Bran flicked a glance at Harper that slid to Chase, and an unspoken look passed between them. Harper was Chase’s problem, his to look after and protect.
Chase wouldn’t have it any other way.
Chapter Seventeen
Every bone in Harper’s body ached. Inside her boots her ankles were swollen and her feet were sore. She hadn’t hiked like this in years.Correction.She had never hiked like this.
But she had known trying to keep up with battle-hardened soldiers wouldn’t be easy, not even Chase, whose veneer of sophisticated civility had disappeared when they’d landed in Colombia.
From the start, the going hadn’t been easy. After the first few miles, the trail had narrowed to a thin, winding path through thick vegetation. In some places, the men had to hack their way through vines and downed trees, dense leafy roots and thick shrubs.
Twice they had run across snakes, one a simple ground snake Harper had stepped across in the trail. The other, some kind of South American rattlesnake, which she’d heard rattle only an instant before Chase swung the long serrated blade of his survival knife and severed the creature’s head. The memory still made her shiver.
All afternoon the men had pressed hard, and though they were pushing her, she had a feeling they were stopping more often because of her, trying not to make the trek any more difficult than it had to be.
At a signal from Bran, the men paused in the trail and swung their packs to the ground. Chase eased Harper’s pack off her shoulders and set it down next to his beside a fallen log.
“Thanks.” Harper checked the log for any unwanted creatures, then dropped down on top of it, grateful for the break. They had pressed forward all day, but Harper had pushed herself even harder. She needed to reach her brother. If he and Pia were in the rebel camp, they were in terrible danger. The sooner the men reached them, the better the chance for their release.
“You doing okay?” Chase asked.
She managed a weary nod.
He took the lid off his canteen and handed it over, and Harper took a long, cooling drink. Instead of the broiling heat on the beach below, up here it was a pleasant seventy degrees and it hadn’t rained all day. The weather had turned out to be the one plus on a very difficult journey.
“Thanks.” She capped the canteen and handed it back to him, stretched her legs out in front of her, trying to work out some of the kinks. She took a deep breath, determined to ignore her aching feet. “You don’t have to wait for me. I’m ready whenever you are.”
“We’re done for the day,” Chase said. “The sun’s about to set, and in this kind of country, it’ll take a while to make camp. We need to build sleeping platforms off the ground and round up something to eat.”
Relief filtered through her. They were finished hiking for the day! Her legs and feet would do a silent happy dance if they could manage to move.
“Bran and Kil are scouting the area,” Chase said. “Making sure we’re secure. We should be okay. Francisco isn’t expecting any rebel activity until we’re higher up in the mountains, but we need to be certain.”
That sounded good, but there was still work to be done before the camp was ready for the night. She forced the muscles in her legs to shove her up from the log. “What can I do to help?”
Chase’s dark gaze ran over her, taking in her exhausted features.
“What?” she asked, slightly defensive. She wasn’t a special ops soldier. She was doing the best she could, and if that wasn’t enough, by God she’d do more.
Chase just shook his head. “You’re amazing. You know that?”
Amazing?Did Chase just say that? Warmth filtered through her, easing the soreness in her muscles and bones.
“Rest for a while,” he said. “Get back some of your strength. That’s the most important thing you can do. Tomorrow’s going to be another long day.”
“Are you sure?”
“You did great today. I was proud of you.”
Her cheeks warmed.
“Francisco and I are going to get started on those platforms. Sleeping on the ground in this kind of country is asking for trouble. If you need me, I won’t be far away.”
She nodded, watched his long, confident strides carry him across the area at the base of a cluster of trees Kil and Bran had chosen as a campsite. Chase stopped to speak to Francisco, who held up his long-bladed machete. Chase pulled out his survival knife, and they both began to hack away at dense patches of green.
As Harper sat on the log, sounds of the rain forest reached her, the caw of a large bird somewhere in the trees, the chatter of monkeys. A small, bright green parrot perched in the branches of a palm tree, though Kil told her it was actually an overgrown parakeet.
She’d had an interesting conversation with him earlier, when he had pulled her aside at the beginning of the journey.
