My Despicable Ex (Book 1) (16 page)

He shined a flashlight beam toward the
ground, his mouth set in a hard line. “Wait here. I’ll go check it
out.”

“
Armed with nothing but a
flashlight?” I reached toward him, my fingers brushing his arm.
“No! Please don’t go out there, Jake.”

“
Aw. Jane scared for
Tarzan?”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t hate you
enough to want to see you get ripped apart by a wild animal,” I
said, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

“
Listen, I’ll be fine. I’m
positive it’s not lions, if that’s any relief.”

I took a deep breath as I peered into
his eyes. “I’m coming with you,” I said, grabbing a
flashlight.

Knowing there was no use in arguing
with me, he nodded and opened the tent slowly.

I pointed my flashlight beam down and
gasped at all the footprints everywhere. Animals were getting a
little too close for comfort. The place smelled damp and earthy,
and could hear the creature smacking its thick, moose-like lips as
it moved closer. I opened my mouth, but my voice remained trapped
somewhere in my throat. I couldn’t breathe and couldn’t move; every
muscle in my body tensed—all except for my heart, which thrummed
like the beating wings of a humming bird. When Jake pulled me
close, as if to protect me, I rested my cheek against his strong
chest, listening to his racing heart. I was just about to bolt over
to Anto’s tent, certain that he’d be armed and would know what to
do, but when I turned to run, Jake’s hand tightened around my arm,
pulling me closer. I raised my eyebrows, and Jake loosened his
death grip. I took a few brave steps, scanning straight
ahead.

“
It’s just a giraffe,” he
explained, pointing off to the right.

My golden beam slid upward,
illuminating the tall tree, and then landed on a towering creature.
The long-necked animal was happily munching on acacia leaves,
sending a few monkeys scurrying away in frustration.

Jake burst out in a wave of laughter.
“Guess we found our killer.”

“
A giraffe?” I let out a
sigh of relief. “You must think I’m crazy.”

“
I have to admit, my heart
was pounding too.”

A muscular black tongue licked the top
of the leaves, leaving a layer of sticky slime, and the animal
stared at us with its dark-brown eyes as it pulled down a branch
and made a quick snack of it, like some kind of modern-day
brontosaurus. It plucked the leaves with its wide lips, stripping
the tree with its teeth. Then loud, thudding footsteps echoed as
the giant, long-legged creature lumbered away.

I clutched my chest. “I can’t believe
I almost had a heart attack over a giraffe.”

We both burst out in laughter, and I
loved the way he laughed and the way the lines around his face
crinkled up around his eyes.

“
I’m going back to sleep,”
I said, heading back inside the tent.

“
If you need me to fend off
any other ferocious beasts, just let me know. I’m your
man.”

“
You’re not gonna let me
live this one down, are you?”

He laughed once again. “Not a
chance.”

We snuggled once again back into our
warm sleeping bags. I dozed back to sleep and was having a
wonderful dream when something suddenly woke me up. I glanced down
at my watch. It was way too early for this. I heard a distinctively
loud, penetrating and recognizable haa-haa-haa-de-dah
call.

“
What’s that?” I said
sitting straight up at four a.m.

“
It’s a bird. Yeah, it woke
me up too.”

“
Why isn’t it
sleeping?”

“
The Hadeda Ibis get up
early,” he chuckled.

I chuckled back. “Tell me about it.” I
put the pillow over my head and drifted back to sleep.

Chapter 12

Morning came faster than I
anticipated. After getting dressed and brushing my hair, I opened
the tent and was blown away by the sight before me. Swirls of mist
danced across the grasslands in the most mysterious way.
Silhouetted against the
pink sunrise
was an
outline of grazing antelopes
and
wildebeests, munching on dew-laden
grass. I scoured the land for lions and was thankful I didn’t see
any.

“
Now that’s the way to start the morning,” Jake said,
smiling.

“
It’s really something,” I said.

Our faithful
tour guide handed me a cup of instant coffee.

“
Thank you,” I said with a smile.

“
Zylando and his team are coming with elephants in an hour,”
Anto said.

“
Great! I’ve wanted to ride an elephant forever.”

Jake and I rode together on one
elephant. The animal started to move and quickly gained speed,
lumbering along with its big legs, staggering from side to side
with each giant step. I was glad Jake was sitting in front of me so
I had something to wrap my arms around and hold on to.

The sun peeked out while clouds wisped
across a blue sky. A cool breeze, carrying the chirps and calls of
birds, stirred the leaves. I could not even think of words to
describe how awesome the adventure was as we swayed along at what
felt like a leisurely pace.

The smell of damp wood, earth, and
fish wafted past. Somewhere to my right, the sound of trickling
water echoed in my ears. I craned my neck around and caught a
glimpse of the river sparkling in the bright light. Along the
water’s edge were giant nests of dead grass, hanging from gnarled
tree limbs. The shrill sound of squawking birds filled the air all
around us, and the elephant started to stomp into the muddy
water.

“
It’s okay,” our tour guide
said. “We’re crossing the river to get to the other side. She’s
very familiar with carrying passengers across. You shouldn’t have
any problems.”

Drops of water splashed on my face,
arms, and legs. I wiped the moisture across my burning skin,
enjoying the cooling sensation.

Weee-ah, hyo-hyo, heee-ah,
heeah-heeah. 

I gazed up at the large raptor making
the loud, evocative, and haunting cry. It was perched on branches
overlooking the water. The majestic bird had a brown body with
large, powerful, black wings. The head, breast, and tail were snow
white. I snapped a few glorious shots with my
camera.

“
That’s an African
Fish-Eagle. It’s the spirit or essence of Africa. Its distinctive
call has earned it the name “the voice of
Africa
.”

I smiled as the magnificent bird
swooped down to catch a fish.

Suddenly, the elephant
stopped.

I laughed. “I think she’s taking a
break.”

Slurping filled the air, as the
elephant sucked up water through her trunk like a straw. She lifted
her long gray protrusion high in the air, and a huge plume of spray
shot skyward, only to stream down on us like rain.

I couldn’t help but giggle. “I know
she’s hot, but has she forgotten we’re up here too?” I blinked and
wiped my soaking-wet hair out of my eyes.

We all laughed.

Jake’s wet hair hung just over his
collar, and I admired his hairstyle all over again. It was longer
than it was when we had dated, but I loved it. It made him look so
sexy that I was half-tempted to run my hand through those gorgeous
locks.

The elephant took a few
more steps and slowly submerged below the surface of the water.
From the shore, the river had seemed wide and shallow, and now I
wondered how deep the river was, since the elephant seemed to
barely reach the bottom. A log swept past and grazed my legs. When
I glanced down, I saw more logs, as well as debris and branches,
floating past us. Water seeped into my socks and tennis shoes.
First my knees sank in, then my stomach. A shiver ran down my
spine. With a
splash
, the elephant’s entire head plopped just a few inches under
the surface of the water. I was sure we were sinking like a big,
giant rock, and I clung to the saddle as water swirled past my
hips.

“
No worries. Elephants are
excellent swimmers,” Anto said. “We’ll be across the river in no
time.”

In India, I’d seen elephants swim in
deep water with trainers on their backs, so I wasn’t too nervous
about it, but my soaked clothes clung to my body, dragging me down.
I shivered as the cold water bit into my skin, and I clasped my
arms around Jake to hold him close, resting my chin on his
shoulder; he was emanating heat like an oven. I noticed hundreds of
bubbles rising to the surface, and a second later, the elephant’s
trunk popped up. Using it as a snorkel, she swam, dog-paddling
underwater, submerged like a big, gray submarine, raising her trunk
up like a periscope.

A sudden flash of light caught my eye.
I squeezed my eyes against the blinding sun, trying to get a better
look, because something seemed odd about the long, bumpy piece of
driftwood that was coming our way. Not only was it covered in
scales, but it also opened big, yellow eyes, and I found myself
staring intently at golden irises around slit pupils. The cold eyes
just stared right back at me.

My mouth gaped open, and the breath
caught in my throat. “That’s definitely not a log,” I whispered
nervously in Jake’s ear. It looked like a cold-blooded creature I’d
once seen in Florida, with long, tapering jaws and yellow reptilian
eyes peeking out of the river. Two teeth jutted out of the
reptile’s bottom jaw. “It’s an alligator! Right there, blending in
with all those logs.” With shaking, fingers I gripped the saddle so
hard my knuckles turned white.

“
That’s no alligator.
That’s a croc,” Anto said calmly.

As far as I was concerned, the
specifics didn’t matter. Either species would happily make a meal
out of us, and flashbacks of all the movies and nature shows I’d
seen about death rolls and giant reptilians terrorizing people
bombarded my mind. I peered at the water and gulped. The marine
predator emerged, exposing its entire armored body. I wondered how
many buffalos, zebras, hippos, and even humans it had been snacking
on, because it was huge. The rigid, brown, horn-like scales on its
back and along its tail glistened under the sun.

I wiped the sweat off my brow, and my
heart began to pound fiercely. “Let’s swim to shore!”

“
No, that would not be
wise,” Anto advised from his place atop the other elephant. “It’s
only curious right now. If you swim off in a hurry, you’ll be
inviting it to have a taste. It’d snap you in two before you could
even set one foot on land. Just stay calm. We’ll be out of the
water any minute, and a croc can’t outrun one of these big
beauties.” He patted his elephant’s side, trying to downplay the
situation so I wouldn’t do anything stupid, like make a mad dash to
shore.

He had a point. There was no need to
panic, at least not yet. I took a deep breath to calm my racing
heart. The croc swam a little farther away, then stopped, as if to
watch us from a distance, but I still didn’t feel much safer
knowing that we were sharing the river with that thing and probably
several of its terrifying and hungry relatives.

Jake pointed, his voice calm, as if he
was trying to put my mind at ease. “We can’t let our guard down,
but look! It’s over there, minding its own business.”

“
Or it’s stalking us!” I
retorted.

Of course Jake was smart enough to
know that; he just didn’t want to freak me out.

“
Doesn’t matter. We’ll be
out of the water any minute,” he said.

A
splash
and a blur of brown caught my
attention. Ripples shot across the slow current as the croc
slithered through in the water, slowly swimming past us until it
was only about fifteen feet away. My stomach clenched when the
creature’s long snout and eyes barely broke the surface of the
river. It was so close to us that I could see the thin membrane
slide over its eyes as it blinked. When the thing slowly
disappeared into the river again, it was beyond creepy.

A few moments later, Jake pointed at
more huge ripples in the river, and I gulped as the croc’s body
slightly rose out of the water. “It’s getting closer!”

Finally, the ground began to level
out, and I felt a glimmer of hope. With each step the elephant
took, we rose higher, out of the treacherous water. I scanned the
surface as the water receded to my waist, then my knees, and
finally my ankles. Relief swept through me. I’d come face to face
with a croc and lived to tell about it.

I scanned the water one last time.
“It’s gone.”

We all seemed calmer as we moved
closer to the riverbank, assuming that if the croc had really
wanted to make a meal out of us, he’d already be picking what was
left of us out of his nasty old teeth.

As my elephant walked, the
water behind her began to churn. A crashing
splash
erupted, and streams of water
rose into the air and slapped against us. The croc leapt out,
snapping its bone-crushing jaws together and missing Anto’s
elephant by mere inches.

Too frightened to even
scream, I held on tightly as the elephant reared up. Digging my
feet into the animal’s sides, my hair swayed around me, whipping
into my face, while I clung to the saddle like a cowboy atop a wild
bull in a rodeo. My hands slipped around Jake again, and I held on
to him tightly as the creature bucked again. Everything seemed to
happen in slow motion, and we were all catapulted into the air,
finally landing with a giant
splash
.