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Angel; duty calls.”
    She sighed, kissed his shoulder. “I understand. I’ll walk you to the harbor.”

Chapter Three
    Ecuador—One year later
    The small jet set down at the Nueva Loja airport well before dark, a good thing since the airport had no lights. The capital of Sucumbios province, Nueva Loja boasted somewhere around twenty-six thousand souls, many of them Americans involved in oil extraction for Chevron. Once part of the Amazon rainforest, the rainforest had been pretty much obliterated, sacrificed to expediency. Wells and pipelines were difficult to build in the jungle.
    Angelique nudged nurse Carla Able, then unbuckled her seat belt. “Wake up, Tinker Bell,” she grumbled at her friend. “I’m fucking starved.”
    Able yawned and peered out the window, unbuckling. “Is that Shepherd? Damn, he’s looking good.”
    Angelique snorted. “He knows it too.” She leaned over and whispered to the elfin nurse, “I say go for it. He’s got a great big dick, and he knows how to use it.”
    Carla gasped. “You? And Doctor Hot Shit? Damn, girl, we will be dishing later.”
    Angelique stood and stretched. “I believe I just told you all you need to know, Nurse Able. What you choose to do with the information is entirely up to you, but that’s as kiss-and-tell as I get.”
    “Yeah, I really hate that about you. You wouldn’t spill about that hot special-ops hunk, and you’ll probably never see him again.”
    Angelique shrugged and grabbed both of their duffels from the overhead bin. “Hey, the NGO community and military intersect quite a bit. I don’t wanna put something out on the wind that might get back to him. He has a bit of a crush on me.”
    Able blew a raspberry at her. “Please, Mitch Acosta is a badass, grown-up warrior man. Men like that don’t have crushes on women. They’re either in serious lust or crazy in love. And based on the screams of ecstasy coming from your bedroom, my guess is it’s both. And his buddy, the Cajun. Ho mama, what I wouldn’t give for a piece of that.” When Angelique grinned, Carla groaned. “No! Really? When?”
    “Mardi Gras, while I was in med school. Wildest week of my life.”
    Able’s jaw dropped. “Both of them? Together?” Able punched her in the arm. “You didn’t!”
    Angelique gave her a smug smile. “Whatever you say, Tinker Bell.”
    They clambered down the steps into the humid afternoon heat. “You fucking slut,” Able crowed. “I so hate you at this moment I can hardly stand myself.”
    Shepherd greeted each of them with a hug and double-cheek kiss. “What have you done now, Angelique, to make Carla hate you?”
    Angelique laughed. “I’ve been a bad little slut, and she’s insanely jealous.” She wrapped an arm around Carla and headed to the Helping Hands’ ancient, mud-spattered SUV. “We’re starving, Shep; you must feed us.”
    “You’ve arrived on market day, which begs the question, who’s got the guts to try the local cuisine?”
    Angelique and Carla looked at each other and laughed. “Really, Shep?” Carla said. “We are the queens of local delicacies. You don’t remember gagging when we noshed on the palm beetle larvae in training?”
    “Ugh. You girls are seriously twisted.”
    Able wiggled her eyebrows. “Nah. Just adventurous.”
    The local cuisine turned out to be a tame array of meat-and-rice-filled pastries baked on a small grill.
    “We’re going to have to stay at the hotel tonight. It’s not safe to travel after dark here. But the hotel has clean rooms, a bar with a dance floor, and a good mix of American and local music. You’ll be sharing a room.”
    “Cool,” Angelique said, taking a bite out of her pastry. “Always ready for a party. But why isn’t it safe to go out after dark?”
    “Kidnapping. FARC crossed the border and took a Peace Corps volunteer. Daughter of some rich American. The American ambassador is about ready to pee his pants, and the Colombian and Ecuadoran governments have been