Jungle of Deceit by Maureen A. Miller Page A

the locations were touched by civil unrest.” There was still little to go on from Mitch’s expression. Hell, he wasn’t even looking at her. He had his head up now, staring at the overhead branches. His Adam’s apple slid down his throat when he swallowed.
    “ But you’ve been alone,” she reminded him. “You have only been responsible for yourself. It’s different.”
    To her dismay, Mitch looked her in the eye and snorted again. “Yeah.”
    “ Yeah? What the hell does yeah mean?”
    “ It’s different.” And just like that, the apathy left Mitch’s face, to be replaced with what she perceived as anguish.
    “ Alex, it was different, ” he dragged in a breath. “Leave here. Dammit, it’s not worth it.”
    “ You sound so adamant. Why ? Why in the hell would you even care? You don’t know us. You don’t know me. Everything about you reeks with the air of being inconvenienced by all this.” She waved her hand.
    Something about the conviction in the tiny lines around Mitch’s mouth bothered her. “You almost sound like you’re privy to information that I’m not,” she said. “But that’s impossible. I’ve been in this jungle for a year. You just got here yesterday.”
    “ It’s not what I’m privy to,” Mitch uttered. “Hell, I hardly know anything.” The last statement was soft. “It’s called instinct.” He touched her shoulder, preventing her from starting into that tunnel. “You have it. You would have never survived out here if you didn’t.”
    That was true. Alex sensed discord in the jungle nearly as quick and precise as the creatures that inhabited it.
    “ So tell me…” Mitch’s fingers wrapped around her shoulder, their touch warm against skin inexplicably chilled, “−do you feel it?”
    Alex swallowed, but her throat was dry. All of her senses were alert, including the sense of touch, which felt the texture of his palm.
    “ I—” she started, but her voice was hoarse. “I will let the group know to start packing. We’re moving the camp in the morning.”
    “ Good.”
    His relief puzzled her. “You never answered me.”
    “ About what?”
    “ Why you care,” she said. “Is it self-preservation?”
    His hand dropped from her shoulder and Mitch turned into the shadowed hollow carved by Chuck’s blade. “Yeah, I’m pretty selfish when it comes to keeping myself alive, Dr. Langley.” He looked over his shoulder. “Get used to it.”
    ***
    It took two seconds to identify the sound of the ancient Jeep’s engine over the raucous exchange of men dismantling the campsite. Another two seconds, and it occurred to Mitch that Alex was behind the wheel.
    “ Hey!”
    His cry was obscured by backfire from the intake manifold. Slinking his camera strap over his shoulder, Mitch broke into a sprint and caught up with the vehicle.
    “ Stop!” he shouted, running alongside it.
    After a moment of disbelief that Alex was ignoring him, he increased his pace and grabbed onto the open doorframe, lunging into the moving Jeep.
    Out of breath, he turned to study Alex’s profile. Her chin jutted out and her lips were set as if she was just waiting for him to lose it.
    He wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction.
    “ Want to tell me where you’re going?”
    She never took her eyes from the gnarled path. “Want to tell me what the hell you’re doing in my Jeep?”
    “ Finding out where the hell you’re going.”
    A brief glimpse skewed his way and then Alex’s gaze returned to the muddy windshield.
    “ Fine.” Her fingers fisted around the steering wheel. “Fine. Just come along. You’re Phillip’s little protégé. I’m on my way to call him.”
    Heat inched up Mitch’s neck. “I am no one’s little anything.”
    “ Whatever.”
    God, she infuriated him. But he couldn’t concentrate on that, not when the Jeep hit a rut that nearly catapulted him over the windshield. “Damn woman, could you be more careful?”
    “ Want to get out?” she jibed with a