Page 37 of Fear No Evil

“In my pocket. We need to go.”

He apparently agreed, tugging her toward the screen door. “I’ll go first. Wait until you hear my whistle. That’ll mean the coast is clear.”

The same whistle he used to make in college, when she’d stolen out of her dorm without her roommate’s knowledge to accompany Jake to a late-night café.

A quick, unexpected kiss on her lips brought her abruptly to the present. As Jake slipped outside, moving too quickly for the hinges to make a sound, she processed the kiss. Had hemeantto kiss her? It had felt so unpremeditated…soright.

Peeking through the screen, she waited. The sky had brightened, and the forest had come alive with monkey chatter and birdsong.

A minute crept by, and then another. Was that Jake’s whistle, or was that a bird? The sky was now a deep lavender hue. On theother side of the camp, the kid manning the machine gun left his sandbag bunker to relieve himself against a tree. His back was turned. The coast had to be clear.

Maggie eased the door open and stepped outside. In that same instant, a figure she hadn’t seen standing by the firepit turned and caught sight of her‍—David. Maggie neither stiffened nor gasped.“When caught red-handed,”her father had taught her,“go on the offensive.”

Squaring her shoulders, she marched straight toward him.

“Where is Mondo Gallo?” Both her tone and her body language suggested annoyance, though she was careful to keep her voice down. “Esme has a high fever, and I need the medicine that was in my backpack. Where is that now?” It was the first excuse she could think of.

The suspicion that had creased David’s brow eased. “Yourmedicamentosbelong to the people now. It was given to the mayor of the nearest village to be distributed equitably.” He spoke in a gentle voice, clearly believing his own words.

“Equitably?” Maggie propped her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yes. We are all equals. No one person should have more than another.”

“And yet, your guests are people, too. Shouldn’t we have access to medicine?”

“I’m sorry. It was given to the poor.”

To his credit, he did sound like he felt bad.

“And you don’t think Gallo kept some for himself?” She gestured to the hut she’d been searching.

“I doubt it. I’ve never seen him get sick.”

She heaved a sigh. “All right. Well, you’d better hope Esme doesn’t die. That wouldn’t exactly endear the FARC to the rest of the world. When Gallo comes back, I’ll ask him directly.”

Pivoting, she left David staring after her as she loped casually back to the bungalow, entering through the front flap. She ran straight into Jake, who pulled her into his embrace and held her there. Maggie felt his heart thumping through the material of their clothing. He’d truly been scared for her.

“I’m okay.” If anything, the event should prove to Jake that she could handle herself in the slipperiest of situations. Sure, he’d had to rescue her twice in the past, but those were the exceptions, not the rule. She was getting her confidence back. And the time would soon come when she could go back into the field, operating solo, the way she had before.

Sorrow stitched through the fabric of her optimism. Darn it, she was getting used to having a partner.

“Plus lentement!”Slow down.

Jake chased Lena down the same path they’d taken yesterday to the garcinia tree. Thunder rumbled above the thick canopy, and it was raining again, turning the ground to muck beneath their boots. Following a long, boring morning in which Jake had taught the teens a version of Mancala using their own marbles, the clouds had buckled. Both the rebels and the guests fled the deluge by retreating to their shelters.

Lena had tried to show Jake the map, then, along with the dagger still stowed in her boot, but Charles had hushed them, conveying that their whispers might be viewed as suspicious. Jake, wanting to seize this chance to test the sat phone again, had gestured toward their secret exit and Lena had nodded.

The only drawback to seeking privacy was getting soaked. Cold rainwater dripped from the spiked ends of Jake’s hair. Theground was like one of those Slip ’N Slide mats they’d set up as kids to play on. Lena, of course, didn’t slow her pace one iota.

Frustrated, he checked the impulse to chide her in English because he didn’t know the French words. He managed to put a precaution together, “I can’t catch you from here if you slip, Lena.”

In typical Lena fashion, she ignored him. “I’m not going to slip.”

To make sure of that, she was grabbing hold of the vegetation as they charged downhill. He wanted to tell her that wasn’t a good idea either, yet being as eager to see the map and get back to their cubicle, he didn’t say anything.

In the next instant, Lena yelped as a species of tarantula scrabbled up her arm. Before Jake could brush it off, she shook herself violently and promptly slipped on the mud.

The indignant look she swiveled up at him made Jake’s ribs tickle.

---