Orinoco

Little Tears of the Heart

Excerpt from "Orinoco."

The car swayed dangerously, rumbling along the potholed country road, snaking along the Orinoco River, deep in Venezuela.

Curled up in the backseat, Nick Newman was lying handcuffed and beaten, in his dirty jeans and once-white T-shirt, barely conscious, with a metallic taste on his lips. 

The driver's dark eyes occasionally glanced back at Nick before returning to the challenging road ahead.  

Excerpt from "Orinoco."

At Lee Ann's sudden outburst, Pablo and Roy stopped in their tracks. They all looked at Lee Ann and her pointing finger, trying to make sense of what had roused her.

"There!" Lee Ann whispered. There in the rubble.

Though difficult to distinguish, upon a closer look, a dark, rounded object, almost entirely obscured by trash, seemed to be the crown of a skull peeking out from the rubble. It was barely noticeable amid the leaves and rotting wood.

Excerpt from "Orinoco."

Hi guys, I’m so glad to see you," Nick shouted as soon as they came within hearing range.

Lee Ann ran forward and hugged him tightly for longer than usual. Then she pulled back and looked him in the eyes.

Lee Ann surprised Nick for the second time by displaying emotions he believed she was incapable of. He still saw her as a pleasant, beautiful, yet cold-hearted businesswoman—a criminal lawyer from Atlanta who used cynicism to cope with the violence and deceit of her daily life. Astoundingly, he noticed a tear in her eye.