Kincade's Rose (Megalodon Team) (9 page)

Tyson glowered into the distance.  “Humph. 
We need to get some sleep.  Protected here we can catch a few hours.  Once
night comes, it will be a different story.” A light rain began to fall.

Jayde looked down and realized they had
climbed much farther than she’d believed; it was a dreadfully deep ravine.  She
also had to look around the thick trees to see below them.  They
were
very well protected.  “Okay, I didn’t get much sleep last night,” she admitted.

Tyson was already beginning to dose.  He
took a blanket out of the pack, not the one she’d used last night, but one that
shone silver.  “Put your socks and shoes on just in case we have to leave
quickly and then come over here.” It was an order from him although gently
spoken.

Jayde didn’t argue, just shook her socks
forcefully and slid her boots on after a thorough inspection of the insides. 
Once she was dressed again, she moved over towards his warm strong body.

Tyson had the pack beside his head, a
poncho under his body, and the blanket and another poncho over it, hiding the
silver color. He lifted a corner for Jayde to slip under, positioning her head
on his shoulder as she curled up against him.  His grip tightened on the gun as
his other arm circled her.  His body fell into a light but restful sleep as
Jayde’s hand settled over his heart.  The rain pattered down around them, but
they ignored it.

Three hours later, a much better–rested
Tyson awoke to the rumble of thunder.  His body instantly awake, he noticed
that he was alone.  “Jayde?” he said to the increasing rain.

“I’m here,” her soft voice reached him
before she came into his sight.

“Where were you?” he snapped as he grabbed
her arm, instantly relieved she was all right and furious that she’d gone off
somewhere without telling him.

Jayde took her arm back.  “Don’t yell at
me!  I went to the bathroom if you must know.”

“Look, just let me know before you go
off.”  He met and held her gaze.  “Okay?”

She nodded as her stomach began to rumble. 
“Okay.”

Unable to help himself, Tyson kissed her
until the hunger pains had totally disappeared and another yearning had settled
in the pit of their stomachs.

Jayde was the one that pulled away, her
full mouth swollen from the intensity of his kisses.  “As much as I would love
to keep going, I have this innate fear of this place.  So could we find some
civilization, please?”

Tyson nodded as he tenderly touched his knuckles
to her cheek.  “We should be able to make it to the top of the ravine in
another two hours.  That should give us some time to get ready for the night.”

He hoisted the pack onto his back and
turned at her light touch.  “Do you have any idea how long before we get out of
here? Just a ballpark guess.”

“By now they would have word of the plane
going down.  So anywhere from two to five days since we have to move at least
until we can find a safe place to hunker down and wait for the rescue,” Tyson
said as his eyes held hers.

“I am not eating raw meat,” she spoke
quickly and with more than a bit of attitude.

“There are some MREs, meals ready to eat,
in the pack, and I will also catch food if it comes to that.  Don’t worry, I
will cook it for you.”  Shaking his head, he turned around and got ready to
climb.  “Stay…”

“I know, I know.  Stick to your six,” Jayde
said.  “I’m not a SEAL, you know.”

Tyson faced her, the climb forgotten for
the moment.  “I know you’re not a SEAL, but you need to follow my orders.  If I
tell you to go, go.  I am in
my
element, so let me do my job.  It’s what
I do; I rescue people.”

Jayde glared at him.  “Listen to me.”  She
poked him in the chest.  “I’m just a civilian.  I question things.  I get
scared
;
in fact, I am scared shitless right now.  I will do my best to follow your
orders, but when I hesitate, remember I am not a machine, I am nothing more
than a very scared
city
woman stuck in the jungle.”

The expression on his face softened.  His
eyes sparkled with emotion.  “You are so much more.  Don’t forget…you are
my
wife.”  He winked, turned, and began the arduous climb towards the top.

“Yeah, right,” she mumbled as she began to
clamber after him.  Seconds later she yelled up to his climbing body, “I never
said anything about ‘obeying’ you in my vows!”

His teasing words fell back to her. “We
were just renewing!”  You swore your blind obedience the first time around!”

“You wish,” she snapped, and he could feel
her piercing glare at his back.

He laughed low and deeply.  The woman behind
him had so much spunk, although she hadn’t discovered it yet.  She was his. 
And he couldn’t be prouder.

Tired, hungry, and wet, they finally reached
the top of the climb.  Jayde had her hands on her knees and tried to catch her
breath. This was much harder than rock-climbing.  The rain didn’t make it any
easier, either.  Tyson barely seemed winded, and Jayde hated him for that.

“Stay here for a moment.  I’m going to look
around,” he commanded as he set the pack down beside her.  Before she could
form a response he slipped away, blending into the landscape as if he were part
of it.

Jayde tipped her head back—after checking
above her head for spiders—letting the rain wash the sweat away.  “Jesus, I
stink.  I want a shower,” she told the jungle and received no answer for her
honest admission.

Not sure where Tyson went or how long he
would be gone, Jayde turned and looked down the mountain side they just
climbed.  It was hard to imagine that someone was out there after them.  It
looked like she was the only person in the world.  She smiled as she gazed all
around. It was amazing how nature could make a person feel so small and
insignificant.  The feeling was almost surreal, and if it weren’t for the plane
blowing up in midair, she wouldn’t have believed it.

A sound of someone or something in the
brush brought her to her feet.  Her stomach full of knots, she felt the need to
puke.  Just before her hand was on the gun, the sweetest male voice in the
world reached her.  “Jayde, it’s me.”

Tyson walked back to where he’d left her. 
“Come on, I found a dry place we can hole up for a while.  We should be safe
for the night.”

“Should?” she asked.

“Will.  We
will
be safe for the
night,” he responded.

Dutifully, Jayde picked up the pack,
ignoring his hand out for it, and put it on her own back, waiting for him to
lead the way.  Tyson circled around and melted away in the thick foliage.

I am safe from snakes and spiders
,
she hoped as she trailed Tyson.  He moved swiftly but not as fast as the
approaching night.  It was almost pitch black when he stopped in front of her.

“We will stay here.”  He gestured to a
shape that looked ominous to Jayde in the rapidly fading light.

“
That
looks like a den,” Jayde
insisted.

“It is,” Tyson said pointedly.

Her heart stopped and she turned away as if
she were going to walk off.  “I am
not
sleeping where some pissed-off
momma is going to come back and eat me for being too close to her babies!”

“The den has been abandoned.  There are no
large animals,” he assured her. His strong grip brought her back to his side.

“What about snakes?  Spiders?”

“Turn around.”  His voice sounded almost
amused.

Jayde did, although she was most defiantly
not
amused
, and felt him digging in the pack.  Soon, he flicked on a flashlight
that shone mutedly into the small den.  It was more of a hollow in the base of
a tree and hillside.  However, no creatures caught her attention.

“Let’s go.  We need to eat something, and I
have to figure out where we are,” Tyson said in that damnable commanding voice
of his.

Jayde crawled in, praying the whole way,
and watched Tyson follow her. He placed several big plant leaves in front of
the hole.  Camouflage and protection, she guessed.  The den wasn’t that big and
it was going to be a tight fit.  But at least it was dry.

Tyson settled beside her.  With the pack in
front of them, he used the light to search for the MREs and handed her one. 
“Here.”

Jayde took the food with her shaking
hands.  All she could see were big spiders coming to bite her and snakes to
help.

“Jayde, you need to eat,” his voice cut
through her fear.

She ate a little bit even as she noticed
how fast he went through his.  He must be starving.  The half left in her pack
she offered to him.

“No, you eat it,” he said.

“I can’t.  My stomach is feeling queasy,”
Jayde responded.  Finally he took it and finished it off.

The rain and wind picked up outside and
Jayde scooted closer to Tyson for warmth and comfort.  Accepting a quick drink
of the water, Jayde closed her eyes and tried to picture herself in New York. 
She began to rock back and forth, a habit for her.

Tyson took the ponchos and blankets out of
the pack.  He put a poncho on the ground and sat Jayde on it.  Doing the same
with the other one, he settled himself back beside her.  A blanket for each of
them and they were ready for the night.  He gave her the fire blanket; she
figured he could handle the elements better.

“How much do you know about Central
America, Jayde?” Tyson asked after a while.

The rocking stopped, the question
distracting her from her nerves.  “Not much.  Why?”

“Well, you knew that bird; I was wondering
if you knew more about these countries,” he answered.

“Not really.”  Her eyes stayed tightly
closed as her body remained tense.

“I am guessing we are in the upper part of
Guatemala.  Based on our flight plan and the amount of time we had been in the
air before they shot us down, it makes sense.”

“So are we safe then?  Being in Guatemala
instead of Belize?” Jayde asked hopefully.

“I wish, but no.  Not up here in the
jungle.  Boundaries tend to be blurred down here,” he responded honestly.

“Of course they would be,” she moaned.  The
rocking began again.

Tyson changed the subject.  “Why did you
come to Belize?”

Out of everything he could have asked,
Jayde didn’t expect that.  She thought he’d continue on about how to get out of
here.  Nevertheless, she answered. “I wanted to go to the preserve.”

“Well, why didn’t you just stay at one of
the hotels there?” Tyson asked curiously.

“I wanted to be able to do other things. 
Not that I wouldn’t have been able to if I’d stayed there, but that was where
father wanted me to stay.  I guess it was an act of defiance on my part.  I
don’t know.  Something just told me to stay where I did,” she commented,
unaware her rocking had stopped.

“Why did you come alone? I can’t believe
you didn’t have a man back in New York who wouldn’t have joined you down here.”

“I do…did…do…did.  Did. I did have a man,”
she stumbled over her words, not entirely sure how she wanted to say it.

“What happened?”

“Well, I have…had been dating George for
almost eight months.”  For some reason she didn’t feel bad talking about this
with Tyson.  She needed to tell someone, and it wasn’t like he was going
anywhere.  The rain increased in strength outside the cave, making her even
happier that she was dry and warm.

“And?” he prompted.

“Well, for the first few months it was
fine.  Then it changed…well, he changed.  We work in the same place so maybe
that was part of it.  But he started calling me at all hours of the night and
expected me to be there…God help me if I wasn’t.  On the days we didn’t see
each other at work, he would call me no less than five times a day,” she said
with disgust. “He would be angry if I missed his calls.  He got obsessed with
my personal life and tried to tell me who I could and couldn’t befriend. But I
didn’t stop dating him because Father liked him.  So I just put up with it.”
Jayde leaned against Tyson’s body, an action that seemed so natural for her to
do.

“About the time I realized I was really
coming down to Belize, I became conscious of the fact I didn’t want him with
me.  He would—I knew—ruin my vacation by barking orders at me and telling me
what to eat, when to eat it, and how much of it to eat, ’cause apparently I was
getting fatter and fatter.  Not a good image for him to be seen with, you know,
so I broke up with him.” She eagerly accepted Tyson’s comforting touch.

“I still think George believes I am just
being ‘adolescent’ because Father still brings him up to me, so I know he is
still in contact with my family.  They love him,” her voice cracked with pain. 
“He is on his way up in the world.  A brother with ideals and potential.”  Her
next sentence came out in a hiss of anger. “
They
should marry him,
then.”

Tyson listened incredulously. 
How her
family could be so blind to the pain they were causing her
?  He couldn’t
wait for the day he walked up to her parents’ front door and said, “Hello.  I’m
your daughter’s husband.”  Not to mention that idiot George—where did he get
off telling Jayde she was fat?  Tyson sure as hell didn’t agree with that
assessment; Jayde was curvaceous and muscular. Fat was definitely not a word he
would think of when looking at her. All in all she was rockin’.  “Well, I for
one am glad you came alone,” he said in a deep voice beside her ear.

“Me too.”

Her fast response made him grin despite
their current situation.  “Our renewal of our vows would have been really
awkward with your boyfriend there,” Tyson teased.

“They probably wouldn’t have believed us. 
Not that they really did, anyway, which is why I don’t understand why he wanted
a renewal.”

Because they knew it would be real
afterward and thought we weren’t serious.
  “Tell me more about your
family,” he suggested instead.

“What do you want to know?”

“More about your father.”

“Oh.”  He would have to be deaf not to hear
the reluctance in her tone.  “My father.  Let’s see….  He is a lawyer who
specializes in international law.  Has his own firm and believes he is a great
role model,” Jayde said as if reading from a script.

“I take it you disagree?”

“No, he is, to everyone but me, it seems. 
He was always so giving with his time to others, but wouldn’t even help me with
my homework.  He would say ‘figure it out.  I’m busy.’  I always call him
‘Father’ or ‘sir’, while the rest of my siblings call him ‘Papa’.  I am the
disappointment and he never lets me forget it,” she spoke harshly.

“It was and still is ‘so-and-so had
accomplished such-and-such by the time he was your age.  Quit pretending that
painting is a career and get a real job.’  And so on.  No matter what I did, it
was never going to be good enough.  And never will be.”  Tyson could hear the
tears in her husky voice.  “I remember the last time I was shown affection by
one of them.  I was ten and had just broken my arm.  My eldest brother gave me
a hug until he saw Father’s disapproving glare. I get patted on the head, like
a dog, on the rare occasion.  But normally I am ignored,” Jayde stated blandly.

Tyson couldn’t believe this.  “What about
holidays and birthdays?”

“I was always in the kitchen cooking for
everyone or cleaning up afterwards.”

“But you’re the youngest.”  He was furious
on her behalf.

“Yep, so I have the most energy.  Nineteen
years without affection except from my grandparents; it’s amazing I know what
it is,” came her sardonic response.

“What about at the funeral for your
cousin?” Tyson’s anger at her family continued to grow.

“Then it was, ‘Well, Jayde was supposed to
be handling the responsibility of her care.’”  She began to cry.  “I loved my
cousin; she was nothing but wonderful to me.”

Tyson gathered her close to his strong
body.  “I think you know a lot more about affection than they ever will.  Look
at what you did for me.  And I’m sorry.  For the way they treat you and use
you.” 
They wouldn’t do so again,
he vowed.

She laughed a short, harsh sound.  “Don’t
be; it’s not your fault.  But thanks, anyway.”  Jayde began to rock more.

“Tell me about George,” he ordered.  Tyson
knew that if she were occupied, whatever frightening her would fade into the
background.

“Why?”

“Humor me.” Tyson knew she wasn’t being
defiant, it more like she was trying to figure out why he gave a tinker’s damn
about her ex.

“George,” she began like it was the start
of an epic.  “He is the ideal man, according to my family.  Ideal for me,
anyway, or the best they believe I can ever get.”  The rocking slowed.  “He is
tall, not as tall as you, but maybe six-one or so.”  She paused for a short
time as if recalling his face to her memory.  “Dark skin, he keeps his head
shaved, and sports a goatee.  Very fit, he spends a lot of time working out at
the gym.  He is extremely concerned about his appearance.  He has a fierce
temper, a surprise considering his job.” Her breathing calmed down as she
continued.

“He is thirty-three.  Good at his job,
excellent really.  He loves customer service and is a supervisor, not mine, or
we wouldn’t have been dating, but in the same place.  Anyway, he is very old
school in that he believes men and women have their place.  I was not staying
in mine very well.  I was too ambitious and wanted more.  More money to be
exact. Even after he knew it was because of my cousin that I needed to work
more for the extra income, it didn’t really change.  But maybe it was just me
he had the problem with, since I was one of three women of color working
there.” Jayde paused and they listened to the sound of rain hitting the thick
foliage.

“So he slinked his way into the good graces
of my family, telling my father all about his big plans of keeping me at home
to take care of the house and kids.  Since I didn’t have a career, Father
thought it was a wonderful idea.  Mother also.” She took a deep breath. “When I
broke it off with him he was furious.  I mean
furious
, scary mad.  I
even got transferred to a different floor at work so I wouldn’t have to see
him.  However, he kept in touch with my family, who always sing his praises to
me when they called.  It was the one nice thing they would say; pity it wasn’t
about me,” her voice was laden with scorn.  Tyson noticed she’d pulled away from
him; he didn’t like it, but he didn’t force her to return to his side.

“I didn’t want to go back to Georgia, so
when they came up for the funeral, I told them I was going to stay on and see
if George was ‘the one’.  That was the only reason they didn’t haul my ass back
down south with them.  After they left, I told George I didn’t want to see him,
talk to him, or hear about him again, and then I came down here.  I’d still
hear about him when they would call me at the hotel.” Jayde fell silent.