A man could survive hard ground. Flooded roads. Bad fences. Men with rifles who thought darkness made them clever. Guests who believed money made them immune to consequence.
Wanting was the problem. It asked for routes no map had approved.
I looked through the window toward the yard. Daniel stood by the eastern vehicle, one boot on the running board, speaking to Elias with his head bent over the clipboard. Sarah crossed behind them, already arguing with someone on the phone. Mbeki loaded cones into the back of a truck. Armand walked toward reception with his shoulders squared and a guest-facing smile sharpened into place.
The reserve needed me.
Still.
That was the problem.
My inbox showed Mara Khaya’s renewal email beneath Summer’s proposal. Better authority. Wider reach. More resources. A clean professional future in a place built for the kind of danger I understood.
And on my phone, Sofia’s message thread sat open.I can.
Two words.
No distance in them.
I sat again and opened a blank reply to Summer. The cursor blinked. I typed the first sentence, deleted it, and leaned back.
Too fast. Too eager. Christ.
I could face a man at a breached fence with steadier hands than I could answer a professional inquiry from a woman who was not even the woman I wanted.
The door opened without a knock. Daniel stepped in and stopped. His gaze moved from my face to the laptop.
“That face says I should leave.”
“Consulting inquiry.”
“From?”
“Wilder Horizons.”
Daniel paused. “Juliette Wilder’s company?”
“Yes.”
“Ah.”
I gave him a look. He ignored it with the confidence of a man already promoted into inconvenience.
“We’ll stay on modified alert for six weeks,” he said. “I’ll run eastern patrol and contractor review with Sarah.”
“You have enough work.”
“I had enough work yesterday. Still here.”
I looked back at the screen. “The reserve isn't stable.”
“The reserve is never stable.” He crossed his arms. “That's why we have jobs.”
A radio crackled outside. Three clipped words. A vehicle door shut. The day kept moving without permission. Daniel nodded toward the laptop. “You going?”
“I’m reading.”
“No one reads like that over nothing.”
