Betrayal (SSU Trilogy Book 2) (The Surgical Strike Unit) Read online

  “Oh, Kai,” she breathed. His torment touched some deep chord in her, turning her heart into a leaden weight. She had the sudden, fierce desire to fight his battles with him. To comfort and shield him.

  Underneath her fingertips, his face burned. Sometime during the night he’d kicked free of the survival blanket. She reached behind her and picked up the washcloth that had been tucked into a pocket of his medicine kit.

  A quick splash with water got the fabric wet enough to sooth over the heated skin on his face. His lips parted on a soft sigh and he turned his head to follow the path of the cloth. Tenderness spiraled through her veins. She smoothed her hand over his military-short hair, then realized she was stroking him like she would a cat and pulled her hand away, tucking it into her lap.

  Kai moaned. Whether from loss of her touch, or pain, she didn’t know. But the sound helped bring her focus back to her nursing duties.

  It was too soon to give him another dose of his anti-malaria medication, but she didn’t like the way his temperature kept rising. She dissolved a couple of aspirin in the filtered water, then lifted Kai’s head enough to allow her to hold a cup to his lips.

  He took several swallows of water before restlessly turning his head away. She straightened the wrinkles out of the survival blanket underneath him, then lowered him back down. There was one more thing she needed to do, but she found herself drying and storing the cup, trying to avoid it.

  Oh, stop being a prude. You’ve seen plenty of naked men. Just strip the man so you can brush all of him with that cool water.

  She sighed, knowing that his nudity wasn’t the real issue. By removing his clothes she’d make Kai even more vulnerable and dependent on her. And Kai would hate that.

  Telling herself to suck it up, her hands moved to unbutton his camp shirt. She had the shirt undone and was trying to slide it off his arms when he became agitated.

  “No! I don’t know where it is. Let me go!”

  She ducked one flailing fist, but as she started inching his second arm out of its sleeve, his fist caught her on her temple, just above her right ear.

  The force of the blow knocked her sideways. She lost her balance and toppled to the ground, then just lay there a moment while she waited for the little silver dots to stop dancing across her vision.

  “Leave her alone, you bastard!” Kai’s shout ended on a choked sob. “Jenna…I’m so sorry… please forgive me…”

  And just as quickly as if someone pulled the plug, Kai’s fit ended.

  Susana cautiously sat back up. Her head throbbed where he’d hit her, but her vision was steady, so she wasn’t seriously hurt.

  She set about pulling off the rest of Kai’s clothes, but left his boxers on. Removing them seemed too intimate. It was one thing for her to pose nude knowing that strangers would look at her image and have all sorts of reactions from envy to lust. But it would be an invasion of privacy for her to fully strip Kai when it wasn’t medically necessary.

  She folded his clothes and put them in a pile at the foot of her makeshift bed, then wet the washcloth and began his bath. She started with his face again, then moved on to his chest. Silt from the river had collected on his skin, and only after she’d worked the cloth over his entire body, twice, did she accept what she was seeing.

  She sat back on her heels, fighting back nausea. Kai’s body was covered with scars.

  A series of white, aged scars crisscrossed his back, legs and feet. Newer, still pink scars overlapped in a similar pattern over some of the same skin, and also marked his chest. What she knew about torture was limited to information from novels and films, but she could only think such marks had been made by flogging.

  She tasted bile and just made it outside before she threw up.

  Kai had been whipped. More than once, based on the difference in age of the scars.

  What was it he’d said? Something about being in a warlord’s prison. In…Indonesia was it?

  She bent over and was sick again.

  Those weren’t the only scars he had. There were also two jagged lines she thought might be knife scars, and one puckered circle she figured was from a bullet. Plus several fresh cuts and bruises courtesy of their flight from the mercenaries.

  She glanced down at her own wrists, at the bruised, torn skin from where the rope had tied her. Kai had similar scars on his wrists and ankles, although his were wider and more even than hers. From manacles?

  Holy cow. Who was this man? Why would any sane person choose a profession where torture was a very real possibility?

  If Kai hadn’t killed the mercenaries, and they’d recaptured her, would similar abuse have been her fate? Shame heated her cheeks. She’d been angry and afraid at the violence, when she should have gotten on her knees and thanked him.

  Dammit, she didn’t want to go back into the shelter. She didn’t want to have to look at Kai’s scars and be reminded that she had no idea of the events that had shaped this man’s life.

  Of the pain he’d suffered.

  He didn’t know her from Eve, yet he was willing to risk his life to keep her safe. Suddenly, she found herself ridiculously near tears. She didn’t like the idea of Kai making any kind of sacrifice on her behalf.

  Although, maybe it had nothing to do with her. Maybe he was just desperate to get the chip for himself.

  Pushing that thought aside as unfair, she collected more water. Some she set into the filtering system, some she left for bathing.

  She couldn’t change the bandage on her shoulder by herself, so she took some aspirin, ate another quick meal of fruit and nuts, and finally forced herself back inside.

  Kai shifted restlessly on his bed, his head rolling from side to side, but he remained quiet.

  Susana placed her hand on his forehead. Heaven help her, he was burning up. She fumbled for the thermometer and took his temperature.

  One hundred and four.

  Oh. My. God.

  Susana had to work hard to remind herself that a high fever was normal with malaria. There was no reason for this heart-stopping panic. Yet, it was one thing to suffer an attack of malaria herself as a child, quite another to be the caregiver.

  “Okay. Calm down. He’s not going to die. He’s been through this before.”

  It was too soon to give Kai more medicine. So she decided to bathe him again.

  She monitored Kai’s temperature on and off for the next four hours. It rose slowly, finally reaching 105.7. His respiration and pulse increased along with his fever. When she put her hand on his chest, she could feel that his breaths were too shallow to bring him enough oxygen.

  She moved her hand. Damn, it felt like his heart was trying to beat its way out of his body.

  What was almost as scary, the rest of him was still. No thrashing. No wild words. Not even a spare muscle twitch, as if every cell in his body focused solely on dragging in as much air as quickly as possible.

  She sat back on her heels. Now what was she supposed to do? She’d just given him another dose of aspirin water. It was time to inject him with the anti-malarial drug, but she was scared. Because what if the pinch of the needle entering his vein was too much of a shock for his system right now?

  She shoved her hand into her hair, but it got stuck in the tangled mess and she angrily yanked it out. She hated feeling helpless. It would be so much easier if she were sick instead of Kai.

  Her eyes swiveled toward the medicine kit. She had to take the chance and give Kai the injection. She’d never forgive herself if she didn’t, and he continued to get worse.

  Her hands trembled slightly as she removed the vial and prepared the syringe. Her mother had sometimes asked her to help take blood samples from the cattle, so she was familiar with the overall technique.

  “I can do this,” she muttered, trying to quiet the butterflies whirling in her stomach. “I’m not a yellow-bellied coward. If I don’t help Kai, he could die.” She took a deep breath. “Right. So just get on with it.”

  She located a v
ein, closed her eyes briefly and prayed for success. Then, trying to remain clinically detached instead of terrified she’d hurt Kai, she carefully slid the needle into his skin.

  By the time she’d stowed the needle and vial back in their pouch, she felt the warm glimmer of pride pushing through her nerves. She’d done it! And Kai hadn’t so much as twitched.

  Now she could settle in. She pulled her bedding closer to Kai and sat cross-legged on it, prepared to keep vigil until his breathing regulated.

  The minutes stretched into hours. Kai’s breathing remained too fast and too shallow. His breath stopped twice. Each time, Susana sprang forward ready to start CPR, but both times his breathing picked up on its own, leaving Susana sweating and weak with relief.

  And struggling to moderate her own breathing.

  Finally, as the sunlight peeking through the leaves lost its intensity, Kai began to sweat. Susana brushed tears off her cheeks. Sweating was malaria’s final phase.

  He was going to be all right.

  Chapter 11

  Tuesday, Morning

  Amazon Jungle

  Kai opened his eyes. Streams of daylight filtered through the leafy roof of the shelter, landing in bright patches along Susana’s body as she sat cross-legged a few feet away. Her eyes were intent upon him, her eyebrows lowered in concentration.

  He couldn’t for the life of him read her expression.

  This was the first time someone had been with him during a malaria attack and he was unprepared for the raw vulnerability of his position. Vague memories of ranting, of fevered dreams of blood, teased at the edges of his consciousness. Dammit, what secrets had he revealed?

  He fought the urge to look away, to hide himself, as if by denying her now he could erase the memory of whatever he’d said during the fever.

  Asking her what he’d said would only reveal his uneasiness. So he waited. Expecting to see pity, compassion, or even fear in her eyes. Instead, she wore the focused look of a scientist trying to unravel a puzzle.

  But then her gaze met his and her face softened. Her eyes were filled with…tenderness?

  “Welcome back,” she said softly. “How are you feeling?”

  “Empty.”

  Whoa. Where did that come from?

  The myriad meanings behind the word were too complicated for him to decipher, but Susana drew her own conclusion. The corners of her mouth slid into a warm smile. “That’s understandable. You were sometimes quite…energetic during your fever.” She reached into his backpack.

  “Let me mix some energy drink for you. Once you’re rehydrated, I’ll help you outside. Unless you have an urgent need?”

  He shook his head. Considering how damp his boxers were, he figured he’d sweated out most of his body’s water.

  A faint breeze skittered across his skin and he shivered. That’s when it hit him that the rest of his clothes were missing. He had no memory of stripping. Which, God, meant that Susana had undressed him while he was unconscious. And there was no way she could miss his scars.

  Anger and shame twisted inside him until he wanted to run away and hide.

  Stay put, act normal and keep your mouth shut. Don’t give her any reason to pity you.

  He looked around for his clothes and located them folded in a neat pile at the foot of Susana’s bedding. He tried to reach out an arm and snag his shirt, but his whole body trembled at the effort. His hand barely rose six inches off the ground.

  He did manage to pull the survival blanket over himself, but even that small motion drained him. Shit. The mercenaries were still out there and he was in no shape to fight.

  Susana tore open the packet of energy powder and poured it into his canteen. She scooted close to him, filled the lid with liquid, and held it to his lips.

  “I don’t need you to feed me like a baby,” he protested. He started to raise his hands to take the cup from her, but she pushed them down.

  “No. Save your strength for when I take you outside. If you’re up to it, I think we should bathe you in the river before you put your clothes back on.”

  A laugh burst out of Kai, almost causing him to spit the energy drink out. Only sheer willpower kept him from wasting the precious liquid. After he’d swallowed the mouthful, he raised his eyebrows. “Are you implying that I stink?” he intoned, raising his eyebrows.

  “I shouldn’t be throwing stones, because I reek of river water, sweat and dirt, but…yes, Kai, you stink,” she said with a grin. “You definitely need a bath.”

  “Ah, well. Anything to please milady.” He bowed his head and was rewarded with an appreciative chuckle.

  Wednesday, Morning

  Somewhere over South America

  Rafael Andros leaned back against the airplane seat and pressed his eyes closed. The absence of sight didn’t help his headache, but it lessened his nausea. Yet with the darkness came a jumble of images and fragments of remembered sound that he struggled to piece together into sense.

  A cold, male voice, telling him to kill.

  Seeing his hand jab a knife into his teammate’s chest, while his mind screamed at him to stop.

  Worry in his brother’s voice as Niko called his name.

  Rafe thought he’d phoned Niko. Told him about the mission. But he wasn’t sure. It might have been a dream.

  The murmurs of the other men on the team abruptly shut off.

  Rafe opened his eyes as a man in a white lab coat walked down the aisle. Everything within him went still as a rabbit trying to avoid the predatory gaze of a hungry hawk.

  “It’s time for the next treatment, gentlemen.” Three more figures in lab coats stepped through the door from the forward compartment.

  The air became so burdened with fear, Rafe almost choked on it. A little voice inside him started screaming, remembering the pain as the drugs spread fire through his veins. Then the cloud would settle over his mind, reducing everything but the doctors’ demands to nothing.

  His eyes darted around the small compartment, desperately seeking a way out.

  “Mr. Andros, we’ll start with you. Give me your arm.”

  No!

  Rafe tightened every muscle in his arm, ordering the limb to stay where it rested on his thigh. Just once he wanted to disregard the voice.

  “Your arm, Mr. Andros. Now.”

  Rafe watched in horror as his arm rose, offering itself to the doctor.

  As the doctor prepared the syringe, Rafe felt the cold trickle of tears down his face.

  Wednesday, Morning

  Amazon Jungle

  “We need to move out,” Kai told Susana the next morning.

  “Are you sure?” Susana eyed him, looking for trembling in his hands and legs. Yesterday she’d helped him down to the stream for a real bath, figuring that since the water was moving well, the chances of them picking up a water-borne parasite such as shisto were minimal.

  Her mouth quirked up as she remembered how adamant Kai had been about bathing on his own. In fact, like a shy little boy, he’d sent her farther downriver to take her own bath. She’d been afraid she’d return and find him passed out in the water, but instead he’d been dressed and propped against a fallen tree trunk, dozing.

  By the time she’d gotten him back to their shelter, he’d barely had the strength to keep his eyes open. This morning his skin was pale and his movements were sluggish, but his eyes shone clear and steely with determination.

  “Can’t we give you more time to recover?” she asked. She remembered being in bed for several days when she’d had malaria as a kid.

  “I’m fine. We can’t waste any more time and risk the mercenaries finding us.”

  “But—”

  Kai didn’t bother arguing with her, he just turned away and started putting items into his backpack. Rolling her eyes at his stubbornness, Susana folded up the survival blanket and stuffed it into her pack.

  Kai closed the flap on his backpack and lifted it off the ground.

  “Wait. Let me carry the heavier pack
today,” she said, reaching for Kai’s bag.

  He pulled it out of reach. “No. I’m okay with it.” He slung the pack over his shoulders. For a moment he wobbled and she thought he might collapse, but he stuck his arms out to the side and rebalanced himself.

  Susana bit her lip to keep from commenting. If the idiot wanted to wear his meager strength down by carrying a heavy pack, she couldn’t stop him. All she could do was take care of him if he fell.

  Yet as the day progressed, she had to admit Kai had reserves of strength she hadn’t expected. He walked considerably slower than usual, but didn’t fall down or even stumble. True, he had to stop and take frequent rests, and one time he gave himself another injection of the anti-malarial drug, but he managed to last far longer into the day than she’d expected.

  She led them back to the edge of the main river, but they still didn’t find any suitable place for crossing.

  Finally, when Kai showed signs of exhaustion, she called a halt for the day. She chose a spot away from the river, so they’d be out of sight of predators heading to the water for a drink. Once again, Susana collected fruit and nuts for her meal. When she suggested Kai eat one of the nutrition bars to boost his strength, he gave her a withering look and grabbed a banana and a handful of nuts.

  She didn’t fight him over that. Just opened a bar, broke it in half, popped one piece in her mouth and handed the other piece to Kai. He raised his eyebrows, but obediently ate his section of the bar.

  Now, though, he was digging his heels in regarding who got the hammock and mosquito net.

  “You take them,” Kai insisted.

  “The hell I will.” Susana wanted to close her eyes and count to ten, so she could get a grip on her escalating temper, but she didn’t trust Kai. If she couldn’t see him, he’d probably do something that would guarantee she had to sleep in the hammock with the mosquito net.

  “I’ll take the hammock if you’ll take the net,” she suggested. “You can string it between those bushes over there and sleep on the ground wrapped in the survival blanket.”

  “No. I don’t need to be coddled. You take the net.” Kai started stringing the hammock between two sturdy trees.