Betrayal (15 page)

Blindingly terrified about the coming confrontation.

He had to clear his throat before he could speak. “What does it say?”

She held out a piece of white, lined paper with jagged edges. It was an itinerary and a list of radio codes.

Underneath, in the same child-like printing, were two words.

Stop me.

Ah, shit. Oh, God, Rafe. Please don’t give in. Fight them with everything you’ve got, bro. I’m coming.

Niko pulled Jenna close and rested his cheek against her head, letting the familiar lemon scent of her shampoo sooth his tattered nerves. Without her, he’d have fallen apart days ago. Every time he thought of his brother, his skin twitched and his heart bled.

“Kai is like a second brother to Rafe,” Jenna said. “No matter what they’ve done to him, there’s still hope that love will stop Rafe from killing Kai. Love…it’s a powerful force.”

Niko let Jenna’s words seep into him, but his panic wouldn’t be cowed. Yes, Jenna had tried to kill Kai because she thought he’d ordered the rest of their family killed. But she’d been unable to land the killing blow because she’d realized that deep down she still loved her brother, no matter what.

While Rafe and Kai had bonded like brothers, they’d only met a few months ago. Niko didn’t know if their bond was strong enough to save Kai.

“If we can’t stop Rafe before he kills Kai…” Niko shook his head. “No. It would be worse if we find him…” Niko squeezed Jenna tighter. “If he’s…”

Niko was afraid to say the words. Afraid that if he spoke them, somehow they’d come true.

“If Rafe is too far gone for us to save him,” Jenna whispered.

“Yeah. That would be…” Niko didn’t know if he was strong enough to make the choice. Kill Rafe in order to protect Kai and the Dias woman. Or capture Rafe and send him back to a lab to be studied until he died. “I love him. He stood by me always, even when I didn’t deserve it. I can’t fail him. Yet I don’t know if I have the strength…”

Dios, please don’t make me have to choose.

“We’ll work it out. Somehow, together, we’ll do the right thing,” Jenna shushed him. “Don’t worry.”

The problem was, Niko was terrified of what the right thing might entail.

Chapter 13

Friday, Evening

Amazon Jungle

W
hile Susana scavenged in the jungle for food before the light went, Kai worked on improvising a more comfortable bed for her, without sacrificing her requirement that they both be under the mosquito net. He decided that if he hung the hammock low enough, he could drape the net in such a way that it reached the ground.

He’d wrap himself in the survival blanket and sleep underneath the hammock. Satisfied that Susana would accept the arrangement, Kai started digging a fire pit at the opposite end of the little clearing. He figured it was safe to start a small fire since they hadn’t seen any sign that the mercenaries realized they’d crossed the river.

He was in the middle of setting rocks around the pit when Susana stepped into the clearing, her arms full of fruit and roots. She glanced at the hammock, then the fire pit, but aside from a raised eyebrow, didn’t comment before heading back into the trees.

Some skewed part of him was disappointed she didn’t react with another burst of temper.

He had the fire started and was feeding it twigs when Susana staggered back into camp a second time. Spotting the boa constrictor wrapped around her neck and shoulders, Kai leapt to his feet. He swore his heart stopped beating. “Susana! Oh, God, don’t move.”

He dashed over to his backpack, where his handgun was stored in the front pocket. Christ, could he even risk shooting the snake when it was lying on Susana?

Susana’s throaty laugh stopped him in his tracks. “Kai, it’s dead. This is our dinner.”

His exhale of relief could have put out the fire if he’d been close enough. As the adrenaline receded, weakness swept through him. He swayed.

“Kai?”

“Dammit. Don’t do that again,” he said, trying for an angry snarl but managing only a feeble croak.

“Sorry.”

He turned around. The wicked glint in her eye made her seem anything but sorry. Why she enjoyed scaring him he couldn’t for the life of him figure out. But when she smiled at him, he felt another surge of relief as the tension that had dogged today’s walk broke apart. He summoned up a smile of his own.

After a meal of anaconda, not boa as he’d thought, and fruit, they settled into a comfortable silence.

Kai watched the coals of the dying fire flare and subside. He wasn’t ready to turn in for the night, but he knew they should rest up. If they pushed hard enough, they might be able to make Susana’s dig tomorrow evening.

“Did you know my father?” Susana’s question was soft. Wary.

Kai cursed mentally. This was the question he’d been hoping to avoid. She’d grown up without a father, so of course she wanted to know all she could about the man. But what could he say that wouldn’t make her feel worse?

Kai poked the stick he was holding into one of the remaining pieces of wood in the fire, breaking it into shimmering red chunks. “Yeah, I knew your father.”

“How did you meet?”

Shit. Might as well jump right in. “I have a degree in biochemistry,” Kai said. “My specialty is biochemical warfare. The organization I work for, the SSU, does a lot of contract work for the government. They hired us to investigate rumors that subjects were being tortured and killed at one of the labs sponsored by the Department of Defense. Your father’s lab.”

Susana’s soft exhale let him know she suspected that what he was about to reveal wouldn’t be good.

“I was sent undercover.” And when the lab was destroyed in a fire, Kai had been framed for the death of Dr. Nevsky and the theft of the microchip. Even the SSU had thought him a traitor. Add to that his suspected role in the attack against his family, and he’d spent two years on the run, desperately trying to find the microchip and clear his name. While also tracking down and killing the men who’d killed his family.

“So you’re a spy?”

He gave a mock shudder. “Please, no. We prefer
intelligence agent.
”

“Ah. You’re a secret agent, then. Like James Bond.” Her voice was tinged with laughter and he wished for stronger light so he could better read her face.

He sighed dramatically. “Not so exciting. No fast cars or fast women. Think of a bunch of middle-aged men and women wearing white lab coats and hunched over test tubes.”

“Oh, poor baby.” She paused and he braced himself. “What was my father working on?”

Technically, the answer to that question was classified and Susana wasn’t on the need-to-know list. Right now, he didn’t give a damn. The moment Nevsky had put the chip inside her, his work had become Susana’s business.

“He experimented with a combination of drugs, hypnosis and gene manipulation to create humans impervious to pain, temperature and exhaustion. Needing little sleep. Men extraordinarily strong and fast, with an immune system strong enough to withstand most microbes, including some of the more common biochemical weapons, such as anthrax. Men with superior intelligence who are able to process data two or three times faster than the average human.”

And who were subject to mind control. But Susana didn’t need to know that her father’s real passion was making a subject who could be sent out on any mission, even one that went against the subject’s strongest morals, and nothing would stop him except death.

Much as nothing, not even the six-month lifespan of his subjects, had stopped Dr. Nevsky from his research. He’d continued his tests even after he’d realized his drugs were fatal.

“That sounds pretty…” Susana shrugged.

“Far out?” Kai offered.

“Yeah. Was he…successful?” Susana asked.

Memories assaulted him. Men lifting more weight than their bodies should have been able to bear without collapsing. Insane rages. Hours of torture aimed at learning at what point the subjects felt pain. Kai jabbed the end of his stick into the dirt and prayed that Rafe hadn’t been captured. He couldn’t bear the idea of his friend undergoing such torture.

“Depends on your definition of success,” he eventually answered. “There were dangerous physical and mental side effects that made his subjects unfit for active duty.” Although, right before he died, Nevsky claimed to be close to a resolution to those setbacks.

“The letter from the lawyers said my father died two years ago. Why such a lag before you came after the chip?”

“It’s…a long story. Short version—everyone thought I’d stolen it and I wasn’t in a position to prove otherwise. Plus, no one knew Nevsky had a daughter or that he’d used you to hide the chip.”

In the heavy silence that followed, Kai could almost hear the wheels turning in Susana’s mind as she processed what he’d told her. He wracked his brain, trying to figure out what she would ask next. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much positive he could say about the man.

“What did he look like?”

Ah. Of course she’d want to know. But no one had thought to give him a photo to carry. They’d assumed she’d known her father.

Stupid.

“When we get you back to headquarters, I can pull up a picture for you. Until then—” He thought back two years and tried to reconstruct the man’s image in his mind. “He was tall, maybe six foot two. Heavy bones. Carrying a slight paunch. Dark hair. Blue eyes.” He glanced at Susana. The glow from the coals threw red-tinged shadows across her face, but he didn’t really need light to remember its structure.

“You…ah…have his nose, but that seems to be about it.”

She nodded. “Was he good to his staff?”

Kai wished she’d ask an easy question. He hated being the one to tell her what a bastard her father was. “No. He was rude. Demanding. A perfectionist. Egotistic. But brilliant. That’s why people stayed with him.” And fear. Kai was pretty sure some of the scientists in the program had stayed because of blackmail.

Susana put her face in her hands. “Great.” Her voice came out muffled. “It’s so nice to learn I come from such upstanding stock.”

Shit. He hadn’t meant to upset her. “I’m sorry. I thought you wanted to know.”

She raised her head just enough to look at him. “I did. I just…” She shrugged. “I guess the little girl in me was still hoping for some good news. Like, my father gave all his profits to charity. You know, something I could use at cocktail parties instead of just curtly telling people both my parents are dead and hoping they won’t inquire further.”

“So…uh…don’t go to any cocktail parties.”

She laughed, as he’d intended. But then she answered as if he’d been serious. “You don’t understand the archaeological world. Cocktail parties, fundraising balls, or garden parties—wherever there are people potentially willing to fund an expedition, there go I.”

He blinked at her. “But…your modeling…I assumed…” He’d seen her financial reports. She was way richer than he was.

“That I have money? Yes, I do. It’s nicely invested and the interest keeps me living comfortably. But I don’t have the kind of money to continually fund full-fledged expeditions. Even if I did, it makes no financial sense.” She flashed a mischievous grin at him and something powerful pressed against his ribs from the direction of his heart. “Besides, why should I spend my money when there are plenty of people who want the prestige of funding a dig for six or eight months? My money is for retirement or an emergency.”

“Very practical of you.”

She gave a half bow. “Thank you.”

They sat without speaking for some time, as if the revelation about her father had dried up Susana’s words. Finally, she excused herself and retired to her hammock.

Some time later, Kai kicked dirt onto the coals, then rose to his feet. He wasn’t sleepy so he walked the perimeter, checking for wild animals and scattering ashes to deter snakes. He wasn’t completely ruling out an attack by the mercenaries, but after seeing their boat’s search pattern, he was pretty sure they weren’t an immediate threat.

He bent down and tightened one of the trip wires that had come loose. Susana had taken the information about her father well, considering. Although he’d seen a flash of fear in her eyes when he mentioned the chip.

Yeah, he’d be freaked out, too, if he learned he had a microchip inside him.

That was bad enough news. There was no way she needed to know that his family had been killed because of the chip.

H
ours later, Susana lay in her hammock and listened to Kai shift position as he sat guard nearby. She heard the faint scratch of fabric against rock and the muffled squeak of his rubber soles—had he settled onto the rock? There wasn’t enough light to see, but she imagined him sitting with his knees bent in front of him, chin down as he gazed into the night.

And she wondered if he was thinking back to those kisses.

She certainly was. All day she’d attempted to distract herself by searching for signs of the city of Amerinis. The stories put Amerinis on this side of the river, but if she was right and they’d been digging in the wrong place, then anywhere along this stretch of river was a possible location for the city.

Unfortunately, she’d seen nothing to indicate former human habitation. No ruined walls. No shapes beneath the undergrowth that appeared too linear to be natural. Of course, in the jungle even items left behind a year ago would already be well hidden by vines, let alone pieces of an ancient civilization.

Still, time had a way of revealing lost items, so she remained hopeful.

For most of the day, she’d been able to keep the resonance from Kai’s kisses at a low hum. But here in the dark there was nothing to do except remember. She felt her cheeks heat in memory. Dear God, she’d never experienced a kiss like that.

It had been…too unbelievably wonderful. Way too powerful. Exhilarating and frightening. She’d been completely consumed by the heat of his mouth, until time and breath had seemed inconsequential next to the almost ferocious need to taste more. To take more.

The extent of her need had shocked her. She’d never lacked for lovers. She enjoyed sex and wasn’t one of those women who needed an emotional commitment before taking a man to her bed. So until today she’d thought she’d learned everything there was to know about passion.