Page 12 of Fall
“She’s gone,” he bites out. “Get a search team out here now, Luiz. I want every man on the ground. And bring the night vision goggles,” el Fantasma snaps out his order. “No one sleeps until she’s found. Understood?” His voice strains on the last syllable, almost like he’s scared.
I know the beast better than to believe such a fabricated wish. He’s pumped with the chase and high on his podium where justice is the only conclusion. This is a thousand times worse than I could have imagined. He won’t stop until my heart bleeds out for him.
A family of rodents scurry past, making me flinch. While I watch them scavenge for fallen fruits, a sudden weight tips my shoulder. Every muscle in my body locks. The pressure slithers across my chest. Thick and legless. Stuffing clenched knuckles between my teeth, I stave off a pointless scream. Hot terror spills in tears. This jungle is full of predators. Human, carnivorous mammals and reptiles.
I squeeze my eyes shut, begging myself to ignore the sliding strength navigating my torso. The sensation of a restricting force is too much to tolerate. In a flash, I bounce to standing and rip the powerful reptile off my body. The rash decision to move carries echoed splinters through the atmosphere like gunfire. A low hanging vine scrapes my hood, and I scream. The burst of shock disturbs the ground dwelling animals and ripples through the wooded expanse.
“Iris!” he yells again.
My pulse takes off at the sound of his gravelly voice. I glance back to witness his fast approach. A cap shields uncovered eyes and gloved hands grip a firearm. He rambles through the undergrowth, dressed all in black with a camo rucksack strapped to his shoulders.
Unwanted prickles flux my spine in a waterfall. Thoughts of our kiss haunt me. The blood gushing through my veins scorches and then turns glacial.
Run, Iris. He’s going to kill you.
Without waiting for him to catch up, I scamper further into the forest. “Don’t run, goddamn it. Don’t fucking run,” he shouts. “Stop!”
I won’t willingly succumb to his commands. For now, I’m free, and I’ll go down fighting to preserve what dignity I have left. Even though I’m galloping along a worn track, he breaches the foot of distance keeping us apart and snags the sleeve of my jacket. He tugs, hard. My body flies backwards. I topple helplessly. In tandem, we crash to the forest floor. Exotic leaves hover over me, belying concealment. Rolling to my side, I wrench the covered blade free and release it from the sheath.
El Fantasma towers from above. I notice his gun sits in its holster, snug to his ribs. A scowl tightens his expression. “Are you okay?”
“Step back!” I wave the serrated knife in the air. With a weary sigh, my tormentor stands opposite me. He scrubs a hand over his jaw. I jump to my feet and brandish the blade. “Am I okay?” My high-pitched tone scatters nosey owls. “You pushed me out of a moving helicopter, you fucking psycho.”
“Iris.” His shoulders round like I’m annoying him.
“Fuck you, el Fantasma,” I hiss at him. It’s not the jungle’s fault I'm caught in a murderer’s nest with disturbed truths and trust that will never be won. I’m trapped in a diverse world and gullible if I expect to escape him. “Don’t think I won’t use this.” My gaze flicks to the weapon and back to him. “Because I will. Neither of us has earned the other’s trust. I may as well be as ruthless as you. I have nothing to prove to you anymore.” That revelation smashes into my chest like a sucker punch, leaving me short of breath. “Out here, it’s survival of the fittest, and I’ll plunge this knife into your gut if you dare to come any closer.”
A mist of sweat dampens the clothes I’m wearing. My hands visibly tremble, yet I hold my guard up and fix a hardened glare on the bristled shadow of hair around his mouth.
He falls strangely silent, folding his arms over his chest and assessing me with a disconcerting stare. “I have a gun, beija flor. And you have a knife.”
“Don’t call me that,” I grit out, gnashing my teeth at the audacity. “My name is Iris. Not the ridiculous pet name you concocted to make yourself feel powerful. I’m back in the jungle now. I’m free.”
“You’re still within my boundary.” His nostrils flare. “Put the knife down.”
“Why? So you can shove your gun in my face and finish this once and for all?”
He drops his hands and opens his fists. “My gun isn’t pointed at you.”
I take a shaky step closer to a neighboring tree. “Not yet. But that’s what you do, isn’t it? You welcome pretenses and strike when people least expect it. Like a ghost.”
He narrows one of his eyes. “Did you give that fucker a note?” My head nods curtly. “And you knew that act was a risk?”
“There wasn’t anything incriminating on it.”
“Yet, you willingly took that risk.” I know he’s right. The second I handed over the note, my instincts told me I’d made a grave error. “He didn’t force you to write it. You chose to do it. I explained the rules, and you promised to follow them.” I inhale a musky aroma of forest vegetation, hexed with his fresh, citrusy zing. The unusual scent pokes fun at my soaring temper. “Let’s go. We’ll talk about this somewhere safe.”
I shake my head and trample a few inches deeper into the shade. “No way. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
His white teeth glow in the shadows like a predator. “Really? You’d rather hang out with the mosquitoes?”
“Rather than willingly go with a madman like you—yes. At least I know what they are capable of.”
“I won’t hurt you.”
“Bullshit,” I blurt out. My heart twists into an agonizing knot.
His mouth tightens to a firm line, and his gaze drifts to the seedlings at our feet. That second of a reprieve gives me the courage to take a chance. I spin around to run, getting three strides away before brutal arms lock around me from behind.
