“Sebastián, no!” I twist my arm to break Óscar’s grip and rush toward Indiana. “What are you doing?”
Óscar reaches for me again, but Sebastián waves him off. He presses his blade against Indiana’s neck, and I freeze.
Indiana closes his eyes.
“No! Please!” I don’t know what to do with my hands. I want to pull Sebastián away from Indiana, but that’ll make this worse.
“What are you doing, Sebastián?” Silvana’s voice is a singsong taunt as she saunters closer for a better view.
“Genesis likes to call the shots,” Sebastián says. “So let’s let her call this one.” He turns to me, and his gaze is cold and hard. His grin is dark and cruel.
Penelope sobs. “Please don’t hurt Holden. Please. Please don’t hurt him. Please—” she cries, until Domenica pulls her into a hug.
Rog wears a grim frown at the edge of the clearing, and Maddie looks frozen, afraid to move. But several of the gunmen come forward for a better view, eager for the show.
I wonder if they’ve seen this one before.
My eyes water, and I blink away tears. Looking weak won’t help Indiana or Holden.
Think!
I’ve read Sebastián all wrong, and he wants me to know that. He wants me to know that he’s in control here. That he’s been manipulating me since before I even got on the plane—how else would he know how we got here?—and that he’s tired of pretending otherwise.
He wants to show me he has all the power.
Fine.
“Just tell me what you want, and I’ll do it.”
“I want you to choose.” He grins. “Which will you save? The old lover or the new?”
“Oh shit,” Domenica says, horrified.
Silvana laughs as she paces in front of me. Studying my pain from all angles. “Who will it be, princesa?” She gestures to Holden, then to Indiana. “Which one will you save?”
“Gen!” Holden’s voice is strained. His eyes plead with me. “Do something!”
“And you?” She squats at eye level with Indiana, where she brushes a strand of brown hair from his forehead. “Are you going to plead for your life?”
Indiana turns his head carefully, slowly, in spite of the knife at his throat, until he can look right into her eyes. “If you want to kill me, just do it. Don’t put this on Genesis.”
“¡Éste es encantador!” Silvana laughs as she stands and turns to me. “I can see the attraction. So who will it be?”
Indiana won’t look at me. He doesn’t want to make this any harder for me. Even now, he is above the drama.
Holden pleads with me silently. We’re over, but I can’t pretend that he means nothing to me. I can’t watch while his neck is hacked open on the jungle floor.
“I can’t.” Tears blur my vision, and that’s almost a mercy, because I can’t stand this. I can’t pick. I can’t watch either of them die.
“You have ten seconds to decide, or we will kill them both.” Sebastián holds his wrist up to stare at his watch.
“No.” I can’t breathe. I can’t see through my tears.
“Ocho seconds . . . ,” he taunts.
My legs fold beneath me and I land on my knees in the dirt. “Please don’t.” I wipe tears from my eyes and look up at Sebastián, who’s watching my torture with a sadistic smile. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Five seconds,” he says. “Do you want to lose them both?”
“No!”
“Three seconds!” Silvana is practically gleeful, and I can’t think through the tangle of loyalty, guilt, and regret strangling me like a noose. “Which do you want to keep, the big mouth or the silver tongue?” She glances at her watch, then turns to me with excitement shining in her eyes. “Time’s up, princesa! Make a decision! Who are we going to kill?”
“Genesis!” Holden’s voice is a panicked squeak.
“I can’t . . .” I bend over my knees, huddled around the hole in my heart. “I can’t do it.”
“Fine.” Silvana turns to Sebastián. “Kill them both.”
Panic pumps fire through my veins. “Wait!” I sit up straight and she turns to me with artificial surprise and anticipation. “Indiana. Save Indiana.”
My own choice breaks me into a million pieces of remorse and regret. But I won’t take it back.
“You bitch!” Holden shouts, and my chest feels like it’s caving in.
“No!” Penelope sobs, and Domenica hugs her tighter.
Guilt is an abyss devouring me one shattered piece at a time.
Sebastián laughs so hard he sounds like he’s choking. He steps back from Indiana and waves one hand at Álvaro. “Let Holden go.”
He squats beside me as I stare at him in horror. “I didn’t think you would do it!”
1.5 HOURS EARLIER
MADDIE
“Holden . . .” Genesis grabs his arm as he stomps past her, but he pulls free. “I knew she wouldn’t kill you. You’re the more valuable hostage. You were the safer bet.”
She’s lying, I can see it.
So can Holden.
“You deserve whatever you get out here,” he spits. The hatred in his eyes is so absolute that it steals my breath. He retreats to the other side of the clearing and sinks onto a log with Penelope, who’s still wiping tears from her face.
I make a show of getting up slowly while I sip my soda, careful to make brief eye contact with several of the guards so they can see that I’m feeling better. So I can gradually stop faking diabetic shock. And go to my cousin.
“Genesis.” I squat next to her. “We need to—”
“I don’t know how things got so screwed up between us,” she says, and for a second, I think she’s talking to me. Apologizing for all the times she was . . . well, herself. But then I realize she’s still looking at Holden.
“Give him some time,” Indiana says from her other side. “Eventually he’ll understand.”
“He already does,” she says. “He’s not going to get over that.”
We need to make our move. But she’s upset, and the girl with her finger on the trigger needs to have a steady hand. So I give Genesis some space and head over to check on Domenica and take the lay of the land.
Rog sits with his back against a tree, watching everything. His gaze finds me and lingers too long. As if he understands everything, now that, I assume, he’s finally clearheaded.
Penelope and Holden are huddled close together, which is no real surprise, considering that Indiana is evidently the “new headline.”
“Holden, we can’t do that to her,” Penelope whispers, and I freeze in my tracks. They haven’t noticed me, but the guards will, so I bend to tie my shoe.
“She was going to let them kill me!” Holden growls. “She deserves what she gets. And we need a distraction—now.” I can’t see his face, but every muscle in his body is tense.
“I know, but—”
Holden grabs Penelope’s arm so hard that she flinches. “You’re either with me or with her, Pen.”
“I’m with you. I told you. But . . .” She lowers her voice, and I stand, but I can’t make myself walk away. “If you tell them she took it, they’ll kill her.”
I walk to my cousin as fast as I can without drawing attention. “Genesis,” I hiss as I kneel in front of her and Indiana. “Holden’s going to tell them about the C-4.”
She frowns. “He can’t prove it. It’s already in the jungle.”
Holden is already up, heading for Sebastián.
“But what about the . . .” I glance at the bulge in her pocket, where the detonator phone is hidden.
“Shit.” She glances around the clearing. “I have to blow it now.”
But Holden is already talking to Sebastián. “There’s no time. Give it to me.”
“No, I—”
I take the phone from Genesis’s pocket, then shove it into my waistband next to my insulin pump. “Trust me.”
I stand, turn my back, and walk away.
&nb
sp; “Genesis!” Sebastián aims his rifle at her chest. “Don’t move.”
GENESIS
I stand slowly, my hands in the air.
“Back off!” Sebastián shouts at Indiana. When I nod, Indiana reluctantly takes three steps back. “Óscar, ¡venga!”
Óscar begins patting me down while Sebastián maintains his aim at my chest.
Silvana sticks her head out of the green tent. “¿Aún más drama con la princesa? What’s going on this time?”
“Are you missing a detonator and a phone?” Sebastián demands as Óscar’s hands trail down my sides.
Silvana disappears into the tent as Óscar pats my back pockets. “She’s clean,” he declares when he comes up empty.
“The hell she is,” Holden shouts. “We saw it!” Rifles swing his way, and Penelope flinches. “Check her again!”
“She doesn’t have anything,” Óscar says. “The boy just wants revenge.”
Silvana throws open the tent flap and charges toward me, her pistol drawn. “Where are they?”
I backpedal, my pulse racing. “I don’t know what you’re—”
“There’s a brick and a phone missing.” Silvana takes my chin and stares down into my eyes. “Lie to me, and I’ll kill every friend you have left.”
1 HOUR EARLIER
MADDIE
Silvana shoves Genesis back by her chin and my cousin lands in the dirt. “Start talking.” Silvana pulls her pistol on Domenica. “Or I will shoot her.”
Domenica freezes, staring at the gun.
My pulse roars in my ears.
Indiana glances pointedly at my waist.
Now? I mouth.
He nods.
But what if Luke isn’t back from planting the C-4 yet? What if he’s still too close?
“Wait.” Genesis pushes herself to her feet, hands held up, palms out. “Domenica has nothing to do with this.”
I step behind Indiana and pull the phone from beneath my shirt. Which is when I remember that I don’t have Genesis’s number memorized. I don’t have anyone’s number memorized but hers isn’t even in my favorites list.
Fear paralyzes me for a full second. Then I realize I’m holding Holden’s phone. The Eminem quote on the back of the case is a dead giveaway.
“I’m going to count to three, princesa, then I’m going to start shooting,” Silvana warns, and the tension in the clearing is so thick that I’m afraid to move.
Domenica takes panicked, gasping breaths.
“Silvana. Point that at me,” Genesis insists softly.
They made us disable our pass codes when they took our phones, so I tap the contacts icon. But my hands are shaking. I miss.
Silvana cocks her gun, and I jump. Penelope whimpers.
Desperate, I jab the contacts icon again, and the favorites menu opens. My cousin’s name isn’t there. Damn it.
“Last chance,” Silvana says, and the phone trembles in my hand.
The third entry in Holden’s favorites is “My Bitch.” I tap it once. Twice. Over and over again.
Nothing happens.
I have no signal.
But I saw a guard on his phone earlier. I know there’s reception.
Silvana’s arm tenses on the edge of my vision. Genesis lunges as Silvana pulls the trigger, throwing her arm up. Gunfire explodes, and the shot goes wild.
I spin and hold the phone out from my body, too low to be seen.
One bar.
I almost cry.
I stab the call button once. Twice. Three times.
The call goes through.
For one terrifying moment, I can’t move.
The jungle explodes into fire.
GENESIS
The ground shakes beneath me. I stumble away from Silvana. A pillar of flames and smoke rises over the treetops, half a mile into the jungle.
Luke came through.
A low shaking moan comes from the edge of the campsite where Natalia lies, curled up. A thin strip of wood protrudes from her left shoulder. Her pistol lies forgotten on the ground.
“¡Mierda!” Sebastián shouts into the jungle, his face purple with fury. The authorities are searching for us, and we’ve just sent up a huge flare.
“¡Vamos!” Silvana shouts. But instead of pointing at the jungle, she points toward the beach. “¡Oculten el narco! ¡Evacúen!”
Hide the narco? As in narco sub? Maddie said there are several subs.
Gunmen run for the footpath to the shore. Óscar helps Natalia stand, then bends for her pistol. Holden beats him to it.
Another gunman pushes his way out of the military tent, carrying the cardboard box of cell phones.
“Genesis!” Indiana shouts. I turn to look for him, but Sebastián steps into my path. He has Maddie clutched to his chest, his gun pressed to her temple. “You and Madalena are coming with me.”
Maddie’s face is streaked with tears. She’s frozen in terror.
“Okay.” I raise my hands, palms out. “It’s okay, Maddie.” But my focus is on Sebastián. “She’s no threat. Let her go and aim the gun at me.”
He actually laughs. “You tipped your hand with your boyfriend, princesa. The only way to control you is to point a weapon at someone you care about.”
“Sebastián!” Silvana shouts. “¡Vamos!”
He turns for just a second.
“Duck!” I shout, and Maddie lets her legs fold, pulling him off balance. I spin and kick his hand. The pistol goes flying.
Maddie scrambles out of the way, and I spin into another kick. Sebastián catches my foot and shoves me back.
I fall in the dirt, and he’s on me. He grabs a handful of my hair and slams my skull into the ground. My vision swims. My head falls to the side, and I see his pistol lying on a torn leaf mat.
Sebastián pulls his arm back, fist clenched. I buck him off and scramble for the gun. My hand closes around the barrel. Sebastián pulls me across the ground by my leg, skinning my back.
I grunt as I swing the butt of the pistol at his head.
He goes down hard.
MADDIE
I stare at Sebastián’s unconscious body on the ground, stunned. I’ve never actually seen Genesis fight.
“Go down to the beach!” Genesis yells at me. “Now!”
But I can’t go without . . .
Where’s Luke?
“Luke!” I shout as I race past the green tent. Panic tightens around my chest. The jungle is on fire, I’m half deaf from the blast, and I have no idea where he is. “Luke!” Smoke stings my eyes. People are running. Shouting.
“Maddie!” Luke’s suddenly beside me. Holding me. “Maddie.” He’s lost his cap, but he’s whole and unburned. And still carrying the rifle. “The boats! Let’s go.” He takes my arm, but I pull away.
“No, we have to get a detonator. For the warheads. We’re going to blow them up once we’re on the water.”
“But I’m supposed to—”
“Stand guard.”
I turn and run around the corner of the tent, dodging men racing toward the beach path with supply boxes. I duck through the tent flap, and Luke reluctantly takes up a position at the entrance, facing the chaos. Rifle at the ready.
The inside of the tent is dark, and I fumble around for several seconds before Luke pulls open the tent flap. “Hurry!” he shouts.
For a second, the firelight from outside illuminates the inside of the tent.
It’s empty.
The C-4 triggers are gone.
GENESIS
“Put it down,” Óscar shouts, and I turn to see Holden aiming a pistol at him and Natalia. Óscar’s rifle hangs at his back, temporarily out of reach.
“Get out of our way,” Holden growls. Penelope stands next to him, eyes wide and terrified.
“G . . .” Indiana is suddenly at my side. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” I wrap my arms around him. He has a black eye and bloody knuckles, but he’s okay too.
“Put the gun down,” Óscar repeats, and I l
et Indiana go.
“Holden . . .” I take several slow steps toward him, and Indiana mirrors my careful approach.
“Stay back, Gen,” Holden orders. His hand is steady, but his voice is not. “You had it coming.”
“I know.” His eyes are glassy. “Holden, give me the gun. Shooting people isn’t like shooting big game.”
“I’m not going to—” He glances at me and Indiana, and Óscar swings the rifle up.
“Holden!” Penelope shouts.
Holden turns back to Óscar and his hand twitches. The gun fires.
I fall backward. My ears ring. The gunshot echoes in my head and I can’t hear anything else.
The gun falls from my hand.
A man lies on the floor next to my mother. His eyes are open. Blood swells from his chest.
I don’t realize I’m screaming until my hearing comes back.
Óscar hits the ground on his back. The rifle lands across his stomach. He blinks once. Twice. Then his gaze loses focus.
Penelope screams.
“No!” Natalia collapses at Óscar’s side, clutching her bloody shoulder.
Holden stares at them. He’s breathing too fast. His eyes are wild and shiny, but they hold no guilt. No comprehension. Nothing.
“Holden!” Penelope reaches for him, and he turns on her. Still holding the gun. Something has cracked, deep inside him.
Indiana steps in front of Penelope. “Put the gun down. Slowly.”
Holden blinks. Then he runs into the jungle, straight into the flames.
0.5 HOURS EARLIER
MADDIE
“There are no triggers!”
“What?” Luke shouts. He’s still a little deaf from the blast.
“The C-4!” I shout. “It’s all gone, and so are the rest of the cell phones!”
“Madalena,” Silvana calls, and I look up to see her rifle aimed right at us, a psychotic smile turning up the corners of her mouth. “I see you got your strength back.”
“Put the gun down, or I’ll shoot you,” Luke says, returning her aim.
Silvana laughs. “Put your gun down, or I shoot Maddie.”