Friendly Fire (The Echo Platoon Series, Book 3) by Marliss Melton Page B

their new guide—a little guy with nut-brown skin who explained that he was Mayan.
    Guilt dogged Sammy's heels. If her mother really liked Jeremiah, then maybe she should act a little friendlier. But then she'd seen what her father had done to them. Men couldn't be trusted to stick around.
    After the cruise was over and they went home, her mom would forget about him. Things would settle down again—with her mother staying home alone on weekends. Sammy frowned.
    "You won't see any toucans unless you look up."
    Her mother's admonition had her raising her eyes to the dark fronds overhead. Though she didn't see any toucans, a monkey leaping from one branch to another captivated her. She couldn't help but smile.
    At last, they arrived at the narrow beach where they would launch their rafts. When they came out from under the trees, they realized it was raining. Droplets of water dimpled the tea-colored water.
    A rumble of thunder had them all glancing upward.
    "Don't worry," said their guide as raindrops spattered their tubes. "You will get wet anyway."
    Following his instructions, they waded into the water and climbed onto their tubes. Their guide lashed the floats together, and Sammy found herself beside her mother and in front of Jeremiah, his knees on either side of her head. Her mother pretended to ignore him, but her eyes were shining.
    The guide began to pull them through the shallow water.
    "Bottoms up!" he called, as he pulled their tubes over a bed of sleek pebbles.
    The rain fell faster, pelting Samantha's arms and legs. As the water deepened, the guide started to swim. Holding the rope in his mouth, he kept the flotilla moving at a steady pace. The water grew cloudier as mud poured off the land into the stream.
    Her mother sent a worried glance back at Jeremiah.
    The rain shower didn't bother Sammy. Wiped out from staying up late every night at Kids' Zone, she rested her head against the back of her life vest, turned her cheek to the rain, and closed her eyes. The adult-sized vest rode up her skinny torso. Like a turtle, she felt her chin retreat into her shell.
    "Honey, don't fall asleep," she heard her mother say. "You'll miss the cenotes ."
    "Wake me up when we get there." Sammy released the buckle on her vest so it wouldn't scrape her chin. In a semi-conscious state, she felt them moving faster. A couple of times, the rafts around her bumped into hers, rousing her briefly.
    What seemed like only seconds later, a gentle hand shook her awake. "Sammy, wake up. We're going into the caves."
    Dragging her eyelids open, she saw the sky give way to a high rocky roof. Darkness encapsulated them.
    "Turn on your lamps," their guide called from up front.
    Sammy didn't bother. For a while she listened to him talk about the bats living in holes in the sandstone. Then he spoke of the ancient Mayan rituals that had taken place within these caverns, as evidenced by the pottery shards found in the profound depths falling away beneath their rafts.
    "Sammy, look," came her mother's voice. "You're missing the waterfall."
    She pried her eyes open again. Craning her neck from her shell, she stole a peek. They'd come to a spot where the roof of the cave opened to the forest floor high above them. Water gushed through the opening and crashed into a basin-shaped pool. It overflowed, splashing the occupants of the tubes as the guide led them along the lip of the sinkhole.
    Too sleepy to keep her eyes open, she fell back against her tube. The guide's voice sounded over the thunder of the falls.
    "The sink hole is rumored to be bottomless."
    His words merged into a dream about an underwater treasure.
    "Can't you slow us down?" An irritated, male voice startled Sammy from her light sleep. "We're going too quickly."
    The tubes jammed together as the guide put his back to the flotilla to slow them down. Jeremiah's tube bumped forcefully into Sammy's. She felt her head slip through her unfastened life vest. Her bottom went straight through the