Ransom (Benson Security 4)

“Yeah,” Ryan said. “The son of a bitch is going to broadcast whatever he does to Belinda and Beast.”

“He’s using them to build his reputation,” Elle said.

“No, he’s going to use them to make people fear him.” Ryan turned his back on the image. “He’s taking a leaf out of the ISIS playbook and he’s going to televise their torture.”

“He wouldn’t…” Elle trailed off, because from what they’d learned of the guy, that was exactly what he would do.

“We need a new plan,” Ryan said. “I don’t think we’ll get to Belinda and Beast before they hit the river. That’s a lot of ground to cover, and the rainforest is dense. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.” The last time he’d heard from the team, there hadn’t been any sign of the couple. He checked the time: two hours until sunset. The chances of finding them now were slim. Soon, Ryan would have to make the call as to whether the search teams camped in the jungle for the night or he brought them home to regroup for the morning.

A regroup was beginning to look like the most feasible option.

“This is going to turn into a massacre on the river, isn’t it?” Elle said as Isobel, Callum’s wife, stomped into the room, clearly furious.

“Not if we can stop it,” Ryan said, with his eyes on Isobel.

She strode up to them and held out her hand. There was a phone in it. “I took this from the entitled idiot.”

As if she’d summoned him, Belinda’s brother crashed into the ballroom. “Give me my phone back,” he demanded.

Ryan ignored him and took the phone. “Why did you take it?” he asked Isobel.

“Because I overheard him arranging a press conference.”

Ryan’s stomach fell as he turned to the actor. “You want to explain this to me?”

The kid at least had the sense to realise he was treading on thin ice. His face paled and he took a step back, away from a tightly coiled Ryan.

Daniel held out his hands as though to fend Ryan off. “I was helping.”

“Tell me you haven’t already called in the press.” This whole operation was going to hell in a handbasket.

“Having the world’s eyes on Belinda will keep her safe. If the kidnappers get her again, they won’t dare hurt her with everyone watching.”

Ryan could barely contain his rage. He strode to the image on the screen and pointed at the mobile broadcast unit. “They want the world to watch what they do to your sister. You’ve played right into their hands. Now nothing will stop them from putting on a show where Belinda is the star.”

Daniel lost all colour, bent over and started to gag.

“Get him some water,” Ryan snapped at Isobel, who had the good sense to realise he wasn’t mad with her. She went to the bar, grabbed one of the water bottles the hotel kept there for them, unscrewed it and thrust it under Daniel’s nose.

“Drink,” Ryan ordered him. “Then tell me exactly who you called so we can figure out how much damage control we have to do.”

“I thought I was helping,” Daniel whined.

Ryan didn’t say anything at all. It wasn’t worth the energy he would expend doing it. Things had just become a whole lot worse for Belinda and Beast. And Ryan feared that there wasn’t a whole lot Benson Security could do to stop it.

Chapter 25

It had taken a lot longer than they’d planned to break up camp on their tree platform and head out into the jungle. Mainly because Belinda had crashed after her ordeal. She’d woken in John’s arms, traumatised, sore and very, very hungry. She didn’t mention the bananas to John, because the thought of gathering them again made her want to vomit. Guess John was right and she wasn’t at starvation point after all, because nothing would have made her eat them now.

They moved even slower through the rainforest than they’d done before their time at the lake. Not only because John was still recovering from the damage the insect bite had done to his system, but because Belinda’s knee could barely hold her weight. John had fashioned a crutch out of a stick he’d painstakingly examined for lurking insects. The stick was long enough to fit under her arm, where it forked out on an angle, making it painless to lean on.

They’d wrapped strips of water-soaked sheet around her knee, in an attempt to keep the swelling down and give it some support. Now the bindings were warm and Belinda was wishing for ice. A nice, long soak in a Jacuzzi wouldn’t have gone amiss, either. And the biggest pizza she could get delivered. She dreamed of pizza in her normal life, one of those foods that was mainly carbs and disallowed on her strict diet; but now, in the jungle where she was so hungry she could cry, she would have given anything to have a Chicago pie, loaded with pepperoni. Her mouth watered at the thought.

John had offered to catch fish for her again before they left, but she couldn’t bring herself to eat anything from the lake where someone had died—even someone as evil as the man who’d attacked her. All she wanted to do was get as far away from that spot as possible.

“How’re you doing?” John said from behind her.

He’d told her he was bringing up the rear to guard them. She suspected it was so he could catch her if she began to topple. Unlike Belinda, who got weaker with every step she took, John’s strength returned as the last of the venom worked its way completely out of his system.