Page 9

“Almost there,” Hunter called to them over the roar of the engine and the wind whipping though the cab of the truck.

Miri may not have been worried about these guys, but Rafa sure was. The only reason Rafa agreed to go on this detour was because he figured if they were in on something with Quinn, they probably wouldn’t have let them stay back at the van if they’d tried. Well, and because Miri was clearly dead set on going with them, and Rafa wasn’t going to let her out of his sight.

Cooperation was key in situations like this. Rafa knew that from firsthand experience, like that time his GloGeo team had unwittingly walked into an inhospitable encampment in the bush. Fortunately, they’d been able to talk their way out of any trouble, but only after playing very nicely and being very agreeable.

At least they’d called Anissa to make sure she knew their whereabouts, though that provided little solace.

Miri, Rafa, Logan, and Felix were crammed in the back seat as the truck careened down the bumpy dirt road. Rafa had to put his arm around Miri to make enough room. He would have done the same thing if Felix or Logan had been beside him.

That’s what he told himself, at least.

Her side nestled softly into him, her lily of the valley scent now permeating its way into his clothes. Every so often she’d lean forward to ask Hunter or Kevin a question, resting her hand on Rafa’s knee to steady herself. She did it so casually, like she’d known him for longer than the little more than twenty-four hours since they’d first met at the airport. He didn’t mind. He quite liked it, in fact.

Was it intentional? Did she even realize she’d done it?

One thing was certain: Rafa realized it. Every part of him was aware. His entire body tensed under her hand, wanting to move but not wanting to draw attention to it in case she stole it away. It took all his strength to focus on the oddity of what was happening in the truck and not Miri.

Given the road’s condition, Rafa’s original detour plans probably wouldn’t have fooled anyone much longer. This wasn’t a road meant to be traveled on with any regularity. The closer they got to the river, the narrower the drive width became. Soon the forest seemingly swallowed them whole, encroaching into the travel lane.

Thwack! Branches slapped against the windshield then scraped the side of the truck, screeching as they dragged across the metal. Had they taken a wrong turn or something?

“So, why are you taking a boat rather than driving straight to Caracaraí on the highway?” Rafa asked.

“What’s the point of being in the Amazon if you’re going to drive everywhere?” Hunter said. “This is more of an adventure.”

Rafa watched Kevin messing with something in his lap. Kevin elbowed Hunter and flashed him a message on his phone, and Hunter gave him a simple nod before looking in the rearview mirror and catching Rafa’s glance.

Something still wasn’t sitting right with him.

“Where in DC do you live?” Rafa asked Kevin.

“Huh?” Kevin responded, tossing him a curious look over his shoulder.

The hair on the back of Rafa’s neck rose and, unfortunately, this time it wasn’t because of Miri’s touch.

“DC. That’s where you live, right?” Rafa called out to Kevin again.

“Oh. Yeah. I’m over by, uh, the ballpark. Gotta be close to my team, am I right?”

Time to see how right Kevin was. Having lived in DC for the last seven years, Rafa was more than familiar with the city. “Oh, so you’re in Columbia Heights?”

“Yep. Columbia Heights. Great ’hood.” Kevin said.

“Cool. I haven’t been,” Rafa responded, “but I hear it’s pretty sweet being able to see the Lincoln Memorial from the ballpark, too, don’t you think?”

“Totally. Makes me emotional every time I see it. So powerful.”

Wrong.

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Rafa tapped his thumb on Miri’s shoulder, casually trying to get her attention. She looked at his hand and smiled, then at his face. But Rafa wasn’t smiling. He shook his head with the most minuscule movement possible. Without words, she ticked her head in their direction and lifted her brows with the subtlest of movements as if asking, Are you sure? Oh, he was sure all right. Nationals ballpark was in the Navy Yard neighborhood, miles away from Columbia Heights. And the Lincoln Memorial was nowhere near the stadium, certainly not within viewing distance. He nodded, but his solemn eyes said it all—they were in trouble. She pulled her mouth in a tight line then returned a nod with the same amount of movement, signaling that she understood.

“How long is your trip in the Amazon?” she called out to them.

“Two weeks,” Kevin replied.

“When did you get here?”

“Yesterday. It’s gonna be wild.”

Miri glanced into the back of the truck bed, likely thinking the same thing Rafa was. “Then where are your bags?”

Kevin and Hunter exchanged the tiniest glance. “Oh, uh, they’re already at the boat. Speaking of, here we are.”

Hunter rolled up about thirty feet from the edge of the river, and sure enough, there was a ramshackle fishing vessel waiting for them. The thing looked like it was barely waterproof. Mismatched boards. A cracked window on the small captain’s cabin. Rafa wouldn’t be surprised if duct tape held it together. To put it as nicely as possible, it was a hunk of junk. And completely out of place in the Amazon.

Dusk was upon them, bringing the wildlife out in full force. Birds hooted and called. Bats flew overhead. A splash in the distance signaled the caimans weren’t far. Rafa seriously regretted his choices earlier in the day. This was not a place to be stuck all night, that was for sure.

“All right, let’s get everything loaded up,” Hunter said, hopping out of the truck. “There’s the captain. Olá, Sérgio! We found some stragglers who need to hitch a ride upriver,” he called to the man.

“Sim, senhor,” Sérgio said as he tipped his straw hat at Miri and Rafa, then continued prepping the boat for their journey.

“Can that thing even hold us?” Rafa asked Hunter.

“Good point,” Hunter said. “Let’s load the most important stuff first. You might have to ditch some of your things here. Come on.”

Hunter, Kevin, Logan, and Felix started carting stuff back and forth between the truck and the boat, while Rafa and Miri stayed back, pretending to be sorting through a few of the bags.

“I don’t like this,” Rafa said under his breath.

“I don’t, either,” she said. “I’m sorry…I…I shouldn’t have insisted.” Worry—and guilt—read all over her face. If they were going to play the blame game, though, Rafa would win by a landslide.

“Not as sorry as I am for bringing us this way in the first place,” he said, rubbing her shoulders. “I don’t know who these guys are, but he’s not from DC, that’s for sure.”

“What should we do? Should we tell them we changed our minds and ask if they would let us take the truck back to town?”

“Something tells me they won’t agree to that.”

“Maybe Sérgio can help us?”

“Sure. Unless they’re working together.”

Miri and Rafa looked over toward the boat, checking for any other crew members. Only one—Captain Sérgio.

“Do you think he’s in on it?” Miri asked.

“I have no clue.”

If these were the men Quinn was talking about, then Rafa was in deeper shit than he thought.

“You guys get the last of the things,” Hunter called over to Felix and Logan as they headed back toward the truck.

Once they were near, Miri pulled Felix and Logan by their arms and huddled everyone together. “Something isn’t right,” she whispered. “I think they’re up to no good. I don’t think we should go with them.”

“We were about to say the same thing. Hunter…he whispered something to Kevin about the Cidade da Lua,” Logan said.

“Let’s get our things and tell them we changed our minds,” Miri said.

They all stood up to face the boat, but the boat was no longer docked. Instead, it had pulled away from the riverbank, with Hunter and Kevin watching them from the bow.

“So long, suckers. Mr. Vautour thanks you for the gear,” Hunter called out, one leg up on the edge of the boat like Captain Morgan.

Vautour? They worked for him, too?

“Hey! Wait! Give us our stuff!” Miri said, running toward the riverbank.

“Nah, we’re good. Besides, you won’t be able to carry it all back to your van anyway,” Hunter yelled back at them.

“Then give us the keys!” she yelled, pointing at the truck.

Hunter raised a set of keys above his head and jingled them in his hand. “What? These keys? I think we’re good.” He tossed the keys in the air then placed them on a crate on the boat.

Shit! How could they have been so foolish?

Rafa opened his mouth to scream profanities at Hunter and Kevin when the sight of Miri hurling her body over the river swinging from a vine in the direction of the boat stole his attention. “Miri! What are you doing?” he screamed.

Shit. Fuck.

She was just short of the boat, her legs flailing about in the air. She let go and plummeted into the water. Rafa went running along the river after them, with Logan and Felix close behind. The boat thankfully hadn’t picked up enough speed yet, and Miri reached a rope ladder in the back, pulling herself onto the stern of the boat. Rafa couldn’t hear what they were saying over the puttering of the engine, but he watched everything like it was in slow motion.

Pringles, what are you doing?

Rafa looked down the current and saw a fallen tree hanging over the river braced against another across the way, almost like a bridge over the water. “There!” he said, pointing out the tree to Felix and Logan. “Hurry!”

Rafa raced toward the tree, running up its trunk like a champion parkour athlete, and launched himself into the boat. He landed with a thud and was instantly met with a punch in the face. With a quick shake, he jumped up only to be faced with another swing from Hunter, though this time Rafa ducked, barely missing Hunter’s fist. Rafa and Hunter circled each other, trading punches, before Kevin joined.

“Two on one? Really?” Rafa said, squaring up for the fight.

“This is real life, dickwad, and life’s not fair,” Hunter said.

Right as Hunter geared up for another swing, Miri jumped on his back, beating him with her fists. He growled at her, desperately trying to get her off him. Miri was a scrapper. For a moment, a sense of satisfaction—and a little pride—overcame Rafa as a smile escaped from his lips. But Hunter rammed into the boat cabin, pinning Miri with a dull thud before she crumpled to the deck.

“Leave her alone!” Rafa said, lunging for Kevin and pushing him over the side of the boat, where he dropped into the river with a splash.

“Enough!” Hunter called out, pulling out a knife from behind his back and pointing it right at Rafa. “Both of you, over there,” he said, motioning to the deck’s handrails with the blade. “Don’t try being a hero.”

Rafa’s heart pounded as his stomach sank. This was it. This was how they were going to die. How could he have been so stupid to get into that truck and risk their lives?

This was all his fault.

“Look, all we want is our stuff,” Miri said with her hands raised to her chest, palms facing out. Her voice trembled, but she spoke calmly. “Give us our things and then you can go.”

“Why are you talking like you’re the ones in charge here? Like you have any negotiating power. I’m the one with the knife, if you haven’t noticed,” he said, waving it around like it was nothing more than a rubber movie prop.

Something caught Rafa’s attention behind Hunter—Felix and Logan climbing over the side of the boat, completely unbeknownst to Hunter.

“Senhor! Watch out!” Sérgio called out.

Hunter spun around just in time to catch the force of Felix and Logan wrestling him to the floorboards. Rafa dove for the knife and twisted it out of Hunter’s hands before Felix and Logan picked him up and tossed him overboard. Rafa then pointed the knife at Sérgio.

“I suggest you jump as well,” Rafa growled at him.

Without hesitation Sérgio launched himself off the boat. Rafa rushed over to the steering wheel and put the boat in full gear to speed away from Hunter, Kevin, and Sérgio crawling their way back up on the riverbank.

“If you think this is the last you’ve seen of us, you’ve got another think coming!” Hunter screamed. “See you at the Moon City!”

Rafa shot a look at them as Miri flipped them the bird.

“Don’t forget these!” she yelled, dangling the keys to the truck overhead before flinging them into the dark, murky river off the front of the boat.

Between the piranhas, caimans, and electric eels, something told Rafa they wouldn’t be finding those keys anytime soon, if ever.

Once they were a safe distance away, Rafa let off the throttle. With all the rattling and clanking happening, they had no clue how far this boat would make it. Even with the distance between them and those jackasses, his heart still raced. He’d had some wild adventures, but nothing like this.

I can’t believe I pointed a knife at someone.

He stared at the blade resting on the dash panel. He hadn’t actually planned to use it on Sérgio, but if things had gone differently with Hunter or Kevin, who knew what would have happened? Rafa didn’t want to think about it.

He didn’t want to look at it, either.

“Is everyone okay?” he called out to the main deck. Felix and Logan nodded, squeezing the water out of their clothes.

“That was close,” Miri said, startling him out of his thoughts and entering the captain’s cabin.

“ Close ?” he asked in disbelief. Close was them almost catching the bus yesterday and barely missing it. Or her failing to pull the bags on top of the van this morning. Her calling what had happened close after he’d only minutes earlier threatened to stab someone set him off. “What were you thinking ? We could have been killed.”

She ducked her head, twisting her hands together in front of her. “I know. But I…I wasn’t thinking. Or at least I wasn’t thinking about that.”

“Then what were you thinking about?” he demanded, alternating between watching where they were going and Miri standing in the doorway.

“I was thinking about the equipment.” She moved closer as she tried to explain. “I mean, we’ve got hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment here. I’ve already messed so much up on this expedition. I didn’t know they had a knife, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone after them. But I couldn’t…I couldn’t let them take everything.”

“So what? All that equipment isn’t worth your life, Miriam.”

He stared at her, her hands trembling at her sides and her eyes welling with tears. Shit.

Sure, he was angry, but not because he was mad at her. If anything, he was terrified of how badly things could have turned out.

“Come here,” he said with a sigh, reaching one arm out to her while the other held the wheel steady. She stepped into him and folded into his body, letting him wrap his arm around her. She buried her face in his chest. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “I was so scared once I realized what I’d gotten myself into.”

“I was scared, too.”

She looked up. “You were?”

“Of course I was. When I saw you swinging over the river, my heart froze. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life.”

“I don’t know what I was thinking. In my head, I thought I’d swing on that vine and touch down on the deck with the perfect footing. And then I’d give them a stern talking to like a badass and they’d flee.”

“Yeah, but like you said, this isn’t exactly Hollywood out here. In real life you don’t always land feet first.”

“Well, in all fairness to my skills, even movie stars often eat their landings, too,” she said with an air of humor in her voice.

Rafa smiled at her, and she smiled back, burying her face in his chest once more. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said.

“I’m glad you’re okay, too.”

“Minus a couple of sore ribs. And I don’t even want to look in a mirror. My face feels like it’s about ten times bigger than normal,” he said, reaching his hand to gently touch his face.

“It still looks pretty to me.”

Rafa looked down and her eyes went wide.

“I mean, pretty good. Like, it looks normal. Or mostly normal at least. You have a cut on your lip, that’s all. Well, and a bruise above your cheek. But you still look good. I mean, normal. You still look normal,” she rambled, and God, it was adorable. “We should probably get that cleaned up, though,” she said, pointing to his lip and releasing him.

He watched as she wiped a tear from her cheek and tucked her hair behind her ears before searching the cabin for a first aid kit. But while she banged around cabinet doors and bins, Rafa brought his hand up to his lip and winced, tasting blood. Shit, that hurt. Rafa had gotten in some solid jabs, and they may have won the fight, but not without a few injuries of their own.

“Don’t touch it,” Miri said, opening a first aid kit beside him.

Rafa glanced down at her hands sifting through the supplies. Her knuckles were bloody. She’d put up one hell of a fight herself.

“We should get you cleaned up first,” he said, motioning toward her hands.

“Oh. Right. I suppose you don’t want dirty hands tending to your wounds,” she said, smiling.

“Here, take the wheel.” He found some antiseptic wipes and tore open a square. One hand at a time, he swiped the cloth over her knuckles as she steered the boat with the other hand.

“Ssssssss,” she hissed, pulling her hand away and wincing. “Sorry, it stings,” she said.

“Need me to kiss it to make it better?” He smirked, and she playfully elbowed him. “Hey, watch the ribs. Here, give me your hand.”

She gave it to him again, but this time she fought through the pain. “You were pretty ballsy back there, taking on two men by yourself,” he said.

“I’ve never punched someone before. Man, that hurts.”

Rafa snickered. “Yeah, it’s not pleasant.”

“Have you ever been in a fight like that?”

“You mean a fight on a boat in the Amazon with two guys trying to steal our stuff at knifepoint? Of course. That’s a regular Friday night where I’m from,” he said with a smile. “I’ve been in my fair share of fights, though.”

“Fair share?”

“Not recently. More when I was in my teens.”

“Were you a troublemaker?”

“I don’t know if I’d say trouble maker , but all boys go through a period where trouble seems to find them whether they created the trouble or not.”

“Oh yeah? What’s the dumbest thing you ever got in a fight about?”

“Let’s see…” Rafa looked up, trying to recall his youth. “In secondary school we had this assignment where we had to write a funny poem. I thought it would be hilarious to write about William Tremblay, the soccer team captain, splitting his shorts on the field at the championship game. Seemed a good idea until we had to read the poems out loud in front of the entire class.”

Miri burst out with a laugh. “You didn’t?”

“Oh, I did. That assignment earned me high marks and a black eye,” he said with a wink, quickly bringing his hand to his eye at the sting and wincing. “Apparently, I’m good at earning those.”

His face hurt, but he still couldn’t help but grin picturing the look on Will’s face when he’d read that poem. The shiner had been worth it—the poem was damned good.

“What a talent,” Miri said, laughing. She had a nice laugh. The kind that made you want to keep saying funny things just to hear it over and over.

“Well, I suppose I was asking for it with that one, so maybe I should take back what I said about not being a troublemaker.”

“Did he let you off the hook after that? William, I mean?” Miri asked.

Rafa’s smile fell with the memory. Oh right. He’d forgotten about that part.

“Not really.” He crumpled up the wipe, tossing it on the dash, and ripped open another one before setting back to work on her scrapes and bruises. “He stole my writing notebook from my locker and copied some of my stories. He and the soccer team then taped them up on the walls at school. Spent the next week taking them down before another would pop up.”

That first day when he’d shown up at school, seeing everyone crowded around a photocopy of a page from his notebook, was etched in his brain, buried deep in the crevices, but so clear. So vivid. How could he have forgotten?

His private writings exposed, out there for everyone to see. Stories that weren’t supposed to be read by anyone. Declarations on death. Loneliness. Heavy reflections on life and love by a sixteen-year-old kid who still didn’t understand what those things even meant.

That week had been hell. Or, at least, it would have been if it weren’t for his dad.

“That’s shitty,” Miri said. “I mean, I get that you pissed him off with that poem, but sharing someone’s work without their permission?”

Rafa shrugged. “It wasn’t all bad.”

“How so?”

“Well, at first, I was worried that my dad would find out and be angry about the things I wrote. Stuff about my mom and her death. Things we just don’t talk about. But when the principal called and told him what happened, my dad enrolled me in a creative writing program. He didn’t know how to talk to me about it, so I guess he figured me writing about it was the next best thing. And now, here I am, writing for a living.” Rafa paused, then added with a devilish smirk, “Plus, the entire soccer team got suspended.”

“Okay, that’s pretty amazing,” she said.

Yeah. It was. Rafa smiled.

“So, do you know what ever happened to William Tremblay? Please tell me his pants-splitting saga lives on in infamy and follows him wherever he goes.”

Rafa chuckled. “You know, I have no idea.”

“Then we have to look him up whenever we find internet access again.”

“You really want to waste precious internet data in the Amazon to look up what happened to a secondary school soccer captain?” Rafa asked, unable to control his smile.

“Absolutely. When I learned that the mean girls from my high school got arrested in this whole shoplifting–Poshmark resale ring, I savored the sweet satisfaction that all their glitz and glam was phony.”

“Mean girls, huh?”

“Oh yeah.” Miri chortled. “They did their best to make my high school experience true misery.”

“Why?”

Miri made a face. “Because, well…well, look at me.”

Rafa was looking at her, all right, but all he saw were her sparkling sapphire eyes. Her spunk. Her sassy spirit.

“I mean,” she continued, clearly unaware of her charms, “I know you think my money belt is cool, but it wasn’t the most fashionable of accessories back in high school.”

God, she was doing it again, bringing out his goofy, uncontrollable grin.

“Pringles, I hate to break it to you, but no matter how many times you say it, you’re never going to convince me it’s not a fanny pack.”

She punched him playfully in the arm as he turned away laughing.

“Okay, all better,” he said, balling up the trash in his hand.

“Your turn,” she said.

They traded places, with Rafa resuming his spot at the ship’s helm. Miri brought an antiseptic wipe to his lip, and now it was his turn to hiss.

“Man, you were right. That smarts,” he said.

“Need me to kiss it to make it better?” she mocked.

But the instant the words came out of her beautiful mouth, the air in the cabin shifted. They stared at each other for a moment. Was that an invitation? More than a playful ribbing?

The thought of kissing her flashed through his brain. Could he? Should he? She lifted her hand up once more, slowly dabbing the blood and dirt from his face, staring intently into his eyes. She moved, putting her body between his and the wheel. Yes, he did need her to kiss it to make it better.

“I think I do,” he said.

“Okay…”

Rafa leaned down, pressing Miri’s back against the wheel as she sucked in a breath. Waiting for him. Wanting him.

And he wanted her.

“So, what’s the plan?” Logan said as he and Felix burst into the cabin.

Miri and Rafa quickly separated, creating so much distance between them that you’d think they’d gotten in trouble for not making enough room for the Lord at a school dance. He cleared his throat and ran his fingers through his hair, hoping it wasn’t too obvious what they’d interrupted.

“Um, well, first things first, we need to figure out where we’re at. Does someone know where the GPS is?” Rafa asked.

“Here,” Felix said, handing it over.

They checked the GPS and compared it to a few of the maps in the cabin, determining that they were several nautical miles from the base camp at Florestacasa. At the pace they were going and assuming they had enough fuel, it would take them the better part of a day. Rafa showed them each how to operate the boat. Not that he was an expert, but he and his dad had gone boating several times during his childhood. This way, they could take turns and get some sleep. It was going to be a long night. But at least now they had a plan.

“Who were those guys?” Logan asked.

Miri shrugged. “Don’t know. We’re lucky, though. Had they gotten away with all our stuff, the expedition would have been over.”

Rafa tensed as it all finally hit him.

He’d sabotaged his perfect chance at sabotage.