“He’s nowhere to be found. I’ve searched the perimeter. Julian tried to catch his scent in the jungle but it’s no use.” He shrugged his shoulders, clearly perplexed. “He’s gone.”
“What do you mean gone? How the hell can he be gone?”
Cracker held Jaxon’s eyes, never wavering, his voice steady. “I mean, he’s gone. There’s not a trace of him around. I don’t know what happened to him. He was over by these outbuildings when the planes attacked and now he’s not.”
“Christ! I don’t have time for this shit. I need to find Libby.”
Jaxon was so enraged the cat shimmered along his body as mist started to wrap its long fingers around and up the sides of his legs. He moved from them quickly, breathing hard, trying to get his emotions in check.
“Frank DaCosta took Libby.”
The soft words hung in the air, coming out of nowhere. Jaxon turned in a rush, nailing the female Declan still held with his black gaze.
“What did you say?”
The woman swallowed hard, obviously scared. But then her eyes widened and her body went rigid. Her piercing gaze ripped through him, and it was full of a dark and extremely malevolent anger.
“You’re one of them,” she spat, starting to struggle and only relaxing as Declan once more spoke soft words in her ear.
“Who do you think I am?”
“It’s not who.” The woman’s voice was rough and she drew in a ragged breath. “It’s what. You’re no different than the DaCosta scum. You’re all evil.”
Jaxon’s voice was fierce but soft. “Watch your mouth, little girl. A DaCosta jaguar is but a kitten compared to me.”
Her sapphire blue eyes narrowed into twin beams of contempt. Something was off about the woman. Her scent…it was different from anything he’d ever encountered. It slapped at some distant memory, but he didn’t have patience to sort out the puzzle.
His gaze swung up until he met Declan’s. “Take her back to camp.” He looked to Julian and Cracker. “I want you two to look for Jagger. He’s got to be around someplace…maybe he’s unconscious; I don’t know. You two deal with it and get the hell back to camp.”
Then Jaxon peered out into the gloom. He couldn’t think about Jagger right now, he had to concentrate on the task at hand. His brother was a warrior and a highly trained soldier. He could survive almost anything. Even though Libby had proved resilient and was tough to the core, he needed to get to her.
The jungle beckoned to him on such a primitive level that his body vibrated with an urgency that could not be denied. He had no choice but to heed its call.
He moved toward the thick foliage that lined the perimeter of the compound, his senses high, his long legs filled with purpose as he broke into a jog. He paused briefly at the edge and turned around.
“I won’t return unless I have Libby. I won’t leave her out there again.”
His eyes washed over the still form of his brother and the remaining members of his team. “If I’m not back by the time the plane is ready to leave…”
His voice trailed off, and with a curt nod he turned and disappeared into the thick, silent jungle, his heart black and filled with the need for revenge.
If he wasn’t back in time, they could leave without him, because he would not return to the United States
alone.
His heart contracted painfully at the thought. If he didn’t make it out of the jungle with Libby, then this was where he would die.
He snarled as he silently twisted through the thick, verdant forest floor, and he’d damn well take out as many DaCostas as he could along the way.
Chapter 21
The faint buzzing of an insect whistled close to her ear, and Libby gritted her teeth, flinching as it closed in on her exposed, pale flesh. Her entire arm was already covered in angry looking welts, so one more wouldn’t make a difference, but still she winced as the little bastard bit her but good, and it stung for several seconds before becoming as numb as all the other bites.
She cursed silently. Her hair was plastered to her neck and face, scraggly tendrils of blond that tickled even as they annoyed the crap out of her. She wanted so badly to push the mess away and to scratch, and to—her heart took off like a rocket as blackness ran thickly through her veins—fucking kill the bastard who stood just a few feet away from her.
But of course she could do none of this, since her hands were tied behind her back. She tried to calm her pulsing heart and slow her adrenaline. She needed to conserve her strength if she wanted to make it out of here alive.
She had to. There was no alternative.