downstream. We're all spaced apart and in private conversations.
I hold her tight to me and remind myself that everyone else is around.
"So this is the real Belize, huh?" Zoe nervously glances around.
"Yeah. I take it you've only seen concert arenas?"
"And embassies," she mumbles and stares across the river.
"I need to tell you something."
Her brown eyes fill with worry. "What?"
"Interpol is sending Naomi to the U.S. but everyone else to their home countries."
The color in her face drains. She shakes her head. Her eyes tear up, and she whispers, "No. Please, Dirk. Don't let them send me back to Mexico."
"What happens if you go back?"
She glances at the others, and her body trembles. "I can't talk about this. Please, don't make me go."
I don't need to know all the details. For the first time in my career, Interpol can screw themselves.
"Okay. Let me talk to the guys and figure this out."
"You aren't going to deliver me?"
"No. Not if you don't want to return there."
"I don't."
"Then you're not going."
"Won't you get in trouble?"
I shrug.
"You're going to risk your career even though I haven't told you why I can't go back?"
"If you told me the reason, would it make me want to deliver you?"
"Not unless you're a bad man."
"That depends on how you define bad. I kill people for a living. I'm not sure who hurt you, but I want to hunt them down and kill them. So I don't think I can tell you I'm not a bad man and be truthful. But I won't ever be a bad man to you."
A tear slips down her cheek. "Okay. Then nothing I could tell you would make you want to deliver me."
"Then you aren't going back."
8
Zoe
Dirk comes into the tent and says, "We're leaving after Malin and Emilia."
"What do you mean?" I fold the T-shirt I wore the night before that is now dry.
"We need to leave camp. We aren't telling the other guys who are securing the perimeter. It's best we go in pairs. Groups are more dangerous. Any questions?"
I'm going to be alone with him?
"Ummm..."
He raises his eyebrows.
Why is he so good looking?
"You don't want to go back to Mexico, correct?"
"No. I don't."
"Then we're leaving."
My heart beats faster.
His eyes flicker. "Zoe, is something wrong?"
Yeah. There's no safety in numbers if I leave with you by myself.
"No. All good."
"Okay. Did you get the pair of shoes we bought earlier?"
"You aren't going to give me a piggyback ride the entire way?" He gave me one to the river and back. All the other girls took one, so I wasn't worried about it.
But then I smelled his intoxicating scent there and back. The river current flowed faster than this morning, so I clung to his hard body and inhaled him some more. His lips were only inches from mine during our swim. Now my insides are Jell-O again.
Why are you flirting with him?
Knock it off.
"You can have as many as you want." He winks, and flutters take off in my stomach. "But I still want you to put your socks and shoes on."
"Yes, boss." I give him a little salute and do as he says.
Andre and Naomi leave, then Malin and Emilia.
Dirk and I say our goodbyes and my flutters multiply.
Dirk fist bumps Hunter then turns to me. "Ready, my Little Diva?"
I snort and try not to smile. "As ready as ever, country boy."
"Are you two going to kill each other? I'm a little worried about you being in the woods alone," Vanessa comments.
"I'm good. Are you good?" I ask Dirk.
"I'm always good," he smirks.
I bet.
Get your head out of the gutter.
"I'll see you later." I hug Vanessa, and Dirk puts his hand on my back, sending more heat to my core, and guides me out of the tent and into the woods.
There's a path that isn't too dense, but not very wide, so we step side by side. We move deeper into the woods, and the afternoon light fades.
Usually, I don't have a problem with talking, but we've spent most of the journey silent. With no one else around, my stomach is a pool of nerves.
"Jaguar," Dirk mumbles.
"What? Where?" I move closer, so I'm touching him.
He softly laughs. "Calm down. Those footprints." He points at the tracks in the mud.
"You're such a country boy."
"I have been all over the world, you know," he says.
"Can take the boy out of the country but not the country out of the boy," I tease.
Stop flirting!
His jaw clenches. "There's nothing wrong with having survival skills."