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.
Chapter
Twenty
“Pringles, I’m going to needyou to wake up.”
Rafa shook Miri’s shoulders. He’d let her sleep way longer than she had asked, but she’d needed it, as evidenced by the fact that he was having a hard time waking her. It was still pitch dark. But they couldn’t wait any longer. His father was coming, he could hear them.
“Miriam!” He shook even harder as he called her name in a whispered panic.
She stirred. Under any other circumstance, he would have thought she looked sweet. But not right now. Not when they needed to get going, and fast.
“Mmm. What is it?” she murmured. “Is it my turn to keep watch?” Her voice was sleepy. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and keep her safe for the rest of the night. Let her sleep. Let her dream. But they didn’t have time.
“We have to get going. They’re coming.”
As if his words sent a bolt of lightning through her body, Miri zapped awake. She sat straight up. Her eyes were wide.
“Where?”
“There,” he whispered as he pointed off into the distance. They were still far enough away, but they were getting close. Their voices grew louder. His father shouting at his crew to hurry. He’d recognize his father’s voice anywhere, even hundreds of yards away, deep in the Amazon rainforest.
“Come on, we have to go,” Rafa said, taking her hand.
They grabbed their things and crept through the rainforest, careful not to make any noise. With Rafa’s father’s team close behind them, they couldn’t use flashlights, having to rely only on moonlight, which was sparse through the trees. They moved much slower than they had earlier in the day. Rafa’s heart pounded. He had no clue what his father would do to him if they caught up to them.
They stopped a few times so she could check her compass. They had probably gotten far enough away from Vautour, but Rafa still blocked the light from her flashlight anyway as she hunkered behind a rock or a tree.
“This way,” she whispered, taking him by the hand and pulling him in the direction of a large Wimba tree.
The giant trees lined the trail in two tight rows, almost like they’d been placed there, planted perhaps, rather than grown in the wild. The space between the trees was almost like a road. A road full of roots and vines that they had to climb over. But nothing else was in their way. They moved as quickly as they could over the roots. It would have been much easier in the daytime. But as he found out after spending the last week and a half with Miri, taking the easy way wasn’t in her vocabulary.
They neared the end of the trail of Wimba trees. There was a clearing. A clearing that led to a bridge made of vines, hovering over a deep ravine.
“I think this is it,” she said. “The bridge.”
He smiled at her, and she smiled back. Her smile instantly calmed his nerves.
“Come on, let’s cross.”
“This looks like something straight out ofIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” she said, inspecting the sturdiness of the vines driven deep into the ground.
“I sure hope not. That would mean not just a bunch of bad guys behind us, but a float of crocodiles below.”
