Savage Hunger (Project Nemesis) (4 page)

She went completely still, not wanting to give him any excuse to retaliate against her.  She didn’t know these men.  She didn’t know what they were capable of.  All she knew was that she had to survive this and get away somehow.  If she had to pretend to be a good girl and go along with their plans, then that’s what she’d do.

The position she was in did not escape her notice.

She gasped, dragging breath into her lungs.  A tension had entered every muscle in his body.  He looked down at her with some indescribable emotion in his dark blue eyes.  She looked at him, entranced.  He was breathing raggedly, as if he’d just run a race, but she knew she hadn’t put up enough of a fight to cause him that kind of exertion.

He was fighting for control over himself.

He shifted suddenly, bringing that hard ridge of muscle against her softness.  A shudder rippled through him.

“You know you could hurt her,” Dante said gruffly from the door.  “Remember what we talked about?”

“I know this.  You think I forgot?”  Zach swallowed and tensed but didn’t glance back at Dante.  Slowly, he removed himself from her body.

“Don’t try to escape again.  Got it?”

Jasmine nodded, scuffling up on the bunk away from him.  Her eyes followed his hand as he adjusted the bulging spot in his fatigues.  She caught herself staring at his massive erection, mesmerized, then realizing what she was doing, dragged her eyes off his crotch.

Luckily, he hadn’t noticed.  She didn’t need to give him any reason to think she was interested.

“Now, why are you here?  And don’t give me some lame excuse about sunbathing.  We both know you don’t need a tan.”

Jasmine swallowed, hoping they’d buy the lie she’d been telling herself all day.  “I’m on vacation.”

“Doing what?” Zach asked.

“Fishing.”

He gave her a hard look.  “How about you tell us the truth?”

“What makes you think that wasn’t the truth?” she said, feeling resentful.

“I
was
fishing for the most part.  And I already said I was meeting someone here.  He just didn’t show up.”

“And why didn’t he show up?”

“I don’t know.  I don’t have cell service this far out.”

“And he couldn’t reach you by radio?”  He gave her a skeptical look.  “We’re not idiots.  Did his name happen to be Riker?”

She went stiff when she heard the name.

“It is, isn’t it?”

“No.  Not at all.  Besides, I’m not familiar with radios.”

“So you thought it was okay to go gallivanting off into the ocean with no knowledge of boating, radios, or anything else, and that nothing bad would happen to you?”  He gave an exasperated sigh.  “It doesn’t matter why you’re here or that you’re lying to us.  Keep your secrets if you want to.  That’s beside the point.  What I want to know is what you were picking up, and where you were going afterward?”

“I had a full tank when I left Miami.  I should’ve had enough to get back and then some.”

“Think you got enough to make it to Panama?  Mexico?”

She’d heard enough about those places that she knew she didn’t want to go there.  “I have no idea.  This is the first time it’s ever been out on the water.  Mom died before her and Dad could go anywhere in it.”

Just thinking about her mother made tears well up in her eyes.

They gave her a look.

She swallowed, fighting back the sting in her eyes.  She couldn’t afford to look weak in front of them.  “There’s a map and manual under the ignition with charts.  In a cabinet.  It’s pretty idiot proof, which is the only way I managed to get out here.  Really, y’all don’t need me for anything.  I already told you you can have the boat if you’ll drop me off.”

Lucas, who’d joined them, nodded and left to go look for charts and the manual.  Zach knew Riker’s cousin had set her up to be here to pick them up.  He supposed his cousin hadn’t managed to get his own boat or it would’ve been him meeting them here and not her.  Jasmine was naïve enough to be tricked into it.  He didn’t know what his cousin had done to convince her to come out into the middle of nowhere, but it was obviously a really good lie.  She didn’t seem like the type to just go for anything.  She had that innocent law-abiding attitude that most people had.

“She’s up to something, Zach,” Dante said, eyeing her suspiciously.

Jasmine crossed her arms over her chest, trying to look innocent.  “I haven’t done anything wrong.  You’ve searched all over the boat and didn’t find anything.”

“Should we have?” Zach asked.  “You smuggling drugs on this thing or waiting on a pickup?  Don’t think we’re ignorant of this business and that you can pull one over on us.”

Jasmine felt the color leave her face.  They were smarter than she’d originally supposed.  “Can I get cleaned up and change?  I’ve been sweating all day out here and I’m sticky.”

“You didn’t answer the question.”  He studied her a long moment.  “Sure, go ahead, but if you aren’t out in five minutes, I’m coming in to get you.”

They left her alone in the room.  She damned sure didn’t want to be walking around tempting a dozen horny soldiers.  She didn’t need that kind of problem.  If they were having trouble controlling themselves, it was just asking for trouble.

It didn’t take her but a few minutes to soap up and rinse off.  She didn’t bother washing her hair since it was already clean, but it felt better getting the thick scent from her skin.

When she got out of the head, she half expected them to be sitting there waiting on her for a show.  Relief flooded her that the room was empty, and she slipped her clothes on and brushed her hair.

As much as she hated the fact that she was trapped on the boat, she hadn’t really relished the idea of swimming for safety in the middle of the ocean.  She might not have ever reached land or gotten eaten alive by a shark.  More than likely, she would’ve drowned to death.  She’d never been a really strong swimmer and given that it was dark, she’d probably have headed out to see instead of inland.

She hadn’t been familiar with the bowels of the boat other than to know where all the hatches were.  The life raft she was pretty sure was somewhere up at steerage, which meant she would’ve had to face the other men.  Who knew what would have happened had she gotten to go through with her escape attempt.

It was just that she’d been struck by a moment of terror-filled stupidity that if she’d had time to think about, she probably wouldn’t have attempted any such thing.

She was left wondering how it was that American soldiers would be kept prisoner here, when it was supposed to be terrorists and the like.  Had they betrayed their country?

Feeling exhausted by her trials, Jasmine curled up on a bunk, hoping to find a little sleep before being grilled again.

Chapter Three

Lucas was pouring over the manual and charts when Zach finally arrived.

“See anything,” Zach asked.

“I’ve been looking at the manual.  Haven’t gotten to the charts yet.  I figured you’d want to go over those when you got in here.”

“Okay.  There has to be somewhere we can go where we won’t be pursued or where we can at least hide out until the heat is off.  I’ll check out the charts.”  Zach looked them over, settling on the area they were in and possibilities of where to go.  Panama was probably out.  Mexico could work or somewhere in South America.

He didn’t want to go into hiding, but he didn’t figure they had a lot of choice in the matter.  As much as they’d wanted to be cured, the facility hadn’t demonstrated any interest in curing them of the virus infecting them.  If it was like most viruses, it could be years or never before something happened.

If they thought they were going to create ultimate soldiers with it, he figured the chances of treatment were probably next to nothing.

That didn’t mean they couldn’t find someone in say, Brazil to do something for them.  They had plenty of doctors and willing patients in South America.  And there was opportunity for them to find work as mercenaries or security if they had to stay.

The chances that the military was looking for them were good.  They’d probably set up a nationwide manhunt for their escapees.  Florida was too obvious, as was the Caribbean and anywhere in that area.  It was too much to hope they’d gotten what they’d needed from them in the months they’d been there and that they were just going to let them go without a fight.

Worse than being experimented on had been the final realization that they weren’t trying to cure them, that they were trying to isolate the virus and replicate it to produce more monsters like they’d become.

He’d been pissed beyond belief that they would want to unleash something like this on the world.  Or onto another soldier.

As much as he might want to stop them, they were badly outmatched and outgunned.  And he was pretty sure they’d continue to work on their experiments with or without them.  It was just that now they had to worry about cleaning up evidence in case anyone discovered what they’d been doing to innocent people.

No, it was better to try and pass themselves off somewhere else and start a new life.  Everything they’d ever known and loved was lost to them now.  They couldn’t go back to their homes and previous lives without putting them in danger.

Zach was just glad none of them had children to leave behind.  He wasn’t sure he’d be able to go on if that was the case.  At least for himself.  He couldn’t say for certainty how anyone else would feel about it.

Their first change was a distant, bloody memory.  All he could really recall was pain and rage.  He could remember being pelted with bullets and water filling his lungs, but that was about it.  When he’d first realized he should be dead, that holes littered his body but were closed and healing, that was when he knew he would never be the same again.

Shock and horror had prevented him from escaping at first, along with that hope that the government cared about their soldiers and were honestly trying to treat them.

He’d gone on with that hope for far too long.  Long enough to give them too much power and ammunition against them.

Going public was not an option.  The reaction to them could go favorably, which was unlikely, or they would be right back where they started from—imprisoned, experimented on, and finally exterminated.  More than likely people would just think they were insane…until they saw them change.  Fear was a huge motivating factor for most people, and he knew the human race well enough to know that they killed what made them afraid.

Shaking his head at the morbid turn of his thoughts, he focused on the task at hand, trying to find them a new home.  Lucas finally got up and headed down to the engine room to check the fuel levels and reserves.

Dante took the wheel, peering out into the darkness beyond.  “How’s it look?  Any way to get home?”

“It’s not safe.  We might not ever go home again.  Those days are over,” Zach said, looking up.

“I think we all figured as much,” Dante said.  “It’s hard not to hold onto that hope, you know.”

“I know.  But we’re all big boys here.  We knew when we escaped, if we managed to live, we weren’t going back home.  Let’s gather on the deck and discuss the what’s available to us.”

They left the woman below, sleeping.  He didn’t want to have to worry about her distracting his men.  They needed their heads about them.  It was hard enough that they’d all gone through a change and were no longer the men they’d once been.

Beyond that, he had no right to run them, since it was pretty apparent they were no longer part of the military.  At worst, they were AWOL, or be considered dead to their friends and family.  He couldn’t risk pushing them too far with too much unknown.

The change that had come over them was nearly impossible to control and completely unpredictable.  Zach had no way of knowing how they’d react to anything, anymore, regardless of the fact that he’d been on many missions with all of them.

Zach faced the group, looking at their hard faces.

“All right, men.  According to the gauges, we have enough fuel to make it to the coast here.”  He pointed to the map.  “If we’re lucky, they won’t have figured out we’ve changed course after the chase, since it was more likely we’d hit up Florida than anywhere else.  When we get there, we’ll have to split up to keep it harder for them to track us.  I suggest groups of three.  We’ll stop here and here.  The final group will come here.  We’ll have to ditch the boat at that point to avoid detection.”

“What about supplies?”

“We’ll just have to split up what’s on board between us.  When we land, keep a low profile.  Don’t go around leaving a trail of bodies in your wake.  We have to blend in with the locals.”

“What if we start to change?  We’re good until the moon starts getting full,” Lucas asked.

“You’ll just have to try and control it.  Or get far away from people, which is another reason we’re heading here.  No other choice.  Our best bet is to go into the jungle where we won’t run into too many people who know we’re not from the area.”

“Are we going to be stuck in the jungle forever?” Riker asked.

Zach sighed.  “I sure as hell hope not.  But there’s opportunities for men with our skillset down there.  Mercenary work.  Security for another.  If we can’t get cured and get back to the states, we’ll find a way to make it work down here.”

“I sure as hell don’t want to be locked back up in that prison,” Dante said.

The others agreed.  Anything was better than that.

“All right then.  Are we all in agreement that this is the best plan?”

They grumbled about it, but eventually, they all agreed it was best for everyone involved.  They couldn’t risk being detected and taken back to prison.  And they couldn’t risk being in a populated area and losing control of themselves, possibly causing an infectious outbreak.

As much as they wanted to return to their loved ones, that option had disappeared the moment they’d become infected with a seemingly incurable virus.

“Everyone, pick your teams.  We’ll draw to see who goes first and who stays last to get rid of the boat.”

Lucas and Dante looked at Zach.  “We want to stay with you, Zach.  Unless you object.”