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group. We hire out to various world governments for covert ops.” He glanced at her stunned face. “I worked for the justice department for a couple of years, but now I’m a mercenary, Callie.”
    She was struck dumb for several long seconds. She swallowed. It explained a lot. “Does your father know?” she asked.
    â€œHe does not,” he told her. “And I don’t want him to know. If he still gives a damn about me, it would only upset him.”
    â€œHe loves you very much,” she said quietly, avoiding his angry black eyes. “He’d like to mend fences, but he doesn’t know how. He feels guilty, for making you leave and blaming you for what…what my mother did.”
    He pulled out a foil sealed meal for himself and opened it before he spoke. “You blamed me, as well.”
    She wrapped her arms around herself. It was cold in the jungle at night, just like they said in the movies. “Not really. My mother is very beautiful,” she said, recalling the older woman’swavy jet-black hair and vivid blue eyes and pale skin. “She was a model just briefly, before she married my…her first husband.”
    He frowned. “You were going to say, your father.”
    She shivered. “He said I wasn’t his child. He caught her in bed with some rich man when I was six. I didn’t understand at the time, but he pushed me away pretty brutally and said not to come near him again. He said he didn’t know whose child I was. That was when she put me in foster care.”
    Micah stared at her, unspeaking, for several long seconds. “Put you in what?”
    She swallowed. “She gave me up for adoption on the grounds that she couldn’t support me. I went into a juvenile home, and from there to half a dozen foster homes. I only saw her once in all those years, when she took me home for Christmas. It didn’t last long.” She stared down at the jungle floor. “When she married your father, he wanted me, so she told him I’d been staying with my grandmother. I was in a foster home, but she got me out so she could convince your father that she was a good mother.” She laughed hollowly. “I hadn’t seen her or heard from her in two years by then. She told me I’d better make a good job of pretending affection, or she’d tell the authorities I’d stolen something valuable—and instead of going back into foster care for two more years, I’d go to jail.”

3
    M icah didn’t say a word. He repacked the first-aid kit into his backpack with quick, angry movements. He didn’t look at Callie.
    â€œI guess you know how to use that gun,” she said quietly. “If we’re found, or if it looks like Lopez is going to catch us, I want you to shoot me. I’d rather die than face what you saved me from.”
    She said it in such a calm, quiet tone that it made all the more impact.
    He looked up, scanning her drawn, white face in the soft light from the lantern. “He won’t get you. I promise.”
    She drew a slow breath. “Thanks.” She traced a fingernail over the camouflage pants. “And thanks for coming to get me. Lopez said he didn’t have any plans to ransom me. He was going to let his men kill me because he thought it would make you suffer.”
    â€œWhat did you tell him?”
    â€œThat you were my worst enemy and you wouldn’t care if he killed me,” she said carelessly. “But he said you did care about your father, and he was the next victim. I hope you’ve gotsomeone watching Dad,” she added fervently. “If anything happens to him…!”
    â€œYou really love him, don’t you?” he asked in an odd tone.
    â€œHe’s the only person in my whole life who ever loved me,” she said in a strained whisper.
    A harsh sound broke from his lips. He got up and started getting things together. He pulled out what