To be fair, shehadstarted it, and shehadcome. It was not as if she hadn’t enjoyed it. But he’d been so rough with her. After everything she’d been through . . .
If you had waited until it was safer, until you had more time . . .
He would make it up to her when they reached Sells. In the meantime, he was going to find where he’d put the damned condoms he’d bought and make sure he kept one where he could easily grab it. The chemistry between them was combustible. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to lose control and come inside her, and he didnotwant to do that to her.
He glanced back to make sure she truly was okay, then focused his mind on footprints in the sand, not because he wanted to track the drug runners who’d passed by them, but because he wanted to avoid them. He’d watched them disappear beyond the draw just ahead. If he and Natalie followed the draw west, they might be able to avoid them and still stay on course. The traffickers had clearly heard them and knew someone else was in the area. They would be ready and waiting.
He crouched down as they neared the draw, his gaze searching through thick stands of mesquite, looking for any sign of movement.Nada.“This way.”
They traveled west along the draw until it vanished into a tangle of tamarisk and ocotillo, then made their way carefully northward again, flushing a small herd of javelinas out of a patch of prickly pear where they’d been feasting.
“Look!” She pointed, a smile on her face. “Wild pigs!”
“They have razor-sharp tusks, so don’t try to hug one.”
Zach kept his gaze on the sand, wishing he had Jason Chiago’s skill with cutting sign. But Jason had been born to it. He could read the desert like no one Zach had ever seen. Zach had trained with him for a couple of weeks during his first year with the Marshal Service. He’d learned a lot, but not enough to match even the least skilled Shadow Wolf.
They stopped at 0300 hours to rest and refuel, Zach introducing her to the joys of MREs.
“That’s a fudge brownie?” She stared down at the food in her hand. “It tastes more like—”
“Chocolate-flavored cardboard? Eat the entire thing. You need it.”
“Yes, sir!” She gave him a mock salute, but dutifully took another bite, washing it down with a sip from her hydration pack.
She still hadn’t uttered a single word of complaint, but Zach could see the exhaustion on her face. “I had planned to go on past dawn. Are you up to that?”
She nodded again.
But two hours later it was clear that she wasn’t going to hold out. Dead on her feet, she stumbled after him, misery and fatigue etched in every feature of her pretty face.
“We’re going to find a place to camp and stop for the night.”
“Okay.” She started to sit.
He grabbed her shoulder harness and drew her back to her feet. “Not here, angel. We need to find someplace sheltered. Stay with me, okay?”
“Okay.”
Thirty minutes later he’d found a rock ledge overhanging a space wide enough for the two of them. It was protected on one side by a gully and hidden on the other by a thick stand of mesquite. Best of all, it faced west—away from the rising sun.
He took Natalie’s pack and sat her down on a nearby rock with orders to eat another so-called brownie. He made sure the area under the overhang was arachnid and snake free, then set out the wool blanket he’d brought. Grabbing two ibuprofen from his pack, he carried them to her. “Take these, then drink the rest of your water.”
She didn’t even ask what the pills were, but swallowed them with several gulps from her hydration pack.
“It’s bedtime.”
“Thank God.” She stood, took his hand, and let him lead her to the little camp he’d made, her movements wooden. She stopped and glanced upward, speaking in a sleepy voice. “I never knew there were so many stars.”
He sat on the blanket. She sat beside him, her head falling against his chest. And he realized that she was already sound asleep.
Chuckling to himself, he lowered her to the blanket, removed his jacket, and draped it over her to ward off the nighttime chill. Then he grabbed the AK and leaned back against the rock to keep watch, his gaze returning again and again to her face.
NATALIE WAS SOUND asleep when something jabbed her on the butt—hard. She opened her eyes, found herself lying on her stomach on a thick wool blanket, the sun already up. And for a moment she thought she’d imagined being poked.
Then it happened again—a painful, sharp jab.
She rolled over, saw something big and black standing beside her, and screamed.