Mike winked at her. “Timing’s a little off, but good enough.”
She smiled and gripped the trunk of the tree like a favored doll. Mike worked his way toward her, his size not giving him many options. Then he was in the branches with her.
“Now what?”
“To shore.”
She looked at the ground. Several feet below, it was a soggy, watery mess and several yards to higher ground. She hoped the baggies in her boots were still sealed. “You didn’t think of this before now?”
“Nope, and not of him either.”
She whipped to the right. A caiman, an Amazon alligator, slid into the water on the other side of the stream.
“I can’t shoot it or all this daring will be for nothing.”
Give away their position, she realized. “I get it, but if that thing starts chewing on my butt I expect you to wrestle him to the death.”
“It would be my honor to save that behind from such a fate.”
“And people call me a smart-ass.”
He instructed her to the point that she looked up at him with sarcasm written all over her pixie face.
“Ya know, if I look like a complete moron, tell me, because then I probably need to rethink my hairdo.”
His brows shot up, a sexy little smile curving his lips. “Message received, ma’am. Have at it.”
Clancy concentrated, every muscle tense as she worked toward the ground, her gaze flicking to the gator floating in the water a few yards away. Stay there, she thought. I’ll taste really bad. When her feet touched the ground, she pulled her purse in front of herself and walked carefully across the soggy earth, wading through the knee-deep finger stream. It wasn’t easy, thick with algae-covered vines and water plants that clung to her pants and ankles as she passed, snagging her. Her feet sank deeper into the muddy bottom, and she tried pulling free and got tangled worse. Mike was there, slicing at the vines with his big-ass knife, then taking her with him to higher ground.
He didn’t let her catch a breath. “Keep going, the gator wants to visit.”
They ran, pushing at the underbrush, water flowing from her clothes and feeling like worms on her skin.
“Personally I would have taken a road, but the end justifies the means?”
“Most times.” Mike had been forced to live with that. He didn’t want to think about the times he’d killed several to get a few. “There should be a village up here.”
The terrain rose steeply and Clancy’s thighs ached as she tried to keep up with him. “Village? I’ve been in a village. I want a town with a hotel and some room service.” She was whining, hating it, and really missed that cruise ship right now.
“Come on, McRae, no muttering in the ranks.”
Definite military, she thought and really wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and plowed into his back. He pulled her down to the ground with him and pointed. Ahead, the forest thinned out, sunlight penetrating the trees and showering on a little village. It wasn’t even a village, really, just a couple of wood homes that a good rainstorm would wash away.
“Oh God. That’s my jeep.” It was parked on the edge of the shacks.
“It’s a rental?”
“No, I bought it.”
He frowned.
“It was actually cheaper.” Her brows drew tight. “Fuad, my guide, betrayed me to them. Tried to ransom me or something.” She shrugged, still clueless. “That guy in the jeans, he’s the one who took the jeep. Before someone shot Fuad in the head. The little weasel.”
“I think you stepped into something you shouldn’t have,” he said, staring at the long-haired man in dirty jeans, then looked at her. “He’s probably Richora’s man.” Which meant he was in on the arms or drugs trafficking. “What happened that he was so hot to jail you?”
“To experience more of my sparkling personality?”
Mike grinned. She was adorable.
“Nothing really, they blindfolded me. Then Richora busted onto the scene.” She told him what happened, leaving out the detail of the tracking chip. That still pissed her off, but giving him too much information wouldn’t be smart. “In jail he kept asking me what I’d seen. Which was nothing.”
Ransom. It happened a lot here, so much that people had kidnapping insurance. The men took her for another reason, Mike decided, but Richora didn’t like it. Mike didn’t have time or reason to look into Richora’s operation, but an officer on the take wasn’t going to make the government happy since they’d expended half their treasury to try to stop the drug trade inside their own borders.
Mike’s gaze moved rapidly around the village, the jeep, the position of the men in the camp. “You have the keys?”
“They took them, but…” She searched her bag. “The spare was under the wheel hub, and I thought with all the mud and debris on the roads I’d lose it.” She held it up like a trophy.
“Excellent. Hold on to it. Stay hidden, I’ll be a couple minutes.”
He started to move away and she caught his arm. “Where are you going?”
He smiled and the excitement in his eyes hit her like a punch to her heart. “Trust me.”
Before she could say anything, he was gone, melting into the forest. She strained to see him, but it was impossible and she hunched down lower for the longest five minutes of her life. Getting any information on the troops around here was a bust, and she tried to think of a way to regain the ground she lost. Nothing came to mind. Suddenly her skin rippled with awareness and her head snapped to the right. Mike moved in as quietly as he’d left.
He had a funny smile on his face. “Ready to blow this town?” She nodded. “When I signal, run to the jeep.” He held a small disposable phone, and hit a button. A second later, the ground on the other side of the village exploded.
“Jesus, Mike, you could hurt someone.”
His glance was bitter. “I checked. Nothing there except piles of garbage.”
Even before he finished speaking, the sky rained with rotten food and fish guts. Together, they ran toward the jeep, and climbed in. She slapped the key in his hand and he turned over the engine.
“Crap, hardly any gas.”
“Who cares! Drive. We’re getting noticed.” Two men shouted, aiming machine guns at them as Mike threw the jeep into reverse and hit the gas.
“Mike!” She drew her gun.
“Shoot something!”
Clancy fired at their feet, the noise making her ears ring. The men danced back as Mike swerved the jeep, but the guys recovered and sprayed them with bullets. Clancy heard them hit the back of the vehicle.
“When you said blow this town, I didn’t think you meant blow this town!” She held on to the roll bar as the jeep jolted over the uneven road.
“Never pass up an opportunity to mystify a woman,” he said.
“We’re both pissing off the wrong people.” She needed to get lost fast and looked behind. “No one’s coming, yet.”
Mike didn’t slow down, and kept checking in the mirrors.
“I