On Thin Ice (Special Ops) (15 page)

He heard the low hum of an engine and he pulled her back behind some shrubs and a few skinny trees.

“Oh my God. How did they catch up to us so quickly?”

“We were out of commission for a little over an hour and they have a jeep. They don’t know we’re down here. For all they know we’re still up there.”

“Then why aren’t they up there?”

“I don’t know. They’d have no way to know about your fall. They shouldn’t be down here. They wouldn’t have wasted time to backtrack and get that jeep down to this level, though. I don’t know what brought them down here.”

She felt around on her neck as if suddenly aware of something. “My necklace,” she whispered. “I must have lost it in the fall. It was a little white gold and diamond skate pendant that my dad gave me after I won the gold at the Olympics.”

“They must have found it. It must have caught on something and I should have seen it.”

“It’s not your fault. I’m the one who fell. It’s my fault.”

“We’ll argue about it later,” he said softly. “Right now we need to move. Stay low.” He knew they couldn’t stay in their current position. They weren’t behind enough cover for that and these guys would no doubt see them. They might miss them on the first pass, but they would definitely spot them on the second. Akira wasn’t exactly wearing camouflage. Blue looked great on her, but it wasn’t great for hiding amongst a thin patch of shades of green. She had called the color cerulean blue once when he had seen her in a thick wool sweater that had white faux fur trimming the cuffs. She had said it was a good color for her and she was right. This particular shade of blue complemented her skin, but then she looked good in reds, deep greens and a sea of other colors too. He would guess she looked good in just about any color. But right now he would have preferred if she were not wearing a color that would stand out so much amongst their current surroundings. Not that he could talk. He had dressed for night movement, but at least he still could manage to not stick out as much as she was doing right now.

His skin was darker tanned than hers and somehow it worked to help him blend into his surroundings more easily than most of the guys he had worked with over the years. Charlie had always called him a “nicely tanned white guy,” and he had laughed at her words. He would guess he did look nicely tanned since the color most people saw was his natural color. If he spent a little time in the sun in the summer he managed a slightly darker tint, but nothing over dramatic. Heck, he couldn’t complain. Women always seemed to think he looked exotic, and when he went overseas on missions he didn’t seem to have any trouble blending in and not being singled out as an American. He had no problem owning his country, but in certain areas of the world his mission required more covertness than having somebody stalking him because they looked at him and saw a white American or Englishman. Preston had always said he looked like a man from the islands, but he never said which one. He had simply laughed and said, “no wonder the ladies flock to you.” He had been right too. Jet had no trouble with women being interested in him. What he had trouble finding were the sane women he preferred to spend his time with. He didn’t want the woman who saw his military history as some badge to pin on her headboard. He wasn’t a man who slept around. When he found a woman he was committed until it was over; it always ended up being over. But with this woman he wasn’t going to let go. He was holding on to her, but first he had to get her off that mountain alive and without any holes in her that God or her mother hadn’t already put there. Thinking about Akira’s mother and the gift she had given Akira at one of the parties he had been invited to made Jet take a look at Akira’s ears.

“Take the earrings off,” he told her quietly. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of that before. If the sun hit those things they would give away their position.

She quickly pulled the earrings off and he took them, depositing them inside a pocket on his cargo pants and securing it closed. He assessed her to make sure there wasn’t anything else shiny on her body to give away their location.

“I have on a black camisole under here, Jet. I can take off this top if you have somewhere you can put it.”

He nodded. He could put it in his backpack. They had stayed low enough to get inside some of the heavier tree coverage. It wasn’t dense, but it was better than where they had started. He could take a few seconds to put her top in the pack, but he wouldn’t take much longer than that.

He watched her as she pulled the top over her head and folded it before handing it to him. He grinned as he rolled it instead of leaving it folded. “It’ll fit better this way.”

She nodded. He took in her sexy appearance. Perhaps having her ditch the top was a bad idea. The skin he saw now just made him want to reach out and touch every inch of it.

“When it gets cold I’ll need that back. It’s not a heavy sweater top but it keeps me at least a little warmer than this thing will.”

“You’ll get it back,” he assured her. She would get that and the blanket because he knew it was going to get cold tonight. The night temperatures didn’t drop to freezing, but it was cold enough that she would need something to help her stay warm. He wouldn’t mind serving as her blanket, but he was going to have to keep watch. Now that he knew those guys were too close for comfort he was not going to be sleeping very comfortably—if at all. He had to protect her; he had to get her home.

Chapter Nine

“W
e know she’s down here,” Alexei nearly growled as he looked at the necklace he had found midway down the hill. Fortunately he had a rope that he was able to use to sturdy his descent. If it hadn’t been for the shift of the sun he wouldn’t have even seen the necklace, but with the shift came the glitter from the stones that helped make up the skate. She had definitely fallen down the steep hill, but what he didn’t know was how she had gotten out in the first place. Clearly she hadn’t gotten out on her own. When his rage from losing his prisoner settled he could tell that the ropes had been cut. But nobody knew about their compound. From the documentation on the old place it was listed as destroyed, at least that’s what he had read. He knew it wasn’t, but nobody else knew that. Nobody should have even thought to look for him there. He doubted the local cops had been smart enough to figure it out.

“We’ll get her back.” Iakov slowed the jeep so they could get a better look into the brush area.

“Da,” Alexei nodded. “We will get her back and we will kill the one who helped her escape.”

“I hope that will be my job,” Daniil licked his lips, hungry for blood as always. He was a killer without conscious and Alexei knew that worked to his advantage—for now. He would have to be sure to keep watch over him. As Ambrosii had always told him, “keep those who work under you in sight for you never know when they will try to take over your position.” He had told him to watch the most lethal for even though they seemed uncontrolled with rage, they were controlled enough to kill. That meant they could kill him and that meant they were a potential enemy to him.

“Da, you can kill, just not her. That is my victory.” He would allow Daniil to kill whoever this guy was, he was sure it was a guy for he didn’t think a woman could have pulled off the climb. Then again, perhaps he should not underestimate a woman. He thought he would have reduced Aaron Bowman’s daughter to tears by now, but she hadn’t cried. No matter what he did to her, or how he starved her, she hadn’t cried; she hadn’t begged for her safety or her freedom. He liked her less for her strength and he craved, more now than before, to break it—to break her.

“We stop here. We can leave the jeep parked. They are on foot. They are in there somewhere and the jeep will not go all the way. Park it there,” he pointed to an area just inside the start of the tree and brush cover. It wasn’t thick, but it would hide the vehicle if any planes flew overhead. They never had a problem with that happening, but he wasn’t the type to take unnecessary risks. He did not need today to be the day some tourist demanded drop off near the trail so they could hike down. It was still far enough away not to be an issue for them, but he wouldn’t risk any possible trouble. He was always prepared, just as his brother had taught him to be.

He stuffed the necklace with the broken clasp into one of his pockets and then he pulled his weapons out the jeep with him, as did the others. “The girl is mine; her rescuer is Daniil’s kill. If we are separated be sure to bring them both back, should either of you find them first.” Alexei knew at some point they would have to break off from each other. The area was too big not to. He also didn’t know how much of a head start they had, but he knew they did not have a vehicle which meant they couldn’t have gone too far. What he didn’t know was if they would take the obvious path toward the trail, or be smarter. No matter; when they came to that fork in the road they would separate into two groups and explore both paths. Eventually they all led to the same place. He would have his revenge. He would not let anybody deprive him of that sweet victory. She would die, and it would be at his hands. Her father would know; Alexei would be sure he knew.

They had increased their speed. Akira wasn’t a stranger to running. She was a skater, she stayed in shape running and doing ballet and of course skating, but this was different. This was life or death and for some reason it made each step seem to increase in difficulty. Jet may have forgotten that his longer legs meant he could take wider strides at a normal pace while her shorter stature meant she had to work just a little harder to keep up with him. She wasn’t out of shape and she wasn’t having difficulty keeping up, she just had to work harder to do it. Considering her options she wasn’t going to ask him to slow down even a fraction because slowing down might be just what the bad guys needed to catch up with them.

She would say she did perfectly fine for most of the day. It was when the sun started to set, when she realized they had been moving at double speed all day that her body gave out. She crashed to her knees feeling every second of the day’s hike. They were supposed to be going down, but the way the terrain sloped and curved there were areas where they had to go up first.

“We can’t stop here,” he told her as he took hold of her arm. “Just a little farther and then we’ll stop for the night so you can get some sleep.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll get what I can,” he said as he helped her up. Her knees almost buckled again, but she willed herself to press onward. She tried to tell herself this was no different than a competition, no matter how tired she was she had to keep moving. Of course this was different than one of the competitions and shows she had been a part of, but if telling herself it wasn’t different kept her moving then she would tell herself those words for as long as it took. It was like dangling a carrot just trying to help her get to the finish line.

“You need rest, Jet.”

“I’ll get what I can,” he told her once again. She decided to let the discussion rest for now because they weren’t in a position to argue about it.

She thought things were going relatively well given the circumstances. She figured if they had to stop to sleep and stop due to limited visibility, then the guys chasing them would have to stop as well. But then Jet assured her these guys were probably well rested from their previous night’s sleep. He was right. She had been in that chair which meant she barely slept, and Jet had cut his sleep time down significantly so that he could come in and rescue her while they were still asleep. Jet was probably fine, while she was beyond exhausted. She wasn’t sure how her eyes were staying open. The longer they walked, and the darker it became, the more sleep called to her. Jet had also pointed out that he didn’t want to turn on the flashlight because he didn’t want to give away their position.

Jet didn’t seem to be having any trouble navigating as the light faded and the sky grew darker. But if he didn’t want her to step off a cliff he was going to have to give her more light than just the moon. Actually she needed sleep, but she wasn’t going to ask for him to stop. He said they needed to keep moving and she respected that.

Thankfully, about an hour after the sky completely darkened he found a spot for them to rest. She had to climb up a rocky slope first, but once they were up she knew it would be worth it. She was tired and cold. She needed her top back, and that blanket was starting to seem like a necessity too.