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

  She blacked out as the murky water closed over her head.

  Susana woke to a pounding headache. The fetid stench of unwashed clothes and rotten food assaulted her nose. Her lips curled, pulling against a tight cotton gag.

  She tried opening her eyes, but her right lid was held closed by something sticky that extended down from her forehead. Blood?

  She peered out of her left eye. Oh, man, this wasn’t good. Everything she saw was double.

  She blinked several times, trying to align her vision. The floor tilted and Susana rolled several inches to her left. The motion set her stomach churning and sharpened the pain in her head.

  Oh, God. She was going to be sick and her mouth was gagged. If she threw up now, she’d choke.

  I won’t be sick. I won’t be sick. I WON’T. Breathing shallowly through her nose, she tightened her throat against the bile that wanted to rise. Slowly, her stomach settled down, leaving her sweating. Dots danced across her vision in time to the percussion jamming inside her skull. A second later, she passed out again.

  When she regained consciousness, she was alert enough to notice the hum of a motor. The sound of waves hitting wood. The low sound of male voices. She was on a boat.

  What had happened? She remembered checking out the supply crates. Being hit. Falling into the river. Had the captain shoved her in then scooped her back out and locked her in his cabin?

  Sweat had loosened the dried blood on her right lid enough to allow her to cautiously open both eyes. This time, her vision wasn’t so blurry.

  She tried to sit up and discovered that her hands and feet were trussed with thin, bright yellow nylon cord. Twisting her wrists only drove the rope deeper into her skin, cutting her until she bled.

  Bastard sons of piranhas, tying her up like an animal! Once she got free she’d see that whoever had done this rotted in jail.

  Taking a deep breath to cool her temper, she looked around.

  Light snuck between paper thin cracks in rough plank walls and shone in a pale yellow rectangle through a small window propped open with a stick. Clothes lay scattered over every horizontal surface. Discarded plates of food sat rotting on a small table made of heavy wood. Six hammocks hung from the ceiling. A ladder-back chair lay upended under one hammock with a pair of muddy pants hanging off one leg.

  Several iron gun hooks sat in a neat line above the door. Two hooks cradled a rifle. The other hooks were empty.

  The room was too big to be the cabin on the supply boat. Which meant…what? Had she been kidnapped by the mystery person trying to shut down her dig? Had the captain or the interns been involved?

  Betrayal formed a hard lump in her throat. She blinked back tears. Buck up, girl. Worry about who did this to you and why after you get yourself free.

  Using her elbows, she pushed to a sitting position. A section of damp hair fell across her face and she automatically tossed her head to clear it from her eyes. Then realization hit and she froze mid-motion.

  Someone took out my braid.

  Susana shook her head, confirming that her thick mass of hair was loose. She sank back on her heels, each possibility running through her head more frightening than the one before.

  Had letting down her hair been part of some sick male fantasy? Had she been raped while she was unconscious?

  She glanced down. Her shirt was buttoned and her pants zipped. Her waterlogged boots were still on her feet.

  Most importantly, there was no ache between her legs or on her breasts.

  Her breath whooshed out and her spine sagged in relief.

  So. Her kidnappers had unbraided her hair, no easy task when wet. Why? Were they sex traffic slavers? Had someone sold her out? She’d heard that women with long, thick hair were more likely to be targets, although she couldn’t imagine anyone finding her hair attractive in its tangled, wet state.

  To hell with that. She was not going to be sold as someone’s sex slave.

  She struggled to her knees. By twisting her bound arms like a contortionist, she was able to search her pants pockets. Lip balm. Soggy tissues.

  No pocket knife. No satellite phone.

  Her eyes scanned the cabin for something sharp to cut through her bindings.

  But although the men were undeniable slobs, they apparently weren’t stupid enough to leave a knife lying around.

  Okay then. Maybe one of the walls or a piece of furniture had a loose nail.

  She inched over the filthy floor, stopping to feel her surroundings for a sharp edge. Eventually she found the broken leg of a chair with a bent nail sticking out of it. She set to work sawing on her bindings, praying with each breath for the men to stay away just a little longer.

  Just as the rope began to give, she heard a crash outside the cabin, followed by the sound of glass breaking. A man shouted, “Fire!” in Portuguese. The floorboards shook under the impact of running feet and smoke floated in through the open window.

  This was her chance. Susana jerked her arms apart, breaking the last strands of rope joining her wrists. Bracelets of yellow cord still circled each wrist, but at least now she could move her hands freely. She yanked the gag out of her mouth, then tested the ropes at her feet. Damn. The tight knots would require too much time to work free, so she just hobbled over to the door.

  Locked. But the window looked just wide enough to clear her hips.

  She pushed one of the chairs into place, crawled onto it, then boosted herself up. A quick hop landed her stomach-down across the window sill. The pressure almost made her vomit, but she clamped her teeth onto her tongue and used the pain to focus her attention.

  Up front, the men yelled at one another.

  Using their voices as cover, Susana dropped to the deck.

  Chapter 3

  “Amigo, come look.”

  Kai put down the rope he was coiling and walked to the front of the boat. The pilot Giovanni handed him binoculars and pointed at the stern of a retreating boat. Kai raised the glasses.

  The boat was configured much as Kai’s was. Low hull. Central cabin. Pilot station in the bow.

  The other pilot glanced frantically from the river in front of him to where a heavyset man in mismatched fatigues used a jacket to beat at pile of burning rags. The fire shifted sideways and engulfed a nearby crate. Another man grabbed the AK-47 propped against the cabin wall and pulled it out of the danger zone.

  Mercenaries. As long as they were distracted by the fire, they wouldn’t be a problem.

  Still, Kai quickly scanned the rest of the boat to see how many more men were on board. Two. Four. Six, counting the pilot.

  “What the hell?” A female figure dangled half-way out the window at the back of the cabin. Long, dark hair cascaded to the deck, hiding her face.

  She squirmed and fell, landing hard on her right shoulder. Kai winced in sympathy, then grinned as her hair slipped away to reveal her face.

  Susana Dias. Well, hell. Looked like someone had beaten him to the scene. But Kai would be damned if he let them steal the lady away from him.

  “Closer,” Kai ordered Giovanni as he shifted the binoculars to the activity at the other boat’s bow. A second man had joined the first and together they almost had the fire contained. Their focus remained forward, so they hadn’t yet noticed Susana’s actions.

  “Come up behind them so the men won’t notice us.”

  Giovanni grunted acknowledgment and kicked up the boat’s speed.

  The pain from hitting the deck radiated from Susana’s shoulder into her neck and back. Her vision wavered. Her headache screamed. She closed her eyes and sucked air through her nose in rapid pants. It didn’t take long for fear to overwhelm the pain.

  She had to get away.

  Opening her eyes, she lifted her head to look around her. The low side of the boat was perhaps three feet to her left. Frantic curses still colored the air at the front of the boat, but she didn’t know how long her captors would stay distracted. She needed to get over the side and into the river bef
ore they spotted her. The current would move her far from the boat and hopefully spit her out at some safe distance.

  A trip on the river couldn’t be worse than whatever her kidnappers had in store for her.

  Not daring to stand up in case she drew the men’s attention, she turned onto her back, put her weight on her elbows and used her bound feet to propel her in a push, pull movement across the deck. Every few seconds she checked over her shoulder to judge her progress. Two feet to go.

  Ignore the splinters tearing into her palms like hot needles.

  One foot.

  Pause for just a second so her burning muscles could rest.

  Inches.

  Made it!

  The men were still yelling at each other. She grabbed the gunwale, bent over at the waist and let the weight of her upper body topple her into the water.

  An instant before her head went underwater, she thought she heard a man shout.

  Kai watched Susana inch across the deck. From the awkward way she used her legs, he figured her feet were bound, and he felt a flare of anger over the idea of her being mishandled.

  One of the mercenaries left the smoldering fire and rounded the corner of the cabin just as Susana’s feet disappeared over the side of the boat. Breaking into a run, the man shouted an alarm. When he reached the side of the boat his head moved back and forth as he searched for Susana in the water.

  Crazy woman, Kai thought. How long did she think she’d survive in the river with her feet bound?

  The mercenary pulled a pistol from a hip holster.

  “Shit.” Kai trained the binoculars at the fast-moving current, trying to see where Susana had gone.

  “Do you see her?” Giovanni shouted, giving up any pretense of stealth and increasing their boat’s speed.

  “No.” Kai continued to sweep the binoculars over the water surrounding the other boat. “Where are you, Susana?” he muttered. Until she surfaced, she was in danger of being swept under the mercenaries’ boat. But the moment her head broke water, the mercenaries would be on her.

  “There!” Giovanni said, pointing to starboard.

  Unfortunately, the mercenaries had also spotted Susana. The one with the pistol fired into the water, barely missing her. A second man charged across the deck and knocked the shooter’s hand down before he let off another shot. The men got into a shoving match, accompanied by angry shouts.

  Kai lowered his binoculars and raced for his cabin. The glasses bounced against his chest with enough force to bruise, but he didn’t care. He needed his weapon.

  When he returned to his position, M-4 in hand, one of the men had Susana in a headlock and was slowly dragging her across the gunwale.

  Kai set his M-4 on manual. His first shot went into the shoulder of the man holding Susana. As she dropped into the water, Kai’s second and third shots hit the hull right beneath the water line.

  He might be a scientist working mainly as a spy, but the SSU made sure all its operators were excellent shots.

  Susana heard a grunt of pain, then her captor let go of her neck. She dropped back into the river and promptly inhaled water. When her head broke the surface, she snorted to clear her nose, then pulled in as much air as she could hold before letting herself sink beneath the current.

  A second later she bumped against something hard. Her head breached the surface and she realized the current had pushed her right back against the hull. She shot a terrified glance above her, but didn’t see her kidnappers. What she did see was a man, silhouetted by the sun, standing on the deck of a second boat.

  He aimed a menacing machine gun right at her. Her heart stuttered.

  Get away! She pushed her shoulder against the hull, trying to drive herself underwater.

  Then she heard another cry of pain from above her. “Do something,” one of her captors snarled. “Before the cock-sucker shoots me again.”

  She turned her head. Oh. The man on the other boat wasn’t aiming at her. He was aiming above her head. At her kidnappers.

  Her relief was so great, she forgot to tread water and sank.

  Come on, girl. You’re being rescued. Don’t drown now.

  She pushed to the surface and a life preserver splashed down next to her.

  “Senhorita,” her would-be rescuer shouted over the pulse of the boat engines. “Grab the line and we’ll bring you aboard.”

  Her heart soared. Even though his words were Portuguese, his accent was American.

  Remembering something she’d heard a long time ago about water rescues, she grabbed hold of the life preserver and turned her back to the boat. The line tightened and began to slowly pull her against the current.

  As her rescuer’s boat picked up speed, her head bounced against the surface of the river making her headache flare, and she had trouble holding her head up high enough to stop water from getting up her nose. It seemed like forever before the boat slowed, then stopped so she could be dragged aboard.

  For several long, agonizing moments Susana huddled on the deck, coughing up river water and shivering despite the midday heat. She was dimly aware of male voices talking above her and of the engine throbbing underneath her as the boat started moving again.

  A warm male hand lightly patted her back. “Here, take my coat.”

  Susana opened her eyes and sat up. A man knelt next to her, holding out a heavy rain jacket. Even though her teeth were chattering, she didn’t grab for the coat. Instead, she stared at her rescuer.

  Oh. My. God.

  He had the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen. A rich, clear amber. Wild and fierce, reminding her of the jaguar she’d seen last week at the river’s edge. The man’s eyes combined with lean, stubbled cheeks, a square chin and a sensual lower lip to create a picture of male strength and vitality. The lithe muscles of his arms and thighs strained against his sweat-stained clothes. Suddenly Susana felt way too warm.

  Susana had known more handsome men, but none had knocked her speechless or caused this hot, aching longing.

  “Ma’am? Are you okay?” Oh, God, he even had a husky, sexy voice.

  Get a grip, girl. Susana shook her head, realized she was still staring, and lowered her eyes as she reached for his coat. “I’m um…just…um…glad to be out of the river and safe. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  She wriggled into the jacket. For a second she caught him eyeing her chest and her nipples tightened. Then he quickly glanced away and she thought she heard him mutter, “Sorry.”

  His embarrassment over being caught ogling her boobs restored her equilibrium. At least she wasn’t alone on this admiration train.

  But he recovered quickly. His long, almost elegant fingers pushed up the sleeves of the jacket to reveal the swollen, red and purple skin at her wrists.

  He sucked in a breath. For a moment something dark and fierce passed over his expression. His fingers tightened on hers almost painfully, then released.

  “Let me cut your bindings away,” he said.

  It was a sign of how overwhelmed she was that Susana didn’t so much as blink in alarm when he pulled a large hunting knife from a sheath on his leg.

  “Brace yourself,” her rescuer said. “The rope’s embedded in your skin. This is going to hurt.” He worked with surprising gentleness, but there was little play in the rope and the blade nicked her skin despite his caution.

  Susana hissed in pain. Hell yes, that hurt. Tears stung her eyes and she quickly turned her face away from him.

  Then immediately turned back as she felt the feather light stroke of his finger next to her damaged skin. Without meeting her startled gaze, he repeated the process with her ankles.

  Next, displaying more of that surprising gentleness, the man rubbed circulation back into her hands and feet. At first the increased blood flow felt warm and soothing. It didn’t take long for the piercing, hot-pins-and-needles pain to take over.

  “Ouch!” The protest came out as a harsh croak.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I
t’ll get better in a minute. I think there’s some salve in the cabin we can use on your cuts. I—”

  Behind them, the boat’s cabin exploded in a flash of light.

  The shock wave knocked Kai on top of Susana. He crossed his arms protectively over his head and ignored the sting from burning wood pelting his back and legs. In the silence that followed, Kai heard frantic cursing from Giovanni.

  How in hell had the other boat gotten close enough to launch an RPG? They’d been sinking.

  Kai levered himself off Susana while telling himself not to notice how soft her breasts felt or how if he moved his head just a few inches, he’d be able to kiss that lush mouth.

  “Was that a missile?” Susana squeaked, effectively bringing Kai’s attention back to business.

  “Rocket-propelled grenade,” Kai corrected, turning to assess the damage. The cabin’s roof and front wall were on fire, but that wasn’t crippling. “Keep your head down in case they have another one.”

  “Who the hell are you and why are those men firing rockets at us?”

  “Kai Paterson. I’m with a private special operations group from the U.S.” He grabbed Susana’s hand and started crawling toward the front of the boat. He needed to see what was going on.

  “You okay, Giovanni?” he shouted to the pilot.

  “No. Those fucking pirates tried to blow up my boat!”

  Kai’s mouth twisted with a wry smile. Yeah, Giovanni was fine.

  Susana slipped on the wet deck and Kai reached out to steady her.

  “My name’s Susana Dias,” she said as they started crawling again. “I’m an archaeologist. So…special operations? That’s like a covert soldier, right?”

  Great. Susana was one of those women who chattered when scared. “Yeah.”

  “Watch out!” Giovanni shouted. His warning was accompanied by the sound of incoming automatic weapon fire. “There’s a second goddamn boat.”

  The deck tilted sharply left, then right, throwing Kai and Susana sideways. Susana’s head cracked against the side of the boat and she slumped unconscious.

  Kai checked Susana’s pulse and moved her into a more comfortable position. Poor woman, she’d been through a lot. The memory of her swollen, torn skin where she’d been bound threatened to send a flood of rage through him.