Read Online Don't Look Back by Gregg Hurwitz - Free Book Online Page B

trailer had led to a free-for-all, villagers crowding the fissure, carrying off the abandoned grain in sacks and buckets they had brought. The scene whipped by, and then the ground rose again back to where it belonged. Pressing her face to the glass, Eve peered ahead, spotting a cluster of half-built shacks among the trees. Several of the workers were on break, napping on the dirt road, using bricks as pillows. Eve tensed as the van bore down on them. The tires passed within feet of them, but they didn’t so much as stir.
    Same hemisphere, different world.
    Neto jerked the wheel, and they bumped across a scalloped ditch, arms bracing, legs sprawling.
    “So much for napping on the way there!” Will called out.
    “Thank God, ” Jay muttered to Eve. “He snores.”
    “That must get annoying in a…” Here she always struggled. Boyfriend? Lover? Spouse? “… a partner.”
    Jay swiveled to her. “Partner? Partner? Wait a minute. Will? ” He looked like he might heave. “Gross.”
    “But I thought—”
    “Will is straight . Like rebuilds-engine-blocks straight. Like drinks-milk-from-the-carton straight. He’s such a guy. ” This last with mild disgust. “It’s Gay Jay. Not Gay Will. ”
    Eve checked ahead, but thankfully the others were too busy riding the turbulence to overhear anything from the rear. “I just figured—”
    “Straight people think any guy who’s friends with a gay dude must be a fag.” Jay thought about it, amused. “Actually, we think that, too. But no, Will’s my oldest friend. Friend. From elementary school. I just had a bad breakup—hel- lo ? my ringtone ?—and he said he’d go on a trip with me to keep me company.”
    The van crowded up behind a colectivo, a bus-truck combination with a curtain in place of a tailgate, all order of indígenos crammed inside and hanging off the sides like human saddlebags. Neto hit the brakes, and Jay reached out one massive arm to catch Eve before she pile-drived into the seat in front of them.
    “You haven’t noticed ?” Jay said.
    “What?” Eve said.
    “Man, you are clueless. The way he’s been looking at you.”
    “Okay, I—”
    “You sure you’re straight?”
    “Fairly.”
    They veered around the colectivo, Neto ticking a thank-you on the horn as they passed. With the movement Eve glided across the bench into Jay. He deposited her back on her side.
    “Look, I wondered if he was straight,” Eve said. “But, I mean, you guys are sharing a hut—”
    Feigned indignation seized Jay’s face. “Oh, so straight people and gay people can’t sleep in the same room?”
    “Yes,” Eve said, already starting to smile. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Straight people and gay people can’t sleep in the same room. Actually, they can, they just shouldn’t. You never know what could happen.”
    They rounded another bend, and Eve slid across again, this time turning and tucking in her knees to cannonball into him. They were laughing loudly enough now for Claire to shoot them a sour glance.
    The jungle crowded in on the road, the van slowing gradually until it was creeping along, boughs scraping the roof. At last Neto stopped at a seemingly random spot. They spilled out, stretching their necks, testing sore limbs.
    “Walk where I walk,” Neto commanded, shoving his way through a break in the foliage.
    They followed blindly, struggling through thick underbrush that had covered the remnants of a trail. Despite being the oldest, Harry and Sue made good time, staying up with Neto to soak in every last bit of tour-guide knowledge. Claire struggled to keep pace, Lulu waiting back with her. The jungle grew denser. Will offered his hand, helping Eve over a gnarled root. Jay slowed to give her a told-you-so look over Will’s shoulder.
    Ducking under a branch, Neto scared up a swirl of tiny bees from a hive. Everyone froze, and Sue stepped protectively in front of her allergic husband. The swarm swept past them and off into the shadows, their