Phantom Wolf

Chapter 9

The harder Kelly tried to fight her emotions, the more tears slid down her cheeks. Yeah, I have no more feelings for you, she thought humorlessly. Every time you touch me, I want to fall into your arms. But you’re a damn land mine, Sam. And I’ve come too far to get blown up.

Feeling his gentle touch, she stiffened. Tears always got to Sam and brought out his masculine tendencies to comfort and protect. She couldn’t risk emotions around him.

You don’t want him to see you still care, because it hurts too much.

Searching through her gear for something to wipe her streaming eyes, she kept the backpack as a shield between herself and Sam. And then a clean blue bandanna dangled in her face.

Muttering thanks, Kelly wiped her face and then stuffed the soggy cloth into her backpack.

“Always keep a spare. Never know when Renegade is going to have one of his weepy moments. The wolf cries at Hallmark commercials and specials on Animal Planet.”

He winked.

“Let’s go.” Enough of the waterworks.

But he caught her wrist. Kelly felt his physical strength, but his touch was absolutely gentle.

“Listen, I won’t let anyone get to you, okay? I’ll keep you safe.”

Long ago, he’d made the same promise and then vanished. It hurt too much to think how shattered he’d left her. “I’m fine, Sam. Those days are behind us. I don’t need you. Not as my bodyguard. Just get me to the village, help me bring those kids home and...”

With a hard tug, she freed herself and dusted off her hands. “Your duty is done. What we had between us is long gone. And I never want it back. I’m sticking to my own kind after this.”

The tender look vanished. Sam shouldered his pack. He set off at a steady clip, the broad expanse of his back rigid as brick. Hoisting her pack, she followed him as he hugged the road’s edge and headed into the woods. Despite his heavy boots, Sam made little noise in the undergrowth. She became painfully aware of each branch crackling beneath her soles, every snapped twig.

Intense heat stripped her energy. Sweat dampened her shirt and molded her jeans to her body. When they reached the wooden bridge spanning the river, he glanced upward at the sun and turned south.

A narrow dirt path flanked the steep riverbank. Her sneakers were worn and slipped in the mud. Kelly brushed away a tendril of hair, hating the silence between them, but knowing it was best.

With every step Sam took, she felt him slip emotionally away from her. The SEAL was fast, moving quickly. He wasn’t a Mage, she thought grimly. He was a damn Pegasus, the mythical horse with wings.

“Can we take a small break?” she asked, gasping.

Sam turned into a small clearing in the woods. When they were off the path and out of sight, she sat down and unscrewed her bottle of water. Sam uncapped his, drank deeply and then wiped his mouth. His flat gaze studied her without emotion.

“How long have you done this?” The silence between them was too thick, too tense.

“Long enough. You ready?”

Kelly replaced her water. Sam peered into her pack with a frown. “You only packed two bottles of water.”

“I have a small drinking problem. I’m trying to cut back.”

“Always pack enough water. You never know how long you’ll be on an op. I’ll save a bottle for you. I thought you were smarter than that.”

Kelly’s temper rose. “Excuse me, Petty Officer Shaymore. I didn’t take army survival training like you. I got a little sidetracked trying to rescue Mages.”

“Navy. I’m navy. And if you’re going to use titles, it’s chief petty officer. I worked damn hard to study and pass the chief’s exam for enlisted men.”

Kelly trudged after him on the path as he took off again. “Enlisted? Why? You’re college-educated, Sam. You should be an officer.”

“I am an officer.”

“Noncommissioned.”

No reply.

“Maybe being a commissioned officer was too tough? Doesn’t seem so. You enjoy being in charge and giving me commands.”

The taunt worked. He stopped hard and turned. Kelly took a step backward.

“It’s different when you’re a SEAL. I signed up to spend time in the field, not behind a desk. Being enlisted meant more time in action, as an operator, not a paper pusher. It meant discipline, training and learning to control my emotions.”

He took a deep breath and then blew it out, as if struggling with those emotions. “The navy saved my sorry ass. I was mindless with rage and grief over what your father did to my family. If not for the navy, I’d be dead by now.”

Guilt twisted her stomach. Kelly couldn’t skirt the issue lying between them like a land mine. “There are no words to say how sorry I am about what happened to your family. But my father didn’t do it.”

Sam’s mouth became a narrow slash. “This is a bad idea. You. Me. Teaming together to find lost children. Let’s go back. Dakota and I will find them. Wolf’s a damn good tracker. I’ll cut a deal with him. He’ll keep you safe on the base until we return.”

The shock of his words ripped her like a blade. Trying to get rid of her, before they even started. “Your lieutenant doesn’t know their names, and they’ll be moved before he can even draw close. They need me.”

“Let’s get this straight. They don’t need you. You need them. Saving these children will redeem what your father did.”

The words stung, because they rang of a truth she couldn’t admit. “I’m doing this because I’m committed to saving all Mage children.”

“But saving Elemental children looks good, keeps the record clean.”

Her own temper rose. “You make them sound like a commodity, as if I’m using them.”

Kelly’s hands tightened on her backpack straps when she saw his raised eyebrow. “Dammit, Sam, I don’t need to prove anything.”

“Then back off and let us handle it. You have enough trouble on your hands. Stop trying to save the world and save yourself. Don’t be a martyr.”

She drew in a deep breath, counted and released it. “Are you done with the lecture? We’re wasting time.”

He didn’t speak again but set off on the pathway. After one mile, Sam stopped and crouched down. She squinted and saw a faint indentation in the mud.

“Path’s been used recently.” Sam stood and scrutinized her appearance.

“You need to blend. You look too American,” he muttered. He pointed at her bright blue shirt. “Got less obvious clothing in your pack?”

“All my clothing is Arcane sackcloth. What all martyr fashionistas are wearing,” she shot back.

Sam gave her a level look.

“All right. No. Nothing that can pass for local stuff.”

He scanned the area. “I’ll have to improvise. That path must lead to a house. There’ll be something there we can buy. And that hair has to go.”

Sam had tied a black bandanna with a skull and crossbones around his head. With his scuffed boots, cargo pants and shirt, he looked like a rugged college student backpacking across Honduras.

Not her. The designer jeans were torn at the knee, and the shirt was smudged with dirt, grime and sweat. She looked like a refugee from a war zone.

“Some covert operator I’d make.” Kelly sighed.

His expression softened. “I’ll take care of it. I don’t see smoke up ahead, so either the homeowners aren’t there or they don’t have enough food to bother with a cooking fire. I’ll do the talking.”

A pathway wound up the mountain, giving way to a cornfield where stalks grew waist-high. The rough-hewn mud-and-stick house sat beside the field. Tied between two palm trees was a faded blue-and-yellow hammock where a woman rocked a skinny toddler in her arms. Lines bracketed her weary mouth, but her eyes were kind, her expression curious.

Sam spoke rapid Spanish. Kelly hid her surprise. Even his accent was impeccable, as if he’d lived here many years.

The woman introduced herself as Rosa. She set down the sleeping toddler in the hammock and motioned for Kelly to follow her inside.

Small but clean, with a simple dirt floor, the house had two rooms, each with a separate entrance. Newspapers were stuffed into several cracks in the adobe. Inside the bedroom, Rosa poured a pitcher of water into a plastic basin and set it on a wood table. She removed a shirt from clothing that was neatly stacked on a blue barrel and handed it to Kelly while Sam hovered outside.

When Kelly expressed her thanks, the woman smiled sadly and left. Sam stepped into the room. As she washed her face, sighing with relief at the cool water, he hunted through his pack and produced a khaki bandanna. “Use this to cover your hair. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to cut it.”

Regret etched his face as he lifted a strand of her long hair and rubbed it between his fingers. “It brands you, makes you stand out. So soft, smooth, crimson silk.”

She took the bandanna. “I’ll make it work.”

“You always do. You’re the queen of improvising.”

His intent scrutiny made her flush, the way he looked at her with admiration flaring into frank sexual awareness. Sam was a lethal warrior, leashed strength with a hard edge. The boy she’d adored had turned into a man.

The moment was too intense, too intimate. She remembered another time she’d improvised, when they’d been hot and eager for each other but lacked privacy. The skies had opened up and it poured, but Kelly had tugged him into the woods, sloshing through the wet grass until they reached the forest. Naked in the rain, they’d made love beneath the trees. It had been wild and exhilarating and primitive, his wet skin rubbing against hers, the passion flaring in his eyes as he took her...

Oh, boy. Judging from the heated look on his face, he remembered, as well. Keeping the sensual memories at bay, Kelly dangled the bandanna.

“No pink, not even a hint of mauve? You tough navy SEALs don’t carry a supply of fashionable bandannas? I can’t wear this. You never know when Vogue will be doing a photo shoot in the forest. I simply need accessories with designer labels.”

Kelly redid her hair and tied on the bandanna. She examined the white T-shirt. Ragged and slightly small, but clean. She shrugged off her grimy blouse and folded it, placing it in her pack. Behind her Sam inhaled sharply.

“Lace. You still wear...lace.”

She glanced down at her pink silk bra with its scalloped edges of lace. She’d forgotten her famous weakness for pretty lingerie.

He had not.

Sam stepped forward, tracing the outline of the bra’s edges with a forefinger. “So delicate,” he murmured.

Heat suffused her body as if his touch were a firebrand. Kelly trembled, unable to break the contact, not certain if she wanted to stop him.

He raised his smoldering gaze and focused on her parted lips. This time she did not move away. Kelly moistened her mouth.

With a low sound, he bent his head and kissed her.

His mouth, so firm and yet soft and warm, commanded her with each lazy stroke of his tongue. The Mage knew how to kiss, knew how to take her arousal and hike it up several notches. He kissed her into a drugged oblivion, just like that first time, as if they had all the time in the world. Everything ceased to exist except this man and his mouth working magick on hers.

He tasted like coffee and the promise of sex. He kissed like a man who knew what he wanted and would not stop until he had it. The kiss of a man who intended to tip her back on the bed, spread her legs and love her until the soft rose of sunrise peeked through the windows.

Kelly made a humming noise of pleasure deep in her throat and slid her hands around the thick muscles of his neck. He muttered something against her mouth and pulled her tight.

She played with the fine strands of his hair, enjoying the silk slipping through her fingers...lost in the sensation of his mouth and his hands on her bottom, drawing her tight against his hips, his erection.

The silk beneath her fingers was much shorter now....

She drew up short and gasped into his mouth. Sam broke off the kiss abruptly. Green flared in his eyes, overriding the brown. Though he was equally affected, his pulse was steady and his breathing unlabored.

Male voices outside. Sam jerked away, alert and aware, his expression hardening. Stunned, she stepped back as he withdrew his gun. She’d known this man for years, had given him her body, had listened to all his hopes and dreams...

Watching him turn from a passionate lover into a dangerous warrior, Kelly realized she didn’t know him at all.

She shivered. The focused stranger before her, cupping a pistol in his hands with a warrior’s expert stance, was a man she’d never want to call an enemy.

“Stay back,” he whispered and crept to the doorway.

Kelly dressed in silence. With the back of one hand, Sam lifted the curtain fluttering in the breeze, his sharp gaze scanning outside. A shaft of sunlight glinted off the pistol’s muzzle. Craning her neck, she glimpsed a man outside wearing a stained white cowboy hat and carrying a shotgun.

Sweat streamed down her temples. If she was caught this time, it would be bad, making the beatings on the island feel like kisses.

They’d do far worse to Sam.

Quiet, so quiet, only the distant cackle of birds in the trees, the hum of insects, the murmur of voices and the rapid pounding of her heart.

Sam let the curtain fall as the voices drifted down the pathway.

His expression was grim as he turned. “We’re leaving.”

“Who were they?”

“Locals. But they’re clearly searching for you, and they’re armed. They asked Rosa if she’d seen a woman with bright red hair, shiny like metal. Someone is paying a very nice price to find you.”

The curtain jerked aside and Rosa poked her head into the room. She spoke a volley of Spanish Kelly could barely understand. But Sam nodded.

As the woman returned to the yard, Sam shouldered his pack.

“Rosa told the men she heard of a woman with such hair who was headed to the main road, looking for a bus back to Tegus.”

“She put them off our trail,” Kelly said, relieved.

“For a while. And they’re only searching for a woman traveling solo. Not a couple.” Sam was grim as he checked his weapon.

“Did Rosa ask who wanted to find me?”

Anger glittered in his eyes. “El Gran Jefe. A man with dark eyes like the dead, skin stretched over his skull. A powerful man with whispered magick. He’s paying enough cash to keep a village fed for five years.”

El Gran Jefe. The big boss. Kelly thought of the shimmering Death Mask she’d seen at the bar. Was this Mage here, tracking her down?

“This bastard isn’t taking any chances. He probably hired a few ex-army soldiers to find you, in case the ambush failed.”

Digging into her pack, Kelly found a fistful of lempira notes. The money would be enough to buy food for a month for the woman and her son.

Sam would balk. If they left money, whoever was searching for them would know foreigners had been here. But she couldn’t leave this hungry family without helping them.

Turning back to explain, she caught his startled expression.

Wallet in hand, he’d withdrawn several lempira bills.

Sam gave a sheepish grin. They laughed.

The laughter faded, pinching her hard in the chest. How many times in the past had they shared moments like this? When they did things in secret to amend a situation, only to find out the other one had done exactly the same thing?

“Remember when we tied up my dog because he kept following us, and I felt so guilty about it, I returned later to untie him, telling you I’d be right back, and when I got there...”

“He was already gone and the ropes were in my hand. Oops,” Kelly finished.

Sam’s deep chuckle filled the room. “You were always one step ahead of me, Kel.”

Except the night his family died and he was plunged into the abyss.

“What—” She cleared her throat. “Whatever happened to Whiskey Sour?”

Sam tensed. “I gave him to a neighbor who promised to take good care of him. I had to make sure he had a good home. Whiskey was the only member of my family your father didn’t kill that night.”

Stung, she stared at him. “I told you before, my father couldn’t have set that fire. That wasn’t him we saw running from the house that night.”

“Sure looked a hell of a lot like the man.”

“My father never would have hurt your family. He resented working for your father, but he didn’t hate him. But your father...” Damn, this hurt, and she knew it would hurt him, as well. Sam had idolized his father. But he had to know.

“Your father hated me. He wanted me off his property. He offered me money to leave.”

Incredulity filled his gaze.

“He offered fifty thousand dollars if my father and I moved away, Sam.” Her voice dropped. “And if we didn’t take the money, he’d find a way of making us leave.”

Sam shook his head. “He’d never do that.”

“He made the offer to my father the night before the fire. I overheard them talking. They were both angry.”

“You never said anything to the authorities.” A line dented between his brows. “Why, Kelly? Because you knew it would implicate your father? It looks like he had a damn good reason for getting rid of my family, before they got rid of you.”

Her hands went cold and clammy at the fury flashing in his eyes. “If I’d told them, they’d have used it to lock me up for good. I wanted to tell the truth.” Kelly drew in a trembling breath.

“You didn’t tell me,” he said slowly.

“You’d already been hurt enough.”

“No, Kelly. You didn’t trust me. After everything we’d shared, you thought I’d turn you in. Because I’m an Elemental, the race your kind has been taught to loathe and fear.”

Silence draped between them.

“Blood ties.” Sam gave a bitter laugh. “How the hell could I be so damn blind? You chose your people over mine, after I was willing to give up everything for you.”

“Don’t judge me. You’re the one who left.”

He went still, watching her with a guarded look.

Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Maybe I didn’t tell you right away, but you never gave me the chance to try. You didn’t stick around long enough to say goodbye.”

His chest heaved, as if he struggled to contain everything inside him. Sam turned. “I couldn’t.”

No more words. Words got them mired in a past they both wanted to forget. Kelly glanced around for a place to hide money for Rosa.

The bed was a pile of boards covered neatly by a hand-stitched quilt. He stuffed his money beneath the cloth. When she went to do the same, he shook his head.

“Keep it. There’s enough to buy food for a month and get herself a little business. If something happens to me, you’ll need money to get out of trouble.”

Rosa gave a real smile as they left, the lingering sadness gone. Sam’s manner was professional, and when he told her about the money, he said it was in exchange for the clothing. Nothing to make her feel humbled. Rosa straightened. In her stance, Kelly saw a pride previously lacking. She went to a woodpile, removed a machete and handed it to Sam.

“Use this as a weapon,” Rosa said. Anger filled her brown eyes. “Those men, they are not bad men. They only want to feed their families. But hunting people like animals is not the way. I’d starve before turning over another. My husband would not approve of men hunting others. He survived the war in El Salvador, and he saw what humans can do to each other.”

“Where is your husband?” Sam asked gently.

Moisture filled the woman’s eyes. “He fell ill from disease. By the time we found enough money to take him to the hospital, the doctors could not save him. I fear sometimes that the same will happen to Miguel. I don’t know how I’d survive if I lost my son.”

Kelly pressed the woman’s hands. They were thin and bony, bearing the scars of a hard life. “When we are safe, we will return and check on you and your little boy.”

Rosa hugged her and gave Sam directions. She waved goodbye as they took a barely perceptible pathway behind her home. A shortcut through the forest, Rosa insisted. It would lead to a road seldom used by anyone but villagers on market day.

The thin ribbon of worn grass wended through a thatch of banana trees and scrub. Sam used the machete to hack through the bushes. It was slow, and knowing there were desperate, impoverished men after her made Kelly even more anxious.

She glanced around at the sadly neglected field, the dying and dead banana trees choked by dust and drought. No wonder men were willing to turn her over for money.

“Money makes life easier. You don’t live in fear of being evicted, or making a mistake and losing your job. My father sometimes said...”

She bit her lip. Sam didn’t want to hear about his enemy.

“What?” Sam sliced another banana leaf. “Are you telling me now that blackmail wasn’t all my father did? Because my father was an Elemental who hated your kind?”

The sarcastic tone stung.

“You don’t know, Sam. You’re not an Arcane, you’ve never faced discrimination or lived with the fear of getting kicked out of your home or losing your job. Your family did treat us well enough. But...”

He turned and looked at her. “But what?”

Kelly shook her head. “Doesn’t matter.”

Sam sighed. “It matters to me. I want to know.”

“Leave it. It’s in the past.”

“I need to understand, Kelly. We’re facing issues a hell of a lot larger than the two of us. A war that could wipe out both our people.”

He cut a few leaves, and they moved forward again.

“Arcanes have no rights. Your family was kind, but it was still your land, your home.” Kelly held down a branch so Sam could cut it. “We had no voice if your father decided to turn against us. I was taught if I didn’t obey an Elemental, he could have me tossed into prison. Our lives were always on the edge because of what your father could do to us.”

He turned to look at her, his expression fierce. “I’d never have allowed it. If I knew, I’d have fought tooth and nail to keep you there.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the determination in his husky voice. She believed him. But now circumstances had pulled them apart for good. Sam was a dedicated soldier, calling the navy and his SEAL teammates family now. He’d managed to move on with his life.

Kelly just wished she could, too. But no matter how hard she’d tried, he still remained in her heart, a small ache in the night.