Lisa Harris - No Place To Hide

“You haven’t told us what you wanted,” Ryan said.

She glanced at Ryan, who’d just spoken out loud her own deep-seated fears. Because while this could be nothing more than a random kidnapping and ransom scenario they’d just stepped into, her gut told her this was no coincidence. Though she had no idea how, Arias’s men could have found her in Rio and somehow managed to track her next move here.

“Like I said, I’m simply the middleman,” Yuri said. “And like your glorified pilot said, whoever is willing to pay the most wins. Today, you just happen to be the prize.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Let’s just say you’ve made someone very unhappy. Poking into things you shouldn’t.”

“Like my father’s murder,” she said.

She’d been right. This had to be the work of Arias, though she still had no idea how they’d found her.

“Even I didn’t ask as many questions as you when I took this job.” Yuri sidestepped a vine that was lying across the uneven path they followed. “You will find out when we get there.”

“So where are we going?” Ryan asked.

“To a camp not too far from here.”

Ellie fought against the mounting fear. Arias was known for his brutality, for his seemingly unlimited resources...and for the people working for him—hired to do his dirty work.

A small branch snapped as she stepped on it. How could she have been so stupid? She’d known the heavy risks of coming here. Knew exactly what Arias and his men were capable of doing, especially knowing how far his reach was. They’d found her in Rio, and yet somehow she’d managed to convince herself that her plan was invincible. That flying here would be the linchpin that took down Arias.

Instead, she’d only managed to put more lives in danger.

She glanced at Ryan, guilt saturating her far deeper than the sunlight hitting the spongy jungle floor. At least they hadn’t tied her and Ryan up as they marched between the armed men. But why would they need to? Yuri was right. There was nowhere to run. And even if they did, there were plenty of other dangers in the forest besides the men holding them at gunpoint. Spiders, snakes, poisonous dart frogs. A chill shot through her despite the humidity. And if they ended up in the water, there were things worse to encounter than piranhas. For starters, the razor-sharp teeth of the cañero , who moved in packs and had sharklike jaws. Not to mention malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, that humidity made a breeding ground.

She tried to shut down her negative train of thought. Because it wasn’t the wildlife threatening to kill them right now. Instead, it was three armed men. And while she’d clearly read too many travel blogs about the risks of traveling in South America, no travel blog had told her how to deal with this situation.

Ellie stumbled over a tangled vine crossing their path. Ryan reached out to catch her arm with his hand.

“You okay?”

She glanced at where he was holding her and nodded. “Yeah.”

The suffocating humidity pressed in against her chest. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t even go there. This isn’t your fault. I agreed to come.”

“Something tells me if you had known things were going to turn out this way you’d never have agreed to come.”

“I’m a saturation diver. I’ve never exactly gone out of my way to avoid dangerous situations.”

She filed his statement away as something to follow up on later. But not now. “When’s the last time you were marched through the Amazon jungle while being held captive by armed men with a known cartel leader wanting you dead?”

“I suppose you have a point.” Ryan let out a low chuckle. “If I had known all of that, I actually might have avoided this.”

“Options?” she asked.

“I’m not sure there are any right now.”

“Shut up. Both of you.”

She felt the jab of a rifle between her shoulder blades from one of the men behind her as he shouted at them in Portuguese.

She glanced at Ryan’s tense jaw, knowing he was, like her, searching for just that—options. Because while she might have learned how to navigate Rio the past few months, this was an entirely different world. Her gaze lowered, then stopped at a string of large red welts on his arm. She had no idea what he’d gotten into, but he was clearly allergic to something. She had antibiotic cream in her bag, but there was nothing she could do to help him right now.

Someone shouted behind them.

Ellie stopped and turned around. Three armed men crashed through the jungle from their left, waving their weapons and shouting in Portuguese.

“Ellie...” Ryan pulled her behind him for protection. “Translate for me. What are they saying?”

“I don’t know. They’re upset about something.”

The two groups of men shouted back and forth at each other in Portuguese, their guns aimed at each other in a showdown.

“What are they saying?” Ryan asked again.

“Something about money...stealing what is theirs.”

She stumbled out of the way as one of the other men cracked his weapon across Pedro’s head. She glanced around her. The forest spread out in all directions. Even if they did run, she had no idea where they were, but maybe that didn’t matter. Maybe they needed to simply run.

One of the men fired their weapons. One of Yuri’s men fell to the ground. Ellie stumbled backward to avoid getting knocked down as she watched the blood spread across his leg.

“Ryan...”

He grabbed her hand. “Run.”

* * *

Ryan grabbed Ellie’s hand and charged deeper into the jungle, praying the decision to run wasn’t going to get them both shot.

“If they come after us—”

“Just keep running.” He caught the panic in her voice, but if they slowed down—hesitated at all—they’d both be dead. And that wasn’t the only thing he was concerned about. If they didn’t escape now, his gut told him their odds of making it out alive were even slimmer. Because once their captors got out of them whatever it was they were after, they’d likely dump their bodies into the river. And if that happened, no one would ever find them.

The problem was, he had no idea which way to run except for away from the men who’d captured them. Adrenaline shot through him as they pressed down the untamed path away from the men whose shouts continued to echo through the thick canopy of the jungle. They’d been walking for at least twenty minutes before the other men had shown up. Maneuvering through the thick vegetation, though, was proving to be difficult. There was no trail. No clear route. Only skyward trees covered with vines that left him worried they would end up running in circles.

He could still hear the men shouting in the distance. Another weapon fired. He glanced back and caught shadows moving in their direction. They were coming after them now.

Sweat ran down Ryan’s neck. If he was right, the runway was behind them, which meant they were probably moving farther away from the nearest town. But if he guessed wrong, they might never make it out. And with the density of the forest, civilization could be just beyond their line of sight and they would never know it.

He forced his mind to think as they ran through the brush. When they’d landed, he’d seen the river to the north, though he had no idea how close they were to the nearest town. It made sense to head toward the river. But even if they did find a town, he had no idea at this point who they could trust. From what he’d understood about the situation back there, Yuri and his men weren’t the only people looking for them. Which didn’t make sense.

Instead of continuing to search for answers that weren’t there, he focused on the terrain, and getting them as far away from Yuri as possible through the dense forest. There were plenty of techniques he’d learned to use for low visibility when diving. He’d been in situations when clear water suddenly turned murky, dropping instantaneously from perfect visibility to less than a meter. Diving had taught him to stay calm, because panicking would only intensify the danger. The key was to take deep, regular breaths, slowly exhale and then consider your options.