Page 6 of Knox's Mission

“Yes, ma’am,” he responded. “I take it you’re the one who called me.”

“Lorna,” she said, outstretching her hand. “My best friend is in trouble.

“So you said.”

“My boyfriend was also left behind,” she continued.

Again, no new information. He nodded. “Is the guide who abandoned them here?”

She shook her head.

“A.J. came highly recommended, so I don’t know why he was suddenly unreliable,” Lorna informed. “He mumbled something about seeing spirits that warned him and that he had to get out of the jungle or he would bring bad luck onto Amy and Donnie.”

There was that word again…luck.

“Said it would end up a death mission if he’d stayed with them,” she continued.

“So, he just left them out there?” Knox stated. It was obvious but he was still pissed off about it.

“He’s never done that before,” Lorna said. “Donnie has worked with A.J. in the past. He’s supposed to be the best.”

Knox would like five minutes alone with the guywho essentially left two people to die in the jungle. “I still can’t believe he wouldn’t give the others a choice.”

“Donnie would have turned him down anyway,” Lorna said with a frown. “This mission means everything to him. We have no more funding after this. We have to make something happen or…”

“What?” Knox heard himself snap. “Get an office job?”

Lorna shot daggers at him as she folded her arms across her chest.

“We need to get moving,” he said, figuring there’d be time for apologies later.

“I was just about to say the same thing,” Lorna answered. “Here’s the rub. I managed to keep the canoe, but we don’t have a guide.”

“I’ve studied the map. I can get us to where they were dropped. I’ll assume they are still in the area.” Knox prayed he wouldn’t be bringing back bodies. Either way, Amy was coming home.

A knot formed in his chest as he remembered what had happened the last time he was in Central America. The universe couldn’t be so cruel as to allow Amy to die on the same continent as her brother. Could it?

Had it?

He gave a mental headshake and refocused. “You have a canoe?”

“This way,” Lorna said before turning and hurrying over to a hollowed-out tree with thatching inside.

Time was the enemy. The longer Amy was out here unprotected, the higher her chances of death would be. In the jungle, a carcass would be picked clean in two days.

He held onto the canoe while Lorna boarded. “What happened to everyone else here?”

“It was just the three of us and A.J.,” Lorna said with a visible shutter. Dark circles cradled her eyes, indicating she most likely hadn’t slept last night. She’d been sick, or so the excuse for not going had been. Had she faked illness to get out of the mission, sending her best friend in her place? To what end?

Lorna sat dead center of the canoe. “I can paddle.”

“It’ll be faster if I do it,” he countered, taking the lead after shrugging his rucksack off his back. There were enough supplies to last three days. He had no idea what condition he’d find Amy in, or what she might need medicine-wise. He’d packed a small first-aid kit along with fresh water and energy bars.

“How well do you know the jungle, Mr. Preston?” Lorna asked.

“Knox,” he corrected. “When you say Mr. Preston, I look over my shoulder for my father.” The knot twisting in his chest at the mention of the man wason a need-to-know basis. Lorna didn’t need to know. “And I’ve been here before.”

“So you’re aware of the arrow-wielding tribes and the rogue mercenaries,” she said.

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