Last Spy Standing (5 page)

H
E
LOOKED
LIKE
he was ready to strangle her. Fine, so she’d stolen Zak from him at that guesthouse. But, hey, nobody told him to rush to rescue her from Paolo. “You should have stayed with the kid and made them wait.”

His lips narrowed further. His nostrils flared. He reminded her of a bull in the arena, pawing the ground. All in all, she preferred this look to the one he’d presented back in the woods.

Back there, he’d looked like the hero out of some big-budget Hollywood action flick as he’d broken through the bushes and challenged Paolo. She wasn’t used to rescue. She couldn’t say her heart hadn’t fluttered just a little. It must have been some basic, primitive female reaction to the macho display of an alpha male. But she didn’t appreciate the interference, and she definitely didn’t appreciate the flutter. That simply couldn’t happen again.

Mitch Mendoza was nothing but a giant monkey wrench in her plans. That he was hot was beside the point. She’d just have to ignore the way her hormones stood up to salute him every time she looked at him.

Because of him, Paolo was dead, and his absence might make Juarez suspicious, regardless of her cover story. And now she wouldn’t be the one to bring Zak to the mighty drug lord. Sanchez would get the credit instead.

No way.
She
had
to get the brownie points. Juarez had to take her with him to see Don Pedro.

Her mind flipped through all the possibilities until she hit upon an idea that might work. “There are some rapids up ahead. They’ll have to take the canoe out of the water and carry it around. It’ll make them lose whatever time they gained on the river. If we move fast enough, we can catch up to them.”

He rolled his neck and his shoulders, adjusted his backpack. “Let’s move out,” he called, taking the lead.

Typical man.

When she tried to cut in front of him—hello, she was the one who knew the terrain, she’d traipsed all over this jungle in the past year—he picked up speed to prevent her.

Fine.
She fell in line behind him. Carrying that massive ego around was going to get too heavy sooner or later. He followed the river, logically, so he wasn’t leading them off course. She could afford to humor him. One of them had to be the mature adult. With eight younger brothers, she was used to the role. She could handle it.

“So, out of curiosity,” he asked over his shoulder, “you would have let Paolo beat you up or worse to keep your cover?”

“This happens to be an important mission.” But that was only part of it. She worked for the CIA, but she had her own reasons for being here. Reasons that would likely end her government career when the truth came out. The home office didn’t appreciate operatives with private agendas, regardless of the worthiness of their cause.

“You’re tough.”

His acknowledgment meant nothing. She squashed the small thrill she got from it. “Don’t you forget it.”

“Tough for a girl, I mean.”

“Well, that just ends all the goodwill we’ve been building,” she deadpanned.

“A sense of humor, too.” He mocked her. “So with all that, how come you’re not in a safer job in a nicer place?”

“I’m exactly where I want to be.”

“All things considered, I’d rather be on my couch with a cold beer, watching a game on the big screen.”

She didn’t believe him for a second. He had the look of a man who lived for action. He was always on, always ready, mind and body honed in combat. You didn’t get this good at something without liking it. “How often does that happen?”

“Once a year if I’m lucky.”

She didn’t know much about him, only that he was one of Colonel Wilson’s men. The Colonel was running some commando group that flew so deep under the radar, even Congress didn’t know about it. Which was a neat way to avoid congressional oversight, she supposed. They did lone-wolf operations, deep undercover, took care of problems nobody else dared to tackle.

The grand sum of her knowledge about the team didn’t amount to much, despite the fact that at one point, she’d tried all her CIA resources to find out more. She’d been stunned at how fast doors had been slammed in her face.

Clearly they were in the black op business. She wasn’t impressed. The U.S. had enough law enforcement and military branches already. They didn’t need a new batch of yahoos who thought they were above the law and interfered in the legitimate agencies’ business. And it was dangerous, too. She thought of Jamie at home, of the way he was now. Sorrow filled her swiftly. She put thoughts of her eldest brother away.

“Why don’t you go home?” she suggested to Mitch. “After I’m done with what I’ve come to accomplish, I’ll take Zak back to the U.S. with me.”

“You’d leave him behind in the blink of an eye.”

She shrugged. “He’s grown on me.”

He shot back on amused look. “How about me?”

“You leave now, and I’ll let you know if I miss you in a couple of weeks.”

He snorted. Then he got serious. “Without me, Zak will be dead within ten minutes of reaching that compound.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“He’s not your top priority.”

He was right about that. She was here to rescue someone else. So she changed the subject. “How long have you been in the commando business?”

“Too long. How long you’ve been with the company?”

“Since college.”

“Spook University?”

“Yale.”

He gave her the once-over. “Come from big money?”

“No money at all and nine kids in the family. Went to school on scholarship.”

“You must be the eldest.”

“How did you know?”

“Bossy and stubborn.”

She looked at the ground for something to throw at his wide back and found nothing but composting leaves. “I grew up with eight younger brothers. They needed positive direction. Anyway, being decisive is a positive trait.”

“All the bossiness could be the reason why you don’t have a man. Ever thought of that?” He was baiting her on purpose now. He seemed to get some sick satisfaction out of needling her.

“I’ve got someone back home.”

“You haven’t been home in over a year,” he reminded her.

Not that she needed a reminder. Her relationship with Vincent hadn’t been that great to start with. She had no illusions about him waiting for her. Not when she hadn’t been able to tell him where she was going or how long she would be staying.

“I’m sure your life is chock-full of women,” she shot back.

“You have no idea how grateful some of those damsels in distress I save can be.” He smirked. “You realize that since we’ve met, I’ve saved you once a day?”

Okay, he’d gone too far with that one. She didn’t need saving. Ever. Her self-sufficiency was a matter of pride. He was possibly the most infuriating man she’d ever seen, and she had eight brothers to compare him to, not to mention dozens of colleagues. She did work in a male-dominated field.

“The first time around, you weren’t saving me, I was scamming you.” She set the record straight. “And if you’d stayed with Zak instead of interfering with Paolo, we wouldn’t have lost the kid.” She would have been able to fight Paolo off. Probably.

If she hadn’t rolled her eyes, she wouldn’t have noticed the movement on the branch above Mitch. He didn’t. He’d been paying too much attention to annoying her and missed the snake. Just as it dropped out of the tree, she leaped forward and swiped at it with her machete.

He spun, alerted by the noise she made. The snake’s body fell around his neck with a small thud, the head landing at his feet. He stood frozen to the spot, wide-eyed, color creeping into his stubble-covered cheeks.

“You scared of snakes?” Megan smiled. So he did have a chink in his armor. She softened a little, closing the remaining distance between them with a short step and slipping the still-wriggling body from around his neck to throw it into the underbrush. “No good for eating. This kind has a bitter taste.”

His chestnut eyes were way too close.

His gaze fell to her lips.

The jungle heated around them. Breathing seemed extra difficult for a moment.

An electric charge ran through her. She wasn’t sure what she should hope for, that he’d kiss her or that he wouldn’t.

His tongue darted out and moistened his lower lip. His Adam’s apple bobbed up, then back down as he swallowed.

Then he stepped away.

S
HE
HAD
NO
IDEA
how hot she was. How was that possible? She about short-circuited his brain every time he looked at her. Seeing her in action… She had to be getting male attention 24/7 at Juarez’s camp. Of course, it was probably unwanted attention, more worrisome than self-esteem boosting. Or downright dangerous, like Paolo had been.

“Thank you,” he told her as he moved forward. “That’s what you do when someone saves your life, by the way. Acknowledge it instead of denying it.”

“If you ever save my life, I’ll be sure to express my gratitude,” she said in snarky tone behind him.

He allowed himself a small grin. He didn’t normally work with a partner. She was annoying at times, definitely tested his patience on occasion, but she was also entertaining. And hot. Something about her made hormones flood his brain.
Great.
He was in the middle of a mission. He’d lost his charge. And now his thoughts made him feel like a teenager.

He’d better fix that and quickly, before he kissed her or did something equally stupid. The snake hadn’t bothered him, but when she’d stepped that close—to be that near to those lips…

They marched on in silence for a while, pushing as hard as they could. He walked in front. Walking behind her would have provided too much distraction. He needed to keep his mind clear and keep up the pace. Catching up with the men before they reached the compound was crucial.

They didn’t even stop when they came up on a mango tree. They filled their pockets as they walked. Their forced march expended a lot of energy. Replacing that was vital to remain in top fighting shape. They ate as they hiked, but also saved some for later.

She never complained once. Not about the unforgiving pace he set, not about the lack of food or lack of breaks. About an hour later, they heard the rapids, but couldn’t see much. The area around them was too overgrown with bamboo to walk, so they had to turn deeper into the jungle. Long minutes ticked by before they could begin angling back toward the river.

They reached the water just as Sanchez and the others were getting ready to give the final push to their canoe on the other side. Zak was already sitting in the front, looking haggard.

“Hey,” Sanchez called over the water, straightening when he spotted them, his right hand lingering by his gun. “Where is Paolo?”

Had they heard the shot, was the question.

Mitch stayed quiet, letting Megan take the lead and make explanations. They trusted her more than him. She had quite a way with words when she was trying to annoy him. Let her use all that verbal creativity on Sanchez and talk her way out of trouble.

But instead of telling her little tale, she opened fire without warning.

She never did what he expected her to do. Absolutely never. The woman was bewildering.

Sanchez went down first, then the man behind him. Mitch, recovered at last, took care of the third.

“They would have never believed us. Zak wasn’t in the way. I knew I could do it without him getting hurt—” Megan began to explain, but fell silent when the kid began screaming, drawing their attention.

“Help!” He scrambled to keep his balance as the water got hold of the canoe and pulled it from shore. The boat wobbled, got stuck for a moment, then jerked farther away as the current took hold.

He stared back at them with horror on his face as the swift waters carried him downriver.

Without a paddle.

This must be some gigantic, cosmic joke,
Mitch thought as he stared after his charge.

Except it wasn’t at all funny.

Chapter Five

“Jump,” Megan shouted to Zak, as she took off running. She kept one eye on him and one on where she stepped. “Jump and swim.”

But the kid looked too scared to do anything.

Mitch passed her. He wasn’t as much running as leaping from safe spot to safe spot. The riverbank was littered with rocks and logs and all sorts of rubble the water had deposited. Nature’s hazard course.

She pushed as hard as she could, but not as hard as he did. One of them had to be safe. If he got injured, she was the backup.

He ripped off his backpack and tossed it so he could go faster. When she reached it, she picked it up. She would catch up with them eventually.

She kept him in sight for another five minutes before the rocky bank gave way to flatter, muddy terrain and he disappeared into denser foliage. She could hear him for a little longer as he dashed through the brush. After that, she heard nothing.

A bend in the river took the kid from her sight, too. Then she was alone in a massive green labyrinth of danger. She kept her gun handy, mindful of wild animals as she ran on, alert and determined. Albeit not one hundred percent sure what in the hell she was doing.

The kid was gone down the river, and she’d let Mitch go after him. Had trusted him. Treated him like a teammate. The thought occurred to her suddenly. She wasn’t a fan of teammates, frankly.

She didn’t mind helping others. She just didn’t like them helping her, didn’t like relying on them. She preferred to do things for herself. Maybe because she was a woman in a male-dominated field and didn’t want to appear weak.

It wouldn’t be good if she began relying on Mitch now.

She pushed harder. The man had a way of getting under her skin. He better not think that if he got to Zak first, he’d have some kind of a claim on him. She was taking the kid back to Juarez. End of story.

If Mitch didn’t like that, tough for him.

She should have shot him at the guesthouse.
Not killed him or anything, but hurt him enough to make sure he wouldn’t be coming after her. Or, at the very least, she should have tied him to a tree after he’d shot Paolo. Coming back to Sanchez alone, she could have claimed that the two men took each other out. Sanchez would have accepted that. He would have come across the river for her, and she could have gone back to Juarez with the men.

Mitch was a major complication for her mission, but every time she had a chance to get rid of him, she hadn’t. Better not be because he was ridiculously attractive. That would be crazy. She would never let a consideration that shallow affect her mission. It didn’t matter that he was hot. Or that he was good at what he did. Though she respected that. But the appreciation she had for him was strictly professional. Okay, mostly professional.

All right, so fine, she wasn’t a saint.

She did like him. But she also wanted to strangle him. Frequently.

He’d come to help her with Paolo. Which had been a mistake. But the salient fact was that he’d been with Zak, the object of his rescue mission, and he’d left the kid to come after her because he’d thought she was in trouble.

A sweet gesture, as much as she hated to admit it. Not that she wanted sweet.

She didn’t need a protector. She managed just fine on her own. She didn’t want a partner.

Yet here he was, a thorn in her side.

She was carrying his backpack for heaven’s sake, like some moonstruck teenage boy carried books to a high school girl’s locker. And her thoughts kept buzzing around him.

A noise ahead drew her attention. She slowed and pulled her weapon. Heard swearing, followed by “It’s me.”

“Mitch?” She inched forward, ready for anything.

“I’m alone. It’s okay.”

She pushed through some sticky-leaved palms she hoped weren’t poisonous and saw him at last.

He was sitting on a fallen tree, pressing leaves against a gash in his leg. “Broken stick of bamboo got me.”

She dropped their bags at his feet and assessed the situation. Decent cut, but not life-threatening. “Zak?”

“Lost him.”

That couldn’t happen. Simply couldn’t. Everything depended on her gaining Juarez’s goodwill, and Zak was the only ace up her sleeve. “Did he ever jump out of the canoe?”

“Not that I saw.”

She went for her emergency pack. For a split second she considered just tossing it to him and moving on.

Oh, fine.
This didn’t have to take long. She pulled out some gauze and antibiotic ointment and went to work, trying to ignore the way her fingertips tingled every time they touched his skin, which was tanned and smooth with plenty of hard muscles underneath. He was so quintessentially male, everything that was female in her responded to him.

For a second she imagined his hands on her, and the image took her breath away. But that could never happen. He was a big enough distraction already.

Pulling her mind in another direction took effort, but she did it. “In ten miles or so, there are more rapids.” She tried to picture the spot. She’d only been there once. A dangerous place from what she could remember.

Mitch eyed the gun at her feet. “When did your backpack get filled up anyway? I checked it when you first showed up. You didn’t have any weapons.”

“Remember when I went back to the bushes to give back my breakfast?”

He winced. Then his eyes narrowed. “You hid everything important before you stepped out into the clearing. Then, after I checked, you went back and repacked. You weren’t even sick?”

She smiled at him. Patted the bandage. “Done. That’s the second time I saved your life, by the way.” She stood, needing a little space after all that nearness.

“The snake wasn’t that poisonous.”

Still, he would have been
very
uncomfortable. She doubted that he could have walked out of the jungle unaided. “Fine. Once then.” She could be reasonable.

“I have antibiotics in my backpack, too.”

“You only have your backpack because I brought it after you.” Would it have killed him to acknowledge that she’d been helpful?

He tested his leg then put his full weight on it. “All right. You saved my life. Want a reward?”

She hated that her body tingled at the prospect, even though the question had been meant as a put-down, not as a come-on.

“Sure.” She swung her backpack on her back. “There’s one thing I’d really like.”

He gave her a careful look. Then a surprised glint came into his eyes that said he was starting to understand her unspoken thoughts. His lips stretched into a slow grin.

There was nothing for them there but trouble. Her heart rate picked up. Thank God, he couldn’t see that.

“As a reward, you could stay out of my way.” She turned on her heels and left him.

S
HE
WAS
SASSY
. He hadn’t thought he’d liked that in a woman, but he couldn’t remember the last time he enjoyed anyone’s company this much. He was beginning to rethink the whole lone-wolf thing.

Maybe I could work with her,
Mitch thought, as he tried not to think of the dozens of other things he would like to do with Megan Cassidy, none of them appropriate for two government operatives on duty.

Especially not with Zak missing.

He grabbed his own bag and took off after her. “So how bad are those rapids?”

“He’ll be out of the canoe. Can he swim?”

He’d never thought to ask. “No idea.” If the kid couldn’t swim…

“I can’t believe you lost him.” She stomped forward.

“I lost him?” Just like a woman to blame a man for everything.

“I left him with you.”

“You know, everything was going just fine until we met up with you.” He’d found the compound without trouble, gotten the kid out, he’d even caught up with those troublesome witnesses. It hadn’t been the smoothest op he’d ever handled, but he was managing.

Then came Megan Cassidy.

She said something under her breath that he couldn’t hear and was pretty sure he didn’t want to.

“You do realize that you’re the biggest obstacle to my mission?” he asked her. “Not the jungle, not the bad guys. Trouble follows you. I’ve heard of people like that. They don’t make it long in this business.”

“Trouble doesn’t follow me. I follow trouble. I go where trouble is, because that’s my job. I conquer trouble.”

“Is that how you got that scar?” He’d been curious about that from the first time he’d seen it.

“At the beginning, when I showed up at Juarez’s camp, the other men didn’t exactly like the idea of me joining their team.”

But she hadn’t let that stop her. He was beginning to think that she was the type who didn’t let anything stop her when she wanted something. Not a comforting thought since, in this case, they both wanted the same thing. And only one of them could have the kid.

He was definitely taking Zak. As far as all the other things he wanted where she was concerned went, he was going to forget about those. She was too much trouble. Why did he have to meet her?

Or, a better question was, why did he have to want her?

The admission didn’t please him, but there it was. He wanted Megan Cassidy, undercover CIA spook, bane of his existence, destroyer of his mission. When she’d said she wanted a reward from him…his mind had jumped to all the wrong conclusions. The images that had flooded his brain… He couldn’t go there. Their uneasy alliance was complicated already.

There was only one way to handle the situation. He was going to completely ignore the attraction and deny his misguided needs.

“Want a mango?” she called back.

Fruit, in fact, was not on the top of his list of desires. “Still got one.” He patted his pocket, mindful of the whole apple-and-Eve motif.

His new wound pulled with every step he took. Normally, he would have ignored that, but now he focused on the pain to keep his thoughts from Megan. A light rain began to fall, and the bugs around them quieted, looking for shelters under leaves. Birds pulled their necks in. For a while, the only sound they could hear was the patter of raindrops on all that green. He didn’t like the idea of getting soaked to the skin again. He’d barely been dry since he’d gotten here.

She marched on without complaint. He did the same.

He didn’t ask her what she would do if they didn’t find Zak. And she didn’t ask him. For people like them, failure wasn’t an option. Which meant more trouble down the line, sure confrontation.

She stopped suddenly.

He went for his weapon and scanned their surroundings.

“What is it?” He kept his voice at a whisper.

“Banana spider.” She pointed.

“Poisonous.” He’d seen them before, avoided them like the plague. Their poison was rarely strong enough to bring down a healthy adult, but it could cause considerable damage. And excruciating pain. The most painful spider bite on the planet, according to the experts. “Go around it slowly.”

She did. “There must be banana trees around here somewhere.” Her tone was wistful. She scanned the jungle once she was past the spider. A little potassium would have been nice. Fighting their way through the jungle took a lot out of them.

The six-inch hairy arachnid stood its ground and stared at them. Mitch followed Megan, keeping an eye on the ground around them on the principle that where there was one spider, there might be more. “Nasty thing.”

She glanced back with an amused look. “I thought as a man you’d show more appreciation for it.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Priapism is one of the side effects of its bite.”

He took a double take at the spider. Priapism, huh? How come that hadn’t been in his training field book?

Priapism.
He shook his head. Some guys might think something like that would be fun, but it sounded painful to him. He was happy with the way his body ordinarily worked.

He didn’t need any stimulators, not with Megan walking in front of him, her pants wet from the rain and sticking to her body. She had to know it, but didn’t seem self-conscious. She was focused on the job at hand.

He was focused on her shapely behind. He should have never let her walk in front of him.

Since they were near the river now, more light reached the ground and the undergrowth grew thicker. The green obstacle course didn’t faze her any. She sure knew how to use that machete.

They tried to keep the river in sight, but saw no sign of Zak for the next few miles. They ate the last mangoes from their pockets, save one. He offered to take the lead. She handed him the machete and let him. She was self-sufficient and stubborn, but smart enough to know what was best for progress.

They walked another mile before they heard the cry. “Help! Help me!”

Zak.
They pushed forward. At least ten minutes passed before they found him on the shore, stuck between two large rocks, half in, half out of the water, floundering like a giant, battered fish.

They rushed to him together, careful of the slippery rocks.