Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“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
ETHAN
I wished I could have put the bullet in Giovanni’s gut instead of the poacher’s head. This was a mess. I’d thought the chances of running into poachers were unlikely, but I had the worst fucking luck on missions.
The Land Cruiser hadn’t yet come to a stop as Olivia jumped out and headed off, presumably for her room.
“Go take care of her,” Giovanni said.
I nearly stopped breathing. Another kill order? The poacher I’d done to speed the death along, as Gio’s shot had been fatal. But this?
Never.
“No,” Giovanni continued, understanding the hesitation. “Make sure she’s not going to do something stupid.” As in alert the authorities.
I was certain my face didn’t show an ounce of what I was feeling on the inside. I climbed out of the truck and followed her, thankful he was gone from my sight, even though it was in direct conflict of my mission. A pair of gray monkeys skittered across my path and darted up a tree, calling to me when I knocked on her door.
She didn’t answer.
I wondered if I was going to have to pick the simple lock, but then soft footsteps thumped closer and she came into view, less than pleased when she saw who it was.
“What is it?” She only cracked it a few inches, like the simple glass door would be able to stop me if I wanted to get into her room.
“I need to know if you’re all right.”
She didn’t look like she’d been crying. She looked . . . the same. Maybe more wary of me, but that was a good thing. The weird unease in me grew. She hadn’t fallen apart.
“I’m not the one who just killed somebody, so maybe I should be asking you that.”
I couldn’t help the sarcasm. “You’re worried about me?”
“No, I guess not. You seem rather comfortable with what went down.”
It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. I didn’t want her thinking I was a coldblooded killer, even though that was often the role I played.
“I didn’t draw my gun until I had no other choice. Giovanni’s shot hit the poacher in the chest. A punctured lung or worse. That man was in for a very slow, very painful death.” Her lack of response forced me to be direct. “Are we going to run into issues about this?”
Her face turned to ice. “No. I won’t cause problems for you.”
“Good. I know what I said, but don’t come to dinner tonight. Giovanni is dangerous, and you need to stay away.”
I didn’t bother to be polite or say goodbye. Instead, I left her standing in her doorway, thinking I’d just threatened her. But I’d taken off because she’d unknowingly lied to me. Her green eyes and smart mouth were already causing me a mountain’s worth of problems.