he looks at my breasts, his tongue peeking out as he looks at my hips, and then he adjusts himself as he scans the rest of the way down my cargo pant-covered legs.
“Maybe not dead.”
Every filthy, scary innuendo possible is contained in those words, and I swear I can smell the arousal of the guy holding me over the scent of sweat and body odor he’s wearing.
His hands tighten again, pulling me back against him, and I feel his erection at my back. What sort of sick fuck gets aroused at holding a gun to a woman’s temple?
I struggle to get away even though I have nowhere to go if I get out of his grip, but my pride and sense of self-preservation won’t let me just stand here.
“Stop,” Nathan commands, and I’m not sure if he’s talking to me, Francisco, or the guard.
Regardless, we all freeze. Somehow, with one word, one deep voice, he’s taken control of the entire clearing.
“My arrangement with Nikolai is safe passage for me and my group. I came alone, but these people are my group. Caleb and Emma. My people, Francisco. Compreendo?”
His words shoot like daggers through my gut. With his emphasis on ‘alone’, he’s telling me quite plainly that he doesn’t want me here.
Well, fuck that. I am here. I don’t run out when things get hard.
Francisco purses his lips. “Nikolai will not be happy.”
“That’s my problem, not yours. His word is my group. Or do you not follow his orders?”
It’s a challenge, an obvious one, that Francisco may be the big man in this forest, but even he’s got a boss to answer to.
The tension is nearly more oppressive than the humidity, pressing in on us from all sides, seeping into my pores. My life is hanging by an invisible war of wills between two men, and death is slowly circling the clearing, wondering who it’s going to take.
Are they going to kill us? Or not?
I can feel the anticipation of the guy behind me as he nearly grinds against me, but I don’t move away this time. I’m too scared to rock the boat because I can feel the precarious balance we’re at right now.
A balance that could be lost with as little as an unexpected movement, a whisper, or a heavy breath.
Finally, Francisco spits again and lifts his chin to the guards. They release us immediately, although they shove us both away roughly, and I can feel my heartbeat in my arm where he was squeezing so tightly.
I can hear the roar of my blood rushing through my head, a message repeating with every heartbeat.
Not dead.
Not dead.
It feels like a prayer of thanks and a reaffirmation of life all at once.
“Welcome to the jungle,” Francisco says and then laughs.
It’s a bit maniacal, but he certainly thinks we’re the crazy ones. He might be right.
An uncomfortable tension reigns between us, especially when Nathan looks at me like he’d hoped to never see me again. Still, he slips his knife into a sheath and then glares at Caleb.
“Caleb? A word,” he says. “Over there.”
They step away, but I’m unwilling to be left alone with the guards and Francisco, so I step closer too. I’m trying to give them a modicum of privacy for the conversation to come because I’m betting it’s going to be a doozy, but I can still hear every word.
“What the fuck are you doing here? And why’d you bring her?” Nathan hisses.
Caleb flashes that white-toothed grin, like all we did was crash a house party or something. “She wanted to come. Seemed like a good time, and I figured you could use the help.” Caleb looks over to the guard, who’s picking up his gun. “Think I can go get my AK now?”
“You know you’re not getting that back,” Nathan scolds. “And I left her to keep her safe and you damn well know it. But you brought her here, of all places? I know you wanted to watch the shitshow from the front row, but this is cruel even for you.”
I pause at that. Caleb hasn’t been onboard with Nathan and me from the beginning. I know I pressured him into bringing me, but could he have been playing me right back?
Is this his attempt to get me killed, or even just to make Nathan see what a risk I am so he’ll back away from me permanently?
But then I think about Caleb helping me through my moment of panic and his words that maybe he liked