“It isn’t Rio. Do you know the way to the village?”
Rachael shook her head. “I’ve never been there.”
“You might be able to follow Rio, using scent, but I know him. He’ll have tried to go to water several times to throw anyone off. He’s very careful. He must have an escape hole other than the front door.”
“Yes, but we don’t even know what’s out there.”
“If a man was out there, the forest would have been in an uproar. It’s a leopard, and he knows the ways of the animals. He knows to soothe them as he passes by, careful not to look as if he’s hunting. And he must be hunting to want to come to us so silently.”
“I came here hoping to escape the trouble I was in,” Rachael confessed readily. “They sent someone after me
WILD RAIN
305
once already. You should go, I can show you the escape door. You shouldn’t be here with me.”
“I may be an old man, Rachael, but I am capable of helping you protect your life. I would never slink back to Rio and tell him I left his woman alone to fend off an attacker. I could never live with myself.”
She had an idea Rio might not look too kindly on him either. “Kim Pang came by earlier and told Rio his father had a vision about a party of researchers entering the forest looking for medicinal plants. Tama is guiding them, but his father was still very much worried. He didn’t believe they were researchers.”
“An ordinary man would not be able to keep the animals quiet. Nor would he be able to escape the eye of one of Pang’s sons.”
“He also said the man who approached him asking for a guide knew the traditions and honor system of the forest. I think he suspected he was of the same species as Rio.” She took a deep breath. “It could be that my brother is hunting me.”
“Your own kin?”
“It’s a possibility. There’s a price on my head. I think it best that you go while you can.”
“To trade the life of my grandson for your life? I will not. I doubt it’s safe in the forest. We’re better off here, with Rio’s weapons. If we must escape, we’ll do so when we know it’s our only option,” Delgrotto decided.
A leopard moaned quite close. She recognized the haunting call of the clouded leopard, Fritz warning her. Somehow the small leopard’s acceptance gave her hope. Rachael shoved a knife, sheathed in leather, into the waistband of her jeans. She picked up the smaller of the two handguns.
Delgrotto reached out and drew her into the center of the room, away from the windows. “Don’t move.”
She heard the soft thud of something heavy landing on the verandah. Something walked around the house, fur
306
Christine Feehan
WILD RAIN
307
whispering along the railing, brushing against the creeper vines and sliding over the window. Shadows moved, dark enough to make her heart leap into her throat.
They waited. Rachael did what she always did when the tension was too much. She counted. It was a mindless, silly habit, but it worked to keep her brain calm, allowing her to think clearly. There was silence again. The wind sighed through the canopy and the rain poured down steadily. The tip of a knife appeared along the inside edge of the door beneath the bar. It slowly began to rise.
Rachael moved to the side of the door. “Here’s the thing about night visitors.” She spoke very matter-of-factly. “If they don’t have manners, we figure they aren’t worth keeping around so we just shoot them. Take your knife out of my door and knock like a normal person or I’m going to empty this gun into the wall.”
There was a brief hesitation and the knife disappeared. Another moment of silence and the knock came on the door.
Rachael signaled to the elder to take a gun and move into the shadow of the bedroom out of sight. Only when he had merged into the gray did she reach out and lift the bar. “Only one person better step through that door and you’d better step through with your hands raised.” She moved again, so they wouldn’t be able to get a fix on her voice if they came in shooting.