“Then you must stay here until you feel better.”
Then he spotted the boy. He was sitting on the edge of the raised floor with his legs dangling off the side. He looked like a smaller male version of Alcina. He met Novak’s gaze without blinking and said nothing.
The fact that neither were offering to cut him loose did not escape Novak’s attention. That could not be a good sign for the future of his health. The kid continued to stare at him, showing zero emotion. His blank expression made an erased chalkboard look animated. His dark eyes also glowed in the firelight. His hair was braided too but wasn’t as long as Alcina’s. He was definitely Maya. He had on a man’s white T-shirt that was also too big, rolled-up jeans, and white Nike tennis shoes.
Sweat was dripping off Novak’s brow and burning when it ran into his eyes. Gnats and mosquitoes were buzzing around his ears and the bleeding head wound. He swatted at them with bound hands. The two Maya watched him, but made no move to untie him. Alcina started dabbing the back of his head with something that stung like fire. He didn’t think they meant him further harm. He wasn’t as sure about all those guys sitting around that campfire. Large timbers had been propped up tepee-style, and the fire had roared high and was snapping and popping. Huge moths fluttered around the light, fighting the sparks. Now that his vision had cleared, he could see about twenty men. Most of them wore black T-shirts, black pants, and black combat boots. They talked together in small groups, but no one looked in his direction.
Novak winced every time the woman touched his head. He could feel dried blood, and it was making the skin on the back of his neck tighten up. He still wore the gym shorts and Nikes he’d run in. He could feel Alcina’s soft breaths fanning his hair. She touched the deep cut again, and the thudding headache spiked to screaming levels. He edged away so she’d stop touching it.
“Okay, that’s enough. That’s hurting more than helping.”
She stopped and stared at him. She couldn’t be very old, early twenties at the most. Her beauty was unusual but undeniable. Firelight danced across her face and carved hollows under her high cheekbones. Her lips were full, but there was a black bruise already darkening her left cheek where she’d been struck. She retained eye contact with Novak without blinking or speaking. After a long contemplation of his face, her mouth curved with a tentative smile. Despite the frenzied fight Novak had seen her put up in the surf, she seemed fragile and in need of protection. Some women used that kind of vulnerable look to get what they wanted. Novak had better remember that, because he already felt like he should protect her.
“How about cutting me loose?”
Neither of them moved to accommodate his request.
“Jake is sorry,” she said again. “He thought you were one of them.”
“So you said. But I’m not, so cut me loose.”
“You are not one of them?”
“Hell no. Look, untie me. Right now.”
“You’re not a prisoner.”
“Sure, I get that. So why do I feel like I am?”
Alcina reached out and tugged a brown leather backpack over to her, dug around inside, and pulled out a bottle of Excedrin. She uncapped it and shook out two tablets. Novak felt better because he could use a painkiller at the moment. Then she reached inside again and pulled out an eight-inch dagger. She pulled it out of a black leather sheath. It looked razor sharp, the polished blade glinting. She smiled at his expression. “I’m not going to stab you. I’m going to cut you free, so don’t move. I am not used to handling knives.”
“Got it.”
“Jake tied you up because he thought you’d be angry and try to hurt us when you woke up. He said that you would be confused about what happened.” Alcina was getting all smiley and friendly now as she crawled forward and quickly and expertly slit the cords on his wrists with one sharp jerk. Okay, it looked to Novak like she knew how to use a knife well enough. She handed him the blade and let him cut his ankles free. Then she backed away from him in a hurry, just in case he decided to stab her, he assumed. Novak stretched his aching muscles and rolled his cramped neck from side to side. He felt his head wound, but that intensified the thudding behind his eyes. He watched the men around the fire for a moment. They were there for a reason, and he wanted to know why. He wanted to know a lot of things, and nobody was telling him squat.
When Alcina handed him a bottle of water and the pills, he tossed them down and drained half the bottle. He was still thirsty and finished it off. He didn’t know where he was or why, but he wanted to know, just in case things went bad, which usually happened when he woke trussed up like a pig.
Some basic instinct told Novak that this tiny woman wasn’t the sweet little madonna that she appeared to be. His wariness wasn’t really justified, judging from her fight with that bully. She had been tough but she had also been desperate. According to Claire, she was their new client, whether he liked the idea or not.
“Please allow me to bandage your head so the bleeding will stop,” she said. Something was very off about this young woman. She seemed way too calm for what had happened to her earlier that night. He nodded, and she crawled close again and pressed folded gauze against his split scalp and then wound more around his forehead.
“Okay, Alcina, I’ll bite. Where am I? Why am I here, and what do you want?”
Novak wondered if she’d tell him the truth. It didn’t matter; he had no idea what the truth was. While he waited for her to answer, he examined the platform on which they sat. If he remembered correctly, he was sitting atop a chickee, which was the palmetto-roofed structure historically built by the Seminole tribe. That’s when some of the scattered pieces bumping around inside his mind started clicking together, and he began to line up what had happened. The men at the fire had to be Seminoles. They were the tribe who had settled southern Florida, and he knew they had reservations down around the Everglades. He had visited one a decade or so ago while on leave in Miami. He’d been impressed by them. They were a handsome people and courteous to their visitors and eager to present their history in an accurate way. He startled when some animal screamed somewhere out in the dark outside the fire. Whatever it was, it was dead now. That’s when he figured out where he was.
“This is the Everglades,” he said, looking at Alcina for verification.
She shook her head. “No, we are on the Miccosukee Reservation. Eldon Osceola and his family run their tourist business here. They helped my brother and me. They helped get you away from those men. They would have killed you.”
“The tribe is helping you?”
“No, not the tribe. Just Eldon and his family. Few even know we are here.”
Okay, that could complicate things if the tribal council objected to getting involved in Alcina’s case, whatever it was. He said as much to Alcina.
“Eldon said he did not want the tribe to be a part of helping us. He said he is doing a personal favor for a good friend. He doesn’t expect trouble out here, so he is doing nothing to endanger tribal members or their land. He says it is protected, and the Skulls would not dare to come here after us.”
“What favor? What friend?”
“She is a doctor who helped us get here from our country. These men will protect us while we’re here.”
Well,
