Chapter 8 #3
“If one of the brats was enough of an idiot to miss that chopper, there’s no way they would’ve made it this far on their own.”
“What if that bitch is with them? Having an adult with them would give a kid a better chance to survive.”
“Would it? She had no fuckin’ clue what she was doing. Don’t you remember the walk to camp? How pathetic she was?”
Both men laughed. Buck hated the way they were talking about Mandy, but he controlled his anger. He wasn’t going to do anything stupid at this point in their journey. They were almost home free.
“How much longer do we have to monitor the border? Hell, we don’t even know where whoever’s out here will try to cross—if anyone’s out here at all.”
“No clue. Carlos said we have to stay, so here we are.”
“This sucks!”
“Yes.”
The two men’s voices faded as they walked farther away from where Buck and Mandy had hidden. The danger they were in seemed sky high right now. They had no idea how many men had been assigned to patrol the jungle near the border, or how long they’d be on the lookout.
The good news was, the rebels themselves had no idea if they were actually looking for someone or not. And they seemed to assume if someone had missed that helicopter, it was a child, or perhaps Mandy and a kid. That would work in their favor, Buck hoped.
Turning, he looked down at Rain. The dog seemed less tense but still on alert.
“You knew, didn’t you, boy?” he asked quietly.
Rain looked up at him as if he could understand what Buck was saying perfectly.
“Good boy. You’re the best boy. If I had it, I’d be giving you an entire steak just for yourself tonight.”
“Nash?”
Hating the fear he heard in Mandy’s voice, after one last affectionate stroke of the dog’s head, he faced her.
“They’re looking for us,” she guessed.
“Wrong. They have no idea who they’re looking for, or if there’s anyone to find at all.
They’re here just in case someone didn’t get on that chopper.
They don’t know for sure. That works in our favor.
We just have to be more cautious from here on out.
And them patrolling in this area lets us know that we’re close to Guyana.
Besides, Rain will alert us to anyone who might be out there. ”
His words seemed to calm some of the anxiousness Mandy was feeling. He saw her shoulders relax a fraction. “If we’d kept going in the direction we were going before…we might’ve run right into the rebels, wouldn’t we?”
“There’s no way to know for sure, but I’m guessing so, yes.”
Moving slowly, Mandy let go of his hand and moved around him on her knees until Rain was between them. She leaned down and kissed the top of the dog’s head. The look Rain gave her, Buck could only describe as adoration. He could relate; he had the same feelings toward this woman.
“Thank you, Rain. You did good. So good. You’re so smart and brave.
You didn’t know how we’d react to your growling.
We could’ve gotten mad or thrown something at you, but you didn’t want us to go that way, did you?
So you herded us this way. Did I say you were smart? You’re the smartest dog in the world!”
The whole time she was speaking, she was stroking Rain’s head and back. The dog seemed to arch into her touch, and he’d completely stopped shaking.
Mandy took a deep breath and looked up at Buck. “What now?”
“We keep walking. Following Rain’s lead.”
“I mean, I know I said he was smart…” To Buck’s amusement, Mandy covered the dog’s ears with her hands before continuing. “But do we really trust him to lead us to the border? He could actually lead us west, toward some unknown place he came from.”
She was so damn cute. Buck touched the compass hanging from his flight suit. “I have a compass, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” She was back to petting Rain’s head now.
“Besides, where he came from obviously wasn’t a good place. Especially if it was with the rebels who’d joined the camp the morning the kids were rescued. You saw how terrified he was of the two men who were talking. How hard he was shaking.”
“Right. Nash?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m taking him with me when we leave. I’m not leaving him here. I can’t.”
Buck wasn’t exactly surprised by her declaration. She wouldn’t be the woman he admired and wanted in his life if she could turn her back on Rain.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” she asked with an adorable tilt of her head. She had dirt on her cheeks, a scrape on her forehead from a branch she hadn’t ducked under fast enough, and her hair was sticking up in spikes all over her head. And he’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his life.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll do whatever I can to help. There will be a bunch of red tape. He’ll need inoculations, licenses, maybe a letter from a veterinarian. I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out.”
She stared at him for a moment, then went up to her knees and lunged at him over Rain’s prone position between them. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I’ve become pretty attached to the little guy myself.”
She pulled back, much to Buck’s disappointment. He loved the feel of her against him. “Oh, did you want to take him home with you?”
“He likes me, but he’s devoted to you,” Buck said with a shake of his head. “He belongs to you. But I wouldn’t mind visitation rights.”
Her smile lit up her face. “Of course.”
It seemed so…normal to be talking about visitation rights for a dog, as if the outcome of their little jaunt through the jungle was a given thing.
And as far as Buck was concerned, it was.
There was no way they’d get this close to freedom, only to let the rebels find them now.
He’d get Mandy, and Rain, safely across the border or die trying.
Not that he wanted to die. No, he had things he wanted to do with his life. Namely, get to know the woman next to him without worrying about things like finding food, being hunted, and not getting bitten by the hundreds of deadly critters crawling and slinking around this rainforest.
“I’m thinking now is our chance to head due east,” he said. “Obviously I don’t know the perimeter the rebels are walking to search for someone who may or may not be trying to get to Guyana, but since they just went by, I’m guessing we have a window of opportunity to slip past them.”
Mandy nodded. “I trust you. Whatever you think is best, that’s what we’ll do. Lord knows I have no clue about anything out here.”
“That’s not true. You’ve held up very well, and you even started our fire last night.”
“I did, didn’t I?” she said with a small smile.
“Yup. Next thing I know, you’ll be Jane of the Jungle.”
She huffed out a quiet breath of laughter. “Not quite.”
Buck smiled to himself, amazed that he was feeling anything other than a sense of duty and urgency to get the hell out of this jungle.
He hadn’t expected to spend almost two weeks trekking through the wet, hot hell that was the rainforest, but there were quite a few good memories he had of his time with Mandy.
“What do you think, Rain? Is the coast clear?” he asked the dog lying between them.
In response to his words, Rain sat up, looked at him then at Mandy, before lifting his nose to sniff the air. Then he stood on all fours, did a full-body shake, and stepped out from behind the trees, facing due east.
He turned his head to look back at them as if to say, “You comin’?”
“Seems like the coast is clear,” Buck said. He stood and held his hand out to Mandy. “What do you think? Shall we get the hell out of here?”
“You think we’ll get across the border today?” she asked, as she took his hand and used his leverage to stand.
“Looks promising, if those rebels are anything to go by.”
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go then!” Mandy said eagerly.
This time when they started walking, Buck was on alert.
At the first sign of anyone anywhere near them, he’d take cover.
He had a feeling, though, that Rain would alert them to any rebels who might be near long before Buck heard or saw anything.
The dog was incredibly in tune with his surroundings and had probably saved their lives today.
If he hadn’t forced them to change direction, it was likely they would’ve run right into the two men.
He owed that dog everything. He vowed to do whatever it took to make sure Rain was able to go home with Mandy.
The dog might have to wait in Guyana for the permissions and paperwork, but Buck would make sure he was left with someone responsible, who would treat him like the king he was until he could get to Mandy in Virginia.
For a man who’d taken pride in having a very orderly and uncomplicated life back home, he was certainly collecting his fair share of…complications. He felt bad for thinking about Mandy and Rain as such, but there was no doubt his life was about to change.
He wouldn’t be living just for his job anymore.
He wanted to make things between him and Mandy work.
But their futures were uncertain at best. She still had obligation here in Guyana to fulfill, and he, of course, had his own responsibilities.
But she’d be worth whatever he had to do to cultivate the relationship they’d started in the jungle.