Free Jungle Inferno by Desiree Holt

and the pain nearly made him pass out. One of the men had put a crude bandage on it but Mark was sure infection was setting in.
    He waited, sweating, until the worst of the pain subsided, forcing himself to breathe evenly. They could kill him but he’d never give them the satisfaction of beating him.

    “ Hola, Capitan . You do not look so chipper today.” I’ll chipper you, you asshole. Just give me one of those wicked knives and five minutes and you’ll be filleted cleaner than a fish .
    But he held his tongue. He knew his silence disturbed them and to reply would mean he’d give them an edge. It frustrated them because they got no sound from him except for the screams he couldn’t hold back. He still hadn’t figured out why they kept him alive. He’d given them no information, answered none of their questions, yet still they gave him enough food to keep him alive while they tortured him for sport.
    He knew the arms dealer was still hanging around. That wasn’t usual for him. His habit was to show up where and when he needed to only long enough to transact business, then leave. Certainly this rough jungle camp was far from his normal fastidious surroundings. Mark had seen pictures of the man’s home in the Caymans. A virtual palace, built with blood money. But he wanted the leak plugged so it didn’t come back to haunt him again.
    Escobedo took a thin cigarillo from the pocket of his shirt and lit it. Smoke curled in a thin spiral up past his dark-complected face with its high cheekbones, past the deep-set black eyes and the thick head of black hair, touched at the edges with grey. To Mark he looked like a well-heeled businessman on a jungle vacation but he knew the man was a vicious, cunning animal.
    El Serpiente , they called him. The snake.
    “Our… guest …would like to be on his way. But he must be assured no one in your government has information about him they shouldn’t. The question of how you knew about the meeting to begin with must be answered. We cannot afford to have this situation disrupted.”
    He wants to make sure anyone who knows about this group can be silenced. And that his movements remain secret. Well, they can kill me before I tell them anything. God, just help me to last.
    “You’re being very foolish holding out this way. You know we’ll get the information out of you eventually. It’s imperative we find out who knows about us before we can move forward with our plans. You could die a much less painful death if you’d just be sensible.”
    Mark wanted to spit in Escobedo’s face but he controlled himself. He had to buy as much time as he could. Antagonizing the man further wasn’t the way to do it.
    “Still nothing to say?” Escobedo nudged the leg again, a little more viciously and his mouth turned up in a malevolent smile. “But you speak in your mind, do you not?
    A little secret you thought to hide from us.”
    Mark tried to control the anger he felt. Their man had obviously caught the psychic waves when Mark and Faith exchanged messages and been doing his best to interfere.
    Someone had told them about it but who? That was classified information that very few people were even aware of. But these people would have had to be aware of it for their man to concentrate on intercepting him.

    God, he could certainly use Chase Wohlmann now, the poor bastard.
    “Felix tells me you have the same ability he does. Somehow he knew when he laid eyes on you that you were a telepath and he’s been listening for your messages.” A name to go with the man attacking his mind. He tucked it away in his brain, knowing that putting a name to the person could make them more vulnerable. He would have to study Felix every chance he had, try to figure out how to get around the mental roadblocks the man kept setting up. Try to remember how Chase constructed the shields. He’d been training for it but they’d only just begun their work.
    “Unfortunately we only have incomplete fragments of