Page 54 of The Woman Left Behind

“Blabbermouth,” she muttered at him. Louder she asked, “Didnoneof you think to bring coffee? Never mind. Of course you didn’t. You’re men. I lost my head there, for a second.”

“It’s the job,” Boom said. “We just get up and go.”

“So did I, but I punched a button on the coffeemaker before doing anything else.” Resigned, she looked around. “Anything y’all can use for cups? The thermos top ismine, and I’m not sharing.”

They began scrounging around. A few polystyrene cups were found. Levi stuck his head through the curtain that closed off the cockpit, and the pilot was good enough to donate a few more. The pilot had his own thermos of coffee, but he didn’t offer to share. Smart man.

Dividing the coffee eight ways, there was no way for any of them to get much more than an ounce each, maybe an ounce and a half, but when it came to coffee an ounce was better than nothing. Reduced to sips, she savored every one of them. It wasn’t much, but it would get her through.

After the coffee was gone, she hauled out the laptop and checked the program. There wasn’t any real need to, but it kept her busy.

Levi’s long legs were stretched out, and he reclined his seat, settled into a more comfortable position, and tipped his cap forward to cover his eyes. Jina glanced around; because the two seats closest to them were facing backward, Crutch, seated on the opposite side of the aisle and facing forward, was the only other team member whose face she could actually see, and he was already asleep. All of them had reclined their seats and were doing their combat-nap routines, grabbing sleep while they could.

They were the experienced ones, so she should follow their example. She took off her coat and pulled it over her like a blanket, then reclined her seat, curled on her side away from Levi, and closed her eyes.

Maybe she dozed. At the least she created a cocoon for herself, with her head almost covered by her coat. She could still feel Levi beside her, hear his deep breathing as he slept. That was worse, infinitely worse, than if he’d been awake. This was what it would be like if they were together, having him beside her as they slept. She wouldn’t be curled away from him, she would have her head pillowed on his broad shoulder, and his rough hands would reach for her every time they changed positions. Sometimes her back would be against him and he’d cup her breasts, his penis would be nestled against her bottom, and if she wiggled just right the head would slip inside her a little. Levi would wake up, and—

Behind her, he shifted position. His arm dropped heavily from the dividing armrest onto her hip, his fingers resting against her butt. She froze, listening, but his breathing remained as deep and even as before. Carefully she lowered the edge of her coat enough to peep at him. His eyes were closed, his features relaxed. Slowly, moving in increments, she pulled one arm out from under the coat and hooked her finger in the cuff of his sleeve, lifted his arm—

His eyes opened.

She froze. That dark gaze roamed sleepily over her, starting at her face and moving down, taking in the way the back of his hand rested against her butt, how gingerly she held his sleeve. Slowly, ever so slowly, he moved his fingers—back and forth, caressing, rubbing, as if he savored even this small contact. His sleepy gaze was raw and naked and hungry, slamming her with the focus of his need. Then his gaze shuttered and silently he moved his arm back to his side of the seat.

Just as silently she turned away from him again, pulling her coat up to shield her face.

From the protection of the coat she stared at the dark cockpit curtain, her heart heavy.

Sixteen

Swearing silently because cussing out loud took too much breath, Jina raced along the rough ground with the equipment bag banging against her back. Tweety was safe in the padded compartment made specifically for him, laptop, sensors, cameras, and power unit protected. Her back was neither padded nor protected, and all that banging damn wellhurt.

They were all pelting headlong through the Chocó rain forest, because the double agent they’d been sent to rescue had chosen there to hide from the FARC insurgents pursuing him. Colombia was ostensibly more stable now, with an official agreement between the government and rebel forces, and a much ballyhooed “disarmament” of FARC, but a lot of hostile undercurrents were still running through the country. Insurgents, rebels, drug lords, government forces, and foreign elements still made for a volatile mix.

She hated Chocó. She felt guilty for hating a rain forest, but yeah, she despised it. Rain forests were great for the environment, but not for people. This place had freaking poisonfrogs. Touch one of the little devils and you went into cardiac arrest. At least they were neon colored, so they were easy to stay away from—except they were so tiny they could hide under a leaf. Even if there hadn’t been any frogs, running through the rain forest wasn’t a picnic in the park. Sundown was just a couple of hours away and the damn place would get dark like someone turning out a light. In the meantime, she had to leap over giant roots, fronds slapped her in the face, monkeys howled as if mocking them and alerting predators to their intrusion (Hey, jaguars and snakes and whatever bad things live here, there’s human meat on the ground!),and she had to keep trucking. And keep a lookout for those damn frogs. She didn’t know about the jaguars, but if she’d ever been in a place likely to have jaguars, this was it.

They were in a long, single-file line, separated by just enough distance that they could keep each other in sight, which because of the vegetation wasn’t truly that far. Levi was leading. The double agent was behind him, followed by Trapper. Boom, Snake, and Crutch were next, then Voodoo, then Jina, with Jelly on rear guard.

They’d made contact with the guy, Ramirez, without any trouble. The rain forest had lit up her screen with heat signatures, but none large enough to be human except for her guys and Ramirez. She didn’t like all the visual static, but she could work through it. She sat on a rock that the guys had made sure was clear of snakes and frogs and ants and carefully guided Tweety through the dense foliage. She watched their backs, weaving in wide circles around them, making sure no one was lying in wait to ambush them, or approaching unseen. With all of Tweety’s available “eyes,” getting anything by him was difficult. Someone would have to know how to disguise their thermal signature to slip past Tweety.

It was when they’d started out that they’d run into trouble. They were supposed to rendezvous with a couple of Jeeps that would take them to an airfield to be picked up. The timing had to be tight, so that any unfriendlies in the area had only a narrow window of opportunity to get to them.

Unfortunately, sometimes pure bad luck overrode the most careful planning. She couldn’t deploy Tweety while they were on the move, so they had no warning. There was a shot from the right; she couldn’t see what was happening because of the vegetation, but training kicked in and she hit the ground.

Levi’s voice in her ear comm was as calm as if he were in a church. “Trapper, do you have a location?”

“Affirmative.”

There was another shot, this one from a rifle. “Target down,” Trapper said.

Jina’s throat constricted so tightly she couldn’t have made a sound. Knowing she could be in a violent situation was different from actuallybeingin one. Someone had just died. One ofthemcould have died. Ramirez was logically the target, but in reality the shooter could have been aiming at any of them, and with Tweety not in deployment she had no way of guarding their backs. She felt as if she’d personally failed them, because this was precisely the situation she was supposed to be working.

“Cover me,” Trapper said.

“Affirmative,” Levi said, and Boom echoed him. They were on each side of Trapper, and literally the only two who could see him. Jina tried to stay motionless and keep her breathing absolutely even and silent, while she listened for any unusual rustles around her. She could see Voodoo in front of her, weapon in hand, alertly scanning his surroundings. Jelly was somewhere behind her, making no sound that would betray his location, doing the same thing.

She should have pulled her own weapon. She was required to carry one, required to be reasonably proficient with it, and though she’d practiced like heck to meet the minimum standards, she’d hit the ground without once thinking about using it and now she couldn’t get to it without making noise.

Mistake number two.

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