Read Online Commando by Lindsay McKenna - Free Book Online Page B

their depths. Slowly rising to her full height, Shah continued to hold the little girl close. Gently she ran her hand across the girl’s long black hair and sighed. What was going on between her and Randolph? It was crazy, she decided finally. Daylight was fading quickly, and in its wake the sky had turned pale lavender and gold. Patting the little girl’s shoulder, Shah asked her to stir the fish stew she had made. She needed to get to the identification books to find out if these orchids had been officially discovered before the light failed entirely.

     

    Jake couldn’t sleep. He lay on his back, his hands behind his head, in the austere mission room, which resembled a boxcar in size and shape. The palm-thatched door was open to allow what little cross-breeze there was from his open window. The cot wasn’t long enough for him, but it didn’t make much difference. The boards beneath him were covered by a thin, lumpy mattress that had seen too many years of service. All the night sounds—the calls of the howler monkeys, the insects buzzing outside the open window—provided a soothing chorus to Jake’s frayed nerves.

    Every time he closed his eyes, the image of Shah’s lovely face, her large eyes filled with tears, struck at his wounded heart. After four years he’d thought that most of the loss was behind him, but that one poignant moment when Shah held the little girl in her arms had struck at him with savage intensity. With a sigh, he stared up at the wooden ceiling. If not for the quarter moon low in the night sky, the place would have been plunged into a darkness so inky that he wouldn’t be able to see his hand in front of his face.

    Although he wore only drawstring pajama bottoms, Jake’s body was bathed in a sheen of sweat from the unrelenting humidity. Glancing at his watch, he realized it was four in the morning. He knew he had to get some sleep, but he was too tightly wound from being around Shah. Everything in the Amazon jungle seemed so quiet and serene in comparison to him.

    There was no doubt that Shah loved children. He had seen it in her eyes, that special adoration she held for the little Tucanos girl. Shah was in touch not only with the soil beneath her bare feet, but also with the life she held in her arms.

    With a soft curse, Jake slowly sat up, his bare feet touching the wooden floor. He buried his face in his hands. Why now? Why? He had to leave his past behind him, but it refused to be buried. Not that he tried to forget, but wouldn’t there ever be a reprieve from the loss and the cutting loneliness he felt twenty-four hours a day? Jake raised his head to stare out the open door. He could hear Pai Jose snoring brokenly in the room next to his. Red Feather slept on a grass mat in the room across the hallway. There were three patients recovering from an assortment of ailments in the mission’s small hospital wing, and Jake heard some snores drifting down the corridor from them, too. He was envious of the others’ ability to sleep while insomnia stalked him.

    Getting up, he rubbed his damp-haired chest with his hand. Maybe he needed to take a quick walk around the premises—to get some fresh air. Jake tugged off his pajamas and put on trousers, boots, and a dark green shirt with short sleeves. He missed his knife and pistol, because Pai Jose had warned him that at night, even this more settled area of the Amazon came alive with predators. Jaguars hunted the dangerous wild pigs; cougars, cousins to North America’s mountain lions, also combed the tropical rain forest for unsuspecting prey.

    Just as Jake came out of the mission doorway, he heard what at first sounded like a string of firecrackers popping. The sound came from the direction of the village, near the riverbank. Jake tensed—he recognized the sound of gunfire when he heard it. Running around the end of the building, he halted, his eyes widening. Fire erupted and exploded in the night sky. Some of the huts were on fire!