Authors: Aliyah Burke
“
Nope. But I don’t think
Slim is going to be very hard to find. He’ll have hired himself out
as muscle. Anything to make himself a bit more money. And assert
himself as a force to be reckoned with. I don’t know for sure.” His
fingers formed claws, and he struggled to calm himself
down.
“
Okay. Then
what?”
Dane looked over at her. She turned her head
to him but her sunglasses kept him from reading the expression in
her eyes. He didn’t like that. “Then what, what?”
“
Well, once you find him.
Then what?”
“
I kill him.” Her head
snapped back to focus on the road. Dane could see the muscle
working in her jaw, and he waited for her to say something. Nothing
came. “Aida?”
“
I’m not sure how I feel
about this.”
“
What did you think I was
going to do?”
“
Bring him in to stand
trial. Or whatever the hell you military people do. What is it
called, a court martial?”
“
You want me to capture
him alive and allow him to remain that way?” Dane was
shocked.
“
Well, yeah.”
“
Why would I do
that?”
She looked at him again briefly. “Why
wouldn’t you? I don’t understand, Dane. You want revenge for what
he did, but if you go kill him, isn’t that making you the same as
him?”
He stared at her, her
words echoing through him. He was
nothing
like Slim. She just didn’t
get how things were. “You don’t understand, Aida,” he bit
off.
“
I know. I’m not Special
Forces, and I didn’t have someone betray my trust like you did.”
She shook her head and said in a softer voice, one tinged with
sadness and resignation, “I’m sorry, Dane. What you do is your
business. I had no right to say anything.”
“
Aida,” he
said.
“
Drop it, Dane.” The order
was issued through clenched teeth.
Dane glanced at her. He could see the fury
vibrating through her. Her body was stiff and unyielding as she
drove.
She’ll never accept what
you truly are.
The taunt came from the
darkness who never lingered far away, always ready to add in doubt
or egg on anger.
He swallowed hard, not even daring to allow
his mind to think things like that. As she steered them across the
wide open plains of South Africa, he alternated between watching
her and staring at the scenery that graced the country she called
home.
As it flew by, he ignored the voices in his
head which told him Aida would push him away if she ever found out
the truth of what he was. Not to mention what he’d done. When she
stopped in the afternoon for a meal, he was wound tightly, coiled
and edgy. If she noticed, she didn’t say anything about it. In
fact, Aida remained completely silent.
Dane sat on the tailgate and watched her
walk around. He could feel her putting up blocks around her heart,
and he didn’t like it. With a low grunt of frustration, he jumped
up and strode determinedly toward her. She stood, hands in the back
pockets of her pants, facing away from him, overlooking the
horizon.
“
Talk to me, Aida,” he
said, stopping beside her.
“
About what?”
“
What’s bothering
you?”
“
Nothing’s bothering me.
I’m fine.”
“
Do
not
lie to me,” he bit off with a
snarl.
He could sense her
thoughts were a jumbled mess. But he couldn’t get a bead on any of
them, and he didn’t want to lower his shields. And somehow, he
figured that would be the best way for him to get into them, for
there was some
thing
keeping him out. He’d been unable to reason why he’d heard
her thoughts the other night when he had no access to
her.
“
Let’s go,” she said,
spinning and walking back to the truck. “Load up, boys,” Aida
hollered.
Lifting his lip in a silent warning rumble,
he followed. Once they were all in, she began to drive again. Dane
knew she was pushing it. She punched the accelerator, and they shot
off across the plains. It was well after dark before she stopped
again.
“
We leave at first light,”
she announced, tossing him a bedroll once he’d made a
fire.
“
Aida,” he tried
again.
“
Good night.”
His question of where she
was going stopped before it even got out when he saw her vault
easily into the back of her vehicle and lay down with the dogs.
Dane struggled to control the rage rising within him.
I’ll give you this night, Aida.
With a frustrated groan, he laid upon the
blankets she’d given him. As he lay there, he remembered how nice
it’d been last night being in her arms.
Chapter Seven
Aida lay there in the back
of her vehicle, staring up at the star-studded sky.
I’ll kill him
. Dane’s
coldly uttered phrase raced around in her head, never giving her a
break. He had sounded so positive, so deadly serious about it.
Chills broke out along her skin.
Why is it bothering me so
much?
She lifted her body up so she could
see to where he lay on the ground. His eyes were shut, and although
it looked, to her, like he slept, she wasn’t positive. There were
strain lines on his handsome face. And that bothered her more than
the fact he was so ready to kill a man. Aida wanted to comfort him,
longed to make him feel happy.
Dane.
His eyes flew open, and he rose slightly to
meet her gaze. “What’s wrong, Aida?” he asked, his voice deepened
by sleep but nothing but alert.
I didn’t say anything out
loud. How did he hear me?
What am I
thinking? It’s not possible for him to have heard me. Perhaps he
was merely watching for me and saw me sit up.
Swallowing, she began to lie back down. “Nothing.
Sorry.”
Moments later, he stared
over the edge at her. “What is wrong,
solnyshko moyo
?”
“
Nothing. Really. I’m
sorry for waking you.” Aida tensed when his hand touched her
cheek.
“
Let me hold you, Aida.”
His soft tone held a need within it.
A million reasons why she should refuse
popped into her head and one why she should accept. She wanted it.
“Yes,” she murmured.
“
Be right back,” he
said.
Moments later, he jumped up into the bed
with her. He stretched out beside her and pulled her close, using
his blankets to cover them. Aida sighed. This…this was what she’d
needed. His warmth flowed through her, and Aida burrowed closer.
Dane kissed her forehead lightly before she felt him relax.
“
Night, Dane,” she
whispered.
“
Good night,
solnyshko moyo
,” he
responded in a tone so light she wasn’t sure if she’d misunderstood
him or not.
Aida gave herself over to some much-needed
sleep. Perfectly content in the knowledge she was safe. Dane and
her dogs close.
The morning sun rose and bathed the two
people who lay limbs intertwined in the back of a 4x4 and two dogs
with its gentle rays of warm light. She opened her eyes slowly, not
in any rush to disturb the blanket of comfort which sat tucked
around her. Aida lay on her side, Dane’s arm beneath her head and
his other one rested across her hip and down her belly. His hard
chest pressed into her back.
“
Good morning, Aida,” he
murmured deeply in her ear.
“
Morning.”
Was there a more perfect way to wake?
She didn’t move and neither did he. His fingers
began to skim along the material of her shirt and she
shivered.
“
Are we in a
rush?”
“
I thought you were,” she
said, doing her best to ignore the tendrils of heat which furled
out from her belly.
“
Waking with you in my
arms has a way of making me want to take my time.”
“
Is that so?”
His lips teased her shoulder. “Most
definitely so.”
Life would be
wonderful.
She sighed. “We should get
going. You have something which requires your
attention.”
Dane flexed his hips. “Yes, I do. When are
you going to stop running from me?”
Every single cell in her
body cried out for the man who spooned against her. Her lips parted
on a soft breath when his fingers skimmed them. His other hand
stroked up and down her outer thigh.
I
don’t think it’s just me running here, Dane.
“
Why do you deny what you
know is between us? My body burns for you, Aida. I can feel the
flames eating me alive. And I know you feel it, too.”
She did. God help her, she did. Her nipples
beaded tautly, and an ache settled between her thighs. Swallowing
hard, Aida shook her head. “I have to get you to the Northern Cape.
We need to get going.”
His arms tightened around, her preventing
her from getting up. He rolled her so she lay on his chest and they
were face to face. His eyes swirled with more of that need which
scared her. Aida stared at him, drowning in his gaze, her lust
fading into the background. She felt as if she could see into his
soul and what she saw… It was a scary place to be. Very scary.
Darkness surrounded him, and to her, it was as if a battle took
place. What kind of battle she had no inkling but what she did know
was the stakes were high. It was a battle for his soul.
“
Dane,” she
whispered.
“
Aida.” His timbre matched
hers.
“
So much pain, darkness,
such sadness. Why?” she asked, touching the side of his face. Deep
in her heart, she longed to make him feel better, craved to. Help
him to discover peace. His was a tortured soul.
“
My balance is
gone.”
It probably shouldn’t have
made sense to her but it did. “What
are
you?”
His gaze shuttered, and she could feel him
withdrawing from her. Chink by chink, she could feel the bricks
falling into place to keep him blocked off. “We should get going,”
he said quietly.
She slowly got off him and vaulted out of
the back. No words were spoken as they got ready for the day, ate
some breakfast, and got back on their way. It was towards the end
of the afternoon when she pointed and said, “There are the
mountains. We should be there just after dark.”
True to her word, she pulled into a small
town not long after the sun had set. Stopping at the petrol
station, she jumped out and headed to talk to the two men sitting
outside on old chairs. One said something to her, and she
smiled.
“
Hello,” she responded, a
bit thrown by what she was hearing. While it was a common language,
she didn’t hear it all that much given where she usually spent her
time.
“
Can you talk to them?”
Dane asked.
“
I hope so. I don’t know
but a few phrases in siSwati, but I’ll do what I can.”
Turning her attention back on the men, she
asked them if they’d seen a white man in the area. Both grinned and
pointed at Dane. Aida laughed with them. Turning to Dane, she
questioned, “What does he look like? Any defining marks?”
Dane relayed to her, and she did her best to
translate. After a while, frustrated, she asked a question in
Tswana and grinned in relief when they answered her. After about
ten minutes, she thanked them and turned back to Dane.
“
Okay. There are rumors of
a crazy white man who lives somewhere along the outskirts of the
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. That’s at the northern tip of this
province. Not much cover there. But we can get in there and have
access to the whole park.”
“
How so?”
“
There are a limited
number of visitors who come here because of the remote location.
But I’ve done some work with them with Ruger and Kamau, so I’ll
just call in a favor. Once we’re there, you’ll be on your own.” She
did her best to keep all emotion from her voice.
“
Okay. Let’s get going.”
There was a bit of excitement lacing his tone, and she knew he was
looking forward to what he was about to do. She didn’t want to
think on how that made her feel.
Turning to the two men, she relayed another
round of thanks, paid for the petrol, after which, she and Dane
were driving away into the night. Her mind raced, and she slowed
when she reached the edge of the park. There was a building with a
few lights on, and she parked before it. Jumping out, she motioned
for Dane to follow.
Aida knocked on the door and stuck her head
in. A smile filled her face when her gaze landed on a tall dark man
bent over a desk.
“
Hey, stranger,” she said
in Tswana.
The man looked up and grinned, his white
teeth gleaming against his nearly black skin.
“
Aida,” he replied fondly.
She met him halfway and hugged him heartedly, a feeling of anger
lingered in the back of her mind, as it had when she hugged
Christopher. “What are you doing here?”
“
I brought a friend with
me to see the park,” she said in Dutch. “Dane, this is my friend
Kgosi. Kgosi, Dane.”
The men shook hands and exchanged
pleasantries in Dutch. Kgosi looked at her and crossed his arms.
“You want to go in tonight?”