He stared out into the night. “I bought some food and clothes for a few boys who were hanging out on the river edge. They were going through the trash behind a food stand, scraping the plates for crumbs, and they were next to naked.”
Her mouth dropped open. “That was dangerous. They’ll remember you. If Guillermo’s men ask them about us?—”
“I’m pretty sure I bought their loyalty, short of a gun to their heads. If all those asshats offer them is money, those kids will probably take it and send them in the wrong direction.”
“Apparently, I’m not the only amazing person in this duo.”
He heard the affection in her tone, and it warmed him from the inside.
“Guess we make a pretty amazing pair. We’ll have to test that when we get home.”
“Thank you, Triumph.”
He risked a look over his shoulder at her. “For what?”
“For not getting rid of that phone. For answering. For coming to get me. It would have been far easier not to.”
“No thanks needed.”
“A lot of thanks are needed. To a lot of people I don’t know. Who’ve never met me, and some of them maybe never will.”
“Sit up.”
She sat upright from the tree, and he slid in behind her, his knees on either side of her and his back to the trunk. After he settled himself, he pulled her against his chest, his chin resting atop her head. “That bothers you, doesn’t it? That strangers are willing to help you.”
Her voice softened, becoming the jungle’s underscoring rather than the other way around. “When people help you, they expect things in return. I don’t like owing people.”
“Well, you won’t owe anyone anything for this, Glennon. It’s basic human kindness.”
“I think this qualifies as more than ‘basic.’”
“Well, okay, you’ve got me there. But these people helping you? They’re all protectors, every one of them, all the way to their core. Who else do you know has a group of super-secret mercenaries who would haul their asses all the way to South America just on someone’s request? Texas Rangers. FBI agents. Wildlife officer. Hell, you even have a coroner rooting for you.”
“We could leave him out of this, if it’s all the same to you.”
He snickered. “I’ll make sure to tell Calder he’s not on your Christmas card exchange.” He shifted, pulling her so he could put his head next to hers. His tone reverted back to serious. “My point is, these people don’t think twice about jumping in to help strangers. It’s part of their DNA.”
“People always want something from you if you ask for help.”
“Not these people, Glennon. It’s not a tit-for-tat situation. No one keeps score. Some people need more help at different pointsin their lives and less at others.” He kissed the side of her head. “Let them do what they were born to do.”
He felt her body tighten, twitch, then vibrate, trying to hold herself together—battling against the need to let someone else take care of her. She hadn’t realized yet that with one phone call to him, she’d cracked open the door to letting others in.
“I don’t know if I can. No one’s been there before. I’ve always had to look after myself. Always,” she emphasized. “My employers wouldn’t help me because I was their only link to Guillermo. My parents wouldn’t help me because all they saw was Joey. And Joey couldn’t help himself, let alone anyone else. Why would I believe someone would help me now?”
“Answer me this. We only ever spoke by phone, and our last conversation was a decade ago. There was a high chance that number would be out of service. So if you truly believed no one could help you, why did you even try?”
“Self-preservation instinct?” she suggested.
He ignored her answer. “Not only that, you had to know there was the danger that I wouldn’t remember you, or that if I did, I could call someone at the NSA and turn you in.”
“I…”
“Worse yet, someone could have picked up and immediately turned you in to the CIA. So again, why bother?”
“No one wants to die,” she supplied weakly.
“Fuck that noise!” he scoffed. His arms banded across her chest, locking her to him. “Death doesn’t scare you, Glennon. You’ve faced it daily. Hell, you’ve brazenly challenged it to come for you. No. You called me because a piece of you knew that I would be there. That you could count on me.”
