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“Would you have stayed behind if you knew it could save your career?” he asked.
“I jumped, didn’t I?” She’d made a clear choice.
His brow lifted. Had she earned a sliver of his respect? “Let’s move. They’ll get through the barricade soon enough.”
He hadn’t answered her question. He’d made it clear he didn’t trust her, but could she trust him?
The airfield encircled the terminal. With the openness of the layout, she and Connor had few places to hide. The garden surrounding the building was filled with drab green bushes, sparse in some areas, overgrown in others.
“Stay close to me,” Connor said.
At the moment, it was the safest place to be. Kate wasn’t trained to avoid Sphere agents or survive an altercation with them.
They crept along the side of the building. Though Connor tried to hold them from her, bush branches scraped at her face, arms and legs as they hurried. “This can’t be just about Aiden,” Connor said.
Kate took the branch he was holding and slipped past it. “If we find him, it would look bad for them, like they left a man in danger.”
“They have enough staff working to keep their name out of the media through threats or force. I don’t think they’d go through this trouble to stop us from finding one man. Aiden knows something or Aiden did something that they want kept quiet. Maybe they have tried to find him and failed. Maybe they want us to lead them to him.”
Connor was a conspiracy theorist and shades of doubt entered Kate’s mind. Kate had witnessed Sphere taking extreme actions to further their agenda, but she had been on the team that had worked the mission when Aiden disappeared and she’d never heard or read anything to indicate Aiden had displeased Sphere. If Aiden was alive and Sphere knew it, why the charade of a memorial service? Why not list him as missing in action?
Where the building ended and opened to the airfield, they had a choice. They could continue to race along the perimeter of the building or break away from the building, leaving them in the open until they reached the fence encircling the airfield.
If two agents from Sphere had been sent to track her or return her to the United States, would they have been working alone? Sphere assessed the difficulty and the importance of a mission before assigning operatives. Would they have spent the resources to send teams of agents after her? They knew she’d teamed up with Connor, his reputation legendary and his skill renowned.
“What’s the plan?” Kate asked, checking over her shoulder to see how close the Sphere agents were. She didn’t see them. Were they circling around another way? Would they trap her and Connor in a dead end? Kate wiped at her forehead, the sun and her fear overheating her. The Sphere agents couldn’t shoot at them, not out in the open in a foreign country with a complicated relationship with the United States. Not much comfort, since Sphere agents were taught plenty of ways to kill a person discreetly.
“The plan? Get away from the airport without being shot,” Connor said.
Kate inwardly sighed at his obvious statement. Connor wasn’t big on sharing details. According to what she knew of him, while at Sphere, he’d frequently worked alone. She could see why. At least he had a dry sense of humor that charmed her. “You need to give me more than that.”
“I don’t need to do anything,” Connor said, “except find my brother. You forced this partnership. You’ll have to deal with me as I am.”
“Are you trying to be difficult?” Kate asked.
The pause before he answered told her he was considering her question. “No. I am difficult. I don’t try to be. Didn’t my file tell you I don’t play nice with others?”
How had he known she’d read his file? It was a fair assumption. “You’ll have to learn.”
“You’re withholding information, too,” Connor said. “When you give me what I need, I’ll tell you more about my plan.”
Give him what he needed? He needed to relax a bit and trust her a smidgen.
“You want to trade information?” she asked.
“Tell me what you know about my brother and I’ll tell you how we’ll find him,” Connor said. He grabbed her hand. “But later. We’ve been found. Come on,” Connor said, turning the corner of the building.
Kate didn’t have time to see how close the Sphere agents were. They faced more open space and they ran across the tarmac. A baggage handler en route to a plane shouted at them in Portuguese to stop. They continued to run. When they reached the narrow strip of grass on the far side of the airport, a fence topped with barbed wire prevented them from leaving the airport grounds. “What do we do now?” Kate asked. She wasn’t climbing into the barbed wire. She’d heard of Sphere agents doing extreme things, but she wasn’t an agent. Her threshold for pain was minuscule.
“Look for another way out,” Connor said.
At least he hadn’t suggested taking their chances with the barbed wire.
Cutting through the grass, they followed the fence until it opened into an oncoming stream of cars, buses and taxis moving slowly toward the airport’s departures terminal. Kate felt better being among people. The more people around them, the safer they were. Sphere liked to work in secret.
If the Sphere agents had no other choice, how aggressive would they become to meet their agenda?
Connor’s gaze was sharp as he searched the scene, but his posture was relaxed. She was taking her cues from him. Going up against Sphere alone was a risky, and some would say foolish, decision. Having Connor on her side leveled the playing field.
“How will we avoid them?” Kate asked. The Sphere agents had disappeared from view, meaning they could be anywhere. “Maybe we should go back and explain.”
Connor whirled on her. “Go back?” He brought his face close to hers. “Do you have a death wish? Because we’re beyond playing nice and talking things over. Do you think you can reason with them? They know you’ve betrayed them. Sorry, sweetheart, but you’ve passed the point of return. We’ve got to forge ahead.”
Kate grasped for calm in a swelling sea of fears. He was right. Her throat was tight and her breathing came in shallow breaths. She was all in now.
Chapter 3
Connor knelt and dug through his bag. Removing a knife in a sheath, he slid it into the pocket of his pants.
A knife? “How did you get that on the plane?” Kate asked.
“Greased a few palms,” he said.
Unbelievable. He was full of surprises.
“No time to change now. You’ll have to change in the taxi,” Connor said, lifting his hand to hail a cab. When one stopped, he practically lifted Kate inside. He climbed in after her and barked the name of the closest city to the airport in perfect Portuguese with a hint of a Tumaran accent. The driver didn’t turn around to look at them, just jammed the gas and pulled away from the airport.
“Are we being followed?” Kate asked, turning to look out the back window and searching for any cars that were too close. In the distance, she could see el presidente’s palace set high on a hill overlooking the city. The white and gold of the building reflected the sun in a blinding glare.
“I’m not sure yet,” Connor said in Portuguese. He withdrew a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt from his backpack. “Take off your clothes and put this on.”
That earned a glance in the rearview mirror from the driver.
“Now? In a cab?” Kate asked. The road was congested with cars and trucks filled with people in plain view. Connor expected her to strip?
“Yes. Now.”
Kate watched to see if he would break into a grin. Was he joking around with her? If he was, she didn’t find him funny.
She had been careful about what she wore and, although Sphere had tracking devices as thin as thread that could be sewn into clothing, she gave it a low probability that she was being tracked. She’d buy other clothes when she could find a shop. Couldn’t it wait?
“I don’t want to be followed again,” Connor said.
“That wasn’t my fault,” Kate said. “We used your arrangements to get here. If you’re giving out blame, take some for yourself.”
Connor tossed the clothes at her. “Change. This isn’t a negotiation. I don’t see anyone on our tail and I’d like to keep it that way.”
She didn’t like being ordered around. But if he was right about Sphere tracking her, she couldn’t behave foolishly. Were they far behind them? The large white T-shirt and sturdy jeans didn’t leave her many options for modesty. She draped the white shirt over her lap and struggled out of her own.
Connor turned away. At least he was giving her what privacy was available in the backseat of a cab. His shoulders shook, making an effort to hide that he was laughing. Though he couldn’t see her, she glared at him. “What is so funny about this?”
“You. You’re what’s funny. I don’t appreciate the company, but I do appreciate the humor you bring to the situation.”
“I’m glad you’re entertained,” she muttered. Kate fought to pull the white shirt over her head without flashing Connor and the cabdriver. “I am trying not to get arrested for exposing myself.”
“Relax. You’re fine. Based on what we have planned, you should get used to me seeing you naked.”
Both her and the driver’s reactions were the same. Wide eyes, open mouths followed by an attempt to hide their shock. “Why do you do that?” she asked, getting the shirt on and pulling it as low as possible over her legs. At least Connor was tall and his shirt covered her to midthigh.
“Do what?” he asked.
“You say really rude, off-the-wall things. It’s like you’re trying to make me nervous or get a reaction out of me.”
“I’m not trying to do anything. This is who I am.” He turned and looked at her point-blank.
Was he waiting for her to remove her pants? She felt the challenge in his stare. If she was venturing out into the jungle with him, he would see her change clothes, assuming she managed to acquire more. Was this another test? To see if she had the nerve? She unfastened her pants and slid them down her legs. Heat flamed up her cheeks. She would prove she was capable of doing whatever came at her on this mission.
“All your clothes, Kate.”
Meaning her underwear, as well. Her mother had raised her to be a lady and that included wearing the appropriate undergarments. Even her sister, Elise, the A-list movie star, was known around Hollywood for her modesty and relatively conservative dress.
Kate strove for indifference. Her attempt was hindered by the look in Connor’s eyes. It wasn’t indifference written on his face. It was interest. His gaze trekked down her legs to her toes and back up again. By that time, she had removed her underwear and was pulling on his jeans. Kate pinched the waist. How would she get them to stay on? “Happy now?”
“Immensely. You have nice legs and it’s less likely we’ll be followed.”
His compliment both pleased and annoyed her. Most of the time, she downplayed her looks in an attempt to force the people around her to notice she was smart. Men found her attractive, but she wanted to be known as the smart girl, the resourceful one...not the hot one. Kate didn’t use her looks to get what she wanted. At least, not often and never when she was working. “I stay in shape.” She worked out at the gym before work two or three times a week and had for years.
“I can see that.”
His clothes smelled of him. Being in the small taxi, it was impossible to escape him or to ignore her attraction to him. He was Aiden’s brother, he was emotionally unavailable and he was dangerous. Though he didn’t make her feel threatened, he was a trained assassin. Such rationalizations didn’t destroy her attraction to him. Perhaps stress was making her crazy. “How do you suggest I keep the pants up?” Especially because she wasn’t wearing anything beneath them, she hated how they gapped.
Connor reached into his bag and withdrew a long piece of rope and pulled his knife from his pocket. He leaned across the seat and wrapped the rope around her waist. His hands slid around her back, guiding the rope through the belt loops. Where his hands brushed her bare skin, heat flared across her body. He cut the rope and then knotted it. The result was a belt she could tighten and loosen.
“Thank you,” she said and adjusted the rope.
“You’re welcome.”
Just when she thought she could use his rude behavior to demolish the crush she had on him, he did something kind. He was looking out for her. She didn’t appreciate how he spoke to her at times, but he was doing what he knew to keep her safe, and that counted for something.
Kate rolled the legs of the pants and sleeves of the shirt. At Connor’s pointed look, she removed her bra from under the shirt and pulled it out through the shirt’s sleeve. Being naked beneath ill-fitting clothes was not a feeling she enjoyed. She was far, far outside her comfort zone.
“What about my shoes?” she asked, meaning the question to be sarcastic and then regretting it because Connor might tell her to get rid of them, too.
“Keep them. It will be too hard to find replacements and you can’t run if you can hardly walk.”
She looked ridiculous in the oversize clothes, but it would have to do until she could get her hands on other clothes. When their car drew to a stop at a traffic light, Connor jumped out, jogged to a nearby trash can and shoved in her outfit. Getting back into the cab, he didn’t apologize. “If they’re tracking you by your clothes, best if they don’t know where we’re going.”
Her superiors at Sphere knew she believed Aiden was alive. She hadn’t shared the specifics her contact had told her, not wanting to endanger Marcus or his job. Sphere hadn’t pressed her for information. Now she wondered if they’d already known Aiden was being held by the Armed Revolutionaries. They’d gone to the effort to stop her and yet they hadn’t used those same resources to rescue Aiden. Curious. “They may know where we’re going. They could have the same intel,” she said.
Connor stabbed a hand through his hair. “Then we’ve got to get to Aiden first.”
“You know what the worst part about this is? To put this effort into tracking me when they could have put that same effort into finding Aiden.”
Connor snorted. “Whatever their agenda, it involves Aiden not being found. Tell me what else you know about my brother.”
A challenge. Kate wanted his trust. To get it, she would have to tell him what she could and trust in return that he wouldn’t ditch her.
* * *
Kate took a deep breath and switched to Italian. Smart. The driver wouldn’t likely speak the language and Connor did. “Your brother was hunting members of the Armed Revolution, trying to capture key players and to prevent a large-scale insurgency against the Tumaran government. His last verbal check-in was at a bar in Mangrove.”
Connor wasn’t familiar with either location. “What’s the population of Mangrove?”
“Hard to say. It’s a rural town in the middle of the jungle. Ballpark, maybe two hundred people.”
Depending on how friendly the residents of the town were with each other, gossip could spread quickly. They might find someone who remembered his brother and who could clue them in to the last moments before he disappeared. “Which bar? Do you have more details?” Connor wanted every piece of information that could lead to his brother. Connor looked around them. Traffic was tight and they could be boxed in. He wanted to be able to get out of the car and flee. He liked having options in case they needed to escape.
Kate shook her head. “I don’t know much about the bar. I wasn’t on shift when he disappeared. I don’t have access to the raw recording of that final conversation. If he named the bar, it wasn’t in the transcript I read. After I told my superiors about my belief that Aiden is alive, they revoked my security privileges on the files pertaining to that mission.”
Sphere was hiding something from her, but they were always hiding something. As the cab lurched forward, Connor felt his edginess move up a notch. He wanted to get to his brother quickly. “How many bars can there be in Mangrove? A town with two hundred people may only have one or two.”
Connor had considered the terrain, wildlife, weather and disease-carrying insects that they might encounter in Tumara before they’d left the States. “Do you have experience navigating in the jungle?” He guessed her answer was no.
“I’ve studied the region extensively. I can identify the types of vegetation we might encounter, those that are safe to eat and those that are poisonous. I know the—”
She’d done research. That wouldn’t cut it. “Actual experience, meaning, have you been to this jungle or any other?” Knowledge of an area was good. Being able to survive in the elements was better.
Kate lifted her chin proudly. “Don’t discount my knowledge, but no, I have not spent time in the jungle.”
“This is our stop,” Connor said to the driver. He tossed some cash over the seat and climbed out.
Kate scrambled out of the taxi and followed him. “Where are you going? Are you ditching me just because I don’t have experience?”
“I’m not ditching you. If I were, I would tell you first and then disappear. We need to change taxis. The driver’s already heard too much. We didn’t start speaking in Italian until later.”
His clothes hung on her, far too large for her thin frame. Baggy wasn’t a look he usually liked on a woman, but Kate wearing his clothes did something for him. It had been too long since he’d looked at and enjoyed a sexy woman. Kate fit the bill of sexy. Add to it smart and courageous, and it was hard not to admire the whole package.
A package that belonged to his brother and that was the rub. Why else would Kate insist on coming along? Connor would make another attempt to dissuade her from traveling with him into the jungle. He didn’t want to see his brother’s lover killed. “You should let me handle this. Aiden is my brother and I won’t give up looking for him. When I bring him back to the United States, the two of you can have a glorious reunion.” When he thought of her in Aiden’s arms, it bothered him more than it should. Aiden deserved happiness, and a woman like Kate—beautiful, smart and caring—could give it to him.
Kate threw up her hands. “You can stop playing that same, sad song. I’m not turning around and going home. I’m not leaving you alone to venture into the jungle. What if something happens to you? Who would know? I would never forgive myself for bringing you this far and then abandoning you.”
She was concerned about him. What about her job, her future and her life? She had obliterated her chances of returning to Sphere when she’d run from the agents at the airport. If she was involved with Aiden and Sphere knew about it, her position might have been tenuous anyway. A carefully constructed lie might save her—like claiming Connor had forced her to come along—but that was dicey. Sphere had zero tolerance for disobedience. “Most missions I’ve worked, I’ve worked them alone. You are not responsible for me or my decisions. You could return to the U.S. and your job. Tell them I forced you to help me. Say what you can to save your career.”
Kate’s mouth dropped open. “We’ve been over this. I can help you. I won’t lie to save my job at the risk of hurting someone else.”
Noble, but foolish. It was her funeral. He’d given her opportunities to change her mind. Connor could handle this alone. If she wanted to risk her life, so be it.
* * *
They found another cab, and Connor and Kate climbed inside. Connor had been walking as if his soles were on fire, and she was glad to sit again. Not that she’d utter one word of complaint. Hiking in the jungle would be more difficult and she was up to the task. Letting on she might not be able to keep up with him was unacceptable.
“Mangrove,” Connor instructed as the driver pulled away from the curb.
The driver hit the brakes, almost tossing her and Connor into the backs of the front seats. Only Connor’s hand across her chest stopped her from hitting her head. Between his arm and her bare skin was a thin layer of cotton. Her body responded and her breasts felt heavier and achy.
“No way, man. I don’t drive there,” the driver said.
Kate moved out of Connor’s reach. Was the driver refusing because of the distance or the location itself? Kate had read towns in the jungle could be lawless, and in the current political environment, with Bruno Feliz and the Armed Revolutionaries working to overthrow the government, jungle towns were havens for the AR, and skirmishes between the two sides broke out occasionally.
“That place is trouble, man. If you’re looking for sights to see, I’ll take you somewhere better. Cleaner. Safer for tourists. No cabbie in his right mind will drive you into the jungle. Not anymore.”
They didn’t want somewhere better or cleaner or safer. They wanted to follow in Aiden’s footsteps and find him.
Connor thanked their driver and they got out of the cab. They went through five more drivers and had to promise a hefty tip to convince someone to take them to Rosario, the jungle border town nearest to Mangrove. From there, the driver told them they could take a bus to Mangrove that would leave the next day.
It took thirty-five minutes to reach Rosario. As they drove, the landscape changed. Streets became less crowded, fewer cars were on the road, and houses and buildings became more run-down. Spray paint tagged the area as belonging to one gang or another. Few legitimate establishments operated from Rosario. The local economy was driven by gangs pushing drugs, prostitution and the sale of illegal goods. The gangs competed violently for turf, resources and money. The two most active gangs were the Snake Slayers, identifiable by the snake tattoos that covered their right arms, and the Blue Devils, who wore their group color prominently. Neither was directly tied to the AR, but Kate guessed there was some overlap in membership.
The cabdriver looked nervous as he let them out of the car. Connor paid him his fare and the sizable tip. The driver turned his car around in less than ten seconds, tires spinning in the dirt street and kicking up dust. Kate pasted on a look of what she hoped was confidence. With Connor at her side, she wasn’t as likely to be mugged, but she made him more of a mark. Her clothing brought stares, which she ignored.
“Gangs are active in this area. Be careful looking at anyone the wrong way,” Kate said.
“I’ll be careful,” Connor said, sounding unworried. “Tell me what you know about this town.” Connor was earning long looks from women who passed him on the street and—unlike the ones she was receiving, thanks to her ridiculous, ill-fitting outfit—they weren’t looks of disdain. Connor stood out as a foreigner and as a man. He was throwing off an approach-if-you-dare vibe, which both put people off and drew their attention.
“We need to locate the bus depot and find out when the next trip to Mangrove is scheduled.” Two women passed and gave Connor matching long, beckoning looks. He appeared unfazed and Kate was insulted. What if she were Connor’s wife? Didn’t she deserve some respect and not the open ogling these women were engaged in? “We also need a place to stay for the night. Based on what I can see, you’ll have your choice of beds,” Kate said.
Connor laughed. “You almost sound jealous.”
Not jealous. Justifiably insulted. “It’s not jealousy you hear in my voice. It’s disgust.”
Connor adjusted his backpack on his shoulders. “I’m not looking for a woman to warm my sheets. Places like this always have rooms for rent. We’ll pick the least dicey place we can find.”
Kate hid her revulsion. Least dicey place was still likely a downright dirty place to sleep. This town wouldn’t have chain hotels, just one-room rentals by the hour and by the night trafficked primarily by prostitutes. Though they could try to find transportation to take them elsewhere, they’d have similar options at any nearby town. Jungle border towns were notoriously dangerous, run-down and lawless.