Uncharted

by Robyn Nyx

  “This journey will lead to a personal discovery,” the woman said before she turned and ambled back to her sisters.

  Rayne nudged her. “Verdict?”

  The leader announced her decision to the gathered tribe, and it was greeted with tentative murmurs. She went on to describe the magnitude of the threat, which stirred more vocal rumbles. Chase hoped they’d be able to communicate the deadly nature of the incoming group, and that the message wouldn’t be watered down like in a game of telephone.

  “They’ve agreed to send people out across the forest.” Chase swiveled on her knees to face Rayne. “I was right. All the tribes maintain a communication system of some kind.”

  “Do you think they use monkeys or pink dolphins as well?”

  Chase laughed. “No, but I would like to see that.”

  Jabuti approached them with Mutapi clinging to his hand. She and Rayne stood.

  “Go safely, Chase Stinsen.”

  He held out his other arm, and Chase clasped it tightly. “We’ll certainly try,” she said in Tupi.

  “Two of our scouts will take you back to your boat.” Jabuti scooped Mutapi into his arms and kissed her forehead before turning back to Chase. “Thank you for saving my little girl.”

  Chase ruffled her hair. “Look after your father, Mutapi,” Chase said in Tupi.

  Mutapi nodded. “Yes, Hero. I will,” she said, half in Tupi, half in English.

  Chase smiled. Hero. Was this expedition forging her into the person she’d always dreamed of being?

  Chapter Nineteen

  Rayne could hear the turning of Chase’s mental cogs over the monkey calls echoing through the dense forest. She’d barely said anything in the past half hour since Rayne, Chase, and their two-person escort had left the camp. Rayne knew her well enough to know that kind of silence equaled intense cogitation.

  “Are you going to share your concerns, or are you just going to continue to overthink them until your head explodes?” Rayne gave Chase a little shove to emphasize her point.

  “What?” Chase asked and looked blank for a moment. “What? No, nothing…well, something. But I’m not all that good at walking and talking when it’s something serious.”

  Rayne began to swipe at vines with the stick she was carrying. They weren’t in her way, she just wanted to distract herself if Chase’s sober ponderings revolved around what was going on between them. “Maybe you could try? We’re going to be nonstop from here on in, Chase. We’ve lost time with this detour, and as beneficial as it certainly was, it narrows the gap between us and Turner.”

  Chase stopped. “That’s what I’m thinking about.”

  Rayne took Chase’s arms and pulled her forward. “We have to keep moving.” A wave of relief washed over her only to be replaced by a slight petulance that Chase hadn’t been thinking about them. “Walk and talk.”

  “Have you thought about what happens when Turner and Owen get to the Golden Trinity?”

  Rayne heard Chase’s worry loud and clear, and she didn’t blame her. So much could go awry on this adventure. There were many deadly obstacles to navigate to get to the treasure but the deadliest they might have to face was Turner and Owen. Turner didn’t strike Rayne as a particularly forgiving person, and she had drugged him, tied him up, and stolen his priceless ancient map to arguably the largest treasure the world would ever see. And then there was Owen, and he said that he’d kill her if they ever crossed paths in competition again. There was no law here, and no protection other than their weapons. This wouldn’t be a situation she could talk them out of. Turner could kill them all and the rain forest would never reveal his crime.

  “What makes you think they’ll find it at all? We have the map.”

  Chase laughed, but it sounded more mirthful than humored.

  “From what you told me about him, Turner isn’t a stupid man. He’ll have a copy of the map. But even if he didn’t, all he has to do is buy the best trackers in the business and track us instead of following the map.” Chase ran her hand over her hair and scrubbed at the back of her head. “All the time I was imploring the tribe to get out of his way, I was thinking, how are we going to get out of his way? Have you got a plan you’re not telling me about?”

  “Hey.” Rayne touched Chase’s forearm. “I’m trying to be honest with you about everything. We can’t plan for something when we don’t know what it looks like… That didn’t make any sense…” Rayne dug her hands into her pockets and played with the small hag stone she always took on expeditions. So far, it had bought her plenty of luck. “I mean, we don’t know what the Golden Trinity will be. We can’t know the extent of it. We can’t anticipate how big it might be.” She pulled out the hag stone and began tossing it in the air. “We have a satellite phone, and we’ve got a chopper pilot waiting in Leticia. As soon as we find it, we get out of here. We can always hire more pilots if we need them.”

  Chase snatched her stone midair and inspected it. “What’s this old thing?” She twisted it over in her hand and closed her fist over it. “Why do you carry this? Tell me and take my mind off Turner and Owen.”

  Rayne raised her eyebrows and glanced at Chase. It wasn’t like her to let something that big go, at least not until she’d analyzed it to the nth degree. But Rayne wasn’t about to push it or pass up the opportunity to discuss something lighter. “You want the whole story?”

  “Sure. We’ve got time.”

  Chase smiled at her, so unguarded and open, making Rayne smile back. This reminded her of all those long conversations they used to have that extended deep into the night.

  “The magic of hag stones is three-fold—protection, healing, and seeing beyond what appears to be there. I found that one in a cute little cottage I rented in New York. I probably shouldn’t have taken it, but I left a note and some money.” Rayne drifted to the unusual little place on top of a boring old apartment block. It had been such a perfect location for a weekend-long booty call with…with whom she couldn’t recall.

  “Pleasant memories?” Chase asked.

  Rayne thought she heard a tinge of sharpness in Chase’s voice. Was she jealous of a memory that wasn’t even fully formed? The sad fact was that Rayne barely remembered any names of the many women she’d enjoyed over the years. It seemed rather ironic that the woman she’d never managed to get in bed was the one woman she struggled to get out of her head. “It was a nice break from reality,” Rayne said and tried to grab her stone, but Chase wasn’t giving it up yet. She batted Rayne away and kept it in the hand farther away from her. “Anyway, every adventure I’ve been on since I…rehomed it has been a huge success.”

  “I didn’t peg you as the superstitious type.” Chase handed the stone back.

  Rayne thumbed its smooth surface and peered through its hole at their two scouts. “Lucky they’re not trolls.”

  “That is lucky. What do you see if you look at me through it?”

  Chase wiggled her eyebrows. What Rayne saw was Chase looking incredibly sexy, and Rayne fought the rising urge to jump on her, wrap her legs around Chase’s waist, and kiss her again. Chase in adventure-mode ramped up her overall attractiveness still further.

  Rayne held the stone to her eye and studied Chase for the briefest of seconds before she stumbled and nearly fell. Chase was quick to intercept her fall, and her arms felt sure, strong, and sturdy around Rayne’s waist.

  “Careful. We don’t want you spraining or breaking anything,” Chase said as she released her grip on Rayne slowly. “So, did you see anything extra through your special stone?”

  “Yes, actually.” Rayne adjusted her backpack that had skewed slightly when she lost her footing. “I see someone who’s unbelievably kind and altruistic. The sort of selflessness that’s extremely difficult to find in a person. So many people do good deeds simply to look good, score points, or please their god.” Rayne glanced at Chase and saw her cheeks had flushed, giving her a glow like she’d been in the sun a little too long.

  “I like the way y
ou see me.” Chase met Rayne’s look briefly before she concentrated on the forest before her.

  “It’s not just me that sees you that way.” Rayne thought back to all the times she’d seen Chase and Noemie together. “Noemie doesn’t use a hag stone, and she thinks the sun rises and sets with you.”

  Chase laughed. “I’m not sure about that.”

  “I am.” Rayne swiped at another vine, fending off the melancholy that always nibbled at her when she got into discussions about parents or guardians and their kids. “She’s got you so high on a pedestal you must be dizzy from lack of oxygen.” And that was how it was supposed to be, so she’d been told, at least until the kid reached thirty and finally began to realize their idol was really only human.

  “How do you work that out?”

  “You forget I saw her with you when she was just a skinny runt of a street kid. The way she looked at you when you were imparting life lessons, she hung on your every word, Chase. The way she uses your life and achievements as her yardstick for success. Whenever she was around you, it was like she wanted to crawl inside your kangaroo pouch and absorb all that you are.” Rayne smiled at the memories of Chase and Noemie on the couch when she’d go visit. Noemie would lie with her head on a cushion in Chase’s lap while Chase stroked her hair. Knowing the life Noemie had endured, it was a miracle she allowed anyone to get close to her, physically or mentally, but it was clear she’d made a special connection with Chase, and it was a special thing to catch a glimpse of.

  Chase shrugged, perhaps uncomfortable with the idea of being held in such high regard.

  “What about you? Do you want a kid if you ever grow up?”

  Rayne shoved Chase away, faking offense. “Did you?”

  Chase shook her head. “Absolutely not. I never planned or wanted children. Noemie…she just happened. Things went really bad for her, and she had no one. We went from her spending a few nights a week on the couch to me converting the attic space into a bedroom for her…”

  Chase’s voice had grown softer as she recalled her past. Rayne fought the thought that she should’ve hung around to see all that happening for herself. “She was lucky you were around.”

  Chase didn’t respond, and for a few moments, the only sounds were the calls of the forest’s inhabitants and their footsteps squelching on the sodden ground. Rainy season might be coming to an end, but it had had a hell of a leaving party last night.

  “You deflected my question.” Chase finally broke the silence between them.

  “What question?” Rayne knew damn well what Chase was referring to and reprimanded herself for not doing a good enough job of the deflection. But even though the conversation had been directed to its current topic by Rayne, she was reluctant to discuss her own thoughts on the subject.

  Chase nudged Rayne gently as they walked. “Nice try, Rayne. I’ll play along though and ask again. Do you want kids if you ever grow up enough to have them?”

  Rayne waited for something, anything, to interrupt them, drug traffickers, another tribe, a giant anaconda, anything would have been more welcome than where this conversation was heading.

  “Rayne?”

  “No.” Rayne recognized her sharp response. It wasn’t Chase’s fault she’d asked the question. It was a perfectly innocent inquiry. “No,” she said again, less aggressive this time. “I can’t have kids.”

  Chase reached out and held Rayne’s arm. “Aw, crap. I’m such a dweeb. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed.”

  Rayne continued walking, and it took her a second before she realized where Chase’s mind had gone logically after Rayne’s statement. “Oh no, I don’t mean can’t as in biologically unable.” She touched Chase’s hand. “I mean, morally I can’t have them.” She glanced at Chase, who looked somewhat confused.

  “What do you mean, morally? Did you go all religious since we stopped being friends and think it’s wrong for lesbians to have kids?”

  Rayne snorted and shook her head. “Definitely not. I’m an atheist, just like you.” Chase’s words stung. Since they stopped being friends. Weren’t they at least friends again now?

  “I’m agnostic, not atheist. What do you mean by morally?”

  Christ, Chase was like an investigative journalist with a lead she just wouldn’t let go of, except this story wasn’t all that interesting. “I don’t want to mess up a kid’s life. I don’t want to make the same mistakes my parents did.” Damn it. She didn’t want to talk about this again. Chase already knew more than anyone except her highly paid shrink. She didn’t want to bore her with more details. “I’m not like you, Chase. I’m selfish. I don’t have the capacity to care for a little person.” Rayne hoped the last sentence would be the one Chase heard out of everything she’d just said. It was the one thing that should resonate as “in character,” and might distract Chase long enough for this trek to be over. She could see the outer FUNAI huts in the distance beyond the edge of the jungle.

  She felt Chase’s touch firmly at the base of her spine, comforting and intimate. Was this what emotional support involved?

  “History doesn’t always have to repeat itself. Parents teach us how not to be just as much as they teach you how to be in this world.”

  Rayne clenched her jaw. She wanted this conversation to be over. She tapped the shoulder of one of the scouts. “We’ll be okay from here, thanks.”

  They glanced over their shoulder and looked at her blankly then looked to Chase for interpretation, who said something she didn’t understand. She should’ve asked Jenny to find her a phrase book but was doubtful Lonely Planet published a version in Tupi.

  They turned and disappeared into the dense forest from where they came. Chase caught Rayne’s hand and pulled her closer.

  “You get to choose your path, Rayne. No one gets to push you down a road you don’t want to go anymore.”

  Rayne broke away. This was all too much. “Did you get that out of a fortune cookie?” Rayne turned away from Chase’s hurt expression and started back along the path to FUNAI. She was making a mistake. She could be no more to Chase than a fun couple of nights of hot sex. Rayne couldn’t—wouldn’t—be anything more. She didn’t have that capacity. And Chase deserved better…far better than her.

  Chapter Twenty

  “How is it you say? The wanderers return?”

  Pablo greeted them with what Chase now understood as his trademark grin. It was almost big enough to make Chase forget about his very recent past. But the scene Rayne had described automatically popped up in her mind, and she admired his ability to be so full of life when the memory of his family’s death could never be far from his thoughts.

  “Boy, am I glad to see you back, lady boss.” Ginn helped Rayne board the boat.

  She looked relieved. No doubt Tonyck had given her hell for letting Rayne go off without her.

  “I should hope so,” Rayne said, sitting beside Pablo at the helm.

  “Can we maybe not do that again?” Tonyck said and looked only at Chase.

  Chase readied to defend herself, and Rayne’s decision, but neither a contemptuous glare nor an angry tirade followed. Chase nodded. “Let’s stick together from now on.” She jumped into the boat, dumped her bag, and sat beside Effi. “How’s your leg?”

  Effi rolled her eyes dramatically. “Tonyck looked after me.” She glanced at Tonyck and gave her a meaningful smile. “She stitched it up, but I’m going to have to be careful around the water.” She lifted her trouser leg up to reveal most of her shin covered in camouflage duct tape. “This should keep anything from getting in there.”

  Chase smiled at the tape. She would’ve chosen that over regular black any day of the week. “Let me know when it needs redressing; I’ve got rainbow-colored tape in my pack.”

  Effi narrowed her eyes. “You have?”

  Chase laughed and shook her head. “No. Just plain old black, I’m afraid. You should stick with Tonyck strapping you up.” Chase caught another secret smile Effi threw Tonyck’s way and fi
gured she’d done more than tend to Effi’s wounds.

  Chase saw Rayne glance over her shoulder at them, too briefly for Chase to make eye contact. Rayne had said nothing since her smart-ass “fortune cookie” comment, and Chase allowed the silence. She knew damn well what Rayne was trying to do, but Chase wasn’t fooled. Rayne always lashed out verbally when she felt exposed and vulnerable. The discussion about her folks and potential parenthood had clearly freaked her out, which Chase expected. Rayne might try to push her away, but with them having to be in such close proximity for the next God knows how long, there was nowhere for Chase to be pushed to. Rayne had revealed more than a glimpse of something Chase liked, and she wouldn’t be letting her escape from further scrutiny so easily. Chase had kissed her. She’d crossed the line that she’d sworn not to, and she’d been right to hold back. Chase had known that if they kissed, it wouldn’t be just a kiss. It wouldn’t stop there…at least not for her. The attraction, the connection Chase had resisted had been unleashed the moment their lips met. And Chase owed it to herself to explore it. Maybe not in the rain forest but definitely when they returned.

  The clicking and spluttering of the engine drew Chase’s attention.

  “Filho de puta.” Pablo slammed his fist on the dashboard and the boat kicked into life.

  Rayne and the tank twins exchanged a glance Chase couldn’t interpret with one hundred percent certainty, but it was somewhere between relief and expectation as if they’d figured something had to go wrong somehow. Effi looked relaxed and remained unaffected, but something passed over her expression briefly, and Chase wondered if her overall cool exterior masked a panic that might bite them on the ass at some point.