Harper’s chin went up. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”
Chase softly cursed.
Bran’s grin flashed white against his black face paint. “We’ll figure it out tomorrow. In the meantime, find a spot and grab some z’s. We’ll talk again in the morning.”
When Chase reached for his pack, Bran caught his arm and tipped his head to the side, a gesture he recognized as the need for a private conversation.
Chase nodded. He’d be there as soon as he got Harper settled.
Using his flashlight, he grabbed his pack and scoured the area for a safe place to rest for what little of the night remained. Harper grabbed her pack and joined him. He never offered to help with her load—by now knew better than to ask.
She carried her own weight, just the way she’d said.
He located a small open area where he didn’t see any snakes, spiders or poisonous frogs, and made a place for the two of them on his bedroll.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” he told her, then slipped off into the darkness to speak to his brother.
“What’s going on?” Chase asked once they were out of hearing.
“Picked up some intel while I was scouting the camp and the area around it. The head of Los Proscritos, the commandant, is a guy named Benito Velasquez. Got ties to a powerful coca grower in the region, not sure which one. Apparently, as a favor, Velasquez is holding Michael and his girlfriend in the camp. It’s some kind of payback for a business deal gone wrong.”
“How’s Michael involved?”
“I don’t think he is.”
“Someone went to a lot of trouble to track him down and bring him to Colombia.” Chase swore softly. “You’re thinking this has something to do with his father.”
“Not that much of a stretch, is it? I’m going out on a limb and guess the guy behind the crooked business deal is Knox Winston.”
“And they’re holding Michael for revenge. Son of a bitch.”
“It’s been rumored for years Knox is up to his sleazy eyeballs in the drug trade.”
Chase grunted. “I should have figured that from the start.”
“I think your attraction to Harper might have clouded your vision. Makes anything happening between you two a whole lot tougher.”
The situation wasn’t just tough, it was impossible. As Chase had known from the start.
Bran reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “We don’t know for sure that’s what’s going on.”
Chase made no reply. Knox Winston was involved. He could feel it in his bones.
“Get some sleep,” Bran said. “You’ll be taking the second rotation, same as last night.”
His brother went in search of a place of his own, and Chase made his way over to his bedroll to join Harper. Thinking about Knox’s likely involvement, he was glad she was already asleep.
He sighed as he sat down next to her and propped his back against the trunk of a tree. He had known from the start a relationship between them was hopeless.
Tomorrow they would make final plans to rescue Michael and Pia, do their best to get everyone out safely, then return to their lives in Texas.
Chase chose not to think about Knox Winston and his criminal empire and what might happen when he got home.
Chapter Nineteen
Dawn arrived and with it another grueling day, hours where Pia worked with the women doing chores for the men and Michael built battlements, digging trenches around the camp perimeter for use in combat.
Who Velasquez’s men would be fighting, Michael had no idea. Another group of rebel soldiers, perhaps, or maybe the Colombian army. He had no clue what would happen to him and Pia if the camp were invaded. They might end up in a worse situation than they were in now.
