She smiled for the first time. “Thank you for coming with me.”
“Just doing what my father asked and keeping you safe.”
He took a few seconds to study her as he pushed the strap down under his chin. Shoulder-length dark hair. Warm smile. Wide almond-colored eyes. She’d turned out incredibly beautiful.
Not that it mattered.
What mattered was getting them both out of here in one piece.
Thirty minutes later Ryan pulled into the parking garage that was attached to the bus terminal. Outside the busy station, scores of people bustled about, surrounded by yellow taxis. Ryan watched a couple lug a suitcase out of the trunk of their car as he and Ellie headed through the garage. Three tourists with backpacks were heading toward the terminal in front of them. He forced himself to shake the worry. No one had followed them here, and no one was going to follow them to the Amazon. They’d fly in, meet the doctor and fly out.
Simple.
He might not have been able to save Heather, but he was going to save Ellie.
“Do you remember the last time we saw each other?” he asked, pushing the lingering memories away as they started across the catwalk that had access to the upper boarding sector of the bus terminal.
“It was the summer before I started eighth grade if I remember correctly,” she said.
He had a feeling she hadn’t forgotten. Her family had visited his parents’ ranch, and Ryan had dared her to jump off the roof and into the swimming pool. She must have gotten tired of his taunts, because she’d eventually climbed onto that roof before propelling herself into the deep end of the pool below.
It hadn’t ended well. She’d panicked and his father had ended up jumping into the pool and rescuing her.
“I was thinking I probably owed you an apology,” he said.
“Forget it. That was a long time ago, though I did think I was going to drown that day. And for the record, I now have an irrational fear of drowning.”
“Like I said, I owe you an apology, though I have grown up since then in case you were wondering.”
She smiled, but he could still sense the tension in her stride. He’d hoped that breaking the ice between them would help her relax, but she’d been right when she’d told him that this wasn’t some exotic holiday. Neither of them had any idea what was going to be waiting for them once they arrived. Which meant he was going to have to be prepared for anything.
Inside, the crowded terminal looked more like a shopping center, with its dozens of shops and food vendors. But while there might be safety in numbers, he also knew that whoever was after her would probably assume she was going to try to leave the city. And Rio’s main bus terminal was as good as anyplace to start surveying. He searched the crowded space for anyone who looked out of place. Someone without any luggage, or someone he’d seen earlier today. But the odds were in their favor. They might know she was in Rio, but Arias’s men couldn’t keep tabs on every plane, bus and car exiting the city.
“Just give me a minute,” she said as they approached the lockers. “I need to pay, then grab my bag.”
His cell phone rang as they stepped in front of the lockers. He checked the caller ID. It was his father.
“Did you find her?” his father asked.
“Yeah. I was just getting ready to call you.”
“And...?”
Ryan turned around, hesitating with his answer. “They know she’s here in Rio. A guy was after her, and we barely made it out of the favela.”
“Ryan, you need to get out of there now. Everything’s arranged on my end with the safe house. Get to the airport. You’ll be safe there until your flight—”
“It’s not going to be quite that simple.” He glanced at Ellie, who was busy paying for the locker rental. His father might have trusted him to get her to safety, but he wasn’t going to be happy when he heard they wouldn’t be making the flight back to the United States.
“Ryan...what’s going on?”
“She’s arranged a private flight to the Amazon. She’s been in contact with someone she believes has information on her father’s killer. Evidence that could potentially help take down Arias. She’s insisting on meeting with him tomorrow.”
“Forget it. I don’t care what she’s found at this point. You need to get her out now. It’s not safe where you are.”
“And if she’s determined to go?” Ryan pressed his phone against his ear in order to hear better in the noisy terminal. “I can’t just let her fly out on her own—”
“I promised her father if anything ever happened to him I’d take care of her. He would have done the same thing for you or your sister.”
“I told her I’d go with her.”
“Then tell her you changed your mind. I don’t care if you have to drag her to the airport, you get her on that plane, Ryan. Do you understand me?”
“I can try, but I can’t make any promises.”
Ryan hung up as Ellie walked up to him with a large, gray backpack hanging off her shoulder.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
He slid his phone into his front pocket. “That was my father.”
“He doesn’t want me going, does he?”
“No.”
She shifted the backpack on her shoulder. “Your father’s done a lot for me, but I’m not going to change my mind. My contact knows what he’s up against and has made it very clear that he won’t speak with anyone else. I can’t lose this opportunity to find out the truth.”
He pulled her out of the way of a group of travelers who weren’t paying attention to where they were going, and felt her jump at his touch.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “My nerves are on edge.”
“Which is why my father is right. These people who are after you...they aren’t going to stop looking. We could fly your contact somewhere safe until this is over, or—”
“He won’t meet with anyone else, but I’ll understand if you want to change your mind about coming with me.”
“When I said I’d come with you, I meant it,” he said as they started back to the parking garage. “We can get a couple rooms at a secure hotel I know about, and leave in the morning.”
“And your father?” she asked.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with him later.”
Because in the meantime he had plenty of other things to worry about. He knew enough about Arias and the cartel to realize they were about to walk into a war zone. Her father’s death was related to the cartel. All along the Amazon were drug gangs, cartel leaders and even pirates, all on the rise due to rapid changes throughout the area. A surging population paired with organized crime had helped to fuel a sense of lawlessness. And they were headed right into the middle of it.
At seven thirty the next morning, Ellie and Ryan sat in the small waiting room adjacent to the hangar while their pilot filled out the necessary paperwork for their flight. Perspiration had beaded across the back of her neck, making her wish the stuffy room had an air conditioner, or if nothing else a fan to circulate the air. Even though they were just easing into summer, today’s temperatures were supposed to hit eighty degrees with high humidity. Along the Amazon, the temperatures would probably be even higher.