Chapter 8
Forrest was on high alert the whole night. Hati and Kaito had flashlights that they attached to the horses so that the trail was illuminated. It made them an easy target, but it also gave them the ability to cover more ground.
“How are you doing?” Forrest asked Jordana when they stopped to water the horses.
“Determined. I’m okay about what happened if that’s what you mean. But overall, I feel very determined.” Jordana looked away from Forrest and into the dark water. Suddenly she leaped forward, flying through the air. “Kaito!”
Forrest watched as Jordana belly flopped into the shallow of the water just feet from where they’d been standing downriver from where the horses were being watered.
Forrest didn’t know what was happening as Jordana grunted, water splashed as if there were a huge battle going on that he couldn’t see.
Then Kaito was there, standing in front of Jordana with a huge knife in his hands.
He dropped to his knees, raised the knife above his head, and then brought it down with both hands wrapped around it.
“Jordana!” Forrest yelled as the knife whistled inches from her head and sank into the sand. The splashing stopped and Jordana was lying in the water, breathing heavy. “What the hell? You tried to kill her!”
Hati put a restraining hand on Forrest’s shoulder and moved the flashlight to where Kaito was using both hands to pull the knife out of, not the sand, but the head of a large black caiman.
“Jordana saved Kaito and Kaito killed the caiman so Jordana wouldn’t be dragged under and rolled.
Black caimans are nasty. They’ll go after anything. ”
Hati let go of Forrest as soon as he felt Forrest give up the fight.
Instead of going after Kaito, he rushed to help him extricate Jordana from the shallows of the river.
“Jordana!” Forrest wrapped her in his arms, picking her up and carrying her out of the river.
“Are you hurt? I’ve seen Gator wrestle alligators on Main Street, but I’ve never seen anything like that before. I didn’t know you could do that.”
“A girl’s got to have her secrets,” Jordana said with a chuckle as she wrung out her water-soaked shirt tinged with caiman blood. “Now, we'd better get me out of this jungle or every jaguar in a fifty-mile radius will be after me.”
Kaito bent down then. He put his hand to his heart and bowed his head. “Thank you for saving my life. You’re just as brave as your father.”
Forrest felt, more than saw, Jordana’s reaction.
She sucked in a breath and held it for a moment before relaxing again.
“That’s the finest compliment anyone has given me.
Thank you.” Jordana slipped her hand into Forrest’s as if she needed to feel their connection.
He leaned over and kissed her temple. She’d told him what her father meant to her and how close they were.
“Come on . . .” Forrest paused and looked down at her.
“How do you say beautiful warrior in Portuguese?”
“Linda guerreira,” Kaito answered when Jordana could only look up at him with huge eyes. Emotion was flashing across her face. She looked vulnerable, fierce, brave, proud, and fearful all at once.
“Come on, minha linda guerreira,” he said calling her his beautiful warrior. “Let’s get out of this jungle and to safety.”
Jordana wasn’t the only one lost in thought for the rest of the evening.
Forrest couldn’t stop thinking about what was next.
What would happen to them once they were safe?
He knew one thing—he didn’t want to let Jordana go.
He didn’t want to walk away from her without seeing if she felt this chemistry too.
But it was more than a simple attraction.
It was a feeling of rightness, of finding your other half, your best friend, and the person you wanted as your lover for the rest of your life.
How was he supposed to walk away from that?
Morning light began to filter its way through the leaves and filled the jungle with a warm glow. The jungle looked beautiful. The dangers were hidden by the sound of birds singing their morning songs.
“It’s not much farther now,” Hati told them. They were all exhausted. Jordana was practically asleep in the saddle. As the path widened, Forrest rode next to her, trying to keep her entertained with stories and asking her questions so she wouldn’t keel over with exhaustion and fall off her horse.
“We’re here,” Hati said excitedly as the edge of the jungle appeared out of nowhere. A few seconds later they were in a small parking area. Similar to where Tuka had brought him a month ago, there was a barn and someone was selling food near a campsite on the far side.
“I’m going to sell the horses,” Hati said. “You all go get food and water. Then we can head to Manaus.”
Forrest jumped down from his horse, handed the reins off to Hati, and helped Jordana down. “Let’s get some real food.”
“I don’t have any money.” Jordana was about done. Her body slumped even as her stomach rumbled.
“Good thing I do.” Forrest patted his backpack. He took her hand in his and escorted her to get food and water.
Water was their number one priority and they savored every drop. Nothing had ever tasted better than that cup of water.
“I’m going to call Kane while we eat,” Forrest told her as they took plates of food and sat down in the grass near the camping area.
Jordana only nodded as she was too busy eating to answer.
Forrest pulled out the satellite phone and called Kane in between taking bites of food and drinking more water. Kane answered on the first ring. “Where are you?”
“At Hati and Kaito’s car. We were ambushed by four more men but took care of it. We are eating and drinking now, then we will head to Manaus,” Forrest told his brother. Exhaustion was hitting him hard now.
“No. You can’t go to Manaus. I’ve talked to Pedro Alves, and he said it’s not safe. On top of that, my own contact there said there’s word out to kidnap you and Jordana the second anyone sees you,” his brother told him.
“Where do we go if we can’t go to Manaus?” Forrest asked, which gained not only Jordana’s attention, but also Hati and Kaito, who were walking over to join them.
“Why can’t we go to Manaus?” Jordana asked.
“Men are looking for us there. Your father told Kane to keep us away,” Forrest told her.
“Then we go north instead of south,” Jordana said as Hati and Kaito nodded.
“There’s a little regional airport there,” Hati told them. “I bet it could take you to Brasília.”
“These small airports will be safer. There’s no need to file flight plans or a manifest. They’re just dirt runways,” Jordana agreed. “We can bribe them more easily for a flight where they forget they carried us.”
“She has a point,” Kane said. “Get to that airport and then check in again. We’ll get you both to safety. I promise.”
“I know you will. Thanks, Kane.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Damon knows. He overheard me talking to Waverly. He can’t wait to meet your girl.”
Forrest didn’t bother answering. He’d deal with Damon and his obsession with marrying them all off later. “I’ll call when we reach the airport.”
“Then we go?” Hati asked, shoveling the last of the food into his mouth.
“Yes,” Jordana said on a sigh. She stood up, threw away the trash, and downed another cup of water.
It took five hours of driving to arrive at the so-called airport.
It truly was a dirt runway and that was it.
Small planes that could only hold two people were parked haphazardly in a dirt lot next to the runway, mixed with rundown cargo planes to transport livestock and pallets of imports and exports.
None of the planes looked as if they’d been inspected in the past decade or more.
Forrest called his brother and the news didn’t get better. “Jordana, you need to call your father. Here’s his new number,” Forrest told her as Kane hung up and got to work on their new exit strategy. “I’ll call my brother back in thirty minutes. There’s been some developments.”
Jordana took the phone from Forrest. She was so worried about her father she’d had to ask Forrest to repeat the number three times. Why did her father have a new phone number? Why were they not flying to Brasília right this moment?
The phone was answered on the first ring. “Dad?”
“It’s good to hear your voice. Don’t tell me where you are, just tell me if you are safe.”
Her father sounded horrible and fear was kicked into overdrive. “I’m safe. Dad, what happened?”
“Our house was bombed a couple of hours ago.”
Jordana gasped. “You’re hurt.” It wasn’t a question. She knew he was.
“Yes, but I’ll live. I’m at the hospital and I don’t have much time before the doctor comes back to take me to surgery. A nurse whose husband was under my command snuck me the phone. What do you think of Forrest? His brother Kane is sharp. I like him, but I need to know about Forrest.”
Jordana stepped away from the car to get some more privacy. She lowered her voice and answered. “He’s heroic, smart, and protective. Why?”
She heard her father breathe out a sigh of relief. “Good. I need you to go home with him, Jordana.”
“Home? Like the United States? I don’t have my passport, Dad. And what about you?”
“You know I won’t back down from this fight. But I can fight better if I know you’re safe. I’ve worked it out with Kane, but I needed to know if you trust Forrest before I made my final decision. Will you let me talk to Forrest?”
Forrest was pulling out all the money he had to bribe a pilot when Jordana walked back over to him. She didn’t say anything, she just held out the phone.
“Hello, sir,” Forrest said into the phone. “My brother told me you were injured. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Nothing this surgery I’m about to have won’t fix. I have a favor to ask.”
“Of course, sir. Anything.” Forrest knew Mr. Alves wasn’t the type of man who wanted sympathy, so he didn’t give it. He was a man of action and there was something he wanted.
“I trust your brother and my daughter trusts you. I need you to sneak Jordana out of the country and to your home. I need you to protect her until the threat is over. She’ll be safer with you than she will be here. Forrest, can I have your word that you’ll protect my daughter with your life?”
“I promise,” Forrest answered instantly.
“Take care of my girl. I have to go. I hear the surgical team coming.”
“I will. You have my word.”
The line went dead and Forrest looked over at Jordana.
“What now?” Jordana asked.
“Now we get to Shadows Landing.”
Forrest hated that Jordana’s father had been injured, but he couldn’t be sad that Jordana was going home with him.
In fact, his whole body sang with relief that they wouldn’t be separated yet.
He only hoped Kane could find a way to sneak them into the country.
He did it with Waverly, so it couldn’t be that hard. Right?