Street Game (51 page)

Conner turned then, avoiding Rio’s all-too-knowing eyes. He held out his hand and Rio put the envelope in his palm.

“I’ll need to know if your father believes our leopard species have been compromised,” Rio said. “Have the two rogues working for her revealed what they are to her, or are they just taking her money?”

Conner looked at him then. The irises had nearly disappeared in his eyes. Flames smoldered in the depths. It would be the height of betrayal for a leopard ever to reveal to an outsider what he was. He ripped the envelope and pulled out a single sheet of paper. He stared at it for a long moment, reading his father’s missive. The night insects sounded overly loud in the small room. A muscle ticked in his jaw. The silence stretched.

“Conner,” Rio prompted.

“You may want to change your mind about the mission,” Conner said and carefully, with reverent hands, folded and returned the pelt to the backpack. “It isn’t just a hostage rescue. It’s a hit as well. One of the two rogue leopards working for Imelda murdered my mother. Imelda knows about the leopard people.”

Rio swore and crossed to the stove to pour a cup of coffee. “We’ve been compromised.”

“Two of our own betrayed us to Imelda.” Conner looked up, rubbed at his eyes, and sighed. “I have no choice if we want to make certain our secrets remain just that to the rest of the world. It seems Imelda would like an army of leopards. The elders have moved the location of the village deeper into the rain forest in an effort to prevent her reaching out to others who might want her money. The only ones who can get to them are the two rogue leopards already working with her, and they would be killed instantly if they dared come near the village.” He smiled and there was no humor in that flash of sharp white teeth. “They would never be that stupid.”

“How did your mother die?” Felipe asked, his voice very quiet.

There was another long silence before Conner answered. Outside a howler monkey shrieked and several birds called back. “According to my father’s letter, one of the rogues, Martin Suma, killed her when she tried to prevent the taking of the children. She was with Adan Carpio, one of the ten elders of the Embera tribe, and his wife when Cortez’s men attacked and took the children hostage. Suma led Cortez’s men and he murdered my mother first, knowing she was the biggest threat to them.” Conner kept his tone without expression. “Suma has never seen me, if you’re worried. I’ve been in Borneo long enough to appear as one from that area. Felipe and Leonardo are from Brazil, Elijah could be anyone, few people have ever seen his face, and you’re from Borneo. They will not suspect me. I’ll get into the compound, locate the children, and once we move them to safety, I’ll eliminate the three of them. It’s my job, not yours.”

“We go in together,” Rio said. “As a team.”

“You took this assignment in good faith that it was a rescue, and it is. The rest of it, leave to me.” He turned his head and looked directly at the team leader. “It’s not like I have a lot waiting for me, Rio, and you’ve got Rachel. You need to come back to her in one piece.”

“This is no suicide mission, Conner. If you’re thinking along those lines, then we end your participation right here,” Rio said. “We all go in, we do the job, and we
all
get out.”

“Your elders do not allow retaliation when one of us is killed in our leopard form,” Conner said, bringing up a painful subject. Rio had been banished from his tribe after tracking down his mother’s killer.

“It isn’t the same thing,” Rio said. “Suma murdered your mother. A hunter killed mine. I knew the penalty and I still tracked him down. This is justice. He not only murdered a woman of our people, but he betrayed all of us. He could get us exterminated. We go in together. Before anything, the children have to be secured first.”

“We’ll need supplies dropped along a prearranged route to move fast. The team can take the children into the interior until they neutralize Imelda, but not without supplies to feed and care for them until they reach safety,” Conner said. “I’ll go in, mark the areas from above, and you make the drops. We’ll also want to run a couple of escape lines. We’ll need to map them out and cache clothes, weapons, and food along the routes.”

“We’ll have to do it fast. We’ve got an opportunity for contact in six days. The chief of tourism is giving a party and Imelda will be there. We’ve arranged for a Brazilian businessman, Marco Suza Santos, to be invited. We’re his security detail. It’s our only chance for an invitation to her place, otherwise we’re going to have to break in. Not knowing exactly where the children are makes that very risky.”

“I take it he’s a relation to you two,” Conner said, glancing at the two Brazilians.

“Uncle,” they said together.

Conner squared his shoulders and returned to the table. “Do we have any idea of the layout of Imelda’s compound?”

“Adan Carpio is the man who initiated the original contact with our team,” Rio said. “He has provided sketches of the exterior, security, that sort of thing, but nothing inside the compound. He’s trying to get information from some of the Indians who have been servants there, but apparently few ever leave her service alive.”

“I know him well, a good man,” Conner said. “There are few like him in the rain forest. He speaks Spanish as well as his own language and is easy to communicate with. If he says something, it’s true. Take him at his word. Adan is considered a very serious man in the rain forest hierarchy, very respected by all the tribes, including my own.”

From a leopard, that was high praise and Rio knew it. “His grandsons are two of the children taken. Five hostages were taken, three from the Embera tribe and two others from the Waounan tribe, all sons, daughters, or grandchil dren of the elders. Imelda threatened to chop the children into pieces and send them back that way if anyone tries to rescue them, or if the tribes refuse to work for her.”

Conner’s breath hitched in his lungs. “She means it. We’ll have one shot to get in and get out clean. Adan knows the rain forest like the back of his hand. He’s trained Special Forces from several countries in survival. He’ll stand and be an asset, believe me. You can trust him.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “The two rogue leopards who betrayed our people—is Adan certain they’re on her payroll or acting independently?”

Rio nodded. “Most of the information on them came from your father . . .”

“Raul or Fernandez. I haven’t called him father in years,” Conner interrupted. “I use Vega, my mother’s name. He may have sent for me, but we aren’t close, Rio.”

Rio frowned. “Can he be trusted? Would he set us up? Set you up?”

“Because we despise each other?” Conner asked. “No. He’s loyal to our people. I can guarantee his information. I can also tell you with certainty that he is not our client. He would never even think to pay for a rescue of these children. He’s taking advantage of whoever our client is and adding the hit to our work. And he won’t be working with us or giving us aid.”

There was another long silence. Rio sighed. “The names on that list?”

“Imelda Cortez is number one. No one can trust her with the information she has and even if we rescue the children, she’ll be back for more. The other two names are the two rogue leopards working for her who betrayed our people.”

“Those two will recognize us as leopards,” Rio pointed out. “And they’ll know you’re from this region.”

Conner shrugged. “They’ll recognize your businessman as leopard as well. Santos is bound to have leopard for security. He’d be insane not to. As for me, there are three leopard tribes residing in the Colombia-Panama rain forest, but we don’t mix that much. The traitors would probably recognize my father’s name as he’s an elder in the village, but I use my mother’s name. Plus, few people know of me. I lived with my mother apart from our village.”

There was a collective gasp. Mates stayed together—always. Conner shot them a hard look. “I grew up despising my old man. I guess I turned out just like him.”

Conner felt the knots in his belly tighten. They were giving him no choice. He crossed to the window and stared out into the darkness. The noose had slipped over his neck and was slowly tightening, strangling him. If they wanted to get to the compound to rescue the children, he had to charm the socks off Imelda Cortez and get Marco Suza Santos and his security detail invited to her fortress of a home.

Maybe he’d entertained some romantic notion that he’d go back to Borneo and find Isabeau Chandler, his mate, and she’d forgive him and they would live happily ever after. There were no happily-ever-afters for men like him. He knew that. He just couldn’t accept that he had to let her go.

It was dead calm beneath the canopy, but in the utter darkness, he could still make out the shapes of the leaves, feel the heat seeping into his pores, squeezing his heart like a vise. He was going to seduce another woman. Look at her. Touch her. Draw her to him. Betray Isabeau one more time. It was another sin among so many.

“Can you do it?” Rio asked, evidently following his train of thought.

Conner turned his head, a slow animal-like motion. His eyes held distance. Self-loathing. “I was born for the job.” He couldn’t quite cover the bitterness in his voice.

Rio inhaled sharply. He couldn’t imagine betraying Rachel. “One of the others can try it. You can teach them.”

Felipe and Leonardo looked at each other. How did one learn charisma? Conner had an animal quality about him that they all shared, but his was predominant, inherent, something he was born with and wore on the outside as well as the inside. He walked into a room and everyone was instantly aware of him. They didn’t try to hide Conner, rather used his presence to their advantage. He could look bored, amused, and indifferent all at the same time.

For the first time Elijah stirred, drawing attention to himself. He had a past in the drug industry and knew most of those involved by reputation. He was also a very dangerous, charismatic man. “I might be able to help with this matter. I have a past. This woman, Imelda Cortez, she will recognize my name if I use it. Just my presence alone will cast a taint on Santos.” He cast a quick glance at Felipe and Leonardo. “I’m sorry, but you know it is the truth. She will have all of us checked out and my name is known to every law enforcement agency around the world. She might be interested enough to invite us because I’m there as well. I can try seduction.”

Rio studied him. Elijah was his brother-in-law. He had inherited the drug throne his father and uncle had created. When his father had tried to go legitimate, his uncle had killed him and taken Elijah and Rachel in, raising them under his rule. Life and death were all Elijah had ever known. He wasn’t ready yet for such a key position on a mission. There was no doubt his looks and magnetism would draw Imelda to him, but he didn’t have the charm yet that Conner possessed. The four scars from a leopard’s claw on the side of Conner’s face only added to his mystique.

Rio let himself look at Conner. He’d been the one who’d selected Conner to seduce Isabeau Chandler. And in the end, Rio had been the one to kill her father. Conner had tried to save him, but Chandler had pulled a gun and tried to protect the leader of a terrorist camp. He’d given Rio no choice. Conner was in the line of fire, trying to talk the man down, but the doctor refused to take the out offered to him. Rio had pulled the trigger and saved Conner’s life, but there’d been no way to save his soul.

Isabeau had been so shocked. Rio would never forget the look on her face when she realized Conner had used her to gain entrance to the camp. He cringed every time he thought of it and now he was asking Conner to do the same thing again to another woman. Imelda was no innocent like Isabeau, but it was still a lousy job any way he looked at it.

Conner shrugged. “I appreciate the offer, Elijah, but there’s no use in both of us losing out. You still have a chance. I lost mine a long time ago. You can’t go to your mate with dirt all over you. It just doesn’t work out.”

“I’m pretty covered in it already,” Elijah pointed out. “I’ve done things I’m not proud of—things no woman will forgive or overlook.”

“All of us have,” Conner said, “but that’s not what I’m trying to tell you. This is a different situation, and Imelda Cortez is the scum of the earth. You seduce her and sleep with her, when you do find your mate, you won’t be able to look her in the eye.”

Rio opened his mouth, but there was nothing to say. He could never have gone back to face Rachel with that kind of sin coating his soul black, yet he was asking Conner to once again bear that responsibility. What he was asking was wrong, but there was no way into the Cortez fortress without an invitation.

“You’ve been there once,” Elijah pointed out. “It isn’t fair to have you put in that position again.”

“I know who my mate is,” Conner said. “Isabeau Chandler belongs to me. I won’t have a second chance with her, not after what I did. I would never take another woman and ruin her chances at her own happiness. I know all too well how that turns out.” His voice had gone bitter and he made an effort to change his tone, shrugging casually. “I have nothing to lose, Elijah, and you have everything to lose. I’ll do this one last time and then if you still want the job and it needs doing, you can make up your mind then.”

“If you’re sure.”

“It’s my mess. The man my father accuses of killing my mother is working for Imelda Cortez. His name along with his partner is on that hit list. I’m going after both of them. Imelda wouldn’t tell anyone about the leopard people. She’d use the information to her advantage, so right now we’ve got the opportunity to contain this.”

Rio nodded. “She’ll be looking for more leopard recruits.”

“She won’t find them in our village,” Conner assured. “Raul moved the village deeper into the forest and the two rogues, Martin Suma and Ottila Zorba, are the other two names on the hit list. I recognize the name Suma from my village, but don’t remember him. He didn’t live with us. His parents took him out of the rain forest. He must have returned after I left. Even though Suma killed my mother, he wouldn’t have a way of putting us together. Zorba isn’t one of ours.”