“What’s that strange track? It looks like it has webbing on the feet.”

“That’s a masked civet. They’re nocturnal.” He looked up at her. “Are you ready for me to carry you?”

He straightened slowly. “Or do I have to pull rank and give you an order? You’re limping.”

“I didn’t realize we were in the military.”

“Anytime we’re under a death threat, we’re under military rules.”

Her laughter rose to the forest canopy, blended with the continuous call of the barbet, a bird that seemed to love the sound of its own voice. “Are you making up rules as we go along?”

“It was quick thinking on my part. Aren’t you impressed?” He swung her into his arms. “I want to know a little more about your mother ‘s family. Did you meet your grandparents?”

“I don’t remember hearing of my mother ‘s parents at all. My brother spoke of our birth father’s parents. He said we went to visit them in deep jungle once. They gave him treats and my grandmother rocked me. But they died around the same time as my father. He was on a trip and he never came back.”

“And then your mother took you away?”

“I don’t honestly remember, I was so young. Most of what I know is what my brother told me. After my father died, my mother took us to another small village on the edge of the forest. She met my stepfather. His family was very wealthy and they had a lot of land, a lot of power where we lived. We were there for some time and then he moved us to the United States.”

Rachael looked around her, drinking in the scents and sights of the rain forest. It was truly beautiful with thousands of varieties of plant life in every color. Butterflies were in abundance, sometimes cover ing trunks of flowering fruit trees, adding to the explosion of color ever ywhere she looked. The forest seemed alive, leaves swaying, lizards and insects continually on the move, birds flitting from tree to tree. It was teaming with life. Termites and ants vied for territory near a large fallen tree.

“We lived in Florida on a huge estate. It was such beautiful and wild country in the mangroves and swamp. We had humidity and lots of alligators.” She brushed back his hair. “No one turned into leopards.”

“There were no big cats in the area? No signs of big cats?”

Rachael frowned. “Well of course there were rumors of panthers, the Florida panther in the swamps, but I never saw one. There are rumors of Bigfoot in the Cascades but no one actually has proof of Bigfoot. There aren’t any cats in my family.”

“Did your brother spend a lot of time in the swamp?”

Rachael stiffened. It was more a shift of her body, but Rio was so in tune with her he felt her slight withdrawal. She averted her face and looked upward at the feathery foliage, the bright red fungi and fruit draping heavily on the tree. Antlerlike fungi and cups of brilliant color covered the trunks. Large mushrooms grew around the bases and made fields of large caps inside the buttress roots.

“The humidity in Florida isn’t as intense, but it can be oppressive to some people. It doesn’t rain nearly as much either.”

“Did he go into the swamp, Rachael?” He kept his tone low, gentle even. Rachael wasn’t a woman to be pushed. She trusted him with her life, but she didn’t trust him with her brother ‘s life. He couldn’t push her too hard. She’d walk away first.

“My brother is a long way away from here, Rio. I don’t want any part of him here, not even his spirit.

Don’t bring him into this place.”

Temper rode him hard and he was silent as he walked quickly through the patches of light and dark, heading deeper into the forest. It took him a few minutes to work it out. “You don’t want him in our place. My place. You don’t want him anywhere near me.”

“He doesn’t belong here, Rio. Not at all, not with us.” Rachael looked down at the splint on her wrist.

She probably didn’t belong with Rio either. She’d been lucky enough to meet him, but she didn’t want him in danger.

“Sometimes,sestrilla I feel like I’m trying to hold water in my hand. You flow right through my fingers.”

Rachael looked at him with her dark, liquid eyes. Sad eyes. “I can’t give you what it is you want.”

“Before my father died, Rachael, he asked my mother to promise him that she’d take me and leave the village. He wanted her to find another man so she wouldn’t have to raise me alone. A man or woman who lost their mate would never choose another husband or wife from our people. My father talked to my mother more than once but she didn’t want to live with another man. She stayed near the village.”

“Why wouldn’t the others want to take care of her and you too? If there aren’t very many of you, surely they would want to make certain you were well taken care of?” She sounded outraged all over again. “I don’t think I like your elders very much.”

“The elders would want to care for widows and children, but there would be problems. Most leave if they want to find a companion to spend their life with. We can live and love outside of the rain forest, and many do. It’s possible your father asked your mother to take you and your brother and find another man to fill his shoes.”

“How did your father die?”

“He went in with a team to pull a diplomat from a rebel force. He was shot. It happens.”

Rachael rested her head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry. It must have been so difficult for your mother to know that you chose to carry on your father ‘s work.”