"Some of them are! The spider monkeys! The lemurs! Not thethousand kilo bison who live behind a fence! The fences! Are there! For a reason!" Aoife knew she was bordering on hysterical, but she had not previously encountered this particular level of foolishness. Not personally, at least, although she'd heard stories. Lord, she'd heard stories. "Has your daughter never encountered animals she wasn't allowed to pet before? Has no one ever told hernobefore?"
Ms. Collins drew herself up in clear offense. "My daughter has done nothing wrong! Your carelessness has endangered her!"
Aoife took a deep, deep breath, cast glances at the other three, and found them all studying their toes or the bison or the skyline. Anything but looking at her. Right. She was on her own, then. She exhaled. "Fortunately, Ms. Collins, because someone else was paying attention to your child, Molly was removed from the situation before there was any actual danger to her at all. However, her, and your, behavior after that set off a very dangerous situation indeed. If my friend Elliott wasn't so astonishingly skilled in dealing with animals, we could all havebeen in real trouble. I think," she said, blood thundering in her ears, "I think that we may have to ask you to leave."
This was above her pay grade. She knew it. Dr. Kelly would probably kill her. But she wasnotgoing to stand there and be told she was responsible for Molly Collins's foolish actions when not only was the girl old enough to know better, but her parent wasright there.
Ms. Collins's jaw dropped. "You can't do that. You need my money."
"Yes." Aoife's voice was high. "Yes, we do. And you know what, I might lose my job. But somebody else can kiss your arse to make up for it, because I'm not going to do it. Not today. So I think you can find your way back to the entrance. It's not more than a ten minute walk. If the rest of you would like to join me, I want to make sure Elliott is okay."
CHAPTER 6
There were two very confused wildlife park employees at the gates when Elliott, somewhat relieved to have the whole adventure over with, jumped off the bison's back and climbed the fence to safety. That wasnothow lions dealt with giant herbivores, generally speaking. In fact, most of the time, they didn't deal with them at all.
But they were occasionally known to accidentally hitch a ride when an attempt at hunting went bad, and that was what Elliott had been trying to channel. It had worked well enough to have his lion roaring at him inside his skull:No, no, this is bad, we don't want to do this, what are you doing, stop, no!
Now, however, the big golden galoot was smug, as if had of course intended everything to work out this way and had always been entirely confident in its bison-surfing abilities. Elliott said, "Circus acrobat," to the park employees by way of explanation, then hurried past them to escape all the obvious questions that would follow.
To his huge relief, Aoife was hurrying up the pathway toward him. Kanvas the bohemian girl and both the business-suited men were with her. A red-faced, sobbing Molly and herset-jawed mother followed a considerable distance behind, but Elliott's heart and gaze were for Aoife alone. He was about to sweep down upon her and scoop her into a relieved hug when he remembered they'd only met an hour ago, and that she had no idea he had strong feelings for her. "Aoife! You're okay!"
"Elliott!" She ran forward and threw herself into his arms, hugging him hard. "You'reokay! Jaysus, me heart, you had me in bits you did! That was the bravest, stupidest thing I've ever seen anyone do!"
"You went over the fence too," he said with a laugh.
"But I didn't go all Dances With Bison!"
"I was thinkingSpy X Family," Elliott admitted, which did make her burst out with brief laughter before falling back into an almost-angry, scolding tone that was clearly more about her worry for him than actual anger.
"And neither Molly nor I were ever in any danger. It was only you. And you wouldn't have been if you hadn't gone so far into the enclosure!"
"I shouldn't have, you're right. But I knew I could outrun them, if I had to."
"But you didn't! You jumped on them! You scared the life out of me! Ah, I'm sorry," she said, finally letting go of Elliott and turning to the tour group. "I was only scared for him. I didn't mean to ignore you." Her voice hardened as she noticed the mother and daughter trailing along behind them. "I thought I told them to leave."
"You did," Kanvas murmured. "It was really hot. I mean, you were hot too, but wow."
Elliott's eyebrows rose. He could hardly blame Kanvas for thinking Aoife was attractive, but he sort of felt vaguely offended that she'd changed the focus of her interest so easily. Not that he wanted her to pursue him at all, which made his offense all the more ridiculous.
Humans,his lion said with a shake of his thick mane,complicate everything.
That was true. Elliot chuckled. "I guess I missed some good stuff."
"Oh, you have no idea," Kanvas breathed. "She tore into that woman like nobody's business. Are you likewithher with her or just with her?"
"…working on the details of that, honestly."
Kanvas's eyes lit up. "So you're saying I've got a chance."
His lion, placidly, said,No.
Elliott was trying to figure out how to convey that to Kanvas without sounding like a lunatic or a jerk when General Ross, the mustache guy, said, "Give them another chance," to Aoife. "Molly's a nice kid, just spoiled rotten."
"And her mother?" Aoife asked dryly.
"Has a lot of money."
"I'm not going to stand here and be told it's my own fault her child was in places and doing things she shouldn't," Aoife warned.
