bed.
“Brett!” she yelled.
Frederico quickly covered the small space between them and cut off her scream with a punch to the stomach. Even through the mosquito netting, the force of it had been enough to double her over and she collapsed.
Frederico went back to the tent flap and flipped it open.
“Find the gringo,” he called to Ernesto and pointed toward the cave. “But don’t kill him. We need him alive.”
• • • • •
The world was a painful haze.
Jesse coughed herself awake and felt a throbbing ache in her midsection. She tried to breathe without using her diaphragm but that was no good. She coughed again, still trying to get a breath. What she wanted to do was hold her stomach but she found her hands wouldn’t move. As she opened her eyes, she realized she couldn’t move her feet either.
She was lying on her back and she looked up at her hands. They were tied to the top of the metal frame headboard with what looked like canvas webbing–Brett’s belt. She was on her own bed with her head propped up on pillows. She heard a low chuckling from the other side of the tent.
The netting was gone and Frederico stood in the middle of the tent, looking down at her. This was the man who’d rented them the boat. She tugged at her hands and feet.
What was he doing here?
“Brett!” she screamed.
But that only made him grin.
“Where’s the Red King?” he said, stepping over to her.
She knew her mouth must be hanging open but she stared at him, dumbfounded.
How did he–
Where was Brett?
“Tell me where the king is,” Frederico growled lowly. “And you won’t have to suffer–much.”
With that, his hand went to his side and he slowly withdrew a machete.
Jesse suddenly found her voice.
“I don’t know,” she said, her voice quavering. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Where was Brett? Was he with the Red King? How could she say where the Red King was if she didn’t know where Brett was?
Frederico regarded her with a little disappointment and pointed the machete at her waist. She held her breath as he used the tip to lift the bottom of her tank top and expose her midsection.
“That’s a shame,” he said, staring at her skin. “For you.”
He raised the machete up so that she could see it and then he quickly slapped the flat of the blade down on her exposed skin. She gasped at the loud smacking sound and the sudden burning pain, as her hands and feet jerked against the restraints.
He lifted the machete, licked his thumb, and brushed the blade with it.
Jesse convulsively sucked in a breath as the stinging continued.
“I keep my helper very sharp,” he said slowly, looking at the blade. “So sharp, it doesn’t hurt. So it does no good to use the edge.”
With a flick of his wrist, he brought the flat metal down again, higher, near her rib cage, and harder.
She cried out.
“There,” he said, sounding satisfied. “Now, tell me, where is the Red King?”
She coughed and shook her head. He used the back of the blade to scrape the waist of her shorts down to her hips.
“I don’t know where–”
Again, the blade came down, lower across her abdomen, with a metal ringing thwack.
She screamed.
• • • • •
Brett saw the looter just as he heard Jesse scream.
His ears pinned back against his head and he felt his heart begin to pound.
Jesse!
He wanted to scream her name, run to her, save her from whatever had happened but someone stood in the way–a man with a rifle. He had to be a looter.
Brett quietly set down the lantern and jade tablet and quickly backed away from them. The looter with the rifle had just entered the other side of the plaza and he apparently didn’t know about the floodlights.
Brett backed into shadow and then ducked behind a stela.
The man approached cautiously as Jesse screamed again.
God, what was happening to her?
He forced himself to stay still though his heart was pounding in his ears and the echo of her scream still rang in the cavern.
The looter had finally seen the jade tablet. Though he might have guessed it was a trap, he couldn’t help but stare at the blue jade. Even from where he stood, he must be able to see the color. Blue Olmec jade fetched top dollar.
The man crouched and swiveled his head from side to side but, true to form, he zeroed in on the jade.
Jesse screamed again and Brett cringed.