Page 25 of Bad Rio

Becca clung to his back, bounced on the seat and tried to hang on. Her time had come; she was going home.

Rio had made repeated promises to care for her, to get her back to her family. She believed him now, had no reason not to. He’d taken care of her, fed her, warmed her with his body. He’d even saved her life from certain mauling by the mountain lion. He hadn’t forced her into sex when she hadn’t given him the go-ahead. For all that, she appreciated what he’d done.

In another life, she now felt certain she might have wanted to date him.

She was just as sure she’d never see him again.

Clearly, Rio was a loner who moved from job to job, wherever it took him. He wasn’t one to commit to anything or anyone except that. Deep down, she knew that he wasn’t exactly thedatingtype.

In the deep freeze of night, she hugged his back and laid her cheek against his shoulder blade. Chilled once again, but with layers of fear removed, she relaxed. The cold didn’t bother her as much as it had. It simply felt a part of her life now.

During the hour-long drive, Becca noticed that whenever they came to a fork in the road, or to an area which appeared occupied by a farm or rural house, Rio slowed their speed to a crawl, and lowered the Vespa’s noise level. He took no chances of their being heard or spotted.

At last they approached the upper lip of a small valley. He pulled the scooter to a stop. “The team waiting for you is just over this rise,” he whispered to her, and pointed ahead into the darkness. “But I want a look first. Hang on, we’ll take the high ground.”

Eager to discover if her father or brothers had come for her themselves, she nodded. He eased the Vespa into a stand of towering pines. She noticed the incline began to get steeper, and still they climbed through trees. Stopping beneath the overhang of a great tree, he switched off the engine and took her by the elbow.

“Come on,” he whispered, “but don’t speak at all. Out here, voices carry a long way.”

She indicated that she heard him.

They climbed on foot another hundred yards. He helped her. By the time they got to a spot he deemed safe, she was thoroughly winded. Her leg throbbed.

He found a gathering of boulder-sized rocks and wended his way between them. She followed. At last their view opened up to the valley below.

He lay flat on the lower of the two boulders, so the top one loomed over them and cast them into shadows. She lay beside him. On the valley floor she could see flickering lights, an ancient wooden barn, with several trucks spread out, their headlamps on. Even from their height, she could hear men’s voices, yet couldn’t distinguish words.

A couple of the men seemed to be patrolling the lower edges of the valley.

From his coat, Rio withdrew binoculars. For several moments he watched. Beside him, she grew impatient, but knew better than to say anything. She just wanted to go down to the valley floor, find her family, and have the men return her home.

“I don’t know,” Rio whispered at last. “I just don’t know.”

“What?” In the moonlight, she searched his carved features.

“Something’s off. Can’t put my finger on it.”

“What does that mean?”

“In the SEAL Teams, we’re taught to trust our instincts, to ask questions, to question anything that doesn’t look right.”

Her mouth fell open. “You were a SEAL?” she whispered. “Like a Navy SEAL?”

“Left the service early. Wanted to do something else.” He shrugged. “Miss the lads, though.”

Wow, she thought. The Navy SEALs were legendary. They were supermen. She knew the acronym stood for Sea, Air and Land, which meant they were proficient in all those arenas. They could swim like dolphins, parachute like eagles, fight on land as lethal warriors.

She filed away the new knowledge for contemplating at another time. “Well, what down there doesn’t look right to you?”

He put the glasses back to his face. “Not that many men. Why so few? And where’s the extract helo?”

“The what?”

“Your helicopter. It looks like they want to put you in a truck and drive you away. Why? It’s hundreds of miles to the border. Wouldn’t a wealthy man like your father have you flown out?” He rubbed his chin.

“I guess so.” She hadn’t thought about that. Apparently her father and brothers weren’t there. Disappointment settled over her.

“Their guns,” he said. “I don’t like ’em. Too many Kalashnikovs. They don’t look like Black Eagle operatives or even FBI guys.” He handed her the binoculars.

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