Free To the Brink by Cindy Gerard Page B

the road to ruin?"
     
    Ah yes. There had been talk about ruination, hadn't there? And she'd more or less told him to bring it on.
     
    "Here's another question. I'm not going to hear any talk about Rocketman from you again, am I?"
     
    Eyes closed, she smiled and arched into the wonderful feel of his rough hand playing so gently with her breast. "Depends," she said, turning her head on the pillow to look at him.
     
    She lifted her hand and caressed his jaw.
     
    He turned his face into her palm and lightly bit her. "On?"
     
    "On what kind of punishment you plan on meting out if I do."
     
    The smile he gave her was playful and sexy and just a little dangerous. "I was thinking more along the lines of a reward."
     
    He reached across the bed for her nightstand and his roll of Life Savers. "Want some candy, little girl?"
     
     
    JOLO ISLAND,   PHILIPPINES
    PRESENT
     
    Adrenaline pumped through Ethan's blood like he'd been straight-lining caffeine. His heart beat so hard he could hear it in his ears, feel it in the tips of his fingers. His hands shook with the rush of it; he had to steady his binoculars on the log directly in front of him so he could focus.
     
    Hunkered down on his belly behind the cover of forest grass and a rotting tree trunk approximately three feet in diameter, he peered through his binocs at the terrorist encampment twenty meters away. He ignored the mosquitoes buzzing around his face, was only peripherally aware of the screech of a hornbill echoing through the treetops high above.
     
    He only had eyes for one thing. Darcy.
     
    They'd found her. And she was alive.
     
    She's alive.
     
    Thank you, sweet Jesus God, she's alive.
     
    Now they just had to figure out how to keep her that way. Her and the unexpected other hostage.
     
    Hell. Just what they needed. A twofer.
     
    They'd caught up with the slow-moving Abu Sayyaf band a little over two hours ago. Had shadowed them from a distance, looking for an opening or a weakness that would help them plan for Darcy's extraction.
     
    It had been just half an hour or so since the tangos had stopped and made camp. For the first time since this started, Ethan was not only getting a good look at Darcy; he was also getting his first long look at what they were up against.
     
    The tangos were a ragtag band of older men, young militant bulls, and a few hungry-looking boys. Christ. Some were no more than kids but every one of them had an abundance of one thing to feed on. Hate. Hate that was spoon-fed along with their deadly jihadist doctrines.
     
    Yeah. Some were boys—and they'd grease him in a heartbeat if he gave them the chance. He didn't plan to.
     
    He scoured every area of the tight perimeters of the camp. The most vigilant were the younger ones—no doubt motivated by a do-or-die edict and yet another kind of hunger: to convince the men that they had earned their place among the ranks.
     
    Their weaponry was pretty much what he'd thought it would be. He spotted several AK-47s. Funny how the Russian-made Kalashnikovs always managed to find their way into terrorist hands. So had enough knives to stock a butcher shop, as well as an ancient but no doubt effective shoulder-mounted RPG launcher.
     
    Big surprise. They were outgunned and outnumbered—by his best count, by around thirty to three. And besides being familiar with their surroundings, the tangos had another advantage. They had nothing to lose.
     
    Ethan did. He had everything to lose.
     
    On either side of him, almost invisible in their salad suits and face paint, Dallas and Manny were also well into recon mode, counting heads, assessing weaponry, already plotting the best method of extraction.
     
    Ethan was on board with them—until he zeroed the glasses back in on Darcy and his heart started slamming around in his chest again like machine-gun fire.
     
    God, look at her.
     
    She was exhausted.
     
    She looked bruised. And so damn beautiful he could barely breathe.
     
    Her white