“She’s prettier too,” Drake teased.

“Well, you don’t need to be looking.”

Kim and Tama sank down onto the floor beside the chair, pushing the blanket from Rachael’s leg to examine the wounds up close. Rachael could see the terrible marks crisscrossing Kim’s back. “It makes me sick to know they did that because of me. I know you don’t think it’s my fault, but it feels that way.”

Kim smiled up at her. “All of us have things we are responsible for. There is little value in taking on what you can’t control. Let it go.”

Rachael wished it was that easy. She looked away from him to stare out the window into the wild green foliage. The leaves appeared feathery, the creepers wild and twisted green ropes while orchids vied with brilliantly colored fungi for space among the other flowers growing on the thick tree trunks and branches. It was beautiful and primitive and called to something inside of her. She longed to disappear into the deepest forest, simply become something else, something untouchable and wild and free.

She felt it first in her chest, a tightness making it nearly impossible to breathe. Then it was a fire in her stomach, muscles contracting and stretching. Heat seared her flesh, her bones, sizzled in every organ.

She itched, a wave of it rushing over her so that she looked down and saw something move beneath her skin as if alive. Her hands curled involuntarily, fingers curving, and her fingertips ached and stung. She gasped and drew back from the edge of a great precipice, her heart pounding in her chest and her lungs fighting for air.

“I can’t breathe, Rio.” It took forever to get the words out. “I need to be outside where I can breathe.”

Rio didn’t ask questions or waste time on arguing, but lifted her immediately against his chest, rising with her as if she were a mere child instead of a fully grown woman in his arms. He stepped carefully around Kim and Tama and the pot of brown-green paste. Rachael caught a glimpse of Drake’s face, his eyes wide and shocked with a knowledge she didn’t possess before he managed to wipe the expression from his face.

Rachael buried her face in Rio’s neck, inhaling his comforting scent, giving herself up to the strength in his arms.

“You’re all right, Rachael,” Rio soothed, one hand stroking her hair as he sat on the small sofa on the verandah. “Listen to the forest, to the monkeys and birds. They make life seem in balance again. Listen to the rain. It has a soothing harmony.”

“What’s happening to me? Do you know what happened? I swear I saw something moving beneath my skin, like a parasite or something.” The humidity created the illusion of a sauna. The sound of the rain was dulled and muted by the heavy canopy overhead. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps, as if she’d run a long race. Her wounded leg was throbbing and burning, her pulse pounding there in a frantic rhythm. “I don’t have panic attacks, I don’t. I’m not hysterical, Rio.”

“I know, Rachael. No one thinks you’re hysterical. Just stay calm and when we’re alone, we’ll talk about this.” His heart was pounding as frantically as hers. The possibilities were incredible, almost unbelievable to him. He wanted time to think about it, to do a little research before he provided answers. “Just one thing, Rachael. Have you ever heard the words Han Vol Dan before? Did your mother ever say those words to you or mention them in her stories?” He held his breath, waiting for her answer, feeling as if his world teetered on the edge of an abyss.

Rachael turned the words over in her mind. They weren’t entirely unfamiliar, but she had no idea what they meant and she was fairly certain her mother had never included them in her wild rain forest adventures of the leopard people. “I don’t know. My mother never said those words to me, but…” she trailed off in confusion.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said.

“What does that mean? Han Vol Dan? The words flow like music.”

“It’s all right, don’t think about it right now,” Rio reiterated. “I hope you really aren’t blaming yourself for what happened to Kim. I’ve been rescuing kidnap victims for some time all along this river and in three countr ies. My unit is hired to go in and bring victims out. Sometimes the government contacts us because it’s a politically sensitive situation and other times it’s the family asking us to get them out.

And still other times we deliver the ransom and make certain nothing goes wrong so we can return the victim to his home. In nearly every incident where Tomas and his group are involved, the victims have suffered beatings. He’s one of the bloodiest of the bandit leaders. Most consider themselves businessmen. If the money is paid, they deliver the people they’ve taken in good health.”

Rachael shook her head. “It’s just a way of life to them? Kidnapping people? How do their families feel about what they do?”

“Most likely they’re grateful for the money coming in. Some do it for political reasons, and those situations are much more explosive and much more dangerous to my team. And anytime we’re going after someone Tomas has kidnapped, we know it’s dangerous both to them and to us. Tomas has killed hostages even after the ransom’s been paid. His word means nothing at all, to him or to anyone else.”

“Have you met him?”

He nodded. “A few times. He’s crazy and a bit drunk on his own power. He’s been known to kill his own men for a perceived slight. He’s death on women. I think he likes to hurt people.”