Vain (21 page)

He broke out at this point and we lost connection. I tried again with no luck. I turned the sat phone off and tucked it into its canvas carrying bag before looking Dingane’s direction.

“Did you hear him?” I asked.

He nodded. “Forty-eight hours,” he spoke solemnly. “We’ll have to quarantine in three sections. Confirmed cases, suspected cases and children showing no signs of illness.”

“What are the odds we can keep most of them clean?” I asked.

“I’ve no idea.” Ian turned to me. “It’ll be you and me with the sickest children.”

“We don’t even know if any of them will be ill, Ian.”

His face softened. “Sophie, that’s an inevitability.”

Ian put the jeep in gear and we sped off in the direction of Masego and into a
pinkening sky. The sun would be leaving us soon, making me nervous for some reason I didn’t know.
An hour after we’d left Jinja, the tension in the truck was palpable. So many emotions swirled around us and I wanted so badly for Ian to pull over and cut that tension with his mouth. I stared out my window, my elbow resting outside the window. I felt strands of hair whipping against my face. My braids had started to fall out. I checked the mirror to see if it needed to be let down or if I could just tuck in the strays. It was a mess.

I swallowed knowing the simple act of releasing my braids was more intimate a moment than I’d experienced in even my most vulnerable moments with other men. I looked over at him and brought my hand slowly to my left braid sliding the tie off painfully slowly. I wanted him to notice.

Ian’s eyes flitted my direction, his breathing grew deeper and deeper, and I could feel the heat of his gaze pool in the pit of my stomach. I dropped the band in the seat next to me before lifting my hand to release the braid but Ian’s warm, callused hand stopped mine. He slowed the truck a bit before threading his fingers over the top of my belt and sliding me closer to him. My eyes lidded and my breath rushed out of me. He turned me to face him and with his free hand, he undid each plait much like he’d done during the lesson. When he was done, he slowly lifted his fingers and cupped the side of my face, before turning his head toward me. I couldn’t stop myself from placing my hand on his forearm and closing my eyes, reveling in his scorching touch. I took three steadying breaths and tried desperately not to melt into him.

I opened my eyes to look on him
, but he glanced back to the road, narrowing his eyes slightly.

“No,” he whispered as a body of light unexpectedly shone brightly into the cab. He whipped my body down and covered my head with his chest.

I was beyond shaken as he veered the jeep into a sharp turn, coming to an abrupt stop perpendicular to the road we were traveling.

Before I had a chance to react, he was shoving me out the passenger side door ordering me to keep my head down. Adrenaline leaked into my limbs and I obeyed without hesitation. With stealth-like speed I didn’t think human, Ian slid out, tossing open the glove box and removing his revolver, cocking it and handing it to me without so much as a word before settling next to me. He sidled over to the back seat door and threw it open, leaning in to retrieve his AK just as the first bullet came whizzing over the top of the jeep. My heart froze in my throat and I ducked
farther down, tucking myself against the side of my door. Ian shimmied out and slammed the door shut.

“Shit,” I heard him say as he steadily unfolded the stock and clicked the magazine in place. “Keep your head down,
Soph,” he said, sliding to my other side and bracing his gun on the hood of the jeep.

Immediately, gunfire rang throughout the quiet night and my own revolver shook in my hands. Ian returned fire. After a minute, but what felt like an hour, I calmed myself down enough to grip my gun without trembling. I adjusted my body to set next to Ian’s.

“Don’t even think about it,” Ian said coolly to the night in front of him before sending a spray of bullets our assailer’s direction.

“I have to help you.”

“No, you only fire their direction if they’re upon us, Soph.”

Another round of bullets screamed our direction, shattering the only closed back passenger window and hurtling above our heads. Ian crouched down long enough to meet my eyes and a million promises transferred in that brief moment. He tore his gaze from mine and raised himself abruptly, repositioning his gun before firing their direction.

“Hand me one of those magazines?”
It was dark but the headlights of our attackers’ vehicle lit through the underbelly of our jeep and I spotted one of the magazines he asked for. I picked it up and handed it to him. He dropped the hot, used magazine to the ground and replaced it so quickly I barely registered it. He fired back within seconds.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“Thieves.”

“With automatic
weapons?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes.”

Ian unleashed an ungodly amount of bullets their way and they answered in kind. I covered my ears as best I could and tried so very hard to keep the tea down. Despite every attempt, I could not stop my body from trembling.
And just as quickly as it had started, it seemed to end. I heard doors slamming and their engine roaring to life, then their headlights disappeared. Ian hesitantly stood and I followed suit, sidling next to him and gripping his shirt in one of my hands. He tucked me behind him as we watched the attackers turn away from our jeep and go the other direction.

I could feel my blood returning to my extremities and they felt heavy
, but it was short-lived when the men turned suddenly and came barreling our direction, firing bullets all the way.

Ian turned us into the side of the jeep and pushed us to the back before landing on top of me and burying my head into his chest. I could hear the attackers shattering the windshield with bullets before speeding off into the night. We
laid like that for several minutes before he would let me raise my head. As soon as I raised it, he hugged me like we were dying. I gripped his back, desperate to be as close to him as possible, burying my face in his neck. It took a good fifteen minutes for our breathing to steady, but he still held me more tightly than I’d ever been held in my life.

He suddenly remembered himself and jumped up into a sitting position, searching my face and body, running his hands where his eyes roamed, checking for injuries and warming me up from the inside.

“Are you okay?” he finally asked.

I sat up and took in
his own body. “I’m fine. And you?”

“Not a scratch,” he said with a slightly shaky smirk, making my eyes burn in relief.

He grabbed me and hugged me to him again. “God, Soph,” he breathed into my hair. “I was so worried.”

That’s when I noticed his body had finally accepted it was over and he began to shiver against mine as the adrenaline left him. He pulled me away and ran his hands across my face and through my
hair, down my neck and rested them on my shoulders a moment before bringing my face back into his neck. We sat there in the dirt, holding each other, molding our bodies together as closely as we could get them, fear draining from every pore.

I couldn’t believe how incredible he had been during the attack. I had never seen a man move like Ian, nor had I seen one so quick on his feet and easy to protect. It was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen in my entire life. It all came so naturally to him, I doubt he even thought twice about each action. He was calculated and aware and amazingly hot.
My hands laid flat against the hard muscles in his back, still strained and warm from the danger we’d just endured. His t-shirt clung to him and I found myself running my hands up the ridges of muscles to his shoulders just to feel them before wrapping my arms around his neck.

He held me tighter when I encircled my arms. “The windshield is done,” he breathed into my throat, bringing me back to reality.

I pulled my face back and ran my hands across his face. “Will we be able to drive?”

He followed my lead and ran his hands through my hair. “We’ll have to cover our faces the best we can, the dirt will be overwhelming, but, yeah, we’re only about an hour away from Masego.”

A small tear fell down my face. “We almost died, Ian.”

He wrapped his arms around my frame and brought my head to his chest. “We’re alive.”

“But...”

“
Shhhh,” he spoke into my hair, “I told you I’d protect you, didn’t I?”

“You did,” I confirmed into his shirt.

“I would
never
let anything happen to you, Soph.”

Clarity came to me in that second because I believed him.
“Thank you,” I whispered, bringing my face near his. “It’s not enough, but I have to say it. Thank you for saving my life.”
“It was my absolute pleasure.”

I giggled despite myself.
“So polite.”

“Trust me,
Soph, I am trying really hard to be polite right now.”

My brows furrowed. “Why?”

“Well,” he cleared his throat. “You’re, uh, you’re sitting on my lap.”

“Oh.” I blushed. Actually blushed! Sophie Price, who hadn’t blushed since she was a
schoolgirl, felt embarrassed!

I scurried off his lap and he stood, offering his hand to help me up. He reached into his glove compartment again and pulled out a flashlight, lighting up our small area with a click. We examined the damage. Since most of the windows were down except one of the back passenger windows, none shattered but that one and the windshield. There were bullet holes riddling the sides of the jeep but when Ian lifted the hood, the engine appeared to be unscathed
.
“Thank God,” he breathed.
“Agreed.”
Ian rounded the side of the jeep and picked up his guns, placing them back in the glove box and the back of the vehicle. He grabbed an old t-shirt in the backseat and effortlessly ripped it in two.

“Here
,” he said, handing me one half of the shirt, “tie this ’round your mouth and nose.”

I grabbed it and nodded. Following his lead, I wrapped it around my face and cinched it as tig
htly as I could behind my head.

“We look like we’re about to rob a bank,” I told him.
He chuckled and the corners of his eyes creased with the smile I so rarely earned. It was a shame I couldn’t see it for myself. He sighed loudly and opened my door for me. I hopped up and buckled myself in.

The drive to Masego was terrible, dirt flew in so badly it created a thick coating on our skin and clothing but we could breathe at least
, despite how difficult it made it to see. It took twice the amount of time to get home because Ian had to drive slowly enough that rocks and debris couldn’t harm us too badly.

It was after eleven when we got home
, so no one was there to let us in. I got out with Ian this time and helped him open and close the gates.

“I don’t want to scare Karina with the sight of this truck
, so I’m going to park it where it’s semi-hidden.”

“She’s going to see it anyway,” I mused.

“Yeah, but hopefully she’ll see me first and it’ll give me a chance to explain.”

“Ah, I see. Should we go ahead and wake them up?”

“I don’t see the point. The plane won’t be here for another two days. Let them sleep.”

The grounds seemed peaceful and that made my heart and soul quiet down a bit from the night’s near catastrophe. Ian brought the truck behind our hut, out of view from
Karina and Charles’ cabin and we got out. He removed his half of the now filthy t-shirt. I struggled with mine so he came around and helped work through the knots.

“Good Lord,
Soph, how did you do this? Your hair is caught in it.” He laughed again.

“Note to self,” I said out loud, “Ian is happiest when in dangerous situations.”
He whipped my body around and his mouth gaped open, but it still couldn’t hide his grin. “What does that mean?”

“You’ve laughed twice tonight. That’s the most I’ve seen you laugh
, especially if none of the kids are involved with their daily shenanigans.”

“So you watch me th
en?” he flirted, edging closer.

“About as much as
you watch me,” I flirted back.

“I-I, uh-,” he stuttered.

“That’s what I thought,” I teased.

“Are y
ou to grab a shower?” he asked.

“No, I am not
to grab a shower
. I was hoping to swim in this filth all night.”

“Sarcasm noted.”
He smiled and it was the most glorious thing I’d ever seen. I fought the urge to grab him and run my tongue along his teeth.

“Grab your stuff,” he co
ntinued. “I’ll meet you there.”

He startled me
, but I didn’t let it show. I hurried to my half of the hut and tossed my shampoo, body scrub, etc. into my bucket before grabbing my robe. I practically ran to the showers and caught Ian mid-sweep.

“I knew you did this, by the way,” I told his back, stunning him still.