Maybe he should have opted for the safari look.
“That’s one way to say it.”
She pressed her hand against the top of her head to secure the hat covering her dark blond hair as a breeze blew it back slightly, revealing the handful of freckles sprinkled across her tanned face. She wasn’t the only one surprised by appearances. He’d expected more of a bookish-looking grad student from the snapshot her father had sent him. Instead, she was surprisingly pretty. Not his type, maybe, but very pretty. Not that it mattered. Between the time he needed to deal with his father’s failing health and his ambition of being captain for the Texas Rangers one day, a relationship at the moment didn’t exactly fit into the equation.
Especially since Shannon.
Losing her had convinced him that service to God and country were all he needed in his life.
Shoving aside his thoughts, he continued searching while trying to avoid the spindly thorns covering half the vegetation. The terrain reminded him of going out into the bush with his grandfather, a memory he’d carried with him from childhood, making the landscape feel surprisingly familiar.
Something caught his eye. He took out an empty gum wrapper from his back pocket and picked up a cigarette butt, wishing he had his equipment. “This must be what you were smelling. Looks like someone was stupid enough to almost burn down half this reserve.”
“It’s still smoldering.” Meghan took the gum wrapper and cigarette from him. “This isn’t the first time they’ve been here. The authorities found the same brand of cigarette where some poachers killed a male rhino six weeks ago.”
“Could be a coincidence.”
“Could be.”
“What would they want with a small reserve like this one?”
“Forty-thousand-plus dollars a rhino horn is enough motivation for them to strike wherever they want.”
Alex let out a low whistle. “Pretty impressive. But for someone making that kind of money, standing around and smoking while they wait for the rhino to show up seems a little low-tech. I seem to remember reading that poachers have been known to sweep in using helicopters like some high-tech black-ops scenario.”
“You make it sound like a scene from some action movie. There are basically two kinds of poachers,” Meghan said as she headed back toward the Jeep. “Those who come on foot or Jeep and simply shoot the rhino. Or the ones like you mentioned who use more high-tech methods, weapons and powerful knockout drugs. They can be in and out in a matter of minutes, severing the horn and leaving the rhino to bleed to death. We’ve already lost two out of eight at this reserve in the past three months.”
“Skilled hunters driven by financial gain and greed.” He slid into the passenger seat beside her.
“This is what you get when people are willing to pay more than the price of gold for a horn on the illegal market. Estimates are that they’re killing an average of one rhino every day. And, thanks to your sudden arrival, they missed their chance to get our rhino today.” She caught his gaze as she stepped on the gas and started for the lodge. “Who knows? You might be worth having around after all.”
Alex slid his sunglasses back on, then grabbed the metal bar of the Jeep as she followed the trail around a curve through the thick bush, wondering exactly what he’d gotten into. If she was determined to track down a team of deadly poachers, then babysitting Meghan Jordan might turn out to be much harder than he’d anticipated.
Maybe he should have ignored his father’s insistence that he come. The last time he’d taken any real time off had been months ago, and Africa wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind for his next vacation. A few days on a quiet island in the Caribbean sounded more to his liking. One day soon he was going to find himself a place where there were no people, no responsibilities and no damsels in distress.
But that day wasn’t today.
“Alex...” Meghan’s frantic voice broke into his thoughts as she pumped the brake pedal beside him. “I can’t slow down.”
“Try the emergency brake.”
She lunged for the handle, but it was already too late. Alex felt a sharp jolt as the Jeep plunged forward and smashed into the thick base of a baobab tree.
For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Then the distinct call of a bird broke through the eerie quiet of the bush. Alex tried to absorb what had just happened. The realization they weren’t going to stop...the ensuing adrenaline rush...the final impact...
He turned to Meghan, who was starting to move. “You okay?”
“I think so. I just rammed my knee into the dashboard.” She rubbed a spot on her knee. More than likely she was going to have a nasty bruise by morning. “What about you?”
“I’m okay.”
He undid his seat belt, then slowly eased out of the vehicle, alert for any signs of their rhino or any other predatory creature he’d prefer not to tangle with. At least nothing seemed broken, though he’d probably be a bit stiff in the morning. They’d been lucky. It could have been a whole lot worse. If the vehicle had flipped and they’d been thrown out... He shook his head. He wasn’t even going to go there.
He moved around to the front of the Jeep to assess the damage. The entire front end was smashed against the tree. Even if it could be fixed, it was going to be a massive repair job. Alex rubbed his temples, wishing he could erase the headache beginning to pulse. There was another, bigger issue to consider. Even though Meghan had driven out in a different Jeep, he couldn’t discount the possibility that the accident was connected to the threats against her life.
TWO
Alex kicked the side of the bumper that now sat askew. Then, pushing the frustration down, he forced himself to think logically, like the investigator he was. “Who has access to the lodge’s vehicles?”
“Access?” Meghan hobbled to the front of the vehicle to make her own assessment, her knee clearly painful. “Everyone, I suppose—or rather, the small number of people who are in the area. They’re not exactly kept under tight security. We’re in the bush, twenty minutes from the nearest town. Except for poaching, crime isn’t exactly a huge issue here.”
“And at night?”
“They’re not locked up, if that’s what you mean. They sit in the parking lot when they aren’t being used in the bush or in for maintenance. The terrain is rough on them, so it’s a lot of work to keep them running.”
“So, in other words, anyone who wanted to could have access to them.”
She rested her hands against her hips and caught his gaze. “Are you implying this wasn’t an accident? Because if you are, that’s absolutely ridiculous. Like I said, the terrain is rough. Mechanical issues with the vehicles are the norm rather than the exception.”
“I’m not implying anything. I just...”
He closed his mouth, reminding himself that he wasn’t allowed to say more to warn her about the chance of danger. It wasn’t the first time he’d questioned Ambassador Jordan’s explicit instructions. He’d prefer to simply lay out the entire
