Diamond Legacy (9 page)

Matt rolled down the window, then reached into the back seat for a cooler filled with dinner and cold beer. A storm brewed in the distance, and the wind carried the musty scent of rain, a perfect setting for clandestine activity. Maybe he’d get lucky and something would happen tonight.

He took a bite out of a ham and cheese sandwich, then popped the top on a cold one. He had spent the past few nights like this and, though he believed the drop wouldn’t happen this soon, he wasn’t taking chances. Besides, there was a lot to learn by watching the stables, the parking lot, and the comings and goings of the staff.

Halfway through his sandwich, he noticed a woman exit the veterinary back door. He took a swig of beer to wash down the ham and cheese and glanced at his watch. Eight-thirty-five.

The lone figure drew closer and walked beneath a street lamp.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he whispered.

The little zoo dentist was burning the midnight oil. Where was the tagalong assistant? He waited for him to exit the building, but Miranda kept walking across the parking lot alone. And she aimed straight in his direction.

Why did he have to park two doors down from her Jeep? Now he’d have some serious explaining to do. Again.

She froze when she spotted someone sitting in the vehicle near hers. She appeared tense and glanced back to the building. She was nervous. Aw, hell.

“It’s me, Miranda,” he called out. “Get over here before someone sees you standing in the middle of the parking lot.”

At the sound of his voice she moved forward again, and he climbed out of the Land Rover to lean against the vehicle and wait.

“What are you doing?” she asked as she reached the Rover’s front grill.

“Eating dinner, want to join me?” He held up his sandwich for her inspection. “I’ve got another ham and cheese if you’re hungry.”

“Odd choice of dining locations, isn’t it?”

“Not if you’re on a stakeout.” He took another bite and pointed the sandwich toward the garage. “Why are you here so late?”

“Research.”

He swore he heard her stomach growl. “Anything I need to know about?”

“One or two things.” She eyed his sandwich. “You got mustard on that ham and cheese?”

“Of course.” He nodded with a grin. “A man always likes to spice things up. So what have you found?”

She shook her head. “Food first, I’m starving.”

“Fair enough.” Matt reached into the Rover and pulled out the small cooler, then waved his hand toward the back of the vehicle where a thick tree line skirted the parking area. “There’s a bench right through there.”

He led the way. On the other side, a walking trail wound along a small manmade stream with park benches scattered about for resting. Best of all, no streetlights, only the dim glow of a half moon that had yet to be swallowed by storm clouds. Cozy and private with little chance of being seen, and he could still keep an eye on the buildings through a filter of trees.

Matt chose the closest bench. “Is this dining spot more to your taste?”

“Just lovely, thank you.”

Miranda settled on one end of the small wooden bench and Matt claimed the other. He dropped the cooler on the ground between them, flipped back the lid, and grabbed a sandwich for her.

“Sorry, it’s only meat and cheese,” he said. “If I’d known I’d be sharing, I might have slapped on a little lettuce and tomato.”

“Don’t sweat it,” she said with a grateful smile. “I’m too hungry to worry about extras.” She promptly took a hearty bite.

“Here, try this.” He opened a bottle of Tusker beer and passed it over.

She accepted the offer and took an inquiring sip, then closed her eyes on a sigh of pleasure. “It’s pure delicious.”

She followed her statement with a longer draft, and he soaked in the long, smooth length of her throat as she drank. His gaze lingered at her V-neck tank top until she set the bottle on the bench beside her and went back to her sandwich.

“So,” he said as he pulled himself on track and dug what little remained of his ham and cheese from the baggie. “What did you find?”

“I’ve never seen any place keep such detailed records.” She popped a mustard covered fingertip between her lips and slowly pulled it out.

He shook his head and grabbed a paper napkin from the cooler to hand to her. “What kind of records?”

“Thank you.” She stuffed the napkin between her knees and lifted her beer for another quick drink. “Everything’s documented. Animal origins, medical charts, delivery dates. It’s amazing, really.”

The only amazing thing around here was her. He watched her nibble the Swiss cheese outside the sandwich’s edge, the tip of her pink tongue lapping at another drop of mustard. If she didn’t start eating the blasted thing, he wasn’t going to be responsible for his actions.

“They even detail supply orders and distribution,” she continued saying. “Right down to the last paper clip.”

He pushed to focus on her words. Supplies. Lists. He formed a reasonable response. “That makes sense. Every item taken out of the supply room must be logged. A bit extreme if you ask me.”

She shrugged. “They obviously have strict cost control policies.”

“What about patterns? Find any?”

“A lot of animals seem to arrive or leave at the end of a month.”

“Interesting.” He polished off the last of his Tusker and tossed the empty into the cooler. “Anything else?”

She shot a sideways glance his way. “If you mean do they record diamond shipments? Nope.”

Clever girl, but she’d have to dig deeper than that to trip him up. “Not necessarily diamonds. Smuggling comes in many forms.”

“True enough.” She turned on the bench to face him. “Let’s face facts here, Matthew. We are in Botswana, diamond capital of the world. What else is small enough to flow through without notice and warrant a hundred grand deposit? You want my intel? Come clean.”

The woman was as stubborn as she was distracting. Why couldn’t she leave well enough alone?

“First of all, it’s Matt, not Matthew. And does anybody ever call you pushy?”

“Just once can’t someone see that as a good thing?” She took the last bite of her sandwich and brushed the crumbs from her lap.

“How do you figure?”

“Without a strong sense of curiosity and determination to see it through, I wouldn’t be here today.”

“Nice spin.” He watched her lift the beer to her lips for another long pull, then dangle the half empty bottle in her fingers. When his gaze roamed back to her face, he found her watching him with irritation.

“How about you quit stalling and tell me what’s going on here?”

Persistent, too smart for her own good, and driving him crazy with the urge to kiss her. It was all he could do not to lean over and nibble those lips like she did her Swiss cheese. Better yet, he wanted to slide his tongue into her mouth and his fingers through the dark silk of her hair. He wanted to…

He gave himself a mental shake. “All right, you win. It’s diamonds. Happy now?”

“Not completely.”

“What more do you want?” He stuffed their empty baggies into the cooler.

“How about telling me why you’re in this business.”

The unexpected question shocked him back to his senses. “Too long a story—you don’t want to know.”

“All right.” She took another drink of beer and tried again. “So how long have you lived in Africa?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Your accent is British, peppered with American slang. It’s an odd mix and I’m a curious sort of person.”

He normally kept personal details off limits, but strangely, he felt inclined to respond. “I spent my childhood in Africa, my teen years in Arizona.”

“Are you American?”

“Technically.”

“Meaning?”

He kept it generic. “My parents were missionaries from Nashville, Tennessee. I was born in Gaborone.”

“Are they still here, too?”

“In a sense. They died when I was fourteen.”

“Oh.” She turned silent for a moment then added, “I’m sorry.”

“It was long ago.” And now time to change the subject. “What about you?”

She shrugged. “I’ve lived in San Diego most of my life, though traveled quite a bit. My dad was a big game veterinarian, and I followed him around from the moment I learned to walk.”

“So that troublesome curiosity struck you early in life?”

She laughed softly. “Yeah, I suppose so. As I grew older, I traveled extensively with Dad as an unofficial assistant. While other kids spent their summer vacations playing ball or attending camp, I spent mine behind the scenes in various zoos or reserves. I knew half the established techniques long before I ever started college.”

“Shouldn’t you have returned the favor and brought Pops along instead of the boy wonder assistant?”

Even in the dim moonlight he could see her brief flash of pain. “Dad had an accident several years ago that left him in a wheelchair. He no longer practices. And don’t let Jason’s fun-loving enthusiasm fool you. He’s very intelligent and has a strong knack for veterinary medicine. By far, he’s the best college intern we have at the zoo.”

“So…what? Are you his mentor or something?”

“Sort of, but not really. I see a bit of myself in his understanding of animal behavior and try to keep him steered in the right direction. His potential is boundless, and the exposure he receives on these trips can be invaluable in his career.”

“And you?”

“What about me?”

“What motivates you? It’s an odd bit of a career choice, isn’t it? Flying the globe in search of zoological gum disease?”

She smiled at his attempt at humor. “I don’t have to search far. Most places find me, though it’s been a while since my last trip. I’m stationed permanently in San Diego these days.”

“But why dentistry?”

“I’ve been hooked since the day Dad got a call to perform a root canal on a gorilla. He had to take a crash course in dental technique and that started me thinking. It’s a fairly new branch of veterinary medicine, and there aren’t many of us specializing in the field. Like Katanga, I take extensive notes on every animal I work on, the procedures, their reactions, and their environment.”

She had a passion for the job. It was easy to see. “Is it just you and your Dad? Or is this a family affair?”

“Dad and I were the only ones bitten by the zoo bug. My older sister is an accountant at Universal Studios and my mother is retired, staying home to care for Dad. Mom’s work has always been sporadic, especially when we were younger and traveled a lot.”

“Is your sister like you?”

“Not even close.” A sudden gust of wind ruffled Miranda’s hair, and she brushed the loose strands behind her ear. “Erika practically faints at the sight of a bug,” she said with disgust.

Matt could hear the loving affection beneath her scorn, and for the umpteenth time, he wondered what it would be like to have grown up in a normal family atmosphere. His upbringing had been far from conventional. And his parents, though they’d loved him, had been so wrapped up in their work that he had learned independence young. Good thing, too. He’d needed it during the years spent with his starchy uncle.

“I saw you in the hippo pool.” It was a mundane thing to say, but he needed to put things back in perspective. “Rob Jenkins gave me a tour of the place, and we stopped on the viewing platform. That hippo looked madder than a hornet, and you were only a few feet away. Pretty risky business if you ask me. It must be hell getting insurance.”

She laughed outright. “I’m lucky I’ve still got all my fingers.” She wiggled them in front of her to prove it. “Probing inside a carnivore’s mouth comes at no small risk.”

“Ever get tired of it?”

“Honestly? No. I love my job. Love working with animals, the challenges of facing them in their environment. Love working outdoors, in the mud, the rain, it doesn’t matter. I even love the smell of a stable.”

It was easy to see her work was her life. It was the same for him. With one key difference. He was driven by vengeance.

There on the bench, with the night surrounding them and the scent of rain in the distance, he suddenly realized why he found her so enticing. It was the purity of her emotion, the earthy sensuality that radiated from her. She glowed with a vital and natural energy. Sitting sideways on the bench like she was, one arm propped on the back and her fingers threading through her shoulder-length hair, she was damn near magnetic. He wanted to reach out and pull her to him, wanted to trace the line of her jaw with his lips and lay her down on the soft grass. More than that, he wanted to peel away every inch of fabric and explore the length and depth of her curves in agonizing detail.

“Penny for your thoughts,” she said.

Not a chance. He wasn’t having her running scared before he had an opportunity to explore a taste of those charms.

“All that dedication doesn’t leave much time to search for Mr. Right, does it?”

Her eyes cut sharply to him and narrowed. “I’ve had my share of dates.”

“Anything serious?”

She shrugged in a noncommittal way.

He changed tactics. “So what do you do for fun?”

“Fun?” She frowned, as though the concept was too hard to conceive.

“Yeah, off duty, toes in the sand, serves-no-purpose kind of fun?”

His only answer was the tree frog’s call along the river’s edge. Her struggle to find a response was revealing enough. Miss Dedication needed to cut loose.

“When was the last time you did something just for the heck of it?” he asked.

“I ate a ham and cheese sandwich with you.”

“Nice try.” He smiled in anticipation. “Doesn’t count.”

“Fine.” She drummed her fingertips on the back of the bench. “I went for a swim in the elephant pond with Daisy.”

“Daisy being the elephant?” When she nodded he said, “Sounds like work to me.”

“Well, I… What’s the point of this question?”

“The point, Miranda, is this.” He leaned forward and brushed her lips with his own, a mere sip for a thirsty man.

When a soft gasp escaped her, he shifted to gauge the reaction and stare down into her wide eyes. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the airport.” The pad of his thumb caressed the soft sensitive skin of her inner wrist. “I wondered…would you kiss soft and sweet? Or be a brush of untamed desire?”