CHAPTER NINE
Draven folded his arm under his head, using it as a makeshift pillow. This part of the world was a pain in the ass. Everything from the spiders to the snakes to various fractions of terrorist organizations were all trying to kill you the second you crossed their paths. He wanted to keep moving, but they needed to stop. They’d been running for two days. If they didn’t stop, then they would start dropping or getting dehydrated. With the LRA after them, they couldn’t afford for either to happen.
He glanced down at the woman cuddled in against his side. She’d been one hell of a trooper. His memories of India had been the socialite teenager with more money than sense and a heart of gold. She still had the heart of gold, and could probably pull off socialite, but he was pretty damn sure her level of sense more than matched at least her bank balance, if not her daddy’s too, maybe even both combined.
His phone vibrated against his chest, and he pulled it out to see a notification from Trev. He tensed. Shit, if something had changed with their extraction point, he’d be tempted to scream. Hell, he might even do it, just for shits and giggles. He tapped the notification, and it opened up to a photo. He smiled for the first time in days.
Trev and Checkmate’s faces filled the screen in a selfie, both of their eyes wide as if they’d seen something neither could believe. He snorted a laugh and tapped out a response.
Draven: Stop spoiling my cat.
Trev: Checkmate is now my cat. He has decided he no longer can put up with your dry kibble torture regime.
Draven: Do not steal my cat.
Trev: But is it really stealing if he moves into my place all by himself?
Draven: Put Checkmate back at my place. His litter box is there. I’m sure you don’t want to have cat piss all over your fancy rugs.
Trev: [photo]
He clicked on the new photo and scowled at the phone.
Draven: I didn’t need to see a photo of Check taking a dump. Pervert.
Trev: I was showing you the litterbox in my house. [photo]
Draven clicked on the photo to make it bigger and snorted a laugh. Trev had set up some kind of tent over the litterbox. He’d even made a sign, labeling it a Porta-kitty-potty.
My fucking cat is going to get notions of grandeur.
“Hmm.” India stirred against him. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just checking in on Checkmate.”
She blinked up at him in confusion. “You still have Checkmate?”
“Of course, I do.” Was she insane? What did she think he was going to do with the kitten they’d rescued out of the storm drain all those years ago? “What did you think I’d do with him?”
“He must be what, fifteen?”
“Seventeen.” He handed her his phone. “See the photos Trev is sending? He’s meant to be feeding him, but I think he’s kidnapped my cat.”
“I can’t believe you still have him.”
“I found him. He’s mine.”
“Possessive much?”
“When it comes to what’s mine,” he told her seriously, “once I find it, I keep it.” He immediately regretted saying it out loud. There was one time he hadn’t kept what was his once he’d found it. But to be fair, at the time she was jailbait for him. Especially as she’d only been sixteen to his twenty-one. Nope, walking away and joining the Navy had been the smart thing to do in that instance.
He rolled his head to one side when he heard footsteps approaching, his hand going where his weapon lay on the opposite side of him from India.
“It’s me. We gotta go.” Wolf Steel appeared out of the dark. “Cookie and Keane have spotted a convoy coming our way. I really would prefer not to have to engage with hostiles if we can help it.”
“Copy that.” He and India got to their feet. “Are they between us and the extraction zone?” He huffed in annoyance at Wolf’s nod. “Of course, they are. Why wouldn’t they be?”
“Abe thinks he knows a way around and we can avoid them.”
“No point in asking me.” He figured it was better to just throw it out there. “My sense of direction would get you lost in a paper bag.” He gestured between himself and India. “We’ll follow your lead.”
“Roger that.” Wolf handed them both a granola bar. “Be ready to move in five. If we keep moving at this pace, then we should make it to the city sometime before morning.”
He nodded in reply. Getting out of the jungle and into a hotel would be fucking awesome. He could smell himself, never mind everyone else, and they all reeked. “I can’t wait to have a shower, any kind of shower.”
“Agreed.” India shoved the wrapper of her bar into her backpack. “I’d even consider sharing one with that snake who thought your face looked tasty.”
“No snakes,” he promised her. “If you have to share with anyone, you share with me. Period.”
It didn’t take long for them to get moving, Braddock and Lucian were making one last sweep of the campsite to ensure they’d left no trace of their presence behind them.
“All good,” Braddock said softly as he moved past them to take up point position once again.
Thank fuck, Draven was ready to be out of this hell hole. Wolf and his team had trucks somewhere. He’d take the ride they’d offered. It sure as hell beat roughing it through the jungle where they might stumble over more people who would take exception to their being here. Not to mention the wildlife. He could do without another close encounter with a face eating reptile.
One foot in front of the other. One step at a time. They would get there. He’d get India home and leave her there. Then he could go back to his life in Montana…
Easy day, bro, easy fricking day.
What the hell had he been thinking? Coming here and expecting an easy freaking day had been optimistic at best, but ridiculous in reality. He wiped the sweat from his brow, nudging up his helmet and tugged it back into place.
“You’re telling me we have to swing across that gorge?”
Indy narrowed her eyes at him as if it was his fault. He wasn’t the one leading the show. “So it seems.”
“Drav, I’m telling you now, you aren’t Tarzan and I’m not Jane.” Indy stepped closer to the cliff’s edge as if she was calculating how far they would fall if the ropes didn’t hold.
He bunched his fingers into the back of her shirt. “Don’t get too close,” he warned. “Because if you fall—”
“But you’re going to send me swinging out over there. What if I fall then?”
“I’ll take you on my back.”
Her snort of distain was a kick to the balls, but there was no way he was letting her know that.
“Hell no,” she muttered. “If I’m worried it won’t hold one of us, there is no way I’m chancing it with both of us.”
“I’m gonna go over and string a rope across,” Wolf interrupted their squabbling. “We can attach you to it and you can crawl across.”
“That sounds like it would take longer than swinging.”
“It will,” Wolf replied. “But it’s probably safer.” The words were barely out of his mouth when a sound from the jungle behind them had them dropping into a crouch.
Draven cocked his head to one side, listening. Every sound made ice slide down his spine. It wasn’t long before the sound of voices drifted toward them on the breeze. “Someone’s coming,” he whispered to Wolf.
“No shit.” Wolf moved closer to Kristof and whispered something to him. Both men glanced from the jungle to the gorge and back again. Their hands moved as both team leaders made the decision.
Draven’s stomach clenched hard once he realized the outcome of that conversation. They were going across, and they were going now. It didn’t leave much time for anyone to build up their nerve. But maybe this way was better. There was nothing like having a tango on your ass or bullets flying around your ears to make a two-hundred-foot drop more appealing. “We’re gonna make a run for it,” he whispered in Indy’s ear. “I hope you are ready to fly.”
“If God wanted me to fly, He’d have given me wings.” Her whole body shuddered. But she took his hand and got to her feet. “But bring it.”
He was so fucking proud of her. Maybe it was only him it was obvious to, but she was more terrified of the drop than she had been when he’d peered through the cave opening and seen her with a machete to her throat.
“Go first and catch me.”
“Nope, I’ll follow you.”
“I can’t do this, unless you are there to catch me.”
As they whispered furiously, most of Wolf’s guys were already swinging out with the rope, landing on the opposite side, and sending it back for the next man, a large branch giving it the weight it needed to send it across the gorge.
“Yo, Kilkenny.” Kristof nudged him in the back. “We gotta move, stat.”
“If you aren’t there to catch me, I’m not going,” Indy insisted.
Damn it.
He remembered that tone of voice. It was the one she used when it would take a freaking nuke to change her mind. “I swear to God, Indy, if you aren’t across straight after me and put these men in the shit, I’ll…” He trailed off because he had no freaking clue what he’d do.
“I’m next, I swear.”
He had no choice but to believe her as the sounds of whoever was in the jungle behind them was getting louder and louder. He grabbed the rope and moved as far back as he could before running forward. By the time he made it to the edge, he was running full speed. Hopefully it would be enough to get him to the other side, because underneath him was a whole lot of nothing.
“I got you.” Hands caught him, tugging him onto the ledge and pulling the rope free from his hands. “Sending it back,” Mozart said. “Your woman better find her courage, and she better find it fast.”
He agreed with Mozart, but he just wasn’t sure she could do it. Because the Indy he remembered was terrified of heights. “I should have sent her first,” he muttered more to himself than anyone else.
“Why didn’t you?” Dude didn’t even look at him as he spoke. Instead, he kept his gaze on where his scope was trained on the opposite side.
“Because she refused to try if I didn’t go first.”
“Making sure you were safe first,” Dude observed. “A woman who cares about your safety more than hers is one you should keep forever.”
“She’s not mine to keep. She’s my baby sister’s friend.”
“Keep telling yourself that, bro.” Dude shifted against the stock of the rifle, adjusting his view. “When I find me a woman who puts me before her, I’m telling you now, she’s the one, and I’ll be all in, and I don’t give a fuck whose friend she is.”
As he watched Kristof rigging something to keep Indy attached to the rope if her grip wasn’t strong enough to hold her, Draven considered Dude’s words. Maybe in another time and place, it would have been possible. But with the life he led… it wasn’t fair to drag a woman into his world and expect her to deal with the jobs he did. Even if she worked for the CIA—it just wasn’t right. He held his breath as across the gorge, Kristof ran next to Indy as she raced for the edge. Just as she stepped off into air, Kristof gave her a push, and she was swinging toward them.
Draven was grateful when Mozart stepped to one side and allowed him to take his place. He reached for Indy and snagged the pants leg closest to him.
“Eep.”
She was obviously working hard to keep her fear under wraps. But he could tell by how pale her face went under her tan that she was terrified. “Easy, baby, I got you.” He stumbled when her momentum threatened to pull him over the edge, but one of the men gripped his vest, giving him the purchase he needed to get her onto the ledge next to him.
“Fuck. Shit. Fuck.”
He tugged at each finger, conscious that Kristof and two of Charlie team were still on the opposite side. “You can let go now.”
“Hold on, don’t let go.”
Damn, her eyes were still shut. He wasn’t even sure she was aware she was safely on the other side. “Hey…”
“Send the rope back, Kilkenny, fuck,” Wolf ordered. “Hurry the hell up, we are down to minutes.”
Being pushed by the guys combined with the fear he could see on her face clearly did something to his brain. Caused a short circuit or something, because his next move ranked right up there with pissing on an electric fence. He wrapped his arms around her and tugged her into his chest, then claimed her lips with his own, kissing her deep and slow, until he felt her hands bunch into his shirt. He side-stepped them out of the way, relying on the guys to ensure he didn’t walk them right off the cliff.
For a couple of glorious seconds, she kissed him back until a soft wolf-whistle made her stiffen in his arms before she ripped her mouth away from his and pushed at his chest.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“Kissing you.” He swiped his thumb across her lips. “Sorry, I had to get you to let go of the rope.” He winced internally the second the words were out of his mouth, knowing he’d fucked up.
“Asshole.” She pulled away from him. “You are still the biggest asshole on the planet, Draven. Still. An. Asshole.” She punctuated every word with a stab of her finger into his chest.
“Finish that argument later,” Wolf ordered. “As soon as Charlie One has that rope cut, we’re popping smoke.”
Damn it. Just damn it.
“Yes, Sir.” He turned away from him, fighting to get himself under control. It was meant to have been a way to distract her. Instead, he was the one all kinds of distracted. He blew a long slow breath out through his nose.
Time and a place.
She’s a kid.
She’s Lizz’s bestie. If you fuck around, holidays at home will not be fun.
Time and a place.
But no matter how much he reminded himself of all of the above, now that he’d had a taste of India Fox… he wanted more.
Idiot. I’m an idiot.
By the time Wolf gave the order to move out, he’d mostly convinced himself that he’d only done what was necessary. But he wasn’t quite sure he believed it. He also knew he wanted to kiss her again. He fell into formation and followed behind Indy as they headed toward where Wolf promised they had vehicles waiting. He was more than ready to get the hell out of Africa, and away from the temptation Indy offered. Yup. It was time to go home.