“How bad was it?” Jerry said, worming his way into their conversation. There was something off in his voice. What was it? “Like, are we really in danger out here?”
Huh. Miri was wrong. It wasn’t that Jerry didn’twantto be there. Jerry wasscaredto be there.
Rafa opened his mouth to speak, but Logan beat him to it. “I mean, those guys looked serious. They weren’t messing around.”
“Well, I didn’t come out here just so I could get murdered by a couple of loose cannons,” another guy said. What was his name? Brian?
Another swig.
“I don’t know, that Vautour guy sounds like who we really need to worry about,” Rahim said.
Rafa stared into the fire, half listening as the group carried on, debating various theories about what Vautour and his henchmen were doing while they were out exploring. Who knew what Vautour was planning? Sure, they had eight on their crew, including Rafa. But they didn’t have weapons. And looking around the group confirmed that they didn’t have muscle, either.
Rafa brought the bottle to his mouth to take another drink, when Brian, or whatever his name was, spoke. “Maybe we need to back off this expedition.” Rafa paused with the bottle at his lips.
Back off. Pfft.Mirineeded to back off. She was the one leading them all into danger. And for what? It wasn’t like this would be heronlyopportunity to lead an expedition. But it would certainly be her last if she got herself—or anyone else on this expedition—killed. What about the rest of the crew? Rafa would be doing her a favor by shutting this all down.
“I don’t think we need to worry about Vautour,” Rafa said, cutting through the discussion like a knife. “What wereallyneed to worry about is os protetores da lua.”
Chapter
Fourteen
Bang, bang, bang!
Miri pounded on the door to Rafa’s room, not caring that half the team was still asleep. Nor caring that she was still in her pj’s—a white tank top and shorts combo set with a pink candy print that said “Sweet Dreams” all over it. But after Anissa gave her the news this morning, Miri didn’t have time to change.
If Rafa thought he could scare off her crew, then he had another think coming.
She should have hashed this out with Rafa last night. If she had, maybe none of this would have happened. But since she hadn’t, she needed to confront Rafa now.
A groan came from the other side of the door. Good. She hoped her pounding hurt his hungover brain.
“Just a minute,” Rafa grunted.
Miri crossed her arms and tapped her toe. Just a minute? Well, this minute was taking about a minute too long.
Bang, bang, bang!She beat against the door again.
Something crashed inside, and then he called out again, this time with a little more oomph. “One second!”
She didn’t care. She wouldn’t be kept waiting. Not after what he’d done.
Bang, bang, bang!
“Goddammit, I said hold on,” he grumbled while swinging open the door. Her eyes went wide as they shifted from his bare chest to his barely-there black boxer briefs that left little to the imagination.
Hmm…what was I doing here again?
She stared at him, practically salivating.
“Did you need something?” he asked, rubbing his face. His hair stuck out every which way. He had sleep in the corners of his eyes and what Miri could only surmise was dried saliva below his lip. But damn, he looked good.
She blinked twice, then shot her gaze back up to his. “I…I…” Her cheeks grew rosy, but then she quickly snapped to attention. “What did you do?”
Rafa ticked his head to the side. “What are you talking about?”
“Last night. What did you say to my team when you were all getting hammered?”
