“How bad will it be for you, Conner?” she asked. “While you’re worried about me, I’ll be worried about you. You’re the one who has to push your cat down and force yourself to look into another woman’s eyes. Maybe for some men, it would be easy, but I think I’ve learned enough about you to know it will be abhorrent to you.”

“Are you sure, Isabeau, because if you stay tonight with me, I won’t be able to keep my hands off of you.”

A slow smile welled up from her heart. “Well, that’s a good thing.” She forced herself to look away from the heat in his eyes toward the forest. “So how do we plan out our escape routes?”

He dipped his head to trail kisses down her face to the corner of her mouth. “We get to work, map them out, drop the supplies and make certain they’re cached where animals won’t dig them up. And then we think of every conceivable thing that can go wrong and put plans in place to cover those contingencies.”

“Oh. Easy stuff. I was expecting it to be difficult.” She flashed another grin at him.

Conner let her go reluctantly and stepped back, an answering smile beginning to form on his face. There was wariness in his eyes as if he was afraid to hope, but he linked his fingers with hers when she held out her hand and began to walk with her toward the others. “I’ll send Jeremiah up in the trees. We’ll see how fast he can climb. He’ll need to pick up his speed. The more practice he gets, the better. He has to get faster or it’s too dangerous for him.”

“You’re really worried about him.”

“He took his beating like a man. He owns up to his mistakes. He’s got courage. He’s cocky, but then weren’t we all at that age?”

She found herself smiling again. She loved the way he could be so intimidating, so dangerous looking and yet beneath that untamed exterior he had a heart. He’d probably hate that she thought that, but she knew just by his voice that he was going to make certain Jeremiah had the best chance possible to survive joining their team.

“Stop looking at me with stars in your eyes, Isabeau.”

His voice had gone husky. Gruff. His eyes had gone all cat. Her womb clenched. Spasmed. Spilled liquid heat. She cleared her throat. “How long before my cat emerges all the way?” Isabeau asked. “Will we have enough time? I don’t want to go through it without you.”

“Not long. You’re close,” he said, his gaze drifting over her in a possessive, hungry way that took her breath and sent her temperature rising fast. “Too close.”

There was still that hint of shadow in his eyes, as if he knew something she didn’t—and she conceded he probably did. She didn’t expect it to be easy to watch him with Imelda Cortez, the thought frankly sickened her, but she wasn’t going to lose him. Not again. There had to be a way for them to get through this intact and still get the children out. She glanced up to see they were getting close to the others. A few more feet. She caught his arm.

“Whatever it takes, Conner. I would hope you wouldn’t even have to kiss her, but I’m not going to put limitations on what I’ll accept. You can’t go into a life-threatening situation with that on your mind. If we do this, we both commit. Together. Agreed?”

He groaned softly and pulled her close again. She could hear his heart. “I know you believe you’re that strong, Isabeau, and I love you for it, but your cat is going to have her say and it isn’t going to be easy. Cats are jealous and temperamental and we can’t always control them. You saw me with Jeremiah—and I like the kid. If you despise a woman, how do you think your cat is going to react knowing I’m flirting with her—or worse?”

“If your cat can handle it, then mine will have to, won’t she?” She lifted her chin. “I want the children back—all of them—but especially Mateo because he’s ours. And he was Marisa’s. I want this woman stopped. If anyone comes up with another way into her stronghold, we’ll take it, but if all we’re left with is securing an invite through you, then we’ll have to take it.” She suddenly caught her breath. “Elijah! Conner, Elijah could do it.”

He shook his head, dashing her hopes. “Three reasons. One, Mateo is my brother, and pretending to want to sleep with this woman will be a crap job I won’t push off on someone else. Two, Elijah, as good as he is, and he is good, very cool under fire, is relatively inexperienced. And three, Imelda won’t go for someone she would conceive of as being equal to her. She wants a dominant male, but not one her equal. I’ve studied her, and Elijah would pose a threat. He might want to take over her position of power. A bodyguard wouldn’t do that.”

She let her breath out and forced a smile. “Then we go with our plan.”

They returned, hand in hand, to the cabin where the others waited. Conner mapped out several escape routes through the rain forest, showing them the safest areas where they might shelter the children and keep them moving as well as the best campsites for them. They’d have to go in and mark the drop sites.

“I’ll go and take Jeremiah with me,” Conner concluded. “We’ll go as leopards. It will be faster and safer. It will give Jeremiah the experience he needs in climbing fast and leaving no trace. Rio always flies the helicopter. Elijah is our supply man.”

Felipe grinned at Jeremiah and showed off his muscles. “Leonardo and I are the big guns—the brawn.”