"Which is why you shouldn't risk getting caught. Look, Kate, why don't we just fly Lantry to Santa Isabella and let him use the pressure of his company to get Seifert and his men released?"

Kate shook her head. "No telling how long that would take. I can't let them stay in Mariba if there's any chance of getting them out. They're my responsibility now."

"You can't shoulder the problems of the whole world, Kate." Julio's dark eyes were gentle. "You've got to pick and choose. If we go after Seifert and his crew, we'll have to leave the Cessna. Is rescuing Seifert and the crew more important than giving Jeffrey his new start?"

"No, of course not," Kate said quickly. "We'll just have to find a way of doing both."

He was gazing at her with exasperation mixed with resignation. "What could be simpler?" he asked caustically. "Are we also going to find another cocaine cache for you to burn up if you get bored?"

She frowned at him impatiently. "Don't joke, Julio. This is a very serious problem. "

"That's what I'm trying to tell you," he said. "Too serious and too dangerous for us to make the attempt."

She moistened her lips nervously. Julio wasn't going to like this. "Well, actually I thought it would be better to divide up." She held up her hand to stop the protest that was sure to come. "It's the only sensible thing to do, Julio. I'll go to Mariba and work on getting the captain and the crew away from Castellano and you can fly Beau to Santa Isabella and deliver the plane to Jeffrey."

"No," Julio said flatly. "I'm not letting you go to Mariba alone."

"You've got to," Kate said persuasively. "It won't be all that dangerous." She ignored his snort of disbelief and hurried on. "I'll go to Consuello and ask to borrow her brother's motorcycle." She bit her lip thoughtfully. "In a loose jacket and that visored helmet I'll be almost unrecognizable."

"And the guards?" Julio asked. "Are you going to just snap your fingers and make them disappear?"

"I'm not sure. I'll have to think about it. Anyway, after I've released Captain Seifert I'll have him to help me hijack the ship," she said with a grin. "I have an idea he'll be very good at piracy. I can almost see him with an eye patch and a curved scimitar clenched in his teeth."

"If it gets that far," Julio said. "The odds are ninety-nine to one that it won't. I can't let you do it, Kate."

Her smile faded. "You have no choice, Julio," she said quietly. "It's going to be just the way I said. It's the only way we can help the crew and Jeffrey."

"No," Julio said firmly.

"Yes," Kate said just as insistently. "If you won't do it for any other reason consider it as payment of a debt." She paused deliberately. "El Salvador, Julio."

"Kate, don't do it." His voice was almost pleading. "Don't make me let you do this."

The battle was won. It was there in his face. She only wished she'd been able to convince him some other way. She smiled with an effort. "Don't worry. Everything is going to work out."

"Is it? I wish I could be as sure. You're going to do it tonight, then?"

She nodded. "There's no use waiting. I may even be able to catch them by surprise."

Julio's curse was very explicit Spanish and rampant with annoyance. "You speak as if you were a commando troop, not one lone woman. This is crazy. I'm crazy for letting you do it."

"Let?" Her tone was teasing. "I thought I'd weaned you away from that type of arrogance." His worried frown didn't lighten and she felt a pang of remorse. This was as difficult for her old friend to accept as it would be for her under the same circumstances. "Look, if it will make you feel any better, you can wait until tonight to fly Beau and the plane to Santa Isabella. Once we're on board the Searcher and out to sea I'll use the ship's radio to let you know we're safe."

"Safe! You mean until the Guardia Costa-"

"Maybe that won't happen," she interrupted. Now where did you leave Manuel's motorcycle?"

"At the edge of the forest, about a half-mile from the road that leads to Consuello's village," Julio told her reluctantly. "At least ask Consuello for any help it's possible for her to give you. She's always liked you."

"As long as it doesn't put her in any danger," Kate agreed. She hesitated. "You'd better wait here until almost sundown before going back to the tree house to pick up Beau and bring him to the plane." Her shoulders moved uneasily. "He might be a little difficult about this."

Because he is a man with all his senses intact," Julio answered caustically. "You wouldn't be able to blackmail him into giving in to this craziness. He doesn't owe you any debts to be called in."

No, it was she who still owed a debt to Beau. A debt he wouldn't let her pay now. He was more:inclined to adopt her than make her his mistress at the moment, she thought bitterly. Who would have believed the cynical Beau Lantry she'd met at Alvarez's bar would react like that? Well, if she could free his crew and give him back his ship, it would be a little compensation toward the debt she owed him before she disappeared from his life.

Sundown," she repeated. "By that time he'll have realized it will be too late to stop me. Tell him HI see him on Santa Isabella."

Julio's eyes were narrowed on her face. "And will you?"

Where else would I go?" she asked evasively. Anywhere to escape Beau's pity and generosity. Loving him as she did it would kill her not to meet him on equal terms.

"Kate…"

She turned away. "I've got to get going." She impulsively turned back and stood on tiptoe to brush her lips on his cheek. "Take care, Julio."

"Me take care?" he asked gruffly. He took her hand in his and fell into step with her. "And you're not getting rid of me so quickly. I'll walk you back to the motorcycle. I left a bundle of clothes I borrowed from Manuel for Lantry tied to the seat." He made a face as he glanced down at the short-sleeved blue shirt he'd had to leave open almost to the waist to accommodate his brawny chest. "I hope they fit him better than they do me."

"I'll be glad of the company," she said with an affectionate smile. They'd traveled so many roads together. It hurt to think this might be the last one for a while. Her hand tightened on Julio's. "By the way, when you leave Castellano, will you take my carousel music box with you?" She laughed a little shakily. "I don't really mind leaving anything else but I'd like to make sure that's safe. You won't forget?"

He shook his head. "I'll remember." He cleared his throat. "I'll deliver it safe and sound to you on Santa Isabella."

Her eyes avoided his as her pace unconsciously quickened. "Yes, you do that," she said lightly. "On Santa Isabella."

As Julio leisurely climbed the ladder to the tree house the rays of the setting sun threw the figure of the man sitting on the platform above him into shadowy silhouette. It was just as well it was twilight, Julio thought. There was something so tense and intimidating about Lantry's immobile form that he had no wish to see that menace any more clearly.

"Where is she?" Lantry's voice was clipped and harsh as Julio swung up on the platform. Now that he was closer he could see the expression on Lantry's face was just as set and harsh.

"Safe," Julio said briefly. Madre de Dios, he hoped that was true. He tossed the bundle he was carrying down in front of Lantry. "I borrowed you a change of clothes." He eyed the bare chest of the man in front of him. "They may not fit very well but they'll keep the mosquitoes from eating you alive."

"Where is she?" Beau repeated. The first overpowering relief at the knowledge that Kate was safe was banished by anger. If he had her here he'd shake the living daylights out of her as if she were a beloved but unthinking child who'd stayed away from home too long. Beloved. Yes, she was beloved. The hours he'd spent worrying and agonizing since Kate had disappeared into the forest had made that fact very clear to him. He'd known before, almost from the beginning, but that knowledge had been honed and sharpened by anxiety until it had cut through all the nonessentials. Damn it, she said the plane was only a short distance from here and she's been gone all day." He was thrusting his arms into an aqua-and-cream flowered shirt with jerky motions. "Didn't it ever occur to her that I might have been a little concerned?" His tone was uneven as he buttoned up the gaudy shirt and shoved the tail into his Levi's shorts. "Of course, there was no reason for me to worry. Only Despard and the police and the Lord know what animals and insects there are in this blasted forest. By the way, are there any tarantulas in this tropical Garden of Eden?" Of all the horrors he'd imagined through the long hours of waiting, the thought of that hairy poisonous monstrosity crawling on Kate's satin skin had been most prevalent.

"I've never seen one," Julio answered cautiously. And Kate's never mentioned them."

That doesn't surprise me." The beat-up sandals in the bundle were a little small but beggars couldn't be choosers, Beau told himself. He looked up grimly from fastening the strap. "She tells me she's afraid of all kinds of things but she sure as hell doesn't act like it. Probably poisonous spiders are on the list of things she just blocks out of her mind."

"Maybe," Julio conceded. "Kate's had to do that pretty often over the years. It hasn't been easy for her."

Beau knew that and it filled him with an aching frustration and fury greater than any he'd ever known. Not even when he'd been in the throes of alcoholism had he felt so helpless. He wanted to give her so damn much and she wouldn't let him.