“Cheetah,” the guide said, bobbing the light beam, which struck reflective eyes.
Leighton sucked in a breath. “Wow!”
The large cat darted off, clearly annoyed by the intrusion of people and light into its domain.
“Cats like this area,” Bakari explained as he tossed aside the flashlight and pulled away from the spot. “It is elevated and the sign is high. Looks out over the plain.” He gave a laugh and pointed ahead of them. “Ah, your friends are on the way back.”
“Friends,” Leighton sniffed quietly beside him as they both looked and spotted headlamps in the distance.
Yeah, his friends might refer to Omen, but never the royals. Which reminded Owen of Rawlins’s warning that the extraction would happen here on this reserve. Which was great…but where? When? How was he to ready himself and Leighton if he didn’t know the logistics?
Bakari went a little further before again easing to the side of the road. This time, he hiked up from his seat and onto the floorboard, where he straightened to his full height and angled a spotlight over the scraggly plain. There he traced an undulating area that almost seemed like an ebony sea where dark forms slowly took shape.
“Wildebeest!” Leighton said, pushing in front of him to look through the window.
Owen shifted back, appreciating a little too much her nearness.
“I can’t see them.”
“Here.” Owen shifted, putting a knee in the seat, and drew her next to himself. The open window allowed them to lean out a bit.
“Oh, perfect.” Expression alive, she edged forward, tucking loose strands of hair behind her ears as she visually traced the terrain. Her eyes widened. “I see them!”
Owen joined her, bracing and focusing on the teeming herd. Not on her sweet fragrance that was a bit soapy, a bit rose-smelling, or her effervescent excitement.
The guide’s bright beam skidded across the darkness and found two giraffes gliding toward a glistening water source.
“This is amazing,” Leighton said, her smile bright and wide. “I’m so glad we came out.” She gave him a smile. “Thank you.”
His heart jammed into his throat. He coughed a laugh. “Why’re you thanking me? All I did was say there was another vehicle.”
She shrugged, suddenly shy.
The soft crunch of sticks and brush to his left made his nerves buzz. A soft brush against his fingers, which were dangling down out of the Cruiser, made him jerk back. His mind took two seconds too long to awaken. Alert him to the lion stalking dangerously close.
Leighton let out a yelp and jerked back, pulling her hands and arms back inside as she retreated. “Lions!”
“It’s good,” Bakari reassured. “It’s good.”
A lioness loped into view and leapt at the Cruiser in threat.
Owen shoved from the window, falling into Leighton. “Sorry!” he apologized even as they felt the vehicle rock beneath the impact.
With a loud laugh, Bakari cut the light. “She is temperamental.”
“Sorry,” Owen repeated and scrambled off Leighton, turning to help her off the floorboard. “You okay?”
“I’m fantastic,” she breathed with more than a little exuberance. Expression alight, she surged back in the seat, brushed her hair from her face, and released another, airier laugh. “Did that really just happen—it touched my hand!”
“Mine too,” he said with a chuckle.
“Much excitement,” Bakari said as he hustled back into the driver’s seat. And with that they were underway. “She gone. All good.”
“Will she come after us?”
“No, we go. All good. Just keep moving.”
Headlamps glared straight in through the windshield as the other Cruiser came upon them, then passed their vehicle in an unsettling moment that felt as if the entire world had dropped into a painfully slow-mo reel. While Leighton shifted, putting her back to the windows and other vehicles, clearly not wanting to face the royals, literally or figuratively, Owen wasn’t going to cower. He saw Aliyah waving happily, Rayan glowering, but the others feigned as much indifference as Leighton offered.
