The Guardian (A Wounded Warrior Novel)

by Anna del Mar

  Pretty much everybody at the station knew about Peter Drake’s murder and that Matthias was in Dar es Salaam, cooperating with the investigation. With the police interviewing everyone, we’d never had a chance to keep it a secret. But in an ironic twist, the murder investigation attracted all the attention at the station, providing yet another layer of cover to our bottom line mission.

  Sarah shot Rem one of her deadly looks. “You could take a break, you know, go for a walk at night near that hyena den outside the gate, spare Jade from the stench of your breath on her back, that sort of thing.”

  “Sorry, ma’am,” Rem drawled in his best country boy dialect. “No can do. Don’t like hyenas much. All that crushing power in the jaws. They remind me of you, little lady.”

  “Rem…”

  Sarah slammed her fork on the table. “Who the hell are you calling little lady?”

  “Whoa.” Rem fanned the air. “This little dragon spits out fire.”

  If the daggers Sarah shot at Rem through her eyes materialized, Rem would’ve turned into a colander. Jamie and Cara thought the whole thing was hilarious. I peeled my eyes at Rem, admonishing him for provoking Sarah. He sure knew how to rile a girl.

  Proving that she had a great sense of humor hidden somewhere in that huge brain of hers, Lara flashed me a discreet glance. Hiding a grin behind straight lips, she cleared her throat. “If Sarah and Rem mated, their offspring would have 99% probability of inheriting the recessive genetic trait that results in blue eyes. It would be almost inevitable.”

  “Yuck.” Sarah grimaced. “That’s never going to happen.”

  Rem scoffed. “Not even if the little dragon here were the last female left on earth.”

  Yep. These two were beginning to show some potential. I winked at Lara and she winked back in agreement. It could happen.

  After dinner, Rem and Zeke insisted on walking me to my bungalow, a total excess, given that I also had a ranger assigned to guard me at all times. The rain eased some, but the walkways were drenched and the swollen river had jumped its banks. Dark, muddy waters flowed beneath the pylons and swirled in growing pools around the station, delighting the frogs that hopped in droves across the walkways and over the railings, croaking an infernal chorus.

  “So did you make any progress with your investigation?” I asked Zeke.

  “Everyone at the station is spic and span.” Zeke sounded discouraged. “Background checks are mandatory and exemplary behavior is part of the qualifications to get a job at Pacha Ziwa. We’re down to scouring the security logs for irregularities.”

  “How about you?” I turned to Rem. “Have you heard anything new from your informant?”

  “Yeah,” Rem said. “The police have found evidence that suggests that Peter Drake might have been involved in trafficking more than small amounts of drugs.”

  “What kind of evidence?”

  “They found several large transfers of money to his bank accounts, amounts he couldn’t have generated from his air transport job.”

  “What do you make of that?”

  “My working theory is that Drake’s job, flying all over the Serengeti, put him in the perfect position to deal in information.”

  “Let me guess.” I bristled. “Information he fed to the poachers.”

  “Something like that.”

  “He was an all-around douchebag.”

  Rem nodded. “Yup.”

  “Do you think he had inside sources at the station?”

  It was Zeke who answered. “We must assume he did. The question is…who?”

  I sighed. “Back to where we began.”

  Zeke gave my arm a little squeeze. “We’re going to figure this out.”

  “Of course we are.” My gaze fell on Rem, who seemed particularly preoccupied and not a little downcast. “What’s eating you?”

  “That Sarah girl, the little dragon?” Rem said. “She’s just plain mean.”

  “Right.” I scoffed. “And you’re all nice and smooth like silk. If you weren’t such a condescending jerk, you’d have a chance.”

  He shot me an affronted glare. “I don’t want a piece of that witch.”

  “You so want to get into Sarah’s pants.” I flashed a knowing smirk. “But you won’t get anywhere near her unless you drop your act, stop faking that dandy persona you like to play, and approach her as if you were a human being and not a walking, talking dick.”

  Rem started to argue. “My work…”

  “Doesn’t require you to be a royal jerk.”

  “Jesus, Jade.” Rem took off his baseball cap and fidgeted with his ponytail. “You don’t hold back, do you?”

  “I’m trying to help you.”

  “Then why don’t you soak me with gasoline and light a match too?”

  “Sorry to hurt your tender feelings.”

  “Jade’s right,” Zeke said in his lovely accent. “You didn’t help the situation.”

  “Hey,” Rem said. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

  “Where a woman rules, streams flow upriver.”

  “I do love that African proverb,” I said, cracking a smile. “Rem, what is it about you that makes you such a mess when it comes to approaching a decent girl? All that staring and no action. You can face poachers and international intrigues, but you can’t ask a nice girl out?”

  The pronounced lump on Rem’s throat bounced up and down on his throat. “Do you really think she’d go out with me?”

  I shot him a sideways glare. “Only if you put some effort into her.”

  My attention shifted to the smiling ranger guarding my bungalow. Nem, I remembered his name. I greeted him with a little wave. We’d had a good talk earlier today. He was a real sweetheart, the nicest guy around. I was in the process of unlocking my door when Zeke’s radio came on. The way his jet eyes darkened and his mouth set into a grim line told me something was wrong, really wrong.

  My heart stopped beating. “Matthias?”

  “No, not Matthias,” Zeke said. “The orphanage.”

  “What about the orphanage?” Rem said.

  “There’s a fire,” Zeke reported, ear glued to his radio.

  Oh, no. The kids. “Is everybody okay?”

  “We don’t know,” Zeke said, barking orders into his radio. “Sounds like the fire broke out in the kitchen. They need help.”

  “Then let’s go.” I lunged inside, grabbed my backpack and ran out. “We need to get going.”

  “No, not you, Jade.” Rem braced his arm across the threshold, blocking the door. “You can’t leave the station.”

  “But—”

  “Not to be paranoid or anything,” Zeke said, “but we need to be extra careful.”

  Rem nodded in agreement. “Worst case scenario, this could be a trap, an effort to draw you out of the safety of the compound, a classic ambush.”

  Zeke and Rem were right, but Matthias had put so much work into the orphanage. It was his life’s project burning out there.

  “We can’t let the orphanage burn down,” I said. “We just…can’t.”

  “We won’t,” Zeke said. “I’ve ordered every available ranger to fight the fire. But you need to stay here, Jade.”

  “Okay, I’ll stay.” The kids needed help and now. “But send word as soon as you can. And Rem, you should go with Zeke. With so many rangers assigned to protecting the station, he will need all the help he can get to put the fire out.”

  “It’s not a bad idea.” Rem looked to Zeke. “I put out lots of oil fires in Iraq.”

  “Then come with us. We could use your expertise. Stay put, Jade.” He turned to the ranger at my door. “She’s confined to the bungalow until I return. Understand?”

  Nem gave a crisp nod.

  “Go,” I said. “Hurry up.”

  “And get some sleep,” Rem called out as they trotted down the walkway. “You’ve got to nail those interviews tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Like I was going to be able to get any sleep while I was fran
tic with worry.

  I took a shower, donned my comfy yoga pants and my black tank top, and spent the rest of the evening pacing my bungalow, waiting for news. The kids. I needed to know they were safe. Sarah, Lara, and Cara came as soon when they heard the news about the fire. They lingered for a while, until somewhere around ten, when Nem knocked on my door.

  “Message from Zeke,” he said in his clear English. “The fire has been put out. The children are okay. The damage is minimal. They’re sorting everything out now.”

  I let out the breath I’d been holding. Thank God, everybody was okay. The girls and I decided that tomorrow we’d find a way to get out to the orphanage and help with the cleanup. Sarah was already texting Hannah to organize some sort of fundraising for repairs. It was about eleven by the time the women went to find their own beds after a day that felt endless to my exhausted senses.

  With one crisis contained, I slid under the sheets, but sleep didn’t come easy. I kept seeing Matthias, slumped in my arms, struggling to remain conscious. I hadn’t heard a word about him since they’d taken him. Was he safe? Did he feel okay?

  I wished I was with him. I missed his voice, the solid warmth of his body lying next to me, and his touch, the only thing that seemed to appease me these days. I even missed his reproving glares and his scowls when I pissed him off. Since when had he become a requirement to my nights?

  A knock at the door startled me out of a light sleep. My mind went from zero to a hundred in three seconds. I threw the sheets aside and sat up on the bed. Moving slowly and listening carefully, I reached over to the night table and grabbed my SEAL grade tactical flashlight, the only thing close to a weapon I carried these days. I leaped out of bed and tiptoed to the door, flashlight in hand.

  “Nem?” I whispered in the darkness.

  “It’s me,” Cara’s bright voice announced from the other side. “Open up, Jade!”

  “Oh.” I let out a sigh of relief, but my nerves were strung taut and the marine in me was on duty. So I unbolted the lock, threw the door open, and aimed 1100 lumens of brilliance into Cara’s horrified face.

  “Jesus, Jade!” She shielded her eyes with her hand. “Are you trying to blind me?”

  “Sorry.” I lowered the flashlight, stuck my head out the door, and peered out into the darkness. “What the hell are you doing out here in the middle of the night? And where’s Nem?”

  “Nem’s taking a leak.” Cara nodded in the direction of the bushes. “I’ve got the runs again. I need some more of that stuff you gave me when you first got here. It’s the only thing that works.”

  “Oh.” I willed my heart to slow down and my nerves to settle. “Come in.” I marched to the coffee table, grabbed my backpack and rummaged through my first aid kit.

  Something thudded on the roof above my head. My pulse quickened and my fingers tightened around the flashlight. Another thump, this one rattling the floor as a dark shadow dropped from the eaves and landed on the deck, right in front of the sliding glass doors.

  I clicked on the flashlights, firing the blinding brilliance into my opponent’s face. For an instant, he froze, eyes wide, fangs flashing under the light. Then the dominant colobus screeched like a freaking banshee.

  Jesus. I stilled my heart with a hand to my chest. The little twerp was set on giving me a heart attack.

  “That’s weird,” I said, fishing the pills from the bottom of the kit. “That big kahuna is always hanging around here, but I’ve never seen him this late at night, ranting and raving…” It was as if he was warning me of…what?

  The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. My stomach turned to ice. I turned around slowly and found Cara, facing me, holding a nine millimeter between her shaking hands. It was pointed at me.

  “Cara?” I took in my girlfriend, the moisture glistening in her eyes, the grim lines that cased her mouth, the weathered Russian Makarov she held, silenced, with the safety in the fire position. One bullet from that and I was history. Nothing like a cocked 9mm to get one’s heart pumping. “Cara, honey, what are you doing?”

  “I’m really sorry, Jade,” she said in the wings of a sob. “I didn’t wanna do this. But they made me. You’ve got to believe me. I have no choice. Put the backpack down. Now, Jade.” She poked the gun in the air. “Please.”

  With slow, deliberate movements, I settled the backpack on the table and lifted my hands in the air, studying Cara. “Whatever this is, we can fix it.”

  “No.” She wiped a tear from the corner of her eyes. “This can’t be fixed.”

  “She’s right,” another voice announced as Andrew Stoats slipped through the door, dragging an unconscious Nem, pointing another Makarov to the unconscious ranger’s head. “You can’t fix this, Jade. In fact, you’re done fixing things around here.”

  Stoats. Of course. The shock of finding him here didn’t erase the moment’s twisted logic. The pervert hated me because I had called him out on his attempts to harass Lara. But he’d been fired and evicted days ago. How had he made it pass security and back to the station with his credentials revoked?

  “We can do this hard or easy.” Stoats leered, keeping his gun on Nem. “If you do what I say, nobody has to die today.”

  I looked at Nem’s face. Young. Eyelashes that curled at the ends. His name meant “still waters” he’d explained. He’d shown me a picture of his baby. Crap. I had to bring him through this alive.

  Adrenaline quickened my blood flow and kept my heart pounding. My gaze shifted from Stoats to Cara. Stoats had been Cara’s direct supervisor before he’d been asked to leave the station. Cara had probably facilitated his return tonight. Nem knew Cara was my friend, which is probably why he’d lowered his guard and allowed her to approach my door. Stoats then had taken Nem out.

  My mind sped a hundred miles an hour. Cara had been the volunteer bartender on the night of the party. She’d been handling my water cocktails when the date rape drug ended up in my system. I’d always thought Peter had done the drugging, but now I realized that it had been Cara who’d drugged me instead. She’d never really been my friend.

  One fact fell after the next. Cara had probably been working with Peter, who was the likely source of the date rape drug in the first place. Cara and Peter had been friendly to each other. Their connection probably preceded my arrival to the station. All along, Stoats, Cara and Peter had worked together to infiltrate the station and provide information. To whom? I had no doubt in my mind. To Kumbuyo. That’s why Cara and Stoats were in my bungalow right now. To take me to Kumbuyo.

  At the memory of Kumbuyo, a spike of fear threatened to throw me off-kilter. I suppressed the fear and ramped up my assessment mode instead. If I was going to find a way out of this one, I needed to understand motive. Cara was an emerging conservation champion. She was from New Jersey, for God’s sake. What reason could she have to be part of a poaching scheme? And how had she and Stoats managed to keep under Matthias’s radar?

  Intel. I needed lots of it and quickly.

  From his place by the door, Stoats sneered. “Did you think you were gonna get away with destroying my career without consequences? You think you wield some power through your stupid little camera, but I’ve been coming to Africa for many years and I know who wants what, when.”

  I bet he did. My entire body coiled, eager to strike.

  “Don’t move.” Cara’s finger twitched on the trigger “Don’t try anything foolish. Your ride will be here soon.”

  My ride? That tidbit of information revved up my pulse and added speed to the urgency that came with being on the wrong side of the barrel.

  Stoats snarled. “Shut your mouth, Cara. No need to give Jade any information. Remember, she’s shrewd. Kumbuyo said so.”

  So, I was right and Kumbuyo was on his way. Stoats had just provided that valuable info all on his own. Both Cara and Stoats were armed and therefore dangerous. Cara was edgy but determined. Her boot jittered against the floor and her shaky grip betrayed her nerves. As to Stouts, he must
have orders to keep me alive. Otherwise, he would’ve already killed me. A sketchy pair, jumpy to boot. But I had one thing they didn’t have: training.

  “Hurry up,” Stoats said to Cara. “Get her ready. And remember: She’s dangerous.”

  Keeping her eyes and weapon on me, Cara bent over, grabbed my boots and dropped them at my feet. “Put those on,” she ordered. “You’re gonna need them in your trek.”

  Trek. Okay. No bare feet trekking for me. Plus, a booted foot was more effective than a bare one when one was about to kick someone’s ass.

  I slipped my foot in the boot and took my time tying the laces. “I sure hope you haven’t done anything silly.” I said to Cara. “Stoats’ career is over, but yours doesn’t have to go down the toilet with his. Talk to me, Cara. Let me help you. Why are you doing this?”

  “Don’t tell her anything,” Stoats warned.

  “I sure hope they’re making it worth your while,” I said, concentrating on Cara. “Because you’re dealing with some dangerous killers and you’re gonna need a lot of money to finance a lifetime on the world’s most wanted list.”

  “Nobody knows,” Cara said. “Nobody will ever know. They promised.”

  So, her job was to hand me over and go back to being the station’s silent mole.

  “You and Peter were working together from the beginning.” I tested my hypothesis while I slipped my foot in the other boot and pushed the boundaries of everything I knew. “Let me guess. You’re trying to pay your student loans with cash from the poachers who decimate the very species you seek to study.”

  Stoats snarled. “Don’t say anything!”

  I met Cara’s gaze. “And you’re letting him call the shots?”

  “You’re sharp, Jade.” Cara’s stare steeled. “But you forget evolution shapes nature. Whatever happens out there, my actions have minimal impact.”

  “Is that really what you want to believe?”

  “Survival of the fittest,” she said. “I too have to survive.”

  “Shut your mouth,” Stoats snapped. “That whore is a wily bitch.”

  “Are you going to let him talk to you like that?” I eyed Cara closely. “He’s no longer your boss. His academic career is done and yet he’s still bossing you around as if you were a lowly undergrad.”