Daniel’s cell clamored a text alert from the Navarra’s passenger seat. Uchendu’s emergency burner phone number flashed on the screen. Too hot here. Coming to you with luggage. Have bikini. You supply the pool.
Daniel’s mood lifted as he swung the Navarra back toward home. Uchendu’s coded message had her safely out of Nigeria, on her way to Thabazimbi with her brother in tow. He’d make a few phone calls and get her safely to London, as promised, before the week was out. Things were heating up. In fact, he was going to have to put the heat to Gessup. The sooner the better, he grinned. Then he’d see if he could heat things up with Melanie.
Without the grandeur of the Bushveld lake with its rhinos, the lake connecting Dave’s farm to Gessup’s was as beautiful. The lake shone silver in the moonlight and the undulating grasses teemed with a world of wildlife. Melanie made her way to the gazebo on the lakeshore by the lodge Dave’s great-grandfather had built sixty years earlier. She hated snakes. She was sure one would strike as she pushed through the grass and into the manicured clearing. However, Dave had called, begging her to meet him despite the late hour.
Dave jumped to his feet as she neared. “Before you say anything, I’ve got to get this out. When you showed up a year ago, I wasn’t doing well. I’d made a mess of the estate and didn’t think I could work my way out of it. But you were like this bright, shining ray of hope. A sign, you know? This beautiful girl, American like me, shows up and takes up here in Thabazimbi. I know things were rough for you, too – which is why I was waiting. Things are better now. The Lodge is doing well. I can offer you -”
A tirade of angry voices, followed by strange clanking noises, echoed across the lake. Then another spat of yelling, this time in a foreign language. Gunshots shattered through the night air. Melanie heard Billy Gessup scream. Heart pounding, she realized she was screaming too. Dave pulled her from the gazebo and into the tall grass.
Another gunshot rang. Dave jerked away from her, grunting. He fell into the grass, out of sight. Melanie screamed again, cut short by a hand clamped across her mouth. She found herself on the ground, crushed by the weight of a man on top of her. Gunshot. The grass rippled and the bullet hissed overhead. She tried to scream, but couldn’t.
“Don’t move,” Daniel’s voice growled in her ear, breaking through the terror. The hand slipped from her mouth and his lips were on hers before she could think, gently at first and then deepening in urgency. Melanie melted into him. “I’ll be back to take care of you.”
Daniel rolled off of Melanie and crouched next to Dave. “He’ll live.” That’s when she noticed the gun silhouetted in his other hand.
Annette Connor (USA)
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