Page 19

They lay in bed with a sheet barely covering their bodies as they continued to listen to the sounds out in the forest. The rain had settled, though it still trickled onto the roof. In a few hours, they’d be leaving. For now, they enjoyed being with each other. Touching each other. Learning about each other.

Rafa had recounted everything, starting from the moment he’d first learned he’d be traveling to Brazil up to blacking out after Hunter had struck him that afternoon. It broke Miri’s heart hearing him talk about the lies his father had spun and how he’d dangled his mother’s legacy as a way to manipulate him. Like Corrie said in her letter: he truly was a smarmy piece-of-shit scumbag. But despite Vautour trying to drive a wedge between them, it only made Miri care for Rafa more.

His fingertips glided against her skin in slow circles, back and forth along her back. She did the same on his chest, with her head resting against his pecs. Her fingers traced along his stomach. She could hear his heartbeat through his chest, growing louder whenever she drew closer to his core. They’d already made love twice. It seemed he was ready for a third time.

They’d talked about family, and love, and sex. Miri buried her head in his chest and smiled. Everything about making love with Rafa was fluid. They moved in sync, as if they’d been together for many years. He knew which buttons to push. Which spots to put pressure on. And she seemed to know all his buttons as well. She’d never seemed to satisfy a man before. She couldn’t explain it. Was it Rafa, or was it something else? Was it the two of them together? On paper, they made no sense. But somehow it worked.

“I meant what I said earlier,” he said. “About falling for you. I don’t know what that means exactly in terms of where we go from here, but I can’t say goodbye to you.”

Miri stared at him. Although she was naked, she didn’t feel the need to cover up like she normally did after having sex. No, she wanted Rafa to see her, all of her, and she wasn’t afraid to show him who she was. She wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable.

“I meant what I said, too. I want to be with you, Rafa. No one has ever made me feel special. And, oddly enough, also normal. I can’t explain everything that happened with your dad. But now, knowing the truth, I know you thought you were doing the right thing.”

Rafa sat up and took her hands. “He lied to me my whole life, Miri. And now he’s told me this tale about my mother, of the Moon City, and how she saved him. But I realize he was using her the same as he was using me, using her to get to the Moon City. Honestly, I wonder if he even loved her.

“He made me believe I was doing it for her, for my mother. For my mother’s people. My people. I don’t even know what the truth is anymore. The only thing I know is that I don’t want to lose you.”

“You’re not going to lose me.”

“I don’t deserve you.”

“Stop saying that,” she said, sitting up. “I’m seriously going to punch you if you say that again, and you know I’ve got a wicked right hook.”

He laughed and pulled her over his waist so she straddled him as they wrapped their arms around each other. He kissed her tenderly, massaging his hands on her back. Slowly, she pulled away, then gazed down at his beautiful face.

“You deserve happiness, like everybody else,” she said. “Don’t let that sorry excuse for a father make you feel any different. You don’t need him. You have me. And Anissa, Felix, and Logan. And once you meet Corrie and Ford—”

“You don’t think Corrie and Ford will hate me because of who my father is?”

“You’re not your father. Besides, disobeying your dad will probably make her like you even more.”

He smiled. “So what now?”

Miri shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is that I don’t want to be without you. The world is our snack bar—we can choose to do whatever we want.”

He brushed her hair away from her face as he stared into her eyes.

“I like that. Our snack bar.” Then he sighed. “We’re really going to do this, huh? We’re going to leave?”

“I don’t think we have any other choice, do we? It sucks that an asshole like Vautour is going to get away with it, that he’s going to be the one to discover the Moon City.”

“Only because he has the lidar images.”

“Yeah. I just wish I would have been able to figure out how the medallion worked with the landmarks,” she said, her shoulders slumping and her gaze turning away.

Rafa furrowed his brow. “When are you going to tell me what landmarks you’re referring to?”

Seeing as they were leaving in the morning, keeping the list a secret probably didn’t matter anymore anyway.

Miri sighed. “Corrie gave me instructions and a list of landmarks to the Moon City. It came with the necklace that first night at the hotel. It’s why I changed our course so suddenly.”

“Do you have it with you?”

“Yeah, I keep it with me at all times.”

“Can I see it?”

“Sure, give me a second,” she said, hopping out of bed and retrieving her pants from the bathroom. She rummaged through the pockets and then handed a folded piece of paper to Rafa. “Here. This thing has been pretty useless overall.”

Rafa studied the list for a few minutes, then handed it back to her. “Well,” he said, “I’m not sure this is much help. Where did Corrie get this?”

“From the investor,” she said, taking the list and setting it on the nightstand beside the bed without looking. “He apparently gathered this intel on an expedition last year when he’d been working with your dad.”

Rafa’s mouth twisted. She hated speaking about him at all. She wished they could forget him, but that was unlikely to ever happen.

Rafa glanced at the list sitting on the side table again, then focused his gaze, his eye catching on something.

“What is it?” she asked.

“This right here?” he said pointing at the words rocha cara de macaco on the paper. “What does that mean? Macaco means ‘monkey,’ right?”

“It means ‘monkey-face rock.’ Why?”

“We saw that. The wall that you were trying to scramble around. When I was cleaning up your leg, I said, ‘That rock looks like a face.’ Don’t you remember?”

“I was a little distracted, if you don’t recall,” she said, wrinkling her nose and not particularly caring to relive that memory.

“Right. But what if that was it? What if that was the monkey-face rock we are looking for?”

Miri sat straight. “Oh my God, yes! The medallion. Look,” she said, grabbing the medallion and showing it to him. “Remember when we were at the stone table and I started running right before we ran into your dad?”

“Pringles,” he said, tipping his head at her, his voice half-joking. “You say that like I could ever forget.”

She smiled. Good point. “Well, I went that way because look at the medallion,” she said, running her finger along the etchings on the gold piece. “The moon and the temple almost look like an arrow. And these notches in the back fit perfectly when they were placed in that indentation in this orientation,” she said, holding up the medallion cockeyed, “like they were pointing in the direction we were supposed to go. If my directional sense is in any way correct, then I think we were heading back toward that rock. My gut is telling me there might be another carving like this at each of the landmarks pointing out which way we need to travel.”

“Based on where we came upon my dad, I wonder if they even found it yet.”

“You don’t think…” She let the question trail off.

“I’m saying if that’s as far as they got, it’s possible they haven’t made it to the Moon City yet. They were at the very least planning to go back to their camp first.”

“Rafa, you aren’t proposing that we go back out there, are you?” she asked, cocking her head. “Because he still has lidar images, and all we have is a piece of scrap that’s worth less than toilet paper in the Amazon. Besides, we’re leaving in a few hours. The boat will be here to pick us up at seven a.m.”

“But is that what you really want?” he said, scooting closer to her and taking her hands in his lap. “Because if it is…if you want to leave, then I’ll go with you and will one hundred percent be there by your side. We can leave and never speak about this place again. Move to Berkeley. Move to DC. Hell, move to Timbuktu. Like you said, the world is our snack bar. But if you’re right and that medallion points us to the Moon City, then this would be your discovery, Pringles. You figured that out, no one else. You earned it.”

Miri blinked several times and then got out of bed. Her clothes were still wet in the bathroom, so she grabbed one of Rafa’s shirts that was sitting on a chair and put it on before pacing around the small cabin.

If she was right, then her wit and intuition had solved the mystery that had been stumping explorers for centuries. Her keen eye had spotted the space for the medallion, something even the others on their team had missed for days.

“Okay, not that I’m agreeing, and I honestly can’t believe you’re even suggesting this after everything that happened, but what about your dad? I made a deal with him.”

“And do you really think he’s going to honor that deal?”

“I don’t think I want to find out the hard way that he won’t,” she said, raising her brows.

“I think the hard way is you honoring the deal, and then he screws you over anyway. One thing my dad has demonstrated through all this is that he’ll do anything to get what he wants. He doesn’t care about people. He doesn’t care who he hurts.”

Miri thought back to the incident that had happened with Corrie and Ford. How Vautour had tried to extort them, and in the end, he still released those photos. And for what? To humiliate Corrie? To get back at her for standing up to him? Rafa was right. What would stop him here? What loyalty did he have to Miri? If he didn’t even care about his own son enough not to hurt him, what would stop him from hurting her?

“What makes you think we can beat him there?”

Rafa stood from the bed, still completely naked. Not that Miri minded at all. He walked over to her and put his arms around her. “He might have lidar, but you have this,” he said, pointing at her brain. “You’re brilliant. I believe in you. If anyone can figure it out, you can, I’m sure of it.”

He had so much faith in her. Nobody else had ever had that much faith in her. Not even Miri herself. She wanted to prove him right and to prove Dr. Quinn wrong. She wasn’t a joke.

And she wouldn’t be labeled a nobody.

Without another word, Miri got up on her tiptoes and planted a quick kiss on Rafa’s lips, then rushed to grab her shoes and her other belongings before running out the door.

“Where are you going?” he called out.

“To pack!” she yelled back.

The plan was set.

Anissa, Felix, and Logan had been briefed and directed: contact Corrie and see if they could arrange another crew on short notice, alert the Brazilian authorities—and anyone else who would listen—as to Pierre Vautour’s whereabouts and identity, and then stand by and await further instructions.

Because as soon as daylight crested the trees, Miri and Rafa set out for the Moon City.

Splitting up wasn’t ideal, but they needed to work fast. Once Miri and Rafa could confirm the landmarks, they would send the coordinates for Anissa, Felix, and Logan to follow. But the top priority was to get to the Moon City first. Stop Vautour from looting it. Document what was there. And hopefully, if Vautour had any love in his heart for Rafa and his late mother, plead with him to leave the city be.

It was a long shot, but they had to try.

They retraced their steps back to the stone table quickly, and shortly after that to the monkey-face rock. They’d been right. It was the spot that they had stopped at a few days before. Looking at it in this light, of course, they couldn’t have missed it. And there, embedded in the rock itself, was another indentation for the medallion, presumably pointing the temple symbol in the direction of the next landmark.

Hours passed as they trudged deeper and deeper into the jungle, bogged down by almost impassable tangles of vines and the muddy, saturated ground. Places that no human had likely been in hundreds of years. If the protectors existed, they weren’t out here. The canopy was so thick, it was almost as dark as night. But keeping with the direction on the compass, they pushed onward, climbing higher into the rainforest. However, after following the compass for miles and miles, Miri was starting to think they’d still somehow made a wrong turn when a rumbling sounded in the distance, the thunderous roar growing louder the farther they went.

“What is that sound?” Rafa asked.

A waterfall. “Lágrimas de jaguar,” Miri said. The tears of the jaguar . Miri knew before they even saw it. They were getting close and yet again, Miri was right.

“Come on, follow me,” she said.

They picked up their pace, heading toward the loud sounds. The closer they got, the surer they were that it was a waterfall, and soon they could barely even hear each other speaking if they were more than a few feet apart. They pushed through the sea of vines to an outcropping deep in the forest. There it was—river falling from a rock that looked like the head of a jaguar with water spilling out of holes that could be in the place of a jaguar’s eyes.

“This is it,” she said, calling out over the booming flow. “There.” She pointed to a boulder beside the edge of the waterfall with a circular depression the size of the medallion cut in the surface.

They crept to the edge of the outcropping to see what was below them, presumably the lake of giant water lilies, but as they reached the edge of the rock, movement below caught Rafa’s attention. He grabbed Miri and pulled her to the ground so the two of them were lying flat on the dirt.

“What are you—” she started to say, but he covered her mouth.

“Shh,” he hushed her, as if anyone could hear them over the rushing falls. Then he shimmied toward the edge of the rock to look down below and waved her over.

There. The other team, resting along the river. Campfire roaring. Men playing cards.

And there was his father, sitting on a camping chair outside of a rather luxurious tent and sipping from a mug. Examining what appeared to be a stack of images and comparing them to a map.

“Look at them,” she said. “They’re not even in a rush.” What a dick.

“Why would they be? They think their competition has gone home.”

Miri turned her gaze from Rafa and glared at his father and his team.

“Assholes.”

Rafa snickered. “Don’t make me laugh. We don’t want them to hear us.”

She smiled.

“Let’s take them,” she said.

“Take what?”

“The lidar images.” Miri gave him the slyest of grins.

“Have you lost all common sense? No, we’re not going to take the images. Do you want to get yourself killed?”

“He won’t even see us. And I doubt he’d kill us.”

“You’re joking, right? The images are literally in his hands. Unless you’ve suddenly discovered how to become invisible, he will see you. Besides, we don’t need them. We have the medallion.”

“Yes, but if we could get the lidar, we could slow him down, or maybe even stop him from finding the Moon City altogether.”

Even Rafa should be able to acknowledge it wasn’t a bad idea.

Okay, well, yes. It was a bad idea. But if it worked? Well, then it would be fucking brilliant.

“I appreciate your badassery and all, but we didn’t exactly cover covert Navy SEAL operation skills as part of our training,” Rafa said.

“I’m used to people underestimating me. People not noticing me. Ignoring me.”

“This is slightly different. We’re not dealing with a Dr. Quinn situation here. We’re dealing with a team of what,” he said, turning back to count, “six or seven rugged, burly men. You will stick out, I guarantee it.”

“But no one will suspect it. They think we’ve gone home, Rafa. Look at them, without a care in the world. These aren’t people moving with a sense of urgency. They think they scared us off. And besides. Look.”

She nodded her head toward the camp, back toward his father, and right there, sitting on the chair that he had occupied moments earlier, were the photos. Out in the open. He’d left them, not worrying who might get their hands on them.

Arrogant.

Rafa shook his head. “No, no, no, no. I’m not letting you do this.”

“And I’m not asking.”

“I thought you learned your lesson after the boat thing.”

“Well, your father lit a fire under my ass, and I want to show him he can’t mess with you. I won’t allow it.”

“And what about me? What should I do?”

“Head there,” she said, pointing past the bottom of the waterfall. “I’ll get the images and meet you there.”

Rafa’s jaw dropped. “What? No, absolutely not.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“But what if something happens? I won’t be able to see you from there. I won’t know if I need to run in and save you.”

“Then don’t think of it as you needing to save me. Think of it as me saving you. Here,” she said, planting a quick kiss on his lips.

Without waiting for him to respond, she got up and hustled away, scrambling along the side of the rocky falls as fast as she could without drawing attention and before Rafa could change her mind. Going down into the camp was foolish, but she wouldn’t be intimidated. She’d been letting others dictate her whole career. Tell her she wasn’t good enough. Disregard her like she was insignificant.

Well, fuck that.

Miri relished the thought of being a thorn in Vautour’s side, ruining his attempt at finding the Moon City and divulging his identity to the world. Then he’d see how insignificant she was.

And she’d show him that he couldn’t treat people like disposable objects. This was payback for what he’d done to Rafa.

She quickly made it to the bottom of the waterfall. Vautour was nowhere to be seen. He was probably in a tent, relaxing, plotting the evil demise of some other poor sucker. Or, more likely, trying to figure out a way to off his crew once he found the Moon City. Pierre Vautour didn’t exactly seem like the type to share his treasures.

Taking her time so that no one would hear, she crawled along the edge of the camp. The ground was wet, soaking through what were supposed to be waterproof pants. But as she’d already learned at the airport that first day, they were definitely not waterproof.

Most of the men were down by the water, sitting around a firepit. Cooking something, not at all concerned that Miri and Rafa might be hot on their tail. She scanned the site. Searching for the chair that Vautour had been sitting in. There, at the edge of the camp. Near the tents. And still sitting smack in the center of it were the photos.

This was too easy.

Miri crawled along the forest floor, underneath tall ferns and elephant ear plants. She looked back and forth, making sure no one was coming. But right as she was about to spring from the understory, Vautour emerged from his tent and grabbed the folder, taking it back with him into his private quarters.

Crap .

She debated scrapping the whole idea, heading to the meetup point. But just then, a commotion came from outside the tent area, a couple of the guys arguing over a game of cards. Hunter, of course. Another one of the guys was yelling at him for being a cheater, but the disturbance was loud enough that it caused Vautour to exit his tent to check to see what was going on. Giving Miri the perfect opportunity to sneak inside and take the images.

She stuffed the photos into her bag and then slowly crawled away. Once she was a safe enough distance from the tents as she dared, she got back on her feet and ran as fast as she could toward the spot she’d pointed out to Rafa, hoping that he’d be waiting for her when she got there. They probably should have formulated a better plan, but Miri’s habit of acting first and thinking later had gotten the better of her.

Eventually, Miri slowed down, then opened the folder. Inside were about a dozen lidar images and a map with various locations circled and crossed out. It seemed Vautour was still trying to pinpoint the exact location on a map. Who knew how he’d even obtained these images? Not many people had access to lidar technology.

Miri scoffed. Money could buy anything.

Suddenly, a rustling came from beyond the trees. She quickly closed the folder and held it tightly against her chest, backing against a wide tree.

“Pringles?” Rafa whispered. “Is that you?”

Miri ran out from behind the tree, “Rafa!”

He ran over to her, grabbing her in his arms and murmuring in her ear. “Thank God, you made it.”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t?”

He smiled. “Honestly, Pringles, at this point, nothing about you surprises me. Did you get it?”

She lifted the folder, waving it in the air.

“I don’t even know what to say,” he said with a grin.

“Then don’t say anything. We need to go.”

They headed in the direction the medallion had pointed to at the waterfall, eventually coming upon the lake of the giant water lilies. Once they found the next medallion marker, they skirted around the lake, making sure that Vautour and his crew wouldn’t see them. It had only been thirty minutes or so, but it was only a matter of time before Vautour and his team would be back on their scent.

So Miri and Rafa moved at double time, stopping only to give Anissa and the others updates on their location. The ground was a muddy mess after the rain from the evening before, however, making it difficult to run through the brush. It was hot, humid. Miri’s clothes were soaked through. Her hair was matted against her forehead, yet when she glanced at Rafa he still looked as sexy as always.

They ran for several miles, slowed down only by the darkness descending upon the forest. They’d never hiked this late at night—never once it got dark. Darkness meant trouble. Trouble out here meant danger. Jaguars. Reptiles. Vampire bats.

It was one thing to camp with a group of twelve people. It was another thing entirely to camp with just two, especially when they couldn’t risk a fire. Fire would be a direct beacon for Vautour and his men.

“We need a break,” Rafa said.

“Just a little farther.”

Rafa’s hand pulled back on her arm. “We’re not going to have any juice left in us if we are too tired to keep going. We need to rest.”

Begrudgingly, she stopped. She knew he was right, but dammit, she wanted to keep going. “Fine. But I’m not bothering with the tent.”

“It’s not safe without it,” he said.

“It’ll waste time. We can take turns keeping watch.”

“Fine, but you sleep first.”

“Only for an hour.” They couldn’t spare much longer than that.

They searched for a tree that would provide them with some sort of protection, finally landing on a giant kapok tree. Its roots curved around them, almost like a hug. Rafa rested with his back against the trunk, and Miri nestled in between his legs. He put his arms around her, holding her tight. She felt warm and comforted in his embrace.

Safe.

One hour. Just one hour and then they’d switch. And another hour after that, they’d get moving again.