Ellie dived back into the bottom of the boat as another shot rang out. She couldn’t tell where it hit this time, but it had to be close. Someone shouted at them in Portuguese to surrender. Her heart quickened. There wasn’t time to panic. Wasn’t even time to think through what they needed to do.
“Stay down.” Ryan scrambled toward the motor. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
Ellie struggled to catch her breath. She knew that the wooden boat they were in couldn’t protect them from a bullet. Even from the bottom of the boat she could see the lights from the other vessel reflecting against the trees behind them. The pursuing boat was heading back toward them and it was just a matter of seconds before they overcame them.
The beam of light reflected off Ryan. He pulled on the motor cord. Nothing. If the cord broke or he didn’t get it going, they were nothing more than sitting ducks. Though even if they could get the boat started, she wasn’t sure they’d actually be able to outrun the other boat.
Let it start, let it start...please, God.
A second later the motor started. Ryan swung the boat around and sped upriver. They were going in the opposite direction from the town. Now they were going deeper into the Amazon. She had no idea what lay ahead on the banks of the river, or even how far it was until the next town. But whatever sat in the shadows beyond the shoreline couldn’t be worse than what they were facing right now.
Gripping the edges of the boat, Ellie searched the river for an escape while water sprayed against her face. She knew enough about the river to realize there were dozens of tributaries and waterways that wound their way through the vast rain forest, but trying to lose their pursuers was more than likely going to be futile. Like with Yuri and the jungle, she had no doubt that whoever was behind them knew these waterways inside and out. She and Ryan didn’t.
In the darkness, the water surrounding them looked like a sea of black ink, marred only by a trail of white light from the moon and the occasional flash of light from the other boat. She had no idea how deep the water was or what lay beneath the surface. And neither did she really want to know. A shiver sliced through her as she crouched deeper in the bottom of the boat, then glanced behind them. From her vantage point, she could see the lights of the speedboat coming toward them.
Warm wind rushed past them as Ryan raced upstream, but while the boat they’d confiscated might be great for fishing, it clearly wasn’t good for speed.
“Won’t it go any faster?” she shouted above the roar of the engine while continuing to watch the pursuing boat.
“I can’t. I’m pushing the motor as it is.”
Moonlight bathed the tips of the trees in its white light, then spilled onto the water. Her gaze searched the shadows ahead of them now for a way out. Something caught her eye a few dozen yards ahead of them. A split in the river with a narrow tributary heading off to the right. She prayed as they sped through the water, the wake spraying droplets against her face. A game of cat and mouse with pirates or the cartel wasn’t going to end well if they got caught.
“Ryan...” Ellie leaned forward from the front of the boat. “Look up ahead.”
“I see it.”
At the Y, he steered the boat sharply to the right and followed the shadows into the narrow tributary as fast as the vessel could go. The moon had gone behind a cloud, cloaking them—for the moment—in darkness. Ellie glanced behind them. There was no sign of the light from the other boat. Ryan pressed on for another mile, then cut the motor to a slow idle and let the boat drift toward the shoreline, hoping the sound of the other boat’s motor canceled out the sound of their own. He let it glide beneath a wide swath of tree limbs, with just enough space for the boat to hide beneath its cover. An eerie silence hung around them, broken only by the constant buzz of insects and an occasional call of a monkey. But no sound of the speedboat that had been pursuing them.
She glanced back at Ryan, who was nothing more than a silhouette as the boat bobbed near the shoreline. Ellie prayed that the other boat would give up their search, prayed that the shadows and trees along the shoreline would hide them if they followed.
“You think we lost them?” she asked, keeping her voice to a whisper.
“I hope so, but it’s impossible to know.”
Her gut told her that if they didn’t find them right away, they would continue searching. But how long would they keep searching until they gave up?
The boat rocked beneath them. If these were simply pirates looking for valuables, they were going to be disappointed. Neither of them had anything of value other than the clothes on their backs and some worthless things in their backpacks. But if it was Yuri and his men who were chasing them, then it wasn’t their stuff they were after. And that was what scared her.
“If we can get to the nearest town and find transport to Manaus,” Ryan said, “my father can arrange private transport for us out of the country.”
Ellie glanced back at Ryan. She should have listened to him and his father from the beginning. But now it was too late. A light reflected on the water in the distance. They must have come back and decided to search the tributary. Ellie’s breath caught as the light came toward them. “I don’t think we can outrun them,” Ryan said, “but if we stay hidden, we might have a chance.”
Ryan started the engine again. Ellie held on to the sides of the boat, holding her breath as he maneuvered farther into the thick brush, then cut the motor again. The boat continued to bob beneath them. Ellie drew in a breath, keeping her gaze focused downriver.
She closed her eyes for a moment. When she’d lain in bed back in Rio, listening to every sound in her apartment, one of the places she’d gone to in her mind was back to those summers spent in Colorado. Ryan had been part of most of those summers, though she hadn’t thought about him in years. Not really. He’d simply been an annoying boy.
But today, all of that had changed.
She glanced at Ryan. It seemed ironic he was the one who’d arrived to help rescue her. Never in a million years would she have predicted that one day she’d put her life in his hands and in turn trust him completely. But that was exactly where she was.
The spotlight from the speedboat hit the trees above them, yanking her back to the present. She could see the movement on the water through the trees as the other boat slowed down a few dozen yards from them. She drew in a lungful of air and held it as the vessel crept past them, searching the shoreline with their light. The humid air pressed in around her. A mosquito buzzed in her ear. All they needed was a few more seconds.
She found herself counting off the seconds. One, two, three... The boat was past them now. Four, five, six...
Keep going, keep going...
The boat stopped upstream from them. Ellie blew out the breath she’d been holding. Their light searched the trees on the other side of the tributary. Someone shouted, but she couldn’t understand what they were saying. They swung the light to the other side of the boat and into the trees in front of them. A moment later the light hit Ryan’s chest.
Her stomach dropped. They’d found them.
The men’s shouts carried across the water.
Another bullet fired, this time hitting the side of the boat. Water started seeping into the bottom of the craft.
“Ryan, we’ve been hit.”
The only escape at this point was the shoreline, but it was still a dozen feet away through the swampy water. Another wave of panic broadsided her. Even if it was possible to get to the shore, it didn’t matter. It was already too late.
The boat had maneuvered in behind them, shining a light on them and aiming their weapons at them.
A man she didn’t recognize shouted something in Portuguese, then switched to English. “Put your hands up where I can see them.”
He shouted more orders at the other men. Water was now rapidly filling the bottom of the boat. In another minute, it would sink. Ellie moved next to Ryan, then held up her hands. How had it come to this? Being rescued by the very men who had been out looking for them. She glanced at the shoreline and then back to Ryan, desperate for another way out, but there wasn’t one.
One of the men stepped down into their boat, grabbed her and forced her onto the other boat.
“What do you want?” She could hear the tone of her own voice, was surprised at how calm she sounded. Because inside she felt anything but calm as the reality of what was happening began to sink in. The past twelve hours had become nothing more than one long nightmare that wouldn’t end. But this time she knew she wasn’t going to wake up back in her bed in Rio.
She stumbled onto the deck of the boat, next to Ryan. They stood in front of four men who each carried a sidearm. The leader had lighter skin with a slim build.
“What are they saying?” Ryan asked.
“I don’t know. They’re not speaking Portuguese anymore.”
“What do you want?” Ryan took a step forward.
“Give me your backpacks,” one of them shouted.
Fingers trembling, Ellie undid the latch and handed someone her bag for the second time. “There’s nothing of value in there.”
The man frowned and dumped out the contents, clearly disappointed. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Then what do you want?” Ryan repeated. “Let us go.”
They were heading away from the shore now. She grabbed on to the rusty railing to catch her balance as the boat picked up speed and headed back toward the main artery of the river.
“Sit down. Both of you.”
One of the men grabbed her arm and led her across the deck before shoving her onto a bench at the back of the boat. At least they hadn’t tied them up yet. Not that there was anywhere to go. Or anywhere to find help.
The leader stood in front of them with a smirk on his lips. “I don’t need you to have anything of value.”
“What do you mean?” Ellie asked.
The man shot them a toothless grin, held up his cell phone and showed her a photo as the boat flew down the river. “There’s a price on your head.”
Ellie’s stomach soured as she stared at the photo that had been used on news channels three months ago announcing her death. A chill shot through her as the man confirmed that their capture hadn’t been simply another random tourist kidnapping. It had always been about finding her. Which meant they were back where they started. With no idea where they were. No idea where the nearest town was. If there was a bounty on her head, then nowhere was safe.
* * *
Ryan waited to talk with Ellie until the men headed toward the other side of the boat. “We need to get off this boat. Now.”
“How in the world are we supposed to do that?” He caught her confused expression. “There’s four of them and they’re armed.”
“If we wait, they’re going to turn us over to Arias’s men. And we know what will happen then.”
“Do you have a plan?”
He glanced out across the white trail of churning water behind them, then toward the dark shoreline, knowing she wasn’t going to like his answer. “We jump.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re kidding, right? There’s no way I’m jumping into the water.”
“I’m very serious.”
“I can’t, Ryan—”
“If we don’t, we’ll end up exactly where we were a few hours ago. And at least at this point we’re not tied up. But if we wait, and they decide to tie us up, our options will vanish.”
Which was going to be a death sentence. He felt certain about that. But how was he supposed to convince her that jumping into the water was their only way out of this?
He caught the fear in her eyes as she glanced at the frothy water churning behind them. The water beyond the lights of the boat was as black as the sky above them.
“You’re a diver, so this might sound ridiculous to you, but I have this irrational fear of water. All I can think about is that if I jump,” she said, “I’ll probably break my neck. And if that doesn’t happen, there are always the piranhas. I’m not liking the way this is going to end no matter what we decide to do.”
“First of all, piranhas don’t typically eat people—”
“Maybe not, but I’m pretty sure there’s something in there that would be happy to eat me for dinner.”
“Think about it, Ellie. They’re not expecting us to jump. It’s the only advantage we have, and this might be the only time we have.”
Lightning flashed in the sky in front of them, catching the yellow eyes of what probably was a caiman in the water. Her chest heaved and her breaths became more rapid. She was in a full-blown panic attack.
“I can’t do it, Ryan.”
He took her hand. “Yes, you can.”
She pressed her lips together. “That day I jumped into the pool to impress you... I couldn’t breathe. And as childish as it seems, I knew I was going to die. If we jump into that water, we’re going to die.”
“If we don’t jump into that water, we’re going to die.”
She still didn’t look convinced. “But down there, in the dark... This isn’t just my fear of water. We’re in the middle of the Amazon, on the Amazon River in a boat run by pirates. You think they’re just going to not notice? Not come after us?”
“What about if we don’t? What happens then? These guys are going to take us back to Yuri and his men, or I don’t know, maybe straight to Arias himself. He’ll find a way to get the information he wants out of us—in a way that will probably make bullet ants look tame—and then that’s it. They won’t let us go.” He squeezed her hand. “I know you can do this. For the past few months you’ve proved just how strong you are. You’ve lived on the run with the cartel after you, and you survived. Getting in this water and swimming to shore, that’s going to be a piece of cake compared to everything you’ve been through.”
The men were still shouting about something toward the front of the boat. He knew he was right, but he also knew she was terrified. If they tied them up, though, they didn’t have a chance. Jumping, on the other hand, might sound terrifying, but it was their only chance.
“And once we make it to shore?” she asked. “Then what? We’re back in the jungle again. It’s like a bad dream, replaying over and over.”
“At least we’ll be away from the men after us.”
“There’s a bounty on my head, Ryan. So we play another round of cat and mouse. You don’t think they’ll come after us again? Find us again?”
“I don’t know what other option we have.”
“I know. I just...”
“You’re stronger than you think, Ellie.”
She blew out a huff of air. “So what’s your plan?”
“They’re not paying attention to us for the moment, so we jump and make it to the shoreline. Hopefully, they won’t notice right away that we’re gone. Once we get to the shore, we run.”
“What about our bags? I’ve got a waterproof waist pack, but the rest—it will just drag us down.”
“Agreed. We can pull out the essentials. Our passports, the flashlight...”
She looked up at him, her eyes wide with fear, but also a sense of courage he’d noticed before. Emotion washed through him—something he couldn’t quite identify. Not just a desire to protect her, but more than that. For the first time since Heather’s death, he felt something that left him wishing they were somewhere else—anywhere else—so he could get to know her better.
He slammed shut the thought. Now was not the time. For the moment, he needed to stay focused on getting them out of here. Alive.
He glanced back at the front of the boat. The men still weren’t paying attention to them. No doubt, it hadn’t even crossed their minds that their captives were considering literally jumping ship.
“We’ll try to slip into the water as quietly as we can. Then as soon as we hit the water, try to orient yourself and not panic, but don’t worry, I’ll be right there with you.”
She still didn’t look convinced. “Won’t we skip or roll or...break something.”
“I figure they’re going about thirty miles an hour. Don’t let go of my hand. And even if we do manage to get separated, I’ll find you. I promise. We’ll head to the shore. By the time we’re off the boat, they’ll be way ahead of us, which will give us time to get to the shore. And once we’re there, we run.”
“Again.”
Being wet in the jungle with no supplies wasn’t exactly his first option. But if they were going to get out of here alive, there was no choice.
“Ellie...”
He glanced back at the men. One of them was on a phone, probably one they’d stolen from a victim. Two of them laughed over something. No one was paying attention to them. But he worried they would stop soon, and if they did, it would be too late. They were running out of time.
“You can do this. We need to go. Now.”
Five seconds later, she was stuffing their passports into her waterproof bag, which she then gave to him to strap around his waist. He grabbed her hand, took a deep breath and fell into the black waters surrounding them.