Deadly Games Read online

The only thing she had between herself and all those dangers was Sam Pelton. The thought was so wrongly comforting.

  Five men. camo. NVGs. AK-47s. Well trained. Cautious. And definitely tracking their missing doctor. There was no other reason for their presence. No nearby villages to pillage, and Sam doubted they were hunting for bushmeat. Thadiwe was too sophisticated to eat the local flora and fauna, and the compound was miles from anywhere. No. It was Beth that Thadiwe’s soldiers hunted.

  Damn it to hell. He’d miscalculated, and they’d discovered her absence, and the hidden Jeep, hours before Sam thought they would. Removing the KA BAR from his tac belt with his left hand, Sam circled around, slipped in behind them. Matching his steps to the man bringing up the rear, he maneuvered up close. With no warning he brought his forearm around and beneath the guy’s chin. Pulling him back and off balance, Sam struck directly up, into the man’s kidneys. It was a quick, silent death, the pain so intense the man couldn’t scream before he died. Sam caught the soldier as he soundlessly collapsed against him, and lowered the body quietly into the bushes.

  Sam wiped the bloodied knife on the man’s shirt. One down, four to go.

  Killing the soldier had taken all of three seconds. Didn’t bother Sam right then, but later he’d remember why he’d gotten out of combat and into the training side. But for now he had absolutely no compunction killing as many people as it took to keep Beth safe.

  He took the second and third guys out the same coldly efficient way as he’d done the first. The fourth and fifth might have been slow on the uptake, but the second they realized that they were under attack they got with the program and both rushed Sam at once.

  Good. No weapons fired to draw the attention of any other hunters. The first guy came at him in a flurry of well-trained arms and legs. Sam blocked the first blow with his forearm, then swiveled to kick out at number two, who had come in from the side, his AK-47 raised to fire. Kicking out, Sam got rid of both man and weapon. The second guy went flying, striking a tree trunk with a hollow thud that set off a flock of birds in a screeching flutter of wings, ghostly through the NVGs. A group of chimps shot out of the lower branches, screaming annoyance as they swung from branch to branch.

  Bending his arm, Sam used a chopping motion from the elbow, his entire body weight behind the edge-of-the-hand blow to the first guy’s throat as he came at him full tilt. His hand made a satisfying connection just below the enemy’s Adam’s apple. The guy gagged and dropped.

  The other soldier was already up on his feet and charging back for more. With a feral smile Sam side stepped the punch to the jaw, grabbing his opponent’s wrist with one hand, and pulled him off balance. With the other hand he yanked off the guy’s NVGs, then melted into the high bushes to his right. The man came blindly after him. Sam stayed dead still.

  The man turned in a circle, scared now, babbling God only knew what. Sam came up on him from behind, wrapping his left arm around the guy’s neck, bearing down on his throat in a Japanese strangle-hold. One arm across his throat, the other on his shoulders, his palm on the back of the man’s head. Pulling him backwards, Sam pressed the guy’s head forward.

  The guy tried to grab his balls with his free hand. The LockOut suit gave him no handhold.

  Sam straightened and gripped the front and back of the guy’s head, then gave a quick twist. It had been a while since he’d last heard a neck breaking at such close quarters. He hadn’t missed the sound. Sam tossed him aside as he heard a loud scream of fear. The scream was cut off mid-note.

  Beth.

  Elizabeth flung herself into Sam’s arms the moment he came through the trees. It was barely light, but she could see him well enough, and God, was she happy to do so. “Oh, Jesus, Jesus,” she said hoarsely into his throat, her heart pounding so hard she was sure he must hear it. “I’m sorry, Sam. This giant pig-like something came at me, and scared the living crap out of me. I promised myself I wouldn’t scream like a girl and distract you no matter what, but it ran right into me before I even knew it was there…Sorry, I’m babbling.”

  She looked up at his face. He’d removed the night-vision goggles, and they’d left a red mark across the bridge of his blade of a nose. He was several days past a shave, and the dark shadow on his jaw made him look wicked and disreputable. The sheen on the front of his black bodysuit Elizabeth easily identified as blood. She stepped back, her gaze tracking across his body for signs of injury.

  “Are you—?” The matte black bodysuit hugged his muscular torso so that she could see the sharp definition of his taut pecs and cut abs, and the long length of his muscular legs, and the bulge, somehow flattened, large, and protected by something. She pictured his penis tucked neatly inside. Her body tightened and her nipples ached.

  “Am I?”

  Her gaze shot up to his face, and her cheeks felt warm. “Hurt. Are you hurt?”

  “I teach advanced survival skills to highly trained counterterrorist operatives for a living. I’m excellent. Thanks for asking.” He grinned, a flash of white teeth in his tanned face. “Did your run-in with the pig give you any nicks or cuts?”

  “I scared him as much as he scared me,” she muttered, searching his face. She didn’t need to ask him if he’d taken care of whomever had been following them. Seeing Sam in his warrior gear, knife belted to his thigh, the big gun, his dark hair damp with sweat, his eyes glittering as if he had a fever….

  Good grief, if he’d looked like this back home, she would have jumped his bones at the first opportunity. She gave him a more assessing look. “How did they catch up with us so fast?”

  “Obviously someone went to your room to check on you after I cut the generator. They’ll send more soldiers when those guys don’t check in.” He picked up the big gun and his pack. “We need to make tracks,” he said, threading his arms through the straps. “Easier now that it’s getting light. Drink some water as we walk.” He handed her the canteen, and Elizabeth sipped enough water to moisturize her dry mouth.

  “How many men were there?”

  “Only five.”

  Only five. Sam didn’t seem to be concerned that those men might still be following them, so Elizabeth presumed they were incapacitated. In this part of the world that could only mean dead.

  “I counted seventeen soldiers at the compound. If they realized that I didn’t take the Jeep, do you think they’ll send all of them after us? Maybe we should double back and really steal a Jeep. What do you think?”

  “First of all there were twenty soldiers. And no. We’re not doubling back. By now Thadiwe has probably called in some of his pal Nkemidilm’s people. Right now we have the advantage. Until they find those five guys back there, they won’t know you aren’t alone. They think they’re hunting a lone woman, unprepared for this environment. That’s a good thing, and to our advantage. Those guys didn’t have radios or any communication devices on them. Stupid. But hey, I didn’t train them. So to communicate they’d have to have gone back to base. We have a little breathing room.”

  He tilted her face with a finger under her chin. His hard mouth curved into a smile. “You look like hell.”

  “I’m perfectly aware of what I must look like,” she said ruefully. While Sam’s rugged face was bug-free, she must look like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. She’d never been vain, but right now she was grateful she didn’t have a mirror. God only knew what critters had glued themselves to the repellent on her skin.

  He removed a cloth from his pack, and applied it—dry—to her cheeks. “This must itch like crazy. Close your eyes. Let me get rid of the bugs at least. Grab the DEET—it’s in the left side of the belt. Yeah, open it while I get rid of your passengers.”

  Elizabeth stood still while Sam cleaned her face, then reapplied the chemical to deter the bugs. She wanted to kiss him, but knew they had to keep going if they wanted to get away free and clear.

  The blackness of the night had lightened to a deep olive green. Now murky lime-green shafts of light seeped through the
dense tree canopy. It felt as though they were walking through algae-filled water. The bodysuit did an incredible job keeping her body temp normal, but her head was exposed to the thick steamy heat and perspiration tickled her skin and attracted insects.

  The jungle was a living entity surrounding them; the smell of dead vegetation and wet earth seemed to seep into Elizabeth’s pores. The noise level was higher now than it had been earlier, and she’d long since given up trying to identify everything making such a racket. Monkeys, insects, large and small animals. And her own breathing. Every time a bird called, she flinched. Not only did she hate birds, she discovered she wasn’t that crazy about snakes, bugs, or mosquitoes either. Being in a rain forest wasn’t exactly the best pick for a first time Grand Adventure.

  An adventurer she wasn’t. Just because she wanted to be fearless and daring didn’t mean she was hardwired to be so. She’d leave the adventures to Kess and concentrate on her fledgling practice instead.

  If she made it back to Montana alive.

  CHAPTER SIX - TROPICAL HEAT

  Elizabeth bumped into Sam’s back as he came to a stop midstride. She came around to stand beside him. They’d reached the river. Thank God. The water was the color of bad pea soup. Brownish green with unidentifiable lumps of vegetation floating on the surface. The air smelled, not unpleasantly…green, and a little like overripe fruit. Small trees and thick brush crowded the sloping banks. House plants Beth grew in little pots in her condo would thrive and flourish to gigantic proportions here.

  A thin, bright yellow snake S’ed on the surface of the water, while dragonflies, their iridescent wings shimmering in the sunlight, swooped and dived over their reflections, and tiny emerald-green butterflies swarmed en masse over the bank. A pair of inquisitive otters sat on a nearby felled tree trunk watching them.

  That was the pretty part of the river.

  On the bank a crocodile—at least seven feet long, lazed in the sun, and four submerged hippos, small ears twitching, lay like enormous boulders several hundred yards upstream in the center of the river where the water was deep. Both species moved like greased lightning in the water.

  And there were birds. Everywhere. Big and small. They swooped, they dove, they fluttered and they perched. They squawked and chirped and tweeted and generally freaked Beth out.

  Here the sunlight wasn’t being filtered through the trees, and buttery early morning light sparkled on the murky green surface, while the diaphanous dragonflies danced between the long reeds and grasses lining the muddy bank. If one didn’t know that the jungle pressing against its serpentine shoreline was filled with birds and creepy crawlies, it would be an idyllic picture.

  She stared at the pod of almost submerged hippos. One lifted its head, its ridiculous small ears pivoting as it called a guttural ba-ho-ho-ho in a low bass. Hippos were said to be the deadliest animal in Africa, but it was hard to imagine, watching them clustered together like giant rocks in the slow-moving water, that they could actually run faster than a human on land. It was unlikely they’d attack without provocation, but Elizabeth moved closer to Sam and his nice big gun.

  “Shit.”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, dry-mouthed, waving away a dragonfly as it dive-bombed her hair.

  “Desi isn’t here with the Zodiac.”

  Elizabeth looked out across the murky surface. The whole expanse of the river looked emptier and more dangerous without rescue close at hand. “Maybe he went up or downriver.”

  “This is the extraction point. We’re about fifteen minutes late—but he should be here waiting.”

  “Are you sure he’s coming? I told you we should have gone back and stolen a Jeep.”

  “He must’ve gotten delayed. He’ll be here.”

  “How long do you think we’ll have to wait?”

  Sam glanced around, clearly assessing the area. “Until he gets here.”

  Well, duh. “What are we supposed to do in the meantime?”

  “Sun’s up. The animals will be down to drink any time now. We need to get out of their way.”

  “Do we dodge them and say excuse me? Do we walk, or do we have to figure out how to levitate?”

  “We’re going to climb that tree over there and stay out of their way. It’s a good lookout point, and you probably could use a rest ’round about now.”

  “And a shower, and a thick juicy steak.”

  “Sorry. No shower, no room service. How are your tree-climbing skills?”

  “On a scale of one to ten, one being the least? Zero. I’ve never climbed a tree in my life. Not since I watched Kess being hauled away in an ambulance after falling on her head. It looked like too much trouble for that amount of pain.”

  “I won’t let you fall, I promise. Come on, this looks like a good tree hotel.”

  The enormous tree was relatively easy to climb with Sam’s help. The branches were as thick as her entire body, and vines made convenient toe- and handholds. She moved as fast as she could to prevent critters from taking a toe hold on her. Sam found a fork about ten feet off the ground that hung almost directly over the water and eased the pack off his back onto one of the wide branches. Opening it he removed a circle of a similar fabric to their suits, but instead of black, this was a camouflage pattern that blended well with the surrounding vegetation.

  “A Frisbee?” she teased, leaning against the trunk as she watched Sam work.

  “When we play, sweetheart, it won’t be with a toy.” With a flick of his wrist the circle flipped and writhed into a small dome-shaped tent. “Voilà! Your room is ready.” Placing the small tent to rest on the V of the branches, he quickly pounded a few pegs into the branch to support the little structure, then unzipped the entrance. “Take your boots off, drink some water and try to nap.”

  “Where are you going to be?”

  “Backtracking to be sure we won’t have any surprise guests. Stay inside the tent and zip the door closed. You’ll be able to see out pretty well, and it’ll keep critters out. Our ride should be here shortly. Even if you see Desi and the Zodiac, stay put. I won’t be long. Oh, yeah. One more thing.”

  Sam gave her a quick, hard kiss.

  “I really enjoy your one more things,” she told him when they broke apart. She wanted to keep him safely by her side. “Come back and say it again.”

  “I have more than one ‘one more thing,’ sweetheart. Climb in, I’ll be back in an hour.”

  Sam returned two hours later. He’d managed to contact Desi on the SAT phone he’d retrieved from the large pack he’d hidden the day before near their rendezvous point. The other man had been detained in a village some twenty clicks down river. “Detained” meant Desi had encountered a young woman whose father was off fighting on the border. Desi was Mallaruzi and he was, apparently, usually pretty dependable. Unless he ran across a pretty girl. Sam warned him away from any other pretty girls and set up a new extraction time for 1200 hours. He then jogged almost halfway back to the compound without seeing evidence that there were more soldiers following them.

  They’d come. Eventually.

  But for now there was nothing more pressing than being with Beth and convincing her that she liked being with him, too.

  After checking the perimeter for any sign of men, he rapidly climbed the tree and unzipped the front flap of the small tent. Inside was dim and relatively cool. Beth was asleep, her head resting on her outstretched arm. How the hell had he managed to keep his hands off her for a year and a half? Just looking at her made his heart beat faster, and not even his intense training could control the speed of his pulse. It was like she was the one specifically made for him, and his body recognized its mate. Sam removed his boots before he crawled in beside her. It was a tight fit, which he didn’t mind at all.

  He lay like she was, one arm outstretched to support his head as he faced her. Merging his fingers with hers, Sam enjoyed the simple act of holding her hand. Hers was so small, and soft, and incredibly femaleclasped in his large rough palm.
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br />   She was perfectly relaxed, her slender body conforming to the thick branches supporting the floor of the tent. He scanned her face, so perfect in repose and just inches from his. She was prettier when she was awake and her features animated; asleep her beauty was more subtle, but just as heart-twisting. Her beauty was deceiving. She looked delicate with her pale, freckled skin and amber-colored hair. But she was as tensile as steel. Sam touched a finger to the dark sweep of her lashes, dyed, she’d told him once unselfconsciously.

  He trailed his finger over her cheek, then brushed it gently over the sweet curve of her lower lip. She smiled without opening her eyes. “What’s the scoop?” she asked, her voice thick with sleep.

  “Desi’s been held up. He’ll be here in a few hours.”

  She opened slumberous sherry-colored eyes. “What will we do with ourselves for two hours?”

  “More like three or four.”

  “That long? Just the two of us in this little tent?” She brushed his hair off his forehead, then stroked his forehead with the pads of her fingers. Her touch traveled like wildfire through Sam’s blood. She shifted so that her hips aligned with his. Nothing between them but two thin layers of LockOut and an erection that had started eighteen months ago.

  “I hate being bored, don’t you?” she whispered, tracing the creases beside his eyes, then the shape of his nose, then trailed down to Braille his mouth, her touch soft as air.

  Sam tugged at the zipper at the base of her throat and started easing it down inch by slow inch. Her pupils dilated. “Intolerable,” he told her, his voice thick.

  “Any cards in that pack of yours?” she asked, her hand tangling with his as she started pulling the zipper down on his suit. The backs of their hands brushed as their movements mirrored one another. Each zipper parted, one tooth at a time.

  “Nope.” He bent his head the few inches separating them and skimmed his mouth over hers. Her lips parted and she welcomed him inside. She tasted…like heaven. Everything Sam had ever wanted was right here in his arms.