Leopard - Wild Rain Part 28

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everywhere. At first there was quite a bit of light, the shorter trees along the river allowing the sun to blaze down, but as they went deeper into the interior, the taller trees sheltered them with denser canopy.

"Look at these tracks, Rachael." Rio crouched down to study the myriad of tracks near a shallow pool. He touched a larger paw print with four distinct toes.

'This is clouded leopard. Probably Franz watching our backtrail. They started following me when I went to work, even when I crossed borders, so it was safer to train them. I couldn't stop the silly things from following me everywhere."

"Are you worried about Fritz?"

"No, he's had wounds before. He knows how to hole up in the forest. He'll come back when it's safe. I didn't want him at the house alone. If the spotted leopard found him, it would have killed him just out of sheer meanness. Look at this one." He pointed to a very small track much like the clouded leopard track.

"This is a leopard cat. They're about the size of a domestic cat, usually reddish or yellowish coats with black rosettes. This was a busy place this morning."

"What's that strange track? It looks like it has webbing on the feet."

"That's a masked civet. They're nocturnal." He looked up at her. "Are you ready for me to carry you?" He straightened slowly. "Or do I have to pull rank and give you an order? You're limping."

"I didn't realize we were in the military."

"Anytime we're under a death threat, we're under military rules."

Her laughter rose to the forest canopy, blended with the continuous call of the barbel, a bird that seemed to love the sound of its own voice. "Are you making up rales as we go along?"

"It was quick thinking on my part. Aren't you impressed?" He swung her into his arms. "I want to know a little more about your mother's family. Did you meet 216.

"I don't remember hearing of my mother's parents at all. My brother spoke of our birth father's parents. He said we went to visit them in deep jungle once. They gave him treats and my grandmother rocked me. But they died around the same time as my father. He was on a trip and he never came back."

"And then your mother took you away?"

"I don't honestly remember, I was so young. Most of what I know is what my brother told me. After my father died, my mother took us to another small village on the edge of the forest. She met my stepfather. His family was very wealthy and they had a lot of land, a lot of power where we lived. We were there for some time and then he moved us to the United States."

Rachael looked around her, drinking in the scents and sights of the rain forest.

It was truly beautiful with thousands of varieties of plant life hi every color.

b.u.t.terflies were in abundance, sometimes covering trunks of flowering fruit trees, adding to the explosion of color everywhere she looked. The forest seemed alive, leaves swaying, lizards and insects continually on the move, birds flitting from tree to tree. It was teaming with life. Termites and ants vied for territory near a large fallen tree.

"We lived in Florida on a huge estate. It was such beautiful and wild country hi the mangroves and swamp. We had humidity and lots of alligators." She brushed back his hair. "No one turned into leopards."

"There were no big cats in the area? No signs of big cats?"

Rachael frowned. "Well of course there were rumors of panthers, the Florida panther in the swamps, but I never saw one. There are rumors of Bigfoot in the Cascades but no one actually has proof of Bigfoot. There aren't any cats in my family."

"Did your brother spend a lot of time hi the swamp?"

Rachael stiffened. It was more a shift of her body, but

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She averted her face and looked upward at the feathery foliage, the bright red fungi and fruit draping heavily on the tree. Antlerlike fungi and cups of brilliant color covered the trunks. Large mushrooms grew around the bases and made fields of large caps inside the b.u.t.tress roots.

"The humidity in Florida isn't as intense, but it can be oppressive to some people. It doesn't rain nearly as much either."

"Did he go into the swamp, Rachael?" He kept his tone low, gentle even. Rachael wasn't a woman to be pushed. She trusted him with her life, but she didn't trust him with her brother's life. He couldn't push her too hard. She'd walk away first.

"My brother is a long way away from here, Rio. I don't want any part of him here, not even his spirit. Don't bring him into this place."

Temper rode him hard and he was silent as he walked quickly through the patches of light and dark, heading deeper into the forest. It took him a few minutes to work it out. "You don't want him hi our place. My place. You don't want him anywhere near me."

"He doesn't belong here, Rio. Not at all, not with us." Rachael looked down at the sprint on her wrist. She probably didn't belong with Rio either. She'd been lucky enough to meet him, but she didn't want him hi danger.

"Sometimes, sestrilla I feel like I'm trying to hold water hi my hand. You flow right through my fingers."

Rachael looked at him with her dark, liquid eyes. Sad eyes. "I can't give you what it is you want."

"Before my father died, Rachael, he asked my mother to promise him that she'd take me and leave the village. He wanted her to find another man so she wouldn't have to raise me alone. A man or woman who lost their mate would never choose another husband or wife from our people. My father talked to my mother more than once but she didn't want to live with another man. She stayed near the village"

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"Why wouldn't the others want to take care of her and you too? If there aren't very many of you, surely they would want to make certain you were well taken care of?" She sounded outraged all over again. "I don't think I like your elders very much."

"The elders would want to care for widows and children, but there would be problems. Most leave if they want to find a companion to spend their Me with. We can live and love outside of the rain forest, and many do. It's possible your father asked your mother to take you and your brother and find another man to fill his shoes."

"How did your father die?"

"He went hi with a team to pull a diplomat from a rebel force. He was shot. It happens."

Rachael rested her head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry. It must have been so difficult for your mother to know that you chose to carry on your father's work."

"She didn't like it. My mother didn't do what my father wanted her to do. She stayed in the rain forest on the edge of the village. It caused some problems occasionally. She was a beautiful woman and it was easy enough to fall hi love with her. Do you look like your mother?"

She smiled and relaxed hi his arms, sinking into him without being aware of it.

"I do look somewhat like her pictures. We have the same eyes, and my face is shaped like hers. And I have her smile. She wasn't as tall or as heavy."

Rio stopped right there under a tall tree with silvery bark and hundreds of orchids cascading down the trunk. "Heavy? You have curves, Rachael. I'm very fond of your curves." He bent his head to her throat, his breath whispering fire against her skin.. "Don't say anything bad about yourself or I might be forced to prove you wrong."

Rachael laughed happily. He made her feel bright and alive when she had been so close to gloom. "I don't think that's much of a threat, Rio. And thank you for bringing up

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tare of her. When you asked me about her, I began to think of all the little details and I can see her again so clearly. She had thick hair. Very curly." She touched her hair. "I always kept my hair long because she wore hers that way.

When I wanted to disappear, I cut my hair to my shoulders because I thought having it reach to my rear end was too conspicu-^ ous. I cried myself to sleep every night for a week."

"Wear your hair any way you want to wear it, Rachael. They've already found you here." He began walking again, picking up the pace, wanting to get back to the house and get her settled again. She was obviously growing tired and attempting to hide it from hun.

"But they don't know I'm still alive. We might be able to make them think I drowned in the river. I threw my shoes in so something would turn up if they were really looking."

"Rachael, the only way we're going to be able to live a normal life is to remove the threat completely. We don't want to be looking over our shoulders the rest of our lives."

Rachael was silent, turning his words over and over hi her mind. Rio was thinking along the lines of a permanent relationship, she was still taking it one day at a tune. She looked closely at his face. The right thing to do would be to leave him as quickly as possible, remove all threats to him. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm just realizing I have an incredible selfish streak. I always thought I was unselfish, but I don't want to give you up. It isn't the greatest moment in one's life to find out how completely self- centered you really are."

"It might be my greatest moment, to find out you want to keep me."

"Tell me that in a couple of weeks and I might believe you. This is all so unexpected. And as for normal, is how you live here in the rainforest your definition of normal?"

"I've rarely lived any other way." The smile faded from his face. "I doubt if they'll allow us to live in the village. I """ ^i,nr, ti^oT-o oltVirMinrh T Hnn't miirVi It's nnrnmfnrtahle 220.

for some of the people. As I'm supposed to be dead to them, shopping is difficult. They look through me, I can't ask questions, I leave money on the counter."

Her dark eyes flashed. "I know what I'd like to say to them. I don't want to live in the village. Not now. Not ever. And I'll have to think about shopping there. I wouldn't mind making everyone uncomfortable, but on the other hand, I would hate to help them out by supporting them."

Rio made an effort to keep from laughing. Rachael didn't need to be encouraged in her defense of him, but he couldn't help secretly loving it. "You might want the protection of the village when we have children."

"Are we going to have children?"

"Don't look so shocked. I like children-I think." He frowned. "I haven't actually been around any children, but I think I'd like them."

Rachael threw back her head and laughed more, hugging him to her as they drew closer to the house.13.THE bath was heaven. Rachael slipped beneath the water to soak her entire head.

She hadn't felt clean in weeks. Days of taking sponge baths didn't work for her, especially when an infection ravaged through her body the way it had. She came up and looked at Rio, trying not to let the happiness in her burst out. He'd been through such an ordeal, fighting the leopard, and he hadn't talked much about it He looked older, the lines in his face deeper, shadows lurking in his eyes.

He rubbed shampoo into her hair. "You look happy."

"I never thought a bath would feel so good. Whatever ' Tama used on my leg is a miracle product. I couldn't believe the difference in the swelling and I'm certain it helped heal the puncture wounds. They'd been draining all the time, but now it's stopped. I feel so much better."