Course of Action: The Rescue: Jaguar Night / Amazon Gold. Merline Lovelace
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If one of them accidentally hit a weak area, thousands of tons of sand could bury them in an instant, suffocating them to death. It wasn’t an option.
Meeting the Riverines at the LZ down below would be safe. But the real question: Could Aly keep up this kind of trotting and fast walking? He looked at her long legs and smiled. What he’d give to undress her, run his hands up and down those slender legs of hers—
The monkeys started screaming.
* * *
Aly jerked awake, confused. She’d heard the monkeys. Scrambling to her feet, she handed Josh his hat and gulped. She watched as he packed the ruck and quickly pulled it over his shoulders. His face was expressionless, his eyes glittering, as he took out his M-4, released the safety and loaded a bullet into the chamber.
Aly’s heart bounded. Her father had been right: she’d been foolish to come here knowing it was a hotbed of drug activity.
Josh made a gesture for her to grip his belt and they took off at a fast trot. Adrenaline shot into her and she suddenly felt more afraid. The look in Josh Patterson’s eyes scared her. Now, she was seeing the man who would protect her at all costs.
Josh had committed the maps to memory. He crossed several small streams, sometimes trotting down their sandy depths, ankle-deep water wetting their boots. He kept Aly in the water for nearly an hour before pulling up on the land. She was panting hard, her hand pressed to her chest, head down, holding on to his belt as if her life depended upon it. He eased her fingers off his belt, taking her under his arm because she was trembling with fatigue. Guiding her to another large buttressed tree, he sat her down, and pulled off the ruck, retrieving the gallon of water for her to drink from.
He looked at his watch. It was 10:00 a.m. The jungle was bright, the sunlight stopped by the perennial mist that hung in the equatorial region. Glancing at Aly, he saw that she had gone even more ashen. She kept touching her neck. Damn. He turned, kneeling down. Taking her hand away, he rasped, “Let me.” She nodded, allowing him to examine the larynx area of her throat. When he pressed a little too much, she winced. But she didn’t pull away. Aly trusted him. He dropped his hands to his knees and studied her.
“You’ve got some cartilage damage to your larynx. It has to be hurting you.”
Aly nodded, feeling stricken. “I’m slowing us down. I’m having trouble breathing because that area’s swollen.”
“You’re doing damn good, Aly. Stop cutting yourself down.”
She frowned. “Are they still coming?”
“They will. Being in the stream for an hour will buy us some good time.” He glanced down at her soaked leather boots. “How are your feet holding up?”
“Okay.”
He cupped her uninjured cheek, smiling into her eyes. “Who taught you to never speak up for yourself, Angel?”
Aly blinked once, digesting the roughened endearment, the warmth radiating from Josh to her. She was exhausted but in those moments she felt as if Josh was invisibly feeding her the strength to get up and move. She knew they had to run some more. His touch was so healing. Even her heart stopped pounding so hard in her chest. His palm was callused, warm, supportive, and without thinking she closed her eyes and laid her cheek into his opened hand, seeking just a moment of safety because that’s what radiated from him like sunlight.
Josh closed his eyes. Aly was a trooper and she did have heart. A huge, giving heart with no thought or regard for herself or her own suffering. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her brow. “We’re going to get out of this,” he rasped, tucking some strands of her hair behind her ear.
He watched Aly’s eyes slowly open, saw the tiredness in them coupled with desire. Josh had no idea what the hell was going on between them except that it was. Now, he had a personal reason to get Aly to safety. Because—general’s daughter be damned—he wanted to know this courageous woman a lot better. He smiled faintly as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. Wondering if she wanted to cry, Josh watched her scrub away any telltale evidence.
“Drink more water,” he urged her. “We’re going to be leaving in a few minutes.”
Nodding, Aly did as he instructed. His kiss on her brow had been so unexpected. But so needed. The strength of his hand cupping her cheek, the tenderness of his kiss buoyed her, as if he’d known what she’d needed to keep fighting. And when she looked up into his gold-brown eyes, Aly saw his raw desire. Josh wanted her. She managed a half smile and took his hand when he offered it to her. As she got up, he held her gaze, pulling her near. He released her hand and framed her face.
“I want the right to get to know you, Aly Landon.” He searched her face, finding shining radiance in her blue eyes, telling him everything he needed to know. “I don’t know what’s happening between us, but something is. Something good...so you just hold on to that. Keep fighting with me....”
* * *
Aly was never as grateful as when Josh led them to another large tree after dark. She collapsed between the wooden wings, well hidden. They’d made thirty miles. Taking off her NVGs, she began to rub her knotting calves, the pain excruciating. She’d tried to keep hydrated all day, taken salt tablets, but she knew she was losing a gallon or more of water through constant sweating in this humid blanket of a jungle. She heard Josh rid himself of his gear and set it nearby.
“Cramps?” he asked quietly, kneeling by her feet.
“Yes...terrible ones...” She kept trying to massage out the knot, gritting her teeth in pain.
Josh quickly ran his hands down both her calves. Each was knotted like a fist. “Stand up,” he ordered, helping her to rise. She staggered and he placed her hand on one wing of the root. “Hold on.”
Aly couldn’t see him but knew he still had his NVGs on and could see. He pushed her pant leg up to just below her knee. With his large, roughened hands, he began to knead the cramped leg muscles. Aly bit back a groan of pain. It hurt like hell! But the more he worked on it, the less pain there was. Finally, it disappeared, much to her relief.
“Now,” he murmured, “let’s get this other one....”
The pain was horrendous at first but the magic of his long, strong fingers working out the muscle made her groan with pleasure by the time he was done.
“Thank you,” she said, sinking down, laying her back against the root.
Josh smiled and grabbed two MREs from his ruck. He opened one for Aly, explaining it to her. Then, he pushed his goggles up on his helmet and sat to eat with her.
The night was filled with insects singing. The Amazon was a place of mystery and deadly beauty. There were poisonous snakes, insects, spiders and the biggest predator of them all, the silent jaguar who stalked these jungles in search of food.
They ate without talking. When she was done, Aly gave Josh the empty MRE packet, wanting to leave no clue they were here. She was cold. Her clothes were damp. Even though the temperature never got below fifty-five degrees at night, she was cooling off from running or trotting all day. “Do you have a blanket or something?” she asked, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Cold?”
“Yes.”
Josh settled next to her and opened up his shirt. “Only blanket in town. Interested?” He couldn’t see her or her expression. Never had Josh wanted anything more than to have her against him, sleeping. It was better than nothing and he knew, because of her exhaustive trek, she would be chilled to the bone tonight. People who lived in the jungle acclimated. For him, he’d be warm all night. But not her.
“Yes,” she said, scooting toward him. Once she moved up against him, her head resting on his upper chest, he wrapped the shirt across her upper body.
“Better?” he asked, inhaling the scent of her hair. He held her close. Her breasts were soft against him and he closed his eyes, savoring the rich contact with Aly. He heard her