Page 28 of Infamous

“Good.” She took another quick sip, looking at him from beneath lowered lashes. He’d shaved this morning and his hair was thick and glossy black, reflecting the morning sun.

Wolf was studying her just as carefully. “I’ve got an errand to run today. Feel like coming along?”

This is what Wolf and Joy had been discussing. And Wolf’s errand included flying, with Wolf at the controls.

Alexandra wasn’t afraid of flying. Three of her five brothers were pilots and they had an airstrip at the Lazy L ranch so her brothers could fly in and out, avoiding the lengthy trip into Bozeman for short hops. But her brothers were expert pilots and their aircraft were always new and scrupulously maintained.

God only knew the maintenance history of the Piper Joy had mentioned.

But then there was Joy, and she’d wanted to make this trip with Wolf and suggested that Alexandra wouldn’t want to go and might be afraid to fly. Alexandra was competitive enough not to let Joy win or, in this case, be right.

“I’d love to go,” she said cheerfully.

“We’re flying.”

“Great.”

If he questioned her enthusiasm, he gave no indication. “I’ll be flying us.”

“You’re the pilot,” she agreed.

One of his eyebrows lifted ever so slightly. “It’s a Piper Tri-Pacer.”

“A two-seater?”

“Four.”

She swallowed around the lump filling her throat. She didn’t even know what a Piper Tri-Pacer was. “Let’s do it.”

He turned his head, looked at her hard. “No questions? Concerns? You’re not worried?”

Not worried? She was panicking like mad. Wolf was smart, gorgeous, and while he was amazing in bed, she wasn’t sure about his skills as a pilot. And they were flying in a dilapidated plane over the African bush. “My brothers fly,” she said airily. “I’m used to little planes.”

“Great.” Wolf gave her an approving smile. “Let’s grab the picnic lunch the kitchen packed and head on out. Big Red’s waiting.”

“Big Red?”

“The Tri-Pacer.”

“Right.”

Wrong, Alexandra thought ten minutes later as she stood in front of the saddest excuse for a plane she ever saw.

What must have once been a jaunty red-and-white paint job was now old, chipped, scarred, peeling and faded. The nose looked dinged, the propeller as though it’d tangled with a wildebeest, the tail as if it’d housed a family of baboons. And later Alexandra discovered it had.

On her toes, she peered into the interior, which was nearly all red. Cracked red leather seats with bits of hard yellow foam protruding.

“That’s the original leather,” Wolf said, tossing their lunch and a huge knapsack into the back of the plane.

As if she hadn’t noticed. “Mmm.”

“Great little plane.”

She stared at the red cockpit with its black instrument panels, the radio and the headphones dangling from the yoke. It was definitely snug inside. And while Wolf had called it a four-seater, she couldn’t imagine squeezing two people in the very cramped backseat.

Belted in next to Wolf, she saw him wave to Tom, who’d come down to the primitive airstrip to see them off.

“We’ll be back before dark,” Wolf shouted.

Tom gave them a thumbs-up sign.

“We’re off.”

But they weren’t exactly off, Alexandra thought, heart pounding as the plane lurched and lumbered down the rough airstrip. They weren’t going to make it off the ground. They were going to just roll their way to Lusaka or wherever they were going.

But just when Alexandra feared they’d never lift, the little red-and-white Piper went airborne—not high but gaining speed and altitude.

Alexandra’s hands were damp as she clutched the sides of her cracked leather seat. Her heart was still racing but not as frantically. It’d been scary taking off, and yet now, thousands of feet above the bush, she had such an incredible view of the landscape below that Alexandra laughed, her fear replaced by exhilaration.

This was unreal. By far the most adventurous thing she’d ever done.

“This trip just keeps getting better and better,” she said.

Wolf looked at her, dark eyes creased. “I love flying but especially here.” He suddenly pointed. “Look. Elephants.” And there they were, a huge herd clustered around a grove of waterberry trees.

Alexandra’s eyes opened wide. “There must be twenty or thirty of them.”

“This is their home.”

Their real home, she thought, their native habitat. Where they belonged.

As they flew north, Wolf pointed out more game. The giraffes and zebras traveling together. What looked like a lone black rhino. Hundreds of grazing hartebeest and sable.

They’d been traveling for over an hour when Alexandra reached into the backseat to retrieve the water canteen. She was screwing off the top when Wolf silently swore.

She took a quick drink, replaced the cap. “What’s wrong?”

“Mmm.” He wasn’t relaxed anymore and his gaze was fixed on the control panel in front of him.

It was then she realized they were losing altitude. Rapidly.

She glanced at the controls, watched as he clicked the fuel button to the left, the right. She looked up to the fuel gauge. The gauge showed empty. But the tank had been full when they’d left. She saw the gauge, saw him check, knew they’d refueled the plane just this morning.

“Wolf.”

“We’re going to be landing,” he said calmly, as if his announcement was nothing out of the ordinary. “Lock down the canteen and anything loose. Make sure you have nothing sharp in your pockets. Then secure your seat belt. We’re about to land.”

She shot him another frantic glance as the grassy African plain loomed closer. She couldn’t believe this was happening. “You mean crash.”

He lightly drew on the yoke, keeping the Piper’s nose up. “No,” he contradicted her coolly, “I mean land.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

CONSIDERING IT WAS A crash landing, Wolf did admirably well trying to keep the wreck of a plane in one piece.

They hit hard, bounced up, came down again. They were rolling, bouncing across the rough terrain, when a huge outcropping of rock threatened to shear them in two.

Wolf slammed on the brakes, pulling hard to the right, and they avoided the rocks but ended up flipping the plane.

Despite bracing herself, Alexandra slammed against the plane’s frame as they flipped and then once against the cockpit controls and then finally she dangled in her seat upside down.

“Alexandra,” Wolf snapped urgently.

Disoriented, she turned to look at him. Blood trickled down his temple. “I’m okay.” She swallowed, dazed.

“You?

?re sure?”

She wiggled her fingers, her ankles, her toes. “Yes.” She frowned at him. “But you’re bleeding.”

“Just a scratch.” The urgency had faded from his voice and he worked now to undo his seat belt. It took him just a moment, and then he braced himself, putting a foot and an arm out as he turned himself over and around. Once he was right up, he undid her belt and lifted her out.

Stumbling from the cockpit, Alexandra staggered a few steps on legs that promised to give out. She squinted against the bright sunlight, lifting a weak hand to shield her eyes as she looked to her left and then her right. The savannah stretched in every direction. “Where are we?”

“Based on the plane’s compass, I’d say South Luangwa.”

“South Luangwa,” she repeated numbly, beginning to shiver. It was just shock; she knew it was shock, because she wasn’t cold. Not when it had to be at least eighty degrees right now. “Is that a province?”

“It’s another national park.”

Her head jerked around. “As in, another animal park?”

“Animals don’t have parks. They have protected land.”

Wolf reached into the back of the plane, retrieved the huge duffel bag as well as the knapsack with their lunch and beverages. “We’re actually invading their space.”

“It’s not the invasion I’m worried about. It’s personal safety.”

“We should be fine. If anything gets too close, we can take shelter in the plane.”

She shot the upside down plane a dubious glance. “It’s forty years old and covered in fabric. Will it really stop a rhino? Or an elephant?”

“Probably not a charging rhino.” He knelt next to the knapsack, found a transmitter radio. “Or an angry elephant bull for that matter.” He looked up at her. “But the likelihood of us getting attacked is next to none. This is a six-thousand-acre park. The crash was loud. The animals are running the opposite direction right now.”

She compressed her lips. Maybe the impalas and zebras were, but the lions were probably thinking Yum, yum, fresh meat. “Does that radio work?”

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