. Jase helped make camp, assessing each men’s strengths and weaknesses. The soldiers were irritable, tired of the march and bored. He made sure to keep Melanie and Mochi as far away from them as possible. He didn’t want the men to start picking on them for entertainment.

Since he had time, he built a sleeping platform instead of simply hanging their hammocks. He figured Melanie’s back could use a nice flat surface to rest for a change. They washed, ate and drank. He pretended to pay attention to that, but kept an eye on the men and the sole sentry they set.

Obviously they felt safe and comfortable. And with reason. The rest of their army buddies weren’t that far off, camping less than fifteen miles from here. At this point, they were definitely the strongest force in the jungle.

Their relaxed mood might just play into his hands, Jase thought as he went about his business.

When they called for Mochi, he didn’t interfere, but he stood ready. Thankfully, all they wanted was the boy to climb a tree and fetch some fruit. They kept him close by so they could play with the dog, until the kid fell asleep by the fire.

Since Chico curled up right next to him, Jase let the boy stay where he was. The dog would bark if a snake came their way in the night. And if Jase showed too much affection for the kid, or acted protective, it would make the others suspicious.

So he ended up sharing the sleeping platform with only Melanie. He draped their mosquito netting around it and tucked in the edges. The camp soon quieted, everyone but the sentry settled in for sleep.

“I’m sorry,” Melanie whispered next to him. “Pedro was my problem. I shouldn’t have involved you in any with this.”

“Hey, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings,” he said absentmindedly, his mind on his escape plans, then winced when he realized she might take that the wrong way.
Way to go, Campbell. Smooth all the way.

But she patted her belly without taking offense. “I think that’d be me. I have to warn you, I can’t carry a tune for anything.”

That she could keep a sense of humor under the circumstances was nothing short of amazing.

Being in the same “bed” an arm’s reach from her didn’t exactly facilitate sleep. He tried anyway. The camp was quiet; only the bugs droned on in the trees. He looked over at her after a couple of minutes passed. Her eyes were still open.

“I’m too nervous to sleep,” she admitted.

“We’ll be fine.”

“Is every mission like this for you? One calamity after the other?”

“Pretty much. Believe it or not, I usually like it.” He lived for a good challenge. Not that his job was a game to him, but still something close; obstacles to conquer, to try himself, to prove himself, to win.

Except this time he felt none of the rush. This time the stakes had somehow changed. Melanie wasn’t simply another damsel in distress. Melanie was somebody to him.

Oh, hell.
That was just a whole new level of stupid, even for him. He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, as if blocking out the sight of her might solve that problem. It didn’t.

“Do you think we’ll ever get out of the jungle?” she asked in a whisper.

“Don’t think too far ahead. Just think of right now, right here. Keep it manageable. This is all we have to deal with at the moment. Right now, right here, all we have to do is get some sleep.”

“I’m scared right now, right here.”

Her admission made him want to draw her into his arms, so he tried a different tactic. “I’m not taking that as a compliment,” he said with feigned indignation. “I’m here protecting you. If you’re still scared, that must mean you don’t think I can handle it.”

“Not what I meant,” she said immediately.

“Well, if you think I
can
handle it, then there’s nothing to be scared of.”

“Is that some kind of manly logic?”

“You got something against that?”

“Hormones and feelings.”

He felt his lips curve into a grin. “Now that scares me more than these jokers here.”

She smiled at him through the darkness. Then she closed her eyes at last.

He watched her for a long minute, then looked behind her to examine the campsite, all without turning his head. He didn’t want them to catch him spying. The sentry walked the perimeter, then sat down by the fire. Jase’s weapon was there, too. They hadn’t given it back to him, no matter how close to Don Pedro he’d claimed to be. He would just have to take it back on his own.

He thought of the killing that was to come, planned for various contingencies. The violence didn’t bother him, although he would have preferred to avoid it if possible.

There were always options.

If he sneaked away now with Melanie, maybe their absence wouldn’t be discovered until morning. Maybe they could gain enough distance. Maybe the men wouldn’t bother coming after them. Who knew, they might have orders to reach the Don quickly.

Jase looked at her silhouette. He might be able to save her and her baby. But he would have to leave Mochi behind.

Then he realized that her eyes were open again and she was watching him.

“I don’t want to leave the boy,” he told her. The scrawny little thing was beginning to grow on him. There really was something about that kid. He knew grown men with less grit and a hell of a worse attitude about life.

“I wouldn’t go without Mochi,” she said without hesitation.

“Yeah. I pretty much figured.”

They lay next to each other in silence.

She shifted to her side.

“Are you okay?”

“The baby is kicking up a storm. Feels like there’s a soccer practice going on in there.”

That must be weird as anything. He couldn’t even imagine it. He’d envied Mochi earlier at the research station for being able to just walk up to her and touch her, put his hands on her belly.

But even as he thought that, Melanie reached for his hand and put it near her bellybutton that protruded through her shirt. Something pushed against his palm.

Okay. Wow.

An instant connection blinked to life. The baby just made physical contact with him.

And it was his responsibility to make sure Melanie was safe and that kid got born. The thought hit him suddenly and made him more nervous than he’d ever been on any mission before. Rescue missions were the pits, he decided. Plain nerve-wracking. He’d been smart to avoid them in the past. Search-and-destroy was a hell of a lot more straightforward.

He glanced at the men. Right. There’d be plenty of “destroy” coming his way shortly.

“You’re going to be fine.” This time he said the words more to reassure himself than her as he pulled his hand away, because touching her like this wasn’t enough suddenly. He wanted to pull her into his arms.

“I know. I trust you.”

Some warm emotion washed over him that felt kind of squishy. He didn’t like it. He felt as if there was a dragnet somewhere out there, closing in around him.

“Get some rest,” he told her brusquely.

And soon she did fall asleep. He watched her for a while, wondered what it would be like to sleep next to her every night. Be there when the baby was born. Get up for midnight feedings or whatever new parents tended to complain about.

Strangely, he had no problem forming a crystal-clear picture, even though he’d never seriously considered a life like that before. His focus had firmly been on other things. Like his training and his missions.

He’d never wanted anything else. Sure, he liked the action and a good rescue if he happened to be in a position to help someone, but he was always ready, even eager, to move on once the op was over. Yet he was already wondering what Melanie would be doing once she was safely back home, what her son would be like, if the kid would end up looking like her, and other idiotically stupid things.

Of course, when he fell asleep, he had another one of those hot and heavy dreams about her, like he had every night since he’d first seen her on the balcony. He was nowhere near ready to leave that dream world when the soldiers’ shouting woke him.

He came wide awake in an instant, then was out of their shelter and on his feet, yanking on his boots, which he’d hung upside down on sticks skewered into the ground to keep the bugs out.

The men were visibly angry, looking for something.

Then he put together enough snatched words. Mochi was missing.

Amazingly, Melanie slept on despite the commotion. He let her and went to investigate, scanning the camp and the surrounding bushes, more than a little worried.

“Where is he?” the leader demanded as soon as he saw Jase.

“No idea. He slept here by the fire.” He looked around at the soldiers, examining each face one by one, but none of them looked guilty. They all looked as if they could have used some more sleep. More than one flashed him an annoyed look. The kid belonged to him, so any disturbance the boy caused they blamed on Jase.

“The little bastard probably ran away.” He did his best to sound annoyed, like he would if he’d paid good money for a guide who’d just taken off on him.

The man gave him a hard look.

A tense moment passed between them, Jase ready for pretty much anything. He might not have had his gun but he still had his knife in his boot, and he knew how to use it. But then the guy shrugged and turned from him to yell out orders to get packing and moving as soon as everyone was ready.

He had his own marching orders, was obviously on some kind of mission. He wasn’t going to waste time with chasing after a jungle kid who meant nothing to him.

Jase grabbed some coffee, and as he walked back to Melanie he passed by his gun but didn’t pick it up. The team leader was still keeping too close an eye on him.

“Mochi ran away,” he said when he reached her.

She was sitting up in their little nest, combing through her hair with her fingers, watching the men. Her forehead wrinkled with worry at the news.

“He took Chico with him.” He hoped the kid had stolen some food, too, but knew he probably hadn’t. He seemed to prefer whatever the forest provided. At least he knew how to fend for himself. He definitely wouldn’t starve to death.

She paled. “Can we find them? Are they going to be okay?”