Ransom (Benson Security 4)

“I had my appendix out when I was a kid,” Elle said. “Woke up singing the Teletubbies theme song.”

De la Cruz threw back his head and laughed. The man was too attractive for his own good.

“Where’s Mrs De la Cruz?” Elle asked, before she could stop herself.

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You want to audition for the part, bonita?”

Her cheeks flushed. “Just curious. Mrs De la Cruz?” She gave him a cheeky smile.

“She’s somewhere out there, waiting for me to find her.”

“Ah, a romantic.” She sipped her coffee.

“Something like that.” He pointed at Ryan. “What about him? Is Esperanza real?”

“Who knows. Ryan goes through women like…” She looked up at him. “I can’t think of any analogies that aren’t rude.”

“Don’t spare me, bonita, I like a woman who knows how to get down and dirty.”

She snorted. “You should be so lucky.”

He leaned back against the windowsill, the lights over the red roofs of Cusco acting as his backdrop. “Does that mean you’re spoken for?”

Elle hesitated, because the answer was complicated. She wasn’t dating anyone, but her thoughts were consumed by one man alone. He was her obsession and she wasn’t entirely sure why.

“Ah, you pine for my friend David.”

Elle bristled. Even the sight of De la Cruz’s disappointed smile didn’t appease her. “I wouldn’t say pine. That makes me sound like a puppy waiting for its owner to return.”

His eyes went wide. “He owns you? This is much more serious than I thought.”

She answered him with a gesture that made him chortle. “Shouldn’t you be back at the resort helping search for Beast and Belinda?”

“It’s dark. There’s no searching the jungle in the dark.”

“I can’t imagine being lost out there,” Elle said. “It’s beautiful, but terrifying.”

He shrugged. “I grew up out there. We lived on the edge of Maldonado. The Amazon was my backyard.”

“But you spent time in the U.S.” His accent testified to that. “Is that where you met David?”

He gave her a teasing grin. “You can’t wheedle information out of me about our friend. David’s secrets are his own. But me, I’m an open book.”

“Fine, explain the American accent, then.” She was mildly curious; mainly she wanted to know about his relationship with David. Did they both work for the same government? Would he tell her if they did? No, one look at the man told her he wouldn’t. He might ooze charm, but he had a spine of steel.

“It’s no mystery,” he said. “My father was Peruvian, my mother American. She was a scientist, researching in the jungle. He was a river rat, running supplies up and down the Amazon. They fell in love, got married, had kids, split up and Mom took us back with her to the States.”

“That must have been tough.” She couldn’t imagine her parents living so far apart. How would they argue?

“It is what it is. I got to spend summers down here, on the river with my dad. We had good times. It wasn’t a bad life.”

“Now you work for the Peruvian government? Or is it the U.S. government?” She tried to keep her tone light, but could tell from the amusement in his eyes that she’d failed miserably.

“I’m a free agent, bonita. I have skills and I hire them out.”

“Is that how you met David?”

He laughed hard, making Elle smile. There would be no getting information out of the man.