I found Sophie in the shade on a picnic table with Hector and two little girls. The younger girl was the one I had given the doll to when we first arrived. She was trying to catch a butterfly in her hands. The older girl, who was probably about eight years old, stood behind Sophie, weaving two braids into her hair. And Hector read out loud from an English story book.
“Hola,” I said.
“Hola, Miss Darianna,” Hector replied with a smile that lit up his face. “Miss Sophie is helping my reading to my sisters.”
I smiled at the girls. “You’re reading is very good, Hector.”
“Gracias, Miss” He closed his book and said something to his sisters in their native language. “We go. See you later, alligators.”
“See you later, alligators,” Sophie and I said in unison.
“They are so precious. Maybe I should stay down here,” Sophie said.
“Really?” I moved to sit next to her on the picnic table top. “For how long? I would go crazy without you if you stayed for four months.”
“You could visit.” She shoved my shoulder. “I’m sure Bill wouldn’t mind that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Trevor would.”
“True. Where did you guys disappear to?”
I sighed and picked at the wood of the picnic table. “He took me to a private siesta spot in the forest.”
“Derian.”
“What? He’s being a complete gentleman—we’re just friends, like always. Nothing happened.”
“But you wanted it to?”
“No.” I paused and stared over in the direction of his tent. “I had a nightmare that was like the visions I’ve been having, where Trevor is missing or lost or something. I called him on the satellite phone and I know he’s not planning to go out on any rescues. What do you think it means?”
She studied my expression and then stretched her arm across my shoulders. “I think it means you need to not go on private siestas with Mason.”
“I told him we’d go for a hike with him this afternoon. We’re supposed to meet him at the mess tent in five minutes.”
She shook her head. “Sophie don’t hike.”
“You have to. He said he has a surprise to show us.”
Her eyes rolled dramatically. “I don’t have runners.”
“You can wear my canvas slip-ons.”
Her lip turned up in a pseudo-disgusted expression. “The one’s with little hearts and a girly bow on the toe?”
“Yeah, they’re adorable.”
“Sophie don’t do adorable either. You owe me so big.”
I jumped up off the picnic table. “Deal.”
“Don’t think I’m not going to cash in on that promise at some critical moment in our relationship.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.”
Mason and Orrett were both waiting for us when we arrived at the mess tent. The four of us walked to the dirt road we had driven in on and followed it farther up towards a rugged mountain. We turned off onto a path that I would have never known was there. Sophie wasn’t impressed with the physical exertion. I wasn’t impressed with being so far from the village. I kept looking behind us to see if I could spot Mason’s bodyguard. We hiked for almost an hour without any sign of him.
“It’s safe,” Mason reassured me when he noticed me looking over my shoulder every two minutes.
“How much farther?” Sophie whined.
“We’re here.” Mason swung his arm out like a game-show host.
We were in front of a jagged rock face overgrown with vines. “We’re where?” I asked.
Mason and Orrett both disappeared behind the edge of the rock. I couldn’t even hear their footsteps.
“Where’d they go?” Sophie whispered.
I glanced behind us, partly hoping to see the bodyguard and partly hoping to see no one. “Those idiots better not take off on us. I’ll kill him if they leave us here.”
“Why would they do that?”
I peeked around the rock. There was a small opening where two edges met. The guys would have had to squeeze through it if that’s where they went. I investigated the rest of the crevice without finding any other openings. The cold, black crack in the rock seemed like the only exit route possible.
“I’m not going in there,” Sophie scoffed.
“What is it, a cave or something?”
“I don’t know and I don’t plan to find out.”
As we stood there staring at the tiny opening, Mason squeezed back out. “Come on. Are you chicken?”
“Not chicken, just sane,” Sophie said.
“Trust me.” He smiled his charming smile before he disappeared into the crack again.
“I’m more scared of staying here by ourselves than following him,” I said and turned sideways to squish between the rocks.
“Jesus Christ,” Sophie huffed and followed me. “If I die in here I’m going to kick all your asses.”
“You’ll be dead,” I reminded her.
“I’ll haunt you.”
“I’ll probably be dead too.”
“Great,” she muttered.
Once I shimmied through the narrow opening, the space opened up into a huge cavern. It wasn’t that dark inside because there were four twenty-foot arched openings along the far side that let light in. Mason and Orrett stood near the edge of one of the openings.
“What is this place?” I shouted.
“An ancient ruin,” Orrett hollered back.
Sophie and I walked towards them. As we got closer to the archways, the light revealed that the walls of the cave had primitive carvings on them. I ran my finger over one of the pictures. It was a strange feeling, like being connected to something sacred.
“Wow,” Sophie said. “This is amazing.”
The view overlooked ruins of a village perched on the mountainside. The piles of stone were crumbling and overgrown with vines, but it was clear that they used to be buildings.
“I’ve studied things like this in school,” I said to Mason.
He made another sweeping hand gesture. “Ancient architecture is best studied in person.”
“I see that. Thank you so much.”
He smiled and led the way to climb over the edge of the cave and down the mountain towards the ruins. He walked with me as I explored all of the walls and got a feel for how the buildings and the village would have been laid out. It was incredibly interesting, especially since it was completely in its original state. Sophie and Orrett wandered around for a while, but got bored before I was done, so sat on some stone steps talking.
“This would have likely been the temple,” I said to Mason excitedly. “Can you imagine what it would have been like to live here then? It’s probably almost a thousand years old.”
He nodded as he listened to me ramble on.
“These were probably tombs, and look, I think this was for irrigation. I love it here. Look how short the doorways were. The people must have been tiny. Check this out.” I ran my hands over the stonework. “Do you have any idea how difficult it would have been to build this the way they did? It’s an architectural marvel.”
I scrambled around over the ruins and eventually came across a maze of some sort. Mason followed me as we twisted and turned along the paths, but I made a wrong turn somewhere and we ended up at a dead end. The late-afternoon sun angled down on us and I spotted a stone carving in the wall. I brushed away the dirt and vines to expose a jaguar head.
“Wow. This is so cool.” I beamed. “In some myths, the jaguar is said to have the foreknowledge of things to come.”
“Like you.”
“Yeah.” When I turned to face him, he was standing too close. Like chest-to-chest close. Like kissing close.
His gaze met mine, but his expression didn’t give any hint to what he was thinking. He didn’t step back. He didn’t make a move forward, either. For a long, awkward moment.
“Mason,” I said quietly, almost as a question.
With his eyes still locked on mine he said in his sexy, charming voice, “I love it when you say my name.”
“Don’t,” I said.
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Don’t what?”
Without answering, I ducked past him and rushed down the first corridor.
“Deri,” he called after me.
Without looking back I walked faster, winding my way out of the maze. Eventually, I emerged into the village ruins.
Mason caught me by the arm and slowed me down. “I’m sorry.”
I shook my head to pretend it was no big deal. “It’s fine.” I tucked my hair behind my ears and stared down at my shoes to avoid eye contact. “We should get back to the camp while it’s still light.”
Before Mason had a chance to respond, Sophie screamed in the distance, repeatedly and hysterically.
Mason let go of my arm and we both sprinted to where the screaming was coming from. As soon as I saw Orrett holding a tree branch and her flailing around, I knew exactly why she was screaming and slowed down. Mason didn’t, so he ran over to them, panicked.
“There was a huge snake,” Orrett explained to Mason.
I laughed because Sophie was dancing around and rubbing her skin violently, as if it was on her or something. Once he knew what the problem was, Mason relaxed and helped Sophie down from the stone wall where she’d perched herself. Movement caught my attention out of the corner of my eye near the opening of the cave. A dark-haired man dressed in fatigues stood in the arched opening of the cave looking down at us. His hand hovered tensely near his hip, as if he was prepared to go for the gun that was strapped across his chest. Terrified, I reached over and dug my fingers into Mason’s arm.
Mason noticed my expression and looked up at the opening of the cave. “It’s okay,” he whispered as the guy disappeared into the darkness again. Mason didn’t seem surprised, so the guy must have been his bodyguard. But he did seem tense all of a sudden. “We should probably get back,” he said to all of us. “It gets dark really fast once the sun sets behind the mountain.”
It didn’t take any convincing for everyone to agree. By the time we emerged out of the cave into the forest, the sun had dropped close to the crest of the mountain. Mason and Orrett made us jog down the trail to the dirt road because they knew it was going to get dark before we made it back to the village if we didn’t hurry. Sophie swore the whole way.
Unlike the previous night, the sky was clear, so I said, “We can walk. It’s not cloudy and the moon is almost full.”
None of them slowed down, despite my comment. So, I hurried to keep up. When we entered the village, the moon cast a soft white glow on the people walking towards the mess tent for dinner. Sophie and I walked in front of the guys and a hand slid across my butt.
“Hey.” I turned around to glare at Mason. “Did you just touch my ass?”
“No.” He held his hands up in surrender. “Not exactly. You had a bug on the pocket of your shorts.”
“Oh, really?”
“You did.” He laughed. “It was one of those big rainbow-beetle things that fly and bite.” He turned to Orrett for support. “Tell her that she had a bug on her butt.”
“Don’t try to drag me into this,” Orrett protested. “I wasn’t looking at Derian’s derriere. I’m a married man.”
I pointed at Mason in a mock threat, “Mason Cartwright, for the millionth time, I have a boyfriend. If you try any more funny business I’ll call him on that crappy outer-space phone of yours and he’ll come down here to make you wish you kept your hands to yourself.”
I thought Mason would laugh—I was joking—but he looked stunned. I was confused because I was pretty sure he knew I wouldn’t actually call Trevor. Orrett seemed puzzled and Sophie’s forehead creased with worry.
When I finally realized what I had done, I flung my hands up to cover my mouth—as if it would stop the words that had already come out. Obviously, it was too late. I had already blurted out his first and last name.