No, Priest can. I can’t.
I want Reed and Ashley to stroll back to site with a dumb story about how they had an accident and walked back. It’s not going to happen though.
“The longer they’re missing, the harder it’s going to be to find them.” I don’t need to add the word alive. He knows that. Or at least he should.
“And where would you search?” He waves his hand over the map.
The mining company employs half the nearby village, the other half hates us.
“Higher up is all company land. The villagers said nothing, but if they went through in an SUV, they wouldn’t have seen anything. I think they’re the kind of people who know not to talk about what they do see.” I saw a lot of that in the Middle East. People who talk get shot or disappeared. It’s not much different here.
If it was, we wouldn’t be here with our guns.
“But given the car was halfway down the hill to the river…it’s possible they were taken out that way.” Which means they could be further away. I trace the blue line as it sweeps around past the village, running below the other mines the company closed because they are its licenses. They could be on company land. My fingers stop. “Maybe they aren’t far at all.” I share my thoughts. “They wanted Ashley. Which means they know what she does, and that she’d be on the road. That means someone on site is passing information.”
The idea that we are being watched, and that this was planned, is unsettling. It means we weren’t doing our jobs right.
“That’s an eight-hour hike.”
Eight hours at full speed through the jungle. “Call it ten.”
Priest’s lips curve. “You want to take a twenty hour round trip on a hunch?”
“No.” Especially not in this weather.
“Hargrave is shaking out answers. The moment we hear something, we will roll out. Until then, grab some rest because we might take a walk.”
“Is that an order?”
“Do you need to be?”
I consider him for several seconds. He’s the one who pulled me into the private security business. That we’d ended up on a job together was chance, but I’m glad he’s here to stop me from running off the cliff. “No. It’s not like you can order me to sleep. And you can’t sit up all night either.”
“I’m not going to. I’m going to wait for Hargrave, debrief him, then turn in. I’ll wake you if I need to. Otherwise, in here at five.”
I nod, not sure I’ll be able to sleep, but knowing I’ll be better for it. Wherever Reed is, I hope he wakes in the morning.
CHAPTER9
Ashley
While they untiemy hands in the mine—I guess so I don’t fall and die, plus there’s nowhere for me to run to—as soon as I step outside they tie them back together. I bite my lip to keep from snapping at the guards, remembering that I need to appear resigned and weak.
What I want to do is shove them over the side of the mountain. It wouldn’t take much given how slippery everything is, but they’d drag me with them and we’d both die.
Reed would know what to do. I find my thoughts constantly drifting back to him. And then Colton. It’s a bit too easy to imagine them together, and then wonder what it would be like to be between them. But neither of them ever made a pass. Priest did.
Back then, I was trying to stay professional.
Now…
Now I’m on edge and I want to feel something other than fear.
I hope Reed has a plan so we can leave tonight. When I’m not thinking of him, I’m looking at the armed men, and their guns and knives and vehicles. I’m watching the way they stand and talk to each other. I don’t know what I’m watching for, but I figure anything I can tell Reed will be useful.
I’m surprised they dragged me up here. I thought the rain would’ve kept them in, but there is an air of desperation. They need the emeralds the way most people need air.
I sip the water they’ve given me, knowing that I need to come up with some answers now that I’ve spent hours walking the tunnel, and its stunted branches searching for signs that might lead to a vein. I don’t want to help them because the moment I do, my use is over. That, and I don’t want them making money for whomever they are working for. It’s clear that someone else is in charge, and these men have been hired to run things on the ground.
