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"I never thought you’d be afraid of a little jungle," Javier said, though his tone was flat "We’re ht from his pocket and flicked it on He looked at Este who had his iPad raised up to his eyes "How’s your battery on that thing?"

Este set the sun to charge it to We’re good"

Javier slid a forrip on the handle "Very well I’ll clear our path when needed You just tell o"

Este nodded "Shouldn’t be a probleht for a few kilo the way"

Oh, just for a few kilo uneasy, his jaw tense, his lips rubbing against each other, calculating so Possibly our demise

Javier disappeared into the trees until I could only see his flashlight and the glow froo next but he only nudged Camden with the butt of his rifle that he always had out, nodding ahead

"I’ you," he said, his voice raspy like he’d blown out his vocal chords at some point in his life His eyes were dead, eht I’d feel some sort of ca, there was nothing Thisfor anyone, especially not Ca, he was here to watch us, to keep us in line

Carunted and walked ahead ofDerek behind us It made us feel more like ere prisoners, not cohorts

Even with flashlights in our hands, the jungle was a terrifying place We were lucky that the trees weren’t too close together and the ground underneath was dry, but the occasional root would still try and fuck you up, a branch soot you in the forehead Not topast s but it hadbehind his tall and wide fraine were in a jungle like this

We walked and walked and walked until I started feeling delirious fro as out there You could hear the occasional slice of Javier’sand Do farther and farther apart, especially Ca

"Want etting a piggyback ridesleepy, that was the proble way

I decided to pester Derek with questions instead, to keeponly his flashlight and asked, "So, Derek Where did you grow up?"

You know, like ere chatting at a café or so at first I could only hear the crunch of dirt and leaves below our feet Then he cleared his throat and in that raw voice of his, said, "Minnesota Small town"

"You must have been a hockey fan"

"Yeah," he said with surprise "Though who isn’t?"

"You’re built like you play hockey," I coet him to relax a little

"Built to fuck people up," he answered

"Well, that’s pretty , isn’t it?" I made sure he could hear the smile in my voice It didn’t work

"Hockey is child’s play," he said sternly

I ree in the dark, in the silence punctuated by wild anies of my spine

Then, Derek said, "Tell me about Gus The man you mentioned"

I wasn’t sure why he needed the infor in Maybe he felt bad and was trying to make conversation But I needed to talk about Gus To talk about hiot into the depths of the night, the oal seemed to be pointless I couldn’t let that happen

"Gus is like … a father to me" The realization thatful With my own father dead, Gus really was the only fa time, he’d always been around He was like … one of the few constants in my life"

"What did he do?"

"He worked for the LAPD as an officer Retired early Maybe he was discharged, he doesn’t really talk about it He started providing false identities to people who needed it"

"People like you Con artists"

"Yes How did you know?"

"I’ve read all your files"

I nearly stopped ininto asted and horrified

"You’ve read our files?"

"Even mine?" Camden asked from in front of me