Betrayal (16 page)

It terrified her to realize how wrong she’d been.

As many affairs as she’d had, with all the one-night stands and hot relationships, she’d never lost control all the way to her soul. Yet Kai’s kiss had burned away her common sense, her sense of self-preservation, her identity. She’d been nothing more than raw, violent need.

Thank God for the spark of pain when Kai had accidentally touched her incision. It had brought her back to her senses.

She refused to lose herself to Kai. She wanted the microchip out of her belly. She wanted the mercenaries to stop trying to kill her. Then she wanted to return to her dig and find Amerinis. Finally fulfilling her childhood dream of finding the lost city, while proving her worth as an archaeologist to all those who couldn’t see past her pretty face, or who chose to believe the false accusations Elena had thrown at her.

She had no room in her life right now for the distraction of passion. Her work required all her attention. Besides, she had an iron-clad rule. While on a dig she had no personal life. She saved her impetuous, passionate outbursts for after she’d finished a project.

And that point was still weeks, even months, away.

No matter how distracting she found Kai, she wouldn’t break her rule for him. So she’d just ignore this extraordinary passion and stay focused.

There’d be no more kissing.

P
ure, molten terror jerked Susana awake. Some instinct kept her body still while her eyes adjusted to the dim light filtering through the mosquito net. Nothing seemed out of place to her brain. She was in the hammock. She couldn’t see beyond her net, but that only meant dawn remained distant.

She didn’t hear any threatening sounds, yet her nerves quivered in alarm, insisting something was very, very wrong.

Then, as she shifted position and jostled the net, she realized that the darkness was mainly due to the number of spiders and other multi-legged insects bedded down on the warm, damp strands of the mosquito net.

“Kai?” she whispered, afraid if she shouted, she’d frighten the creepy-crawlies and somehow they’d shrink to a small enough size, drop through the tiny holes in the net, and land on her skin.

As if it had already happened, her skin prickled and her stomach tried to hide up between her shoulder blades.

She’d never been particularly squeamish about bugs before. They weren’t her favorite thing, but she certainly didn’t run screaming for a man to come kill the icky bug for her. She knew the insects had congregated due to the humid warmth her body heat created on the net.

She just usually had her mosquito net farther away from her face when she slept without a tent. Seeing this many insects, large and small, fat and skinny, hairy and smooth, and at such close range, awakened a primal revulsion. Low-level electrical jolts of fear blasted across her skin, raising goose-bumps.

She wanted out of here and she wanted out now!

“Kai!” she repeated, louder this time, and with more than a little hysteria coloring the edges. There was no way she was going to press her bare hand against the net and knock the critters off. What if somehow she knocked one inside the net?

“Susana?”

She heard Kai’s footsteps enter the clearing and her temper erupted. He’d gone to take care of business before clearing her net of bugs? He was
so
not going to live this one down.

“What’s wrong?” Kai asked.

“What the hell do you mean, what’s wrong? My mosquito net is an insect playground this morning, that’s what’s wrong you insensitive, brain-dead hump of dung! Get them off my net!! Right…this…minute!!!” She didn’t care that her tone launched into hysteria. Was she supposed to stay calm while watching tiny, segmented legs poke through the holes in her net less than a foot from her face?

She didn’t think so.

“Oh.” Kai had the gall to chuckle.

How
dare
he laugh when her skin crawled as if the insects touched her rather than the mosquito net. “You think this is funny?”

“Umm.”

She heard the sound of feet moving over the ground, then the rustling of leaves.

“Close your eyes until I tell you to open them and don’t move.”

“Shit,” she muttered, but did as he asked. Pressure against the net caused the hammock to cant first to the left and then to the right. She thought she heard outraged chitters from the insects as they were brushed off. “Good riddance,” she muttered in Portuguese.

“Okay, all clear.”

The hammock settled back to neutral and she opened her eyes. Although she told herself not to, she glanced down and saw the ground swarming with the bugs as they made tracks for the nearest dark places.

Ugh. She really hadn’t needed to see that. Particularly not before breakfast.

She closed her eyes again. “Tell me when they’re all gone.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She didn’t have to see his face to know he was giving her a slightly mocking smile, she could hear it in his voice. For a super agent, he sure was dumb about women. And she’d set him straight on that…once she was over this little bout of trembling.

“Okay, all clear.”

Not taking his word for it, she opened her eyes and checked carefully to make sure that when she moved she wasn’t going to have a spider or other creepy-crawly dropping on her or squishing under her feet. Once satisfied the way was clear, she peeled back the mosquito net and rolled out of the hammock.

Then she launched herself at Kai, hands pummeling every available inch of him she could reach.

“How dare you laugh! How dare you go away and leave my net covered with those…those critters! You are lower than a dung beetle! You are a sewer slug!! Did you want to scare me?”

“Hey!” He threw up his arms to guard against her flailing fists, but didn’t sidestep fast enough to prevent her boot from connecting with his shin. “Ouch!” He reached for her, but she danced away.

“Did you put those bugs there because you thought it would be funny?”

“No! I swear. I didn’t see them when I got up to patrol. It was still too dark. Honest. I have younger sisters…” His voice caught and the smile disappeared from his face. “A younger sister,” he corrected. “I would never provoke you like that. Particularly not out here, where they’d never find my body if you retaliated.”

She smacked him one more time for good measure, not entirely sure she believed him. After all, he’d laughed!

She stomped off into the bushes in the opposite direction from her hammock, keeping a sharp lookout for more multi-legged beings, muttering about the stupidity of men as she went.

She completed her toilet without company and then went in search of some fruit for breakfast. Carrying her treasures, she walked back to the clearing. Kai had his collapsible pot sitting over a fire, steam rising from boiling water. She placed the fruit next to him.

With a conciliatory smile, he held out a cup of steaming coffee. But she could still see hints of laughter on his face. She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Are you still laughing at me, Paterson?”

“No!” He held up his free hand. “Not laughing. Honest.”

She pursed her lips, then accepted the coffee peace offering with a nod and lowered herself to sit next to him.

The liquid was still too hot to drink, so she blew lightly across the surface. “Why the change from sisters to sister?”

The flash of pain across Kai’s face made her want to take her question back. And yet, at the same time, it made her even more curious.

“I had two younger sisters. Jenna and Isabel.” He turned away, hiding his expression as he fussed with his backpack. “Two years ago, not long after I’d been accused of killing your father and stealing the microchip, fourteen-year-old Isabel, her twin Justin, and my parents were murdered. Jenna was…” He shook his head as if he didn’t want to think of what his sister had endured. “Jenna was left for dead, but she survived.”

And the grief was still so fresh for him, he’d slipped and said sisters, plural.
Oh, Kai.
So that’s what he’d been crying over during his fever.

Why were there no words adequate enough to express the emotions flowing through her at this moment? Sympathy. Grief for his pain. The age-old female need to comfort by offering him a hug. Guilt because he’d been investigating her father instead of protecting his family. And the uncomfortable knowledge that as Dr. Nevsky’s daughter, she must be a painful reminder of what he’d lost, and why he hadn’t been there to stop it.

She didn’t think Kai would welcome comfort. So she settled for, “I’m sorry,” knowing it wasn’t enough. And still, some instinct prompted her to ask, “Is your sister okay?” What she really wanted to know, was if Kai was okay.

He shrugged. “She’s doing better. She got married recently to an SSU agent.” He picked up one of the bananas she’d collected and turned it over and over in his hands, staring at it as if the piece of fruit held every answer he needed. “Niko’s been good for her. Yeah…she’s going to be fine.”

But he didn’t quite sound convinced, and she knew a part of him must worry about his sister. God, what must that be like? To have someone care so deeply about you that they worried? Susana had only heard twice from her mother after she’d moved out. Both times her mother had wanted money for a new research project.

She’d never even asked how Susana was doing.

Susana tightened her hands around the warmth of the metal cup. Jenna was lucky to have Kai looking out for her.

But what about you, Kai? Who looks after you?
She bit her tongue so the words wouldn’t escape. She’d delved enough for today.

Kai tore open the banana. “Uh…thanks for breakfast.”

She acknowledged his abrupt change of subject with a half-smile and took a sip of her coffee. “Do you think we’ll reach the dig today?”

Kai glanced at the compass on his watch. “If we’re lucky.”

The jungle on this side of the river was thicker, making it harder to move forward. They’d only make the necessary progress if they could find another animal path to ease their trek. Or if they didn’t encounter any mercenaries.

“And then what?”

“I’ll use your radio to call for extraction. Then you show me the rest of your father’s letter.”

Although the prospect of returning to her dig made Susana’s veins sing with anticipation, she knew she would soon be saying good-bye to Kai.

And that thought tugged painfully at her heart.

S
usana hummed softly as she lead Kai through the brush. Once upon a time, maybe the people of Amerinis had walked these woods as they traveled from the river to their homes. Or while tracking prey.

Two screeching monkeys tore through the trees to her right and Susana turned her head to watch them. Hmm. That was odd. The sun made that tree stump look like…rock.

She blinked. The image didn’t change. There appeared to be a solid square of rock just off this faint animal path she was following.

Susana moved closer.

Oh. My. God.

Carved into the rock were primitive pictures in the same style as those found at her dig. Susana bit her tongue so she wouldn’t squeal in excitement like a little girl. Instead, she knelt in front of the stone.

Dammit, she wanted her tools with her. Lichen and vines had compromised the surface of the rock. Feelers from the vines had burrowed deep, separating the stone into sections. She wanted to scrape the covering away so she could look at the rest of the pictures, but needed to be careful that she didn’t dislodge any unstable pieces, damaging the pictures beyond repair.

Hands trembling, she pulled away as many vines as she could. When she moved around to the back, she saw a narrower segment partially buried in the soft earth.

She dug around the edges until she’d revealed a rectangle that, if set atop the larger block, would form an altar.

Susana sank back on her heels. “Oh. My. God!”

“Susana, what’s wrong?”

She stared blankly up at Kai, her mouth hanging open.

“I think I’ve found the altar for the fabled temple at Amerinis.”

Chapter 14

K
ai would never forget the awed elation on Susana’s face when she’d announced her find, or her resignation when after an hour he’d explained that she couldn’t stay and explore further. His priority was getting her safely out of the jungle and back to the SSU so the chip could be removed. Every minute they lingered gave the mercenaries another chance to find them.

While he’d marked down the coordinates, Susana had covered the altar up and notched a tree trunk to help her find the place again, then reluctantly followed him deeper into the jungle.

Now the sun sat low in the sky and Kai had to concede that Susana’s dig was too far to make before dark. Between the extended stop to examine the stone of Amerinis and the denser jungle vegetation on this side of the river, they hadn’t made much progress today.

Kai called a temporary halt and left Susana sitting on a downed tree while he found a thick clump of bushes to use as a toilet.

When he returned, he didn’t see Susana. He searched the area again, fighting to breathe past the fingers of panic tightening inside his throat. She couldn’t be gone. There’d been no sign of the mercenaries since they crossed the river. And she knew better than to return to the place she’d found the altar.

Had she wandered off, looking for more signs of her lost civilization?

He listened for her, focusing until he became acutely aware of every small sound. Birds calling to one another. The drone of insects. The rustle of leaves touched by the faint breeze.

His own labored breathing.

Then he heard a rustling from the bushes to the right of the log where he’d left her. Susana’s head bobbed into view, then disappeared. He hurried over and saw that she was simply kneeling down beside the log, retying her boot.

His breath whooshed out of him, leaving him light-headed with relief.

He hated to admit it, but since the malaria attack, every time he was out of sight of Susana, he felt on the verge of losing himself. The seductive call of the jungle was louder when he was alone. An answering wildness pulsed in his veins, demanding to be released. It would be so easy to throw off the blanket of civilization. Free the savage inside him.