by Robyn Nyx
Rayne had meant it. She was sure she’d meant what she’d said on the boat. But when they were face-to-face with the most iconic and sought-after treasure in history, would she be able to resist? She wanted to resist, she was certain of that. She wanted to be the kind of person Chase was interested in…the exact opposite of everything Rayne had become since falling under the spell of her mentor, Lauren Young. But even after Lauren was gone, Rayne continued to be that person. She swiped aside a vine with her machete, taking comfort in its violent efficiency. She didn’t know how to be anyone else for fear of being seen as vulnerable and open to being taken for a fool. There’d been small acts of altruism here and there—looking after Pablo being her most impressive—but for the most part, she’d been the treasure hunter Lauren had molded her into—self-interested, ruthless, and single-minded.
Rayne glance back at Chase, who seemed to be concentrating hard on something. Maybe she was puzzling the map in her mind. Chase did have a photographic memory after all. Rayne hadn’t mentioned that to G&T, because she didn’t want them thinking they were lugging the original map around for nothing. What was it about Chase, though? In her presence, Rayne wanted desperately to be a better version of herself. For years, she’d hidden and denied that fact, poked fun at Chase whenever their paths had crossed, taken pleasure in beating Chase to every prize they competed for. But under longer term exposure, Rayne seemed powerless to deny a deeper attraction to Chase than a simple one night conquest. Rayne just had to stop fighting with herself and let it be. Maybe Chase deserved someone better, but what if Rayne could be good enough? And if she was, how could she win Chase over and convince her she really was the woman Chase needed her to be?
The feeling of complete weightlessness hit sudden and hard. Rayne threw her arms upward, desperately trying to get a hold on the ground as she rushed past it. Damp soil wedged beneath her nails as she clawed at the walls of the hole she was falling into. She hit the ground a little softer than she’d expected considering the height she’d come from and felt around to discover she’d landed on a bed of vine leaves…far better than a series of buried spikes designed to skewer the plummeting victim.
She looked up to see the heads of Chase and G&T peering over the small entrance she’d unwittingly discovered.
“Rayne? Rayne? Are you okay?”
Chase’s voice seemed clearer than the shouts of her bodyguards.
“Peachy, thanks.” Rayne turned her flashlight on but left it clipped to her pack straps and looked around. “Any chance of a rope pull before I get attacked by a clan of vampire bats?”
“Sure thing, lady boss,” Tonyck called down.
Rayne shuffled and backed up against the wet wall of the hole and wondered about its purpose while she waited. It didn’t seem to lead anywhere, and the absence of sharpened points led her to think that it couldn’t be an animal trap.
“Coming down now.”
Tonyck again. Shame it wasn’t Chase. Being rescued from the depths of an oubliette by Chase held a certain romantic appeal, and Rayne was sure it would have crossed Chase’s mind. She would relish the opportunity to be the hero. Rayne knew that anything less offended Chase’s chivalrous inclinations.
Rayne grasped the end of the rope as it came into sight and secured it around her back and under her arms. She held onto it to reduce the tension under her armpits and pushed her feet against the squishy wall, ready to climb. She gave the rope two short tugs to indicate she’d tied it. “Okay. I’m harnessed up.”
“Pulling you up now,” Tonyck shouted.
Rayne began a relatively rapid ascent toward the bright sky about twenty feet from where she’d landed. When she emerged, Chase enveloped her in a hug and held tight. Chase relaxed the embrace but still grasped Rayne around her upper arms, her eyes telling Rayne exactly how she felt.
“I’m okay.” Rayne swallowed against the unfamiliar ball of emotion rising from her chest and threatening to escape from her throat. Chase’s raw vulnerability, her yearning innocence was devastating.
“From now on, you should really stick to following in my footsteps,” Effi said over Chase’s shoulder.
Rayne gathered her composure, looked beyond Chase’s searching gaze, and laughed. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Chase released her grip and took a step back. She seemed almost dazed and shook her head quickly as if to sober herself. Rayne looked at her, but Chase avoided her eyes and began to gather the rope. Ginn held out her arms, and Chase wound the rope around them. Rayne turned off her flashlight and nodded to the pit. “What’s the purpose of that anyway?”
Effi grinned. “Man traps. The tribes dig them to catch loggers and bandits.”
“To do what with them?” Rayne expected a brutal answer.
“To torture and send a message,” Effi said. “Killing them would be too easy, and they can’t kill them all. This way the broken man goes back to their little company or gang and warns them to stay away from that area.”
“Does it work?”
Effi tilted her head to the left. “Sometimes. Sometimes not. It can provoke a terrible revenge.”
Relieved she hadn’t been left to be discovered by a local tribe, Rayne motioned to Effi. “Lead the way, McDuff.”
Effi wrinkled her nose and looked confused. “McWhat?”
“McDuff. Shakespeare.” Rayne saw that Effi had no idea what she was talking about. “Never mind. Just go.”
Effi shrugged, turned, and headed west.
“There’s a lot to be said for a classical education,” Chase said as she came up alongside Rayne. “I’m a fan of his work.”
Rayne raised her eyebrows. “Really? Do you have a favorite play?”
“I always loved Romeo and Juliet.”
“Surprise.” Rayne nudged Chase as they walked. “I suppose you see yourself as Romeo?”
“Of course.”
Chase smiled, and there was no sign of the awkwardness of her reaction to Rayne’s mishap.
“But you would have written a different ending?”
Chase ran her hand through her hair and adjusted her sunglasses before she answered. “There’s a lot to be said for happy endings. Every reader loves them.”
Rayne considered her own messed up family, not dissimilar to the Capulets or Montagues. Reputation and social standing meant everything to them, more than the happiness of their only child. The sadness of the memory weighed heavy and each step became a little harder. She fought against it. They’d done their damage, but they were out of her life. Why couldn’t she cut it loose? “Not everyone can have a happy ending, Chase, no matter how much they want it.”
“Maybe they can if they start living for the future instead of in the past.”
Rayne clenched her jaw. “You do love your fortune cookie philosophies, don’t you?” She reached out, instantly regretting the comment, and Chase didn’t pull away. “I’m sorry. This is hard…It’s new.”
Chase nodded. “I know. There’s baggage and history to deal with.” She shrugged. “Now probably isn’t the best time to start unpacking all of that.”
Rayne let her hand drop and tried to concentrate on watching the path again. Her body began to ache from the fall. The adrenaline released when she’d endured her unscheduled descent into the pit had dulled her pain receptors only temporarily. Another misstep wouldn’t be welcome. But she pondered Chase’s words silently.
If not now, when? They had no way of knowing how this expedition would turn out. Maybe now was exactly the right time. Rayne resolved to talk to Chase more when they stopped to camp for the night. By day, they could focus on the Golden Trinity, but by night, Rayne wanted to focus only on Chase.
Chapter Twenty-three
Two full days of jungle hiking had been as much fun as Noemie had warned her it would be—zero. The team was so focused on getting to the origin tree as quickly as possible that the journey had been functional and lacking in any real interaction. The previous two nights, Chase had been sure Rayne was
trying to engineer some alone time, but the tank twins had insisted on everyone sticking close and sleeping under one giant patchwork tarp. The only alone time Chase had managed over the past sixty hours was with a freshly dug hole and some biodegradable toilet paper.
Her feet constantly ached, and she feared she might develop foot rot. Then there was the monkey meat. She’d been over-exposed to its unique flavor and was seriously considering becoming a vegetarian. And the exposed parts of her body were like a connect-the-dots image from all the bug bites, and it was all she could do to stop herself itching her own skin off. No matter how much bug spray she applied, they still kept munching on her. Chase didn’t want to even acknowledge the hallucinations she’d been having late into the day as the sun began to disappear and the forest became more secretive. She swore she’d caught glimpses of the three old women from the Indian camp. She’d half expected to see some of their people in the trees beyond them, keeping an eye on their progress from a safe distance. When it was the matriarchs she saw, Chase feared fatigue was playing tricks with her mind.
She rubbed her eyes and focused on the present. Under usual circumstance, huge chunks of silence would be welcome, but social etiquette demanded that small talk be made in situations like this. It wasn’t something she was good at, but the lack of it was making her more anxious so she’d taken to mimicking birdcalls. Tonyck put a stop to that pretty quick. She’d cited the need for stealth and silence. Chase suspected she was just plain irritated by Chase’s poor imitation skills. Rayne had glanced back a few times and smiled. It’d been worth it just for those.
Effi raised her arm with a closed fist, the sign for them to halt immediately and stay completely silent. She waved her other hand to the ground, indicating for them to crouch down and take cover. Chase checked behind her to see Tonyck bear-crawling her way toward Effi and Pablo. Ginn had her rifle poised and aimed beyond them all. Chase probably wouldn’t care too much for what Ginn could see through the custom super sight she’d fixed onto it.
Chase stayed low and quietly moved to Rayne’s side. “We’re close to the origin tree. Do you think that Turner has some men guarding it, waiting for us?”
Rayne nodded. “Most likely.”
“Then it’s an opportunity to find out how close he is…if we outnumber them.” Any knowledge they could gain now would be an advantage.
“I like where your head’s at,” Ginn whispered into Chase’s ear.
Chase jumped and tried to cover up her surprise by shifting her weight from one knee to the other. Ginn’s approach had been completely silent, and Chase couldn’t help but be impressed. Ginn smirked but said nothing about her reaction.
“I’m on the right track, yeah? If we can grab one of them and…” Torture him? What lengths would they have to go to get the information they wanted? “ask him a few questions. They’re probably just locals who work for him. They won’t owe him anything.”
Ginn tilted her head to one side and sucked a breath of air through her teeth. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.” She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows before quickly crawling over to Tonyck.
They were both surprisingly agile despite their outhouse-like builds.
“If G&T can secure one of them, they’ll talk…whether they want to or not.”
Rayne accompanied her words with a warning look. Chase didn’t regret her suggestion. They would’ve thought about it anyway. The logger would be given a choice—talk willingly or talk painfully. The tank twins wouldn’t have to raise a hand if he made the right decision.
Rayne tapped her finger on Chase’s forehead. “What’s going on in there?”
Chase batted Rayne’s hand away gently. “They’ll only do what they have to.” She recalled the aggression in Tonyck’s eyes at the hotel after Syria when it was aimed at her. She had to admit she was relieved that Tonyck had calmed her ire. “And if they start to go overboard, you can always stop them. They’re your employees, Rayne. They’ll do as you say.”
Rayne looked back over to the twins with Effi. “Let’s hope they don’t have to.”
Tonyck waved them over to join them and made it clear they were to stay low and remain quiet. When she and Rayne got to their position, the view that assaulted her eyes shocked her soul. She was kneeling on the soft, lush green carpet of vegetation associated with the Amazon, but she looked down on naked, burned, and arid ground. A cruel circle of charred earth, scarred and hardened from mechanical attack, stretched out across several miles. In the foreground, the agents of destruction idled, an ugly and comically contrasting yellow mass of metal and rubber. Just to the left of those machines, on the edge of the abused land, a lone lupuna tree remained. It stood tall and over thirty feet wide, looking arrogant and unbowed by the devastation in its midst.
The origin tree. It had endured hundreds of years, impossible to tell exactly how many because tropical trees lacked identifiable growth rings, but it alone had remained steadfast for centuries, holding its secret behind its calloused wood. There was a certain spiritual poetry to its resistance, as if it were destined to resist the exploitation of its home.
Awe and disgust dueled for Chase’s attention. The wanton rape of this land had profited white men with no legitimate claim to its bounty. And because of that, it had given up the key to perhaps its greatest secret: the Golden Trinity. Only now, in sight of the origin tree, did Chase feel, truly feel, the possibilities of truth behind the legend.
She reached out and grasped Rayne’s hand without overthinking it. This was a moment that had to be shared, because its impact was too great to witness alone. And in that second, Chase realized there was no one else in the world she’d rather experience something so monumentally and concurrently positive and negative. Dark and light. Tears burned the back of her eyes, and she was grateful for the blackness of her Oakley lenses, shielding out the sun and blocking in her emotion.
Rayne squeezed her hand in return. “It’s real…”
“It’s a fucking tree,” Tonyck said, her face expressionless until she grinned.
Chase suppressed the strange desire to jump up and hug everyone. Tonyck may have been joking, but she was absolutely right. The origin tree was simply the beginning of the true journey, though according to the map, the cave was only a few days’ trek away via the other trees.
Chase blinked away the combination of unreleased tears and unabashed wonderment and took a second look at the scene. A Jeep parked alongside the tree. One guy in the driver’s seat with his feet on the dash, another guy lying across the back seat with his head propped up on the door, and two guys sat on the hood. Four of them, six of us. They were decent odds if it weren’t for the rifle barrels Chase could see positioned within reach of each of them. What were the tank twins plotting? Did they think nothing of taking a life? Had they already decided which three they would shoot and which one looked most likely to sing? Could they make that kind of judgment from four hundred feet away?
They had the forest to cover them for the most part, but if they all moved, they’d surely alert the loggers. Only the tank twins were trained to navigate the terrain noiselessly. Chase wanted to be in on the action, but she had to be realistic and accept her current limitations. Flashes of Indiana Jones movies played in her head. His recklessness usually paid off, but that was Hollywood. This was real life, and those guns would be loaded with real bullets.
“There’s no cover,” Tonyck said. “We can’t circle around and come up behind them.”
Ginn shook her head. “Is it sniper time?”
When Tonyck nodded, Chase moved forward. “You can’t just kill them. You’ve got to give them a chance to do the right thing.”
Tonyck eyeballed her. “We don’t ‘got to’ do anything you say. Do you know military tactics? Do you know how to ambush a group of armed men? Do you know what it is to take a life?”
Chase despised rhetorical questions. Tonyck knew damn well that she couldn’t answer in the affirmative to any of them. She rubbed h
er forehead and pushed her ball cap up. Being out of Tonyck’s firing line had been nice while it had lasted. “I didn’t come on this expedition to be involved in killing anyone.”
Rayne put one hand on Chase’s thigh and the other on Tonyck’s shoulder. “No one did, Chase.”
Ginn reached into one of the ammunition packs on her webbing, pulled out a bullet, and dangled it in front of Chase’s face like a hypnotist would with a pocket watch.
“Rubber.” Ginn grinned before pulling a small revolver from its holster. “Non-lethal.”
“Ah.” Chase rubbed hard at her forehead as if that would scrub away her error in jumping to the wrong conclusion. She’d misjudged the twins’ intentions completely. “I’m sorry…”
“Don’t worry about it.” Ginn winked before she loaded six bullets into the chamber and quietly snapped it back.
“We’ll need to get closer before we take the shots.” Tonyck addressed only Rayne as she retrieved her own revolver and did the same. “Fifty meters should do it.” She turned to look at Chase and Pablo. “As soon as all four are down, we converge on them, but you two need to stay behind us in case they’re not fully immobilized and they attack.” She tapped the barrel of her gun on her knee. “We’ve only got six rounds each. It should be enough, three bullets per guy, but be careful.” She glared at Chase. “And no heroics. You got it?”
Chase rolled her neck. “I got it.” She motioned to Rayne and Effi. “What about…” She stopped herself from saying “the girls.” It seemed particularly patronizing and disrespectful especially after seeing Rayne handle a gunfight with consummate composure in Syria.
“You two stay here. Look after the map.” Tonyck glanced at Rayne’s sidearm. “Give us cover if we need it. Save our ass if you need to.”
Rayne smiled and scrubbed the heel of her hand over Tonyck’s closely shaved head. “You know I will.”