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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Wick

If I thought she slept hard when she stayed out cold when as I turned over the speedboat to move it while she rested, it was nothing compared to how she slept as I grunted and groaned and cursed while moving heavy rocks.

I started with the cave-in from the day before, since I knew exactly how far that hole was and where we would come out. Unfortunately, the more I dug out, the more the rocks fell.

Not wanting to risk a full cave in, I gave up on that area and turned toward the wall where a slight breeze blew in every once in a while.

After the sex, Violet had curled up on me and fallen asleep. The anxiety had likely sapped all the energy she’d gotten from a full night of sleep the night before.

As a whole, she’d been a real trooper through this whole journey. Sure, she’d had mild freak-outs about the bugs. But in her defense, those things were massive. Other than that, though, she’d been brave as fuck.

That panic attack about dying in a cave had fucking gutted me.

I had to make good on my promise.

I had to get us out of here.

With any luck, the assassins believed we’d either died in the cave-in or suffocated shortly after, so they’d taken their asses out of the rainforest, and we wouldn’t have to worry about them for the rest of the journey.

I couldn’t put my finger on a reason why, but I could just feel that we were close, that we only had a few more hours of walking ahead of us.

We’d still have to be careful on the road back toward civilization. Our pursuers could be anywhere still.

But I didn’t plan to be on the road long. I wanted to get Vi the biggest, fanciest hotel room possible. Then I was going to get her every bit of food her heart desired. And coffee. And orgasms.

That motivation kept me going even as sweat slicked my body, my shoulders screamed, and my fingers got chewed up and bled.

Little by little, I clawed down the rock wall that separated us from—hopefully—outside.

The more rocks I removed, the more thick, heated air crept in, warming the cool alcove we’d been huddled in.

There was no light, so I figured there was a longer tunnel to get through to escape. But I didn’t want to go anywhere without Vi when she was so freaked out.

Tripping over the scattered rocks in the pitch-black space, I made my way over toward Violet, who was asleep on my pack.

“Duchess,” I called, voice soft. Then, remembering how deep she slept, I raised my voice and gave her a little shake. “Duchess, wake up.”

“Leavemealone,” she grumbled, swatting outward, making a smile stretch across my face.

“Wake up, duchess.”

“No,” she said, burying her face in my backpack.

“There’s a bird-eater spider right—”

She flew upward, flinging her hands out.

“Whoa. There’s not. I was lying,” I assured her. I got a hard whack to the chest for that. “You wouldn’t wake up,” I told her.

“I thought I was dead.”

“Not today. Not on my watch,” I told her. “I got an opening. But I don’t want to explore anymore without you.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, letting me help her to her feet as she let out several curses as her body cracked and objected to the tight sleeping conditions.

We got our packs then I moved forward ahead of her, making her grab the back of my shirt so I knew where she was as we stumbled through the dark.

“God, it’s hot,” she said as we walked further down the tunnel, bodies hunched down thanks to the low ceilings. My legs were burning. But if she wasn’t complaining, neither was I.

We met a fork and went a few yards down a dead end before circling back and choosing the other direction.

The more we walked, the heavier and hotter the air got.

Then, finally, a hint of sunlight.

Behind me, Violet gasped.

I turned, pressing a finger to my lips.

We didn’t know where we were coming out. Or where our pursuers were. We had to be careful.

But we kept moving and, finally, we came to a small hole in a wall, the greenery from outside creeping inward slightly.

We were going to have to crawl through once again.

It wasn’t ideal. If someone was on the other side, slipping back in would be hard, if not impossible.

“Let me go first,” I whispered before lowering myself down and carefully making my way through.

The area outside was unfamiliar. I couldn’t even hear the waterfall anymore. But, after a quick walk around, I decided there was no one around and went back to call Violet through.

She crawled out, looked around, got to her feet, and then threw herself into my arms.

Caught up in the moment, I wrapped my arms around her and swung her in a quick circle before pressing my lips to hers.

“But now, where are we?” she asked, glancing around again. “And what time of day is it even? Do you… oh! Look at your hands.”

“They’re fine,” I insisted.

“They’re all ripped up.”

“The rocks did some falling on them.”

“But we need to treat them.”

“I think we should get moving,” I said, shaking my head. “Like you said, we have no idea what time of day it is. We need to cover as much ground as possible.”

I could tell she wanted to object, but we both knew time was of the essence.

So we started walking.

Vi pulled out the bag of acai and we each munched on the fruit as we walked.

My best guess we started walking sometime around eleven in the morning.

And the sun was just about to set when we heard it somewhere off in the distance.

A car horn.

“Am I hearing things? Is this wishful… hearing?” Vi asked. Her eyes were round, her cheeks flushed with excitement.

“I don’t think we could both have wishful hearing,” I said.

Suddenly, we weren’t walking at a steady pace anymore. We were running, tearing through the woods that had been thinning for a while, but I hadn’t wanted to get my hopes up too high.

“Oh my God. Oh my God ,” Vi cried as we broke out of the tree line to find an open, rolling field. With a single lane road.

A road.

Thank God.

“We did it,” Violet said, her smile so wide her eyes crinkled.

“We did,” I said, throwing an arm around her. “But we’re not done yet.”

“I could walk all night now that I know we’re heading in the right direction.”

“Good. Because we might have to,” I said, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. “But until night falls, I think we should try to walk inside the trees as much as possible.”

She grumbled at that, but we both knew why it was necessary, so we moved back to the edge of the rainforest as we walked, our pace faster, motivated by the idea of showers, food, a comfortable bed, a lack of people actively trying to gun us down.

“Shouldn’t we be getting to a town soon?” Vi asked as we walked out of the trees as the sun set and gave us some privacy.

“Eventually, I’m sure.”

“You’re sure we’re heading the right way?”

“West,” I confirmed. “If we go west enough, we will hit the shore. We’ll get there. If you want, we can stop to sleep—”

I trailed off as headlights came in our direction, making my stomach drop as I grabbed Vi’s hand before we both made a beeline for the trees.

The headlights drew closer then, suddenly stopped moving as the car parked at the side of the road.

Like it was… waiting.

“What the hell is he doing?” Violet asked, fingers crushing mine.

As if hearing her, the driver’s door opened and a figure moved out in front of the Jeep, gaze seeming to look right at us.

“No effing way,” Vi gasped, confirming what I thought I was seeing with my own two eyes.

Marco.

Our guide.

With our Jeep.

Waiting for us.

We moved out in unison. It was a slow, careful walk at first. Then a full-on run as we made our way toward him.

“Marco, how the hell did you find us?” I asked, noting a bandage on the side of his neck, wondering if maybe he hadn’t gotten out of that first shootout scot-free.

As an answer, Marco shrugged then waved up and down the street. I took that to mean he’d been driving up and down looking for us. Likely since we’d first disappeared.

Sure, I was paying him a lot of money. And he didn’t get the rest of it until he delivered us safely from the rainforest. But that was some dedication I never expected.

Violet wasn’t up for talking, though. She ran to the Jeep, pulling open the back door, and climbing inside.

“Thanks for this, man,” I said, clamping a hand to Marco’s shoulder. His gaze slid to my hand, brows raising. “It’s been a long couple of days,” I admitted, getting a nod from him. From the car, I heard a little cry, knowing Vi was in there, her relief manifesting in tears. Marco’s eyes softened. “Yeah, for her, I’m gonna need you to drive me right to a fancy-ass hotel that has great food.”

To that, Marco nodded, and we made our way to the car.

To give Violet privacy, Marco cranked up the music.

As for me, I pulled her into my arms, running my hands through her hair, down her back, feeling a strange mix of relief and dread.

With the rainforest behind us, life was about to get very different. After a brief rest, we were going to have to finish compiling my evidence.

Then head back to the States.

Where she would have to turn me over to an unknown fate.

Once we left Ecuador, it was possible that all that had been growing between us—and the depth of feeling I never could have anticipated—might be over.

My heart felt like it cracked just at the thought.

Before I could fall into too deep of a depression over the future, though, Marco was pulling up in front of a luxury hotel.

“Marco, you have gone above and beyond,” I told him, digging into a hidden compartment in my pack for the rest of the cash I owed him. “If I get out of this shitstorm of a situation I find myself in, I might be in contact again.”

When I turned back to Violet, she was staring longingly at the hotel.

“Ready for luxury?” I asked.

“And coffee. Don’t forget about the coffee.”

“As if you would ever let me,” I said, wrapping an arm around her hips and giving her a squeeze.

Then she dragged me into the hotel.

I had a grin on my face the whole damn way.