Free Dangerous to Hold by Merline Lovelace Page A

be in and out of there before you know it. I’m guessing this little operation will be over within twenty-four hours—two or three days at the most.”

Chapter 5
    â€œA aaarrrooo—ooo—gaaahhh!”
    The distant, raucous roar brought Jake to instant awareness. He lay still in the predawn darkness as eerie, deep-throated answering calls echoed through the surrounding hills. A troop of howler monkeys were staking out their feeding area for the day, their deep bass wails warning other troops away from their territory.
    Listening to the dominant male who lead the gravelly chorus, Jake felt a decided kinship with the shaggy-maned, bearded animal. He’d done everything but howl himself in the past twenty-four hours to keep the other men in camp away from his territory.
    The big, pig-eyed lieutenant had wanted to put the blue-eyed médica to work on the fungal diseases and chafed skin common to men who traveled through the wet jungles. Jake had managed to convince him that the complaints could wait. She wouldn’t be much use to anyone, as exhausted as she was. He’d won her a day, two at the most, he figured.
    Not that Sister Sarah seemed to appreciate his efforts on her behalf.
    After two days in this sweatbox, anyone else would’ve lost some of their starch. Not her. Although she’d exchanged her habit for the baggy cotton clothes he’d procured for her, she was as stiff-backed and prickly as ever. It still rankled when he remembered how she’d snatched the little three year old away last night. The boy had tugged on Jake’s pant leg, asking if he really shooted people. Those damned beryl eyes of hers had flashed with scorn as she shushed the child and told him not to bother Señor Creighton.
    Creighton, for crissakes.
    Jake would have stalked out of the hut then, but a rumble of hoarse laughter outside had told him the men had decided to take advantage of Che’s absence to hit the tequila. He wasn’t particularly interested in watching the games they’d soon indulge in, nor did he dare leave the sister unprotected long enough to slip into the jungle and retrieve his backup transmitter. He’d have to try tonight. Tomorrow at the latest. Maggie wouldn’t, couldn’t, give him much longer than that.
    Twenty-four more hours, Jake told himself. Forty-eight at the most. That was all he had. With luck, that was all he’d need. Che ought to have the new drop set up by then. As soon as Jake got word—and managed to retrieve his backup transmitter!—he’d tell Maggie to have an extraction team stand by. They’d swoop in and pick up the sister and the children the minute Jake led the patrol out of camp en route to the drop site. The extraction teams OMEGA used were good, a composite of elite special forces from the U.S. and the host country. The team would execute the entire rescue in radio silence, using silenced weapons and a swift, harmless gas that effectively precluded resistance. No one outside the immediate area would have any idea of what was going down. By the time Jake was a mile down the trail, the little nun beside him would be safely on her way back to her convent.
    The thought made him frown in the darkness.
    He lifted the net tent and rolled off the thin, lumpy mat.Dawn would come shortly, with its usual sudden swiftness. He might as well see about breakfast for his little extended family.
    An hour later, Jake dropped a battered frying pan onto the crate that did double duty as a table.
    â€œHere, I fried up some bananas.”
    An aroma of cinnamon and glazed sugar drifted across the already hot and humid air. The big cooking bananas, sliced lengthwise and fried to a crisp, would make a filling, nutritious breakfast.
    Sister Sarah glanced up in surprise, and Jake struggled to contain his involuntary start. Even after a day and a night in the woman’s company, he still wasn’t used to the sight of her scrubbed,