Page 43 of Lyon

And the sooner I got it done, the sooner I could come back toher.

20

Lyon

Sweat dripped down my face,soaking into my shirt as we pushed deeper into the thick, suffocating jungle. The Brazilian rainforest was breathtaking—if you could ignore the fist-sized spiders, venomous snakes, and every other nightmare creature lurking in the underbrush.

I swiped at my neck, shuddering.God, I hate snakes.

“Fuck! If another one of those things drops on me, I swear to God, I’m gonna start screaming like a damn girl,” I growled.

River smirked. “Youalreadyscreamed like a girl.”

I shot him a glare.

He grinned. “You haven’t shut up about it since that spider landed on your face the first morning.”

“That thing was huge! And we were inside a cabin!” I shot back. “Spiders are supposed to stayoutside.”

Raven chuckled, leaping over something that didn’t look particularly safe. “Then maybezip up your tentat night. You keep leaving it open—you’reinvitingthem to bunk with you.”

“It’s so damn hot, I can’t breathe with it zipped up.”

As if the jungle wanted to punish me for complaining, the sky cracked open, and a sudden downpour drenched us in seconds.

We just stood there, soaked, before bursting into laughter.

“Why the hell would Tag hike through this jungle?” Raven muttered as we slogged forward. “He wasn’t here for the hiking. There had to be a reason.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said. “Remember when he told us about his friend who owned a gold mine out here? He was worried because the guy wouldn’t shut up about how rich he was getting. Then he stopped hearing from him.”

“Yeah,” Raven nodded.

“Tag figured he’d gone to visit family or something,” I continued. “But he also mentioned that the guy had becomeobsessedwith the mine. Like, gold-fever obsessed. It was all-consuming.”

River frowned. “So, what? You think he came here to check on his friend?”

“Maybe he heard something—maybe the guy went missing,” I guessed. Not knowing what Tag was doing.

Before Raven could respond, a rustling sound made me pause. I turned just as a massive tiger sprinted past us, its muscles rippling as it disappeared into the trees.

We froze.

The next second, a group of men ran past, gripping rifles.Chasing the tiger?Or running from something worse?

“What the fuck?” I whispered. From where we were hidden.

Then came another sound.Morerunning—hundredsof feet, pounding the ground like a stampede.

We barely had seconds to react before a wave of armed soldiers burst through the jungle.

“What the hell is going on?” Raven muttered as we stepped deeper off the trail, making ourselves as invisible as possible.

The Brazilian Army stormed past, focused on the men ahead.

“That was weird,” I muttered, watching them disappear into the trees.

“Let’s get the hell out of here before we end up in the middle of something we don’t want to be a part of,” Raven said.

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