“I know you don’t trust me, Harper.” He’d held up a big hand before she could contradict him, which would have been a lie.
“You don’t know me,” he’d said, “so it’s only natural for you to feel that way. But there could be a time when our lives depend on your trust in me. I want you to know that when we were in Afghanistan, Brandon Garrett saved my life. I owe him for every breath I take. Clearly you belong to his brother—”
“I don’t belong to—”
He’d held up his hand, silencing her once more. “Doesn’t matter. You’re under Chase’s protection and he’s Bran’s older brother. I would give my life before I let anything happen to you or to him. You believe me?”
She’d looked into those hard, dark eyes and something eased inside her. She had jumped to conclusions about this man, which wasn’t usually her way. “I believe you.”
He’d nodded. “Good. You’re safe with me in every way, but if I ask you to do something, you need to do it without question. That goes for whatever Bran and Chase say, too. You do exactly what they say, and we’ll all get out of this alive. Are you all right with that?”
Was she all right with it? She was now. “Yes. I’ll follow your orders without question.”
His hard look had softened into a smile, and she caught a glimmer of the man women undoubtedly fell all over.
“Good,” he’d said. “Now, let’s get going before I have to defend myself against the dagger looks Chase is sending my way.”
Harper had laughed. The last of her misgivings about Killian Dawson had evaporated as the men began to head up the trail. Francisco had led the way and Bran took a place behind him. She’d felt Chase’s hand on her waist, urging her to the next place in line. Chase had followed and Kil Dawson fell in behind, guarding the rear.
That had been this morning. The memory slipped away as the faint smell of tobacco smoke reached them, drawing her back to the present. Francisco puffed on a hand-rolled cigarette as he knelt to light a campfire in the clearing. Off to the side, pallets for each of them had been completed, some suspended among the low branches of the trees, others built with pieces of wood, a few feet off the ground.
She noticed a platform a little away from the others, big enough for two, and relief slipped through her. Chase had stayed close to her all day. Apparently that wasn’t going to change. She thought of the snake and suppressed a shudder. She was glad he would be sleeping beside her.
Her thoughts turned to Pia and Michael, and she wondered about their sleeping arrangements. She hoped Michael had been able to protect Pia from the rebel soldiers.
She hoped Chase and the men would reach them soon.
Chase sat next to Harper on a log he’d pulled over in front of the campfire. Back from their scouting expedition, Bran and Kil had seen no sign of rebel forces, and the fire was snugged away amid the foliage where it wouldn’t be seen. Bran had returned with a plastic bag filled with the meat from a peccary, a small boar he’d killed, skinned and cut into pieces.
Francisco had the meat roasting on sticks braced over the campfire, the succulent aroma making Chase’s stomach grumble.
“Is it... Is it snake?” Harper asked, eyeing the meat with obvious distaste and making him smile.
“Nothing so dramatic. It’s wild pig. You like roast pork, don’t you?”
She looked up at him, and her lips tilted up at the corners. “I love it. And now that I know I’m not eating a reptile, I’m starving.”
He laughed. “There’re wild onions in the skillet, fresh guavas, bananas and cherimoyas. We won’t have to eat MREs tonight.”
They grabbed broad green leaves to use as plates and sat down to eat. No one talked much. They were all too tired.
When they finished, Chase dumped his leftover bones into the campfire, which had dwindled to a tiny blaze providing minimal light. While Harper helped Francisco pack up, Chase caught a motion from Bran and walked over to join him.
“Francisco says we’ll enter rebel territory around midday tomorrow,” Bran said. “He won’t go farther. He’s mapped out the rest of the route, thinks we’ll reach the plateau where the rebels are camped by dark tomorrow night.”
“He got any idea what kind of force we’ll be facing?”
The tightening of Brandon’s jaw was not a good sign. “He figures forty or fifty men, but there could be more.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. And still no call from Winston. Kil’s got the sat phone. If Winston got a ransom demand, he would have phoned Harper, right?”
“Michael and his father never got along, but Knox has always been protective of his daughter. He knows she’s in Colombia searching for her brother. If there’d been a ransom demand, he would have offered to pay the money and called Harper to let her know.”
“Los Proscritos...those guys are bad news, bro. Not much more than bandits masquerading as soldiers. If Michael and Pia are in the camp, we can’t risk trying to negotiate a deal. With that many men, they’ll take whatever we offer and slit our throats without the slightest hesitation. We have to figure the best approach for a snatch and grab.”
Chase glanced across the camp to where Harper once more sat on the log. “We do that, we could have fifty soldiers sweeping down on us. No way we can make it all the way down the mountain to the Land Cruiser.”
