by Pamela Clare
When he next entered her, she tightened herself around him, clenching her inner muscles as hard as she could.
His response was an immediate, low moan. “Geezus.”
She felt his control begin to fray, his body tensing, his breathing as ragged as hers.
He slipped into a regular rhythm with deep, gliding strokes, stretching her, satisfying that inner ache, pleasure drawing tight in her belly.
Oh, God, yes, that’s what she needed… harder… faster …
“Ooh, Malik. Fuck me.”
It felt so good, each thrust a taste of heaven, carrying her higher and higher, until she hung, suspended, on the bright edge of another orgasm. She was burning up, burning up with him inside her. Then the heat in her belly drew tight… and exploded.
She cried out, bliss burned through her, scorching and sweet. But this time, Malik was just behind her. He drove her climax home then moaned her name, his body shaking apart in her arms as he came inside her.
Kristi opened her eyes, met his gaze, saw a tenderness there that made her pulse skip, warmth blossoming behind her breastbone.
He kissed her—her lips, her nose, her forehead—then rolled onto his side, drawing her with him, cradling her in his arms, their legs twined together.
Spent and sleepy, she spoke from the heart. “I want strings, Malik. I don’t want this to end when we’re back in the US.”
When he didn’t answer, she looked up at his face.
He was sound asleep.
A noise woke Malik from a dreamless sleep early the next morning. He found Kristi curled against him, still asleep, peace on her face. He hated to wake her, but something was out there. “Hey, angel, wake up. We’ve got company.”
Kristi opened her eyes, smiled at him.
The sound that had awakened him came again—a long, deep roar.
There was only one thing that could make that sound.
A lion.
Kristi sat bolt upright. “That’s close.”
Malik got up from the bed, walked to the window, and stared. “It’s very close. Yo, check this out.”
Kristi stood, walked over to him, still naked. “Oh, God! Look at them!”
A pride of lions had stopped to explore the SUV. One lioness sat on the roof, another on the hood, their cubs playing near the front tires. A male lion sat a short distance away, watching over his family, letting the other lions know this was his territory with deep, short roars.
“That sound—it gives me shivers.” Kristi slipped her arm around Malik’s waist.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, kissed the top of her head. “I think it’s supposed to. That’s your DNA saying, ‘Run!’”
They stood there, Kristi watching and laughing at the antics of the cubs, some of whom climbed on the male, who endured it all with patience. “Those cubs are so cute.”
But Malik’s gaze was on Kristi—the happy smile on her face, the light in her eyes, her beautiful naked body.
Her smile faded into a look of concern. “If that’s now the lions’ SUV, how are we going to get out of here?”
“Let’s hope they move on by the time we’re ready to go. If not, I can try opening the door and firing a shot to scare them off.” Malik took her into his arms. “Think of it this way. As long as a pride of lions is hanging on our front steps, no one is going to sneak up on us.”
“That’s true.” She stood on her tiptoes, kissed him. “You’re incredible, Malik. No man has ever made me feel the way you do.
“Good.” He kissed her back.
Graceful brows drew together. “I tried to tell you something last night, but you were already asleep.”
“Sorry about that.” Sex had finished what was left of him. “Tell me now.”
She hesitated. “I want strings.”
“Good.” He couldn’t help the idiotic smile that spread across his face—or the way his pulse skipped. He cupped her face between his palms. “I’m not walking away this time, Kristi. Not this time.”
Her face lit up with a smile that he felt in his bones. “You’d better not. Saying goodbye once was hard enough.”
It had been hard.
“I won’t be that stupid twice.”
More roars from outside.
He kissed her again, reluctant to let her go. “I hate to say it, but we need to get moving.”
They dressed, and he dug through the MREs. “Guess what? Same thing for breakfast today as yesterday.”
“Sounds good to me.”
They ate quickly, packed up their things, and straightened the cabin, wanting to leave the place the way they’d found it.
Kristi glanced outside, backpack on her shoulder. “Now what?”
The lions weren’t gone, but they had moved a short distance away from the SUV.
“If I unlock the SUV’s doors from here and you climb in on this side, I think we can make it. What do you think?”
They would have to move fast, but the SUV was now between them and the pride.
“I’m game if you are.”
Malik put his duffel on his back, grabbed the rifle, checked it. Then he used the remote to unlock the doors. “I’ll get in the driver’s seat. You climb into the rear passenger seat.”
“Got it.”
“Ready?” He opened the door—and the lions fled, heading toward the trees. “Well, that made this easy.”
But Kristi ran past him. “Not taking chances!”
She opened the door, threw the water inside along with her backpack and shut the door behind her.
Chuckling, Malik got into the driver’s seat, settled the rifle, its barrel pointing down, and closed his door. “See? No problem.”
While Kristi made her way into the front passenger seat, Malik entered the coordinates of the railway bridge into the navigation console and started the engine, sending silent thanks to Ranger Tinubu.
Because of him, they were rested and had a full tank of gas.
They stayed for a moment to watch as the lions disappeared into the forest.
“You don’t realize how big they are until you see them up close like this.” There was a note of awe in Kristi’s voice.
But it was time to go.
The predators that were hunting them were far more dangerous than lions.
“Next stop, the Niger River.” Malik could only hope that his crazy gambit would pay off and they’d be able to make it safely across the river.
16
The forest gave way to savanna as they drove toward the river, the sun well over the horizon now, a hip hop mix playing on the sound system. It was almost like being on a fantastic road trip—except, of course, that killers were after them.
Kristi listened to Malik as he told her about the first time he’d come to Nigeria back when he was an Army Ranger.
“The plan was to train a regiment of Nigerian soldiers to fight the way we fight so they would be better equipped to deal with Boko Haram. We got settled in at our new base and my staff sergeant asked me if I felt more at home here.” Malik shook his head. “I didn’t know what the hell he meant at first.”
Kristi understood. “He thought that you would feel at home in Africa because you’re Black.”
“Yeah.” Malik gave a snort. “What the hell was he thinking? I’ve got African ancestry, but I have no idea where my people come from. I was born and grew up in the States. The US is my home. I’m as American as he is.”
Kristi could relate. “When I did a semester abroad in China, my American friends in the dorm thought I knew everything about China just because I was Chinese-American. The train schedule, how to get to places I’d never been, where to get the best street noodles, how to clear up a visa dispute. I had to remind them that I was American just like they were and that, although I speak Mandarin, I’d never lived in China.”
“I bet that got old real fast.”
“It did. I felt responsible for everything, even though it was all new to me, too. I had my grandparents, of course, and t
hey helped. But they expected me to understand parts of Chinese culture that I’d never experienced before. I felt lost in the middle.”
“That must have been hard.”
“Sometimes, but it was worth it. By the time I went home, I had learned so much. It helped me to understand my father and to appreciate how complicated it must have been for him to adapt to American culture when he married my mother.”
Ahead of them, just off the road, a group of vultures crowded around roadkill, hopping from spot to spot, a confusion of dark wings, bald heads, and hungry beaks.
“I guess these guys found some breakfast,” Malik said.
Interested in the enormous birds, Kristi looked as they passed—and her stomach fell. “Oh, God. That was a person. They’re eating a dead man.”
“Geezus.”
“Shouldn’t we stop?”
“What would we do? Chase off the birds and bury what’s left?”
Kristi turned in her seat, looked behind her, a knot in her chest. “How can we just leave him?”
Malik reached over, took her hand. “My mission is to get you safely back to the US. As cold as it seems just to drive by, we can’t slow down. From what I saw, there’s not much left anyway.”
She faced forward again, breathing deep to calm her emotions.
“Do I need to stop? Are you going to be sick?”
Kristi might have laughed if the circumstances were different. “Oh, please! I’m an ER nurse, remember?”
“Right. I suppose you’ve seen everything.”
“Now I have.” She hoped never to see anything like that again.
He squeezed her fingers. “You’ve got such a big heart, Kristi. I love that about you. But the only person whose life and safety I can worry about right now is you.”
She squeezed back. “I know—and I’m grateful. Without you…”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course—anything.”
“How do you cope when a patient dies?”
“It can be heartbreaking, especially when it’s a child. I remember so many people’s faces and their last words. When we lose a patient, I try to give their family the support they need. For them, it’s the worst moment of their lives. Helping them face their grief helps me get through it. But there have been lots of times when I’ve had to take a break and cry my eyes out.”
“I can’t imagine the strength it takes to do your job.”
“I could say the same about you. You’ve lost people, too.”
“Yeah—too many.” He glanced down at the navigation console. “We should be coming up on the river soon. We’ll pass through a village, and the river is about two klicks from there.”
Kristi kept her face downturned, not wanting to be seen. After the wildlife preserve, it felt strange to see lots of people again. A woman carrying a load of branches on her head for firewood. A young boy herding a few cattle. Two older men standing together, laughing about something. A little girl carrying a baby goat.
They drove through the town, passing through its marketplace, and then the village was behind them, the landscape becoming sandier and greener as they got closer to the river.
And then she saw it—a bend in the river giving her a glimpse of dark water off to her right. “I wonder if we’ll see any crocodiles when we cross.”
“There’s the bridge.”
She looked ahead of them and saw it. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah.”
The bridge appeared to be intact, resting on concrete piles and stretching fifteen hundred feet to the other side of the Niger. But it was barely wide enough for the SUV, and it was a good hundred feet above the water.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“No, but I don’t see many other options, unless you want to leave the SUV, take a boat, and steal something on the other side.”
Right now, that seemed like a completely reasonable alternative to Kristi.
He drew to a stop, parked. “I’ll walk across, see if I think it’s safe. Stay here and keep the doors locked.”
“Be careful. If you fall in…”
“I won’t.” He grabbed the pistol, tucked it into his jeans, and was gone.
Malik walked up to the bridge and bent down to examine the concrete piles that supported it. He couldn’t see all of them, but the ones he could see looked stable and secure. Still, it was obvious that the bridge hadn’t been maintained properly in a long time. Birds had built nests beneath it, and foliage had begun to grow in the concrete.
He walked out onto the structure, checking the individual ties for rot or cracks and looking for loose spikes and bolts. He wasn’t afraid of heights, but walking along, the rushing water visible between each tie, made him a little dizzy. He willed himself to get over that, to focus on the ties and not the water below.
It took him ten minutes to inspect the length of it. Walking back, he noticed logs floating beneath it from somewhere upstream. Then one of the logs slashed its tail through the water, raised its head, and snapped at another.
Geezus!
Not logs. Crocodiles. Big ones.
As long as they stayed on the bridge, the crocs wouldn’t be a problem. But staying on the bridge wouldn’t be easy. It had been built for a relatively narrow gauge train with the rails about three and a half feet apart with the ties sticking out about a foot on either side—barely wide enough for the SUV. He would have only a few inches of wiggle room on either side before a tire went off the edge and sent them plummeting into the water below.
Great idea this was, man.
It was their only option apart from ditching the vehicle and paying someone to ferry them across. Then they’d have to walk, or he’d have to hotwire a vehicle—or risk renting one again.
No, this was their best chance of getting over unseen. All he had to do was drive in a very straight line.
He reached the vehicle, climbed into the driver’s seat. “The bridge is in good shape. Just don’t look down.”
“Don’t look down.” Her eyes were hidden behind her sunglasses, but he could tell by her voice that she was afraid.
“If you want to climb out and walk across—”
She grabbed his hand, shook her head. “If you fall in, I’m going with you.”
“No one is going to fall into the river.” Sweet Jesus, don’t let us fall into the river. “I am going to need my hand back.”
“Oh. Right.” She let go, clasped her hands in her lap.
He started the engine, headed toward the railroad tracks. “I’m going to try to get a tire on either side of the rails.”
It was a bumpy process, but he managed it.
He climbed out to double check the tire placement, then climbed in again. “Close your eyes if you need to.”
Keeping the vehicle at about five miles per hour, he nudged the SUV forward, moving down the tracks and onto the bridge. “Easy does it.”
Thu-thunk thu-thunk thu-thunk.
Kristi whispered to herself. “Don’t look down. Don’t look down.”
“I’ve got this, angel.” He sure as fuck hoped he did.
He expected they’d survive the fall, but he wasn’t sure they’d survive the river. If they didn’t drown, they’d run a high risk of becoming lunch.
Fuck that.
He focused straight ahead, held the wheel steady, the tires finding a rhythm over the uneven surface of railway ties and the space between them.
Thu-thunk thu-thunk thu-thunk.
Kristi sat, absolutely silent and still, beside him.
“Breathe, Kristi.” He heard her exhale, his gaze fixed on the tracks ahead of him. “We’re already a third of the way across.”
“I’m keeping my eyes shut.”
He couldn’t blame her for that. Looking ahead, he could see they were on tracks, but if he looked out his side window, there was nothing but a sheer drop to the river.
He drove slowly forward.
Pop!
Kristi gasped as the v
ehicle jerked to the right.
Malik got control of it again, but he knew what had happened. “We lost our front right tire. It was probably punctured by a spike or bolt. We’ve got a spare in the back. We’re good.”
They had a spare. One spare. If they blew a second tire, they’d be in trouble. Either way, they had no option but to keep moving forward.
Thwap-thunk thwap-thunk thwap-thunk.
“We’re halfway there.”
The blown tire made it more difficult to steer, but he held on, fighting a constant pull to the right.
“Do you hear that?” Kristi asked.
“What?”
“It sounds like…” Kristi looked over her shoulder. “A train!”
He glanced in his rearview mirror, saw a freight train speeding toward the bridge behind them. “No fucking way!”
“I thought Ranger Tinubu said this bridge wasn’t in use!”
“He said it wasn’t used often. Hang on.” Malik accelerated, but the faster he went, the harder it was to control the steering.
They were two-thirds of the way across now. Just another five hundred feet to go.
But the train was moving much faster.
Kristi looked over her shoulder. “It’s catching up with us!”
The conductor gave them a deafening blast of his whistle, waving through his window for them to go faster, the train so close Malik could see his face.
Malik floored it, pushing hard on the gas. If they went over the side, so be it. He’d take the river and crocodiles over being flattened by a train. “Hang on!”
Kristi screamed as the train came right up behind them.
The SUV reached the other side, catching air as Malik drove it up over the rails and down the embankment, the train tearing by, missing them by mere feet.
For a moment, they sat there, Malik’s heart thrumming, Kristi looking stunned.
“You okay?” Malik reached over, took her hand.
“Yeah.” She gave a stiff nod, but her hands were shaking. “I’m fine.”
He unbuckled his seatbelt, reached over, hugged her. “As long as we’re still alive and fighting, angel, we’re winning.”
She leaned into him, took a deep breath, exhaled. “Well, we just won big.”
