Her face hardened, and I realized I should have tried a soft touch rather than a forceful one. Her foot stomped on the running board as she climbed up and sat in the front row beside Giovanni, just like last time. Her defiant gaze burned into me.
Fuck.
This distraction, the one with green eyes and an unnerving ability to see through my lies, was going to end up a major complication if I wasn’t careful.
6
OLIVIA
I wasn’tsure I wanted to risk another encounter with Giovanni’s wandering hands, but I let petty revenge get the better of me when I saw Nathan about to climb into the Land Cruiser. His annoying comment about not coming along echoed in my ears. The rejection last night had pissed me off, so I wanted to repay the feeling.
We drove for a long while, and tension eased as I took in the African landscape. God, it was beautiful. Cape buffalo grazed in the rolling hills near a watering hole where zebras drank. My reasons for coming on the drive were childish, but I was glad I’d made the decision. Even as the man behind me radiated disapproval.
The sun was low when the Land Cruiser crawled toward a gray mass of animal, nibbling on the grass.
Phillip’s voice was hushed, but I got the feeling it was out of respect and not necessity. “This is a white rhino. Young, male. He left his mother not long ago. I remember him wandering off from her and her following. Mom had a tough time letting go.” The South African pulled out a sophisticated camera with a long lens. “The light is best right now, and he’s a great looking fellow.”
“Are they your favorite? Rhinos?” I asked.
“They’re magnificent creatures, and if things continue, they won’t be around much longer.”
My focus lingered on the enormous animal whose foraging brought it slowly closer to us.
“There’s a saying,” the South African continued, “that the only good poacher is a dead one, and when I look at thisfellow here... it’s hard to disagree.”
I could understand his disgust. He’d spent his life around these animals, and his livelihood depended on them.
For a long time, we sat in silence and watched the rhino graze.
Giovanni finally had his rhino and appeared transfixed by the lumbering animal. It reminded me of a cow in a strangely sweet way. It was serene, peaceful. I wasn’t one to get sentimental or melodramatic, but for the first time in a long while, I felt okay.
But things were not okay.
Nathan put one of his long legs over the seatback and then the other, sliding down so he was now seated between me and Giovanni, and leaned forward.
“Phillip,” his voice was almost inaudible, “what other languages do you speak?”
“French and some Spanish?—”
The quiet and hurried French that spilled from Nathan’s mouth made Phillip’s face fill with shock.
“What is it?” I asked, matching Nathan’s quiet tone. His face gave nothing away, but something was clearly wrong, and my heart beat wildly. He was speaking in French specifically so I wouldn’t understand.
What was he saying that made the South African so nervous?
That was when Giovanni reached for the rifle on the dashboard.
Oh, no.
During the van ride to the lodge, I’d heard Nathan translate that Giovanni hadn’t purchased any hunting permits. It was because you couldn’t get permits for what Giovanni wanted to hunt.
He was going to shoot the rhino calf. My heart seized as the barrel of the rifle swung toward the gray, moving mountain where an oxpecker bird hitched a ride.
Nathan and Phillip were utterly still as Giovanni prepared to fire, but there was no way I was going to let that happen, even with the intimidating American man seated beside me.
I was so focused on what I was about to do, the movement in the bushes didn’t register until I reached out and knocked the barrel up to the sky. Either he was a second before firing or my action startled him enough to pull the trigger, because the long gun went off with a tremendous retort.
The rhino snorted, turned, and galloped the opposite direction from the vehicle, crashed through the brush and disappeared. All three men spoke at once in their native languages—upset or concerned, I couldn’t tell.
