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Her jaw fell and she gaped at him. “When are you ever not hungry? You’re always eating. Always.” Her eyes narrowed. “What have you done?”
There was no point in denying it. “You’ll find out same time as everyone else.”
“Oh, Ryan,” Elle said.
She patted his shoulder before pulling her seat closer to him at their makeshift meeting table. He knew, even as she tucked into her meal, that she was planning on jumping to his defence—no matter how dumb his screw-up had been. That knowledge made his stomach clench even tighter. He had good friends. A good team at his back. And he’d screwed it up. Again.
Slowly, one by one, the seats around the table filled. Each member of the team stopped at the warm buffet set up in the corner and came to the table ready to eat. Every single one of them frowned in Ryan’s direction, clearly perplexed by the empty spot in front of him.
“Okay,” Lake said as he sat at the head of the table. “Dimitri, Harvard, tell everybody what you found.”
Dimitri reached into his pocket and pulled out a torn piece of material which he lobbed onto the table. “We found that in a small clearing, stuck in the knot of a liana. The knot was tied tight around it. It looked like someone had used an old sheet to rig up a hammock.”
“It could have been anyone, at any time,” Megan said.
Dimitri shook his head. “We scoured the area. Two sets of footprints. One set made by men’s dress shoes, and nobody wears dress shoes into the jungle. The other set were sneakers, but the person wearing them was at least half the weight of the dress shoe wearer. The prints from the sneakers were uneven, as though they didn’t quite fit the person wearing them.”
“Also,” Harvard said as he pushed his plate away and clasped his hands on the table in front of him, “the tracks were fresh. Not long after we found them, the rain started and they were wiped out. It was definitely Belinda and Beast. They made camp there for the night but were long
gone by the time we found it.”
“We do know which direction they were heading,” Dimitri said with a grimace. “It’s just like Ryan said—they’re heading straight for the mining operation.”
Elle stilled with her fork halfway to her mouth. “Oh, that isn’t good. I was going to show you this after we debriefed, but I think you should see it now.” She opened the laptop that was sitting on the table beside her and tapped the keyboard, and an image appeared on the conference wall. “Those are the latest satellite images. There’s been a lot of activity at the mining site. It looks like they’re amassing people.”
Lake ran a hand down his face—the first sign of agitation Ryan had ever seen the man make. “Rodrigo, what’s your take on this?”
De la Cruz studied the images on the wall. “Helluva coincidence?” He looked back at the team. “I would say the cartel either know Beast and Belinda are heading straight for them, or they’re gathering a hunting party.”
Lake turned to Dimitri. “You only found two sets of prints at the camp, right?”
Dimitri nodded. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean the cartel didn’t stumble on more evidence Beast and Belinda left behind somewhere else.”
“I don’t get it,” Megan said. “Why chase their escapees? Why not cut their losses and get out of there?”
Violet answered, “Reputation. It’s a powerful thing. The Martinez gang are building theirs, and they can’t let anyone think they’re weak. Losing their kidnap victims would undermine their reputation. They need to get Belinda and Beast back, and they need to make an example of them.”
Megan’s eyes went wide, and she turned to her husband. “That doesn’t sound good. It means Beast and Belinda are going to suffer, right?”
“No, it doesn’t.” Dimitri didn’t sound in the least doubtful. “Because we’ll find them first.”
“You are totally getting lucky after this meeting,” Megan said with a beaming smile.
There were groans around the table. Dimitri only had to breathe to get lucky—this announcement was nothing new.
The doors to the ballroom slammed open and Belinda’s parents rushed in, followed by Lake’s wife Kirsty. The former lingerie model signalled frantically that she’d tried to stop them. Lake gave her one of his rare smiles before turning to the Hollywood power couple.
“Mr and Mrs Collins, how can I help you?”
“You can help us by stepping aside and bringing in the Peruvian police.” Belinda’s father’s face was ruddy and his fists were clenched. “We need the authorities. We need the people who know what they’re doing. The Peruvian police, the FBI. We need to contact the US and UK embassies.” He took a step towards Lake, having to angle his head to look up at the ex-SAS specialist. “You’ve had long enough. This isn’t working. We need the full weight of our governments behind this. We need the experts on the ground.” He looked around at all of them, clearly furious and desperate, a disturbing combination that made everyone squirm in their seats. “This isn’t a game. It isn’t like the other jobs you do. This is serious. This is my daughter.” His voice broke and his weeping wife rushed to put her arms around him.
Kirsty looked like she was going to start crying right along with Libby Collins, and she inched to Lake’s side, looking for comfort. He stroked his hand down her back and gave her a look that held a wealth of private communication. Ryan’s chest clenched as he watched them, and his thoughts went to Esperanza. As soon as they did, he felt sick all over again.
“Mr Collins, Mrs Collins,” Lake said with compassion, “we’re the people governments call in to deal with situations like this.”
“You can’t be the only people in the world who know what to do when someone’s kidnapped,” Stephen Collins barked. “I will not let my daughter’s life rest in the hands of a company who is more concerned about its reputation than about getting the job done. This is about you thinking you’re the best. You wanting to prove you’re the best. I won’t play those games. I want my daughter back. I don’t care who’s best to achieve that. I want everyone who’s available here to help. And I want it now. Do you hear me? No more messing around. None.”
Lake opened his mouth to answer, but Rachel put a hand on his arm and stepped in front of him, facing the Collinses.
