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And in a few days, when we made it back to Quito, I’d slip away and disappear…and I’d never see her again. The thought made my heart shrink down into a lump of brittle ice.
It’s just an obsession, I told myself. Like when you have a thing for your teacher, or your boss. It was because she was so hot and also so professional, so serious, and buttoned-down. That’s all this was. And there was a solution: I just had to fuck her. I’d bed her once and that would get her out of my system: all these feelings would go away. We had two nights together out here: that was plenty of time.
When we’d been on the move for about ninety minutes, JD called a halt and we took a few minutes break. JD opened his mouth to give an order to Danny, but before he could speak, Danny nodded and headed into the trees to check for anyone following us. The rest of us caught our breath and drank water: even at night, it was punishingly hot, this close to the equator.
I went to give Olivia some of my water and found her checking the injured doctor’s wound. I watched her work, overcome again by the way she put others first. I’d been right: she’d been far too good for that hellhole of a prison.
Far too good for someone like me, too.
I pushed that thought away and passed her my canteen. She took a long drink, sighed with relief, then looked at me and the rest of the team. “So, who are you guys? Delta Force?”
I looked around at the others. “We’re not Delta. We’re…” What were we? A thrown-together bunch of reprobates and misfits. Cal had lived on his own in the forest for years, Bradan wasn’t even military, and I should still have been in jail. “...different.”
“Amen,” muttered JD.
Danny emerged from the trees and gave JD a quick shake of his head. The cartel hadn’t caught up to us…yet.
“I want to thank you,” said Olivia, turning slowly to face each one of the team. “For getting us out of there.” The other two doctors nodded in agreement.
JD, Cal, Bradan, Colton, Danny, and I all looked at each other. We’d all been running on adrenaline ever since I went into the camp. It was the first time we realized that we’d pulled it off. And just for a second, we felt like a team.
Olivia moved closer to me. “And what about you? How did you get out of jail?”
I swallowed. “I kind of…did a deal. Joined up.”
She broke into a smile and it was heartbreaking because her eyes were so full of hope, of relief. “See? I always knew you were one of the good guys.”
She thought I was on the right path. She didn’t know I was about to double-cross these guys and disappear into the sunset with my gold, the second the mission was done. For the first time, my plan didn’t feel slick. It felt dirty. I had to struggle to control my voice. “Yeah. Well. Sometimes I surprise myself.”
Her smile grew wider and my self-doubt was burned away by a hot rush of need. God, she was beautiful. I found myself staring at those soft lips, unable to tear my eyes away. She did that thing where she flushed and ducked her head, uncomfortable with the attention. But then she took a little breath and looked at me again and my heartrate rocketed higher. I could feel it crackling in the air between us: neither of us had forgotten the kiss. She bit her lip and that sent me over the edge. I took a half-step forward, about to sweep her up in my arms—
“Hey,” came a voice from the darkness.
Both of us looked around, and then down. The injured doctor was watching us from where he sat against a tree. “Just wondering what the plan was,” he said.
Olivia stepped back slightly, as if embarrassed we’d been caught, then looked to me for an answer.
I stared at the doctor for a moment before I spoke, trying to remember his name from the TV news report. Marcos. I hadn’t paid much attention to him until now, but he was younger than me, probably the same age as Olivia. And he wasn’t bad looking. He’d made the question sound innocent enough, but I could see the hate in his eyes. He had a thing for Olivia. That’s why he’d interrupted us.
My mind spun. Presumably, he and Olivia had been working together when they were captured. Had they been having a fling? Anger surged from deep in my belly, pulsing through my veins and tightening my muscles. Get away from her! She’s mine! I didn’t know how to handle jealousy. I was used to being with women for one night or a couple of days: what did I care if they slept with someone else? But with Olivia…
