Kitabı oku: «The Stranger and I», sayfa 3

“Why weren’t you down there with him?”

He shoved the door open. “Personal business.”

As they entered the lab, Lila stared, wide-eyed, at the collection of satellite images on the screens around the room. Justin pointed out Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Indonesia before leading her to a lighted map of Mexico.

He handed her the pointer. “If you touch the screen with the pointer and then touch another spot twice quickly, the number of miles between the two distances will flash. Or I can switch it to minutes.”

She held the pointer between two fingers. “Cool.”

“If you press down on a point on the map, the name of the town will flash on the screen, or the name of the nearest town and the distance.”

She caught her full lower lip between her teeth and studied the map. Talking to herself, she said, “Let’s see, I got to the border at around eight o’clock, stopped for forty-five minutes in Loma Vista before that.”

He leaned in, watching her pore over the map. Her musky scent, a combination of tangy salt and stale lilac, enfolded him, weaving a silky web around him. He stepped back to break the threads.

She needed to get home, back to her family and friends. He knew instinctively she had lots of friends. Her warmth would draw people to her, grateful to be included in the glow that floated around her like a cape. God, he was losing it.

She murmured, “I think the site is around this area. It’s south of this little town, Loma Vista. Some dense foliage marked the spot. The rest of the way to Loma Vista was pretty bare.”

Blinking his eyes, he focused on the map where she circled with the wand.

“I can’t be absolutely sure until I see the place again. It was dark, and I was sleeping when we got there and terrified when I left.”

Drawing in closer, he noted the general location but didn’t write it down. He frowned. “Are you sure this is the place?”

She nodded. “I’m figuring it out by hours not miles, and I’m sure I stopped in Loma Vista and it took me another forty-five minutes to the border. Why?”

Scratching his chin, he said, “It seems kind of far from the border to be tunneling in. I expected something closer to the border itself.”

He flipped a switch to erase the entire transaction. “At least it gives me a starting point.”

Handing him the pointer, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell your colleagues out there about the tunnel?”

He shrugged. “It’s only a supposition right now. Something Chad and I worked on, nobody else, except Molina, and I’m not sure how far Chad took him into his confidence.”

She sighed. “I thought government agencies were supposed to be working together now—”

“Shh.” He held up his hand.

She started to speak, and he hissed, “Quiet.”

A hollow puff. A soft thud. A quick footstep.

He prowled toward the door of the navigation room, lifted a chair and lodged it under the door handle.

Her eyes round with fear, a sickly pallor soaking into her skin, Lila choked out, “What’s wrong?”

He spun toward her, regretting his next words. “The facility’s been compromised.”

Chapter Three

A shot of adrenaline zigzagged up Lila’s spine, leaving a trail of goose bumps in its wake. The blood pounded in her head. She squeezed her eyelids shut against the daggerlike pain that knifed behind them.

Justin gripped her shoulders and her eyes flew open. She twitched then sagged against him. He pressed her body to his, the warmth quelling the panic that rippled along her nerve endings.

Through their clothes, she felt his hard muscles already coiled for action. In contrast, she felt like jelly. If he let her go, she’d morph into a blob on the floor.

He looked down into her face, and she tried to soak up the strength she saw in his eyes. He ran his palms down her arms and squeezed her hands. “Follow me.”

His touch and words acted like an electric prod. She straightened up. The room sharpened into focus. Her nostrils flared. Her muscles tensed. She could do this.

Before grabbing her wrist, Justin swung around and killed the lights. He prowled across the floor, the satellite images casting a green glow over his taut body. He placed a chair beneath a vent, climbed on it and pushed the vent into the ceiling above them.

He beckoned to her to join him on the chair, and she teetered on its edge. Encircling her waist with his strong hands, he hoisted her up and into the vent.

He whispered, “Crawl to your right until you get to a dead end. I’ll be right behind you.”

Turning toward the blackness, she heard him scramble into the vent after her. She began crawling, her breath puffing out in short spurts, scattering the cobwebs tickling her face. The dark enclosure suffocated her, but she kept moving, afraid if she stopped, she’d die. Her head hit a wall. She gulped once, twice, to swallow the scream barreling its way up her throat.

Justin crowded in close to her, sweat dripping from his face. His hot breath, smelling of cool spearmint, bathed her cheek. He lifted out another vent and lowered himself through the square hole. As he disappeared, waves of panic engulfed her until she saw his face peering up at her.

He said, “Come down.”

She sat down on the edge of the hole and dangled her legs through the opening. Fear drummed against her temples until Justin wrapped his arms around her thighs. She slid down the rest of the way, and he held her close for just a moment. Could she stay here…forever? His heart thudded against her chest, willing her own skittering heart to mimic its steady beat.

His lips brushing her ear, he said, “We’re in a closet in the entryway. The front door is right outside. Do what I say. Once I open the front door, crouch down as far as you can and follow me out to the car. Don’t look up, don’t stop. The keys are in the ignition. If I don’t make it…”

Her strangled cry stopped him. He moved his hands up her arms to cup her face and swept the rough pad of his thumb across her lips. He dropped one hand and dug into his pocket. “If I don’t make it, call the number on this card and ask for Leo Caine.” He nudged the card into her stiff, damp hand.

Wrapping his finger around one of her curls, he bent over and pulled her face toward his, his lips brushing hers. “You can do it, Lila.”

Couldn’t they just stay in this closet and finish the kiss? All too soon, he released her, prepared his weapon and eased the closet door open. She peered out from behind his broad back. No one in the entryway. Two steps put them at the front door.

Pushing it open, he glanced back at her. “Let’s go.”

He hunched forward, folding his tall frame almost in half. She followed, her eyes darting around the perimeter of the compound.

The first shot split the hot desert air.

Following orders, she didn’t look up.

Justin moved faster, not bothering to return fire. Another shot. He dropped.

She stumbled over him. Just a few feet ahead, the car beckoned, promising safety.

Shoving her forward, he yelled, “Go.”

She took a few steps and then turned to see him gripping his leg, blood flowing between his fingers. “You’re hurt.”

He shouted, “Go, I can’t get up. It’s my leg.”

She charged back, stooping over and hooking him under the arms. “Move, damn you. You can’t leave me now.”

She felt a surge of power jolt his body as he staggered onto his good leg. She yanked open the door on the side away from the gunfire and pushed him into the car. He slumped against the seat, still holding his leg, and she scrambled over him to the driver’s seat.

A bullet smacked behind them, and a spiderweb of shattered glass spread across the back window. She punched the truck forward.

Speeding toward the closed gate, she screamed, “The gate. How do I open the gate?”

He responded through clenched teeth. “Push the red button.”

She pounded the button with her fist and the gates rolled open. The truck squealed through and raced back toward Highway 62. Away from the compound. Away from terror. Toward the unknown.

For several miles, ragged breathing and choked sobs filled the car until Justin swore softly and bent forward.

Lila glanced over, her eyes dropping to his thigh. Blood oozed through ripped denim. “Is it bad?”

He grimaced before answering. “It’s not too bad. Grazed me. Bullet didn’t go in.”

He peeled his T-shirt off his back and wound it around his leg.

Lila frowned. “You’re going to need better treatment than that.”

His lips tight, outlined in white, he pressed down on the makeshift bandage with two hands. “Can’t go to a doctor. I have a first aid-kit in the truck bed.”

Watching the blood seep through his T-shirt, she asked, “What just happened back there? How’d you know?”

Leaning back, he closed his eyes. “I heard some noises. A silencer.”

She stared hard at the road. “Who was it? Weren’t there just the seven of us at the compound?”

Feeling him tense beside her, she glanced over at him. He seemed chiseled in stone, his face etched into hard lines, the muscles in his bare chest and belly tight.

He grunted and answered, “That’s what worries me.”

“Y-you mean…?”

“I mean, it looks like an inside job. Dig into my pocket and get my phone for me.”

He shifted his hip so she could reach his front pocket. Keeping her eyes on the highway, her fingers skimmed the smooth skin above the waistband of his jeans, dancing over his hipbone to reach his pocket. The heat of her blood owed nothing to the ball of fire dropping into the desert. The warmth suffused her cheeks as she handed him the phone. If he noticed her blush, he gave no sign. Of course not, the man had the emotions of a robot.

He punched a few keys to speed dial a number and barked into the phone, “Leo, it’s Justin.” Pause. “Cut the code-name crap. The compound’s been hit.”

Lila heard only his side of the conversation, but it didn’t seem to be going well. When he finished, he dropped the phone and clamped down on his thigh with both hands again. He glared in front of him, his eyebrows drawn together.

She licked her lips. “Is there a problem?”

“Yeah, Leo said Prasad never called him with the news about Chad’s death. He didn’t know a thing about it…or you.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Prasad?”

Hunching one bare shoulder, he said, “I don’t know. Don’t even know if he left before the shooting started. We were in there for a good forty-five minutes before I heard the first bullet. If he already left, he’s still alive somewhere. If he didn’t, he’s dead like the rest or…”

Recalling the young agent’s open face and engaging smile, Lila shook her head. Couldn’t be. “Could it be someone from the outside? Honestly, the security didn’t seem that tight there.”

He shrugged. “I suppose. I didn’t notice any other cars there, but then we usually park them around the back of the compound. I didn’t notice if Prasad’s car was still there or not, either.”

“Where to now? Can we go see this Leo?”

“No.”

She swiveled her head to look at him. “Why not?”

He gave a harsh laugh. “From the sound of his voice and the things he didn’t say, I can tell he’s suspicious…of me.”

She exclaimed, “Of you? He thinks you opened fire on those people?”

“I’m still standing.” He adjusted the T-shirt on his thigh, his jaw tight. “Process of elimination.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’re the one who called the incident in. Couldn’t you just explain the situation to him?”

Shaking his head, he said, “Not if he thinks I’m involved. There’d be an investigation, they’d take my weapon. I’d be useless in following up on anything Chad found. I’m not too good at being useless.”

She eyed the contained energy in that hard body and could easily believe it.

“Look, Lila. It’s better to stay out of sight for now. I need to sort some things out in my head.”

“Better for whom?” she asked. “You need to rest and have that wound properly cleaned and dressed. I need to eat, and I’m sorry, I really need a shower.”

His grin ended in a gasp as he clutched at his thigh again. “I have camping gear in the back and that first-aid kit. That’s probably the safest way to go right now. I’ve been checking the mirror since we left the compound. Nobody followed us. That’s one advantage of the desert. You can see for miles. It’s no accident the HIA put the compound out here.”

She announced, “Okay. We’re going to stop at that shopping center when we get to Twentynine Palms. I’m going to pick up a few things, and then we’re going camping.”

An hour later they sat on logs around a fire at the Cottonwood campsite in the Joshua Tree National Park. Justin looked over at the woman poking at the flames. She amazed him. Instead of making her swoon, the sight of his blood bubbling through his jeans called her to action. For a moment at the compound he thought he’d have to haul her out over his shoulder. For a moment.

With little assistance from him, she pitched the tent, treated his gunshot graze and started a fire, humming a tune all the while.

While she cleaned and dressed his wound, her strong, nimble fingers trailing over his skin stirred a slow burn in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t need this complication right now.

The blaze from the campfire illuminated her fine features. She looked like an escaped wood nymph from the Black Forest, but her coloring resembled one of those Nordic heroines.

Noticing his scrutiny, she smiled, but those lush lips quivered with the effort. She plucked up stamina from somewhere to keep going, but the path to total collapse loomed ahead. He hoped to God he could catch her when she folded.

Against his better judgment, he shifted a little closer to her. “What kind of research were you doing in Mexico?”

She clasped her hands around her knees and rocked back and forth. “A group of us went down to dive and do research at La Bufadora. There’s a decline in the fluorescent strawberry anemone there, and we’re testing the water for toxins.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Strawberry what?”

Wiggling her toes at the fire, she laughed. “The fluorescent strawberry anemone. I swear, that’s what it’s called. We drove down in a caravan, and I decided to leave early. My car broke down, and the rest is history.”

Obviously she took life head-on, no shrinking violet, despite her ethereal appearance. “So as a graduate student, do you teach, too?”

She nodded and grimaced. “I spend half my time doing research and the other half as a teaching assistant in undergraduate marine-biology classes.”

“Have you always been interested in marine biology?”

She laughed again, the sound of gurgling water. “Is that your polite way of asking why a woman of my advanced years is still in school?”

He tilted his head, taking in the large, clear eyes set in a smooth face, a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. “I’d hardly call late twenties advanced.”

She leaned forward and winked. “Must be good genes. More like early thirties, and no, while marine biology is my first love, I made a detour for a while.”

Closing her eyes, a spasm of pain arched across her face. As much as he wanted to learn more about her, he respected others’ private demons. After all, he had his share.

She opened her eyes. “How about you? Did you want to be a secret agent when you were a little boy?”

The reference to his boyhood pinked his armor. He’d just wanted to survive his childhood, make it out in one piece. He schooled his face into a noncommittal mask. “Not exactly. I wanted to be a cowboy, then an astronaut, then a superhero.”

Nodding, she said, “I see, the quiet life. I know someone poured from the same mold.” Her expressive eyes misted over as she stared dreamily into the fire.

The blaze crackled, and she fell back to earth. “When can I go home?”

He stirred the fire with a stick. “When I can get you there safely. If all goes well tonight, maybe as early as tomorrow.”

Leaning toward him, she asked, “Do you really think Prasad could be responsible for what happened at headquarters?”

He pictured Prasad’s eager young face as he told him, “I have more at stake here than you. I’m an American and I’m a Muslim.” His background check came back squeaky clean. Justin himself trained him…and Chad. Nausea swept through his body, and he gripped his hands in front of him. That’s what happened when you got too close—betrayal or desertion.

“Justin?”

He looked over at that angelic face, her hair creating a halo that seemed to float around her head.

She reached out and touched his clasped hands. Her warmth spread through him like honey, sweet and thick, and he savored it. Just for this one moment…

Her fingertips played along the grooves between his knuckles. She felt his tension begin to seep out, and she let it bleed into her, drinking in their closeness. He had to feel their connection, too. Or maybe not.

He stood up slowly. “You must be exhausted. Time for that shower.”

He began dousing the fire, and she jumped up to help him. The man obviously could tolerate only small doses of intimacy at a time.

When they finished, she asked, “What will you do?”

He rubbed his hand across the stubble that made him look nine kinds of sexy. “Probably go down to that clearing south of Loma Vista.”

She widened her eyes, and her heart skipped. “Alone? You’ll go down there without any help?”

“Much of what we do in this agency is alone. Besides, we do have another agent down there.”

She guessed much of what he did in the agency was alone. Lone Wolf—he’d earned that name somehow.

“One more thing, Lila, you can’t tell anyone about this. The police agencies don’t even know about us. The government will take care of that incident at the compound.”

“What about Chad’s family?”

“They’re back East. They’ll be notified.”

“And the rest of them?”

“Same thing.”

She shivered thinking about the elegant Victoria and nerdy Dave. Real people with real families. She asked, “What about your family?”

His body stiffened, dark clouds scudding across his face. “Don’t have one, except for my sister. She’s married and thinks I have some government job where I travel a lot. Not too far from the truth.”

He gestured toward the squat building beyond the rocks. “You shower first, and I’ll wait outside.”

The Cottonwood campground consisted of forty campsites and ten shower complexes. They enjoyed this one to themselves, as the late-summer months didn’t attract many campers to the desert.

Lila tiptoed into the empty building that housed four shower stalls and cranked on the lukewarm water. The spray hit her back, and she soaped up her body, scrubbing away the sand and dust along with her tension and fear.

Justin stood guard outside, and after knowing him less than twenty-four hours, she knew he’d protect her. He seemed to believe they might be safe now. God, she hoped so. She ached to see Tyler again and hold him in her arms.

She toweled off and called out to Justin to make sure he was still stationed out front. He answered her call. She’d marveled at the supplies in his truck, like the soap and this towel. He lived prepared for flight. A strange, rootless existence.

She dragged her shorts and tank top back over her clean body and stepped outside. She grinned at Justin leaning against a boulder. “Better hurry. I think I used up all the hot water.”

He shoved off the rock. “Hold this gun, just in case. I’ll have mine, too. If you hear or see anything, come into the shower.”

She gave him her best wicked smile. “I might just use that as an excuse.”

His eyes burned with an amber light, as if daring her to make her move. Then he shook his head and ducked into the little building.

Silence hung over the campground, punctuated by the sound of metal on metal as someone at a distant site secured his tent. A shuffling noise rose from behind a rock on the other side of the shower building. Lila’s eyes darted to the rock formation looming at the edge of the shadows. The bush rustled and swayed. An animal?

She raised the trembling gun and pointed at the bush. Her voice scissored through the heavy air. “Justin.”

He got out of the shower as fast as he could with his bad leg, tucking the ends of the towel around his waist with one hand and gripping his gun with the other. “What’s wrong?”

She pointed to the rocks. “I heard a rustling noise by the bush over there.”

“Stay here…and put that gun down.” He prowled toward the outcropping. Raising his weapon, he crept around the rock. Lila covered her ears to block out the…silence.

He returned to her side. “Probably just a small animal. Admit it. You made it up to lure me out here.”

Her heart, returning to its normal number of beats per minute, sped up again at the sight of his naked body strategically wrapped in the small towel. The water from the shower glistened on his broad shoulders, the droplets shimmering in the hair scattered across his well-defined chest. His dark brown hair, sluiced back from his face, curled up where the ends met the nape of his neck. An aching need poured into her with such force, she stepped back.

Her inventory finished, she looked up into his eyes. She glimpsed her own desire mirrored there before the shutters came down.

He turned quickly to the shower. “I’ll finish up.”

By the time he returned, she’d marshaled her reeling senses. This kind of attraction to this kind of man couldn’t happen. They walked slowly back to the campsite, a multitude of brilliants winking down at them from the black velvet canvas above.

He peeled back the flap of the tent and reached into his bag. Handing her one of his T-shirts, he said, “Get out of those clothes and put this on unless you have something cleaner to wear to bed.”

She accepted the T-shirt. “I haven’t done laundry since that last hotel in Ensenada.”

He left her in the tent while she changed. She stripped off her shorts and tank top, unhooked her bra and dropped it on the pile of clothes. Pulling his T-shirt over her head, she wrapped her arms around herself, inhaling the clean scent of laundry detergent. She slipped into the sleeping bag and called out, “I’m ready.”

He ducked into the tent, yanked his shirt off and stepped out of the shorts he put on to replace the jeans with the bullet hole in the thigh. She’d already seen his boxers once today when she helped him out of his blood-soaked jeans and cleaned his wound. So why did her toes curl now?

His heavily muscled thigh had escaped with a nasty rip in the flesh, not much more. He had a comprehensive first-aid kit, and she had some training from Mom.

She schooled her eyes away from him as he crawled into his sleeping bag. He had so much to give and yet he shut himself down, sealing a tight lid on his emotions. What torments nagged him and drove him to keep vigil over his loneliness? And why did she care so much?

“Lila?” His voice caressed her like a warm embrace.

“Yeah?” Her pulse quickened.

“Good night, Lila.”

She rolled onto her side in her cocoon, folding her arm beneath her head for a cushion. She screwed her eyes shut. She clenched her fists at every pop from the dying campfire, every time some misdirected insect beat its wings against the tent. Her fingernails dug half-moons into her palms. She shifted to her other side. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she spied Justin propped up in his sleeping bag.

She whispered, “Justin?”

“Yeah?”

“Aren’t you going to sleep?” He had to be as exhausted as she was, and he had a nasty wound in the bargain.

“I’m going to keep watch for a while. Go back to sleep.”

“I haven’t been too successful in that endeavor.” She continued, choosing her words, “Can I…?”

He answered by tugging on her sleeping bag, pulling it toward his own. Placing an arm around her shoulders, he guided her head onto his lap.

She settled her cheek against his good thigh, encased in the down of his sleeping bag, and drank in his fresh masculine scent, so different from Gareth’s expensive colognes.

One strong, capable hand rested on her shoulder, and she felt safer than she had in the past twenty-four hours. She nestled her head deeper onto his lap, a long sigh escaping her lips. Safer than she’d ever felt before.

Lila’s breathing deepened. The soft curves in her sleeping bag rose and fell rhythmically. He caressed her shoulder before allowing his fingers to swim in the sea of curls that rested in the hollow of her neck. He twisted them round and round until they bound him to her.

When he’d come out of the shower in that towel, the clear blue light of her eyes had muted into a smoldering need. A groan rumbled from his lips. He’d had the same need. He’d hastened a retreat to the shower before she could see just how much. His potent desire hardened and rose, then as now. He shifted in his sleeping bag. He was no better than Chad.

What had Chad meant to her? His death pained her, but then she seemed to feel everything acutely, both sorrow and joy. Chad had a way with women. Did Lila realize he had that effect on all women and used it liberally? Didn’t matter now. Chad was gone.

He closed his eyes against his loss. His mother was all but gone. He wished his father would stay gone, the son of a bitch. And soon Lila would be gone. He preferred it that way.

His thigh throbbed, and suddenly feeling pinpricks of heat, he kicked the sleeping bag off his leg.

Lila mumbled something in her sleep, sounded like “tired.” Well, she should be after the horrors she’d witnessed over the past twenty-four hours. He still couldn’t quite understand what possessed Chad to bring her along when he knew danger loomed ahead. The kid always had to have a backup plan.

Justin tried recalling their last conversation. Chad’s excitement fizzed in his voice when he said, “I met up with some coyotes here in Mexico City. They told me about a tunnel running under the border, but it’s not finished yet. I’m sure our boys with Al Tariq are following the same leads. We have to find it before they do.”

They both knew what a tunnel under the border meant—easy access for terrorists to slip into the country undetected. It would be a free-flowing pipeline resulting in thousands of terrorist cells right in their own backyard.

Justin told him to wait until he finished his personal business in San Diego and could join him. The hothead didn’t wait. Did he learn that from him?

And what happened to Molina? Did he know about Chad yet? Why did he run off to Costa Rica? Chad hadn’t trusted him. He’d told him flat out he wouldn’t work with Molina until Justin got down there.

This situation would’ve been a mess even if Chad hadn’t dragged Lila into their business. Now their entire operation was a disaster.

He gazed down at her, tracing his finger along her earlobe. Soft as silk. He’d drink her in tonight and set her free tomorrow.

The silence of the campsite didn’t fool him. Every nerve ending in his body tuned into a waiting presence in the crouching darkness. He didn’t know what that presence waited for, or why it didn’t strike. But when it did, he’d be ready.

He was born ready.