Edge of Brotherhood (Love on the Edge Book 6) Read online

  I wonder if she’s deployed again?

  Something thick and hard caught the tip of my boot and sent me crashing to the moist jungle floor. “Fuck,” I hissed, the sharp intake of air brought with it the taste of vegetation and dew on my tongue.

  Focus, asshole. Tell memory lane to save it for when you’re not in one of the most dangerous places on earth. Getting my palms underneath me, I accidentally scraped a pile of stripped bark that clung to the bottom of the tree that had tripped me.

  “Wade. Freeze!” Easton’s tone was razor sharp, so close to a cop I had to resist the urge to drop my weapon. I was about to crack a joke about it when all the air was sucked from my lungs.

  A fucking giant Aragog-looking spider had slowly crept from underneath the bark I’d disturbed, and the asshole had the audacity to creep toward me. The thing was bigger than some rats I’d seen while living on location in NYC. Its black beady eyes were big enough to see into my soul, and all the blood in my body turned to ice.

  “Wade,” Easton whispered as he and everyone else had rooted themselves to the spot. From the view out of my peripherals it didn’t even look like they were breathing.

  “This thing is trying to steal my soul,” I whispered back, never once breaking eye contact with the spider. Sweat trickled down my back, and I had a hard fucking time not picturing the creature’s offspring crawling all over me to hand deliver me to their daddy. An icy chill raked my insides. Fuck that. I could hop up without him touching me. Then I’d stomp his ass. I’d barely shifted enough to breathe, and king of the arachnids drew back to stand on its hind fucking legs. What. In. Ungodly. Hell? It seemed to have tripled its already too big size. I froze again. But I kind of wanted to puke.

  “No movements,” Easton whispered again. No shit. “That’s a Brazilian Wandering Spider. It only attacks if disturbed, but its bite is poisonous. And they don’t stop biting once they’ve started.”

  “Thanks for the crystal-clear image,” I whisper-hissed back at him, resisting the urge to flip him off. “Pretty fucking sure I’m disturbing the shit out of him right now.”

  “Just be calm,” Easton ordered. “He should leave after he realizes you’re not threatening.”

  Should? Fuck me. Is this how I was going to die? On my stomach and in a staring competition with a spider? Damn it, this would never happen on set.

  Well, brother, if he bites enough maybe I’ll see you soon.

  A calm stole over me for the briefest of moments as I pictured how awesome it would be to talk to Chance again, to see him. To tell him I hadn’t meant a word of what I said before he’d been blown up.

  I was back to resisting adrenaline-inducing shivers when king spider decided to walk in all his macho glory toward me instead of away like Easton said he would. Damn this creature of the night had an attitude.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong here,” I whispered, barely moving my lips enough to speak. “I mean, I’m not an expert or anything, but dude looks like he’s flexing, not relaxing.” And the closer it got the more I wanted to piss myself. How was it I could crash through a brick wall going sixty on nothing but a crotch rocket and this piece of hulked-up insect had me shaking?

  Maybe because you have more chance of surviving the stunts than you do tangoing with this fellow?

  Likely.

  The thing crept closer. So did the bile crawling up my throat. I wondered how slow the poison would kill me? Long enough to make me pay for the anger I’d harbored for so long after my brother’s death? Hell, even before? Long enough to rid me of my guilt over Mackenzie? Her face filled my eyes again, and suddenly I wanted nothing more than to hold her, smell her skin, and brush her lips with my own.

  Damn. The near-death-experiences I had while doing stunts were quick enough to prevent life-flashing moments like these.

  Spider-king must have read that in my eyes because he sauntered forward, as if he was tired of playing the my dick is bigger than yours game.

  “Easton,” I hissed, flexing my hands to jump up. I would not go out like this because adventure man had told me to stand down.

  A fast, shiny something cut through the air, so quick I felt the breeze from its momentum whoosh by my face. I blinked, and king spider was pinned to the tree, a knife through his fat, hairy belly.

  Jumping up, I did what any man would do. The fucking heebie-jeebies dance. After a few spins, I was certain none of the demon’s offspring were on me and it was just my cold sweat tingling my skin. Sucking in a huge breath, the humid jungle air filled my lungs, itching them like I was in a sauna. I adjusted my pack and eyed Connell as he jerked the knife from the tree.

  He used the heel of his boot to scrape the body off, and it thumped audibly against the ground. Damn the thing was huge.

  “Um,” I said when Connell looked at me. “My hero?” I did a mock girl voice, but really it came out sounding more true than funny. Fuck, I wouldn’t live that one down.

  Connell wiped his knife off on his shirt and shrugged.

  “Do much knife throwing under the sea, Aquaman?” I asked, as the others finally dropped their frozen positions.

  He sheathed the knife in a holster on his hip and shrugged. “You’d be surprised how many uses there are for a good diving knife.”

  I smacked his shoulder, thankful he’d taken the time to dig that thing out of his checked bag at the airport before getting on the helicopter. I shifted my pack around and dug out the much smaller, simpler knife Easton had slipped in each of our survival bags. Holding the blade up, I smirked. “I’ll get the next poisonous demon from hell. Cool?”

  Connell cracked what I was quickly learning was his smile, which was closer to a small upward movement of his lips before returning to their normal straight-lined position. He reminded me of my brother. And the joke I’d cracked barely walled off the pain I’d let in when I thought I was a spider snack.

  “Good to press on?” Rain asked, pushing past Easton and Dash to check on me.

  “Totally.” I shrugged like what had happened was no big deal. “You know I had to hang suspended above a vat of live snakes on a set once.”

  She huffed. “Garter snakes?”

  I feigned pain, grabbing at my chest. “Snakes are snakes.”

  A shudder ran through her. “Hate the bastards,” she said. “But trust me. The ones out here are usually poisonous, too, and sometimes it isn’t a bite that will kill you. It’s the retreat in an attempt to get away from it.”

  Easton flinched behind her, as if the words triggered the same memory I had pop in my head. Though I’d watched that episode from the comfort of my own leather chair in my loft back in L.A., Easton had lived it second for second on a mountain in Israel. If he hadn’t been holding on to the rope attached to Rain when she’d fallen off the ledge in her effort to dodge a massive snake’s bite, she wouldn’t be here right now.

  “Let’s roll out,” Easton said, his tone back to the firm, authoritative leader he was. “There is a half mile of jungle to get through before we reach the site where it’s clear enough and much safer to set up camp.”

  I nodded at Rain before she hurried to her spot right behind him. Clapping Connell on the shoulder once again, I gave him another silent thank-you. He shrugged like it wasn’t necessary, and I was happy to have formed some kind of silent bond with someone on this trip. We already had each other’s back, which was good since this was hour one in the jungle and it had already tried to kill me.

  I wonder if anyone would tell Mackenzie if I died out here?

  Shaking off the thought, knowing no one who knew me today would have a reason to think there was anyone from my past worth informing of my death, I pressed on. Unwelcome thoughts of the past love of my life, and my lost brother, were what led to my near death in the first place. I needed to stay focused and sharp if I wanted to hack it with this crew. I knew that much, so I did my best to keep on Connell’s heels, who kept on Dash’s, who kept on Rain’s, who kept on Easton’s.

  Somehow, this ban
d of people had an even higher set of adrenaline-seeking behavior than I did, and I was sure as hell ready to not only keep up with them but hack it right alongside them, too.

  I’d made up the E.D.G.E name goofing off at the studio, but the farther we got in the jungle, the more I realized how true the name rang. The spider king would make one hell of a clip back home, and we’d just begun. While I didn’t wish for more dangers like that to happen to anyone on the team, I knew it wasn’t farfetched to prepare for it happening again. And if we worked together—like Connell and I already were—then it would be one hell of a show.

  I hoped we’d all live to watch it come together back home.

  If you do, you have to call Mackenzie.

  Shut up.

  Right. You should go see her.

  I don’t even know where she is stationed. She’s probably on another tour overseas.

  Pussy.

  The battle with myself wasn’t the first one I’d had, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last. It happened every time I came too close to dying, like that time a wire had snapped on my harness and I’d nearly broken my back on the studio floor from a fifty-foot drop. I’d been in the hospital for three days and those days were filled with me passing the time dialing the last number I had for Mackenzie but never hitting call.

  Like I said, pussy.

  Fuck off.

  If she wanted to talk to me, she would’ve by now. I didn’t even know who she was anymore.

  Keep telling yourself that.

  I will.

  Sticking close to Connell, I tried to step where he stepped, not wanting another repeat of earlier when Mackenzie had invaded my thoughts. Looking up the line, we were all pretty much in sync with the other. The giant trees hugged closely together the deeper we ventured into the jungle, their vines twisting and reaching through the air and on the ground like tendons capable of ensnarement. I was glad we were all honed in on each other’s movements because I didn’t want to become anything’s food—plant or insect or animal alike. Maybe something about being in a place so dangerous gave our new team a crash course in bonding. Maybe with the stakes so high, we were able to trust each other that much faster.

  Or maybe you’ve been on your own for way too long and have been craving family more than you even realized.

  I told you to fuck off.

  Damn, I could be such a dick sometimes.

  SUCKING IN AIR felt like trying to breathe around a soaking wet rag. Where I wished it was replenishing, it was more like a sponge draining the life force out of my body, squeezing more sweat out of me than I could replace. It had been a few months since my last visit here, and while I was much more accustomed to the rainforest and its elements than my new crew, there was no getting comfortable here.

  There had been plenty of expeditions Rain and I had carried out where we got to relax after the sun set and there was no more energy left to work. Cool nights and easy terrain that allowed us to enjoy a meal cooked over campfire while swapping stories.

  We would cook our meals over a campfire here, but I doubt any of us would ever exactly be happy. The jungle had its own unique way of leeching every ounce of energy you had and at the same time demanding you stay alert for longer periods of time than humanly possible. Hell, I’d been here more times than I could count, had a good standing with some of the local tribes that peppered the areas around my site, and I still couldn’t put a name to all the dangers that lurked around every inch of the place.

  At least it was beautiful. There was that. Numerous shades of green coated the massive amount of thick, ancient trees with low-slung vines that stretched so far there was no way to know where the end tangled into a new beginning. Pops of color—vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows—would sporadically pierce through the dense greenery, but many were poisonous plants that local tribes used to coat their arrows and spears in order to ensure a kill on a hunt or in a battle. To me, the rainforest reminded me time and again how deadly even the most gorgeous of settings could be.

  I sliced down a thick, fanning leafy plant in the middle of my path and my arm ached from swinging the machete so many times. My heart thudded strong and fierce in my chest, pushing me to keep moving and adjust to the surroundings as quickly as possible. The labored breathing of my team behind me was a comfort, letting me know they were keeping up without me having to continue glancing back. We were so close and I didn’t want to waste one precious second of time. Ever since I laid eyes on what I was sure was the lost city, an incurable urge to get back here had plagued me. Night and day, it was all I thought about. Well, unless you counted the delicious way Rain would distract me. There was nothing that could hold my attention when Rain held possession over it. She was stronger than the breath in my lungs, the fire in my blood, and the drive I had to get back here.

  I watched my footing as I carefully climbed over a slew of moss-covered rocks, thick vines coiling around them like snakes. The rocks were a mental marker. I knew we were close and I couldn’t stop the grin shaping my lips. I slowed my pace as we approached the area where I knew from memory concealed the lost city. When I was inches away from what looked like an even thicker expanse of trees, vines, bushes, and earth—all tangled in a way someone not on a mission could easily mistake for a dead end—I stopped.

  “You all right?” Dash called from the line behind me.

  Rain touched my shoulder, her eyes lighting up as they caught mine. “Is this it?” She motioned toward the woven vines and leaves before us. Of course I had told her—numerous times—the details of my last visit. She probably could’ve led the team here herself she knew the story so well.

  I cupped her cheeks, slanting my mouth over hers quickly and with a fierceness I normally wouldn’t use in front of three other guys. But I was about to show my wife—the love of my life—the greatest find of our careers.

  “Get a . . .” Wade glanced around him. “Tree?” He snorted. “You know, ’cause there are no rooms out here?”

  Pulling away from Rain, relishing the addition of pink in her skin that I’d put there, I glanced at the guys. Dash and Connell had their backs to us, but Wade was casually staring at us with his eyebrows raised and a shit-eating grin on his face. “Too bad you couldn’t have packed a beautiful woman for all of us, huh?” he joked, and I let it slide. There was never anything sinister behind his jokes.

  “Thanks,” Rain said, taking the compliment nicely.

  “This,” I said, my breath catching as the anticipation built in my chest. “Is the lost city.” I turned, slipped my arm through the vines, and pulled myself through, tugging Rain along with me after some effort. For a few seconds, nothing but hunter green and the crisp scent of wet earth enveloped us. Then the color cleared as we escaped the vines.

  I stepped a few feet to the left, to give the rest of them enough space to enter, watching as they struggled with their packs getting caught in the foliage. A good amount of brute strength freed them, and then we were all standing on the bank of the lake, with enough earth between us and the dark water to set up a decent camp.

  Rain gasped, clutching my hand.

  “Holy hell.” Dash dropped his pack by his side.

  “Fuck me.” Connell secured his black hair behind his head with a tie.

  “I thought it’d be bigger,” Wade said, wiping sweat from his brow with his forearm. I snapped my head to him, incredulous. He quickly held his hands up in defense before dropping them to his hips. “Kidding. It looks like something out of a movie. A well-funded movie with the best masons and graphic designers money can buy.”

  The angry air left my lungs and I had to laugh. This dude would keep us on our toes for sure, and he was growing on me. After the helicopter stunt I figured he’d always be on my good side, but if he poked fun at my site too much I might let him get lost in a chamber. I shook my head, returning my gaze to the beautiful structure sticking out of the water.

  “No movie could match this,” I said.

  The stone was corroded and t
he color—which I imagined as gold—had long been leeched from the pores, but the ornate way in which it was built and carved was mostly intact. In an almost pyramid-like shape, stairs zigzagged upward to the top of the structure that rested a good one hundred feet above the surface of the water. On either side of the massive stone stairs were pillars and walkways and balconies, all connecting to provide one intricate building that had once been a central hub for an ancient civilization.

  What I assumed were Incan carvings decorated each layer of stone. Some were faded, while others were so deep and clear we could see them from where we stood on the bank. The water had claimed much of the structure, so the lake was met with what I guessed was only a fourth of the span of it.

  “It looks like it was carved right out of this mountain,” Dash said, pointing above it and then to the distance where we could see the green mountain that hugged the lost city.

  “How deep do you think it is?” Connell asked as he kneeled on the bank and touched the water.

  “I’m sure there is a good two hundred feet we can’t see,” I said, pointing to the stairs. “This would’ve been the uppermost level.” I drew my finger down toward the water. “I don’t know how much is intact below, but it will get wider the deeper it goes.”

  “Like the pyramids?” Wade asked.

  “Similar. As you can see, the Incans had a little more flare in their designs, though.” I couldn’t stop grinning. We made it. I was here with the crew I needed to prove to the world that this was the lost city of Paititi, and hopefully reap the benefits from the artifacts found inside.

  I had plans for a majority of the gold we found. Small portions would go to museums. The rest would get put back into the tribes and communities of Peru. As far as I could stretch it. Since, in my experience, myths and legends were closer to the mark than we ever imagined, I was banking on there being so many precious items in this place we’d have to call in more helicopters to get all of it out.