Solitaire (27 page)

With a groan, Cat blindly scrambled to her knees and dove into the brush.

Slade aimed, drew a bead on the lead guaquero and fired twice. The second shot felled one bandit. Then, he had to duck as a spate of savage automatic-rifle fire spewed into his position. Bark exploded and splintered in all directions. Slade lunged for the earth, crawling away from the tree. He got to his knees, scuttling forward in the same direction Cat had gone.

The damp humid jungle floor smelled like so much rotted flesh to Cat. She fell and tripped numerous times over unseen tree roots or vines that snaked across her path. She had heard the gunfire, and adrenaline shot through her, giving her the second wind she needed to escape. Slade! Where was Slade? Had he been wounded? Cat turned, almost running into him. Slade gripped her tightly, his breath hot against her face.

“I got one of them. The other will trail us.”

With a groan, Cat clung momentarily to him. “W-what can we do?”

He gripped Cat’s shoulder firmly. “Listen to me, Cat. Aim yourself east, toward the camp.”

She looked up at him, her face blank. “What about you?”

“I’m going to lie here in wait for him. That’s the only way we’re going to get out of this alive.”

“But–”

“Go on and don’t argue.”

“No, damn it! I’m staying. I can’t go into the jungle at night, Slade. I’ll get lost!”

His face was glistening with sweat, eyes narrowed dangerously in the direction from which the guaquero would be sure to come. “At least you’ll be alive in case that bastard gets me first. Now, go on. And stop arguing with me.”

Cat stood her ground, her jaw set. “I’m staying, Slade.”

With a curse, he jerked her to a trumpet tree, forcing her to sit down behind it. “You stay here and don’t breathe. You understand me?”

She nodded, her eyes growing large. He started to turn away and she gripped his hand. “Slade?”

Impatiently, he twisted his head in her direction. “What?”

“I love you–”

The harshness on his face melted for a split second. “I know you do. Now just lie low and stay still.”

Cat nodded and scrunched herself behind the girth of the tree. How long she sat there, frozen like a fawn while a predator stalked nearby, Cat did not know. She muffled her breathing, hand over her mouth, eyes and ears focused on the path they had made coming into the jungle. Cat quickly lost sight of Slade, who had moved out into the darkness. Time drew to an excruciating halt as the noises of insects covered all other sounds. Who was left? El Tigre? Thomas? Cat shivered. The guaqueros would be excellent trackers and hunters, having been raised in these jungles.

And then Cat’s hunting instincts came back to her. She remembered her father teaching her and Rafe how to hunt and stalk food. Cat grew very still, breathed shallowly and listened carefully. There! She detected a faint, perceptible change in the number of insects singing. Cat gripped the tree trunk. Was it because Slade was still moving around, or was it a guaquero? In the minutes that followed, Cat had no doubt someone was coming in her direction.

Her heart beginning to pound in dread, Cat pressed one hand against her breast, wondering if everyone else could hear it pumping as loudly as she could. Could a heartbeat give her away? A soft crunching sound to her right made her jump. She froze, her nostrils flaring. A sour smell reached her. El Tigre! She’d recognize the odor anywhere. Oh, no! His shape melted out of the surrounding foliage, no more than ten feet from where she crouched. Where was Slade? Was he even aware of El Tigre’s presence? The guaquero turned, the automatic weapon ready to fire in his hands, walking toward Cat.

A scream welled up from deep within her. Cat felt a trickle of sweat run down her temples. Her fingers dug convulsively into the tree trunk and she leaned down, face and body pressed against the rough bark, willing herself to become part of the tree. He was only five feet away. Did he see her? If he caught her, he would show no mercy. Cat’s eyes grew huge as he took another careful step in her direction, the ugly muzzle of his military weapon pointed right at her.

Suddenly, the night exploded around her as Slade’s dark shape lunged from the left. Both men fell heavily, grunting and groaning. Cat leaped to her feet the instant El Tigre’s weapon flew out of his hands, and she scrambled for the weapon as the men wrestled on the jungle floor. The sickening sound of bone breaking beneath the power of a fist tore into her shock. Cat lurched to her feet, screaming at them. She shoved the muzzle of the gun down into El Tigre’s heaving chest and Slade got off him.

“Don’t move,” she warned the guaquero harshly. “Slade?”

“I’m all right,” he rasped, coming to her side. “Get up!” he ordered El Tigre.

The man glared at Cat, his eyes feral with hatred as he held his injured jaw. Cat slowly removed the muzzle from his chest and handed the gun to Slade. The roar of vehicles shattered the jungle. Cat looked toward the road.

“Alvin?” she asked.

“Yeah. Get up there and flag them down. I’ll bring our friend here in tow.”

Cat crashed through the thick barrier of leaves, vines and roots. She finally made it to the road as the first Jeep passed by her. Waving her arms, she managed to flag down the second one. It was loaded with armed guards from the Verde mine. Tony Alvarez was driving.

“Man, you’re a sight for sore eyes!” he said, getting out. “Where’s Slade?”

Cat gave him a weary smile. “Coming with El Tigre.”

“You two gave that snake a run for his money, eh?”

“I guess we did. There’s Slade.”

The next hour became a blur for Cat. The guards were enthusiastic that El Tigre had been captured alive. Slade sat behind her on the way back to their camp, his hand resting protectively on her shoulder. Alvin was like a mother hen, insisting on scrubbing their cuts and bruises with soap and water plus a healthy dose of iodine. Tears had watered in Cat’s eyes when he had plastered her injuries with the yellow tincture, and she wasn’t sure if the tears came because of the pain or the fear of what might have happened if El Tigre had made good his escape with them.

* * *

Slade watched Cat out of the corner of his eye as she slowly began to undress in their tent. She sat wearily on her cot, her fingers trembling as she tried to unlace her boots.

“Here,” he said, crouching down in front of her and removing her hands, “let me do that.”

Cat straightened up. Her shirt was unbuttoned, revealing the lace and silk of her lingerie. “Thanks. I think I’m falling apart now that it’s over.”

“I know you are. Just sit and relax, the worst is over.”

“Why aren’t your hands shaking? Aren’t you feeling torn up inside?”

Slade grimaced, gently removing the first boot and tackling the second. “This isn’t the first time something like this has happened to me, Cat. Maybe I’m more used to violence than you are. It comes with the territory when you get into gem mining.”

“I’ve never seen it this bad, Slade.” Cat swallowed a lump in her throat. “You can taste the violence in the air.” She shivered as he pulled the second boot off.

Slade slid his hands up her curved thighs and looked at her in the flickering light shed by the lantern. Her left cheek had a cut on it and was slightly puffy. He knew she had landed on her left side, and luckily her shoulder, upper arm and elbow had received the brunt of the punishment.

He tenderly framed her face and said, “The next few days are going to be hectic. I’m going to take El Tigre over to Muzo. From there, I’m sure the Colombian police will be more than happy to take him into custody.”

A tremulous sigh broke from her lips. “But that doesn’t promise an end to the violence, does it?”

Slade sadly shook his head. “No. As long as there’s green fire, you’ve got men who will do anything to get it, legally or otherwise.” He brushed away the first tear that rolled down her cheek. Cat was having a natural letdown after their narrow escape, and he leaned forward, molding his mouth lightly against her lips. He felt her tremble, her arms moving around his shoulders to draw him nearer.

“God,” he groaned against her soft, yielding mouth, “you taste so good…”

“Hold me, Slade. Just hold me, please…”

In one motion, he got to his feet and joined her on the cot. Cat blindly found his arms as the first sob wrenched from her. Slade murmured her name brokenly, burying his head beside hers as she cried. He rocked her gently, whispering words of comfort.

“We’re good for each other, sweetheart,” he told her comfortingly. “Sometimes I’m weak and you’re strong. Sometimes I’m strong and you’re weak. Like tonight; you took one hell of a risk on that curve. You could have turned the wheels too sharply and that Jeep would have rolled over instead of sliding off the cliff. You knew what you were doing.”

Cat sniffed, trying to wipe her nose. “It was pure luck, Slade,” she said, hiccuping through her tears. “I’m not a racing-car driver.” She looked up at him, taking the clean handkerchief he tucked into her hands. “I never even thought about the Jeep flipping over.”

He grinned, running his fingers through her freshly washed hair. “What matters is the outcome, Cat. You made a perfect skid, giving both of us the time we needed to jump clear. In my eyes, you’re the female equivalent of Parnelli Jones.”

Cat laughed, but it came out as a hiccup instead. “I was scared to death, Slade. I-I didn’t know if you’d caught on to what I was going to do. I didn’t dare look at you…”

He held her lightly against him, allowing Cat to bury her head beneath his chin. “Must have been mental telepathy. One look at the set of your jaw and I knew you weren’t going to go down without a fight.” Slade pressed a kiss to her clean-smelling hair. “More important, this has taught me a lesson, Cat.”

She closed her eyes, reveling in Slade’s protective arms around her. Now she felt secure and safe. “What?” His heartbeat was slow and strong beneath her ear, soothing away the remnants of her emotional storm.

“You remember out in the jungle, when you told me you loved me?”

Cat was afraid to nod her head, but she did. Automatically she rested her hand against Slade’s chest, as if to steel herself against what he might say. “I didn’t know if we’d live or die, Slade,” she began in a hoarse tone. “I know you may not feel the same, but that doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

“How long have you loved me?”

Cat closed her eyes. “I don’t know. You just kind of grow on a person, Slade.”

“Like mold?”

She laughed, her hand slowly unclenching. “You make loving another person sound like a virus.”

“Isn’t it?” And then he chuckled, pressing a kiss to her hair.

“No.”

Slade closed his eyes, relief washing through him. “What I feel for you, Cat, I’ve never felt with another woman.”

She pulled away from him and sat up, looking deep into his eyes. “Think we’ve got the same virus?”

A grin tugged at his mouth. “I don’t know. Maybe we ought to compare symptoms. What do you think?”

Cat couldn’t help but match his widening smile. The warmth and tenderness in Slade’s eyes made her feel cherished. “This is a hell of a way to find out we love one another.”

With a shrug, Slade picked up her bruised right hand, cradling it in his own. “People like us have to be hit over the head with a sixteen-pound sledgehammer, sweetheart.”

“You made me aware of how lonely I’d been, Slade. And despite our shaky beginning, I really enjoyed your company those two months I spent at your ranch. I liked talking to you.”

“And I liked just looking at you.” Slade grazed her cheek with his. “Do you realize how beautiful you are to me? Every day, I’d count the hours between breakfast and lunch until I could see you again. And then I’d count them between lunch and dinner.”

“You didn’t have to hole up in that office of yours, Slade.”

“At the time, Alvin and I were coordinating all equipment details being moved from the U.S. to Colombia. I was getting men from his ranch and working with the State Department on visas and passports. It was a couple of busy months for me.”

She gave him an accusing look. “If you weren’t in your office, then you were in your hobby shop grinding those gems.”

He held up both hands, laughing. “Guilty as charged. I wanted to spend more time with you, but I felt if I did, you’d interpret it as me wanting something from you. Your health came first, not the project I had wanted to discuss with you.”

“Touché,” Cat murmured, realizing Slade was right.

“Still,” Slade murmured, cupping her chin to make her look up at him, “I fell in love with you anyway.”

“Because of my looks?”

“Other things, too,” he said patiently. “I like the way your mind works. I was as starved as you were for those times when we could sit and simply share time and space with one another, Cat.” Slade leaned over, his mouth caressing her parted lips. “And more than anything, I like you, Cat Kincaid. You make no apology for being yourself.”

Cat quivered. “A lot of men are threatened by me.”

“That’s their problem, sweetheart. If they can’t deal with an intelligent woman, let them turn and tuck their tails between their legs and run.”

Laughter bubbled up in her throat and Cat rested her head tiredly on his broad shoulder. “I love you, Slade Donovan. For better or worse.”

“It’s gotten worse lately, hasn’t it?”

She nodded, exhaustion flooding her as Slade held her. “I thought my fear of the mine was my worst enemy. Now I know there’s something worse–guaqueros.”

“Things will settle down now, Cat,” he promised her. Slade gently positioned her on the cot and he lay down beside her. Pulling the protective mosquito netting over them, he murmured, “Just keep Bogotà in mind. If we’re lucky, we’ll get there in less than a week.”

“What’s in Bogotà?” Cat asked, her voice slurred with exhaustion.

“A surprise for you. It’s something I’ve been planning all along…”

Chapter Thirteen

C
at stood out in the burning sun. It melted the knot of fear that insisted on staying inside her every time she had to step into the Verde. In her hand was the torque meter, ready to test rock bolts recently secured in the newest section of the mine. It was a crosscut sheering off to the left that would follow the vein. Yet something was nagging Cat and she tried to pinpoint the unsettling feeling. The sky was an unusual pale yellow, something she’d not seen before over the Colombian jungle. Then she smiled to herself: Colombia had taught her a lot of new things.