Page 61 of The Wanted One

“I texted Gray the map we’ve been using earlier, but we’ll need to go off course,” Carter said, “which means they’ll lose us.”

Mason pointed to Gwen’s charm bracelet. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but the look that passed between him and the others meant they certainly did. “They’ll catch up with us eventually.” He reached down and grabbed his pocketknife from the man’s throat and my sister turned away when blood spurted from the guy’s neck.

“Come on, we need to go,” Oliver said, grabbing Mya’s arm.

“If the map led us to this trafficking route, does that mean you were right about your concerns? That someone suspects something, and they want us not just cut from the game, but dead?” My question was drowned out by the sounds of an engine—a motorbike?—cutting through the air, loud enough for us to hear over the sounds of nature humming all around us.

Jack grabbed my arm, then shot me a dark look. “Move, or I’ll pick you up again.”

“Fine,” I hissed, but I jerked free from his grasp and reached for my sister’s hand instead.

“Where you go, I go, right?” Lucy whispered, and I hated the tears I saw well up in her eyes. The full weight of our situation may not have sunk in that morning by the pool, but it sure as hell had now.

“Right,” I told her as Jack motioned with his gun for us to move ahead of them.

Just like on the rope bridge, the guys boxed in the women. Carter and Oliver in the front of us, and Jack and Mason behind us. We walked fast, borderline jogging as we navigated through the woods, careful not to trip and injure ourselves.

“Will the cameraman survive to even get help?” Lucy asked a few minutes later as we spotted what appeared to be a clearing up ahead. Were we nearing another river?

“I doubt we’ll be getting any help,” Mason said just before Oliver and Carter halted abruptly and I nearly collided with Carter.

As I looked past him, I realized why they’d stopped.

“Illegal deforestation,” Oliver rasped, anger cutting through his voice. “They’re destroying the rainforest.”

“And I bet those narcotraffickers are also using the logging routes to smuggle drugs. And, well, people,” Mya tacked on, shielding her eyes from the sun since we currently lacked the presence of the canopy.

“That also means we’ll be encountering more armed tangos soon,” Jack shared, and I could feel him at my back, his breath on my neck as he brought that reality back to the forefront.

You think I’m a killer. You think I murdered an FBI agent. You hate me . . . and yet, you’re still protecting me. I did my best to let that last part comfort me. One problem at a time.

“We can’t cross this clearing. We’ll be out in the open.” Mason turned toward us, his back to the desolate land where the campfire smell still lingered. The destruction of those trees had been recent. “But going to the left leads us back to the trail from the map, and we don’t know for sure what other bullshit awaits us if we continue on that path.”

“You think someone doesn’t just want us cut from the show, they want us dead?” I repeated my earlier question they hadn’t been able to answer before.

I did my best not to dip into the past again and freeze up as I waited for someone to speak up; I needed to be present and aware of our situation with my sister in harm’s way.

“We’re in a dangerous part of the Amazon,” Gwen said. “If there’s a lot of criminal activity here, maybe they sent us this direction on purpose. It’s possible they didn’t hire anyone to take us down, they’re just hoping the jungle does it for them.”

“An unfortunate accident. And since we signed waivers before the show, they don’t have to assume responsibility. They’d probably even carry on with the show. It’d make for interesting TV, I suppose,” Mya added. They were speaking freely, which clearly meant they knew Jack had told me the truth about why they were there.

“I guess that means none of us are wanted by the kidnapper, then,” Lucy murmured, still a bit breathless from running.

“I guess not,” Mya said. “But I don’t get how they found out we were undercover. Our aliases are foolproof.”

“Maybe it’s not you all they want dead.” Lucy’s eyes widened in alarm when she realized she’d spoken her thoughts out loud.

“Did you run our faces? Our real ones this time?” I whipped around to peer at Jack. “Is that how you found out the truth about me today?”

Jack’s hands settled on his hips as he lifted his chin to the sky, choosing not to make eye contact. And that was my answer, right? They did.

“We may have lost those assholes for now, but we don’t have all day to sit here and theorize why they’re after us,” Mason said, taking the lead in ignoring my quest for answers. “We’ll need to take our chances with the open terrain here. If memory serves me correctly, to the right is the Amazon river, and unless anyone wants to become a snack for a caiman or a snake, this is our only option.”

“We have weapons now. And knowing them, Gray and Jesse are almost caught up with us,” Gwen added, and I turned to see her nodding with the kind of optimism we needed.

“We make a run through the clearing. Zigzag. Got it?” Carter’s gruff command left zero room for arguing. Damn that man is intense. Before following through on his own plan, he turned toward me and declared, “If you’re suggesting it’s the Feds after you because our teammate ran your face through our software, it’s not them. The FBI has a much different approach in catching their subjects.” He scowled at me, then added in an even more clipped tone, “Plus, our program is independent of the government’s. The Feds don’t even know you’re here. At least, not because of us.”

That was something, I supposed. But before I could figure out a response to him, the sound of the motorbikes returned.

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