Page 47 of Knox's Mission

“Why didn’t he hang around to find out for himself?” Amy asked as Knox almost disappeared for how stealthy he was being as he secured the areaand searched for Donnie. The explorer should be no match for Knox, who’d suspected Donnie from the get-go.

“He was intimidated by Knox, for one,” Lorna said.

“I’m sorry Donnie turned out to be such a jerk,” Amy said. She might not have liked the guy but Lorna did. She’d trusted him and given the man her heart. “Sucks that it turned out this way.”

Lorna pursed her lips. “You know what? I’m not as sorry as I thought I would be. He’s a jerk, don’t get me wrong. But I learned a lot through this process. No one will ever take advantage of me again now that I know what to look for.”

“Those guys who seem too good to be true early on usually are,” Amy agreed, not that she was an expert or having better luck in the relationship department. Deep down, she’d held onto feelings that weren’t reciprocated. And even if they were now, Knox seemed determined to keep her at arm’s length. She was in no position to judge others.

“I’ll see the red flags from a mile away now and not waste three years of my life on anyone else who wants to use me,” Lorna said.

“Ever watch that old show Golden Girls?” Amy asked.

“As a matter of fact, my grandmother used to have it on when I visited,” Lorna said with a smile.

“If neither of us are married by that age, I say we rent a house Golden Girls’ style,” Amy said with a laugh. Of course, she would never fully trust Lorna again. She was forcing a light-heartedness she didn’t feel, considering Donnie might be out there lurking around. Again, she wondered how he’d survived after they were separated. Knox found her dehydrated and hungry. Come to think of it, Donnie had been in much better shape.

Was there a tribe nearby that he knew about? That he’d visited? He couldn’t get out of the last village fast enough.

The thought sent icy chills racing down Amy’s spine. Or was he connected to the men with guns? At the time, he’d given no indication that he knew the men. Hadn’t they fired at both of them?

At this point, it was all a blur. She’d gotten the hell out of Dodge and so had Donnie. He gave no indication that he had a connection with the men who’d been chasing them. Had they captured him? Had they formed an alliance? To what end?

Those men certainly didn’t seem interested in a film of anacondas. They didn’t demand her camera. Wouldn’t they have done that? Asked for her camera? Why start shooting at her?

Maybe because they figured they could take the camera off her dead body and slip her into the river, never to be found again. An involuntaryshiver rocked her at the thought. Hadn’t Knox mentioned something about a body not lasting long in this jungle? Any meat would be picked off the bones—bones that would disappear in the jungle to be discovered weeks, months, or years later if at all?

Her mom would search for her, but she wouldn’t have the money to launch an expedition and she didn’t know Amy had diverted her mission into the jungle.

Donnie wouldn’t have known to figure Knox into the equation if Lorna’s ex-boyfriend was in league with the gunmen. He might have been told by Lorna that Amy’s brother was an Army Ranger who’d died.

When Amy thought about it, she was an easy target too.

“Did Donnie ask a lot of questions about me?” Amy asked Lorna.

“Yeah, I guess he did,” Lorna supplied. “You’re a good friend of mine, though, so I probably volunteered most of it. Donnie and I would have wine and I’d go on about you. He was a good listener. Or so I thought. Now, I know he was probably just storing information that he could use later.”

“I probably would have done the same,” Amy said, trying to reassure Lorna.

“No,” Lorna contradicted. “You operate with your cards close to your chest. Always have. You’re a lotmore cautious than I am. I just leap. You think about a situation first from a few angles. Analyze it.”

Amy might do that with most people but it had never been that way with Knox. Her heart refused to listen to logic when it came to that man. It was on its own track and she was helpless to stop it. Didn’t mean she couldn’t change directions once this was over. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she needed to move on. No matter how strong her feelings might be. One sided relationships didn’t work. Plenty of the men she’d dated had given her that advice.

Was a small piece of her always holding out for Knox? Wondering what it would be like to run into him again, as an adult this time?

Or did she hide behind her feelings for him as an excuse not to get too close to anyone? Losing her father at a young age and seeing how strong her mother tried to be left a deep impression. Did she always assume she would lose the person she loved one way or another? Did she try to avoid the grief—grief that had been crippling—by not showing up to any relationship? Dating men who were easy to walk away from. One of whom tried to rape her freshman year after she’d said no to sex. Alone in his off-campus apartment, she’d fought back and received more than a few bruises in the process. She’d been too embarrassed to come forward then, figuring thestory would be twisted to make her look back since Collin had been a star athlete.

Damn. Why did the biggest realizations show up at the most inconvenient times?

By the timeKnox reached Donnie’s last known position, the man was gone. He either knew the jungle better than he let on or had made friends who did. Of course, the yellow blur might not have been Donnie. The person’s face hadn’t been visible through the vines. For all Knox knew, Donnie could have been killed and his clothes taken off in the middle of the night after he left the village. These things happened.

At this point, the best course of action would be to retreat back to where Knox had left Amy and Lorna. They weren’t far.

Half a dozen steps into his retreat, he caught sight of a pit viper. Venomous. Deadly. Not more than three feet away from him.

Knox gave it a wide berth. Locals didn’t have the same sensibility about conservation as the outside world. A hunter would have killed the venomous snake in a heartbeat. He wouldn’t want a deadly creature anywhere near his village where children played. He also would have chopped it up and likelyfed it to his dog as part of the circle of life. Knox was fine with more of a live and let live approach. The jungle wasn’t his home, so he didn’t have a dog in this fight. The snake wasn’t following him and they would be moving out of the area in another five minutes. Sticking around to rest was off the table now.

As soon as he stepped into view, Amy grabbed her heart. “I didn’t see or hear you until you were right on top of us.”

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