Tempting the Fire Read Online Free PDF Page A

were moving a lot
    —we were afraid you were going to hurt yourself.”
    Chance saw the hesitation in the old man’s eyes before he leaned forward and unlocked chains that wound around Chance’s ankles and the cuffs around his wrists. Even though he was covered in blankets and bandages, he knew he was naked on the bunk.
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    And as the man walked away, Chance noticed that one ankle was still chained.
    Being held prisoner was never for anyone’s own good, not in his world. As he stared down at the cuff, his Special Forces training kicked in, overriding the fear and sadness and pain, and his need to escape raged through him like a fire.
    No matter if these people were friend or foe, he was getting out, getting back to his base and reporting what he’d seen. There were too many families who wouldn’t have closure if he didn’t.
    Of course, his wasn’t one of them. His momma had died eight years earlier.
    Sure, he might have relatives somewhere he could dig up, but what the heck would they want with a twenty-five-year-old grown-ass man?
    Maybe one day, he’d have his own family. Or at least that’s what he always figured, that he’d have nothing but time on his hands.
    Born lucky, always lucky, Momma used to say, and for a long time he’d believed her, until common sense reared its ugly head to remind him that being born near the craps table didn’t mean … well, crap.
    Especially when his mother had been unwilling to leave because she’d been losing at the time. Too busy for labor.
    Too busy for him, most of the time, except when she needed him.
    When he was still just a kid, he’d been forced to become a chameleon, pretending to be whoever his mom wanted him to be at the time. A petty thief and con artist, she’d dragged Chance into her schemes until his twelfth birthday, when he’d been thrown off a fourth-floor balcony as a result of her ways—a deal gone wrong. He’d tried to protect his mom from her enraged victim by jumping in front of her and found himself plummeting to the ground below.
    By some miracle, he’d ended up with only a broken arm, which had healed so quickly he hadn’t needed a plaster cast.
    The thing was, he remembered being far more hurt than that, even if only for an instant. He hadn’t been able to move his arms or legs … saw himself floating above his body. And then he’d woken to his mother and the police and walked to the ambulance … and he’d never told anyone.
    Nothing like that had ever happened again. Sure, he’d always healed faster than others, but this—what that monster did to him—he should’ve died.
    Born lucky, always lucky.
    He’d graduated to becoming a hell of a pickpocket and semi-juvenile delinquent. He’d always stayed far away from gambling and casinos, but looking back, he realized he gambled with something much more important in the military
    —his life.
    And the expression shit out of luck never seemed to fit more perfectly than right now.
    SELA HAD TO HAND IT TO MARLENA—FOR BEING COVER-MODEL
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    gorgeous, she was tough.
    They’d been tramping through the jungle for eight hours now, and not once had the blond woman whined about the insects, the thick brush or the weight of their fully loaded backpacks. Not even the sweltering heat seemed to bother her, even though their BDUs stuck to their skin like damp sheets.
    Both had long ago stripped off their long-sleeved outer shirts and were down to their brown tees, but it hadn’t helped a whole lot.
    They’d finally found the area where Sela believed the SEALs had been attacked, and for the past hour, they’d been collecting evidence. Back at ACRO, while Sela was having her cavity filled, Marlena had studied investigative techniques, as well as the history behind el chupacabra, and on the plane, Sela had given her a crash course in cryptozoology.
    Marlena was a quick study, but truthfully, Sela wasn’t too worried. The cover story would be that Marlena was new to the work, which would explain