The Secret Path by Karen Swan (summer beach reads TXT) 📕

sheer simplicity. One problem, one man; one cheque, one decade, one solution.

She had to get back to Puerto Viejo as soon as possible. She would walk faster, she had been walking through the pain for days now anyway. Summoning an energy she didn’t know she had, she broke into a run, closing the gap between herself and William.

‘William, how much further? We’ve got to get there tonight,’ she panted, catching up with him.

He didn’t turn. ‘No.’

‘We have to. You don’t understand, I have to be back for tonight. We’re flying up to the Lodge for the handover. My parents are arriving today and I can’t not be there.’

‘It is not possible.’

‘But—’ She frowned. How could it not be possible? It was a two-day hike to Alto Uren from the foothills of Puerto Viejo. Jed had told her that, and she and Alex had managed it in a slightly shorter time thanks to the microlight. She and William had already been travelling for almost two full days too. Surely they should have arrived by now?

‘Look, I’m sorry if it’s a push.’ She gave a tight smile. ‘I’ve lost track of time the last few days and been distracted, but there’s no way I can’t be there. We have to keep going, even after sundown if necessary.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s not like we didn’t start in the dark. We can finish in the dark too. I don’t mind.’

‘It cannot be done.’

She stared at him, confused about why he was being so . . . obstructive. He seemed like a different man here to the one she’d met in camp. He hadn’t smiled since they had started the walk; there was no trace of the easy-going, jokey manner he’d had when she’d arrived with Alex. She had put it down to him concentrating on navigating. Even for someone with his bank of knowledge, the jungle was still a place fraught with danger; he had to concentrate.

Then it occurred to her. His was a bartering community; she had to haggle.

‘Ah. You want more money.’ She shrugged. ‘Okay, that’s fine, I can pay more.’ She had thought the sum she had offered him to get her off this mountain and back to the beach had been more than generous; although frankly she couldn’t imagine what use he would have for her money full stop. The village was entirely self-sufficient.

‘No.’

He turned and began walking away again.

‘William!’ she barked to his back. She ran again, getting ahead of him this time. ‘I’m sorry if I haven’t made myself clear but this isn’t negotiable. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you I need to get back to Puerto Viejo tonight.’

‘And I have said it cannot be done. Puerto Viejo is four days from here.’

‘Four . . .?’ Her voice trailed off as she looked around them with a new alertness, a dawning panic beginning to creep through her bones. She had trusted him solely on the basis that Alex did too, blindly assumed he would help her simply because she had asked (and paid) for it. But now she saw the situation clearly. For the past two days, she had put her faith in a complete stranger, a man whose manner, now she reconsidered it, was more than diffident – it was quietly hostile.

She took a step back, feeling her entire body go cold. ‘Oh my God, where are we?’ she whispered. ‘William? What’s going on?’

‘They’ve fucking kidnapped her!’ Miles gripped his hair with his hands as he began pacing the length of the beach bar.

‘We don’t know that for sure,’ Holly said, trying and failing to keep him calm.

‘What? You think it’s just a coincidence that she’s disappeared in the jungle the day before the world’s press gathers to witness Dad’s grand gesture?’

Holly swallowed. ‘We—’

‘Jed got jumped!’ His arm swung towards the man sitting – at Holly’s insistence – oversized on the small stool. ‘How do you know that wasn’t a failed attempt to grab her? For all we know, it was her they were after, not him!’

‘To be honest, that’s what I thought too,’ Alex agreed. He looked over at Rory. ‘And it’s partly why I didn’t tell you she was with me. You’d identified her as heading for Alto Uren. If the guys who jumped Jed had been listening in on those channels . . .’

But Rory’s eyes narrowed. ‘Partly?’ he asked pointedly.

Holly saw the tension billow between the two men again, and Miles was no better. He kept glowering at the guy who had destroyed his sister’s life – he had been shaping up to punch Alex himself when he’d been blindsided by the news that his sister was missing.

‘No. They were after me,’ Jed said quietly, sitting on the stool. He was still weak and Holly was keeping a close eye on him. He was constantly pushing his luck, doing too much too soon. He ought to have gone straight to San José on Monday, as Tara had tried to arrange, but no one had been able to get him out of the ambulance – the suggestion of not getting home to his wife had raised his blood pressure to a degree that was more worrisome than the head injury. To placate him, they’d been forced to divert to the local hospital instead. It had been sheer luck that it was just a bad concussion after all. His arm had been set in plaster, the shoulder checked, and he’d been home again that same night. ‘I know the guy who jumped me. He’s a rancher who’s been giving us lots of trouble.’ Jed glanced at Alex, his hands fiddling nervously with the damp muslin-wrapped parcel Alex had handed over to him when he’d arrived at the bar. ‘Miguel D’Arrosto’s henchman.’

Alex gave a nod that suggested he knew exactly the man.

‘A rancher,’ Miles echoed, planting his hands on his hips. ‘And why should a rancher be giving you trouble, Jed? Is it personal? Do you owe him money? Did you sleep with his wife?’ Jed’s head jerked up, his eyes glowering in a flash.