The Heat

by Alice Ward

  “Chiku,” I muttered, thinking. “I think you’re being overly optimistic about the way things work here. We didn’t even see any people during the entire ride up here — it was all jungle. These people don’t run on Manhattan time. And do you know what number at my company she called?”

  “No. Why?”

  “If she doesn’t know anyone there, she’s going to have a hell of a time getting people at WE to listen to her. We have fifty thousand employees. If she calls on the switchboard, they’re not just going to put her through.”

  “But—”

  “And even if she did get through, and they pinged my cell phone, we’re still going to be on our own for a while before they can get a tow truck out here. So we’ll have to sleep in the truck and head out tomorrow morning.”

  She stopped walking. When I looked at her, she was on the verge of tears. Her voice cracked, frantic. “Tomorrow morning? You mean we have to stay here all night?”

  I couldn’t have her losing it now. I had enough to worry about. Keep it light, man. “What, are you afraid of spending the night alone with me?”

  She snorted but otherwise ignored the question. “Um. They could still come tonight.”

  “Maybe.” The chances for that were pretty much nil. “Look. Everything will be fine. They’ll ping my phone. And the headquarters can’t be far away. Tomorrow morning, we’ll go out and find it. In the meantime, we have shelter. We have water. And we have food. We’re fine.”

  She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Okay.” She sniffed. “I just hate this god-awful rain.”

  I pointed to the bag on her back. “That mine?”

  She nodded. “You packed a little better than I did.”

  “Maybe I’m not so useless?” I took the pack from her shoulder, reached inside, and pulled out my lightweight rain jacket. “Put this on.”

  “But—”

  “Put it on. The rain feels good for about one minute, and then it doesn’t.”

  Sniffing, she slipped her arms into the waterproof jacket. I lifted the hood up and drew it tight around her face. “Better?”

  She didn’t answer. We continued on the path.

  Just as the rain began to slow, I heard a definite noise of something behind us.

  I froze, holding a hand in front of Atlee to halt her.

  Slowly, I turned, wondering what I’d do if it were a jaguar or a tiger. I had a tactical knife in the truck, but all I had here was a three-inch blade from my penknife. And I wasn’t sure I could trust Atlee to do anything other than cower there. I’d have to protect the both of us.

  Reaching for it in the pocket at my thigh, I searched the foliage but saw nothing. So either I was hearing things, or we were being hunted.

  I looked at Atlee. She was shivering there, despite the fact that it was still ninety degrees, water dripping off the end of her nose.

  “I see you’re not much of an outdoors person,” I observed, closing the flap on the pocket.

  “I am,” she countered, but it was much weaker than the spitfire I’d seen in front of the resort that first day. “I hike. I hiked some of the Appalachian Trail.”

  Her voice faded as she said it, as if even she realized that the heavily traveled Appalachian and the remote jungle of Malaysia were nothing alike.

  “That’s good,” I said to her, thinking I’d better keep her spirits up. “Everything will be too damp when we get to the truck so I won’t be able to make a fire. But we have enough water. And we have our food. So we can just… wait it out. Consider it an adventure.”

  “I am starving,” she admitted. A half-smile tugged at one corner of her mouth.

  “Yeah. Well, why didn’t you eat?” I pointed at the cooler. “I’ve got a nasi kerabu with your name all over it, remember?”

  “I ate a little of it because my blood sugar was in my toes, but I was waiting for you to eat the rest.”

  I wasn’t sure if I believed her.

  We rounded a bend, and the back end of the truck came into view. I started to pick up speed when I heard another sound behind us. This time, much closer.

  Grabbing for my penknife, I switched it open and whirled. Atlee let out a little shriek and skimmed away from me as I saw our “hunter” duck behind a tree.

  It was that damn monkey.

  “All right. Come on out, buddy,” I said, stuffing the knife back into my pants and crossing my arms. I figured I might as well introduce him to his biggest fan.

  The animal poked its fuzzy head out from some bamboo stalks and focused its black eyes on us, pleading.

  Atlee clapped her hands together. “Roger!” she shouted.

  I looked at her. “Roger? So, you’ve already met.”

  “I named him after my old boss. Kind of looks like him.” Her demeanor shifted in the blink of an eye. Now, she was smiling, excited. “He’s been following me since I crashed the truck. I think he wants to make sure I’m okay. My own perfect guardian angel.”

  I rubbed at the scruff of my chin. If I was back home, I’d have shaved three times already. Now, I was probably on my way to looking like a lumberjack. “I thought that’s my job.”

  She crouched, and the monkey moved closer to us, to the edge of the road. I studied it. She beamed at the thing, like it was love at first sight. And all this time, all she’d been doing was giving me scowls and eye-rolls. I’d thought that her face wasn’t capable of anything else.

  Was it possible to be jealous of a monkey?

  “I love it,” she murmured to me excitedly. “Don’t you love it? I’ve never seen one out in the wild before. They’re so beautiful.”

  I had to admit. It wasn’t the most attractive creature, but it was still kind of awesome. Atlee lifted a hand to wipe some stray hair from her face, and the animal imitated her. She wrinkled her nose, and so did he. Roger may have been an ugly sonofabitch, but he was actually smart.

  And my company had been leveling rain forests and killing creatures like him for years.

  It was enough to make me hate myself.

  Instead, I turned away from the animal and walked to the truck. I loaded the cooler in back, behind the seat, and crouched in front of the radiator. She watched me, swimming in my black jacket, which hung to her knees. The rain started to pick up again, giant drops filtering down from the trees overhead.

  “Go on in the truck and make yourself comfortable,” I told her. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  She opened the back hatch and disappeared inside. I inspected the damage to the front of the truck. She wasn’t kidding when she said she’d smashed it. I knew from first glance that we’d never be able to drive this thing out. The radiator was busted, the front axle bent. I could have possibly patched the radiator, but nothing would fix that axle.

  A minute later, I went around the back of the truck to find her sitting in the open door, shivering, with her boots and socks off. Her feet were wrinkled from the water… and she had leeches everywhere. She was pulling them off, one by one, a horrified expression on her face. “What the hell are these things?” she sobbed.

  “Leeches.”

  She gave me a horrified look. “I thought you got those in the water?”

  “The little ones are land leeches. They drop from trees and are on plants. Like ticks.” I took one of her socks and helped scrape the rest of them onto the ground. Then I lifted her legs up, inspecting them carefully. “You’re good. I’ve got antiseptic for the bites.”

  “No thanks.” Her voice was far away. She pulled her feet up into the truck, standing, and sat on one of the two jump seats on either side of the cabin. She brought her knees to her chest and buried herself in my jacket.

  I climbed in and closed the back hatch. The rain pounded the roof overhead. The windows fogged up instantly. It was still sauna-hot, but at least there was no rain falling on us.

  It wasn’t so bad. Actually, once I got the blanket laid out, and we got a little comfortable, it could be cozy. Not that I expected a replay of earlier. She
’d made it clear that was just a one-time thing.

  And that was fine with me. I didn’t do repeat engagements.

  I sat on the jump seat opposite her and started to unbutton my soaked shirt. “You can take the jacket off.”

  She watched me as I took off my shirt and draped it over the back of the seat to dry. Then she started to remove the jacket. Crouching in the small space, I grabbed the blanket and laid it out on the hard floor of the truck. Then I sat on it, opened the cooler and began to pull the food out. I handed her a carton and a plastic fork.

  “Come on,” I said, patting the blanket beside me. “Picnic.”

  She slowly shuffled her ass off the jump seat and joined me, kneeling. She took the carton and opened it, then started to dig the fork through the food. At first, I thought she’d come up with a snide complaint, but tears welled in her eyes and her words came out a near whisper. “I never thanked you. For this.”

  I gave her a wave like it was nothing. I was still thinking of the monkey and feeling shitty about myself.

  She continued to stare deeply into the carton. Her voice grew even more choked. “I know I’m annoying. I know… I know what we did back there was probably because you just wanted to shut me up. I may not agree with a lot of things about you. But… I don’t think that you’re a scumbag.” She scooped up some food onto her fork. “I just wanted you to know that.”

  She was wrong. I’d been feeling worse and worse about myself as the moments with her went on. Not only was I a killer of orangutans, but I was losing control to her. I hadn’t just wanted to distract her. I’d done it because she was gorgeous, alluring, and I simply couldn’t have helped it, even if I tried. And for the first time in my life, something made me want to do it again, to hunker down under the blanket tonight, holding her close.

  I remembered my phone. She’d actually gotten service out here. I looked into the cupholder up front for it, but it was gone. “Hey, where’s my phone?”

  She pointed to the bag. The bag that had been in the driving rain.

  Scrambling to it, I undid the buckles and fished for it. I found it at the bottom of the bag, swimming in a puddle of water. I pulled it out, pressed a few buttons, and glared at her. “What. The. Fuck?”

  “It’s not working?”

  “No, now that it’s been in the rain!” I tossed it on the front driver’s seat.

  “Are you sure?” She reached for it. “What about… don’t you have a waterproof cover? I do.”

  “No,” I muttered, feeling that powerlessness drawing to a head. And then I just lost it. There was only so much bad luck she could pile on me, and I’d reached my breaking point. “Does everything you touch turn to shit, or just my things?”

  Her jaw opened. “What?” She dropped her fork in the carton. “Maybe you make things turn to shit on your own. You’re the one responsible for the rain forests, you know!”

  “Would you cut it out with that?” I growled. “For the last time, it’s not just me!”

  Before all of the words were even out, she’d reached into the carton and flung a forkful of rice at me. It slid down my cheek as she watched me, a smug smile on her face.

  I swiped it away, glaring at her. “Really? I—”

  I stopped and listened, hearing a different sound in the distance. There was a humming, and it was growing louder. There was also the sound of gravel being pinged into the air.

  The sound of a truck coming near.

  Atlee heard it too, because she looked at me, eyes widening. “Is that what I think it is?”

  I nodded. Hunching over, I climbed over the seats to the front of the truck and wiped the condensation from the window. Peering out, I let out a relieved sigh when I spied a black king cab pickup rumbling toward us.

  “The tow truck,” Atlee declared, setting down her food and smiling. She pumped her fist and grabbed for my jacket, slipping it on. “Ye of little faith. Told you they’d come.”

  Outside, the truck slowed to a stop across the road from us, tires screeching.

  “Stay in here,” I said to her, wiping the last of the rice off my shirt as I scuttled to the back hatch of the truck. Before she could argue, which I knew she would do, I gave her a warning look. She didn’t say more.

  I climbed out of the Defender and saw three men jumping out of their pickup truck, their eyes trained on me. They were wearing bandannas on their foreheads and t-shirts that bared lean, muscular bodies, and walked through the rain toward me like they’d been born there. Their frowns made me take a step back. They looked at me as if accusing me of something, as if we’d intruded on their land.

  The older but smaller of the three whispered something to the others, and they both nodded, their eyes never leaving me.

  And I knew one thing.

  This wasn’t the tow we’d been hoping for.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Atlee

  I tried to see through the clouded back windows, but all I could make out was Wyatt’s outline as he walked toward our saviors. At least something was looking up for us.

  Scratching my legs, it felt like something was crawling over me, even though I couldn’t see anything on my skin. Leeches not in water? I’d never heard of such a thing. That made me wonder what else I’d never heard of.

  What I did know was that there were ten quintillion insects alive on our planet at any moment. That’s ten with eighteen zeros behind it. I knew because I’d counted them when I’d been researching my little heart out about the affects of a chemical plant’s byproducts on the ecosystem.

  Eighteen zeros, people.

  How many of those ten quintillions were in this jungle right now?

  I shuddered.

  I was so done with the jungle. D.O.N.E. Done.

  Sighing as I huddled in the back of the Defender, I could almost feel my dry bed back at the nasty hotel. So, it was a dive, but at least it was climate-controlled — sort of — and insect-free —also sort of. But sort of sounded much better than what I was now experiencing. I just wanted to take a cool shower, have a nice dinner, and relax somewhere back in civilization.

  I thought about Wyatt’s offer to share his room and how the prospect of curling up next to him was more than sort of appealing. I snorted. If we didn’t kill each other by the time we got back there.

  Peering out the dirty window, I tried to see what was happening out on the road. Why was Wyatt moving so slowly? The wait was unbearable. Seconds ticked by like years.

  But with the arrival of the men came hope, and I needed to practice something I wasn’t very good at… patience. But it was hard to be patient when the men were just standing there instead of working to pull us out of this ditch. If we could get the truck back on the road, we might be able to get back to our rooms by a reasonable hour. Shower. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. It sounded like heaven. And if Wyatt and I didn’t indeed kill each other, there might even be a little more sex thrown in.

  Ah… sex.

  Even thinking of the word caused me to search out Wyatt. Him and his fine body and…

  Wait. What were those men doing?

  As I watched, one circled Wyatt while the other two spread out, surrounding him. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their faces and body language had changed.

  This wasn’t good.

  My heart picked up speed as I watched Wyatt turn in the tight circle in which he was being held. They were talking. No, they were yelling now. The men were yelling. With the windows up, I could hear the sound but not the words.

  What should I do?

  One of the three men peeled away from the circle and started heading in my direction. Oh, shit.

  Hunching down, I rolled into a tight ball, pulling the rain jacket over all of my exposed skin. If I could make like a pile of laundry, maybe he wouldn’t see me. Wouldn’t…

  My teeth chattered at the thought.

  A door opened, and I managed not to make a sound or even move, even though a surge of adrenaline hit me hard and the need to fight o
r flight was fierce.

  My heart thundered in my chest as I heard the man rummaging around, then another door opening. Holding my breath, I waited… waited…

  Please don’t see me. Please don’t see me.

  The back hatch door squealed open, and the truck rocked a little as someone climbed in.

  Please don’t see me. Please…

  The rain jacket hood was ripped away, and a smiling face appeared in my field of vision. It wasn’t a good smile. In fact, the smile all on its own made fear surge through my system again.

  “Selamat petang,” he said, and I recognized “good evening” from the smattering of Malay I’d learned. “Perkara yang cantik itu.”

  I didn’t understand the last part, but I completely understood the message as he ripped the rain jacket open and took in my form.

  “Berhenti,” I said and jerked away, closing the jacket and scrambling into a sitting position, attempting to put as much distance between us as I could.

  But he didn’t stop as I’d asked. His smile just got bigger, taking up most of his face. But over that broad expanse of teeth were hard black eyes that nearly pinned me in place with their intensity. He held out a hand. “Ikut aku.”

  He wanted me to come with him.

  I shook my head, searching around for something to use as a weapon. Outside the vehicle, I heard raised voices. Wyatt was yelling. The other men were yelling too. But I couldn’t see what was happening because my entire expanse of vision was taken up by the man crawling farther into the car.

  When his hand closed around my ankle, I jerked away, kicking at him, wishing my boots were still on my feet. I lunged for the door, but it opened just a few inches before hitting the side of the ditch. I lunged for the other, but my ankles were caught again, and though I kicked and held on to the seat behind me, I was ripped out as if I weighed nothing.

  I realized why when a second set of hands grabbed me by my arms, holding me upright. I searched for Wyatt, thinking he might have escaped, but then I spotted him, on his knees in the middle of the road, a gun pressed to his temple.