Page 39 of Loving Graystoke's Heir

She jumped out of the jeep with Magheli following on her heels.

Donal stepped out and held up his hands toward Tamsin. He didn’t miss the softening of her expression, or the way she leaned into his body as he helped her down to the ground. “Stay close.”

She didn’t argue with that. She took the hand he offered her and walked beside him to the front of their jeep. Two more Bandile patrol vehicles pulled up behind them and flanked on either side.

Paulie Provenza had been running safari trips for tourist groups for nearly all his adult life. He’d come over to Africa for a military assignment and ended up returning after his time was up. For the last four years, he’d run one of the best tourist groups in the area.

The man didn’t bend for money. He cared about the land like the Bandile, realizing that if people didn’t protect the resources, they wouldn’t be there in the future.

Paulie hopped down from his vehicle and took a moment to reassure the people in the back of his truck. Three men remained with the tour group, while Paulie and one of his men jogged forward to meet them.

Paulie made the first introduction. “My son, Jaco. Sifiso, we’re glad we met you out here. I need to get my people back to our office, but I wanted the Bandile to know there’s trouble out tonight.”

A quick-fire question and answer interchange gave them more information than they had before, but also more anger… frustration.

When they’d finished their questions, Paulie shook their hands and turned to leave, but his son, Jaco stayed in place.

“I want to go back with them.” They could all see his father balking at the idea. “I can help them, Pa.”

Paulie set a calming hand on his son’s shoulder. “Jaco, this is dangerous. You saw how many guns they had on them.”

“I saw how many they had. I know what we’re up against, but this is important for all of us to help.”

Donal saw the tension in Paulie’s shoulders. He easily understood the older man’s reticence. Jaco was his son, and he didn’t want to see the young man in danger. Donal tightened his hold on Tamsin’s hand and lifted it up so that he could cup her hand in both of his. “We’re not interested in a fight, Paulie. This is Tamsin, my ma-” He paused for a moment, reconsidering his instinct to call her their mate. It was true, even though he hadn’t marked her yet, that’s what she was. “She’s going to be my wife,” he added a look in Magheli’s direction to make a point. “I wouldn’t bring her with me if I was intending to start a gun battle. Our first intention is to hold them and extract their word to stop what they’re doing. If they show any resistance to that, we’ll take them to the police. They’re breaking laws and they will be held accountable for that.”

Jaco spoke up again, setting his own reassuring hand on his father’s shoulder. “I’ll be careful, Pa. I’m going to do this.”

Donal could see the hesitation in Paulie’s eyes. He understood that all too well.

And when Tamsin gave his hand a squeeze, he understood what she was trying to do, ease his worry. He loved her all the more because of it, but it wasn’t going to make the next few hours any less worrisome. His beast thought he was crazy and had reminded him of that more than half a dozen times on the drive alone, but that didn’t change the fact that Tamsin was right. Left alone, worrying about him, she was liable to follow.

The only way he’d be able to stop her would be to lock her away somewhere or under guard, and they had everyone near camp heading out to help.

He had to trust that he and his gorilla would be able to protect her, because there wasn’t another option. He couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not again.

* * *

The men were enjoying their evening by the fire.

Well, most of them.

The main client in the group of trophy hunters was the only one who hadn’t availed himself of the large supply of liquor that they made available to their customers.

David Rikard sat away from the rest of the group in the opening of his tent, cleaning his rifle with a precision that went beyond mere preparation. The pile of ammunition that he’d insisted on bringing to the hunt looked like a stockpile from a month-long siege.

Burke approached him as he would approach an animal on the hunt. He’d assume that the animal meant to gore him and leave him for the buzzards. Mister Rikard was like that, seemingly placid and yet, unpredictable.

And when he got it in his mind to shoot, he did so, emptying his gun and more until the animal wasn’t just dead, it was annihilated. It seemed that the man didn’t want trophies to take home. He just wanted to destroy life.

The only redeeming factor to Burke was that the man was willing to pay for the pleasure.

“What do you say, Mister Rikard. You’ve hunted more animals than you had on your list. Come morning, I think we can return to town and help you with your arrangements to return home.”

The other man set down the barrel of his rifle and gave Burke a cold, calculating look. “More by numbers perhaps, but I have one on my list that we haven’t even come close to seeing, let alone shooting.”

Burke felt a drop of sweat slide out of the hair at back of his head and roll down into his collar. “That’s true, but when we discussed your hunt, your maximum expenditure for the animals was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” Reaching into his pocket, Burke removed his phone and opened the document he’d been updating. “As it stands now, we’re approaching three hundred thousand.”

“I’m good for it.”

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