Page 20 of Keeping Amanda
“Well, you’re doing a good job of it. I like your positive attitude. And most people wouldn’t give some of their precious food to a stray dog if they were in your situation.”
Amanda shrugged. “He needed it more than I did. A few olives isn’t going to make much of a difference to me, but it could mean the world to that dog. Give him just enough energy to get back to wherever he belongs. To outrun something bigger and stronger that wants to eat him. I don’t know. I just believe in good deeds coming back tenfold. Besides, did you see his eyes? How in the world could I resist?”
“Why do you think I gave you my beans?” Nash asked, smiling. “And I swear if that dog could talk and asked me to open all the cans and let him eat them all, I would’ve agreed without hesitation.”
Amanda grinned. She liked this man. True, she hadn’t known him long and it was possible he was very different when he wasn’t in a crisis situation. But she couldn’t deny she was attracted to the man he was right now.
Though, this wasn’t the time or place to haveanykind of feelings toward Nash. He was doing a job—a job he wouldn’t even have to be doing if it wasn’t for her rash decision to go look for James instead of making sure he was really missing.
She couldn’t change the past. She’d learned that over the years. All she could do was keep going forward. One step at a time…even if each step was extremely painful and lonely.
Taking a deep breath, she watched as Nash shrugged on the backpack with their meager supplies. Then she reached out and grabbed hold of a strap before they once again started their trek through the jungle.
CHAPTER SIX
“Why’d you come to Guyana?” Buck asked Mandy a couple of hours later. The rain really started coming down not too long after they’d set out, and his clothes were soaked, as were Mandy’s. They weren’t moving too fast, since the undergrowth in the jungle was thick, and he wasn’t about to attempt using any of the trails or the occasional road they came across. Not only that, but it was now fully dark. The flashlight he’d taken from the rebel camp didn’t do much to penetrate the blackness. Which was good, as he didn’t want to be a beacon for anyone who might be looking for them, but it made getting anywhere quickly difficult.
He’d already made the decision that they were going to need to transition to walking during the daytime after tonight. They should be far enough away from the camp that it would be safe. It was too dangerous to continue walking in the dark. He preferred nighttime himself; it was what he was used to, since most of the Night Stalker missions were done under the cover of darkness. But it was one thing to operate at night from behind the controls of his MH-60, with night-vision, radar, and all the other fancy technology to help him see in the dark.
It was another thing altogether to be trudging through the jungle with a civilian who’d already been a captive for over two weeks, with a stolen flashlight whose batteries could go dead at any moment. Not to mention there were critters that came out at night that could kill either of them with one bite faster than a terrorist with an RPG.
Mandy hadn’t complained. Not once. And he appreciated that, but it also worried him. She hadn’t said much in the last hour at all, and he was concerned that she was once again hiding how she was feeling from him. He suspected this woman would pass out from exhaustion before making one peep of complaint.
She was hanging on to one of the straps of the backpack to make sure she didn’t get separated from him. A few times, when he’d stopped abruptly, she’d run right into him, apologizing profusely afterward even though it definitely wasn’t her fault.
Buck wanted nothing more than to stop, but a sixth sense told him that they weren’t far enough away yet. That they needed to keep walking, just in case. He didn’t feel as if there were any rebels in the immediate vicinity, so they didn’t need to stay silent, just vigilant.
And that was why he’d asked Mandy the question about why she’d come to Guyana. He was curious about her, and he had a feeling a lot of Americans wouldn’t have the slightest idea where the country was in the first place.
“Mandy?” he asked, when she didn’t respond. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw she was walking with her eyes closed. It wasn’t as if she could see much with her eyes open anyway, but the trust she was giving him was almost overwhelming. Buck was going to try even harder not to let her down.
“Are you asleep?” he asked with a small chuckle.
“Shhhh,” she said with a smile, not opening her eyes. “I’m pretending I’m on the beach, taking a pleasurable stroll that will end at my hotel room, where I’ll get into a huge Jacuzzi tub after eating the enormous meal I ordered from room service.”
Now Buck found himself smiling. “With a huge cup of coffee.”
“And a piece of peanut butter chocolate pie.”
“Buttered garlic bread.”
“A medium-rare steak.”
Buck’s smile widened. As much as talking about food was making his stomach hurt, it was also kind of fun. “So…Guyana?” he asked, still wanting to hear the answer to his question.
She sighed, and when he looked again, he saw her eyes were now open.
“After work one day—a very tough day, during which I’d been spit on, got my ass chewed by a parent for something I had nothing to do with, and was reprimanded by my principal—I was at home, doom scrolling on social media, when a video caught my attention. At first I rolled my eyes, because it reminded me of those ads for the humane society that showed all these animals in deplorable conditions—you know the ones…where puppies are shivering in the snow while the narrator talks about how for just thirty-two cents a day, you too can help save an abused and neglected animal? Anyway, the longer I watched, the more intrigued I got.
“I clicked on the website and saw more pictures. Not of sad-looking children sitting in the dirt looking pathetic…but happy children, running around and smiling. They weren’t playing with electronics, weren’t dressed in expensive clothing…most weren’t even wearing shoes. But they seemed content. Unlike my students, who just seemed annoyed most days because they had to put their phones away in class.
“I researched as much as I could, then contacted Blair. She seemed excited that I was interested in joining them. She explained that their little school-slash-orphanage wasn’t sponsored by the government, so they only got by with private donations. She further explained that if I came down, I’d be avolunteer, so she warned me that I needed to make sure I could afford it.”
“I didn’t think teachers made a ton of money,” Buck said, not wanting to be rude, but genuinely curious.
“They don’t,” Mandy said. “But my parents were killed in a car accident when I was seventeen. A drunk driver hit them going seventy miles an hour on the interstate. There was a lawsuit, and an online fundraiser for their only child…me. I used some of the money for college but saved the rest, and it had just been collecting interest ever since. I had enough to quit my job back in Norfolk and do something new and exciting. It wasn’t going to be my new forever, I just desperately needed a change.”
“This is a change, all right,” Buck said dryly.
