An exciting, frightening mystery of brutal intrigue and exotic jungle madness, a kidnapping involving disturbing characters and unusual scary episodes. A sexy Vietnam vet, now a law enforcement vigilante, sometimes crosses the line and is now running from the Mexican law. He is desperate to get out of the country anyway he can. An orange voltzwagon Rabbit, with a lone passenger in the driver's seat l is stopped for a red light. He takes the opportunity to jump into the front passenger seat, while the beautiful school teacher, Lora Harding, who is on vacation in Cancun, is forced, by gunpoint to drive him wherever he wants to go. Scared out of her wits, she tries to keep from trembling uncontrollably and get her self under control so she can follow his directions, which are difficult to understand as his voice is deep and harsh. He forces her to be quiet and keep her eyes straight ahead on the road and keep driving within the speed limit. On and on and on they ride without stopping to eat or rest. Whenever she stops at a stop sign, she scrambles to try to escape and run, but is always unsuccessful as he tells her if she tries it again, she is a dead woman. H e is strong and frightening. It is scary as he bullies her into doing the driving, to keep her trap shut and keep going forward. There is little conversation. He only speaks to give orders gruffly, rudely, with little expression, making it difficult for her to guess what he is thinking or plotting. She is tense and trembling not knowing what to think of him and becomes more frightened the farther she leaves any civilization. It is starting to rain and getting difficult to see the road as the fog rolls. The roads are muddy, the woodland growing denser with each mile, becoming more destitute. The wheels begin to spin and become stuck in the muddy trenches. He forces her to get out of the car. It wasn't but a few seconds before they were drenched from the pounding rain. He grabbed her sleeve and pushed her forward, saying they would walk from here. They trudge along, slipping and sliding on foot. He mumbled to himself seeming to try to remember what lie ahead. Mumbling, he told her there was a small inn ahead he sometimes used. It was humble but rented rooms by the night with food. Horrified to think of stopping with her kidnapper made her tremble more wondering what he had in mind for her. She prayed silently, hoping for the best that he would be civil and kind.
Ahead was a dim light, flickering in the wind. He turned to her saying, you can call me Max.The shed door opened and and the proprietor met them at the door. Max introduced Lora as his wife so a s not to raise eyebrows. They were ordered to come in and offered sleeping quarters in the loft high above. There was no bath or running water, or electricity. They were given a weak flashlight to light their way up the tall wooden ladder leading to the loft. When they reached the top, they were to drop the flashlight back down. Lora was grateful the loft seemed warm enough with the fireplace heat radiating from below. There was only one large bed an a small bunch of blankets or toweling piled in a corner. It was difficult to see all over.
He told her to watch where she stepped as there were loose boards about. He tells her to get out of her wet clothes or they would catch cold ....all of them off. He took off all his clothes without batting an eye. She tried not to stare as he watched for her reaction. He yawned and stretched saying how good it felt to shed his wet clothes. She is nervous thinking he may rape her. He frowns,
ordering her to disrobe. She takes off the top layer. He grumbles roughly, all of them ... off! She hesitates and wonders what she could cover with. He makes no attempt to hide his enjoyment watching her take her clothes off. He looks her over but makes no attempt to touch her. She is surprised his behavior is much better than she expected. He spread their clothes out to dry warmest
places he could find. Wanting to keep her fearful of him so he bullied her and tied her to the bed to prevent her from trying to run away. She feels violated and ashamed and pleads with him not to tie her to the bed, that she may have to use the outhouse. If that time comes, we'll handle it. Relax! When their Mexican tacos and beans were bought to the loft, Lora was so starved, she began to salivate as she watched him devour his plate. He grinned at her, smacking his lips saying how good it tasted and to her great disappointment, she watched as he took her plate and scarfed down her plate as well, enjoying tormenting her. She tried to hide the tears welling in her eyes. He was given a jar of ... water with some sort of liquor mixed in it and regretfully allowed her a sip.
It is a long restless night, having to share an uncomfortable mattress with him and with her tied uncomfortably so she couldn't move or change positions all night. Waking exhausted, they headed out early, plowing through the mud, digging out the car, then traveling over rough country lanes cutting through thick jungle shrubs and sharp picky grasses trying to locate an acquaintance of Maxes who lived on the edge and was involved in various rackets, including drug and gun running to name a few. He was well known in the area and yielded great power. Max figures if anyone could help him out of the mess he was in, it would be Ortega and his henchmen.
Max informs Ortega that he is running from the law and needs help to get him out of Mexico and back to the US. He asks Ortega for help, who. sends DiAngelo and Miili with Max to help. They catch a flight from Ortega's flight deck set up by Ortega, and get
Off and well on their way when the plane runs out of gas in the mountainous jungle. The pilot sets the plane down with much turbulence and damage to the plane. Fortunately.most of the passengers survived with minor cuts and bruises, except for Max's best buddy he called, Swordfish. max set his leg the best he could with what little medical supplies he could find and made splints out of .wood he found and braced the splints with rope he found on board. While snooping around after the crash, Max found a large stash of volume of drugs of great value that severely intimidates Max who knows he cannot be associated with this unlawful cargo., feeling his friend, Orteiga is taking advantage of Max and his friends to use as a cover for Ortega with the authorities. His good Vietnam buddy, Swordfish, who was injured the most in the crash and now on bed rest Is helping clean all the oysters and fish his friends collect for their food . Everything was going quite smoothly following the crash. they just had to patiently wait to be rescued, hoping Ortega knew of the plane crash, but they knew how difficult it would be to discover them in this thick dangerous jungle..
Max and those he could trust found a place to hide the drugs and planned to turn the drugs over to the authorities after they were rescued. By now, Lora and Max had spent much time together and discovered a great affection growing between them. By the time they were rescued, they knew their love was real. Lora was ready to give up everything for him, but Max had a little difficulty giving up his freedom, following a very messy divorce that left him frightened to get into another relationship that stymied his freedom. now that he was back in the US, he was contented to just feel free as a breeze for the time being. when Max and Lora landed in NYC, they spent a couple of days enjoying the good life, Lora was thinking yhat Max was feeling as she was and that they would be a couple from now on. but when Lora woke the morning they were to go home, she found herself alone. max had left her alone.
Loran as devestated and it took her much time to heal and adjust to the fact that she and Max would not be together as planned. One day Lora received a package in the mail. It was a large amount of money, her share of the drug stash they turned over to the police. She did not want what she thought of as dirty money and researched and found where Max was living , wanting to return the money. she found him and after much to-Dom they strsightened things out between them. max told Lora he had made a huge mistake by leave NGO without her but was too macho to admit it and was so happy Lora found him. and that was a great ending to a great story. As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed this book.
Karen Robards can really tell an amazing story. Well-written!
Carole Beighey's
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Top reviews from other countries
Suzanne Whyke
... characters once established were very strong and I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end lots of story and Max ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2015Jody
Another great from Karen Robards
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2016