5
YOU know how to wreck a perfectly good evening, don't you?" Rachael didn't lift her head from the comfort of his shoulder, but stared out into the forest. Shadows moved from canopy to floor. A symphony of music made up of every kind of rustle, croak and insect sound accompanied the wind. "I always thought it would be quiet. The edges of the forest are so active, around the swamps. Fish jumping, and insects always busy, but for some reason I thought when I reached the interior it would be peaceful."
"Think of it as songs of the forest. I've always loved the way the insects and birds sound against the leaves in the wind. It's all music if you love it, Rachael."
"I suppose it is. Why can't people just leave us alone, Rio? Yes, I ran away. Does it really matter so much why I ran? Who I ran away from? What difference does it make all the way out here, in the middle of a forest?"
Rio tried not to hear the wistful note in her voice. More, tried not to react to it. "It's perfectly reasonable of me to want and need to know why someone would want to kill you. Do you have a husband you ran away from? Someone rich and powerful enough to track you even here? Why wouldn't he just let you go?" He felt her beside him, fitting into the lines of his body. Heard her breathing softly. Her skin was hot, but soft and inviting. Even more than the physical temptation was her courage and sense of humor. She was occupying his thoughts, invading his blood. Rio reached over her to pull her broken wrist across her lap, positioning it for maximum comfort. "I guess that was a silly question. I might not have let you go myself."
Rachael lifted her head to look at him. A faint smile curved her mouth. "Rio, that was a nice thing to say to me. Thank you."
He looked harassed instead of grateful for her appreciation. "You have to tell me why, Rachael. If someone is going to come looking, I have to be prepared."
"There is no way to prepare. As soon as I'm able, I'll keep going. There has to be a place where they can't find me. I'm hoping they believe I'm dead."
"If Kim is alive, he'll know you survived. He's one of the best trackers around. And he'll go looking for you because you were in his care. The government is going to be up in arms, having a church group bringing medical supplies taken by bandits. They'll be looking for the entire group. The countries need the aid and the last thing they want is for it to get out that it's dangerous to travel along the rivers or near the forest, two major tourist draws. And if you have someone else, an outside source, pushing the government to go after the bandits, they'll search the river thoroughly."
"People drown all the time and their bodies are never found. Is Kim Pang a friend of yours? If he comes looking could you persuade him to say I drowned?"
"Kim won't lie. If he's still alive, and as soon as possible I'm going to find out, I'll ask him to disappear so he can't be questioned. He has a certain reputation, well deserved. He shouldn't lose it over this."
Rachael turned her face away from him. "I liked him. I liked him more than I liked the others. I don't think those bandits were there to kidnap us for ransom. I think they were paid a great deal of money to find me."
Rio shook his head. "I can't see anyone hating you so much."
"I didn't say he hated me."
He felt the blow in his gut, the dark spread of jealousy, the dangerous traits of his animal side. He wasn't going to let passion rule him, it was far too risky. He had a life now, one he enjoyed. One he could live with. Rachael was not going to ruin it for him.
The wind shifted, touching their faces with droplets of water. Rio immediately leaned over her, protecting her from the rain until the wind settled again. "Bandits are common in these parts. All up and down the river. Not just here but nearly all the countries where the forest and river make it easier to disappear. Indochina, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, all of them. This isn't a unique situation, or even unexpected. Didn't they warn you there was danger?" He kept his voice low, even. Nothing would betray the smoldering anger stirring in his belly. She didn't belong to him. And she was never going to belong to him.
"The odds seemed in our favor."
"I see it all the time. You should have stayed home, Rachael. You should have gone to the police."
"Not everyone has options, Rio. I did the best I could in the circumstances. I won't stay here, just long enough to heal my leg."
"Do you think it's going to happen overnight?"
His voice was low, almost sensual it was so velvet soft, but she had to blink back tears. She brought danger with her whether he wanted to believe it or not. She wanted to think she could walk away, keep him safe, but she knew he was right. She didn't want the reality of her life anymore. If she were desperate enough to dare the raging river, surely he could see she needed a space of time where she could pretend she was safe.
The forest called to her, a dark sanctuary capable of hiding all kinds of secrets. Why not her? The foliage and creeper vines hid his entire home, cradled high in the branches of a tree. There had to be a way to disappear in the rain forest. "Rio, I know you're here because you're hiding from the world. Can't you teach me how to live here? There has to be a place for me."
"I was born here. The forest is my home and it always will be. I can't breathe in the city. I have no desire to live and work there. I don't want television or movies. I go in, get my books and I'm a happy man. A woman like you can't live here."
"Like me?" She turned the full power of her dark eyes on him. "A woman like me? What kind of woman am I, Rio? I'd like to hear your analysis because you use that term a lot. A woman like me."
Rio turned his head, amusement and even admiration welling up out of nowhere. There was a bite to her voice, a distinctly feminine challenge. She was sitting on his front porch wrapped in his shirt, her bare thigh pressed against his leg, an infection ravaging her body and the jungle creeping close, and she could still manage to act perfectly at home and even annoyed with him.
At home with him. At ease, as if they had known one another for all time.
A bird screeched a warning, high up in the canopy. Monkeys sounded a call for complete vigilance. Movement in the forest ceased. There was a sudden, unnatural silence. Only the rain fell steadily. Rio was on his feet instantly, moving back into the shadows, lifting his face to the wind, sniffing the air as if scenting for enemies. He snapped his fingers, crouching low as the two clouded leopards padded silently onto the verandah, coming quickly from the house as if summoned. One lifted its lip, bared its teeth in a silent snarl. Rio hunkered down, his movement slow and careful so as not to draw attention, circled both cat's necks with his arms, his fingers massaging the fur as he whispered to them. When he stepped away, the two small leopards took to the trees.
Rio lifted Rachael into his arms. Again his movements were unhurried, very slow. "Don't make a sound. Not a sound, Rachael." His lips were pressed against her ear, sending a small shiver down her spine. He moved with ease inside to place her back on the bed. Pressed as close as she was to his body, she felt him trembling, something moving against his skin, pushing against hers. It made her itch for a moment. His hands were gentle as he pulled the cover around her but she felt the tug of something sharp along her skin, as if something scratched her.
Catching her face in his hands he stared into her eyes. "I need to know you know what you're doing right now. I'm better out there," he waved toward the open door. "I'm of more use to us out there. You can't have a light, Rachael, it will just give away your position. You'll have to make do in the dark and I'll give you a gun, but you have to stay alert. Can you do that?"
Rio's voice was a mere thread of sound. Rachael stared up
at him, trapped in the ferocity of his gaze. His eyes were different, more yellow than green, pupils dilated and staring. A haunting, eerie, never-to-be-forgotten stare of a wild animal on the hunt. Her heart began to pound. "Rachael, answer me. I need to know." A flicker of worry crept into the wildness in his eyes. His expression was grim. "Someone's here."
There was something entirely different about his eyes. She wasn't mistaken. His eyes were enormous, wide, staring, an eerie calm about them, a dangerous intensity. His pupils, very round, were nearly three times as large as she thought a human eye would open, allowing him to see in the dark night. She moistened her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. Rio never blinked. Never moved his gaze from her face. His eyes looked like marble or glass, all-seeing, all-knowing, a strange haunting, yet beautiful glow to them. "You must have excellent night vision." The words squeaked out. Silly.
Rachael felt like a frightened child. She had a real enemy. She didn't need to be making up supernatural beings and scaring herself. She straightened her shoulders, determined to recover. "I think they've found me, Rio. They'll hurt you if you're with me, it won't matter that you don't know anything."
"It could be anything, but we definitely have an intruder. I need to know you're all right, Rachael. I don't want to come back in here and find you shot yourself by accident. And I don't want you trying to shoot me."
"Go, I'm fine. I'm not having any trouble seeing." And she wasn't. She had never had particularly great night vision, yet she seemed to be able to see much more clearly than before. Or maybe she was just getting used to the dim lighting in the forest. She only had one good hand and it was trembling badly, so she thrust it beneath the covers. Rachael wasn't about to whine about feeling sick to her stomach from the wrenching pain of movement, not when he was going out alone to face an intruder.
He checked the gun, put it on the bed beside her. His palm slipped across her forehead. Her skin was hot to the touch. "Stay focused, Rachael."
Rio was reluctant to leave her. Something told him he was replaying an old scene. He had a memory of touching her, her hair sliding through his fingers as he went into the night to hunt for an enemy. And when he returned...Something gripped his heart in a vise. "Rachael, be here when I get back. Stay alive for me." He had no idea why he said it. He had no idea why he felt it, but it was an overwhelming need to warn her. Something terrible had happened, or maybe was about to happen, nothing really made sense to him anymore. There seemed to be memories in his head of Rachael that shouldn't be there.