Page 83 of Final Approach

Charlie’s ghostly hands swept across my shoulders. Closing my eyes, I leaned into the soothing hug, before I realized it was Ambrose’s touch I was pressing my weight against.

He wrapped his arms around me from behind and held me as I fell apart. But I locked my screams of despair inside my head and whimpered in silence. Nikki’s hand found mine again, and this time I gripped it like it was a lifeline.

Madman leaned over and clamped a large palm around the back of Jamie’s neck and hauled him upward, dangling Jamie’s body as if he was trapped in a noose.

“You’ve said your piece.” His growl was truly terrifying, the terse bark of a commander. “That is all I promised. You’re done here.”

“Wait, no!” Pure terror filled Jamie’s eyes and he struggled to get free.

“There’s a cartel run close by, Marley. I ran into them, and then I ran away from them and—” His words faltered as Madman squeezed him tighter. “The only way out is through, Marley. There are hundreds of people coming through each day. Hundreds!”

His voice rose higher in pitch with each word. “We just need to blend in with them. My guess is we’d be out of this jungle in four days tops, with a steady pace.”

A cold sweat burst out across my brow at their proximity. The danger the cartel posed versus the danger of the untamed jungle. Could it be true? If they were that close …

Joining their trail might be the only way we’d make it out of here alive.

“Why would we take you with us?” Ambrose’s words vibrated through me and his arms tightened further. “You got us into this mess, and now you want to save your skin alongside us? Fuck you.”

Jamie’s body sagged, limbs dangling as he begged for his life. “I’ve got kids,” he wheezed. “I’ll do anything to get back to my kids, Marley. Please.”

His kids. His husband. He had people who would be just as devastated to lose him. He knew my father died when I was a teenager, what it did to me. He knew this was my weakness.

Had I always been this easy to manipulate? Or was Jamie just particularly good at it?

“Madman, please let him go.” It wasn’t an order, only a true request. “Let him go and I’ll—”

“You want to live?” Ambrose interrupted. He released his hold on me and walked over to Jamie with a stony frown. “I’m suing the shit out of Aileron when we get out of here. Help us get to the trafficking route, protect us enough to get us home, then testify against them. Then Madman here won’t kill you and leave you to rot.”

The suggestion startled me, but it was a good one. I didn’t want Jamie to die, and the murderous look in Madman’s eyes told me he was a minute away from snapping his neck. Death was an easy way out. He needed to pay penance for his decisions.

“I’ll go to prison,” Jamie gasped out, his face now cherry red and swollen.

“You will,” I agreed and moved next to Ambrose. “And you’ll have earned that privilege. Start making up for your selfish choices now by saving the rest of these lives. Your children can visit their living father in prison, or pay respects to an empty casket at home.”

I didn’t mean it. Or maybe I did. There was an entire plane filled with soggy corpses less than a mile away, whose families would never get closure because they’d never be found. Bodies Jamie knew about because he’d hovered from the tree line and watched us struggle to survive instead of acknowledging his role in our suffering.

The distinct, sharp click of something metal resounded through the trees and Tessa’s cry tore my attention from Jamie to the sound at my back.

Ambrose and Nikki immediately shifted in front of me, and the dull thump of a body dropping into the dirt told me Jamie had been spared. When I saw the reason why, I froze.

“I fucking hate you, cabrón.” Diaz snarled. Vicious violence radiated from his every pore as he pointed a small pistol at Madman’s head from about twenty feet away. His thick arm wrapped around Tessa’s slender frame, holding her hostage against his chest. Her blue eyes flashed with horror as she struggled within his grip.

“I thought I’d lost my payday, and now here you are.” His dark laugh chilled my bones, completely lacking any semblance of humanity.

The manic look in his eyes was cold and unfeeling, like we were ants and not people—an inconvenience at most. Wherever he’d been these last several hours, he hadn’t fared very well. Angry welts covered his face, and the bottom half of his clothes were completely shredded. Beneath the polyester strands of his pants, I could see the thick black strap of an ankle holster.

He’d had another gun all along. Bastard.

“The migrant route is a good idea, but I have a better one. El Chaco has spies in the Gulfo Cartel, and I know how to find them.” His unfeeling stare morphed into murderous. “They’ll get us out, but I won’t be taking anyone else with me.”

Righteous anger flooded through my veins like a rolling wave. We hadn’t survived a plane crash, a jaguar attack, and a flash flood to have this deranged man murder us all in cold blood. Fuck him.

“You’re going to kill us,” Ambrose stated.

Diaz’s responding nod was all it took to convince me of the path forward.

“Come on out, Torres,” Diaz taunted, “and I’ll spare your precious captain for now.”