That scares me more than an entire crew of armed kidnappers.
GENESIS
“Sebastián!” Nico strains his neck to look up from the ground, where he’s bound with fifteen other hostages. “Don’t do this!” His focus flicks from me to our captors. “Take me, please. Let me help!”
“Leave him!” I shout as I swing my backpack onto my shoulder. The thought of having that backstabbing bastard around makes my skin crawl. “He’s done more than enough!”
“Genesis, I didn’t ...” Nico struggles to lift his head high enough to see me. “This wasn’t—”
“¡Cállate!” Silvana shouts, looking up from the map Sebastián holds. “Or I’ll put a bullet in you myself.”
Nico’s jaw snaps shut, but he keeps watching us.
“¿Estás listo?” Silvana asks Sebastián.
“Sí. Vámonos.”Sebastián folds the map and shoves it into his back pocket while Silvana gives an overhead “round-’em-up” signal to her other men.
No one speaks as we’re marched out of the clearing flanked by seven of the nine gunmen. The eighth is in the tent with Ryan, and the remaining gunman stands over the captives bound facedown on the ground.
Indiana walks at Maddie’s side as she plods in front of me. Penelope and Domenica stare at the ground as if they’re afraid that seeing or hearing too much will get them killed. I take in every detail. As my father says, forewarned is forearmed.
My father also says Colombia isn’t safe. But how was I supposed to know he was serious about that, when his everyday level of paranoia sentenced me to years of Krav Maga, self-defense, and survival classes?
If he’d told me there was a specific threat in Colombia, I never would have paid the pilot to bring us here. My friends and I wouldn’t be heading into the jungle at gunpoint.
Ryan wouldn’t have been shot.
Maddie sobs as we pass Ryan’s tent. Then she lurches away from Indiana, headed for her brother.
I grab for her arm, but I’m too late. Sebastián catches her around the waist and hauls her back to me.
“Anda, Maddie,” he whispers in her ear.
To me, he says, “Ayúdala, o ella va a salir lastimada,” and the warning sends chills all over me.
“What did he say?” Indiana asks as Sebastián jogs toward the front of our group, pulling his map from his pocket.
“He said that if I don’t help her, she won’t leave the jungle alive.”
I take one of Maddie’s arms and Indiana takes the other. For the first few steps, we have to drag her along. She’sdetermined to stay with Ryan, even if that means being buried with him.
I can’t let that happen.
Maddie may feel responsible for what happened to Ryan, but all of this is my fault. I dragged us into the jungle. Ihaveto get us out.
42.5 HOURS EARLIER
MADDIE
He’s not dead. He’s not dead. He’s not dead.
I walk without seeing the path. Without truly hearing the birds, and frogs, and monkeys. I can’t process anything through the funnel of grief narrowing my focus to that one moment. To the sight of my brother falling to the jungle floor.
“Maddie,” Genesis whispers as we crunch into twigs and push dense clumps of brush aside. “I need you to keep your head in the game. Don’t make me avenge Ryan all on my own.”
Avenge?
I force the world back into focus. She looks just like her dad.
