“I like how you think. Come here Hottie Bahati,” he stood, unseating her, and lifting her at the same time. He bumped the bowl of popcorn and it spilled on the floor, crunching under foot.
“Hottie Bahati?” She wrapped her long legs around him, grasping his firm buttocks with her hands, as she kissed him feverishly. “I like that.”
“Hottie is right.” He carried her to his room and lay her on the bed, peeling out of his shirt before reaching for the hem of hers. He lifted it over her head.
Aside from his arms, his skin was pale. Her skin was smooth and deep brown. She smelled of something spicy and warm. He reached for a bare breast as it was exposed. He’d dated plenty, been married for a time, but he’d never had a woman like her. They came from two different worlds. He was French-Canadian. She was from South Africa. In any other time or place, they would never have come together.
It had been a slow journey—almost ten years of working together. He had always liked her, but she hadn’t seemed interested. So he didn’t pursue her. It wasn’t until Lauren and Rowan’s wedding that she glanced over and caught his eye, and a blush came to her dark cheeks.
Now her small breasts filled his large hands and she arched beneath him, encouraging him. The last eleven months had been a wild ride, and he was enjoying every moment of it.
“Your hands are cold.” He pulled away from her touch.
“Sorry.” The corners of her cheeks curled into a mischievous grin. “Let me warm them up for you...”
“Oh no you don’t.” He pinned her arms to her side.
“So do you think we’ll get fired when everyone finds out?” She asked.
“I don’t even care.” He pulled her to him, kissing her jawline, running his hands along her slim waist and around her hips. “If I am to be damned, let me be damned.”
She giggled heartily at him. “I don’t think the bosses will care... but I do think they will be surprised.”
“Are we going to talk all night, or did you want to enjoy this?” He arched a cocky eyebrow at her.
“Oh,” she said, leaning over him. Her breath was hot on his skin. “I am enjoying it all right.”
* * *
Lauren lay still, trying to focus. She had done it once, but since then, she hadn’t been able to find Rowan in the dark. “Tsul’Kalu, help me.”
“You need no help from me,” came the deep answer a moment later.
“Use the force, Lauren.” She muttered to herself. She took a deep breath. She tried to extend her mind outside her own body.
The damp smell of rain on green foliage reached her nose, and she opened her eyes. She found herself in the circle that had once been surrounded by stones. “Rowan?” She whispered but heard only the songs of night frogs and insects. She looked around, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness of the jungle.
She felt better than she had a few hours ago. She was no longer dizzy or queasy, but she knew she couldn’t stay here long. She had to find Rowan. She felt like he was close.
“Rowan!” She called a little louder. She wasn’t sure where Santiago was, but she also sensed he wasn’t far away either. “Rowan!”
She was drawn to a break in the tree line behind the clearing where the altar had stood just a week or so before. She was oblivious to the missing stones. She focused solely on finding Rowan. The vegetation was dense as she walked. She noticed the broken branches that were glistening with dew. They sparkled in the moonlight, lighting her path to Rowan.
She stopped short of the crevice where the jungle dropped off. “Rowan!”
“Lauren?” A weak voice came back from below.
“Rowan? Are you hurt?” She peered out over the edge, relieved to see Rowan on a precipitous ledge less than ten feet down.
“Yeah, just a little.” He had a gash over his eyebrow that had bled profusely. The blood had now dried. His eyelid was swollen shut. She could sense he’d broken a bone when he caught the ledge. It had saved him from a nasty fall. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to help you,” she said. “Where’s Santiago?”
“I’m not sure,” he answered. “I tried to push him over the edge, but he dodged. I ended up going over. I knocked a large rock off when I fell. He probably thinks I hit bottom.”
“I’ll get help,” Lauren said, not really sure how she would accomplish that. At the moment, she couldn’t even help herself. “Just hold on.”
“Lauren?” Rowan’s voice sounded tentative.
“Yes?”
“Are you really here? Am I hallucinating?”
“No. Yes,” she said, stuttering. She wasn’t sure how to explain it but decided that it didn’t matter now. “But I can help you. You just have to hold on.”
“Okay,” he said, wincing. “Just hurry.”
“That’s what all the men say.” She reminded him of their first meeting, when it was she who was injured.
“I got you,” she said.
“I know you do.”
* * *
Bahati. That was her next objective. She came back to herself just long enough to make sure she was okay, and the baby was fine. It was still dark, and the apartment was quiet. Then, she reached out for her best friend.
“Bahati?” She leaned and whispered. She couldn’t visualize her surroundings. Still, she found her friend in the darkness. “Rowan is in trouble. He needs your help.”
Bahati rolled over, muttering something in her sleep. She tucked herself up against the form beside her. Lauren suddenly realized where she was—where Bahati was—and who she was with.
The bond broke immediately. Lauren sat up abruptly, blushing as she realized what was going on. She had not expected that—not one bit. She smiled to herself as she realized her two best friends had finally given up any pretense that had held them back. She didn’t care. She just wanted them to be happy. But... that wasn’t going to help Rowan at the moment. Maybe she could find Agent Miller. He was the last one with Rowan, he should still be close.
“Andrew... Agent Miller? I know you’re there...” she whispered, as she closed her eyes.
He was harder to find, but the sun was coming up when she realized she was standing in the streets of Mérida. She’d been there before. Before Rowan had joined the team, they’d gone on the hunt for some jungle monster—or was it aliens? She couldn’t remember.
Miller looked unkempt, disheveled, and unshaven. She’d never seen him like that. He was dead on his feet, and she knew he’d been looking for Rowan. She stood in the middle of the street, looking at him as a car passed. He paused, as if he saw her. She took a few steps toward the curb and his movements mirrored her’s.
You’re not supposed to be here, she could hear his thoughts.
Rowan’s in trouble. He needs your help, she responded.
You know where he is?
There’s a cenote behind the circle of stones not far from the El Castillo. He’s there, and he needs medical attention. He doesn’t have much time. She could feel him slipping away from her.
Help me find him, came the Agent’s thoughts.
Go to El Castillo. I’ll try to guide you.
Chapter 23
On the drive from Mérida to Chichén Itzá Andrew convinced himself he was going crazy. That was the only explanation for this whole rigmarole. Early that morning, he’d woken up on a park bench in the town square. He had a pounding headache and a vile taste in his mouth. He had no memory of the night before. He considered for a moment he’d been drugged. Free margaritas indeed. At least his wallet was still in his jacket pocket with all his cash and credit cards, and other than his throbbing head, he was fine.
He was staggering towards the hotel when he saw Lauren. His heart froze. She wasn’t supposed to be here. He was seeing ghosts. Was that the right word? Lauren was still alive, right? So was that her ghost? Her phantasm? What’d you call that? Doppelgänger. That was it.
He followed the illusion of her through the street until he lost her in the crowd. He had
heard her warning, but then second-guessed himself. He still couldn’t explain why but he decided to go back to the hotel. Maybe he was looking for Rowan. Maybe the TV show host woke up with the same fuzzy-headed heaviness in his skull on a park bench somewhere farther across the town square and had staggered home earlier. But Rowan wasn’t there.
“Well, where the hell is he?” That’s when he first decided he’d gone crazy. He was talking to himself.
He’s in trouble. Go to the temple. Go now! Lauren was suddenly in his face, and he nearly lept out of his skin, falling back against the wall, tripping over Rowan’s duffle bag.
“Okay! Okay,” he gasped. “I’m going!” Now, as he drove, he was still trying to make sense of it, but also plotting what he would need to do once he got to the temple-site.
* * *
Miller had always thought Lauren was a fascinating woman, to say the least. He had learned not to second guess her. She was something else. He wasn’t sure what she’d done in Washington State. Her stories never really added up, at least not to him. She had signed the official report, which was a legal affidavit. He’d seen criminals sign untrue statements before. He had a higher opinion of her character. She wasn’t a criminal, and he didn’t think of her as a liar. Still, he was convinced there had to be more to her story, if he could just get her to tell it.
I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. She was waiting for him when he got out of the Range Rover at the parking lot adjacent to the Maya temple. He was still cussing himself out for believing any of this was real, but he also knew to trust his senses when they started telling him something was wrong.
How are you doing this? he thought to himself. Or am I going crazy?
You’re not crazy, Lauren answered.
Which way do I go? He pulled on his FBI ball-cap, his hand going to the weapon in the holster under his arm pit out of habit, more to check that it was still there than anything.
You’re going to head west. Can you see me, in the tree line?
His eyes scanned the jungle across the clearing and saw something move. I think so.
Come to me.
He followed Lauren’s directions, now certain that he had gone crazy. He went along with it; for now. She remained an elusive shadow in the trees. She was the rustle of the wind in the foliage, the parting of limbs as she passed, just beyond his reach.
He stopped in the middle of the clearing. Somehow, Lauren showed him what it had looked like when she last saw it—misty shadows of the pillars where the white stones once stood.
“These were the pillars Rowan told me about. Where’d the stones go?” Andrew asked.
The gods took them, she said, in the back of his mind. He turned, expecting to see her behind him, but she wasn’t there. You’ve heard how Prometheus stole fire from the gods to give to man?
“Yes,” Miller said out loud.
The trickster is always stealing what is not his to take. But there is justice in the universe and the gods return ill-will with just-desserts. As the trickster has hidden the treasure, the gods have taken the landmarks that were meant to lead him to his heart’s desire.
“Who put them there?” Andrew queried.
They were placed there to distract those who came to witness the end of the world. To keep them from following the rabbit’s trail into the jungle. The story of the Jaguar Queen was used to create an illusion, to place doubt in the mind sof those seeking the truth. The trickster doesn’t work alone, she came to find him here. Long ago, she loved a man, but her father did not approve.
Stephanie Wentworth, his thoughts went directly to her.
Yes. When they knew he would not give his blessing, the rascal convinced his friends to help him take what was not his, the woman, and her father’s money. She went with him willingly. Lauren’s haunting voice in his head gave him the chills.
“The plan didn’t work though.” Andrew walked through the circle, the stones appearing as mist, the glyphs so real he could almost touch them.
No. No one expected them to have engine trouble over the jungle. They all agreed Stephanie would need to jump, to take the money and hide with it until they could make their way back to her in the jungle. They never expected to get caught.
Bad guys never do, Andrew thought, as much to himself as to her. They didn’t know it would take so long, did they? He looked for the rustle of leaves in the jungle to ensure he was still on course. A flock of birds flew from the undergrowth and it was as if the jungle exploded. He followed the narrow gap the birds had abandoned in the tree line, the subtle markings of a path previously trodden.
No, and she rages because she fears he doesn’t love her any more, and he will double-cross her and take the money and leave her.
Andrew stopped. Would he do that?
No, but... she might. Lauren answered. And you should know, they’ve got the local police in their hip pocket.
What? How do you know all this? Miller thought.
She told me.
The trees parted just past the clearing and he continued to follow. Where is Stephanie?
Watch your step! Lauren’s voice came as an echo just behind him. He froze. See him?
Andrew dropped to his knees and looked down over the edge of the abyss. “Rowan?”
Rowan lay on the outcropping, with one arm dangling over the edge, limp, and still. “Rowan!”
Miller took out his satellite phone and called for backup. “Lauren? Are you still here?” He spoke out loud.
The wind found its way through the trees, caressing his cheek. “I’ve got him. I’ll get him home.”
Watch out! She shouted in his head, just as something charged him from the jungle.
Santiago tackled him, but he’d had just enough warning to back away from the edge of the cenote, so his momentum carried them into the dense cover of the jungle, away from the ledge. It was a hard landing, but Andrew came up on top. Santiago already had his gun drawn. The agent couldn’t get to his weapon fast enough. He stood, backing up. He held his hands over head. Santiago honed the pistol on him, and got to his feet, gingerly. “You the cops?”
“FBI, Andrew Miller,” he said, hands still on his hat, as he caught his breath. “I’m a U.S. Federal Agent.”
Santiago cackled uncontrollably, wincing as he did, then laughed some more. “I guess you’re gonna try to keep me from getting what’s mine too?”
“What’s that?” Miller glanced out of the corner of his eye as something moved in the jungle. Lauren was still with him. He knew he needed to stall while waiting for back up.
“The money,” he said. “It’s here, you know?” Santiago grinned. “Thanks to my friend Rowan, I know where it is.”
“Oh yeah?”
“There’s a cave just beyond the cenote,” he said, his eyes darting in the direction of the dense jungle. “Stephanie knew she hid it in a cave, but it had been so long. When she came back, she couldn’t find it. The jungle had grown around it. But I found it,” Santiago grinned brightly. “I thought I’d need the ground penetrating radar to find it, but all it took was a swift kick in the butt.” Rowan had shoved him, but he’d rolled away from the cenote’s edge. He landed near the mouth of the cave. There, he found the duffel bag. The money still inside.
Bad guys liked to brag, Lauren reminded him. Keep him talking.
Miller knew that. “Well ain’t that something,” his suppressed Texas drawl came out. “You’ve got it all figured out, now. Haven’t you?”
“You could say that.” Mateo drew back the hammer on the gun. “I don’t need his help any more,” he nodded his head over his shoulder towards the cenote. “And I sure as hell don’t need you.”
“So you and Stephanie gonna run off to South America and live off her daddy’s money?”
Mateo chuckled. “I don’t know about South America, but I’m sure we’ll find some place to disappear. Just like I’m going to make you disappear.” He raised his arm and Miller was certain he’d have pulled the trigger if a dark fo
rm hadn’t leapt from the jungle. It pounced with a wicked roar, and a swipe of sharp claws.
The gun went off. The jaguar knocked the man from his feet and the two of them tumbled into one form, disappearing over the edge of the cenote. Miller rushed to check on Rowan, watching the flailing form disappear into the darkness with a sharp thud as he hit the water far, far below.
There was no sign of the jaguar... if there had ever been one.
* * *
It took nearly an hour for the rescue team to get Rowan moved to the Stokes basket, and hoisted from the ledge by ropes. He’d been conscious for most of it. By the time they got him to the ambulance, he’d surrendered to the void. The pain couldn’t reach him. Neither could Lauren.
He hadn’t lied to his wife. He was hurt, badly. Besides bruised ribs, he also had a compound fracture of his left ulna and radius. The bones had snapped just above his watch band. He had managed to wrap it with a scrap torn from his shirt, but the bleeding had been bad. Far worse than the laceration on his scalp.
While the medics did their triage on Rowan, the rescue teams went back in to look for Santiago Mateo. It was so deep; they didn’t have ropes long enough to reach the bottom. From the end of their repelling cables, they shined down their high-powered spotlights. There they discovered the water flowed like an underground river. If Mateo had survived the fall, he’d likely been swept away by its current as it disappeared, deep underground. There was no sign of the reported jaguar either.
* * *
Lauren found Rowan in post-op. He was still loopy on medication. The euphoria actually made it easier to reach him. He didn’t fight the illusion she was able to create, and she manifested in a vision. She was able to touch him. She ran her hand along his cheek.
“You saved me.” He said with a dopey grin. His eye was still swollen shut. A line of butterfly bandages held the jagged flesh above his brow together, and his face was a rainbow of colors. His injured arm lay on the pillow beside his head. They were keeping it elevated. An ice pack was used to relieve the swelling. His arm was splinted to protect it from further injury.
“Saved you plenty,” she said. He’d said the same to her once before. Now, they were even.
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