The Survivor (Eve Duncan #30)

The bullet from the trees crashed into the stone wall next to her!

She rolled back to her former position beneath the protection of the taller wall as Cade returned the gunfire. She heard a scream from the direction of the forest.

“Satisfied?” Cade asked her.

“Not yet. But now I’m certain they got a good look at me. If I’m one of the targets of this attack, they know I’m here.”

“And you could have gotten yourself killed,” he said roughly.

She shook her head. “You promised Riley that wouldn’t happen, and you had to keep your word.”

“It would help if you gave me a little assistance.” His gaze was raking the area where the snipers were clustered near the fire. “They’re not rushing us. They appear to be carrying that sniper I shot deeper into the forest. Still, they might come back once it gets dark.”

“Or they might not,” Maya said quietly. “They missed their chance at me. Maybe they’re going on to phase two.”

“Phase two? Would you care to elaborate?”

She shook her head. She was trying not to shudder as she looked at that fire. She didn’t want to talk about it. She could hardly force herself to think about it. “All this killing may only be the opening gambit.” She didn’t take her gaze from that twisting curl of smoke over the fire. “Are you as good as I’ve heard you are? I think you must be or Riley would not have such faith in you.”

“I’m very good,” Cade said. “So is Kirby. What do you have in mind?”

“You wanted to go out and locate those snipers and perhaps get rid of any strategic command posts you find. I’m not going to argue with you about it now. Wait until dark and then grab a few of the island guards and go do it, but first I want you to take a look at that sentry post near the fire. I want you to tell me why they built that fire. I have to know.”

“You’re not going with us?” Cade asked flatly.

“No, I’m not. I’ll rely on you.” She smiled sardonically. “See how much I trust you? I think you’ll know if I should show myself again to those bastards.”

“That will be a definite negative.”

“We’ll have to see.” She turned and headed back toward the center of the village. “In the meantime, I’m going to go help Riley with the wounded and try to find a few of Jelsko’s relatives to stay with him.”

And make an effort to block this growing sense of sickening dread as she waited for darkness to fall.

Cade showed up at the makeshift first-aid hut that Riley and Maya had set up close to sunset that night. Riley had just finished bandaging the throat of a young island officer when she saw him standing in the doorway watching her.

She carefully hid the relief she felt at the sight of him. “How nice of you to drop in,” she said. “After what Maya told me about releasing you to go after those snipers, I thought you’d be on your way.”

He shook his head. “Not without telling you. It’s been fairly chaotic since we landed, but that would never be an option as far as I’m concerned. You might take it as an example of how I want you to behave. That would drive me crazy.” He crossed the tent and cupped her face in his hands. “You realize this isn’t the way I wanted this to work? So far, the only thing I’ve been able to do is try to keep Maya from getting into trouble.”

“I don’t know what you mean. She’s been doing a great job,” Riley said defensively. “She’s been helping me, checking on the villagers, and talking on the phone to get more guards sent here. They should be here by midnight.” She gazed into his eyes and tried to ignore the heat that was beginning to build at his touch. “You could wait for them and not go out there after those snipers with a crew the size of a postage stamp.”

“A small crew is sometimes better.” He kissed her, hard. Then he let her go. “And I’m curious to see what Maya calls phase two.”

“Phase two?”

“Maya didn’t mention it to you? Maybe that was only meant for me. Never mind. She was a bit erratic today.”

“Can you blame her? All I noticed was that she was on edge,” Riley said. “But then these are her people.”

“Including her daughter? You never mentioned she had a child.”

“I didn’t know about her. I still don’t, we were too busy for personal conversation.” She added quietly, “But after today neither of us can doubt that she has big-time trouble on this island.”

“I haven’t doubted that since I got that call that you were in the hospital,” he said grimly. “That brought it all home to me with a vengeance.” He turned and headed for the door. “I’ll call you when I’m through out there tonight.”

She couldn’t let him just walk out of here. “No need. It’s not as if I won’t be waiting for you when you get back to the village.”

He grinned at her over his shoulder. “Waiting for me,” he repeated. “I like the sound of that. Kind of homey. But this isn’t like Cambry House, is it?”