“What was what?”
He leans in to whisper what probably looks like something sweet and soft, his breath brushing my hair. “You can’t work Sebastián over in front of the whole world. You have to take him into the jungle and give him something better to hold on to than that rifle.”
I shove him back until I can see his eyes. “Believe it or not, your sledgehammer approach isn’t appropriate for every problem,” I snap softly. “I can’t stop whatever they’re planning until I understand what that is. Which won’t happen until Sebastián trusts me. I’m trying to make a connection.”
Holden snorts. “We both know you don’t need to talk to connect with a guy. Stick to what you’re good at.”
“You havenoidea what I’m good at,” I say, my cheeks flaming. Even Holden only sees what I show him, and I’m done showing him how to hurt me.
“You crossed a line with Penelope,” I hiss, my hands curled into fists. “And youdamn wellknow it. You should be on your knees right now, begging for forgiveness, but you’re trying to pimp me out to armed terrorists instead. What thehellkind of apology is that?”
Holden glances around to see if anyone is close enough to overhear our quiet implosion. “You’re totally overreacting,” he whispers. “And we have bigger problems right now than—”
“Stay away from me.” I let my voice carry, and everyone who wasn’t already watching turns to stare. Pen is on the edge of her seat, waiting to see how this will play out. “We’re done.”
Sebastián and most of the other gunmen chuckle. Silvana makes a snide comment about Holden’s inadequacies in Spanish, using his name so he knows he’s being ridiculed.
Holden’s jaw clenches so hard I can hear his teeth grind. I’ve never seen him this mad, but my anger matches his so fiercely that for the moment, I don’t care how reckless it is to make new enemies, when I’m already being held at gunpoint.
He sits on the log next to Penelope and pulls her close for a kiss. I laugh out loud. Poor Penelope is the only onewho can’t see that his pathetic display is actually for my benefit.
Indiana watches me as he stores a nearly empty water bottle. His brow rises, asking a silent question.
Did that go as planned?
Are you okay?
Do you want to rethink this approach?
I’m not sure which of those he’s asking, but the answer to all three is no.
33.5 HOURS EARLIER
MADDIE
“We can’t hike all night,” Luke says as he refills our last plastic bottle with the cooled water we boiled in our soup cans.
Yet that’s exactly what I want to do. We’re close enough to my brother’s killers to pick up radio static, but they’ll slip farther and farther away while we “rest.” As if I’ll be able to sleep while the kidnappers are out there getting away with murder. And hunting for me, if they’ve realized Moisés won’t be bringing me back.
“Come on.” Luke slides my backpack from my shoulders. “They won’t be hiking all night either.”
I should insist that we press on. That this is our chance to gain some ground. But the harder I push my body, the less predictably it will use the insulin I have left.
So as the last rays of daylight sink behind the jungle canopy, I reluctantly pitch our one-person tent on the bank of the river. While Luke gathers more wood for the camp stove, he lists his favorite movies in which people get lost in the wild. “And then there’sAlive,” he says as he shoves twomore sticks into the stove. “That one about the plane crash in the Andes where the survivors resorted to cannibalism.”
I frown at him as I look up from the last tent pole. “Do you think you could leave out all the movies that don’t have happy endings?”
Luke’s sudden silence does little to reassure me of our chances. Suddenly the jungle seems built of shadows, rather than trees.
“We’re going to be fine,” I insist as I crawl into the tent. “We’re in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Not the Andes.”
He climbs in after me, then zips up the transparent roof/door section. “True. Although we’re not far from the northern tip of the Andes.”
Of course he would know that.
33 HOURS EARLIER
GENESIS
