by Lisa Harris
What if she’d been wrong?
Alex had spoken of forgiveness. Assured her that her father had loved her.
Now she’d do anything to have him standing with her telling her that. Now all she could do was pray she’d get the chance to tell the two men in her life what she felt. Forgiveness and acceptance for her father. A chance for love with Alex.
SIXTEEN
Alex pressed his foot on the accelerator of the Jeep, neck and neck with the small plane headed down the runway for takeoff. Only one thing mattered. Meghan was in there, so they had to stop the plane. He shifted gears and pressed harder on the gas. Tarmac was running out. He eased forward. The plane swerved to the right and bumped off the tarmac, coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of the field. Three police vehicles pulled in beside him, making certain the plane would be unable to divert around him to take off.
Alex jumped out of the Jeep as six armed officers surrounded the plane with orders that the passengers inside exit the plane. A moment later the ladder on the plan lowered and a couple exited the plane.
“They were guests at the lodge,” Alex said.
“Convenient.” The detective held up a photo. “Interpol has them listed as Tobias and Sari Radu from Romania. Apparently weapon and human trafficking wasn’t enough, so they wanted to try their luck with wildlife.”
“I’d say it didn’t turn out too lucky for them.”
The truth was about to come out, but right now all Alex wanted to do was find Meghan.
He ran up the steps and into the small cabin. “Meghan?”
Silence greeted him. Where was she?
He hurried down the narrow aisle of the plane, then shoved open the bathroom door and stared into the mirror, his heart pounding with fear. The plane was empty. No! Alex hurried out of the plane back onto the tarmac. He had to find her.
He grabbed the shirt of the handcuffed man and shoved him into the stairs. “Where is she? Where is Meghan?”
“I do not know.” The balding man tried to pull away, but Alex kept his grip. “There must be some mistake. We don’t know anything about this…woman you seek.”
“Let him go, Alex.”
Alex hesitated at the detective’s order, then pulled back, hands up, restraining the urge to punch the man. “You took her. You were seen leaving the hospital with her. There were witnesses.”
“There has been a mistake. We are simply here on holiday. I’m sure all of this will be cleared up soon.”
“He’s lying.”
Alex’s cell phone rang and he dug it out of his pocket and started walking down the tarmac to take the call. A minute later, Alex hung up and stepped back in front of Ian and the detective.
“That was a man I hired to look into the background of you and your family,” Alex began. “He had some interesting news for me.”
“Our backgrounds?” Ian asked.
“I had to know who was behind this.”
“And you thought I was involved with poaching my rhinos? No. Never.”
“I know that now—but your brother-in-law is.”
“Wait, no. Not Hendrik.” Fear registered in Ian’s eyes. “This reserve is a family business. He would never sell us out.”
“It’s a family business that’s struggling financially.” Alex’s jaw tensed. It never ceased to amaze him how far people would go for the sake of financial gain. “But we don’t have time to argue. We need to find Meghan.”
“Where is he right now?” the detective asked.
“Back in Joburg,” Ian said. “If he was here, he would have told me.”
Alex shook his head. “He’s here. My contact just talked to your sister-in-law. You’ve got roadblocks set up, Detective?”
“Yes.”
“Good. They’re sending me the information on the car he rented. We need to find him, because I’m pretty certain he’s working with these two and that he has Meghan.”
*
They found her in the trunk of Hendrik’s rental car at one of the police roadblocks fifteen miles away. By the time Alex saw her, she was sitting in the back of one of the police cars looking dazed. Alex slipped into the seat beside her. She was cold, her body shaking. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “They gave me some…some drug to make me sleepy, but I am okay…now that you’re here.”
He started rubbing her arms, trying to get her to warm up, then took off his jacket and pulled it around her shoulders.
“It’s over, Meghan. You’re safe now. They’ve arrested everyone involved. Apparently Hendrik had gotten involved with a major supplier of illegal horns. The Romanians were here to get a piece of the action. Your father became involved because of his stance against animal trafficking in a country they were using as their transit base to smuggle the goods between countries.”
He shot up a prayer of thanks. Thankful she was okay. Thankful there hadn’t been a bloody standoff. Thankful at the moment for so many things.
She looked up at him, eyes wide. “I was so scared.”
“I know, and I’m so sorry you had to go through this. I never should have let you out of my sight.”
“This wasn’t your fault. There was no way to know who was behind it.” She let out a sigh and then seemed to brace herself. “Is Ian involved?”
“As far as I can tell, no.” He brushed away the tear sliding down her face. “Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head. “They grabbed me from the hospital and put me in the trunk. If you hadn’t got here in time, they would have killed me.”
“That didn’t happen. Oh, Meghan, I was so afraid I’d lost you.”
“Like Shannon?”
“No. Not like Shannon. She’s a part of my past—she always will be—but you’re my future and the only one I see right now.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling for the first time since he’d found her. “You never lost me. I knew you were out there looking for me. I knew you would find me.”
He pulled her closer, tilted her chin, then pressed his lips against hers, needing to convince himself she was real and here with him. That he hadn’t lost her.
“Alex? Is she okay?”
Kate stood in the doorway of the vehicle, interrupting the moment. But there would be more moments like this. He was going to make sure of that.
“She will be.”
“The ambulance is here. They want to take her to the hospital to check her out.”
Alex slipped from the car with Meghan as Ian stopped in front of his handcuffed brother-in-law.
“How could you do this?”
Hendrik shook his head. “You just don’t get it, do you?’
“Get what?” The pain from his brother-in-law’s betrayal was clear on Ian’s face. “The fact that you were undermining everything I’ve worked for over the past two decades? Everything your father and your grandfather built up on this land? The fact that you not only slaughtered precious animals, but killed anyone who got in your way? And what about Annabet? When she finds out what you’ve done… Explain to me why you would do something like this.”
“You always were too sentimental, Ian. You look at this land as a legacy. I look at it as a business. Every year the money we bring in is barely enough to cover the bills. Something had to be done, especially when you decided to go and start a conservation program, hire someone to produce a documentary and fund school programs to help the community. All very noble plans, but they’re also extremely costly. Something you clearly don’t think about. I found a way to save everything.”
“And what about Meghan?” Alex spoke up for the first time. He didn’t even try to stop the anger filtering through his words. “Explain how she fit into all of this.”
“We need to keep the right people in power in certain places in order to keep doing what we do. And if we have to do a bit of manipulating to tip the scales…well, I’m not above using some political influence to get what I need.”
“Let me ask one more thing, before
they haul you away. How big is this?”
Hendrik smiled. “Big enough that you’ll never be able to stop it.”
*
Two days later, Meghan crouched in the thick grass beside Alex and held her breath. Kibibi cautiously approached the pride with her four cubs. It had been almost thirty-six hours since Hendrik and his team had been arrested. Six more people had been arrested for their involvement in several hundred incidents of poaching. Meghan had slept most of that time, trying to shake off the effects of the drug they’d given her. When she’d finally gotten up, she’d received a call from Samuel. He’d tracked Kibibi heading for the pride.
Her fingers gripped the edges of the camera as she captured the scene while Kate handled a second video camera set up at a different angle, ten yards to their right. The first meeting with the pride—and the cubs’ father, Jama—could go either way. Kibibi walked in front of the cubs, trying to sense Jama’s reaction. In an encounter between a cub and a four-hundred-pound male, a moment of aggression could maim or even kill.
Jama lifted his bulk off the ground and stood, towering over the cubs. He batted at the smallest one, knocking him into the dusty ground, while the rest of the lions watched. Kibibi started toward Jama as one of the cubs pulled at his mane, but Jama leaned over and nuzzled the cub.
For the moment, the danger seemed to be over. Which only added to Meghan’s own sense of relief. Relief that Nathi and Oscar were going to be okay. Relief that her life was no longer in danger.
“Hard to believe this is over and I don’t have to look over my shoulder anymore.” Meghan continued photographing as she spoke.
“Hendrik was right about one thing,” Alex said. “Someone else will take his place—the operation is too big to end with just a few arrests.”
“But it’s still a step forward in stopping them.”
All three of her captors would be facing charges of kidnapping, in addition to trafficking and animal-rights violations. Only one of the charges was being disputed. Hendrik blamed Meghan’s kidnapping on his partners, saying he’d had no idea she’d been in the vehicle. For now, it would be up to the courts to decide.
“What happens now that you have the final piece of your documentary?” he asked.
“I’ll spend the next few weeks editing with Kate and wrapping up here.”
“And your father? Have you talked to him yet?”
“I spoke with him on the phone this morning. As soon as I’m done here, he’s planning to meet me in Cape Town so we can spend some time together.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“The last couple days have made me realize that I need to forgive him and try to make our relationship work.”
“What do you think he’ll do next?”
“He’s actually thinking about retiring and moving back to California. He has a sister there and they’ve always been pretty close.” She turned to him, trying to read his expression. The taste of his kiss still lingered on her lips. Leaving South Africa behind wasn’t the only thing that was going to leave a hole in her heart. “What about you? I guess you’ll be going back to Texas in a few days.”
“This job was only temporary. But before I leave…we haven’t had time to talk about what happened between us.”
“When you kissed me?”
She’d worried that he’d been motivated only by the intensity of the moment. That he didn’t really share the feelings spiraling through her. But that kiss on the plane had erased any doubts about how she felt. He might have started out being nothing more than a temporary protector and bodyguard, but he’d become far more than that in her mind.
“Meghan, I’m not good at verbalizing how I feel, but when I agreed to take this job, I came here hoping to find the piece I thought was missing in my life. I believed it was my mother’s heritage in this country. But I was wrong.”
“What do you mean?” Meghan asked.
“I know this sounds crazy, but that missing piece in my life…is you.”
Meghan had all but forgotten about Jama and the cubs now sleeping in the morning sunshine. “No. You don’t sound crazy at all. I’ve spent my life running, but you make me want to stop and take a chance.”
“You make me laugh, Meghan. You made me realize what is important in life again. I’d become so burned-out and disillusioned, but now I’m engaged in life again—I just can’t picture it without you. You make me stronger, make me want to strive to be the man God wants me to be, because I’ve completely fallen in love with you, Meghan Jordan.”
She stared into his blue eyes, and all the fear she’d bottled up evaporated into the morning sunshine. “It’s going to be complicated. I’ll be traveling the next few months, and I’m not sure where my next job will take me.”
“Shh…” Alex pressed his finger gently against her lips. “We can use Skype and email and text until you finish up here and figure out everything else later.”
The next thing Meghan knew he was kissing her beneath the warm African sun, making her forget about all the promises she’d made to guard her heart. Making her believe she’d found someone she could spend the rest of her life with.
She breathed in his essence. Part cowboy. Part hero. A man she could trust and who made her feel worthy of being loved.
SEVENTEEN
Three months later
Meghan’s fingers gripped the armrest of Alex’s Ford pickup as he chased the setting sun down the West Texas farm road. Six hours ago, she’d hopped on a plane bound for the Lone Star state and the man she’d fallen in love with. Three months of daily Skype calls, emails and text messages had revealed she’d found a man who completely loved her as thoroughly as she loved him. And a man who made her feel worthy of being loved. But even that knowledge didn’t change the fact that it had been a long time since she’d felt so…terrified.
He grabbed her hand and squeezed her fingers. “You’re not regretting coming to meet my family, are you?”
She forced a smile. “Of course not.”
Because she really wasn’t. Not regretting coming to be with him, at least. It was just the idea of meeting Alex’s three sisters, their spouses and children, along with his father—the patriarch of the family—that had her ready to hop back on a plane to Southern California.
“Then what is it? You’ve hardly said a word the past fifty miles.”
She slipped off her sunglasses and set them on her head as the sun dropped toward the horizon, leaving behind a pinkish-orange glow. “I’m just a little nervous.”
“You have nothing to worry about. I promise. They’re going to love you.”
“Just understand that family gatherings in my household—which were rare—usually meant a movie at the mall and Chinese takeout with my father. He only had one, unmarried sister, so I never had aunts and uncles and dozens of cousins, much less siblings of my own.”
“You’re going to be fine.” He shot her a smile, then pulled off at the next exit and started following the dusty road north. “Trust me.”
She shouldn’t worry, and she knew it. If she could survive eight-plus months in the African bush stalking lions and being kidnapped by poachers and left for dead, surely she could handle meeting his family. But still…
“There is one other small thing.” He glanced at her, still holding her hand. “I talked to my sister Julia while I waited for your plane to land.”
Great. “Something else for me to worry about?”
“No, it’s just that there are going to be a few more people at the house this weekend than I originally thought.”
Which meant more names and faces to remember.
“Turns out my father’s two sisters and their husbands arrive tomorrow, though they’ll all be sleeping in town.”
He’d told her earlier that the nearest town boasted a population of 576 people, a café with the best pecan pie in the county and two traffic lights. She’d be staying at the ranch, rooming with his sister Camy and his fifteen-year-old niece, Heather.
Meghan searched her memory for his aunts’ names. “Barbara and…Gina?”
“Gail.”
“Okay.” She drew in a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves. What were two more couples?
“Barbara’s married to Barry, who recently retired from the military. They spend most of the year traveling in their forty-foot motor home. Gail’s married to Jim. They live in New York, but have been in Amarillo the past two weeks, staying with their daughter and son-in-law, who just had a baby.”
She was never going to remember everyone’s name. “You require name tags at family reunions, right?”
He laughed. “Far as I know, none of their children will be coming, so this will actually be a small event.”
Small?
“At the last Markham family reunion,” he said, “over a hundred and fifty showed up.”
A hundred and fifty? She couldn’t even imagine fifty. Butterflies stirred in her stomach. Maybe she’d spent too much time soaking up the quiet of the African bush. She stared out the window, hoping the endless miles of open land surrounding them, broken up only by occasional outcroppings of rocks and patches of brush, would help calm her nerves.
“It is beautiful out here.”
“Remind you of the African bush?” Alex asked.
“In some ways, yes, except for the paved road with its perfectly painted yellow line down the middle.”
He laughed. “That and the lack of a lion pride or any elephants lumbering across the horizon.”
“Just mountain lions and those unpredictable wild boars?”
“Do you miss it?”
“Every day. I miss the quiet of sitting and waiting for Kibibi to appear, drinking tea while watching the sunset and the brilliance of the night stars. I miss Nathi, Kate and Samuel. What I don’t miss, though, is running for my life from some international crime syndicate.”
“Me, neither.” He squeezed her hand. “But we don’t need wild animals and poachers to keep things exciting here. I’ve got three meddling sisters and a passel of nieces and nephews that keep life interesting.”
“Wait a minute. Five minutes ago, you were assuring me how wonderful your family is. Now it sounds as if you’re trying to scare me off.”
