“We need to locate our targets and find out what we’re up against. Once we’ve got the intel we need, we’ll figure how to get them out.” Bran’s gaze went to Harper, who was leaning back against a tree trunk, her eyes closed, half-asleep. “How’s she holding up?”
“Helluva lot better than I ever would have guessed.”
Bran smiled. “You always thought she was special. Looks like you were right.”
He’d been right about Harper. And he wanted her the way he had never wanted a woman before. “Looks like” was all he said.
Bran walked over and raked his boot through the dirt around the campfire, extinguishing the last of the flames, leaving the camp in darkness except for a sliver of moonlight that passed in and out between the clouds.
“Let’s get some sleep,” Bran said. “We should be okay tonight, but you can’t be too careful. Two-hour shifts. Kil first, you, then me.”
Chase nodded. A ray of moonlight lit the jungle long enough for him to make his way over to Harper. He crouched in front of her, tipped up her chin with his fingers and watched her eyes slowly flutter open.
“Come on, angel. Time for bed.” Inwardly he groaned as the words slipped off his tongue.Dammit.He needed to keep his mind out of the gutter.
“’Kay.” Harper rose sleepily from the log. Digging a flashlight out of his pocket, Chase scanned the area around the clearing and they climbed up on the pallet, where he had laid out their bedrolls.
He took off his boots, stretched his socks over the tops to keep out unwanted visitors and set them aside.
Harper watched and did the same. “You seem to know a lot about this stuff,” she said, a little more awake than she had been. “Have you been in the jungle before?”
“I spent a lot of time camping out on the ranch when I was a kid. Still go as often as I can, but I don’t think the jungles of Texas count. That and military survival training. Under these conditions, it all comes back pretty fast.”
“You definitely handled that snake. I’m just glad we didn’t have to eat it.”
He chuckled as he slid into his bedroll, and Harper lay down beside him. He could no longer see her, but she was close enough he could hear her breathing and feel the heat of her body.
He thought she had fallen asleep until she shifted on the pallet. “What happened between you and my father?” she asked softly.
“He never told you?”
“I asked him, but he said it was none of my business.”
“My dad wouldn’t talk about it, either. But your father’s animosity extends to the whole Garrett clan. When I was younger, he tolerated me for Michael’s sake. After your brother got involved in drugs, I confronted your dad. Michael had overdosed for the third time and nearly died. I told your father the way he had treated his son made him at least partly responsible. We argued. It was bad. After that, things went downhill.”
“And your friendship with Michael ended.”
“By then I believed no one could save Michael but himself. Maybe that was wrong. At the time, I felt I had no choice.”
“Something turned him around. Losing his best friend, one of the few people who really cared about him, may have been at least partly responsible.”
“Whatever it was, I’m glad it worked.”
“Me, too,” she said softly. She shifted again in the darkness. “So what do Bran and Kil think about you sleeping with me?” she asked, beginning to sound sleepy again.
Chase blocked the image that popped into his head. “I’m not sleeping with you. I’m lying next to you on a bedroll in the jungle. You hired me. I brought you here. That makes you my responsibility. That’s what they think.”
“Oh.”
He didn’t say he wouldn’t have let any other man near her. In some strange way, she was his. Maybe it wouldn’t be for longer than these few days, but for now she belonged to him. He wouldn’t let anyone or anything hurt her.
“Go to sleep, angel. I’m taking the second shift. I need to get some rest.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled, yawning.
“None of this is your fault, honey. Your brother is lucky to have someone who cares about him the way you do.”
She made no reply, thank Christ. Just the sound of her voice was making him hard. Fortunately, his military training kicked in and in several slow breaths he was asleep. He didn’t wake up until two hours later when Harper released a bloodcurdling scream.
