The Complete Mackenzie Collection (49 page)

Time crept by at a sloth’s pace. The warmth and silence were hypnotic, lulling her into a half dream state of both awareness and distance. She was ferociously hungry, but unaffected by it, as if she was merely aware of someone else’s hunger. After a while her muscles began to ache from being in one position for so long, but that didn’t matter, either. Thirst, though, was different. In the increasing heat, her need for water began to gnaw at her. The kidnappers had given her some water a couple of times, but she’d had nothing to drink in hours—since she had learned they expected her to relieve herself in their presence, in fact. She had chosen to do without water rather than provide them with such amusement again.

Sweat streaked down Zane’s face and dampened his shirt. She was perfectly content to remain where she was, nestled against his side. The arm around her made her feel safer than if their hiding place had been constructed of steel, rather than crumbling stone and plaster, and rotting wood.

She had never been exposed to a man like him before. Her only contact with the military had been with the senior officers who attended functions at the embassy, colonels and generals, admirals, the upper brass; there were also the Marine guards at the embassy, with their perfect uniforms and perfect manners. Though she supposed the Marine guards had to be exemplary soldiers or they wouldn’t have been chosen as embassy guards, still, they were nothing like the man who held her so protectively. They were soldiers; he was a warrior. He was as different from them as the lethal, ten-inch black blade strapped to his thigh was from a pocketknife. He was a finely honed weapon.

For all that, he wasn’t immortal, and they weren’t safe. Their hiding place could be discovered. He could be killed; she could be recaptured. The hard reality of that was something she couldn’t ignore as she could hunger and cramped muscles.

After a long, long time, the voices went away. Zane released her and walked noiselessly to the door to look out. She had never before seen anyone move with such silent grace, like a big jungle cat on velvet paws instead of a battle-hardened warrior in boots.

She didn’t move until he turned around, the faint relaxation of his expression telling her the danger was past. “What were they doing?” she asked, taking care to keep her voice low.

“Scavenging building materials, picking up blocks, any pieces of wood that hadn’t rotted. If they’d had a sledgehammer, they probably would have dismantled these walls. They carted the stuff off in a wheelbarrow. If they need more, they’ll probably be back.”

“What will we do?”

“The same thing we did this time—hunker down and keep quiet.”

“But if they come in here—”

“I’ll handle it.” He cut her worry short before she could completely voice it, but he did it with a tone of reassurance. “I brought some food and water. Interested?”

Barrie scrambled to her knees, eagerness in every line of her body. “Water! I’m so thirsty!” Then she halted, her recent experience fresh in her mind. “But if I drink anything, where will I go to…you know.”

He regarded her with faint bemusement, and she blushed a little as she realized that wasn’t a problem he normally encountered. When he and his men were on a mission, they would relieve themselves wherever and whenever they needed.

“I’ll find a place for you to go,” he finally said. “Don’t let that stop you from drinking the water you need. I also found some clothes for you, but as hot as it’s getting in here, you’ll probably want to wait until night before you put them on.”

He indicated the black bundle beside his gear, and she realized it was a robe. She thought of the modesty it would provide, and gratitude flooded her; at least she wouldn’t have to face his men wearing nothing more than his shirt. But he was right; in the heat of day, and in the privacy of this small room, she would prefer wearing his shirt. They both knew she was bare beneath it; he’d already seen her stark naked, and demonstrated his decency by giving her the shirt and ignoring her nakedness, so there was no point now in swathing herself in an ankle-length robe.

He produced a big jug and unstoppered it. “It’ll taste funny,” he warned as he passed the jug to her. “Purification tablets.”

It did taste funny—warm, with a chemical flavor. But it was wonderful. She drank a few swallows, not wanting to make her stomach cramp after being empty for so long. While she was drinking, he unwrapped the bits of food he’d procured—a loaf of hard bread, a hunk of cheese and several oranges, plums and dates. It looked like a feast.

He straightened the blanket for her to sit on, then took out his knife and cut small portions of both the loaf and cheese and gave them to her. She started to protest that she was hungry enough to eat much more than that, but realized that what he had would have to last them all day, and perhaps longer than that. She wasn’t about to complain about the amount of food she
did
have.

She had never been particularly fond of cheese, and she suspected that if she hadn’t been so hungry she wouldn’t have been fond of this cheese, either, but at the moment it was delicious. She nibbled at both bread and cheese, finding satisfaction in the simple act of chewing. As it happened, she had overestimated her appetite. The small portion he had given her was more than enough.

He ate more heartily, and polished off one of the oranges. He insisted that she eat a couple of the juicy slices and drink a bit more water. Feeling replete, Barrie yawned and refused the offer of another orange slice.

“No, thanks, I’m full.”

“Would you like to freshen up now?”

Her head whipped around, sending her red hair flying. Amusement twinkled in his pale eyes at her eager, pleading expression. “There’s enough water?”

“Enough to dampen a bandana.”

She didn’t have a bandana, of course, but he did. Carefully he poured just enough water from the jug to wet the square cloth, then politely turned his back and busied himself with his gear.

Slowly Barrie smoothed the wet cloth over her face, sighing in pleasure at the freshness of the sensation. She hadn’t realized how grimy she felt until now, when she was able to rectify the situation. She found a sore place on her cheek, where one of the men had hit her, and other tender bruises on her arms. Glancing at Zane’s broad back, she quickly unbuttoned the shirt just enough that she could slide the handkerchief inside and rub it over her torso and under her arms. After she fastened the garment, her dusty legs got the same attention. The dampness was wonderfully cooling, almost voluptuous in the sensual delight it gave her.

“I’m finished,” she said, and returned the dark bandana to him when he turned around. “It felt wonderful. Thank you.”

Then her heart leaped in her chest, because he evidently felt the same need to cool off as she had, but unlike her, he didn’t keep his shirt on. He peeled the snug black T-shirt off over his head and dropped it on the blanket, then sat on his heels while he moistened the bandana and began scrubbing it over his face.

Oh, my
. Helplessly she stared at the rippling muscles of his chest and stomach, the way they flexed and relaxed with the flow of his movements. The dim light caught the deep bronze of his skin, gleamed on the smooth, powerful curve of his shoulder. Her fascinated gaze wandered over the slant of his shoulder blades, the diamond of black hair that stretched from nipple to nipple on his chest. He twisted around to reach for something, and she found his back equally fascinating, with the deep furrow of his spine bisecting two muscular planes.

There was an inch-long scar on his left cheekbone. She hadn’t noticed it before because his face had been so dirty, but now she could plainly see the silvery line of it. It wasn’t a disfiguring scar at all, just a straight little slash, as precise as a surgeon’s cut. The scar along his rib cage was different, easily eight or nine inches in length, jagged, the scar tissue thick and ridged. Then there were the two round, puckered scars, one just above his waist, the other just below his right shoulder blade. Bullet wounds. She’d never seen one before, but she recognized them for what they were. There was another slash running along his right bicep, and God only knew how many other scars there were on the rest of his body. The warrior hadn’t led a charmed life; his body bore the signs of battle.

He squatted half-naked, unconcernedly rubbing the damp handkerchief across his sweaty chest, lifting his arms to wash under them, exposing the smooth undersides and intriguing patches of hair. He was so fundamentally, elementally male, and so purely a warrior, that her breath strangled in her lungs as she watched him.

The rush of warmth through her body told her that she was more female than she’d ever imagined.

A little dazed, she sat back, resting against the wall. Absently she made certain the shirt tail preserved her modesty, but thoughts were tumbling through her mind, dizzyingly fast yet very clear.

They weren’t out of danger yet.

During the past twenty-four horrific hours, she hadn’t spent a lot of time wondering about the motive behind her kidnapping. She’d had too much to deal with as it was, the sheer terror, the confusion, the pain of the blows they’d given her.

She’d been blindfolded much of the time, and disoriented. She’d been humiliated, stripped naked and roughly fondled, taunted with the prospect of rape, and yet they had stopped short of rape—for a reason. Sheer psychological torture had undoubtedly played a role, but most of all they’d had orders to save her for the man who was to arrive today.

Who was he? He was the one behind her kidnapping; he had to be. But why?

Ransom? When she thought about it now, coolly and clearly, she didn’t think so. Yes, her father was rich. Many a diplomat came from a moneyed background; it wasn’t unusual. But if money had been the motive, there were others who were richer, though perhaps she had been chosen specifically because it was well known that her father would beggar himself to keep her safe. Perhaps.

But why would they have taken her out of the country? Wouldn’t they have wanted to keep her close by, to make the exchange for money easier? No, the very fact that they’d taken her out of the country meant they’d kidnapped her for another reason. Maybe they would have asked for money anyway; since they already had her, why not? But money wasn’t the primary object. So what was?

She didn’t know, and since she didn’t know who the leader was, she had no way of guessing what he truly wanted.

Not herself. She dismissed that notion out of hand. She wasn’t the object of obsession, because no man so obsessed with a woman that he was driven to such lengths would let his men maul her. Nor was she the type to inspire obsession, she thought wryly. Certainly none of the men she’d dated had shown any signs of obsessive behavior.

So…there was something else, some piece of puzzle she was missing. Was it someone she knew? Something she’d read or seen?

Nothing came to mind. She wasn’t involved in intrigue, though of course she knew which employees at the embassy were employed by the CIA. That was standard, nothing unusual. Her father often spoke privately with Art Sandefer and, lately, Mack Prewett, too. She’d often thought that Art was more bureaucrat than spy, though the intelligence in his tired gaze said he’d done his time in the field, too. She didn’t know about Mack Prewett. There was something restless and hard about him, something that made her uneasy.

Her father said Mack was a good man. She wasn’t certain about that, but neither did he seem like a villain. Still, there had been that time a couple of weeks ago when she hadn’t known anyone was with her father and had breezily walked in without knocking. Her father had been handing a thick manila envelope to Mack; both of them had looked startled and uncomfortable, but her father wasn’t a diplomat for nothing. He’d efficiently smoothed over the slight awkwardness, and Mack had left the office almost immediately, taking the envelope with him. Barrie hadn’t asked any questions about it, because if it was CIA business, then it wasn’t her business.

Now she wondered what had been in that envelope.

That small incident was the only thing the slightest bit untoward that she could remember. Art Sandefer had once said that there was no such thing as coincidence, but could that moment be linked to her kidnapping? Could it be the
cause
of it? That was a reach.

She didn’t know what was in the envelope, hadn’t shown any interest in it. But she had seen her father giving it to Mack Prewett. That meant…what?

She felt as if she was feeling her way through a mental maze, taking wrong turns, stumbling into dead ends, then groping her way back to logic. Her father would never, in any way, do anything that would harm her. Therefore, that envelope had no significance—unless he was involved in something dangerous and wanted out. Her kidnapping made sense only if someone was using her as a weapon to make her father do something he didn’t want to do.

She couldn’t accept the idea of her father doing anything traitorous—at least, not voluntarily. She wasn’t blind to his weaknesses. He was a bit of a snob, he didn’t at all like even the idea that someday she might fall in love and get married, he was protective to the point of smothering her. But he was an honorable man, and a truly patriotic man. It could be that the kidnappers were trying to force her father to do something, give them some information, perhaps, and he had resisted; she could be the means they were using to force him to do what they wanted.