Page 32 of Dangerous Liaisons

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jesse leaned against a rubber tree in the Colombian jungle a kilometer from the village where Green Team had been slaughtered and twenty feet from the spot she was looking for. She pulled the canteen from the leg pocket of her fatigues, unscrewed the lid and brought the canteen to her lips. The water went down cool against her dry throat and she allowed a few drops to dribble down her chin and onto the front of her sweat soaked shirt. She screwed the lid back on, slipped the canteen into its pocket, and swiped at her sweaty forehead with the back of her sleeve. Oppressive heat hung in the air so thick even the soft croaking of the tree frogs sounded labored.

Going to the village where Martinez had lived was a personal mission she had intended to carry out with Cole. After discovering he’d brought a team with him yesterday she tried talking herself into aborting the plan. In the end, however, she had been unable to give up this one chance to give Martinez’s family some closure…and to bring Green Team home.

Despite threats from crime lords like Amadeo Perez, people talked. Martinez’s brother hadn’t wanted to talk to her. He blamed her for his brother’s death. But he had taken her to where his sister-in-law and her daughter were hiding, and it was she who told Jesse what she wanted to know. It broke Jesse's heart to listen to the woman’s quiet words when she asked that Jesse make sure her husband’s death wasn’t in vain. Jesse’s eyes stung, but no tears followed. She had cried herself dry on the trek between their village and this spot where Green Team was rumored to be buried.

She released a breath. The first half of her mission had been a success. Before visiting Martinez’s family, she had retrieved his body from where the mercenaries left him and buried him in the village cemetery. She couldn’t let his wife see him the way Jesse had found him, decaying body ravaged by wild animals. Giving Martinez a proper burial didn’t make up for failing to save his life, but at least now his family didn’t have to imagine him alone in the jungle, forgotten. Green Team's family would have the same closure, if she could help it.

Jesse surveyed the ground beneath the canopy ahead. She wouldn’t have noticed the difference in the eight-by-eight plot of ground if she hadn’t known what to look for, but the lack of living ground cover and fallen leaves and twigs indicated she’d found the graveyard she sought. She pushed from the tree, grabbing the small backpack sitting beside her as she started toward the spot.

The small folding shovel she’d brought made digging slow, but Jesse dug for no more than ten minutes when she uncovered a man’s fingers. She forced back bile. No turning back. She had to be certain this was Green Team and not a graveyard where other victims of Perez were buried. Half an hour later, Jesse stared down at the upper half of a man who wore U.S. fatigues. Her hands shook as she gently pulled back the collar until his dog tags were visible against a bullet riddled chest. Robert Mills. The man she’d seen shot to death.

Jesse gently laid the tags back on his chest, closed the shirt collar, then stood and began covering the bodies again. She wasn’t going to let the animals get to the men before a team made it back to recover their bodies.

When she finally spread a last armful of foliage onto the unmarked graves, silent tears streamed down her cheeks. If Cole wanted to do one good thing, he would get his men home.