by Reina Torres
He’d said such perfect words.
Told her in so many ways that he needed her in his life. Then she’d watched eagerly as he took himself in hand and pressed himself into her body.
The tide.
That’s what it had felt like.
The elemental push and pull of the tide at the edge of the beach, drawing out only to push back in, rocking her back and forth.
But the water had never made her moan.
It was Donal who closed his mouth over the tip of her breast and filled her body with the heavy thickness of his need, and it was Donal who held her as she felt the world collapse in and around her.
He’d held her tightly as she drifted off to sleep, her hands exploring his bare skin, his heartbeat pulsing under her cheek.
And it had been Donal who had left her alone in her bed when she woke up to the harsh sunlight of the new day with only a note occupying the pillow beside hers.
I NEED YOU SAFE
Turning over in bed, Donal stared up at the ceiling, unable to ignore the odd pressure in his chest. It happened all the time, a slow building ache that meant one thing… Tamsin.
The thought of her appeared in his head regularly. He could never pinpoint what would start it. Maybe it was a scent or a texture.
Maybe it was just the air that he pulled into his chest.
A soft grunt echoed in his head, and he tried to ignore it.
Go away.
If he’d been sitting up, the mental shove directed at him would have knocked him down.
Laid out on his bed it only served to remind him that there was no way to get away from himself. That the animal inside of him wasn’t someone or something he could set aside.
That the reason he left Tamsin behind was because even back then he knew that he was dangerous.
Not to her.
The voice inside his head was accompanied by a slow, narrowed look from the shadows of his thoughts.
We would never hurt her.
He reached over to the nightstand and picked up his earphones. Jamming them into his ears.
I meant it. Go. Away.
The driving strains of some unknown metal band threatened to blow out his eardrums, and he let it go because at least the voice in his head was quiet.
Perhaps he’d even get a few hours of sleep before his animal started in again.
It was always the same.
Go to her.
Touch her.
Hold her.
Bring her home.
And he’d argue back.
She is home.
Yes, he’d agree all too easily. She is our home.
Just as the music built into a crash of chords and drums, he said the one thing guaranteed to shake Donal out of the metallic haze of the music.
She is coming.
Donal didn’t ask how he knew. There was a surety in his tone, and the animal that turned over and stretched inside of him had a voice that rang with truth.
She is coming to find you.
The hell she is!
Donal ripped the earbuds out by the cords and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.
I’m not going to ask how you know, but how close… how close is she?
She’s over water. Like the moon in the sky. Coming to you.
No.
Donal picked up his wallet from the top of the dresser and dropped it into his pocket. He reached for his keys and took them in his hand even as he felt his skin ripple and tense.
Felt the other half of him push hard against his control.
No.
Donal closed the door of his home and locked it behind him as he dashed down the steps toward the driveway.
Stay.
He heard an odd tone to the voice in his head. A plea. A request that bordered on begging.
Stay.
Tell her.
Let her see.
Donal started the engine and pulled out of the driveway before he put his lights on, his head aching and his thoughts jumbled in an ever-tightening knot.
No. She’s safer away from me.
There was a long moment of silence. Donal’s shoulders relaxed, the tension in his neck eased, and his hands released their death grip on the steering wheel.
Lowering the windows, a hair, he let the near silence of the night into the car.
You can’t run forever.
Donal gripped the steering wheel so tight he heard the metal groaning from his strength.
Watch me.
Chapter Two
There was a good thing to be said about being invisible most of the time. Now, that didn’t mean that the people at GEI didn’t notice her or greet her kindly. Mostly everyone thought of her as Donal’s friend or Miss Ellery.
Few knew more about her than that. She spent most of her time in her office with her paperwork, the preserve they maintained on American soil, or the wildlife refuges that they funded across North America.
And even though Donal hadn’t been heard from for those lonely years, she still handled all the accounts for his personal contributions to preserves and organizations in Africa.
Just before she’d boarded the jet, she’d placed a call to one of the men that transported supplies to various locations for GEI and asked him to prepare a vehicle for her with a driver.
When she stepped off of the jet, she was surprised to see a familiar face.
“Hallo, Magheli!” Tamsin extended her hand toward the gentleman before her. “It’s good to finally meet you.”
“Hallo, Tamsin. Welkom to South Africa.” Magheli moved past her offered hand to press a light kiss on her cheek. “Surely we are beyond a handshake. Have we not known each other for years?”
Her cheeks were warmed by the greeting he gave her. Sure, they had spoken hundreds and hundreds of times over the years, but she wasn’t sure that she was really ready to return the gesture, so she choked on a laugh and took a step back. “Still, you didn’t have to greet me.”
He waved off her comment. “Of course, I did! I am your driver for your trip.”
She heard his intonation and wanted to make sure he understood.
“I can’t imagine that you’d have the time to focus on me. I might be here for quite some time. It depends on how quickly I can locate Donal. As I said on the phone, it’s imperative that I find him and as soon as possible.”
His smile showed the laugh lines near his eyes. “Of course,” he gave her a wink. “I understand why you’re trying to find him. I’m just not sure how much luck we will have.”
“At this point,” she began, wanting to explain more about her intentions, “I would be thrilled to find a solid lead.”
He pursed his lips together. “I asked around after I got your call, and while there was nothing concrete within the last few years, I did find out that GEI already has people looking for him.”
She watched his face carefully wondering if he was someone she could trust. “Do you know where I can find them?”
Tamsin had kept her features schooled into a quiet curiosity. She had to be careful with what she revealed. She hadn’t traveled thousands of miles to waste her time, and if Magheli wasn’t planning on helping her, she needed to find that out and quickly.
“I’ll take you to them.”
He gestured to a car that looked as though it had less than twenty miles on it. She wasn’t expecting him to drive something brand spanking new and right off the boat, if not the showroom floor.
“That’s your car?”
Magheli followed the direction of her eyes and laughed. “Not quite. But it is on my ‘bucket list’ for my life.” He jerked his thumb toward the corner of the parking row. “We’re going in that.”
The jeep was well used, at least a decade old, and covered in layers of road dirt.
“Nice.”
His grin was almost reassuring. “There’s hope for you yet, Amerikaanse, if you like the way I travel.” Magheli looked down at her hands. “Bags? Don’t you have any?”
&
nbsp; She gestured at the pack she’d slung over her shoulder. “I’ve got everything I need.”
He narrowed his eyes and shrugged. “Let’s go then.”
They piled into the jeep and took the short drive to the office.
Donal arrived at the camp and parked his vehicle in the dirt lot where the other vehicles sat when they weren’t in use. Stepping into the heat of the day gave him a rough slap of reality. Out here, he was in his element. The world where his uncle existed was lightyears away.
But his traitorous mind spoke up, Tamsin was close.
Close enough that he could almost feel her touch on his skin.
And that had nothing to do with the animal inside of him, those dark eyes stared back at him with mischief in their depths.
Don’t start.
I don’t have to, the voice taunted him, you’re doing a fine job all on your own.
I said, don’t start.
Donal felt a hand touch his shoulder and he turned with a ready smile. Everyone at camp was a friend.
Zenzile gave him a bright smile. “Sawubona, Sifiso.”
He returned the greeting with true affection. “Sawubona, Zenzile. It’s good to see you again.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, studying his face.
Donal didn’t turn away, he kept his eyes focused at the main area of the camp. It took her less than a minute to step back laughing as she looked behind him before she returned her intent gaze to his face.
“What?” He tried to play off his frustration, but he didn’t fool himself or Zenzile. “What are you looking for?”
“The hyenas chasing you, old friend. You have the look of a man hunted.”
“Me?” He started toward the camp, leaving her to catch up with his longer strides. “There are no hyenas on my trail,” he scoffed at the idea.
“Ah,” she fell into step with him and turned her head to nail him with a look, “I see.”
When she didn’t elaborate, Donal’s steps stuttered a bit, allowing her to move ahead. He had to jog to catch up as they reached the edge of the main camp.
She raised a hand to wave at the others before she tilted her head in his direction. “We have an unexpected guest.”
Looking up from her clipboard, Nomusa spared him a glance. “You look-”
“Nothing,” Donal interrupted, “is chasing me.”
The women gathered around the table laughed amongst themselves. It was Zenzile who spoke first, turning back to him. “We’ll find out sooner or later, Sifiso. You might as well tell us and avoid the inquisition.”
Donal swallowed hard at the thought. He’d spent most of his life surrounded by men who were captains of industry. Millionaires and billionaires who were giants in so many ways, but he’d never been as shaken and as comfortable as he was with this group of women.
They laughed and they cajoled with gentle smiles, but they could also be incredibly fierce and loyal as well. Donal realized too late that camp was the last place he should have gone. Within a moment of seeing him, Zenzile had seen his discomfort and she hadn’t ignored it like his uncle or the board would have done. Emotions, unless they had to do with business, were ignored.
The women of this group used every opportunity to lighten their days and found him to be a ready source of amusement. He didn’t begrudge them the laughter, for what they saw on a daily basis, they deserved any laughter they could find, even at his expense.
Donal gestured at the clipboard. “Business first, we have time for you to laugh at me on patrol.”
The women shared a look around the table and then turned to look at Nomusa. For the smallest of the group, she could also command their attention in a moment. They all trusted each other, but Nomusa had been a fixture in the group because she had grown up along the perimeter of the park and been one of the earliest volunteers.
The Bandile were an Anti-Poaching Unit that guarded hundreds of acres within designated parkland and while the unit had begun with a handful of women, it had grown over the years into a well-respected team dedicated to protecting wildlife from those who would maim or kill for their own gain.
Donal met Nomusa and her family on one of his earliest visits to South Africa and Zulu land, and they had become fast friends. When he had returned to the continent, intent on making it his home, Donal had found ways to fund the group with his own money.
When the full cadre of Bandile guards were assembled to hear their assignments, there were a score of women sitting under the mess tent around him.
“Some of our women found evidence of a kill yesterday.” Nomusa’s announcement was met with disbelief and anger. “There were signs that animals had made a meal of some of the flesh,” she explained, “but the horn of the rhinoceros had been removed with tools. There was little evidence to tell us who had killed the animal, but litter was found in the area.”
Donal shook his head. The men who poached on parkland had no understanding of the waste they created when they killed. Conservation was the furthest thing from their minds when they were hunting.
“I’ll contact my friend Leeto before we leave. He’ll search social media sites for pictures of recent hunting. If we can present evidence to the Police Service, they can go after the hunters.”
We should go after the hunters.
Nomusa looked up at him, and he wondered if she could hear the voice roaring in his head.
“That would help,” she agreed. “I only hope they can find them before they leave the continent.”
It would be difficult to chase the hunters across borders, but if they were Americans, once they crossed the Atlantic it would be nearly impossible to make them pay for their crimes.
The group was divided up into their patrols, and Donal almost groaned when he was assigned to the same vehicle with Zenzile, Thabisa, and Amahle.
When he looked back at Nomusa, he was sure she saw his panicked look as she barely managed to hide her laughter. “Would you like to stay here in camp, Sifiso? I could use a break from my work.”
He gave her a narrowed look, but she didn’t seem the least bit concerned, waving him off.
“This is what happens when you show up unannounced. You are put to work.”
Sighing, he followed Thabisa into the armory to prepare for their patrol. Knowing that she was the newest in the group, he hoped that she would take it easy on him.
Once they were inside the converted container, he started to count out the ammunition supply and had made it halfway through when she stepped up beside him and gave him a curious look.
“What is this I hear about hyenas, Sifiso?”
Donal’s chin dropped to his chest with a long-suffering sigh.
It didn’t bode well that the parking spaces outside of the investigators’ office were filled with splashy, sporty vehicles. None of which looked as if they’d ever seen a road with a rut or pothole.
Magheli met her at the curb and she gave him a curious look. “Where are you going?”
He gestured to the door with an owlish look. “I’m going with you.”
She paused for a moment and shook her head. “You don’t need to.”
“I know.” He leaned closer to the window and squinted at the scene inside the office. When he turned back to her he had a look of caution on his face. “I am sure that you can handle yourself. I’m sure that you can handle pretty much anything you set your mind to, but the men in there won’t like speaking to a woman.”
Tamsin opened her mouth to argue, but she had a feeling that he’d only dig his heels in deeper if she did. “Fine. Come in with me, but I want you to understand that I’m going to speak to them. You won’t be speaking for me.”
He held up his hands in surrender and then gestured for her to precede him to the door.
Lifting her chin, Tamsin walked along the sidewalk toward the wide glass double-doors, ready to meet any challenge.
Inside, the air-conditioning was set so low that she had to fight off an instinctual shiver. Being comfortable w
as one thing, but Tamsin couldn’t understand why anyone would set the temperature so low inside that when you stepped outside, you’d likely suffer heat stroke from the change alone.
Remembering the office number from the notes she’d made on her tablet, Tamsin took a quick look at the building map and made her way to Suite B, which occupied the left side of the building. Crossing the lobby, her well-worn boots squeaked on the polished stone tiled floor and with each high-pitched noise she felt something pinch at the back of her neck.
When she opened the door and stepped through into the office, she tried to ignore the low whistle coming from behind her.
The offices had all the trappings of a high-end law office. Leather couches, plants that were too perfect to be real, and a brass plaque behind the reception desk with their company name emblazoned on it.
If she was a betting woman, she would have laid odds that if she opened the drawers at the reception desk, they’d be empty.
The chair behind the desk looked pristine. It probably still had the fresh out of the bag smell.
Stepping off to the side, she stepped through a doorway and into the back part of the office. Instead of a suite of offices or even a bullpen full of desks, the area in the back resembled a man cave.
Tamsin was fairly sure they’d been paid a pretty penny for investigative services, but they’d done nothing of the kind. They had all the creature comforts of life: a big screen television, a bar full of top shelf liquor.
No doubt, if she went further into the offices she’d find a restaurant quality refrigerator full of microwaveable snacks.
As she waded into the main area of the room, one of the men managed to drag his focus from the television and the women’s soccer game on the screen. He gave her a smile and a half-nod before he turned back to the screen.
Tamsin bit the inside of her cheek to calm herself before she spoke.
“Gentlemen? I’d like to know who’s in charge here.”
The man closest to her jerked a thumb at the man beside him and muttered something she couldn’t quite hear, but he remained seated, watching the screen.
