Read Online Winter of the Passion Flower (The de Vargas Family) by Annie Seaton - Free Book Online

above, his head silhouetted by the soft moonlight.
“Damn it, answer me, woman. Can you hear me?”
    “I’m all right,” she called up to him. “I
didn’t realize we were so close to the plantation. This is one of our own
traps.”
    Crawling around on her hands and knees,
Indigo felt around for one of the ropes she knew was hidden in the pit. Seconds
later, she choked back another scream. Her hands encountered a skull, sightless
eyes staring up at her in the faint moonlight. Worms wound their way through
the sunken eye sockets. Breathing slowly and deeply, she moved away from it and
felt her way around the side of the pit, encountering more bones as she moved
to the edge.
    “You need to get me out of here quickly,
Captain.” she called, her voice shaking. “There should be ropes hidden in the
log we stepped over just before I fell. Hurry.”
    The sound of his footsteps and muttered
cursing drifted down to her and within minutes a rope snaked down the sides of
the long drop. Tying the rope securely around her waist, she called up to him
and Zane began to slowly pull her up. As she neared the edge of the pit, he
took the full weight of her body, and it must have thrown him off balance. She
began to slide back down as the rope slackened and she let loose with a string
of profanities. The rope tightened as Zane took up the slack and she bounced
against the side of the pit.
    “Fuck!”
    “Sorry.” Zane adjusted the rope to her
weight and she grabbed for handholds on the side of the pit as he pulled her to
the top. Soon her head and shoulders were above the edge of the pit and the
muscles in her calves burned as she braced her legs against the sides and
pushed with her toes as Zane pulled her up the last few feet.
    As she clambered over the edge of the drop
to the path, Zane tried to pull her close, but Indigo pushed him away. Backing
away from the edge, she sat on the ground and pulled her legs up, lowering her
head to her knees, trying to control the shaking of her limbs and fight the
nausea rising in her throat
     As she regained her composure, she
looked up at Zane who was hovering over her. “We are in danger, Captain. They
have found their way to the plantation.”
    “Can you hear something? How do you know?”
    “No, there are three bodies in the pit.”
     

Chapter 4
     
    Indigo and Zane sat silently on the log,
each lost in their own thoughts, until the first fingers of sunlight touched
the rainforest. Melodious birdsong contrasting with the rough barking of the
spider monkeys surrounded them as the light filtered through the dense canopy
above. Indigo moved across to the edge of the pit and looked down at the
skeletons below.
    “I am sure the bodies are evidence of a
failed attempt to breach the plantation, but we must remain on guard,” she warned.
“We have dug pits around each of the entry points. Make sure you follow me
closely when we go in.”
    Zane nodded. He’d barely said a word since
they’d left the boat and she wondered what he was thinking about. His touch had
been platonic as he’d checked her for injuries. She did not hurt anywhere, and
was confident she had suffered no ill effects from her fall. Indigo had sat
quietly as his warm strong hands traversed her body, biting down on her cheek
when her heartbeat picked up, warmth lingering where Zane touched her with
gentle fingers. Her body trembled and she knew it had more to do with his touch
than from the fall. The buzzing of mosquitoes interrupted her thoughts and she
leaned over to pull the netting down on Zane’s hat, covering his face and neck,
before doing the same to her own.
    “Jungle fever,” she explained moving back
from the edge of the pit. “We didn’t have time to take the preventative
pharmacological.”
    Within minutes the sun filtered through the
treetops, lighting up the rainforest around them. Indigo moved to the perimeter
of the trees and peered out through the dense foliage. All was still and the
lack of movement