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This wasn’t happening.

But of course it was.

Amanda huddled in the hot, wet Amazon jungle and let herself feel a moment of despair. She’d gone to Guyana full of anticipation. With a desire to help. A bone-deep satisfaction that she was making a difference in the world. And now, here she was. Kidnapped. Hungry. Scared out of her mind.

She’d gone to Guyana to work with orphans. To teach them. To maybe bring some joy into their lives. And she’d done that and more. Until a week ago, when armed men had burst into the school and ordered everyone into trucks with heavy canvas hiding them from view.

When one of the local volunteers had protested, he’d been shot point blank.

Amanda was the only adult taken, and she was now tasked with keeping twenty-three scared-out-of-their-minds boys and girls, ranging in ages from four to thirteen, calm. Which was almost impossible when she was feeling anything but calm herself.

She wasn’t sure what the men wanted. The trucks they were in had to stop once the road ended and they’d been traveling for a week since then through the jungle without saying much except for them to shut up and walk faster.

They stopped when it got dark every evening, but that was their only respite.

Everyone was on edge and the lack of any information about why they’d been kidnapped was almost scarier than trekking through the jungle.

Amanda had been warned about the dangers of living so close to the border of Venezuela, but she’d regrettably dismissed her friends’ concerns. She wasn’t going to be stepping foot into the neighboring country, after all. She would be in Guyana. Safe. Minding her own business.

Except now, here she was.

And the worst thing about the entire situation wasn’t the constant rain. Wasn’t the gnawing in her belly. Wasn’t being responsible for twenty-three little lives. It was the knowledge that there was no one coming to their rescue.

The organization she was volunteering with wasn’t sponsored by the government. It was a small, independently owned group comprised of men and women who were doing the best they could for the orphans in their country.

Amanda had seen a small news piece about them on social media and was instantly intrigued.

She’d contacted them, having felt restless and unappreciated in her teaching job back in Virginia for some time, and before she knew it, had signed up for a six-month stint.

She’d had to quit her job, but she didn’t think it would be difficult to find another when she got home.

She was well qualified and experienced enough to be hired in pretty much any school district with an opening.

The question would be, did she want to stay in teaching?

She wasn’t sure. She’d been using her time in Guyana to figure that out, confident that she would.

Now, for the first time in her life, her natural optimism had slipped away.

Whatever the kidnappers wanted, it couldn’t be good.

Of that she had no doubt. And being the only woman in a group of terrifying and ruthless men wasn’t a comfortable place to be.

She’d been surrounded by kids since they’d been taken, which was one of the only reasons she figured she’d been left alone up until now.

But it was only a matter of time before one of her kidnappers decided he’d take what she didn’t want to give.

And she saw no way out of the situation.

Even if the opportunity for escape arose, she wouldn’t leave the kids.

They were even more vulnerable than she was.

They had no parents. No one to fight for them.

She was literally all they had. Besides, she didn’t know the first thing about jungle survival.

Oh, she had some basic knowledge, but she got lost back in her own town in Virginia even with her phone on and Siri telling her which way to go.

Two minutes on her own in the jungle and she’d be hopelessly turned around.

Her only chance was being rescued, but she wasn’t anybody special.

Didn’t know any generals in the Army. Didn’t know any politicians.

Didn’t have any contacts who would fight on her behalf.

There were only a handful of acquaintances at the last school where she’d worked who might even wonder why she never got a hold of them when she was supposed to return to the States.

Her parents had died a few years ago, and she had no siblings or other relatives that she was close with.

She shivered, even though it wasn’t cold.

It was the opposite, actually. Tilting her head up to the sky, she let the ever-present rain mingle with the tears on her cheeks.

She’d never thought much about dying, and now she couldn’t think about anything but.

Her body would never be found, it would just decompose in this rainforest and disappear into the ground. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

“Mandy, I’m scared.”

Taking a deep breath, Amanda tightened her arms around the little girl in her lap. Sharon was seven, and had been extra clingy lately. But who could blame her .

“Me too,” she whispered. “But it’s going to be all right. We just have to be strong.”

She didn’t actually think it was going to be all right, but there was no way she was going to add to Sharon’s fears. To any of the children’s fears. Taking a deep breath, Amanda dug deep for the optimism she was known for.

“Someone will come for us, right?” Michael asked from her right. He was twelve, and had made himself Amanda’s protector.

“Of course,” she told him, lying through her teeth. The truth was, no one was coming. They were on their own. But she’d rather die than admit that to any of the children. They were all they had, and they’d stick together throughout this ordeal. No matter what lie ahead of them.

“Who are these kids and why does the government care about them?” Edge asked. He didn’t sound irritated, just curious.

Buck was just as curious. They were used to being sent into battlefields with Navy SEALs or Delta Force operatives. Shuttling them in and out of dangerous terrain and situations while they searched for HVTs or other terrorists the US wanted to take out.

But currently, they were in a meeting with their superior at the naval base, and he’d just informed them that two of them were being sent to South America on a rescue mission, while the rest were heading to Mexico to help with some of the extreme flooding that country had experienced as a result of the latest hurricane to blast the East Coast.

“And why only one team?” Chaos asked.

The colonel held up a hand to stave off further questions. “I know this is unusual.”

It was more than unusual, it was…weird. Strange. Fucking confusing. Buck waited impatiently for some answers .

“The vice president has a vested interest in Guyana. As a young man, he did a stint in the Peace Corps. Working as a math teacher in a remote village in Guyana. Throughout his career, he’s kept in contact with people still working in the area, and they reached out to him a few days ago about an alarming situation.

Venezuelan soldiers kidnapped a group of school children and took them into the rainforest across the border. ”

“Why?” Buck blurted, exasperated with the slow explanation.

The colonel frowned and continued speaking. “We aren’t sure. The general consensus is that it has something to do with forced labor or consignment into the military.”

“But these are kids, right?” Casper asked.

“Yes. But even ten-year-olds can hold and shoot a rifle.”

Buck was disgusted. Once upon a time, Venezuela had been the paradise of South America.

But over the years, the dictatorial government had stripped rights and forced its citizens to live under strict authoritarian rule.

If they were now kidnapping innocent children from neighboring countries, would an annexation be far away?

“These twenty-three kids are a symbol. If we can rescue them, we’re telling Venezuela that we see what they’re doing and if they continue, the US won’t turn a blind eye,” the colonel went on.

“But we want to keep this on the down low for now. Rescue the kids. Make our point without making this a huge international incident. How the government reacts will dictate the president’s next move.

He’s not willing to go to war over this, but he agrees with the vice president that something needs to be done. ”

“And we’re that something,” Obi-Wan stated.

“Yes. Because you’re the best at nighttime operations. You can get in, get the kids, get out.”

“What’s the plan?” Casper asked.

“We’ll go over that once it’s decided who will be headed to the Amazon, and who will be going to Mexico.

Oh, and one more thing. There’s an American involved.

A volunteer at the school. A teacher, Amanda Rush.

Our intel says she wasn’t supposed to be taken, but she refused to leave the kids.

It goes without saying that it’s vital to recover her, because she’s the excuse we’re using to cross into Venezuelan airspace. ”

That didn’t sit well with Buck. He had very fond memories of some of his teachers growing up.

He was the poor kid. The one who never fit in.

Didn’t have many friends. And his teachers treated him with kindness.

Encouraged him. Made him believe he could do anything he wanted to do…

including becoming a pilot. Their government using this Amanda person as an excuse left a bad taste in his mouth.

Especially because, apparently, she’d put herself in danger to protect the kids under her care.

“I’ll go,” he said, before turning to Obi-Wan and raising a brow, belatedly realizing that the decision to go to South America wasn’t his alone. His copilot had a say too. Thankfully, his friend nodded in agreement.

“Any objections?” the colonel asked the others. When there weren’t, he said, “Briefing tomorrow morning at oh-six-hundred. Wheels up for both groups at thirteen hundred. The president and VP want this done quickly. Dismissed.”

Buck had a ton of questions, but they’d hopefully be answered in the morning. For the moment, all he could think about was Amanda Rush. Where was she? What was happening to her and the kids? Was she all right? Was she even still alive?

That last question had him frowning. Anyone who volunteered their time to help kids in need was worth their weight in gold.

And thinking about her being hurt or killed because she refused to leave the orphans under her care to the mercy of their kidnappers, disturbed Buck in a way he couldn’t understand or describe.

He was ready for this mission. To find Amanda and the kids and bring them to safety. He couldn’t save the world, as he’d once thought when he’d first joined the military, but maybe, just maybe, he could do his part in saving one little corner of it. Amanda Rush’s corner.

I think by now, if you’re read any of my books, you know Buck’s rescue of Amanda and the kids isn’t going to go according to plan…but how far off course could it go? Ha! Very off course! Find out more in Keeping Amanda !