Fatal Pursuit (The Aegis Series) by Elisabeth Naughton Page A

she’d built a fire, cut and dragged banana leaves back, and set up camp without anyone’s help. Did he know another woman who could do all that? Especially without a single complaint?
    He couldn’t think of any. Most of the women he knew didn’t even like to kill a spider. And forget cooking. The last woman he’d dated—Karen, Kallie, no, Krista—hadn’t turned on her stove in at least five years.
    That awe came floating back. He shifted his head to the left, expecting to see Marley sleeping beside him in the shelter, but the tarp was empty.
    He pushed up to his hands and looked out through the opening of the shelter. Rising to his feet, he stepped outside and glanced around the dimly lit jungle.
    A bird cawed high above. The fire had died out, and the forest floor was damp from the drizzle they’d gotten last night, but it was still muggy and hot as hell. He moved past the fire pit and stepped into the trees, searching for her. “Marley?”
    A howler monkey screamed somewhere off to his right, the sound echoing through the forest like an eerie premonition. Jake’s pulse picked up speed. He scanned the forest but saw no sign of her.
    “Addison!” he called, listening as his voice echoed through the rainforest. But there was still no response. His adrenaline spiked, and the same fears he’d had last night when he’d seen that fire through the trees came rushing back.
    He darted back into the shelter and grabbed his Glock. Yeah, she might be able to set up camp on her own, but there were all kinds of dangers in the rainforest just waiting to strike. Not only were guerrillas and paramilitary troops wandering around out here, but snakes, jaguars, cougars, and poisonous plants and insects lurked everywhere.
    He holstered his gun at his thigh and picked his way through the brush, cursing every time a thorny vine caught on his clothing and scratched his arms and hands. And he told himself if he found her alive— Please God, let her be alive —he was going to shake some ever-loving sense into her.
    The splash of water echoed off to his right. He stilled, listened, squinted to see through the thick brush. When it happened again, he turned in that direction and shoved palm fronds and vines out of his way until he stepped into a patch of sunlight and stared dumfounded at the sight in front of him.
    Marley stood under a waterfall across a small pond, her eyes closed, her hands brushing her wet hair back from her face while water sluiced down her naked body. The waterline hit at her waist, but Jake was too shocked to notice much more than skin and splashing water.
    “Just what in hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
    Marley’s blue eyes shot open. A tiny yelp slipped from her lips just before she dropped down into the water.
    “Hey,” she managed after several seconds. “I, uh, didn’t know you were awake.”
    He stepped closer to the edge of the water. “Get out of that damn pond.”
    An amused expression crossed her dewy face. “Why? You got something against being clean, Ryder?”
    “What? No.” His brow wrinkled. Why the hell was she smiling like that? Didn’t she know what could be lurking in that water? “You need to get out because there could be snakes or alligators or eels or God knows what else in there.”
    Marley laughed. “They’re called caimans in South America, not alligators. And there aren’t any here. I checked. Look down, Jake. If something were to swim up to me, I’d see it.”
    He glanced at the clear blue water, then to the waterfall that dropped from a rock face fifteen feet above. The edge of the pool was nothing but sandy loam. No reeds, no water lilies, nothing for snakes or alligators—correction: caimans—to hide under.
    A little of his anxiety eased. But his irritation kicked up once more when Marley slapped her hand against the surface of the water, sending spray all over him.
    “Hey.” He jerked back and held out his arms. “What’s wrong with you?”
    “Not