“I can’t breathe, Rio.” It took forever to get the words out. “I need to be outside where I can breathe.”
Rio didn’t ask questions or waste time on arguing, but lifted her immediately against his chest, rising with her as if she were a mere child instead of a fully grown woman in his arms. He stepped carefully around Kim and Tama and the pot of brown-green paste. Rachael caught a glimpse of Drake’s face, his eyes wide and shocked with a knowledge she didn’t possess before he managed to wipe the expression from his face.
Rachael buried her face in Rio’s neck, inhaling his comforting scent, giving herself up to the strength in his arms.
“You’re all right, Rachael,” Rio soothed, one hand stroking her hair as he sat on the small sofa on the verandah. “Listen to the forest, to the monkeys and birds. They make life seem in balance again. Listen to the rain. It has a soothing harmony.”
“What’s happening to me? Do you know what happened? I swear I saw something moving beneath my skin, like a parasite or something.” The humidity created the illusion of a sauna. The sound of the rain was dulled and muted by the heavy canopy overhead. Her breath was coming in
WILD RAIN
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ragged gasps, as if she’d run a long face. Her wounded leg was throbbing and burning, her pulse pounding there in a frantic rhythm. “I don’t have panic attacks, I don’t. I’m not hysterical, Rio.”
“I know, Rachael. No one thinks you’re hysterical. Just stay calm and when we’re alone, we’ll talk about this.” His heart was pounding as frantically as hers. The possibilities were incredible, almost unbelievable to him. He wanted time to think about it, to do a little research before he provided answers. “Just one thing, Rachael. Have you ever heard the words Han Vol Dan before? Did your mother ever say those words to you or mention them in her stories?” He held his breath, waiting for her answer, feeling as if his world teetered on the edge of an abyss.
Rachael turned the words over in her mind. They weren’t entirely unfamiliar, but she had no idea what they meant and she was fairly certain her mother had never included them in her wild rain forest adventures of the leopard people. “I don’t know. My mother never said those words to me, but..,” she trailed off in confusion. “It doesn’t matter,” he said.
“What does mat mean? Han Vol Dan? The words flow like music.”
, “It’s all right, don’t think about it right now,” Rio reiterated. “I hope you really aren’t blaming yourself for what happened to Kim. I’ve been rescuing kidnap victims for some tune all along this river and in three countries. My unit is hired to go in and bring victims out. Sometimes the government contacts us because it’s a politically sensitive situation and other times it’s the family asking us to get them out. And still other times we deliver the ransom and make certain nothing goes wrong so we can return the victim to his home. In nearly every incident where Tomas and his group are involved, the victims have, suffered beatings. He’s one of the bloodiest of the bandit leaders. Most consider themselves businessmen. If the money is paid, they deliver the people they’ve taken in good health.”
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Rachael shook her head. “It’s just a way of life to them? Kidnapping people? How do their families feel about what they do?”
“Most likely they’re grateful for the money coming in. Some do it for political reasons, and those situations are much more explosive and much more dangerous to my team. And anytime we’re going after someone Tomas has kidnapped, we know it’s dangerous both to them and to us. Tomas has killed hostages even after the ransom’s been paid. His word means nothing at all, to him or to anyone else.”
“Have you met him?”
He nodded. “A few times. He’s crazy and a bit drunk on his own power. He’s been known to kill his own men for a perceived slight. He’s death on women. I think he likes to hurt people.”