Mission Made For Two (15 page)

“You make a good nurse, Harding.”

He sighed.  “We need to get you back to the States.  I don’t have any antibiotics.”

She pulled back and looked at him.  “I’ll be
fine, Jake.  I don’t get sick.  Mrs. Grayson used to say I was just too mean. 
The fever’s
a reaction to the trauma.”

True, the temperature was making he
r sluggish, but she’d be fine.

Jake didn’t look convinced by
her statement. 
“Maybe.
 
We need to dress
and see about getting a flight out of here.  Diaz will have people looking for us.”

Sierra released Jake and scooted
to the edge of the bed.  When she stood, black do
ts danced in front of her eyes. 
She must have swayed, because Jake grabbed her arm to steady her. 

“Shit!  You’re not in any shape to go anywhere.”

Yep, that was the Jake she knew all
right.  He sounded pissed
.
 

“I’ll be fine.”
  Sh
e jerked her arm f
rom his grasp, only to land
on
her ass on the bed
. 

We
ll, that little move didn’t lend
a lot of credence to her words.  Stubbornness propelled her back to her feet.  She f
ought the dizziness and stood
straight.  “I’m going to the bathroom.”

With
major concentrati
on, she forced her feet to move
steadily across the floor until she
closed herself inside
the small square space
.  Shivers still wracked her body and
her side now throbbed with every beat of her heart. 

She
propped
her hands on the sink and took several deep breaths.  Being incapacitated was unacceptable.  Especially if it made Jake
believe
she was unfit to
finish this job
.  He hadn’t wanted to work with her to begin with.
No matter what Trent had told her, the fact she was a woman was a big part of Jake’s hang up.  Probably didn’t think she was tough enough.

She’d
faced the same attitudes when she’d joined the army. She’d been
skinnier back then, but
s
t
ill scrappy.  She’d had to work twice as hard to prove herself as the male soldiers. 
Twice as hard to gain respect.
And that was okay, because in the end it had made her a better fighter than men who outweighed her by sixty pounds. 

Jake hadn’t wanted her helping him from the start of this.
But she’d gotten the job done.
Now all she had to do was get home.

First thing she needed
was
to
get these damn, scra
tchy contacts out of her eyes.  They were so
dry,
they popped out without too much trouble.  Next, she splashed some cool water on
her face and dampened her hair to
tame it to some semblance of order.
  Wishing she had some dye to take it back to its original color.  Though Jake had made love to her as a blonde.
Maybe blondes really did have more fun.  She chuckled to herself.  God
,
she was delirious.

She wished she had some make up. Not that she wore a lot when she wasn’t on assignment, but her face could use a bit of color to convince Jake she was okay to travel.

After using the bathroom,
she walked
into the other room to face Jake.  He was dressed and on his cell phone.
He glanced at her, his frown
still in place.
 
Sounded like he was talking to the airport.

As steady as possible, she slipped into her pants.
  The material felt scratchy against her over sensitized skin, a side
-effect
of the fever.
  Her shirt was covered in blood, so wearing it to the airport wouldn’t do.  Then she noticed the shirt Jake had laid on the bed. 

She didn’t know where he’d gotten it, but it was a red woman’s shirt
, with exotic flowers on it.  Had to be the ugliest thing she’d ever seen. 
Turning her back so he wouldn’t see her winc
e, she pulled it over her head.

He hung up with the airport.  “We have a reservation for a flight out at
nine.
That gives us two hours.  You need to eat something.  Sit at the table and I’ll fix it.”

Sierra turned toward him and nodded.  She wasn’t particularly hungry.  If she told him that, he’d argue.  She didn’t have the energy to spar with him right now
and
concentrate on staying upright.
  That probably should have worried her, but that was something else she wouldn’t show Jake. Never let them see your weakness. 

His
eyebrow hitched up as she settled on one of the two
wood
en
chairs
.
  “You must feel like shit to do what I tell you without comment.”

“I’ve felt better.  I thought you’d be pleased that I
obeyed
.”

“Don’t get me wrong.  I like not arguing with you over everything, but it worries me.  You haven’t done what I said since we became involved in all of this
,” he said and
opened a cabinet.  “All I stocked when I got this place was some cans of soup and fruit.  You can have chicken noodle, vegetable beef or peaches.”

“Hmmm, how bout chicken noodle.  You can skip the peaches.”

Maybe it was delirium
from her fever, but Jake
even looked sexy stirring soup.
  “Do you think there’ll be trouble
f
lying out of here?”

J
ake met her gaze.  H
e didn’t have to say anything for her to know his answer. 

She smiled. “Go ahead, Jake.  I’m a big girl.  I thought
I proved that the other night.”

His eyes narrowed and again he didn’t have to say anything for her to know what he thought.
  He was rememb
ering the heat and passion
like she was. 
Just mentioning the other night made her forget how crappy she felt for a moment.  She wondered if there’d ever be a repeat performance.

Jake
broke eye contact and grabbed two bowls from the cabinet.  After pouring them each soup, and inserting spoons, he carried them to the table and sat down. 
H
e pushed a
bowl in front of her.
  “Diaz has a lot of pull here.  He’ll have people looking for us.”

Sierra ran a hand over her blonde hair
, she saw her black stocking hat lying on the floor near the bed, but that wouldn’t do. It would look too strange in the warmth of the island
.  “
I need a
ball cap
or scarf.”

“We’ll get you something,” he
said and swallowed a
s
poonful of noodles
.  “By the way, I like you better as a brunette.”

His comment surprised a
laugh out of her.  “And I was thinking I might keep it.  After all you had sex with the blonde, so I figured it really was true that blondes have more fun.
”

“Eat your soup, Sierra.”

She ate a few spoonfuls before saying anything else.  “
Jake, why were you so against working with me?”

He didn’t look at her, just kept eating. 

She reached across the table and touched his arm.  “Jake?”

“I simply prefer to work alone.”

“There’s more than that.
  Is it just because I’m a woman and you don’t think I’
m capab
le
?
” 

She didn’t want to tell him that Trent
had hinted at something deeper to her
. 

He sighed and pu
t his spoon down
.  He finally met her gaze and something flashed in his blue eyes.  Something that sent a shiver down Sierra’s spine that had nothing to do with
fever-
induced chills
.

“It’s a long story.
One we don’t have time for now.”  He stood.  “Eat your soup,
then
we’ll head to the airport.”

He walked to the bathroom and shut the door.  Subject closed.  Sierra looked at her soup
and forced another spoonful down her throat
.  It held about as much appeal as kissing Diaz. 

But
she was going to need her strength
, so she spooned it down and swallowed
.
 

~
***~

Jake had a black back pack.  They’d transferred her stuff, including the info from Diaz’s
, into it.  She had the feeling
Jake thought her incapable of even carrying the weight of her small overnight bag.

He didn’t have to tell her
he was worried abou
t going to the a
irport.  He’d have to leave his gun behind when they got there. 
Things would be easier if Trent could send a
h
elicopter or plane to pick them up, but their mission was totally off the radar. 
At least for the time being.
  The last thing they needed was some sensational news story about how the US
had
operatives stirring up trouble in
the Dominican Republic.
 

When Sierra followed Jake out
the front door of the cabin, she almost laughed at
the
motorcycle sitting there. 
A far cry from Jake’s Harley.
  “Are you sure that thing runs?” she asked as she sauntered toward it.

Jake just
shook his head and climbed on
.  “Purrs like a kitten.” 

He cranked it.  The muffler
sounded like it had a hole in it
, but
the engine
seemed to run
fine.

Two helmets hung on the back of a seat that really wasn’t
designed
to ride two people comfortably.  He handed one to her and put the other on.  She didn’t argue this time.
The helmet would make them hard to
recognize.
Especially her
hair.

Sierra threw her leg over the bike and snuggled up close to Jake’s back.
 
One advantage to the small seat.
 

“Set?” Jake asked over his shoulder.

“Set,” Sierra parroted
.  They pulled away and she realized the cottage was actually on the beach.  “What did you do with the boat last night?” she yelled over the noise of the engine.

“There’s a dock about a quarter mile away.  I left it there.
”

So, he’d carried her the quarter mile from the dock to the cottage.  That thought stirred a strange feeling in her stomach.  She wasn’t used to being helpless, nor being taken care of.  He
r world as a teenager had been
dog eat
dog
, and things hadn’t changed much since she’d reached adulthood.

Dust kicked up around them a
s they traveled down the sand road running along the beach
.  They passed other small houses as they went, but no other vehicles.

Jake finally pulled onto the paved road leading into town.  He stopped at the first souvenir shop they saw.   

“We’ll get you a hat here,” Jake said as he cut the engi
ne and put the kickstand down.  

Sierra
set
her feet on the ground
and pulled off her helmet
.  Her legs felt like rubber when she stood. Luckily, Jake was already heading inside the littl
e shop and didn’t notice her place
a hand on the bike seat to steady
herself
. 

After hanging her helmet on the seat, she took a deep b
reath and followed him
inside.  She had to shake off this woozy feeling
.

A
n array of trinkets
filled the small shop
, from sea shells, to water globes, to tee shirts.  A rack of hats sat in the middle of the store.  Jake was already looking over them. 

She walked u
p beside him
and plucked off a black ball cap with Santo Domingo written in red across the front.
  “This one will do.”

Jake glanced at her and nodded. 
Since Jake had the ba
g with their money, she waited for
him to pay.