Page 15 of Loving Graystoke's Heir

He owed her his life.

Her memory had given him the strength to fight and stay alive when he had been convinced he should end it all, but he knew that the separation he’d put between them would need to stay if he wanted to give her the gift of life as well.

Donal fell into a deep sleep with her voice echoing in his heart, where she’d always been.

Chapter Four

When the women exited their tent the next morning, they found the rest of camp packed and ready to go. It was Thabisa who spoke first. “There better be coffee, Sifiso.”

Laughing, Donal nodded at the stove. “I am quite aware of what would happen if I didn’t have that ready.”

Amahle’s smile was infectious. “I have to wonder why you have a smile this early in the morning.” She swept her gaze over the camp. “What were you doing all night?”

Picking up a bowl of phutu, Thabisa sat down on the back bumper of their vehicle to eat her porridge. “I heard some noise in the underbrush. Did you see anything in the area?”

Donal didn’t want to tell them he was some of the noise in the underbrush. “I saw a few gorillas in the night, but that was all.” He took a bowl from Amahle’s hand and gave her a thankful smile. “I did take some time to do some scouting in the area.”

“You went out on your own?” Zenzile hissed after her first sip of coffee before blowing lightly over the surface. “Perhaps you forgot that the four of us are on patrol together.”

He swallowed a spoonful of the porridge and set the wooden spoon back into the bowl as the other women focused their gazes on him. “I didn’t forget. Like you said,” he nodded at Thabisa, “there was noise in the brush and more nearby. It made sense to go and look.”

Amahle was one who liked to be the peacemaker in the group. “And he didn’t go after anyone in the dark. He did some scouting.”

Donal shared a smile with her. “I’ve got a good idea of where we can find the hunters. Once you’ve all had a bite to eat-”

Zenzile pulled the bowl from his hand and started walking toward the jeep. “You can eat on patrol.”

Thabisa’s look told him that she thought he was getting off easy and he almost agreed with her. If any of them had known what he was really doing in the dark, they would not be so easy with him. In fact, they might not be willing to patrol with him at all.

He heard the laughter echoing inside his head.

They might surprise you.

I don’t need your two cents.

Is it worth so little?

It would be more if I wasn’t going hungry.

The laughter grew louder as he followed Zenzile to the jeep. She just might let him drive when she admitted she was hungry.

If she admits it.

Donal couldn’t agree with his gorilla more. He also understood the need to get on the road. He knew the hunters were out there, but he also knew that the four of them couldn’t run on empty. The camp sites they had seen before, on other patrols, were usually littered with empty bottles of alcohol. The hunters that paid to kill for trophies and those that poached animals for money rarely took care to eat or sleep. They were likely still sprawled out in their tents and would probably wake up with hangovers. They would find them soon, if not in the next few hours.

His gorilla’s sojourn into the brush had shown him the direction to take and he’d smelled the scent of senseless death in the air. If he thought that they had a live animal in their camp he would have gone further. He would have gone after them himself, but what they’d shot, they had killed and butchered.

Donal let that knowledge fuel his anger, but also his determination to bring this particular group of men to justice for their special brand of evil.

Climbing into the back of the jeep, Donal accepted the bowl back from Zenzile. The sharp points at the ends of her smile brought an answering grin from him.

“This is going to be a good hunt today.”

He nodded in return. “I know it will be.”

* * *

For Tamsin, it turned out that staying through the night had been one of her best nights in a long time. Back in America, her nights were solitary. Her thoughts, preoccupied. Her heart, heavy and filled with worry.

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