Free Marked in Mexico by Kim McMahill Page B

moved with the cunning stealth of a jaguar. He hadn’t used these skills in years, but it all came back to him in a rush. He slipped through the jungle without a sound. When he arrived back at where he’d begun, he silently raced toward the place where he had left Jessica and Megan.
    The sounds of men running through the trees in the opposite direction verified he had been successful in throwing them off course, but the ploy had wasted a lot of time. Jack imagined them looking for a dead or wounded man and losing focus on their mission. By the time they realized they had been fooled, he would be long.
    Jack had no idea how long he had been gone since Jessica had the only watch, but hoped it hadn’t been more than sixty minutes. She seemed like the resourceful type and in most situations he figured she could take care of herself, and Megan was coming around, but the danger level had just skyrocketed with the addition of Las Culebras .
    Las Culebras were a group of elite Mexican commandos who had been trained by U.S. forces in the United States to combat the drug cartels and to try and stem the tide of illegal trafficking in drugs and human cargo across the border into the United States. The plan had started out well, but once trained most of the commandos switched sides and worked for the cartels. Some were still being paid by the U.S. government, but most weren’t and it was impossible to tell who was who, which made them all the more dangerous. They controlled much of the border region through fear and intimidation. They were extremely violent, ruthless, well-trained and heavily armed.
    Jack was exhausted from all the running, but pressed on. Once the women left, it would be very difficult to find them in the jungle and they would be on their own. He had hoped that once the drugs were returned the men wouldn’t try to track them, but after what he had seen, he doubted they'd be so lucky.

    He was starting to piece together what was going on and it made his mind reel. Scenes from his past, which he’d hoped to never relive, came rushing back in full color and deafening sounds. If their kidnappers brought in Las Culebras , there was something huge at stake and he was getting the sinking suspicion Jessica held the answer to what that might be. There was more to her story and he intended to find out what just as soon as he got his hands on her.

Chapter Twelve
     
    Shots sounded in the far distance. Jessica and Megan leapt to their feet and turned to face the noise. Jessica glanced at the watch. It was seven-fifty. If they followed Jack’s instructions, they would leave in ten minutes.
    “If those shots are for Jack and somehow he’s eluded them, he may just now be leaving the house. I say we give him thirty minutes from this point. What do you think? Leave in ten like he told us or leave in thirty?”
    “I say let’s give him thirty, but let’s bundle up this stuff, hide and be ready to run if we’re wrong.”
    “I like the way you think.” Jessica shook out the pillowcase the grenades had been wrapped in and loaded the blanket, water jug and tortillas. Jessica secured the pillowcase’s top using a strap she had removed from the pack before Jack left. The strap was long enough for her to slip it over her head and across her shoulder for easy carrying.
    While she adjusted the strap, she noticed Megan retrieve the rifle Jack had left behind. Megan examined it closely then slung the rifle over her shoulder. With their meager supplies loaded, they left the small clearing and hid behind a tree to wait.
    The flutter of bats and the whine of hungry mosquitoes seemed unnaturally loud to Jessica as she strained to hear some indication of a human presence. She swatted at the pests and found the vibrating sounds of locust and crickets unnerving. Croaking frogs surrounded them, but what she really feared was night-hunting snakes. She glanced over at Megan and read none of the same anxiety. The woman was cool and focused and