Luca, who had turned back to the plane, said over his shoulder, ‘Come on, we have a flight slot to make.’
‘Aye-aye, sir,’ Serena muttered under her breath as she hurried after him and up the steps into the small plane. She was glad that she’d pulled her hair up into a knot on top of her head as she could already feel a light sweat breaking out on the back of her neck.
Luca told her to take a seat. He shut the heavy door and secured it.
As Serena was closing her seatbelt she saw him take his seat in the cockpit and gasped out loud, ‘You’re the pilot?’
‘Evidently,’ he said drily.
Serena’s throat dried. ‘Are you even qualified?’
He was busy flicking switches and turning knobs. He threw back over his shoulder, ‘Since I was eighteen. Relax, Serena.’
He put on a headset then, presumably to communicate with the control tower, and then they were taxiing down the runway. Serena wasn’t normally a nervous flyer, but her hands gripped the armrests as the full enormity of what was happening hit her. She was on a plane, headed into the world’s densest and most potentially dangerous ecosystem, with a man who hated her guts.
She had a vision of a snake, dropping out of a tree in front of her face, and shivered in the dry cabin air just as the small plane left the ground and soared into the dawn-filled sky. Unfortunately her spirits didn’t soar with it, but she comforted herself that at least she wasn’t arriving back in Athens with her tail between her legs...just yet.
Serena was very aware of Luca’s broad-shouldered physique at the front of the plane, but as much as she wanted to couldn’t quite drum up the antipathy she wanted to feel for him. After all, he had good reason to believe what he did about her—that she’d framed him.
Anyone else would have believed the same...except for her sister, who had just looked at her with that sad expression that had reminded Serena of how trapped they both were by their circumstances—and by Serena’s helpless descent into addiction to block out the pain.
Their father had simply been too powerful. And Siena had been too young for Serena to try anything drastic like running away. By the time Siena had come of age Serena had been in no shape to do anything drastic. Their father had seen to that effectively. And they’d been too well known. Any attempt to run would have been ended within hours, because their father would have sent his goons after them. They’d been bound as effectively as if their father had locked them in a tower.
‘Serena.’
Serena’s attention came back to the small plane and she looked forward, to see Luca staring back to her impatiently. He must have called her a couple of times. She felt raw from her memories.
‘What?’
‘I was letting you know that the flight will take four hours.’ He pointed to a bag on the floor near her and said, ‘You’ll find some information in there about the tribe and the mines. You should read up on them.’
He turned back to the front and Serena restrained herself from sticking her tongue out at him. She’d been bullied and controlled by one man for most of her life and she chafed at the thought of giving herself over to that treatment again.
As she dug for the documents she reiterated to herself that this was a means to an end. She’d chosen to come here with Luca, and she was going to get through it in one piece and prove herself to him if it was the last thing she did. She’d become adept in the past few years in focusing on the present, not looking back. And she’d need that skill now more than ever.
* * *
Just over four hours later Serena was feeling a little more in control of herself, and her head was bursting with information about where they were going. She was already fascinated and more excited about the trip, which felt like a minor victory in itself.
They’d landed in a private part of the airport and after a light breakfast, which had been laid out for them in a private VIP room, Luca was now loading bags and supplies into the back of a Jeep.
His backpack was about three times the size of hers. And there were walking poles. Nerves fluttered in Serena’s belly. Maybe she was being really stupid. How on earth was she going to last in the jungle? She was a city girl... That was the jungle she understood and knew how to navigate.
Luca must have caught her expression and he arched a questioning brow. Instantly fresh resolve filled Serena and she marched forward. ‘Is there anything I can do?’
He shut the Jeep’s boot door. ‘No, we’re good. Let’s go—we don’t have all day.’
A short time later, as Luca navigated the Manaus traffic, which eventually got less crazy as they hit the suburbs, he delivered a veritable lecture to Serena on safety in the jungle.
‘And whatever you do obey my commands. The jungle is perceived to be a very hostile environment, but it doesn’t have to be—as long as you use your head and you’re constantly on guard and aware of what’s around you.’
A devil inside Serena prompted her to say, ‘Are you always this bossy or is it just with me?’
To her surprise Luca’s mouth lifted ever so slightly on one side, causing a reaction of seismic proportions in Serena’s belly.
That dark navy glance slid to her for a second and he drawled, ‘I instruct and people obey.’
Serena let out a small sound of disdain. That had been her father’s philosophy too. ‘That must make life very boring.’
The glimmer of a smile vanished. ‘I find that people are generally compliant when it’s in their interests to gain something...as you yourself are demonstrating right now.’
There was an unmistakably cynical edge to his voice that had Serena’s gaze fixed on his face. Not liking the fact that she’d noticed it, and wondering about where such cynicism stemmed from, she said, ‘You offered me a chance to prove my commitment. That’s what I’m doing.’
He shrugged one wide shoulder. ‘Exactly my point. You have something to gain.’
‘Do I, though?’ Serena asked quietly, but Luca either didn’t hear or didn’t think it worth answering. Clearly the answer was no.
They were silent for the rest of the journey. Soon they’d left the city behind, and civilisation was slowly swallowed by greenery until they were surrounded by it. It gave Serena a very real sense of how ready the forest seemed to be to encroach upon its concrete rival given half a chance.
Her curiosity overcame her desire to limit her interaction with Luca. ‘How did you become interested in these particular mines?’
One of his hands was resting carelessly on the wheel, the other on his thigh. He was a good driver—unhurried, but fast. In control. He looked at her and she felt very conscious of being in a cocoon-like atmosphere with nothing but green around them.
He returned his attention to the road. ‘My grandfather opened them up when prospectors found bauxite. The area was plundered, forest cleared, and the native Indians moved on to allow for a camp to be set up. It was the first of my family’s mines...and so the
