More Than Paradise Part 23

"You think she'll go for that?"

"She has period cramps and there's no Motrin. She'll go for it."

Miles beamed. "That's very resourceful."

* 199 *

Charlotte offered her hand and he got emotional shaking it.

"I just wanted to say," he stammered as they approached Renee, "I'm terribly sorry about Simon."

"It was a tragic accident. Try to stop beating yourself up about it.

Okay?"

He nodded effusively.

Renee greeted them with a suspicious stare, but she didn't put up much resistance. The cramps, Charlotte surmised, must be really bad.

v Miles got with the program immediately. His backpack had survived the storm and he offered up its contents the moment they arrived at the Ficus tree. Specimen bags. Energy bars. Pocket knife.

And best of all, sanitary wipes.

These he handed her, saying, "Take the whole box. It's not like I ever use them."

Charlotte shuddered to think she'd shaken his hand. She stared down at the unopened box. Two hundred lightly perfumed antibacterial towelettes. All to herself. She'd died and gone to heaven.

"If you're ne starting with the bark samples, I think I'll take a walk and go clean myself up," she said, beyond thrilled. Clean, good-smelling skin. She'd almost forgotten what it felt like.

"Knock yourself out." He was already labeling a stack of bags, looking as happy as a clam. "I'll be right here."

Charlotte couldn't believe her luck. She'd been wondering how she was going to nd an excuse to vanish for a reasonable period.

Having her own private sponge bath would buy her as much time as she needed. Miles wasn't going to do anything to undermine their new rapport. He would not have the temerity to come looking for her while she was having the next best thing to a shower. She could probably take hours if she wanted to.

Humming to herself, she waltzed along the route east of the Ficus until she came to a pleasant little clearing about ve minutes away. On one side, large b.u.t.tress roots provided a natural screen. On the other, liana creepers formed a tangled curtain between two broken branches.

Charlotte discarded the T-s.h.i.+rt she'd been wearing since the storm and inched at the smell of her armpits. Disgusting. She opened a wipe and inhaled the sharp citrus promise of germ-free skin. Languorously, * 200 *

she ran the wet fabric all the way down one arm. Oh, G.o.d. When had anything felt so good?

She lathered it up and down a few times before setting it aside. Two hundred wipes. She could use fty now and have another hundred and fty to last her until they were picked up. At least, when she nally got to be in Ash's arms, she would smell clean, DEET notwithstanding.

Charlotte tore open several packets and whipped out the towelettes, ipping them open and bunching them into a luxuriously large wipe.

She nished cleaning her arm, then continued with the back of her neck, and her other arm. If Bruce came now, she would tell him to go wait behind one of the trees until she'd nished. She opened more wipes and got started on her chest, sighing with pleasure as her skin p.r.i.c.kled at the slight astringent. This, she decided, was the best bathing experience she'd ever had.

She knotted a couple of wipes together so she could clean her back using a seesaw motion. Her lthy skin thrilled to the cool liquid and Charlotte heaved a huge sigh. She would never take plumbing for granted again. Stretching, she gave the center of her back some extra attention, then undid her pants. She was about to lower them when the snap of a twig made her freeze.

"Don't stop on my account." The voice came from the other side of the broken branches, the accent unmistakable.

Billy Bob Woodc.o.c.k stepped out from behind the creepers, smiling with beady-eyed threat. He had a gun in his hand. Stroking the barrel suggestively, he said, "Well look at you, all naked, and no one around to appreciate the pretty picture."

Charlotte s.n.a.t.c.hed up her T-s.h.i.+rt and held it to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

He chuckled. "Aw, don't go getting shy on me now."

Charlotte tried to slow her breathing. With polite authority, she said, "I'm not sure what you're doing out here, Billy Bob, but I think it's time you went back to the camp. I'm willing to forget all about this."

"Oh, no. You're never gonna forget, and that's a promise. When I show a lady a good time, she remembers."

Charlotte considered her options. Miles was just a few minutes away. If she ran she might make it. Or she could attempt to reason with this hormone-driven creep. It was important not to show fear, she decided. Men like him got off on it. They counted on their power to intimidate.

* 201 *

"Billy Bob, we'll probably be leaving here tomorrow," she said reasonably. "Let's not do something we might regret. It's been a stressful time. I understand that. But an episode like this can follow you around."

He shrugged. "The way I see it, I got nothing to lose. I'm out of here anyway, real soon. Going to Iraq." Incredibly, he wheedled, "Don't you want to give me something hot to remember?"

"No. I'm not attracted to you."

Billy Bob seemed to nd that funny. As he chortled, Charlotte started walking, glancing over her shoulder.

"Hard to get. How did I guess?" He caught up to her in a couple of quick strides and grabbed her arm.

Charlotte yelled, "Miles!"

Billy Bob laughed harder. "Last I seen, your buddy Miles wasn't moving."

Charlotte felt winded. "What did you do to him?"

"He's okay. He'll just have a sore head tomorrow. Now, are you gonna be nice to me or do I have to make you?" This time he aimed the gun.

Shaking, Charlotte begged, "Let me go. Please."

Her mind seemed to be breaking into fragments, each one playing through different scenarios like movies on fast-forward. Incredible how fast the one dark question transcended all-could she stay alive? She was going to be raped. That was inevitable. Did he plan to get rid of the evidence, too? Would she be better off making nice, or would he see through her? Was killing her part of his fantasy?

In the traf c jam of her thoughts she was jerked back in time to the oor of her kitchen. Crawling away from Britt, asking the same dark questions about how she would survive and whether, this time, Britt would go too far and kill her.

Making nice, being obedient, had never done a thing for her then.

Cold rage infused her. This n.o.body thought he could invade her world without her permission and violate her. He thought he was ent.i.tled to take what he wanted. Maybe she wouldn't be able to stop him. Maybe she would be seriously injured. But she was d.a.m.ned if she was going to acquiesce. She would mark him. He wasn't going to be able to walk back to into the camp like nothing had happened.

Billy Bob pushed her down onto the ground and ripped her T-s.h.i.+rt * 202 *

from her hands. She needed for him to put the gun down, just for a minute.

"Please," she disguised her intent with a soft beg. "Don't hurt me.

I'll do what you want."

His eyes glittered. He was pumped up now, feeling strong. He said, "You're gonna love it." He transferred the gun to his left hand, so he could get busy unfastening his pants. His eyes s.h.i.+fted from her to the task and he announced, "Look what I've got for you."

She kept the gun in focus, watching it droop as her a.s.sailant distracted himself, admiring his own organ. It took her only a split second to move. Grabbing his left arm with both hands, she swung it across a tree root. The gun ew from his hand. Howling, off balance, he crashed down and she scrambled up, screaming ear-splitting screams.

Claiming the gun before he could get to it, she ran.

But he was bigger and faster, and tackled her around the neck.

She kicked back. He had her by the wrist, squeezing, preventing her from turning the gun. In her ear, he yelled lth. She swung an elbow back, jabbing him in the gut. A hand covered her mouth to silence her.

Stinky, sweaty skin compressed her nostril and lips, lling her with revulsion. Charlotte bit hard. He yelped and cursed and Charlotte knew she couldn't hold on to the gun much longer.

She squeezed the trigger, announcing their human presence with a gunshot that splintered the ancient silence of the forest. He mashed the gun from her hand and threw her to the ground, pinning her with his weight. As he grappled to keep her still, she swung her elbow into his mouth. Blood drooled down his chin. She wanted to write his crime all over him, damage him so he would be branded with what he was doing.

With erce determination she jerked her knee up and landed an inept shove to his groin, not enough to disable him.

Grunting and moaning, he choked out, "You wanna play rough, you f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h? I'll show you rough."

His weight constricted her breathing. He tore at her pants. The gun was limiting him, leaving only one hand free. He didn't bother trying to silence her anymore, so she screamed again, eyes closed, face rigid, diverting all the oxygen in her lungs into the loudest noise she could make. And while her own alarm still reverberated in her chest and her head, something exploded and she knew the gun had gone off.

His body seemed to y off hers and she reacted instinctively, * 203 *

elbowing herself up, stunned and blinking, her whole body trembling.

Her attacker was lying in a heap next to her, his brains blown out, Nitro standing over him. He checked the dead man's pulse, then picked up Charlotte's T-s.h.i.+rt and handed it to her.

Returning his gun to its shoulder holster, he said, "The bodyguard was for a reason, Dr. Lascelles."

* 204 *

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

Klaus wasn't happy with the plan and explained his objections during the ight back to the Sarmi hangar.

"The group is descending into anarchy," he said as they cruised along at six hundred feet, below the scudding clouds. "The disaster caused a breakdown in order. In a vacuum people make up new rules.

You've read Lord of the Flies."

Ash thought his gloomy a.s.sessment gave the expedition too much credit. They'd never had much order in the rst place, and a group of civilians losing the plot in a crisis was only to be expected. Some sound leaders.h.i.+p would contain the situation, and that's exactly what Nitro had imposed. Billy Bob Woodc.o.c.k's behavior was not part of a big picture, it was all about one man's lack of character. Now he would never bother a woman again. She owed Nitro.

Ash kept her emotions rmly in check. She'd given in to an initial outburst and a spell of impotent rage when Renee called her just after daybreak. But even then, she'd kept a lid on herself. Renee knew she'd let her down. She'd allowed Charlotte to give her the slip, and Ash didn't need to spell out how much worse the consequences might have been. Fortunately for Charlotte, Miles had staggered back to the camp after being pistol-whipped, and raised the alarm. Nitro was already there, looking for Billy Bob, who had not returned to the digging team from a bathroom break.

The rest was history and Ash could not allow herself to dwell on it. She had not been there to protect Charlotte from a s.e.xual predator, and there wasn't a d.a.m.n thing she could do about it. All she could offer was comfort after the fact, and if it was humanly possible she would * 205 *

get to her lover today. Meantime, indulging herself in recrimination and self-blame was a luxury she could not afford. If she was going to put this bird down in the conditions Renee had described, she would have to be ying at the top of her game.

This was the easy part of her plan. She'd called Tubby to arrange a rescue operation, and a team would be arriving in Sarmi the next day.

Klaus was going to wait at the hangar so he could guide them to the site. Ash hoped to extract at least some of the party this afternoon if possible. She would only get one shot at it, given the weather, and she knew she might not able to land the Huey at all.

"They can wait another day," Klaus urged.

"Yes, but I can't."

He looked sideways at her. "You are serious about this woman?"

"I never thought I would say it, but yes."

He gave this a moment's thought. "What will you do? Is there work for her over here?"

"I doubt it. We haven't discussed the future, but her job is in Chicago. The weather sucks there."

"You're leaving PNG?"

"I will if she wants me to."

He was silent for a while, then p.r.o.nounced, "Billy Bob was lucky."

"How's that?"

"It was quick, yes?"

"One to the head is what I heard." Nitro was not a man who wasted time or bullets.

Her copilot nodded. "You would not have been so considerate."

"Not even close." She started her descent.

"Is she okay?" he asked cautiously.

"Just cuts and bruises."

She'd put up one h.e.l.luva ght, Renee had told her, and that bought them critical minutes. Ash hoped Charlotte felt good about her own role in defending herself. She planned to make sure of it.

The airstrip loomed and Ash dropped the Huey effortlessly onto the landing gear. Before Klaus bailed out, they shook hands and, because it was pointless to let self-consciousness prevent her, she said, "If anything happens, tell her she's the love of my life."

"You have my word," Klaus gravely a.s.sented. "And if there is a cremation, I will make sure she receives the urn."

* 206 *