Jungle of Deceit (27 page)

“
That they are.” Alex yawned.

“
But didn’t they predict the world was going to end when their calendar runs out?”

“
Hollywood fodder. If anything, they predict we will transcend to a higher level and all have the ability to communicate telepathically.”

“
Mmmm.” Mitch nuzzled her hair again. “What am I thinking, then?”

“
That you are comfortable enough to sleep with me here.”

C
hapter Thirteen

Mitch jerked awake. He was alone.

Motion set off a ripple of pain, but recollection made him smile at the source of those sore muscles. Intent on locating Alex, he tried to rise when he noticed the animal standing in front of him. It was a prehistoric rodent with short, spindly legs. White spots marked the fur on both sides of its belly making it look like the cross between a fawn and a rat. It stared at Mitch with its head lowered as if to gauge his reaction.

“
Paca.” Alex stepped out of the trees. “Isn’t he cute?”

“
Adorable.” Mitch noticed what was in Alex’s hands and launched to his feet sending the paca scurrying into the underbrush.

“
Breakfast.” He eyed the yellow boomerang-shaped fruits and reached for the woman holding them.

His arm wound around her back and he molded her against his chest, bending his head to lips that yielded beneath his with a soft gasp.

“
You shouldn’t have gone off on your own,” he whispered.

She drew back and looked at him with eyes brimming with emotion. “If anything happens to me today, I will go out with a smile on my face, Mitch.”

The words were light, but shadows darkened her expression as the reality of dawn set in. “We’ve got another couple miles until we hit Ramonez,” she announced. “We’ll need our strength.”

It was a sobering warning. He took the bananas from her hand and held her closer, her head tucked just under his chin.

“
If they touch you−” he murmured into her hair.

“
Eat.” She stepped from his embrace.

The moment was over.
Doctor Alexandra Langley
was back again and she was a creature far more intimidating that anything the rainforest could produce.

***

Ramonez revealed itself as a toucan sitting idly on a dirt embankment. Between the tree limbs, pastel-painted buildings exposed vivid splashes of color as Mitch and Alex approached from inland to avoid the main road. The closest structure to them was a three-story motel with the words HOTEL DEL LAGO scripted in black on the white concrete facade. Why the name was
Hotel of the Lake
when there was no water nearby could probably account for the establishment’s evident lack of business. Beside it sat a thatched-roof cantina with a hand-painted sign for Gallo Cerveza, with the rooster logo painted on its side. A red golf cart with a red and white striped awning was parked crooked on the pebbled road before it.

“
Well−” Mitch pulled back into the patch of allspice trees. “What is our most urgent need, a phone, or the police?”

“
The police can be bought in this town,” Alex stated. “If Solis beat us here, rest assured the law is looking for us as well.”

“
Splendid.” Mitch eyed the black rooster ad and thought that the cerveza sounded like the best option.

“
We have to split up,” Alex continued. “I can run into the hotel and use their phone. They have one,” she pointed, “see the wire? At least if I get caught you’re still out here to find help.”

“
No.”

“
But−”

“
We don’t split up, Alex.” He looked into her eyes.

She opened her mouth, but then nodded and focused through the leaves again. “Of course we would attract less attention in full-blown Mardi Gras regalia than in these stupid outfits.”

“
Yeah, I kind of miss my chic
style de guerilla
. With the sunglasses and hat at least I could have walked through the town unnoticed.”

Alex sliced him a sideward glance. “You’re too tall, and you reek of
gringo
. But you did look rather sexy in the
style de guerilla
.”

Mitch grinned and then grabbed Alex as a Jeep drove by, hurling pebbles up at the leaves that concealed them. Through this obstructed view he studied the open-aired vehicle, discerning only one passenger, a male in a white T-shirt−not necessarily one of Solis’s soldiers.

“
We could wait till nightfall.” Alex suggested. But the crease between her eyebrows meant she had the patience of a hungry dog next to an empty bowl.

A rusted chain-link fence ran behind the motel, cordoning it off from the concrete garage behind it. Between those two buildings ran a gravel driveway now occupied by a rusted pickup truck with a flat tire.

“
If we follow these trees a bit farther we could cross over into that driveway and maybe sneak in from the rear. I don’t see any sign of Solis or his men…but the bar is active.”

A marimba tune wafted from under the thatched roof, blended with a chorus of laughter and revelry.

“
It sounds lively enough in there, but so could a band of mercenaries if they’re looking to kill time.”

“
We’re going to draw attention no matter how drunk they are.” Mitch observed. “But hopefully it will slow down their reaction. Let’s just pray the phone is in back somewhere.”

“
My hands are shaking, Mitch.”

Mitch looked at Alex. Beneath the soft tan, her cheeks had gone pale and her eyes were riveted to the tavern, alert to any motion. She looked so natural with the halo of allspice leaves around her blond crown. She was a creature of the jungle afraid to venture into man’s habitat.

He reached under her chin to draw her eyes in his direction and once they were, he dropped his head down and touched his lips to hers, feeling a restriction in his chest when he did so. He brushed her mouth again and was just about to whisper words he thought he would never utter, when Alex pulled back.

“
Okay,” she smiled hesitantly, “I’m ready now.”

No, he couldn’t let it go at that. If he was going to take a bullet now, he didn’t want to die having never told her, “Alex,”
God, was he insane?
“I’m falling in love with you.”

Sun-flecked eyes widened and Alex’s mouth formed a small circle of surprise as Mitch realized he’d gone ahead and said it. Hell, she was going to spring away as fast as that little deer-rat this morning.

“
Why?” Her face contorted.

Well, damn
.

“
Why am I falling in love with you?”

“
Why would you? I am not very affectionate. I am downright bossy−no, just say it. I’m a pain in the ass. And I have a father who is a deranged criminal. No−I have to get used to saying the word−murderer. He may not have pulled the trigger, but I know he is responsible for the deaths of those archeologists.”

“
And the security guards on the dock in New Jersey.”

She cast her eyes to the ground as he thought perhaps that wasn’t the best time to validate her statement.

“
Right,” she whispered. “So why would you love me?”

“
I imagine that your mother was a very strong woman. She protected you in some of the most challenging environments.”

“
She sat there and let herself die in the heat.”

“
But she made sure you were cool, didn’t she, Alex? She made sure you survived.”

“
You piss me off.” Her voice wavered.

“
Aahhh.” He relaxed a notch. “You admit you like me, then?”

Alex reached for him and drew his mouth down hard on hers. She kissed him−each pass of her lips chronicling her emotions. Pain, gratitude, pleasure, and love.

“
Let’s get this done.” Her eyes locked on his and dazzled him. Gold and jade flecks spliced through her irises as if all the art she had come across in life had been imprinted there. “Then I’ll tell you exactly what I feel.”

“
Now
that’s
a motivational speech.” He chuckled and held her tight to his chest before letting go to start their trek along the tree line.

***

Still reeling from his declaration, Alex closed her eyes and cleared her thoughts. It was a short jog to the driveway and then they would be obscured from view again.

“
Ready?” Mitch winked.

Bah!
She was in love.

“
Yeah, we’re doing this together, right?”

“
Yep.” He grabbed her hand. “And we’re doing it now.”

They cleared the trees and stood exposed on the dirt road, but the lazy town of Ramonez ignored them.

In the alley behind Hotel del Lago the smell of trash was oppressive. A cat darted out from between a bank of overfilled garbage cans and a fan whirred fiercely inside a kitchen window, the smell of beef and grease pouring out into the alley.

“
It’s safer to go in through the kitchen, don’t you think?” Mitch stopped at the wooden door where a splintered hole served as the doorknob.

Alex stooped over to peek inside that gap and noticed a middle-aged portly woman with long black hair pulled back into a frizzy ponytail. She was ladling soup into a ceramic bowl which had a turkey leg sticking out of it. Water spewed from an unattended sink faucet onto a pile of grease-stained plates. Male voices could be heard arguing outside of Alex’s small scope of vision. Their quarrel was innocent, detailing a shipment of pigs that never arrived.

“
Looks like one woman, two men as best I can gauge.” Alex stood upright as she looped her finger through the hole. “Let’s go.”

After a second of hesitation, Mitch nodded and she hauled open the door, seeing the woman spin and gape at her with wide brown eyes.

The two men in soiled aprons stopped their debate and also stared. One hollered that this was the kitchen and that they should go around to the front entrance.

“
Telefono?” Alex smiled and formed the shape of a phone with her fingers, holding it up to her ear.

Still agitated, the shorter, stockier cook with a red bandana fastened to his head pointed around the corner. Alex wasted no time and progressed through the kitchen across a linoleum floor made slick with a combination of water and grease. She sensed Mitch behind her and then her eyes latched onto the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow−a payphone mounted on the concrete wall beside a door with the word,
ba
ñ
o
written in chalk on it.

“
We have no money,” Mitch stated.

“
I can get out via the operator. Just pray Phillip is around on the other end.”

Alex looked away from the phone, craning her head to glimpse into the restaurant. A man played an acoustic guitar and sang along in a somber tone. She had heard a marimba from outside, but it must have been the boom box on the floor next to the man’s sandaled feet. Beside the radio sat a half-full mug of beer. Her angle only afforded her a glimpse of the squat, dark-skinned performer, although she could hear the din of conversation from bar patrons. Only one table on the tiled floor was visible to her and it was vacant, already scavenged for chairs.

Satisfied that they were safe for the moment she hoisted the phone off the wall mount and tugged on the twisted metal chord to heft the receiver to her ear. Nothing. She jiggled the hookswitch but there was no dial tone. Defeated, she slammed the black receiver back in its cradle and hung her head.

“
Don’t even say it.” Mitch reached past her and hauled the phone to his ear. “Son of a bitch.” He slammed it back down.

“
That’s it,” he muttered. “We just want a friggin break.”

“
There is probably a phone behind the bar.”

“
Then we’re going to the bar.” He took her hand. “Maybe someone will feel sorry for us and buy us a drink.”

Mitch’s frustration mirrored her own, but the idea of being in a public venue where any patron could leave and mention the gringos they just saw−

“
Well, I’ll be damned.”

She didn’t acknowledge Mitch’s words until she saw him looking into the bar with a crooked smile on his face.

The bar was made of wood with a warped formica counter. Behind it, the green-painted wall was dotted with ads for Gallo Cerveza and some local photographs, as well wooden shelves hosting an assortment of liquor bottles. A tarnished mirror reflected the balding crown of the bartender who stared at her so long the beer he was pouring spilled over the rim of the cup. She wasn’t looking at him though. She was looking at the clientele at the counter, and the men occupying the tables and plastic chairs. It was none other than her own group of students. In the mirror she caught Chuck’s eye. His mug hit the formica with a thud and she could see him mouth, “
Holy shit
.”

He hoisted back from the bar so fast, the uneven legs on his stool caused it to topple backwards, which stopped the guitar player and severed all noise so that only the sound of a dog barking in the distance was heard. Then Alex was hoisted into Chuck’s tight, off-the-floor hug as a roar of voices filled the room. Always a stickler for no physical contact or any displays of affection with the students, she nonetheless hugged Chuck’s neck and laughed in his ear.