Page 35 of Unleash You

I shrugged, meeting Wesley’s gaze. He’d been ignoring his phone all afternoon because he wanted to be with me.

“I’m here. What do you need?” he asked.

“Is there like a medal for doing the impossible…twice? I need one of those.”

I opened my mouth to speak but stopped when Wesley put his index finger to his lips. Would Mack care if I was listening in on their call?

He hit the mute button. “No one can know about you or your relationship to Charlie.”

I nodded, my heart racing.

“You there, Boss?”

He unmuted the call. “Go on.”

“I found him. He was camped out about three miles from where you were before. He’s constantly on the move, though. In the same area up and down the Catatumbo River, just different spots. He wants to be there but not be found.”

“Did you make contact?”

“Yes. But like I said, he doesn’t want to be found. I had him. Then he vanished again. Could be he didn’t believe I was with you. Or not.”

Wesley glared at Mack’s picture, not looking at me. Charlie didn’t want to come home. That much was painfully obvious. He didn’t care about me or Wesley. Why did he stay in Venezuela all these months after Wesley returned?

“Thanks, man.”

“What do you want me to do? I could dig around and see what he’s been up to.”

“I’ll be touch. Hang tight for now.”

“You got it, Boss.” The call ended, and Wesley still wouldn’t look at me.

This was bad.

10

I'm Going, You In?

Wesley

“Wesley, look at me.” Anabelle cupped my face, cocking her head. “Why are you acting like this is a bad thing? He’s still alive. We need to talk to him and bring him home.”

“Yeah.” I kissed her hand. “You remember my letters? How I was? If you add to the mix the trauma Charlie went through after we left him in the jungle, who knows what kind of state he’s in. He’ll be in pretty bad shape.”

I fought the urge to lie to Anabelle to protect her. She needed to be open to the possibility that her brother was gone. Why did he have to go back? If only he’d stayed with the group the night Tyler came for us, he would have left with us unharmed and Rebecca’s brother would still be alive.

“What are you thinking?” She pressed her cheek to my shoulder. Her soft hair feathered my skin, and the pressure on my chest lessened.

“It’s been eight months since we left Venezuela. I still can’t piece together what happened. We left a man behind.” I rubbed my face. “My friend, your brother. I should’ve stayed, turned the entire jungle upside down.”

“Is that why you stopped writing to me? You were feeling guilty for losing Charlie?”

I nodded. “I didn’t know what I’d say to you.”

She blew out air, then flashed me a bright smile that warmed my entire body. “I thought you were late responding to my last letter because you were mad at me for deciding to come home.”

“Not mad at you at all.” I pulled her into my arms. “I just knew I had a lot of explaining to do.” Truth was, I’d been dying to see her in person. I should have known that after college, she’d want to come home. Her decision took me completely by surprise. “I’d hoped to convince Charlie to come back before you arrived. A part of me wants to be pissed at him. He had to know how worried we’ve all been.” Or maybe he was pissed at us for not looking hard enough the night he got shot and vanished. Was that it? Was this his way of giving us the finger for not being there when he needed us the most?

“What happened the day he disappeared?”

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