“Rounds!” Nathan demanded, causing Phillip to fumble with the glove box for more ammo. Meanwhile, he grasped the zipper of his jacket and yanked it down so he’d have access to his gun.
All the air drained from my lungs.
What had I done? Giovanni hadn’t been intending to shoot the rhino—he’d been aiming at the pair of poachers who’d been moving in on foot. Everyone in the vehicle had been so quiet and still, and the tall grass and brush had made us difficult to notice.
I’d forced Giovanni to shoot into the air and give away our position.
The two men, lean and dark, focused their attention and guns on our vehicle. That was the last thing I saw before Nathan curled a rough hand around the back of my neck and shoved my head into his lap. Then he retrieved the gun holstered inside his open jacket.
A shot whizzed overhead, slicing through a branch. Two more cracks ripped from a gun and hit the side of my door as leaves from above rained down.
I had to be impressed with Giovanni, who reloaded with lightning speed and fired again. There was a sharp noise of pain from just beyond the car and then hurried footsteps andbranches rustled as one of them fled.
As that faded, there were strangled sounds of gurgling from nearby.
Oh, God. Giovanni had hit the man... but not killed him.
His Italian words were cold and calm, but I felt the jolt go through the body beneath my hands. Nathan was reluctant to do whatever he’d just been asked to. He drew in a heavy breath and placed his left hand on my shoulder, either to steady himself or prevent me from sitting up.
He lifted his gun and fired a single shot, silencing the gurgling.
My whole body shook when he put his weapon away and zipped his fleece closed. His hands were steady, sure. There was no physical reaction from him. You’d never know he’d just taken another man’s life, even if it had been to end his suffering.
My hands ached because I was gripping his thigh ferociously. It had to hurt, but he didn’t ask me to release him.
“What are we going to do about that?” he said.
“Hyena will take care of it,” Phillip answered. “Tomorrow there will be hardly anything left.”
Nathan’s hand hesitantly came to rest on my shoulder, and this time I flinched at his touch. Giovanni babbled, and it seemed to annoy his bodyguard.
“Enough, I get it,” he snapped at his boss. Then his voice softened. “Olivia, it’s safe now. If you want to sit up, keep your eyes on me.”
I exhaled loudly. I wasn’t sure whether I’d prefer to look at the dead body instead of Nathan’s cold eyes. The engine of the Land Cruiser rumbled to a start and rolled in reverse toward the sandy path, and I sat up in time to see Phillip spit on the ground. I got the sense that it wasn’t so much the execution that had left a bad taste in his mouth. It seemed like this was a final sign of disrespect to the poacher.
Nathan’s eyes weren’t cold. They were filled with chaos,and I didn’t understand. At least he wasn’t angry. If anything, he looked worried.
“Are you all right?” he whispered.
“I almost got us killed.” The adrenaline pumping through my veins made me unable to control my mouth. “I thought Giovanni was going to shoot the rhino. That’s why I went for the rifle.”
Upon hearing his name, the Italian asked something, perhaps to translate, which he did.
“No, no,” Giovanni said, followed by more Italian. But I was too overwhelmed to listen to the translation. The landscape whizzed by. I didn’t know how I felt about what had just happened. Like last time I’d witnessed death, I was completely numb.
“Olivia.” Nathan jarred me out of the fog. He must have asked me something, but I couldn’t fathom what it was. “He wants you to know he’s not angry.”
“Great.” Like I cared what Giovanni thought. This was why he’d come to South Africa, why he wanted to seek out the rhinoceros. Here, you could actively hunt another human. It was legal, and all but encouraged. My stomach filled with bile, and the revulsion toward him was acute.
Nathan had taken the final shot, but he’d done so reluctantly.
Giovanni had hungered for the kill and didn’t have the balls or the decency to finish it himself.
“What’s he saying now?” I demanded.
Nathan’s expression didn’t change. “That you’ll join him for dinner.”
7
