Page 41 of Marks of Rebellion
"It's not that bad," I tell Dirk. "Little hot but better than most of the stuff I've eaten the last eight months."
"Thank you, Vanessa." He smirks at everyone.
We finish breakfast, and I spend the rest of the morning pacing the camp near the edge of the jungle, waiting for Hunter to return. I don't understand why Naomi is going to the U.S. but the rest of us are supposed to go to our home countries. And I wonder how to get out of Belize.
Hunter is gone for hours. When he finally steps out of the trees, I'm relieved to see him. I'm on the other side of the camp and want to talk to him. I'm not sure I should or what I'd say if I did. But Andre marches over to him, and they get into a long conversation, preventing me from talking to him anyway.
Dirk and Axel return with bags full of shoes, clothes, and bikinis for all of us. The other girls take theirs and go off to the river to swim with the guys. I sit down next to Naomi, and she hands me a royal-blue bikini.
We try to figure out our current predicament when Andre's voice booms, "We have a question."
I jump. "What's that?"
Hunter and Andre sit down on the ground across from us.
Hunter glances at me but then focuses on Naomi.
"What do you two both know? Maybe if we look at what is different, we can figure out why Vanessa is supposed to return to the Belizean government and Naomi isn't," Andre says.
I twist my hair tight around my finger. "I already know why they want me back."
"Why?" Hunter asks. And when his eyes catch mine, I know he isn't going to like what comes out of my mouth next.
"Carlos Garcia. He isn't going to let me go. He wants to marry me and won't stop until he does."
Hunter's jaw clenches. "But you told him no?"
I can't look at him. I quietly say, "He didn't take the rejection very well."
"What did he do to you?" Hunter growls.
I jump.
"Sorry," Hunter says, and guilt fills me that I once again am making him feel bad about being himself.
I trace my finger in the dirt. "Nothing I want to talk about. But if I were with him, I would have been forced to marry him by now."
Rage radiates off Hunter. His breathing is like a snarl.
He's so angry.
He's angry at Carlos, not me.
Stop putting the two things into the same basket.
"Is that who you have information to take down?" Naomi asks.
"Yes."
"I'm assuming it's the same info I have on his relationship with the drug cartels?"
"That and other things."
I know why he is involved with the drug cartels as well as the other leaders. I know what they are planning. Naomi only knows about the relationship.
She continues, "Santiago Gómez kidnapped you because of these things?"
"He wasn't the original kidnapper."
