Page 61 of Unleash You

“Charlie. It’s me.”

My heart squeezed tight when Charlie held her at arms’ length, as if she had some infectious disease. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Anabelle. Your sister. Come on, I haven’t changed that much.” She glanced back at me.

“We came for you. I’m sorry it took this long.”

The rain and wind rustling through the tree leaves muffled his sad laugh. “Is that what you think? That I waited for you to come save me? When you turned your back on me and left, I knew no one was coming.”

“You asked me to leave and help the others.”

“I also asked you to leave the only bargaining chip we had. You took Rebecca from me.”

“Rebecca is all right. She’s safe. She’s with us.” Anabelle placed her hand on his shoulder, and he swatted it away.

Did she not understand? That after all these years, Charlie still hadn’t forgiven her. He blamed her for their parents’ accident and overall, for how his life had turned out. Deep down, I’d hoped Anabelle’s free spirit would break through his hard shell. I was wrong to think Charlie could be saved. To think he wanted to be saved.

A flash of lightning pierced the sky ahead of us and illuminated the area around us. Like scattering mice, men crawled away on the other side of the riverbank. Shit. We were not alone. I reached for my weapon, then remembered I’d only brought a knife. For some stupid reason, I didn’t want Anabelle to see me carrying a gun.

“Mack.”

“I see them, Boss.” He handed me his binoculars.

I pressed the device to my face and immediately spotted them—at least twelve of them. “Got another one of those?” I pointed my chin at his automatic.

“Always.” He went back to his shack and pulled out a crate.

I turned to Charlie. “Are Smith’s men hot on your trail?”

“What do you care?” He relaxed his stance.

“They’re working for Marcel now.” I thought the news would surprise him. Marcel didn’t have the disposition to fill his dad’s shoes.

“Where’s Rebecca?”

“Did you not hear me? Everything we did before to stop Smith happened anyway. It didn’t matter that you went back to kill him. Marcel is now in charge. Their human trafficking business is well under way.”

“My problem is Rebecca. She never should’ve left.” He cocked his weapon. “Now, if you’re smart, you’ll leave here tonight.” He turned to Anabelle. The disdain had dissipated, but he still regarded her as he would a stranger. His gaze shifted from her face to her hands and up again before he glared at me. “Go home and never come back.”

“Charlie, let me help you. Come with us,” Anabelle called after him, but he left the way he’d come, like a ghost.

After all the awful things he said to her when their parents died, Anabelle still couldn’t get it through her head that she didn’t have a brother anymore. She was clinging to a version of Charlie I hadn’t seen in eight years. In a way, I understood her. I was also having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that the Charlie I grew up with was gone.

He knew better than anyone that if Rebecca had stayed behind eight months ago, she’d be dead. Smith never abided traitors. In his line of work, loyalty was everything. She betrayed him when she helped us. Why in the world did he want her back in Venezuela?

“We can’t risk the river with this storm, but if we start walking now, we should reach the village by dawn. It’s not a bad hike. Just have to make sure we don’t get eaten or, you know, killed.” Mack pointed across the river where the green foliage swayed against the direction of the wind.

“How did Charlie seem to you when you found him?” I asked.

“Dunno.” Mack shrugged. “He seemed like someone who’d spent way too long in the jungle. Kind of like me. I’m going home after this.”

I glanced at him. Mack was a few years older than me, though he looked at least ten years my senior. “Yeah, man, you look like shit.”

“Wait. Are we not going after Charlie?” Anabelle asked from under the canopy Mack had built to protect us from the rain.

She licked rain from her lips, and I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering into a direction that it had no place being, given our current situation. In just the days we’d been together, I’d gotten addicted to having her in my arms, waking up next to her, and having sex until midday.

“You’re not serious. Charlie doesn’t want to be rescued. Hell, he doesn’t need to be.” I pointed at the men standing guard. They weren’t here for Charlie. They followed us here. “Those men are here to make sure we don’t stay. Somehow they’re not concerned with Charlie’s comings and goings.”

---