Chapter 9
“I don’t know how my father expects me to get to this Shadows Landing,” Jordana said to no one in particular.
“Kane will get us home. This is what he does,” Forrest said, trying to reassure her.
But when he said home, he realized that as much as he wanted her to come to Shadows Landing so they could have more time together, he didn’t know if she felt the same.
“But if you don’t want that, then I’ll work with Kane to find another option. ”
Forrest held his breath waiting for Jordana’s response. He knew there was something between them. He just hoped Jordana felt it too.
Jordana reached out and took his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze.
“Yes, I want to go home with you to this Shadows Landing. It means I get to spend more time with you. But I hate being this far from my father. I wish we could take him with us. I know that he wants to change the world, but sometimes I wish we could have a normal life where we aren’t always worried that someone will hurt us. ”
Forrest reached out and pulled Jordana to him. “I’m sorry, Jordana. We’ll figure this out together.”
Forrest looked up as Hati hurried forward.
“I found a pilot and I talked to your brother. Here is the plan. You are going to fly in cargo on that plane to Guyana. From there he has a cousin who can boat you over to Trinidad and Tobago. You’re going to be dropped off at a private beach to avoid customs at the marina.
Kane said transportation will meet you at the beach. ”
Forrest looked over to Jordana. “Your call. Do we stay or do we head to Shadows Landing?”
Jordana was quiet for a moment, but she nodded as if she’d finished a conversation with herself. “Let’s go to Shadows Landing.”
Forrest and Jordana climbed into the plane that had seen better decades.
“Is that duct tape on the wing?” Jordana whispered in horror.
“Well, if you can’t duct it, fuc— oh crap, that’s a lot of duct tape,” Forrest said, all joking aside as he looked out the small window from inside the plane.
“Good. Good. Go.” The pilot, Bernando, spoke very little English but had wanted to use what he knew. He had to be close to sixty with thinning hair and a beer gut. However, the smile and mischief in his eye said that while his numerical age might be sixty, mentally he was still eighteen.
Jordana and the pilot started conversing in rapid-fire Portuguese.
Jordana was gesturing wildly to the wing as a crate of goats screamed.
Their seats on the plane were between two goat cages, each with five goats in them.
These weren’t the cute goats from petting zoos or goat yoga either.
No one was going to put a onesie on these goats.
These were slightly demonic-looking goats with reddish crazy eyes, chin hair, long floppy ears, and screams that could wake the dead.
Jordana huffed and took the seat next to him. “Bernando says the plane is safe to fly. He flies every day moving animals. Hence the smell.”
The plane fired up, its twin propellers sputtering to life. The plane jerked forward and a goat screamed, triggering the other goats to join in an ear-splitting chorus of screaming. The plane bounced along the rut-riddled runway as it picked up speed. Forrest reached out and held Jordana tightly.
“We go!” Bernando yelled over the engines as the plane lifted into the sky.
Forrest held his breath as he held Jordana. He didn’t breathe for a solid minute. The long tongue of a goat licked his face and reminded him to breathe. “Well, we haven’t died yet.”
Jordana looked pale as she nodded. Slowly, Forrest turned and looked out the window. They certainly weren’t flying at commercial airliner height, but they were flying.
The flight seemed longer than it probably was. Every bounce in the air had Forrest preparing to survive a crash landing. Somehow, they reached Guyana with all the goats and humans alive.
“I think he likes you,” Jordana said, able to laugh now that they were on land once again.
Forrest turned to Satan’s goat who shoved his nose to the cage and licked Forrest once again before screaming. Okay, so he wasn’t a bad goat. He really liked his chin hair scratched and maybe Forrest felt a little bad about leaving him.
“Where are the goats going?” he asked Jordana who asked Bernando. There was a pause before Jordana translated his answer.
“He said they’re going to be butchered.”
Forrest ate meat. He liked it and never felt bad for doing so, but now he looked at the devilish red eyes of his friend and felt sad.
“He said he’ll sell him to you for your shoes.” Jordana looked highly amused. The fear of the flight was now just a past memory.
Forrest looked down at his boots, then he looked back at the goat. There was no way he could sneak a goat home.
Jordana walked off the plane and already felt a little safer. A man who looked almost identical to the pilot waved. This must be the cousin. He had a pickup that looked like the equivalent of the plane she’d just gotten off of. She was pretty sure duct tape and prayers were holding it together.
“Forrest! Our ride is here.”
Jordana turned as Forrest walked from the plane, shoeless, and with a goat on a rope.
Bernando and his cousin, Davi, hugged and then began discussing the goat.
It was decided that Forrest and the goat would be in the bed of the pickup truck while Jordana rode up front.
It wasn’t a long ride to the marina, but it was long enough for Jordana to realize these cousins were good men, even if they were a bit wild.
“This is a nice marina,” Jordana told Davi. At least the boats looked safe, clean, and rather large.
“Yes, I clean them. I scrape the barnacles and supply their owners with certain luxuries. That’s my boat there.” Davi pointed to an old wooden boat with a canopy being held together with duct tape.
“There’s no way that will get us to Trinidad!”
Davi winked at her and parked the truck. It only took a minute for Forrest to say the same thing. “We can’t get on that. We’ll never make it.”
“Ah, you’re just seeing what I want you to see.
Now look at what I don’t want you to see.
” Davi reached for the rusty-looking motor covers and pulled them up to expose the motors.
They were new, sparkling, and enormously powerful.
He lowered the rusted encasement and then pulled the propellers from the water.
They too were clean, powerful, and didn’t match the wooden boat.
“Under the wood is fiberglass. This boat won’t sink and it goes faster than any boat in this marina. ”
“You’re a smuggler,” Jordana gasped, putting together all the pieces of this puzzle.
Davi’s eyes twinkled in the same way his cousin’s did. “I procure things for the rich people here and get paid very well for doing so. But, if I showed my wealth, then the police would be suspicious, right?”
Jordana laughed, which made Forrest’s new goat scream. She then explained it to Forrest who looked relieved instead of upset. “Now I don’t have to worry about the boat sinking.”
“Come!” Davi said in English as he hopped on board and helped Forrest get the goat onto the boat before untying the lines and pushing away from the dock. “We make good time!”
Davi puttered out of the marina, away from the coast guard, and then he opened the throttle. Wind blew as they flew across the water. The goat’s screams were ripped away by the wind and his chin hair and floppy ears fluttered in the wind like flags in a hurricane.
“I can’t believe you bought the goat.” Jordana was sitting next to Forrest, holding on to him and the railing for dear life. It was insane how fast this boat went. “But I’m glad you did. He really seems happy.”
Goat tossed his head back and let his ears and chin hair flap in the wind. He breathed in deep and then snorted.
“I’ll give him to my brother, Damon,” Forrest joked. Goat screamed. Apparently, he didn’t want to be given to Damon.
Conversation was difficult over the roar of the engines, but then Davi turned toward a large fishing boat in the distance.
“If you took a regular boat, it would take you most of the day to get to Trinidad. But with my girl, we’ll be there in half the time.
However, with speed comes the higher price of fuel consumption.
Ask goat boy if he has any cash to pay for my gas. ”
“How much?” Jordana knew better than to just hand over a blind amount. She made Davi tell her first before she asked Forrest for it. He’d already run through most of his money bribing the cousins. Luckily, he had enough to pay for the gas.
They pulled alongside the fishing boat, but it was clear it was a fishing boat as much as Davi’s boat was a broken-down wreck.
They had gas on board to be purchased as Davi took possession of a cooler, at which time cash was exchanged.
Jordana figured it was best for neither she nor Forrest to know what was going on.
She kept her face angled away from the people on the boat.
Goat seemed to pick up on her anxiety and bumped her with his head.
She scratched behind his long, dangling ears as the gas tank was filled. Then they were off again.
Night had fallen and Jordana had worried about traveling at night, but Davi said it was safer, especially coming onto the island of Trinidad and Tobago. He wanted to be away from the island before first light.
“The stars are so beautiful,” she yelled over the noise to Forrest. She leaned against him as he held her. They both looked up at the stars that seemed to be extra bright tonight. The hours ticked by and eventually Jordana’s eyes closed.
“Jordana, we’re almost there,” Forrest said, gently squeezing her arm.
Her eyes fluttered open and came face to face with Goat’s red eyes and then his tongue as he licked her.
Goat had lain down and rested his head on Forrest’s other knee.
The second thing Jordana noticed was that the engines had stopped.
There were three lights off in the distance.
The middle light was red. Davi was coasting toward it.
“This is the private beach where our next escort will meet us,” Forrest told her.
Jordana sat up and strained her eyes to make out two figures under the lights. Davi completely cut the engines and shoved a paddle at Forrest. Forrest moved and together the two men paddled the rest of the way to the dock. As soon as they came into view, the red light went out.
“Middle,” Davi told Forrest as they paddled harder to the space between the two lights. Then he turned to her and instructed her to keep Goat quiet.
Goat pressed his head against her thigh and Jordana felt the same nerves as she held on to him. She and Goat stared at the dock. The two figures were dressed in black and only became visible when Davi tossed the rope onto the dock and they stepped forward.
“I’ll take the woman, but that goat better not be coming with us,” the voice from the darkness said.