ID. It was his father.
“Did you find her?” his father asked.
“Yeah. I was just getting ready to call you.”
“And...?”
Ryan turned around, hesitating with his answer. “They know she’s here in Rio. A guy was after her, and we barely made it out of the favela.”
“Ryan, you need to get out of there now. Everything’s arranged on my end with the safe house. Get to the airport. You’ll be safe there until your flight—”
“It’s not going to be quite that simple.” He glanced at Ellie, who was busy paying for the locker rental. His father might have trusted him to get her to safety, but he wasn’t going to be happy when he heard they wouldn’t be making the flight back to the United States.
“Ryan...what’s going on?”
“She’s arranged a private flight to the Amazon. She’s been in contact with someone she believes has information on her father’s killer. Evidence that could potentially help take down Arias. She’s insisting on meeting with him tomorrow.”
“Forget it. I don’t care what she’s found at this point. You need to get her out now. It’s not safe where you are.”
“And if she’s determined to go?” Ryan pressed his phone against his ear in order to hear better in the noisy terminal. “I can’t just let her fly out on her own—”
“I promised her father if anything ever happened to him I’d take care of her. He would have done the same thing for you or your sister.”
“I told her I’d go with her.”
“Then tell her you changed your mind. I don’t care if you have to drag her to the airport, you get her on that plane, Ryan. Do you understand me?”
“I can try, but I can’t make any promises.”
Ryan hung up as Ellie walked up to him with a large, gray backpack hanging off her shoulder.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
He slid his phone into his front pocket. “That was my father.”
“He doesn’t want me going, does he?”
“No.”
She shifted the backpack on her shoulder. “Your father’s done a lot for me, but I’m not going to change my mind. My contact knows what he’s up against and has made it very clear that he won’t speak with anyone else. I can’t lose this opportunity to find out the truth.”
He pulled her out of the way of a group of travelers who weren’t paying attention to where they were going, and felt her jump at his touch.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “My nerves are on edge.”
“Which is why my father is right. These people who are after you...they aren’t going to stop looking. We could fly your contact somewhere safe until this is over, or—”
“He won’t meet with anyone else, but I’ll understand if you want to change your mind about coming with me.”
“When I said I’d come with you, I meant it,” he said as they started back to the parking garage. “We can get a couple rooms at a secure hotel I know about, and leave in the morning.”
“And your father?” she asked.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with him later.”
Because in the meantime he had plenty of other things to worry about. He knew enough about Arias and the cartel to realize they were about to walk into a war zone. Her father’s death was related to the cartel. All along the Amazon were drug gangs, cartel leaders and even pirates, all on the rise due to rapid changes throughout the area. A surging population paired with organized crime had helped to fuel a sense of lawlessness. And they were headed right into the middle of it.
At seven thirty the next morning, Ellie and Ryan sat in the small waiting room adjacent to the hangar while their pilot filled out the necessary paperwork for their flight. Perspiration had beaded across the back of her neck, making her wish the stuffy room had an air conditioner, or if nothing else a fan to circulate the air. Even though they were just easing into summer, today’s temperatures were supposed to hit eighty degrees with high humidity. Along the Amazon, the temperatures would probably be even higher.
While she honestly hadn’t expected him to go with her, Ryan had already gone far beyond the call of duty. He’d secured two rooms for them at a hotel, where they’d ordered room service to ensure no one saw them. But as much as she’d wanted to catch up with him, she’d been too exhausted emotionally to be very sociable. By nine, she’d fallen into a restless sleep filled with nightmares of someone chasing her through the Amazon rain forest.
She yawned, then glanced at her phone for the umpteenth time, stood up and started pacing the VIP departure lounge. Her determination to follow through with their plan wavered. Maybe Ryan and his father had been right, and they should have taken last night’s flight back to the United States. She had no experience in tracking down a killer. Which was why she should leave the investigation to the authorities and trust that they would find out the truth as to who had killed her father. Just like the legal process would—at some point—put them in prison, where they belonged. All she was doing now was risking the lives of both Dr. Reynolds and Ryan.
“Ellie...what’s wrong?”
She glanced at her phone again, the familiar worry gnawing at her gut. “I’m hoping nothing, but I still haven’t heard from Dr. Reynolds. I texted him this new number. He was supposed to send me a signal when he arrived this morning so I knew he was okay.”
“I wouldn’t worry. Things run slower in this part of the world and never keep to a schedule. Which means there could be any number of explanations. The boat he’s on could have broken down, he might simply be running late—”
“Or they could have gotten to him.” She turned around and faced Ryan, his casual answer doing little to reassure her. “I’m sorry, but I’m the one who dragged him into this mess and if anything happens to him...”
Ryan leaned forward and rested his forearms against his thighs. “From what you’ve already told me, the doctor made his own decision to gather information against the cartel, which means I’d say he did a pretty good job of dragging himself into this situation on his own.”
“I know. But while I’m not the only person affected by Arias, this has become personal. I need to find a way to put an end to it.” She sat back down next to him. “My father’s dead, my aunt thought I was dead, too, and all my friends and the people I worked with think I died in that fire. I just want this all to be over.”
“That’s why we’re going,” he said, catching her gaze. “It will be. Soon. I promise.”
“The two of you ready to go?” The pilot she’d hired stepped into the room, interrupting their conversation.
She
