“Wouldn’t surprise me,” he agreed.
Eva turned back to the screen and bit her lip again, a gesture he was beginning to associate with puzzlement. “There’s absolutely nothing here about Harrison being sent to San Marquez in relation to the cholera outbreak.” Her breath hitched. “Wait a minute. It says he was there to coordinate with his lab’s field researchers about something called Project Aries.”
“Project Aries? What’s that?”
“I have no idea. My friend couldn’t gain access to the project file. He made a note saying it was beyond classified.” She scrolled down. “Yeah, apparently none of the databases would let him in. The firewalls were insane, which means someone really doesn’t want unauthorized eyes seeing that file.”
“So Harrison was in Corazón conducting some top secret project that had nothing to do with vaccination shots,” Tate said slowly.
“That’s what it looks like.”
Frustration jammed in his throat. “That doesn’t shed light on anything, Eva. In the end, Harrison was still taken hostage by Cruz and his men, who killed him before we could extract him. None of that explains why my unit was hunted down.”
“I stand by my original suggestion—you must have seen something in the village.”
Stifling a groan, Tate resisted the impulse to slam his fist into the nearest wall. He’d gone over the events of that op a thousand times already, and nothing, nothing, stood out as not ordinary. Dead doctor, dead villagers, rebels swarming the area, Will’s throat slashed. That was all there was to it. Except evidently it wasn’t that cut-and-dried.
So what the hell was he missing?
Eva must have picked up on his turbulent state of mind because she stood up and approached him. Her sweet, feminine scent floated toward him and his pulse immediately kicked up a notch.
At five-six, she wasn’t a tiny thing, but she still had to tilt her head to look up at him, and when her blue eyes locked with his, he was reminded of the way those eyes had shone with passion last night.
The sex had been good. Really frickin’ good. In fact, he’d been having trouble getting it off his mind all morning. And earlier, when he’d opened his eyes and found Eva’s lush body curled into his, he’d nearly caved in and given her a wake-up call she would never have forgotten.
Instead, he’d quietly sneaked out of bed, knowing that what happened last night needed to remain a onetime occurrence. Sex had no place on this mission. Besides, with Ben accompanying them on this final leg of the journey, there wouldn’t be many opportunities to get naked anyway.
And Tate was just fine with that, because as mind-blowing as it had been, he couldn’t do it again. Sex was one thing, but cuddling the way they’d done last night? Totally uncool. He didn’t want Eva getting any ideas about them—mainly, that they could have any sort of future, which was an absolute impossibility.
“Where did you find Harrison’s body?” she asked, her businesslike tone revealing she was oblivious to where his thoughts had drifted.
Tate forced himself to focus on the more pressing matters. “In the makeshift clinic in the village. The whole building was engulfed in flames, but the fire hadn’t reached the office yet. Harrison was sitting behind the desk with a bullet in his head.”
She grimaced. “Okay. Well, was there anything unusual about the office? Papers in disarray? Weird medical vials or something else that stood out to you?”
“There was a lot of smoke, so I can’t be sure, but nothing stood out. The only thing that looked out of order to me was the dead man at the desk.”
“And outside? What did you see outside?”
“Not much,” he admitted. “The smoke was thick as hell. And the smell—” a cold shiver ran up his spine “—the smell made your eyes water as much as the smoke did. Have you ever smelled burned flesh, Eva?”
Her face paled. “No.”
He swallowed. “It’s not an odor you’re likely to forget.”
She faltered for a moment, as if trying to absorb that. “So Hector’s men killed the villagers and burned the bodies and the buildings to the ground. Was there anything about the bodies that seemed suspicious?”
His frustration returned, eating a hole in his gut. “All I saw was charred corpses.”
“Okay. What about...” She hesitated. “What about your brother’s death? How did that happen?”
Pain jolted through him. “Cruz wasn’t expecting to be ambushed by my unit. There was a lot of gunfire, rebels coming after us, flames everywhere. In the chaos, Cruz managed to escape into the brush. Will went after him.”
“And you found Will’s body later,” she finished softly.
His heart constricted. “No. Will was alive when I found him. Cruz took my brother hostage. He told me to lay down my weapon, and that if I let him go, he’d release Will.”
“You believed him?”
“Pretty frickin’ foolish of me, huh?” Sarcasm dripped from his tone.
“Tate—”
“Yes, Eva, foolish, moronic me put down my gun—and Cruz sliced Will’s throat anyway.”
She gasped.
Anger bubbled in his blood. “And instead of going after Cruz, I tried to help Will. I thought there might actually be a chance I could save him, but I couldn’t, and so there you go. Another act of foolishness and Cruz got away.”
“Trying to save your brother wasn’t foolish,” she said firmly. “You made the right choice.”
“If you say so,” he said dully.
Eva cupped his chin with her delicate hands, her grip surprisingly strong. “I do say so. You chose to help your brother rather than go after Hector. That was the right decision, and if you hadn’t done it, and there was a chance that Will could’ve been saved? You would have never forgiven yourself.”
“I don’t forgive myself now.” His voice came out harsher than he intended. The confession was unintended, too.
Christ, what was he doing, opening himself up to this woman?
Sure enough, his rough admission made those big blue eyes soften. She stroked the stubble coating his jaw, and though her touch was meant to be gentle and reassuring, it sent a bolt of heat right down to his groin and stirred his cock.
Gritting his teeth against the onslaught of desire, Tate stepped out of her touch, trying to steer his thoughts back to safe territory. But there was nothing safe about any of this, especially when the front door of the cabin suddenly flew open and Ben burst into the room as though his ass was on fire.
“They’re on their way,” Ben boomed at them. “You need to go. Now.”
Chapter 12
Everything happened so fast Eva had no time to react. One minute she and Tate were talking in the living room, the next, Ben was flying through the door with a hard expression and tense demands.
“Get your pack,” Tate barked at her when he noticed she was still rooted in place.
Snapping out of her bewilderment, she sprinted toward the bedroom where she’d left her backpack. She jammed yesterday’s clothes into the bag and grabbed the handgun she’d left on the pile of books by the table beneath the window. She idled only long enough to pull her hair into a tight ponytail and shove the gun in her waistband, then hurried back to the main room, where she found Ben zipping up a duffel and Tate shoving a clip into his rifle.
“Who exactly is on their way here?” she demanded when neither man so much as glanced her way.
Tate checked his extra magazines before shoving them in his pack. “Military. They were asking about us around town.”
She swore. “How did they know we were here?”
Slinging his rifle over one shoulder, and the strap of his backpack over the other, Tate shot her a hard look. “Someone must have tipped them off.”
The implication hit her hard. “You think it was me?”
“You were on the computer all morning...” He let the remark hang.
Indignation ripped through her. “Yeah, helping you! I didn’t tell anyone where we were, Tate.”
Even though they’d already determined that sex had nothing to do with trust, his lack of faith in her was still upsetting. And yet it wasn’t surprising in the slightest.
What did surprise her were his next words.
“I believe you.”
“You do?” she said warily.
He shrugged. “You’ve got nothing to gain by tipping off the military. Not when we’re this close to getting Cruz.”
It wasn’t a declaration of trust, but she’d take it. “So then how did they find us?” she asked again.
“It’s not improbable that they tracked us down. The unit in the jungle was tracking us for a while before they attacked—they must have reported our general movements to whoever they were checking in with, and you’ve got to assume reinforcements were dispatched after that unit went AWOL.”
“So someone else picked up our trail?” she said, feeling queasy as she followed Tate to the door. “And tracked us here?”
“I wasn’t making much of an effort to cover our tracks. Besides, it’s common sense we’d end up here. Valero is the first town you hit once you reach the end of the river.”
“And I’m the only American living in these parts,” Ben added in a grim voice. “If Tate was turning to anyone for help, it’d be me, and these men know that.”
All talk ended, leaving Eva to panic in silence as she followed the men out the door. Outside, Tate shouldered the duffel bag Ben had brought back from town, the contents of which had yet to be divulged to her.
Ben tossed Tate a set of keys before stepping up to bestow his buddy with one of those macho-man side hugs. “ATV’s stashed beyond those trees. You remember the coordinates I gave you?”
Tate nodded. “We’ll see you there in two hours.”
Eva swiveled her head to Ben. “You’re not coming with us?”
“We’ll rendezvous later. I’ve gotta deal with the soldiers.”
She felt even queasier. “Deal with them how?”
The big African-American smiled, his white teeth gleaming in the morning sunlight. “I’m not gonna off them, if that’s what you’re afraid of. Don’t worry, baby-cakes, I’ll just send them on their merry way—and far away from you and Robert.”
Relief trickled through her. “Okay.” On impulse, she bounded over to Ben and threw her arms around him in a tight hug. “Be safe, okay?”
Surprise and unease flickered in his brown eyes, but after a moment of stiffness, he returned the embrace. “You, too, Eva.”
Five minutes later, she and Tate were on an ATV, bouncing through the woods and putting miles behind them and Ben’s cabin.
Though not as noisy and treacherous as the jungle, the mountainous terrain offered its fair share of obstacles. Thick brush, rotting logs and grand trees limited their path options, and the bugs were as plentiful and relentless as in the jungle, slapping Eva’s face and hissing by her ears as Tate kept a solid foot on the gas and sped them to safety.
Each bump in the trail sent a throb of pain to her bandaged arm, and she readjusted her grip around Tate’s waist, pressing her face between his shoulder blades and holding on tight. As they cut a path through the brush, the duffel bag he’d strapped to the back of the ATV kept jostling her knee. She wondered what was in it. Something important obviously, seeing as it had taken Ben all night to “procure” it.
At the thought of Ben, another tremor of panic skittered up her spine. “Do you think he’ll be okay?” She shouted over the wind so Tate could hear her.
He didn’t respond, but she felt his back stiffen against her breasts. He would probably never say it out loud, but she knew he hadn’t liked leaving his friend behind to deal with the impending arrival of those soldiers.
She didn’t doubt that Ben Hastings could handle himself—look at the guy, for Pete’s sake—but she also couldn’t help but remember the way that last military unit had pounced on them in the jungle. No hesitation, no attempt at civilized talk; those soldiers had been sent to kill Tate, and most likely her, too. What if the men who arrived to question Ben were of that same mentality?
She said a quick prayer for Ben’s safety, knowing there was no point in worrying. At least not until they reached those coordinates. The two men must have arranged the meeting place when she’d been gathering her gear.
Nearly an hour later, Tate finally slowed the ATV, and Eva lifted her head to examine their surroundings. They were still amid the forested landscape, sheltered by a canopy of green, but the path was nearly impassable now. They’d been deeper inland before, but now they hugged the edge of the mountain, traveling alongside a steep, rocky slope where the foliage was sparser. Soon the ATV wouldn’t be able to fit on any trail, and she wasn’t surprised when Tate killed the ignition and told her to hop off.
“What’ll we do with the ATV?” she asked as he unloaded their packs and Ben’s duffel. “We can’t just leave it on the side of the mountain.”
“We won’t.” He swept his gaze around, squinting in the bright sun. After a moment, he cursed, dug his aviator sunglasses from his backpack and shoved them on the bridge of his nose. “Okay, check the GPS while I stash the ATV.”
He rattled off the coordinates, which Eva had to memorize quickly because he only recited them once, and then he was gone, reversing the vehicle the way they’d come and disappearing into the brush.
She rummaged in Tate’s pack until she found the portable GPS device she’d seen him use when they’d been in the jungle. She typed in the longitude and latitude he’d given her, and a moment later, the location appeared in the form of a red dot on the small digital screen. The green dot was their current location, and she gave a pleased nod at how close the two dots were to one another.
“We’re two miles away,” she told Tate when he reemerged from the brush ten minutes later.
He took the GPS, studied the display and offered a nod of his own. “Good. Let’s book it, then. Won’t take long to get there.”
Eva fell in line behind him, not voicing a single protest about the two-mile walk. It was blistering hot out, but she wasn’t going to complain about that, either, not when they were so close to Hector she could practically taste the freedom.
With the rugged terrain, it took them twenty-five minutes at a steady walk to reach the coordinates. At first sight, there was nothing special about the area, just a bunch of boulders and grass, hilly slopes marked by thorny shrubs and colorful wildflowers, but Tate seemed pleased with what he saw.
It wasn’t until he pointed it out that Eva discerned the mouth of the cave hidden on a rocky incline ten yards away.
Taking out his pistol, Tate took a step toward the slope, glancing at her over his shoulder. “Wait here. Let me check it out.”
She nodded, busying herself by sipping from her canteen while Tate ascended the hill to investigate. A few moments later, he let out a sharp whistle, which she took as her cue to join him.
Pebbles and twigs crunched beneath her hiking boots as she climbed up to the cave. Tate appeared at the top of the hill and extended his hand to help her up, and the moment their fingers touched, warmth seeped into her hand and spread in every direction.
Her heart skipped a beat when his mossy-green eyes landed on her mouth. She knew he was contemplating kissing her, and she nearly opened her mouth to blurt out the words do it. But at the last second, she bit back the demand. A good thing, too, because Tate’s gaze abruptly shifted and his hand dropped from hers.
Message received.
Didn’t mean she wasn’t disappointed, though. In fact, disappointment had pretty much been her mood of the day, ever since she’d woken up to find Tate sneaking out of the room without so much as a good-morning kiss.
But what had she really expected? That one night of sex would lead to something long lasting? That they now shared a deep, meaningful connection? Of course it wouldn’t, and of course they didn’t. They’d given in to their carnal urges, enjoyed each other’s bodies, and now it was business as usual: two people wit
h a common goal, zero mutual trust and no future.
The cave’s entrance was only four feet high or so, and Tate had to duck in order to walk inside. Eva trailed after him, cautious as she stepped into the shadows. Rays of sunlight sliced into the mouth of the cave, casting a weak glow over the rocky walls and dirt floor.
Fortunately, it didn’t look as though they were sharing the space with any other living creatures, though the musky scent of dung in the air increased her wariness.
“Mountain lion,” Tate supplied. “But the droppings are old. Ditto on the tracks, so you don’t need to worry about any surprise visitors. We won’t be here long, anyway.”
The reminder made her glance at her watch, which showed that an hour and a half had passed since they’d left the cabin. Ben would be here soon, and then they’d need to be on the move again. And fast, depending on what happened with those soldiers back there.
“Are you hungry?” Tate asked, bending down to unzip his pack.
“Not really.” They’d split a loaf of bread and a brick of soft Brie for breakfast, and though several hours had passed since, the excitement of the past couple hours had stolen any appetite she might have had.
Tate pulled out a package of beef jerky, tore off a strip and popped it in his mouth. He slid down the cave wall and sat on the ground, stretching his long muscular legs in front of him.
After a beat, she sat on the wall across from him and searched his face through the shadows. “Ben will be okay, right?” she said, trying to ignore the wave of anxiety that refused to subside.
His expression revealed nothing, but he sounded confident as he replied, “Ben can take care of himself.”
“But what do you think the soldiers will do to him?”