Page 38 of Ambush

A frown crouched between her brown eyes. “I saw you were in trouble. They get you at all?” She stopped to wipe her bloody hands on the grass.

He shook his head. “How’d you know I needed help?”

She turned and gestured toward the nearby shed. “I was grabbing some straw and saw them circling you like inThe Lion King. Did you go in there with them?”

“No. They were in the outer enclosure, and I went in to clean. They got through the gate somehow.”

“They’re smart. Did Clara manage to open it?”

“I don’t see how. It’s got a black-key lock. It’s not like she could perform her usual trick of opening an S lock.”

She reached into the Gator and pulled out a set of binoculars she fitted to her eyes. “The lock is off, Blake. Have a look.”

He took the binoculars she offered and focused them. The lock hung open, but he knew it appeared locked before he entered through the outer gate. Something had happened here last night, and it seemed someone didn’t want him to discover what. That person had risked their own life by tampering with the lock sothe gate appeared secure yet allowed the clever hyena to get into the perimeter enclosure.

Blake lowered the binoculars and turned around, nearly coming nose to nose with Lacey. “Oops, sorry.” He stepped back, but she moved with him, staying close enough for the heady fragrance of her flowery perfume to follow.

Her lush lips were parted invitingly, and she ran a pale pink nail across his chest. “If you’d really like to thank me, a kiss would do.”

The blatant invitation in her voice and body language was impossible to misconstrue. “Uh, how about a heartfelt thank-you?”

“You can do better than that.”

Without warning, her slim arms snaked around his neck, and she reached up to plant her lips against his. Her soft body pressed against him, and he opened his eyes wide with alarm. He reached up and took her arms to try to pull them away from his neck, but she tightened her grip.

“Don’t fight it,” she murmured against his mouth. “I’ve seen the way you watch me.”

He managed to gently wrench her arms away and blocked her with his arm when she made a move to engage in another clutch session. “I’m sorry, Lacey. I, uh, I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I’m not looking for a romantic relationship.”

Over her shoulder he spied Paradise, mouth gaping and eyes wide as she took in the scene. She’d clearly misread the situation. And why wouldn’t she? From her perspective she’d just broken up a romantic liaison.

She whirled and, hand to her mouth, raced down the dirt road toward the fennec fox enclosure. Lacey grabbed at his forearm as he leaped past her to follow Paradise, but her fingers slid off.

“Paradise, wait!” he called.

She gave no indication she heard him, or if she did, she only picked up her pace to escape. She’d been as skittish as a new fawn when she got here, and he feared every inch he’d gained was about to be lost forever.

Chapter 18

Paradise couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.Stupid, stupid.What had made her think anything would change? Blake had betrayed her once, and she should have expected he’d do it again. Seeing him in that embrace with Lacey was a stab to the heart she didn’t think she’d recover from. She’d spent last night daydreaming about what could be, only to fall off a cliff of reality today. The sight of Lacey in his arms after her own run-in with Greene was especially painful—were all men only after one thing?

But Blake had always been different, and he deserved much more than someone like her. Maybe Lacey was that someone special who would make him happy. What would it take to get it through her thick head that no one had ever wanted her for herself—and no one ever would? She never should have come back here. Even digging out the truth about her parents’ murders wasn’t worth the pain clawing at her chest right now.

“Paradise!”

Blake’s voice calling her name was as discordant as nails on a chalkboard—and just as unwelcome. She wanted to be alone to lick her wounds. Her first instinct had been to run to littleRosy, the fennec fox she’d spent so much time with. Rosy was like her—softer inside than people realized but too prickly to make into a pet. Rosy didn’t like to be petted, but she would sit and listen with her intelligent and sympathetic eyes fixed on Paradise’s face. Her kits were just as sweet.

Once Paradise hit the door into the small shed housing Rosy, tears leaked from her eyes and scalded her cheeks. She shut the door behind her and clicked the lock to keep Blake out. How did she even face him after showing how much his betrayal had wounded her? She wasn’t going to talk to him no matter how much he begged her to open the door.

The little fox’s enormous ears pricked in her direction, and the sorrowful vocalization told her Rosy already detected her pain. Rosy trotted to join Paradise and curled into a ball by her feet. Her kits held back at first, then they, too, sidled over to join their mother. Their father, always the more skittish one, peered at her from a far corner. She checked the impulse to scoop up Rosy and snuggle her to her chest. Rosy’s long nose settled onto Paradise’s shoe, and Paradise squatted beside the small animals and tried to block out the sound of Blake’s voice on the other side of the door.

“Paradise, I know how it appeared, but it isn’t what you think. Uh, Lacey has a crush, that’s all. She made a move I wasn’t expecting, and you saw it at the worst possible time. I wasn’t kissing her. I was trying to remove her arms from around my neck.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Her shout made Rosy cower and whine, and the kits ran to the corner. Paradise touched Rosy on the head, then drew back her hand before she caused the little fox more distress. “Go away, Blake. Just leave me alone.”

The lock clicked and the door swung open. She dashed the tears from her eyes and hoped he wouldn’t realize how distraughtshe was from his behavior. She should have realized he’d have a key to every lock on the property.

Blake’s face was ashen, and his eyes held desperation. “I’m not going away. We’re going to face this and talk about it. I think Lacey recognized how I felt about you and was making a desperate attempt to snare my attention. I didn’t want to hurt her after she’d just saved me from a very bad situation.”

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