Free Power: Special Tactical Units Division (In Wilde Country Book 3) by Sandra Marton Page B

night in it.
    A tall palm tree loomed ahead. He eyed the trunk, the lowest and then the highest branches. It would do as a lookout site, he decided, and he swung around.
    “Hey,” he said, but the woman was walking with her head down and she kept coming, straight into him. No swaying this time. No tremors. If he hadn’t caught her in his arms, she’d have gone down.
    She mumbled something. It sounded like “Sorry.”
    Tanner’s jaw tightened.
    She had nothing to be sorry about. If she was on the verge of collapse, it was because he’d pushed her harder than he should have the last few miles. He’d told himself it was necessary, but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe he’d been venting his personal feelings about women like her. Maybe he’d been judging her.
    Maybe?
    Well, hell.
    His job was to get her out of San Escobal and back to the States. Nothing more.
    There was a tree stump off to the side. He kept his arm around her, drew her with him as he checked the stump for bugs and snakes. Then he eased her onto it and crouched before her. Her face was pale and sweaty. Her eyes had a glassy shine.
    Shit. Was she running a fever?
    He pushed a hank of hair off her forehead, then pressed his palm to it. No fever. It wasn’t the most scientific method, but it worked. Still, once they stopped for the night, he’d get a couple of antibiotic capsules into her.
    For now, all he could do was keep her moving.
    “Just a little farther,” he said. “Then we’ll take a real break.”
    She gave a weak laugh. “You’d be lying on a beach in Guatemala by now without me holding you back.”
    He smiled, despite himself. “The beaches in Guatemala are overrated.” He paused. “We need to find a place to spend the night.”
    She squinted up at the sky, or what was visible of it through the canopy of trees. “Sunset won’t be for another couple of hours.”
    “Right. But we don’t want to be on this trail then. It’s liable to get kind of busy.”
    “The peccaries?”
    “And other stuff.”
    “Jaguars,” she said.
    Jaguars. Her wanting to turn them into coats because she had nothing better to do with her life. That was what had started all of this.
    Tanner got to his feet.
    “Yeah. Jaguars. Though no self-respecting cat is going to show itself to us if it can help it. Even if it did, you seem to have left your rifle back at the place where Mutt and Jeff captured you.”
    She looked up.
    “Skinny and Stubby.”
    “Whatever.”
    “And why would I want a gun?”
    “It would be hard to drape a live cat around your shoulders.”
    The expression on her face said he’d lost his mind. Maybe so. Hadn’t he just told himself that he wasn’t here to sit in judgment on her?
    “Okay,” he said briskly. “Stay put. I’m gonna shinny up that tree and see if I can find us a Motel 6.”
    She nodded, and for a couple of seconds, all the weariness in the world showed in her eyes. Then she flashed a quick smile.
    “As long as it has flush toilets and room service.”
    Despite himself, he laughed.
    * * *
    The place he found was a clearing on a patch of slightly elevated ground.
    It lacked toilets and room service, but Alessandra was still ready to call it paradise.
    Tall palms stood in a tight cluster, their fronds waving in a breeze just strong enough to discourage mosquitoes and other flying creatures.
    Superman grabbed a heavy-looking stick and smacked it against the trunk of the biggest tree. Two small dark things flew out of the top branches and flapped away.
    “Bats,” he said.
    Bats were okay. There were endless varieties in the rainforest. The only ones that made her shudder were the ones that lived on blood—the vampires—but other kinds, and there were many, she could deal with.
    Superman kicked aside a small pile of dead leaves. A centipede made a dash for freedom,
    She couldn’t deal with centipedes. Or millipedes. Things with more legs than any creature could possibly need, but she saw the look Supe sent her when the