They approached the cabin with caution but it became evident very quickly that there was no one around.

“It’s not locked,” Jameson chuckled but that was hardly surprising. They were in the middle of nowhere, after all. If anyone even used the small house, they certainly weren’t worried about marauders out there.

“Well, that’s something,” Audrey said but the strain in her words was clear. They entered the one-roomed shack, not unlike the huts they had been assigned at the hospital and instantly, Audrey commented on it.

“This is exactly the same layout as the huts in La Esperanza. This could be an Oculus house.”

Jameson eyed her speculatively.

“You really haven’t spent a lot of time in third world countries, have you?” he asked, mildly amused.

“Not really,” she admitted. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Oculus or not, this is how all the huts look. One room, maybe a fridge if we’re lucky but there’s clearly no electricity in here.”

He moved the torch around, careful to keep it at a distance, lest the flame touch something flammable. There was nothing but a stained mattress on the ground among spiderwebs. Whoever had last been there had been away for a long while, he was certain.

“It’s shelter,” Audrey conceded and closed the door at her back. “The problem is, it’s conspicuous. This is one of the first places they’ll look.”

“If they know it’s here,” Jameson told her calmly. “I doubt this is on any map and we’re still on the outskirts of the trees.”

She gaped at him dubiously.

“What?”

“What do you mean, we’re on the treeline?”

Jameson shrugged and gestured for her to sit. On closer inspection, there were more supplies than he’d initially thought. Two empty burlap sacks sat near the door next to a machete and three plastic gallon jugs were strewn over the room. There wasn’t even plumbing but Jameson suspected that there had to be a water source nearby if the owner of the cottage had chosen the location.

“Jameson, why are we still on the edge of the jungle?” He turned his attention back toward Audrey’s stricken face.

“It’s smarter for us,” he assured her. “They’ll be expecting us to run inward and away from them.”

Understanding lit her eyes and she nodded slowly.

“I guess you’re right,” she said nervously. “But it can’t be safe for us no matter where we go.”

“We need to get out of the jungle,” Jameson told her. “Head northeast toward Las Puertas.”

“How can you know that?” Audrey asked, amazement in her eyes. “Do you know this area?”

“No,” Jameson explained patiently. “You’re not the only one who knows how to Google. I researched it before I came out here. I know the next town north is Las Puertas de Granada. It’s slightly south of the city but it’s big enough that we can call someone from there.”

“But…how can you know which way we’ve been traveling?” she insisted as Jameson found candles to illuminate the interior. The torch was already losing its brightness and he knew the fabric of his shirt had disintegrated enough to make it useless.

“Instinct ... and training ... the army taught me a lot. I was tracking the light as we moved and I stayed on course.”

He popped back outside to extinguish the makeshift torch and his eyes scanned the terrain again, ensuring that there weren’t any eyes beyond before re-entering the cabin.

Audrey was shaking her head in awe as she continued to stare at him.

“Jesus,” she muttered. “I really would have been dead if you weren’t here.”

He stalked toward her and pulled her into a embrace, brushing the dishevelled hairs away from her face.

“We’re going to get out of here,” he promised her although he knew he had no right to vow any such thing. Even if they managed to evade capture from Oculus by stealing through the jungle, they had no supplies, no tracking gear and no guarantee that he would be leading them in the right direction.

“So what’s the plan then?” Audrey asked, pulling away to look at him worriedly and Jameson realized she had read his thoughts again.

“The plan,” he growled, dropping his arms and turning away. “Is that we need to set some boundaries. You can’t just…read my mind whenever you want. It’s…violating.”

Contrition colored Audrey’s face and she bit on her lower lip.

“I know,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry. It’s…I don’t mean to. Outside of my family, no one has ever known I could do that. It’s instinctual.”

She hung her head, realizing how the words sounded perhaps and laughed mirthlessly.

“I know that sounds terrible,” she sighed. “That I read people’s thoughts at random because they don’t know but it’s been my armor in this crazy life I’ve lived.”

Jameson swallowed his resentment and nodded.

“I guess that makes sense,” he agreed. “But I don’t want you doing it to me anymore. Can you control it?”

She bobbed her head vehemently.

“Yes. Of course. I mean, unless the circumstances are that where someone might be calling out for me but I don’t need to read your mind.”

This is so strange. Am I really buying into this?

A hot flush touched his cheeks and he waited for Audrey to call him out on his doubt but she didn’t. Her expression didn’t shift in the slightest to indicate that she had heard what he was thinking.

“I swear, I won’t read your mind anymore,” she told him earnestly and Jameson had no choice but to believe her.

How would I know anyway unless she gives herself away? Something tells me that Audrey McMahon has never given up more than she’s willing to part with.

“Tell me what you want me to do to get us out of here,” Audrey continued, her eyes locking with his. “I won’t fight you.”

He snickered softly and flopped onto the depleted mattress, patting it for her to join him.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I’m just thinking that we’re in deep shit, is all,” he offered truthfully. “No matter what I plan, it could blow up in our faces spectacularly.”

Exhaling in a whoosh, she sat, crossed-legged on the flimsy bed and studied his face in the dim flickering of the candlelight.

“You’ve got us this far,” she told him encouragingly. “Don’t sell yourself short. Your military training has come in handy and saved our lives more than once on this adventure.”

His jaw locked slightly, a fleeting thought flowing through his mind but it was gone before he could capture it and ironically, he wished that Audrey had been reading his mind in that moment because he was left with a sense of longing he didn’t understand.

“Let’s hope so,” he said grimly, casting her a sidelong look.

Audrey gulped and eyed him in return.

“So…?”

“So…we lay low here for a day and feel out our situation. I’ll go out for food before dawn so we can stay inside and lay low.”

There was a helpless expression on her face but she only shrugged.

“Whatever you think is best,” she muttered and he could see her mind was working furiously.

She has no idea what we could be in for, obvious danger aside. There is wildlife she’s never heard of, treacherous terrain and unpredictable rains bound to come through. We’ll be living off fruit mostly since we don’t have the weapons for a proper hunt and even if we did, building a fire to cook is risky.

He had no idea what technology Oculus used but if he believed everything Audrey told him, they weren’t dealing with the likes of anything he’d ever seen, despite his training. He mused it was a small miracle they hadn’t been found yet.

“Okay, the silence is killing me,” Audrey said suddenly and Jameson realized they’d been sitting in complete quiet for several minutes.

“We need to rest,” he told her and a look of skepticism touched her face.

“Really?”

“I know it sounds impossible, Audrey, but we need to keep our strength up if we want to get through this.”

She grinned slyly and unexpectedly, he felt a rush of heat through him. He knew what she was thinking even before she shifted herself closer to him.

“Is it weird that I’m ready to drop with exhaustion, I’m dying of thirst and frankly, scared out of my mind but I can’t stop staring at your mosquito-attacked abs?”

“Yes,” he replied solemnly. “It is.”

She chuckled and traced a line over his chest with her fingertips, sighing softly.

“They really did get you. We need to find something to treat all those bites, Jameson. Some aloe maybe…”

“I’m fine,” he told her firmly and he meant it. He hadn’t even felt the hundreds of punctures on his body but that wasn’t surprising. His threshold for pain was unlike anyone else he had ever known.

Her eyes raked over his face but the glint of desire he’d seen earlier seemed to have diminished.

“We rest and then what?” she asked, her uneasiness apparently overriding all else.

“We have to get hydrated, fed, rested and keep moving. We’ll head north but we can only go so far before…”

He paused, unsure of how she’d handle the news.

“Before what?”

“Before we can’t use the jungle as cover anymore.”

“What?” she gasped. “We’ll be exposed?”

“Not exactly. There is nothing between the wilderness and the city, not really. We might encounter some native tribes…”

Again, he trailed off, not sure of how much lying he should do.

“You really don’t know, do you?” Audrey murmured. “This is just a guess to you.”

“An educated guess, yes,” he replied with some exasperation.

She gave him another small smile and suddenly the devastating exhaustion was evident in her eyes ...

A pang of affection jolted through him and with it came the desire he’d tamped down on earlier. He pulled her into his body, relishing the scent of her sweating skin against him.

Slowly, he felt her letting her guard down to melt against him and Jameson stifled a sigh. If they wanted to survive, they would need to trust one another, even if they didn’t agree with each other.

“Just rest now,” he told her gruffly but even as he spoke, he sensed she was already falling asleep and he carefully stretched out, drawing her onto his chest.

“I’m just going to close my eyes for a few minutes,” she breathed but he barely heard her words.

“Okay.”

In seconds, her heartrate had slowed and Jameson stroked her hair, savoring the moment while he could.

He fought the feeling of tiredness which was overwhelming him, his own eyes gritty and exhausted.

Don’t you dare, he growled to himself. One of us has to stay alert if we want to stay alive.

And even though he’d been thrust into the situation unwittingly, he knew that Audrey was his responsibility now. The knowledge didn’t faze him in the least, as if he would have taken on the role, even if he hadn’t been forced into it.

As her breathing deepened, Jameson felt his heart quicken. As impossible as it seemed in such a short time, he’d grown attached to the woman he had once sneered at, despite the attraction he felt.

She wasn’t some new-aged doctor, exploiting people for their money. Audrey was capable of things he would have never believed possible.

She was both powerful and very, very vulnerable because of it and Jameson was certain of only one thing as he slowly disentangled himself, allowing her to sleep peacefully when he rose.

I’ll die before I let anything happen to her.

He didn’t want to think about how that might become a reality for them both.