Fatal Pursuit (The Aegis Series) (9 page)

Was he jealous? No, that couldn’t be. She was clearly misreading things because of her messed-up thoughts. Facing forward again, she hacked at another vine. “You’re worried? Seriously. Let’s not tell lies, Jake.”

He reached for her arm and gently tugged her back. “I think I’ve been pretty patient waiting for you to start talking. We’ll reach Bruhia soon. I’d just like to know what I’m walking into before we get there.”

He was talking about safety. Not her or them or any kind of emotions. She needed to pull her head together and start thinking rather than reacting to things that weren’t even there.

She shifted her weight. Palm fronds closed in around them like a cave. Too close. Too cozy. Way too hot. A bead of sweat slid between her breasts, only frustrating her more. “What do you want to know?”

He let go of her arm and rested his hands on his hips. “For starters, why didn’t your father want you dating him?”

It was the same question he’d asked last night, and she knew she couldn’t put him off much longer. Besides which, he’d risked his life to come out here with her. She owed him an explanation.

“He didn’t want me to marry a mercenary.”

“Is that what he was? A merc?”

“Before he joined Omega, yes. Several of the Omega guys were. But it didn’t matter what Gray did before he went to work for my father. My dad didn’t want me involved with any of his black ops guys.”

“Why not?”

Marley focused on a palm frond near his head. “He once said that he regretted dragging me all over on his jobs. As a kid, I thought it was pretty cool. I mean, the world was my classroom. But he didn’t like the fact I never went to a regular school, that I didn’t go to my senior prom, that I didn’t get the full experience of being a teenager. I never felt like I missed out on anything, but he did. When it came down to it, I don’t think my father wanted me dating Gray because he wanted more for me.”

“And you disagreed.”

Marley shrugged.

Jake’s eyes narrowed. “Were you going to marry him?”

“No.” She looked back at him. “We weren’t engaged if that’s what you’re asking.”

“But you thought about it.”

Marley rolled her eyes, hating this whole conversation. “Every girl thinks about getting married, Jake. Doesn’t mean she’s stupid enough to go through with it.”

Jake was silent for a few seconds, then said, “Were you in love with him?”

Marley looked up at the canopy and sighed. “I don’t know.”

“You either were or you weren’t. It’s not a hard question, Addison.”

The bite to his voice told her loud and clear that he was back to being irritated.

She pinned him with a hard look. “I don’t know, okay? For a while I thought maybe I was. Then I sorta freaked out and realized he wasn’t the guy for me. Then he died—or supposedly died—on that op, and I didn’t know what to feel. I was both heartbroken and relieved. And then racked with guilt because I felt that way. And now he’s alive and I don’t know what the heck to feel. It’s been five years. I was pretty well resigned to the fact he was dead.”

“Okay. I get it.” Jake held up both hands. “I shouldn’t have pushed.”

Confused, Marley looked down and realized she was holding the machete out like a sword.

She dropped the blade to her side. “I’m not gonna cut you, Ryder. Sheesh.”

“I’m just making sure. You do tend to dislike me more often than not.”

No, she
liked
him. Liked him more than she should. That was the problem.

“All I’m trying to do is clarify what’s going on here,” he added. “Not piss you off.”

Right. Because he cared about facts, not emotions.

Annoyed all over again, this time at herself, she turned and hacked at the palm fronds once more, pushing her way through the jungle, away from him. “Well, now you’re caught up to speed. I don’t know what to expect when we get to Bruhia, either.”

The underbrush thinned—thank God—and Marley stepped out of the palm trees and into a small clearing, only to be smacked in the face by a giant raindrop. Jake reached for her arm again before she could take two more steps.

“Hold on.”

Another raindrop hit her, and another, running in rivulets down her cheek. “What now?”

“Look, I know your dad. He’s a good read on people. If he didn’t want you dating McKnight, my gut says there had to be another reason.”

And Jake listened to his gut over everything else.

“I said he didn’t encourage my relationship with Gray. Not that he forbade me from seeing him.”

“Because we both know what you would have done if he’d flat-out said no.”

Marley frowned up at his already damp hair and the droplets pelting his nose and cheeks. “Are you implying I don’t know how to listen to reason?”

Jake grinned. That irritating, obnoxious—dammit—sexy Jake grin. “I know that for a fact.”

Marley tugged her arm from his grip. The hillside dropped to their right. She moved along a path some kind of animal had formed, ducking under branches and angling around prickly vines. The raindrops grew fatter, faster. Around them the echo of water splashing onto foliage increased. “Being independent is not a bad thing. And if my father
had
told me no—which he didn’t, I’d like to point out—I would have listened to his reasoning.”

Jake barked out a laugh at her back. “I say no to you all the time and you rarely listen.”

Marley moved around a large puddle that had already formed in the dirt. “That’s because the things you say no to make absolutely no sense. Like my working in the field. Look around you, Ryder.” She held her hands out in the now heavy rain as she walked. “I know how to handle myself. I would have been just fine in the jungle alone last night. I don’t really need your help, and we both know it.”

“Are we back to this again? Give it a rest, Addison. I said—”

The wet ground slipped out beneath Marley’s boot. Her eyes flew wide, and she tried to jerk back, but mud and water splashed in her face, making her gasp for air. She grappled for something to hold on to, but the thin rainforest sediments were already dragging her down the hillside in a roaring landslide that drowned out every other sound. Even Jake’s voice calling her name.

D
on’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.

The words echoed in Jake’s head as he rushed down what was left of the hillside. Thick, fat raindrops pelted his body. Razor-sharp vines cut into his palms as he grappled for anything to hold on to. He ignored the blood and the pain, focusing only on getting to the bottom as fast as he could.

He’d been lucky the landslide hadn’t taken him down with it. Lucky and horrified that he’d let Marley take the lead. It should have been him. He should be the one at the bottom of the ravine, not her. He was tougher, stronger. She shouldn’t even be in this damn jungle to begin with.

After what felt like forever, he finally reached the bottom. Mud covered every inch of his clothes, his arms and face, even his hair. Water ran in rivulets down his cheeks, mixing with the dirt and mud to form streaks along his skin. “Marley!”

The mudslide created a fan-shaped area of sediments at the bottom of the hill. He tore off his pack and threw it on the ground, then forced his way through the hip-deep mud, searching for her, running his hands through the debris, afraid she was trapped underneath. Afraid she couldn’t breathe. His heart took up residence in his throat. His pulse turned to a roar in his ears.

“Marley!”

Panic spread through his chest, beneath his ribs, making it hard to get air. Water rushed down his face. Mud splashed over every inch of him as he kept searching. “Goddammit, Marley. Answer me!”

His muscles ached. His breaths grew short and labored. Time passed. He wasn’t sure how long, but every second caused his adrenaline to shoot higher, made his heart rate inch up. She had to be here. He wasn’t giving up. “Marley!”

With renewed determination, he waded through the mud, searching a new section, hoping, praying—

Voices echoed through the trees. Jake slowed his frantic searching, jerked his head in that direction, and listened.

Male voices. Several. More than several—many. Coming toward him. Speaking a language he didn’t understand.

The memory of those gunshots and the paramilitary group they’d just missed the day before ricocheted through his brain. Off to his right, another voice called,
“Aki! Aki!”

He turned. Squinted to see through the foliage. A kid—no, not a kid, a native—was perched on his hands and knees, bent over, looking at something on the ground. More voices echoed through the rainforest. Jake took a step their way to get a better view. Several other natives rushed up, their bare legs and loincloth-draped bodies blocking his view. One native lifted branches and palm fronds and threw them at his back. The tallest of the bunch bent over, then hefted something into his arms.

No, not some
thing
, Jake realized, his eyes growing wide. Some
one
.

“Marley,” he whispered, his heart jackknifing all over again.

Her arm dropped to hang from her side. Her body was limp, her legs dangling in the air. Matted blond hair fell from her head as the native turned and headed in the other direction, but for a split second Jake saw her face. Dirty and covered in mud. Her eyes closed. Not a single muscle moving.

Jake’s pulse went stratospheric. Frantic to get to her, he waded through the mud, pulled himself out of the gunk, then drew to a sharp stop when he got a better look at the group and the multitude of weapons in their hands.

Hunters. At least thirty. All armed with spears. Deadly-sharp spears.

He grappled for the gun at his thigh only to find it covered in mud. Cursing under his breath, he ducked behind a banana tree and swiped as much gunk from the weapon as he could, unsure if it would even fire. A handful he could take on his own, but not thirty. Not when they had Marley. He wiped the rainwater out of his eyes and listened as the group continued to chatter in that indecipherable language and moved through the trees away from him.

Scenarios, options, plans raced through his mind. He scrambled for his backpack, jerked it open and reached for his phone, then cursed again. His satellite phone couldn’t pick up a signal thanks to the thick canopy. He dropped the phone back into his bag. Knew he had only one choice.

“I don’t really need your help, and we both know it.”

The last words Marley had said to him swirled in his brain. She was wrong. She did need him. And he wasn’t about to let her down.

Groaning, Marley lifted her fingers toward her head and winced.

“Alasahe! Tu bet. Tu bet.”

A hand gripped her by the wrist and gently pushed her arm down. Something soft pillowed her body. Struggling to pull her eyelids apart, Marley squinted up toward the face—no, correction:
faces
—staring down at her, then blinked in confusion.

Long black hair, brown skin, streaks of red and white across their cheeks. Women, Marley realized as she took in the full sight. Naked breasts, short fabric skirts, more of the red and white paint along their skin.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to move. The women chirped the same words they’d spoken before but which made zero sense and pushed on her arms again, but Marley struggled against them. The room spun. She managed to sit up. Tearing her gaze away from the women, she looked around.

A thatched roof, dirt floor, walls made of wood and grass. And a handful of naked children, staring at her with the biggest, brownest eyes she’d ever seen.

She glanced out the open doorway and could just make out other huts, a large central fire pit, and several natives milling around dressed and decorated in the same way as the women beside her.

Definitely not Bruhia. When Gray had called, she’d heard cars and the hustle of a modern town in the background. She was in some kind of remote village. Though how she’d gotten here, she didn’t know.

She pushed to her feet. The room swayed, and she reached for her aching head then immediately sat back down on the pile of palm fronds and blankets she’d obviously been lying on. “Oh shit. That hurts.”

“Tu bet. Makala hasa mati.”
One woman rushed over and reached for Marley’s hand again, pulling it away from the wound on her forehead. To another woman, she said,
“Rusef. Nahala Rusef.”

The second woman motioned to another at her side, and the two rushed out of the hut. While the woman who was clearly in charge reached for a bowl on the ground at her side, the children continued to stand and stare as if Marley were from another planet.

Which, Marley realized, she might as well be. They were deep in the Amazon rainforest. She knew there were still several tribes that had limited contact with the outside world. The woman slathered some kind of ointment on the scrape on Marley’s forehead, and Marley winced and tried to pull away from the sting. Slowly, the pain receded and warmth spread through the wound, relaxing her muscles.

“What is that?” Marley asked.

The woman blinked at her. Marley pointed toward the bowl in her hand, then up at her head. “What is this? Medicine?”

“Kohala asafi.”
The woman slathered more ointment on the edge of Marley’s forehead, then twisted and did the same to Marley’s leg.

Her pants were ripped open from thigh to ankle, the fabric hanging on each side of her leg. Marley watched as the woman smoothed the ointment over a large gash in her shin, not even remembering how she’d gotten it.

She’d been in the jungle. It had been raining. She’d stepped in mud and the ground had gone out from under her. Everything else was a blur. She couldn’t even remember what she and Jake had been talking about as they’d walked through the—

“Oh God.”
Jake
.

Her gaze snapped to the woman, rubbing more of the ointment into a smaller scratch on her bare foot. “I have a friend. A man. He was with me. He’s tall. Dark hair. Is he here?”

The woman stopped what she was doing and blinked at Marley. She didn’t understand a word Marley was saying. Marley glanced around the hut and spotted her backpack leaning against the wall.

“My bag.” Marley tried to get up, but the woman pushed her down. Marley pointed toward her pack. “I need my bag.”

The woman looked from Marley to the bag, then set her bowl down and pushed to her feet. Marley’s heart pounded while the woman grabbed her backpack and pulled it over within reach.

Her pack was caked with mud. She flipped the top open and dug around inside until she found her phone. Thanking her good sense to put her phone in a plastic bag, just in case, she pulled it out and waited while it powered on.

“Come on, come on,” she muttered. When the screen came to life, she opened her photo album and paged through until she found the shot she was looking for.

She’d taken it a few weeks ago. When the team had come back to the office after a training run in the mountains. She zoomed in on Jake in the middle of the group, sweaty and smiling from a day in the field, turned the phone, and held it up. “Have you seen him? Is he here?”

The woman’s eyes narrowed.
Cautiously, she
took the phone from Marley
and stared at it like it might just jump out and bite her.
Heart beating hard, Marley pointed toward Jake’s face on the screen and said, “Is he here? I need to find him. We got separated.”

The woman shook her head.
“Notuli.”

The two women who’d left earlier ducked back under the doorway and entered the hut. The first woman looked toward them and held up Marley’s phone, pointing to Jake.
“Makari ala falusi.”

Both women shook their heads. The one on the right reached for Marley’s phone and turned it in her hands, studying every angle as if she’d never seen such a thing before—which, Marley realized, she hadn’t.

The first woman glanced back to Marley.
“Notuli halem sahiko.”

Marley’s shoulders dropped. She didn’t understand what they were saying, but she could tell by their expressions they didn’t recognize Jake’s face. Which meant he wasn’t in the village. And considering she didn’t know where she was or how long she’d been here, that meant he could be anywhere.

A lump formed in her throat, and tears pricked her eyes. If she could go back to that conversation with him in the jungle, when she’d been so frustrated by her stupid emotions, she would. She’d go back and change her attitude, not get so defensive. Not take everything so damn personally.

“Shit.”

She pressed her fingers against her burning eyes and tried to push to her feet. She needed to go find him. Needed to make sure he was okay. Before she could stand, the first woman grasped her arm and eased her back down.
“Notuli. Tu bet.”

Annoyed, Marley opened her eyes only to realize what the women were doing. The one who’d taken her phone dipped a rag into a bowl of water and began cleaning the mud from her face and arms. The other one reached for the edge of her tank and started to lift it up.

“Whoa. Wait. I don’t think—”

“Don’t worry,” a voice said from the doorway. “They’ll not hurt you. Only help.”

Marley’s gaze jerked toward the voice. An older woman with salt-and-pepper hair and a wrinkled face stood in the doorway holding fresh clothes.

“Who—?” Marley was suddenly afraid she was hearing and seeing things from the knock she’d taken to the head. “You speak English?”

“Yes. Though it may be a little rusty.” The woman stepped into the room and set the clothing on the ground at Marley’s side while the others went about cleaning her with the rags and water. She was small, no more than five feet tall, Caucasian, not native, and she wore shorts and a loose, weathered pale-green T-shirt instead of the skirt and paint.

“Who are you?” Marley asked.

“Darla. Was Darla,” she corrected with a smile. “Now I’m known as Pakatito.”

Maybe she’d gotten hit harder than she thought. Marley pressed a hand to her aching forehead, having trouble keeping up. “I’m not following.”

“I’m an anthropologist,” Darla said. “I came here a long time ago and liked it so much, I decided to stay. The Puketi people are friendly once you get to know them. You’re lucky, though.” She nodded toward the women fawning over Marley. “They don’t usually take well to outsiders. They think you’re a princess.”