To Touch Poison (9 page)

Jayme kicked the door closed, picked up the knife, handed it to her. “You don’t usually meet people at the door with a weapon. What’s going on Kaimi?”

JAYME. HE HANDED HER THE
blade she’d almost pulled on him. Her hand closed over the hilt. Solid. Reassuring. She carefully set the weapon on the table, giving herself time to think. Her skin crawled with the need to get away from him. Hadn’t her crying jag cleared out her incident stress? Kaimi caught her breath, squashing the unexpected flash of terror at having a man touch her. This was Jayme. Thinner and tousled from travel, but his smile was genuine. Worried, not threatening.

Jayme cleared his throat like he was searching for words. “I followed Eamon.”

She shuddered, hope smashed to shreds. “He’s your brother? Why didn’t you tell me? You’ve never mentioned him.”

“Biologically speaking, he’s my brother, yes.” He reached for her again.

She stumbled back. He’d
followed
Eamon. Her inhalation was tight, sharp, and painful. “Is Eamon here?”

“He flew into Manaus hours ago. I never mentioned him because we haven’t spoken for years, and I’m not sure where he is right now, but—”

Her chest tightened with the need to run. “You’re sure he’s not in the hotel?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I didn’t know you were here until the desk clerk had computer trouble when he tried to register me. I offered to fix it and the name Xola Muerte popped up on the screen. Before I left Langley, I called in some favors, got the names of the people on this project. Xola practically jumped off the screen at me. It was amazing—good luck, fate, whatever, I’m not knocking it. Thought I’d have to travel upriver to the campsite to find you.”

Kaimi backed up a step. “It’s classified. Special Ops. You shouldn’t have been able…”

Disbelief clouded the depths of Jayme’s eyes. “Are you
afraid
of me?” The words rushed out with the barest hint of anger. Or maybe it was fear. Kaimi couldn’t tell.

She gathered her scattered emotions.
This. Is. Jayme. “
No, not afraid. Confused. I…can we sit? There’s so much…” Talk. Yes, that was the thing. They had to talk. She waved her hand toward the chairs in the corner of the room, and then dropped into the nearest one. “So much has happened.”

Jayme perched on the edge of his seat, hands steepled in front of his mouth. “You were just gone. I’ve been trying to find you, searched every database Langley has to offer, then started a beg-borrow-steal campaign to find your location. But I didn’t get a break until Eamon—”

Kaimi jumped to her feet.

His stare laser-locked on her. “You know my brother? When did you meet Eamon?”

She paced, the floor creaking under her bare feet. “I need to start at the beginning.”

Another knock was accompanied by the scent of a spicy feijoada wafting through the door. Kaimi’s stomach lurched. She checked the peephole, then forced a smile for the bellhop and motioned for him to put the tray on the desk. “Obrigado.” She attempted another smile, and signed the check.

Puffing out a deep breath, she secured the lock behind the bellhop, and sat facing Jayme. “You know I went to the Pentagon for that meeting.”

Jayme nodded, reached for her.

Kaimi squeezed her eyes shut for a minute, wet her lips.
You can do this.
She sandwiched one of his hands between hers.
Jayme isn’t just a man, he’s part of your soul. He won’t lie to you.
His hand was warm. His thumb brushed hers.
Let his touch heal you.

Words tumbled in her head, and then gushed out in a steady stream. She described the joint US, UK, and Irish project, how Kaimi Maliu had been erased and replaced with Xola Muerte, what she was doing with the formula, and the roles Fion and Eamon played in the Megiddo Project.

Jayme had been silent, listening to her every word, but a series of harsh lines had creased his face by the time she’d finished. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze, then stood, shrugged out of his travel jacket, and toed off his hiking boots. “I’m getting it, but why didn’t you let me know?”

It was a moment before she could answer. The khaki t-shirt he had on stretched across his shoulder and chest muscles in the most interesting way, making her tingle in places she’d thought had been killed.
You may be damaged, Kaimi Maliu, but you’re damn well not dead yet.
She blew out a sigh. “I told you about the letter I tried to send.”

Jayme strolled to his duffle and dug out a canteen, taking a long swallow before speaking. “Yes, but surely there was a way to… no, not without someone tracing it.”

Kaimi nodded. “The lab has an encrypted satcom unit, but the only person I was allowed to contact was my handler.” She snagged a bottle of Inca Cola off the nightstand. “I don’t understand how you knew to follow Eamon. I overheard.” She paused. “He was going to send you a message. The G2 must have a different protocol from mine.” There was no way she’d be able to completely trust Jayme until those details were clear in her mind.

Jayme stretched his neck this way and that. Probably had kinks from being confined to an airplane seat for hours. “Eamon is a thief and a skillful liar.” His words sizzled through the air with the snap of barely controlled rage. “He stole money from our parents, both of whom are in assisted living with debilitating dementia.”

“Oh, Jayme. Why didn’t you ever—?”

He sliced the air with his hand. “I don’t talk about it, but you have a right to know. The genetic link is weak, but you have to consider I might suffer the same illness. I carry the gene.” He dropped to one knee. “Kaimi I love you so damn much, and—”

Oh, God no. He couldn’t propose now, not when she was still so damaged from Eamon’s attack, to say nothing of how dangerous she’d become to those around her. And they hadn’t even seen each other for six damn months. Her panic must have been obvious, because Jayme stood, stepped back.

Kaimi sucked in a breath. Time slowed. She reached her hand toward his face, and stepped forward to rest her palm against his cheek. “There’s little to no evidence that Alzheimer’s is genetically linked. It’s not an issue, Jayme, but Eamon is. There’s more I need to tell you, but first I have to know exactly how you knew to follow that man.” Eamon’s desperation underscored the value of the formula, and with three governments involved, it obviously hadn’t been a secret for a long time. She had to know, explicitly, that Jayme hadn’t followed her to track down the formula for his brother. Her heart knew better, didn’t doubt Jayme, but her head had been so messed up since the attack that she didn’t trust her judgment.

Jayme’s jaw tightened under her hand, the rough ginger stubble scratching her palm. “He has a tell. Since he was four years old or so, his right index finger would twitch when he lied. I learned to spot it because most of his lies got me into trouble, and, being younger, it took me a while to learn how to fight back.”

The first spark of genuine humor blossomed in Kaimi’s chest. “You knew to follow Eamon because of a finger twitch? Seriously?”

Jayme shook his head, then heaved a sigh. “Way to ruin a badly planned proposal, and I’m damn well going to blame my heinous excuse for a brother. To answer your question, yes, the twitch gave it away, but it wasn’t that simple. He specifically asked about you, and promised to give you a, and I quote,
warm hello
. It was a threat, Kaimi. I’m sure it was a threat. Scared the shit out of me.”

Anger dripped from his words, scalding hot, and Kaimi had no doubt it would turn lethal when she told him about Eamon’s attack. But she couldn’t hide the truth, not if she accepted his proposal. And she fully planned to do just that. She loved Jayme, wanted to spend her life with him, and no way would she let the likes of Eamon Grady steal that from her. She’d just have to figure out a way to keep Jayme from committing fratricide, and the timing was perfect. She had distance on her side.

“Please sit down, Jayme. I…there’s more I have to tell you.” Heat shot from her belly to her face, and she tugged the blanket more tightly around her torso. It was embarrassing. Stupidly so, but still. “When Eamon arrived at the camp, he questioned me about the formula, but I didn’t realize it was personal, about me.”

Jayme scrubbed at his nape, tension radiating from his body. “I don’t want to hear this, do I?”

Guilt flared in Kaimi’s belly. Maybe she should keep it to herself? But, no. It would eventually come out, and Jayme would never forgive her for keeping it from him. “No, you don’t, but we have to deal with it. What’s the word you used earlier to describe Eamon? Heinous. Yes, that fits. He attacked me, held a knife to my throat, forced me to swallow the contents of one of my test vials. It…I had a cut on my hand, and after I drank the formula it was healed. I’ve been healing more quickly than normal since I started working on the formula, but this was…miraculous. Eamon noticed and it sent him into a manic state. He drank some of the formula, probably thought it would cure his multiple sclerosis, but it caused muscle spasms and pain. He was screaming with it.”

Ever so carefully, Jayme stroked her hair, twining it around his fingers. “I’ll kill him.”

His touch, so at odds with his words, calmed her as she looked into the eyes of the man she loved. Forged green steel stared back at her. “No, Jayme. I want him to live, want him to struggle with his illness, and I want him to keep seeking a cure, always chasing his misconception of a dream that will never be fulfilled. It will be much worse than death, especially for a creature like Eamon. It’s cruel of me, but—”

Jayme took her hands, turned them palm-up. “Justified more than cruel. The formula healed you?”

“Yes, but I don’t think it’s the chemical solution itself, not after what happened to Eamon. I think it’s…me, my family, my genes. I accidently bled into the nutrient bath, and I think there was something about the reaction between the plants and my DNA that created a healing formula.” Where had those words come from? She hadn’t had time to think through the implications, but yes, it sort of made sense. More important, if it kept Jayme from becoming a murderer, it didn’t matter whether it was accurate or not.

His gaze softened, and he placed a delicate kiss against one of her palms and then the other. “I agree. Hell on earth is a more fitting sentence for Eamon.”

She jerked free. “There’s more. He…the formula aroused him, and he tried to—”

“Sexually?” It came out a growl.

The ugliness of the attack slammed into Kaimi again and she buried her face in her hands, took a moment to fight the nauseating anger, and then she looked up and held Jayme’s gaze. “Yes. I fought him, prevented penetration, but not in time to stop his semen from coating my upper thigh. There’s…it’s possible I didn’t get it washed off in time, and it could have…seeped into me.” The words left a horrible acid taste in Kaimi’s mouth, but it cleared her head. It was done. Said aloud, and never to be revisited. Now it was up to Jayme.

“I will torture him before I kill him. He hurt you. Worse than attacking you physically, he attacked you emotionally.” Jayme paced, his rage escalating with every step.

She caught his hand, stopped him. “No, Jayme. I’m okay. I fought him, won. I’m not a victim, won’t be, and I’m not going to wallow in the ugliness of what happened, because it gives him power over me, and that’s not acceptable. But we still need to disappear so completely that no one can find us. Not ever. Wondering when you’ll come after him, not knowing where we are, that will be the worst possible torture for a man like Eamon. And there’s more. He and Fion are conspiring to sell all three formulas to the highest bidder. That probably doesn’t surprise you, knowing Eamon’s history, but they’re traitors, Jayme. And we have to find a way to let Fred and the CIA know.”

He pulled free of her hold, clenched his teeth in a feral snarl. His breaths were so deep and ragged she could count them. It took twenty-three before he could look at her. Another twelve before he spoke. “You’re right. I’m not surprised. I’ll try to honor your choice to not kill him, but I can’t promise anything.”

His words, his tone, were more cleansing than both showers and her emotional breakdown had been. Jayme had planted the choice firmly in her court, and no way in hell would she allow Eamon to steal this man’s love from her.

“Together we’re strong enough to do anything.” She stood, dropped the blanket, and opened her arms.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

IT WAS A BITTERSWEET MOMENT.
Arousal beat through Jayme, and the need to crush Kaimi to his chest, hold her, and erase every fuckin’ scar Eamon had left in her memories exploded in him. But she was trembling. Those beautiful full lips quivered, and her face was so white the freckles on her nose stood out like stress beacons. He caught himself before he stepped back. Any possibility she’d think he was rejecting her was a no-go. “If I… It’s been six months, and I’m barely hanging on here, honey. We’re gonna have to, no, I have to, ah, shower.” If he could get rid of his erection before he touched her, there was hope. He’d be gentle with her, even if it killed him.

“Really?” The relief coursing through her voice, and her huge sigh told him all he needed to know. No sex tonight, maybe not for a long time. That shower was a vital necessity.

“Really. Slow means we wait until we’re
both
ready. And in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m scared shitless I’ll do something to hurt you, to make it worse. Why don’t you divvy up that food while I wash up? Let’s eat, get some sleep, and then plan how to get the hell out of here.”