Sherlock was finally awake. She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of a blanket, staring over at Laura. “Don’t let her die,” she said to me, and began shredding the ragged edge of one of the shirts she was wearing.-She’d torn off a strip of shirt and tied her thick red hair back from her face. Still, strands were curling haphazardly around her ears. “I couldn’t have imagined a place like this. I just saw a frog that flew from one tree to another tree. They were at least ten feet apart. It was long and skinny and just about the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. I think it was red, maybe orange, I can’t be sure, it flew so fast. This place isn’t meant for people, you know?”
“I know,” Savich said. “Maybe we should think of our little sojourn here as a bizarre sort of vacation. Maybe Club Med would be interested. Mac and I saw a jaguar. You rarely see them, even here. Drink this, sweetheart. No, don’t just give me ladylike sips. Gulp it down. That’s right.”
When she’d drunk her fill, Savich wiped her mouth. She raised her hand and touched his fingers as they lay against her cheek. “Dillon, my brain feels like it’s coming back to me. Is that a lemon I see?”
“Good,” he said. “That’s good. Yep, Mac and I found some lemon and lime trees. We picked both. If we run out of water or need to wash up, we can use them.”
“We can use the lime in Laura’s margaritas. I can see you now, Dillon, see exactly who you are. I didn’t like being away from you like that.”
“I didn’t like it either,” Savich said.
“You don’t have to carry me anymore now.”
He leaned over and kissed her hard and quick. “Good. That means you can help carry the water bottles.”
She laughed, a real Sherlock laugh, and again, it made me wish I’d killed Molinas for what he’d done to her. And what he’d done to me.
Laura’s eyes were closed. I knew she was in pain, but I needed to ration the pain pills. I gave her water, antibiotics, and two aspirin.
“It’s time for lunch,” I said. “It’s all sugar and fat. My two most favorite things in the world. We’ll be on such highs, we’ll be jumping around up there in the trees with the monkeys.”
Savich said, “I saw half a dozen red howler monkeys about seventy-five paces behind us. They were swinging around, high above us, interested but not going crazy at the sight of us. It was like we were neighbors they just didn’t like. It made me think they’ve seen a number of people here in their territory. Maybe we aren’t deep in a rain forest in the bowels of Colombia, a hundred miles from civilization. Maybe we’re close to a village or a town. Though I don’t know who would live in a place where taking a breath feels like sucking on a blast furnace.”
I frowned over at him, nodding. “You’re right. That jaguar we saw just seemed bored, like we were no big deal. Like he’d keep an eye on us because it was part of his job but he wasn’t at all worried.”
“That’s probably how they look just before they spring,” Savich said, laughing at my expression. “Nah, I wouldn’t worry about the cats. Who knows? Hey, are you guys ready for some lunch?”
“I want my margarita,” Laura said, her voice slurred. “I know you picked some limes. I heard Sherlock talk about it.” I opened her two shirts and looked at the bandage. No blood, thank God. What should I do for it now? I’d been through some basic survival training, but that was it. I saw a small pool of dried blood on her right breast that I’d missed when I’d cleaned her with the alcohol. I didn’t think, just lightly scratched up the dried blood. Her eyes opened.
“Blood,” I said. “I couldn’t bear to see it on you, Laura.”
“How do I look?”
I wanted to tell her that despite everything I was still a guy, with guy thoughts, and I wanted to look at her breasts and smooth my fingers over them while my eyes were closed, and tell her she was beautiful. I felt an insect bite the base of my index ringer. “No new bleeding. The bandage is nice and clean. You’re sweating and that’s good. A nice dry, hot sweat from the sun. I think the best thing is just to leave everything alone. Tomorrow morning I’ll change the bandage and see how the wound looks. Now, since you’re such a good patient, you get a reward.” I peeled a Baby Ruth candy bar and broke off a small chunk. I waved it under Laura’s nose. She didn’t say a word, just opened her mouth. She smiled while she chewed. I fed her the entire bar. “You’re going to want to start dancing from this sugar high,” I said.