Ransom (Benson Security 4)

“Right, meet out at the helicopter pad in an hour,” Lake said. “Elle, mark a grid of the area and coordinate the search from here. Use our GPS signals to maintain search parameters. That way there won’t be any duplication of areas searched. Dimitri, Grunt, you’re jungle team one. Harvard and I will be jungle two. Megan, you’re on air lookout with Rodrigo. Ryan, Violet and Elle are coordination and cover back here at base. Rachel…”

She raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow at him, as though daring him to give her a job.

Lake’s lips twitched. “You’re liaison with local law enforcement. Keep them off our back. We can’t trust them, and I don’t want them anywhere near this search.”

“Consider it done.” She inclined her head as though she were a queen deigning to listen to a commoner.

“Any questions?” Lake looked at each of them, but there was silence. “Good. Gather your gear. Make sure each team has a satphone and plenty of water on them. We meet in an hour.”

The team dispersed, hurrying to get ready for a long day searching the Amazon forest.

“I have a couple of questions,” Ryan said to Elle, who was busy overlaying an aerial map of the search area with a grid outlining its coordinates. “Did Grunt tell Joe about the kidnapping?”

“Yeah,” Elle said. “Joe decided to keep the news from Julia for a while longer.”

“At least it was his call and not one of the bosses’.” Although Ryan wouldn’t like being in Joe’s shoes if the final news he had to give his new wife was bad.

“What’s the other question?” Elle said.

“I don’t suppose anyone asked for me while I was in the hospital?”

She cast him a sideways glance. “You mean like the million people here who all love and worry about you?”

“Apart from them.” He waved a hand. “Never mind.” He pushed back his chair. “I’m going to my cabin. I need to get changed and get my weapons out of the safe.”

“Mm-mm,” Elle said with a knowing smile. “Make sure all you get while you’re in there is your weapons. We’ve no time for you to get anything else.”

With a smile, Ryan hurried out of the ballroom and straight for his cabin, where he hoped Esperanza had made herself at home and was, somehow, miraculously, still waiting for him. Or had at least left a note telling him how to get in contact. Because he very much wanted contact with her. Full body contact.

Chapter 16

“I’m starving.” Belinda placed a hand on her rumbling stomach. “How long can people go without food, anyway?”

Beast strode through the jungle in front of Belinda, keeping his eyes open for anything that looked like it might jump out at him. He wasn’t proud of losing it when the spider landed on him. But, in his defence, it had been big enough to eat his head.

“Forty days. That’s how long you can go without food. You ate at the reception dinner. You aren’t starving.”

“It feels like I’m starving. I’ve been hungry before. Usually before a premiere or a red carpet event. But I’ve never felt like I might die if we don’t eat within the next five minutes.”

“That still isn’t starvation. When you’ve gone a week with nothing in your stomach, talk to me then.”

She muttered something, but he couldn’t catch it over the noise of the insects swarming around them, and the monkeys in the trees overhead. He had a suspicion that they were being followed by a troop of monkeys. Obviously, Belinda’s constant chatter wasn’t a deterrent to the animals. But then, the monkeys never shut up either.

“I think it’s too dangerous to eat the fruit,” Belinda said. “I don’t recognise half of this stuff, and I don’t know what’s poisonous and what isn’t.”

“Didn’t they cover that in the many books you read when you weren’t making movies?” And yeah, he sounded sarcastic.

“Yes, they did, but I was more interested in the stories about animals and how to make shelter. Which, might I remind you, we don’t have because your oversized body broke the hammock.”

He wasn’t going into it again. They were hot, tired and running on adrenalin. It was natural to want to relieve pressure by arguing. Or by having sex. Nope. He wasn’t going to think about that either. He reached down to adjust the confining crotch of his pants.

“Can’t you catch us some fish and cook it over an open fire?” Belinda said.

Beast stopped and turned to face her. Her focus was on the ground, not on him, and she ran straight into him. Wide blue eyes looked up at him.

“What?”

“Catch some fish? Cook it? Hollywood, didn’t you hear me when I told you about my childhood? I didn’t spend my formative years camping out with the Boy Scouts. If you want to know how to dumpster-dive, I’m your man. Catching and cooking food ain’t in my bag of tricks.”