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“I thought you said they were meeting you at the next drop point?”
“Right…uh…if they can make it,” I clarified. “I’m kind of running for my life right now, Maggie. It’s not like I have time to explain every goddamn move I make.”
I winced, hoping she didn’t kill me when we returned home. If we returned home. I wasn’t even sure anyone was alive right now.
“Listen up, I am not having this baby?—”
“What?” I feigned not being able to hear her. I grabbed my wrapper from the candy bar I had eaten earlier and started crinkling it in front of the microphone. “Maggie? I can’t hear you. Must be…reception is…” And then I hung up with a grin, proud of my work. Now I just needed to figure out what the hell was going on.
I thought for sure they were fucking with me when they left me behind, with promises to check in with me and give me further details. It turned out, they found themselves in a world of trouble, and now I was going to have to get them out of it. The first thing I had to do was find their location.
I pulled out my bag and grabbed my laptop, booting it up. Rubbing my hands together, I waited for the progress bar to finish and then got to work finding their sat phones. Becky was supposed to be monitoring all this from back home, so why the hell hadn’t anyone checked in?
It was nearly impossible to establish a good wireless connection out here. With the thick tree coverage, I wasn’t even sure I would have any luck. But then I got the faintest hint of a dot blinking on the screen before it disappeared.
“Yes!” I shouted, shoving both fists in the air. But there was no one around to share in my victory because they left me the fuck behind. I didn’t have a woman at home, and apparently, I was expendable to Reed Security in some form or another.
Shoving my laptop back in my bag, I ran over to the counter and rang the bell, trying to wake up the smelly man. He jerked awake and slowly looked over at me.
“Where can I get a vehicle?”
“Eh?”
“A car. You know…” I mimicked using a steering wheel. “I need a vehicle. Motorola,” I said, wondering if I got that right, which I was pretty sure I hadn’t.
“Yo necessito mover in un…carro a…ayudar!” I pointed out to the jungle. Fuck, I had no idea what I just said, but I hoped it was close enough.
He spoke, but I didn’t understand a word he said. Maybe they didn’t speak Spanish in the Amazon. It took another fifteen minutes, but I finally got a set of keys and a Jeep (or something that resembled one) and loaded up what I could in the back. Getting in, I slammed the door and pressed my foot all the way down. It was time to go hunting.
For my team, not the snake that bit Cap.
18
CAP
I groaned as I drifted in and out of sleep. Peeling my eyes open, I stared into the darkness and wondered where the fuck I was. Figures swayed above me, and it didn’t take a genius to recognize the man beside me based solely on his stance. I’d recognize it anywhere.
“What the fuck happened, Knight?” I asked, struggling to sit up.
“A snake attacked you.”
Frowning, I was sure this was some kind of joke. “Seriously?”
“Do I look like the type of man that tells jokes?”
He had a point. Sighing, I laid back down and stared up at the night sky. “Where are we?”
“On the river. We haven’t been able to reach the rest of the team yet.”
“Why not?”
“Well, they were off doing the job while the rest of us were trying to save your ass.”
The problem was, I couldn’t remember what the job was. “Did I hit my head or something?”
“No, but your face is swelled up and now you’re unrecognizable.”
“What?” I gasped, running my hand over my face. The puffiness was evident whether I was holding a mirror or not. I knew I looked like a freak. “Is this from the snake bite?”