Page 16 of Colombian Chemistry

CHAPTER FIVE

Marcus

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The flames of our small fire crackled and sent little sparks fluttering up around them. It was small enough not to draw attention to our location but produced enough heat to keep us warm if the temperatures dropped in the middle of the night, as they sometimes did in the mountains.

I glanced across the flames to Irene, who I’d laid down on a soft bed of palm leaves I’d made for her. She’d been passed out for the better part of three hours, and I’d had to carry her on my back to this secluded place that looked perfect to hunker down for the night. Luckily, she was light, or I may have shaken her awake and forced her to walk her rich, spoiled ass behind me, but I’d left her in peaceful oblivion while I’d carefully moved us away from the Cartel scouring the Amazon for us.

They wouldn’t find us. Not tonight at least. I’d been meticulous in making sure I left no trail to follow, and there was no moon to light the jungle tonight. Even if there was, the tall trees in every direction blocked out most of the light. They wouldn’t have been equipped for an all-night search mission, so chances were they’d retreated and were trying to figure out where we’d emerge from the jungle if we hadn’t died in that wreck.

I was trying to figure out the same damn thing. The most logical answer, and the easiest one, was the one they would be expecting, so I had to continue rolling the other less obvious solutions through my head.

Irene moaned and rolled over. Those big blue eyes of hers blinked open and widened when she saw me. She scrambled up to sitting, then quickly surveyed our surroundings.

“Where are we?” she said as she continued looking around.

“We’re safe. It’s too dark to keep moving, so we’ll sleep here for the night.”

She rubbed her head, and her face furrowed in confusion. “Did I pass out?”

I chuckled and nodded. “Yep.”

“The last thing I remember was...” She stopped, and a pink flush crept across her cheeks.

I lifted an eyebrow and smirked. “Calling me pretty?”

With a grimace, she nodded. “Yeah. That.”

I laughed and pushed my stick into the fire. “Well, thanks for the compliment, though I don’t think anyone has ever called me ‘pretty’ before. Handsome, sexy, hot, sure. But pretty? That’s new.”

“I don’t even know why I said that. Did I hit my head or something? Do I have a head injury?” Her eyes went big. “Oh God. A brain bleed. I have a brain bleed, and I’m dying, aren’t I?”

“Nope. I checked you over when you went down. You don’t have any bumps or contusions, so you likely just passed out from the drop in adrenalin and blood sugar. It’s common for people to pass out after prolonged adrenalin rushes.”

“I guess that makes sense. I certainly had prolonged adrenalin rushes. You didn’t pass out, though.”

“Me?” I chuckled. “No. This wasn’t enough to get my adrenalin pumping. I’ve been through much worse.”

“Worse than this?” Her eyes bulged.

Flashes of memories of some of the shit I’d been through flipped through my mind. “Yep. Much worse.”

“Not me,” she said. “The scariest thing I think I’ve ever done was play hooky once. And even that was too much pressure, so I just went to class late.”

I pushed my eyebrows together. “Playing hooky was the most dangerous thing you ever did?”

She shrugged. “That I can think of.”

“That’s not dangerous.”

“It is for me. I don’t do anything remotely risky. Gives me anxiety just thinking about it.”

“Nothing? Not even roller coasters as a kid, or jumping a bike over a ramp?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Never saw the appeal of putting my health or life in danger just for the little rush people say they get. It’s nonsense if you ask me. My life is too valuable to be careless with it, so I go to school, follow the rules, and I focus my energies on more important things than surviving brushes with death.” She lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “Well, I did until the last few days at least.”

“Well then, this is certainly a vast leap from your normal, boring life.”