Savage Hearts

A quick glance inside reveals nothing that would make me worry.

The keys are in the driver’s seat, but Danny might have left them there, knowing no one would be around to snatch them. I look into the backseat, seeing his bat lying on the floor. But that still doesn’t mean anything. With J.D. and Jeremy drugged, he probably wouldn’t have thought he needed it.

Still…

I tuck the gun in the back of my jeans—grateful for its compact size—and reach behind the seats to grab the bat. We’re a good three miles from the road, far enough no one will hear J.D. and Jeremy scream, but maybe not so far that the sound of a gunshot wouldn’t carry. Just in case, the bat is a better weapon if I can get away with it.

Gripping the cool aluminum tight, I circle around to the open trunk and peek inside. J.D. and Jeremy aren’t there. I’m guessing that means they’re in the pit, but for some reason I’m scared to go look. I’m suddenly possessed by the unreasonable fear that if I stand at the edge someone will push me in.

Or maybe it’s not such an unreasonable fear.

There’s a chance the brothers have escaped. They might have woken up too fast, like Rosa, caught Danny by surprise, and beaten him unconscious before heading back to civilization. He might be out there in the jungle, bleeding to death under a tree somewhere, and if so, I can blame myself for it.

Blame myself, and my need for vengeance.

There was a choice to be made, like Danny said, and I’ve made the wrong one. I should never have put him in danger. I should have kidnapped him if I had to and made him run away with me. Only now, as I realize revenge might cost me the man I love, do I realize that it isn’t worth it.

Yes, these men deserve to be punished, but love is more important. It’s more important than the law that insists the brothers’ fates belong in the hands of the court, but it’s also more important than vengeance. It is bigger than this, bigger than the hurt and the pain and the hate. I feel that truth shudder through my bones as I start back toward the darkness at the edge of the clearing.

Slowly, squeezing the bat hard enough to make my knuckles ache, I creep around the perimeter of the bare earth with the pit at its center, keeping close to the trees, scanning the area for any sign of life. I move quietly, carefully, the bat cocked over my shoulder, ready to strike the second I have a target. I check the clearing and the shadows beneath the trees, just in case there is someone hiding in the woods.

Every sense in my body is on high alert, my ears straining for any sound that can’t be explained away by the wind or some night creature stirring in the brush. I am so focused that I would swear I hear the almost inaudible hum of the bug lanterns before I see them. And I certainly see the lanterns—and the scene they illuminate—long before Todd sees me, but it doesn’t matter.

And it doesn’t matter that I know I could take Todd out with this bat if I had to, not when Todd has a knife pressed to Danny’s throat.

Chapter Twenty

Danny

“Choose well.

Your choice is brief,

And yet endless.”

-Goethe

* * *

I try to call out to Sam, but Todd wedges the knife tighter to my throat, transforming my words into a guttural cry.

He’s going to kill me.

I knew it the moment he stepped up behind me at the edge of the pit and pressed the knife into my back hard enough to rip a hole through my shirt and break the skin. I’m not leaving Costa Rica alive, but Sam still can, if I can just get the words out. I have to tell her to run, to get to the car and drive away as fast as she can.

I chose this. I knew there were risks, but I made this choice anyway. I hope she won’t blame herself or doubt that I love her as much as I ever did.

Because I do. So much.

Even after I’m gone.

I can handle dying as long as I know she’s okay. But I can’t go out knowing she’s alone in the jungle with Todd, that I’ve failed to protect her, and he’s going to hurt her all over again.

“Put the bat down, doll,” he says. “Or I start cutting off pieces of your boyfriend.”

“I’m not your doll.” Sam’s breath rushes out, but she doesn’t drop the bat. She takes a step closer to the stump where Todd has me seated in front of him, with my body shielding his and his knife pressed to my throat.

Even if he let me go, there’s no way I could run. My legs are bound and my arms tied in front of me from wrists to elbows with my own rope. I had just finished tying J.D. and Jeremy’s arms together and rolled them into the pit when Todd came out of nowhere. I didn’t hear a car engine or footsteps or anything. He just materialized out of thin air, like an evil genie, come to prevent wishes from coming true.