Page 15 of Wicked Intention

AS SHE CREPT ALONG the heavily overgrown path, Zo could hear her parents’ warnings echoing through her brain.Never go into the rainforest without an adult.When she’d been older, the refrain had changed.Never go into the rainforest alone.Walking through it by herself and at night? It would have gotten her grounded for the summer.

She knew the dangers. Her mom and dad had listed them at the start of every season and always did one or two reminder lectures to make sure she didn’t forget. Those were the daytime dangers. The nocturnal ones were likely worse.

To stop herself from speculating on those, she ran a checklist in her head of everyone she’d need to pay back later. She’d taken food and water from about a dozen different people. Zo had borrowed a knife, a compass, and a gun from Señor Otero. From Señor Garcia, she’d taken another pistol with a holster and a machete. The third gun she carried was smalland light, something Tio Luis had bought for Tia Izel. The older woman had relegated it to the shed, much to her husband’s displeasure. But he kept it cleaned and in good order.

Getting it hadn’t been easy.

Finn had taught her how to pick a padlock, but when she practiced, it had been secured in a vise with a bright light to help her see what she was doing. Tonight, she’d been kneeling on the wooden decking in front of the shed, penlight in her mouth, trying to work the lock with two bobby pins while it rocked on the hasp. She’d needed another set of hands. It had been sheer dumb luck that she somehow managed to open the thing.

Finn. Her stomach clenched, but he’d make it safely to town. She refused to believe anything else.

The trail held about as many memories as the inn. How many times had she gone back and forth between San Isidro and the ruins? Hundreds, easily. But never by herself.

Usually, it had been with Mari.

Zo pushed the empty feeling away. Her best friend in the entire world, the sister of her heart, had been missing for more than two years. Her search for Marianna had caused Zo to cross Finn’s path multiple times. If she ever saw her again—

No,whenshe saw Mari again, Zo would have to tell her how it was her fault she’d gotten tangled up with a Special Forces soldier who’d become the love of her life.

San Isidro, Puerto Jardin

27 Months Earlier

Zo droppedonto the bench and leaned back. The rainforest had been tamed here, creating a private oasis on the edge of town, and she needed the peace. Needed the calm of lush green, bright flowers, and birdsong.

The mercenary had followed her this morning.

He was good. She wouldn’t have noticed him, except San Isidro was small, and she was so in tune with him that her cells buzzed when he was nearby. Zo was pretty sure she knew why he’d trailed after her—he didn’t like the coincidence of her being in the same inn he was staying at—but she’d been here for two weeks. He was the one who’d arrived unexpectedly. It made her uneasy. He was up to something.

And Alfonso Ramos’haciendawasn’t far from here.

She extended her legs and crossed them at the ankle. Part of her wanted to warn him that Al wasn’t completely stable. He’d have better luck with Silva. The bastard might be as deadly and dangerous as they came, but he was logical. Ramos? Not so much. At least, not all the time.

With a frown, she shut her eyes. The mercenary wasn’t her responsibility, and he had training. He could take care of himself. Marianna couldn’t.

Zo needed to keep her attention on her friend, on finding her before Silva hurt her, but the thought of leaving Finley to face Ramos without warning him didn’t sit comfortably with her.

She could give him a head’s up since there was nothing she could do about Mari today anyway. On Sunday, Silva went to mass and spent the rest of the day with his family. There was no sense sitting in front of his home, waiting for him to leave, because he wouldn’t. It would take her five minutes to fill Finley in on Al, and she’d return to the inn and help Tia Izel in the kitchen.

Zo sighed. She wanted to avoid the mercenary. Normally, her control was perfect. She’d always been able to focus on her goals and tune out everything and everyone else. Only, shecouldn’t stop thinking about Tom Finley. The man destroyed her common sense.

Take this morning in the bathroom. If Tio Luis hadn’t shown up, who knew what might have happened?

She wasn’t going to stress over it. If she hadn’t been half asleep, her defenses would have been in place, and she would have stopped the kiss before it started. For damn sure, she wouldn’t have returned his kisses. Zo shifted as the throb between her thighs returned.

It was effortless to remember the press of the mercenary’s body against hers, how he’d held her waist. How hard his cock had been and how good it had felt pressed against her mound. Simply thinking about his kiss, the stroke of his fingers on her skin… Shaking her head to get off that train of thought, Zo considered the way he’d protected her instead of slamming her into the wall. Never mind that he wouldn’t have had to do it if he hadn’t been launching an attack.

At her height, she wasn’t used to men towering over her, but Finley had to be around six-foot-four, and he was muscular. Standing toe-to-toe like that had actually made her feel petite.

Damn it. She had to stop thinking about him. Even if she couldn’t do anything today to help Mari, she should be planning her next strategy. Following Silva had gotten her nowhere, and if she was as obvious as Finley had implied, then the approach wouldn’t pay off, and she needed another idea. Too bad she didn’t have a clue what else she could do.

Heat flushed through her, starting low in her belly an instant before someone sat beside her on the bench. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know who it was. “Go away.”

“I was looking for you.”

“Too bad.”

“Where’d you disappear to, anyway?” he asked.

---