noise—almost like a wail or a growl.”
“Aye, we heard it.” Brice’s eyes locked with Selena’s while she automatically began checking Charles’s vital signs and examining him for broken bones. After Selena made sure Charles was breathing properly, Brice asked him, “Did you see anything—anyone?”
“No, nothing,” the white-haired man answered while Selena helped him to sit up. “I was turning off lights and closing up shop. I came back here to put up the watering jug and I just heard this awful sound—like a bird’s call or some sort of animal crying out—sounded like it was coming from beyond the wire fence, maybe down on the river. I jumped about a foot, hit a pot there on the floor and lost my balance and toppled right over, bringing these other pots down with me. Think I twisted my ankle.” He lifted his bushy eyebrows. “I’m sorry about the mess, Brice.”
“Don’t worry about that. We need to get you to the house.”
Selena reexamined him, asking him to speak again. She studied his face, then touched her fingers to his head, asking him questions as she analyzed him. “No symptoms of a stroke—that’s good news. Can you stand?”
“I think so.”
“I’d like to make sure of that,” Selena said, her voice shaky. “Your pulse is racing, Mr. Sager. Did you get dizzy before you fell? Did you hit your head?”
Charles mumbled, “No, I wasn’t dizzy at all, just startled. I caught myself on my arm and leg on the right side.”
Brice helped lift him, then together he and Selena steadied Charles. “Is the golf cart nearby?” Brice asked.
Charles nodded, favoring his right leg. “Yep. I was gonna drive it back up to the house.”
“I’ll get it,” Brice said. “Lean on the table and let Selena check you over a bit more until I bring it around.”
Charles bobbed his head. Selena offered kind words as she helped him back against the support of the heavy wooden table. “Maybe we should call 911, Brice. Or I could call your family doctor.”
“No, no,” Charles replied, waving a hand in the air. “I just stumbled is all. I’ll be okay. I’ll take some pain pills and be good as new.”
Brice shouted at Selena as he made his way to the other side of the building. “If you think he’s okay to move, we’ll get him up to the house and decide then.”
Selena turned back to Charles. “I don’t have my equipment but we can still make sure you’re all right.”
Charles gave her a dim smile. “My equipment ain’t so good either, but I’m okay. Don’t make a fuss.”
Outside, Brice quickly checked for anything out of the ordinary around the perimeters of the shed. After finding the golf cart that Charles used to cover the large acreage, he drove it toward the back of the shed, then squinted into the muted light to see if he could find any footprints. The bushes and vines were wet and thick but nothing looked broken or marred. If anyone had tried to get to the estate from the river, alarms would have gone off immediately, unless someone had managed to disarm them. But this estate was airtight. Cameras everywhere, laser beams along the remote fence lines, and so many alarm and security details that even Brice had to sometimes go back over the whole layout.
Maybe Charles had been startled by a night creature such as a raccoon or a possum or, as he’d suspected, an owl shrieking somewhere off in the dense woods leading to the river.
Or maybe the old man had heard something else.
Something meant not only to scare the gardener, but also to send out a warning into the night to anyone on this property who might happen to be nearby and listening.
A warning that could turn out to be a war signal.
FOUR
Selena sat up in the big teakwood four-poster bed on the second floor of Brice’s house, wondering how she’d managed to get herself in such a fix. She didn’t want to be like Rapunzel, trapped in the castle, but between Brice and her father, she didn’t have much of a choice right now. Too exhausted to argue after all the excitement of this day, she’d meekly come upstairs to try and get some sleep. But she couldn’t relax, so she held her Bible close like a shield, trying to find comfort in the Scriptures.
But even her nightly ritual of reading verses before she went to sleep couldn’t calm her. Her skin crawled with tension as she relived seeing her car explode and finding Charles lying on the floor of the shed. When she remembered the long bloody gash on Brice’s cheek and thought about how much worse it could have been, she shivered in her soft fluffy bathrobe.
Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your God he shall fight for you. That passage from Deuteronomy should bring her comfort, but she was still afraid. Not so much for herself as for those trying to protect her. Especially for Brice. He was so fearless, so focused, that he’d do anything to protect her. Even put his life on the line.
At least Charles was all right. He’d be sore tomorrow and his right ankle was bruised so he’d have to stay off of it for a couple of days. After they brought him to the house and checked him over yet again, Charles had refused any further medical help. So Betty had taken him to their room near the kitchen while everyone else settled down to dinner. But Selena barely managed to eat a bite of the hearty stew and freshly baked bread Adele and Mrs. Sager had offered. She was too keyed up, too worried.
And she was still worried right now.
Because she hadn’t told Brice everything.
And after what Charles had described, she was afraid to tell Brice or anyone else the rest. Afraid that if she voiced what she believed to be true, she’d put Brice and both their families in even more danger. And bring down the law on her beloved clinic, too. She couldn’t tell anyone anything until she had proof. And so she waited and wondered. She’d enlisted help on this and had given what could become important evidence to a confidant to analyze, and now she was waiting for a report back. It wasn’t that she wanted to deliberately keep anything from Brice. This was just curiosity. Or so she had thought until today. When would she hear? And how could she keep everyone safe until she had answers?
Glancing over at the battered, buttery soft, tan leather tote bag she always carried, she wondered how long she could keep her secret hidden away. What if someone tried to attack her again? What if someone got their hands on that bag? Was that why these people had tried to harm her?
And what about Charles and that sound they’d heard tonight, like a bird cawing or a cat’s loud meowing, a loud sharp sound that had spooked Charles enough to make him stumble and fall. Selena and Brice had heard it too—faint and echoing—so it was hard to say. But she had heard such sounds in the jungle, and something about this particular cry tonight caused her heart to chill like a chunk of ice inside her body. She’d heard a bone-chilling cry right before her village had been attacked.
An awful, high-pitched wail that even now sent shivers up and down her spine because Selena was pretty sure the shrilling call had been made by a human being. Had it been a warning or an alert? She may never know. She only knew that right after she’d heard that sound echoing throughout the rain forest, her world had shifted and changed and she’d lost Diego. And any hopes of staying in Argentina. And now she was harboring secrets that could possibly cause her to lose her nursing license for good. And the clinic too.
What
