He was listening. Good. Maybe he wouldn’t pull that trigger as long as she kept his mind occupied.
“Too bad they’ll all go to waste,” he said. “You didn’t have a chance of taking me down, Margaret. Not from the time I took you and Rosa from her home in Guatemala.”
“I had a chance and I took it. I couldn’t do anything else. I promised Rosa.” She met his eyes. “I brought her spirit back, you know. She was in such torment that it was easy for me. Who do you think helped me to escape you all these years?”
His eyes widened. “You’re lying.”
“She helped me. She’s still helping me tonight. She remembers what you did to her.” Her glance shifted to a point beyond Nicos’s shoulders. “As I got stronger, so did Rosa. Don’t you feel her? You should. She’s right there behind you. Move a little closer to him, Rosa.”
Her gaze shifted back to Nicos. His eyes were glittering with fear, the muscles of his body rigid. “She’s going to touch the back of your neck,” she said softly. “When I count to three, you’ll feel her.”
“There’s no one there,” he said hoarsely, looking straight ahead.
“Why don’t you believe me? You know what I can do. She’ll make you believe me. She’s been waiting for this.” She started to count. “One. She’s moving nearer.… Two.” She could see the sweat break out on his forehead. She gathered her muscles. “Three!”
He flinched and involuntarily half-turned his head to look behind him.
Margaret picked up the flashlight on the ground in front of her and hurled it at him! She rolled into the shrubs at the side of the trail.
She heard him swear as she jumped to her feet and started running through the forest.
A bullet splintered the wood of the palm tree next to her head.
He was shooting!
She saw the beam of his flashlight bouncing off the glossy foliage in front of her. He had light to see her and she had only darkness.
It would have to be enough. Use her mind and her senses. It was not a forest she knew, but if she opened herself, if she listened, the woods would help her as they’d done before. She started to zigzag through the trees.
Another bullet whistled by her cheek.
Head for the river. The river could save her.
Pain.
She stumbled against a tree and held on as the shock wave hit her. She’d felt the agony of the bullet entering her shoulder before she’d heard the sound of the bullet.
“Got you!”
She heard Nicos’s triumphant yell and the crashing in the brush beside her.
It jarred her out of the trauma of pain and shock and sent her running again.
She felt the blood running down from the wound in her shoulder.
She could hear the sound of the river now.
Keep moving.
Ignore the pain.
More shots.
She was the prey. But if she could get to the river, that would change.
She was getting weaker.
Another bullet … close.
“Stop … you bitch,” Nicos called. “Give it up. I know I hit you. You’re probably bleeding out.”
But the river was right ahead.
And she would no longer be prey.
Nicos was very close.
Too close.
Faster.
She had to go faster.
“You’re slowing down,” Nicos shouted mockingly. “I told you that I—” He screamed in pain. “Son of a bitch!”
“Down!” Lassiter was suddenly beside Margaret. “I only got a glancing shot at him. I was afraid not to take it when he was talking about you bleeding out.” His gaze was searching the darkness. “But I hear that bastard still running. Keep down and I’ll go back and finish him.”
Or Nicos could finish Lassiter.
“No.” She shook her head dazedly. “The river. I have to get to the river.”
She was running again.
Lassiter muttered an oath and then he was running beside her, his arm around her waist, taking her weight.
The river was only yards away.
Then she broke away from him. She was in the water, wading out in the fast-moving current. Then she started swimming toward the middle of the river. Safe distance. Had to get to safe distance …
But where was Lassiter? He had to be safe, too. “Lassiter!”
“Margaret, dammit, you’re crazy. You’ll drown with that wound.” Lassiter had jumped into the water and was swimming out to her. “Or Nicos will be able to pick—”
“Be quiet!” She closed her eyes for an instant. She had to hold on. She had to reach out. But she was so dizzy.…
Here. Safe. River.
“Margaret!” Nicos burst out of the brush, his eyes blazing, blood flowing from the wound in his side. He stopped short at the edge of the bank. “You thought you’d get away by jumping into the river? You must have been desperate.” His face twisted with malicious pleasure. “You, too, Lassiter? My lucky day.” He started to raise his gun. “And then I’ll go hunt down Patrick. Think about that when I send you both to—”
“I’m not desperate,” Margaret called out. “We just had to get in the river because I was afraid there would be confusion.” She met Nicos’s eyes across the water. “The river was a good meeting place, but I wasn’t able to spend as much time with her. She might not have known which was friend and which was gift.”
“What are you talking about?” Nicos was scowling. “Meeting place? More bullshit about Rosa? I won’t be fooled like that again. You’ll have to—” Then he went still as the realization hit him. “Not … Rosa?”
“Did I forget to mention that the jaguar who took down Salva has a mate?” Margaret asked. “It didn’t seem fair to give him a gift and forget about his mate when she has a cub to feed. She’s very hungry. Do you hear her moving through the brush toward you? Remember what you said?” She quoted softly, “‘A monster attacking out of the darkness.’ But she’s not the monster. You are, Nicos. I’m looking at her more as an avenging sword in Rosa’s hand.”
“You crazy bitch.” He swung toward the brush and started firing wildly.
Everything was getting dim, Margaret realized. She had to hold on. It wasn’t finished.
“Margaret.” Lassiter was there for her, his hand supporting her waist.
He wouldn’t let her fall. He would help her get through it.
“Or she might be in the trees above you, Nicos.” She kept her voice steady with an effort. “Jaguars are very agile. And they swim very well. There’s nowhere you can go that she can’t follow.”
“You can’t do this to me.” He kept firing and backing toward the river.
Then the word that Margaret had been waiting for came out of the darkness.
Gift?
Rosa looking up at Nicos and pleading for her life. Begging for mercy, when there was no mercy in her world.
Oh, yes. Gift.
She saw the flash of gold and black as the jaguar streaked in lethal beauty toward Nicos.
She heard him scream in agony before the darkness overwhelmed her.
*
She opened her eyes as Lassiter was putting her into the van and fastening the seat belt.
She was shivering.
Wet.