Madagascar
“Did you get it turned in?” Leah asked, the noise from the airfield making her shout.
“I’m about to attempt one of the riskiest skydive landings ever, and you want to know about my English paper?” I retorted, unable to keep the grin off my face. Of course she did.
“Well…yeah. I have zero control of what happens once you decide to bail out of that perfectly good airplane, but your grades are pretty much my responsibility, so yeah, I’m asking if you turned in your paper.” There was a slight panic in her eyes, in the tense line of her mouth.
I took her in my arms and kissed the worry off her face, tasting her fear, her love, and taking them both for my own. It had been so long since I’d been scared for myself.
“Yes, I turned it in,” I assured her. “I can tell you all about the themes of love and loss in Les Miserables, of redemption and penance. I nailed it, I promise.”
“Good.” She sighed, as if that had been the real reason for her worry. “I should have looked at it.”
“No, you needed to study, too. It does me no good to pass all my classes if you can’t rock some physics.”
“Speaking of physics,” she said as she grasped the shoulder straps of my harness. “You sure about this? I’ve done a ton of research into Tsingy de Bemaraha, and if you so much as miss the drop zone…” She shook her head.
I cupped her face in my hands, running my thumbs over her porcelain skin. “I know what I’m doing, and I’m really, ridiculously good at this. Maybe not as good as Landon, but hey, we all have our strengths, right?”
“Not everyone can be perfect,” Landon said, smacking my back as he walked by close enough to hear us, apparently. “Now kiss the girl good-bye and let’s blow this gin joint.”
“You know that would have gone over better in Casablanca, right?” I asked over my shoulder.
“Get on the plane, smart-ass,” he threw back.
“Okay, you go with Little John. Be careful on the trip in, and I’ll meet you at the drop.”
“You’re sure this is…safe?” Her eyes widened.
I glanced over her shoulder, where Little John stood with Brooke at the car, far enough away that they couldn’t hear us. “Yeah. It’s just Penna, Landon, and me on the plane. No other Renegades. We all packed our own chutes, and I’m the one who paid the pilot. We’re okay. And nothing has happened since Morocco. Maybe…”
“Maybe almost killing me scared whoever is screwing with you?” she asked with a quirked eyebrow.
“Yeah, well…I wasn’t going to put it that way, but maybe. I’m not taking any chances with you, though. Stay close to Little John and Brooke, okay?” They were the only ones who had been with us from the beginning, the only ones with a vested interest in us, and the only ones outside Penna and Landon I could trust with Leah’s life.
“Okay,” she agreed. “And you…you know, don’t die or anything.”
I ran my hands down her hair, tendrils whipping free from both the breeze and the aircraft behind us. “I won’t. And you wait with a red flag in case it turns you on.”
She laughed, and my heart lit up like the Fourth of July. God, I loved this woman. Loved her laugh, her worry, her anger. Loved when she sharpened her claws on me, and when she tucked them away. I loved how she pushed me, not just in sports like everyone else, and not with her own gain in mind, but genuinely wanted me to better myself as a person. I loved the way I wanted to be that better person for her—to be exactly what she needed in her life.
“You’re my everything,” I said to her, hoping she could hear what I meant to say. She needed the words, I knew it, but I couldn’t say them, not when letting them past my lips demolished every wall I’d built. There wasn’t any piece of protective gear that could guard me from Leah, or the way she could mangle my heart if she left.
The way I knew she eventually would leave when she realized I hadn’t been honest with her. But no matter.
“I love you,” she answered, her heart open and shining through her eyes, as if I could physically see the glow of her emotions.
I kissed her one last time, pouring everything I had into it—my love, my hope, my need for her. I held her close and hoped that each stroke of my tongue made up for the words I couldn’t say, every motion reaching for more of her soul, because she already owned mine.
I was wholly, deeply, irreversibly in love with a woman who was way braver than I could ever be.
“I’ll see you in a few,” I promised as I pulled away from her lips.
“Be safe.”
“Always.”
I boarded the plane as the SUV carried Leah off to the drop zone.
“You tell her?” Penna asked as we strapped on our helmets.
“No.”
She shook her head. “Never took you for a chicken, Pax.”
“Maybe it’s kinder to her.”
“Or maybe it’s the one thing that could keep her with you,” she spat back.
“What are we talking about?” Landon asked as he came from the back of the plane.
“Paxton’s a moron,” Penna answered, her eyes never leaving my face.
“Oh, I thought maybe we were talking about stuff I didn’t already know.” He laughed.
Penna’s eyes met mine across the cabin, her expression hardening, because we both knew that there was way too much Landon didn’t know, that I was being dishonest with two of the people who meant the most to me.
But the wheels were already in motion, and this late in the game, I was powerless to stop them. Problem was, those were the same wheels that were going to crush me.
…
Adrenaline rushed through me, spiking every sense, feeding me the kind of high that only came in moments like these. The best part? I glimpsed Leah across the drop zone.
Now this moment was perfect.
Shit. The breeze shifted, blowing me near one of the sharp limestone formations of Tsingy de Bemaraha, the gray rocks reaching up from the earth like daggers waiting to catch my chute.
Pay attention, jackass.
I successfully steered away from the rocks and hit the drop zone, one of the only clear sites in the entire park. The ground rushed up to meet me, and I bent my knees to absorb the impact, running so I didn’t fall on my ass. Then I cut my chute away, unsnapping the latches, and watched Landon execute a perfect landing.
He shouted in victory as Penna landed next.
“Last as always, Rebel!” Landon yelled out, aware that the cameras were on us.
“Someone has to make sure you sissies jump,” she countered, cutting away her chute.
We met in a cheesy group hug that made the moment perfect, except we didn’t have Nick. We would never jump with Nick again, and in moments like this I missed the arrogant son of a bitch.
“We did it,” Landon said quietly, and we all bowed our heads to meet in a triangle, each taking a moment to thank God we’d been allowed to survive our stupidity.
“One for the books,” Penna agreed.
“For Nick,” I said.
“For Nick,” they agreed softly.
Then we broke, and I caught Leah in my arms mid-run, crushing her to my chest and winding my fingers through her thick hair. This was heaven.
“I’m glad you didn’t die,” she said into my neck.
“I’m sad there’s no red flag,” I joked, but squeezed her tighter.
She kissed me, her relief evident. The tension was gone from her body, the worry erased from her eyes. “I’ll show you some red later,” she promised.
“Is that so?” I asked. My eyes darted over her tight jeans and short-sleeved shirt, wondering what she had underneath.
“See, I told you the weather would hold off,” Little John said, high fiving me.
“You were right,” I admitted, scoping out the gray clouds coming in.
“Badass jump, my friend.”
“It was worth it. We’ve got some great footage,” I said as Bobby walked over with the crew.
“We do, too. That was phenomenal, Wilder. I did worry toward the end there, but you pulled it off.”
“It definitely isn’t easy. The winds are a bitch around here, and those rocks aren’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat.”
“Neither are they,” Landon said, pointing to two SUVs marked with the symbols of the local authorities as they pulled into the clearing.
“We’re fine,” I assured him as I pulled off my helmet, storing it in the bag Leah handed me. “Everything’s in order?” I asked Bobby.
He nodded. “Absolutely. We pulled the permits out of your desk this morning. Though I wish you’d let me hold on to them for the whole trip.”
I shook my head. “No way. No offense, Bobby, but it’s my ass on the line for half this stuff, not yours.”
Leah threaded her fingers through mine as the officers approached. By the looks on their faces, they were not pleased.
“You are the jumpers?” one asked in accented English, barely containing a snarl.
“We are,” I confirmed. “Is there a problem?”
“This is protected land. Many endangered animals live here.” They didn’t stop until they were only feet away from us. Penna sidestepped toward me, and Landon did the same, so at least we were more of a unit.
Strength in numbers.
“Do you have your passports?” he asked.
I balked. “What? We’re with the Athena.”
“Yes,” Leah answered, taking out that travel wallet of hers and presenting him with four passports.
I looked at her in question as Bobby and the crew presented theirs.
“Madagascar law. We have to carry them,” she explained simply.
“Thank you,” I answered, thankful that the woman I loved was a hell of a lot smarter than I was, and that she majored in International Relations.
She gave me a tight-lipped but sincere smile as the officers looked over our passports.
“Well, Paxton Wilder, do you have permits for destroying the peace of our park?” the officer asked, speaking for the other three.
“We do,” I assured him and glanced to Bobby who already had a manila folder out. “Every legal T has been crossed and I dotted, I promise.”
“We’ll see about that,” the officer said, thumbing through the papers.
Leah’s hand tightened in mine, and I drew her closer. It was one thing to be all badass in a foreign country, and quite another to put Leah in danger when I had zero clue where the nearest embassy was, or even a basic understanding of Madagascar law. It didn’t help that these guys were not playing around.
They talked amongst themselves, and a sick feeling settled in my stomach, growing every time they glanced up at us. “Everything is legal,” I promised, unable to take the silent appraisal.
“Yes, your jump was sanctioned, though I don’t know how much you had to pay to see that one get through for a permit.”
Bobby looked away briefly and then shrugged at me.
“So we’re fine, right?” I asked, more than ready to get Leah into our SUV and get her the hell out of there. Little John already had the doors open and Brooke tucked away. Good. Now we just needed to get Penna and Leah in.
“Yes, it appears that everything you did was legal,” the officer said with a puckered brow.
“Excellent. Then if you won’t be needing us…” I guided Penna with a hand on her lower back, and Landon took her hand as I took Leah’s again. This wasn’t our first rodeo in a country that tended to take notice of unaccompanied women.
We circled around the officers, and I breathed a hell of a lot easier when they didn’t stop us.
“Oh, Mr. Wilder?” the officer called out.
Fuck. So close.
“No fucking way!” Bobby yelled, and I turned to see the camera wrestled away from one of the crew.
“What the hell?” I questioned the officer.
“Everything you did was legal, yes, but there was no permit for photography within the special bounds of the park,” the officer said with a shrug. “We’ll need to take any film you took.”
“The hell you will!” I roared. “We have every permission. We’ve seen to every permit, and you’re not taking our tape.” We’d just completed the toughest landing of my life, and there was zero chance in hell that they were taking the film.
“You have nothing to say about this, Mr. Wilder,” he said with a tight smile. “And you don’t want to fight us on this.” His voice was deceptively smooth.
The crew lost their battles as three cameras were confiscated. Landon and I locked eyes above Penna’s head. They hadn’t touched the GoPros attached to our helmets, which were all stored.
“This is bullshit,” I said.
“Be careful with your words, Mr. Wilder. You’re not in the United States, and we take these matters quite seriously, I assure you.”
“Now if you’ll hand us the cameras from your helmets, we can call this a day.”
“Over my dead body,” Landon bellowed, putting Penna behind him when they reached for her bag. “Don’t even try.”
I stepped in front of Leah. “Look, we have the permit. If it’s not there, it’s on our ship. If you would like to follow us back to the Athena, we can clear this up. If we can’t locate the permit there, or through your legal channels, we’ll hand over the footage.” My brain scrambled for anything that would keep this from escalating.
“There should be a record in your office,” Leah offered. “If we have the paperwork, then so do you.”
The officer didn’t even look at her. “You do not have the permits with you, now hand over the bags.”
“No.” I shook my head.
“Paxton, this isn’t the U.S.,” Leah whispered into my back. “You don’t have the same rights here, so be careful.”
I squeezed her hand to let her know that I’d heard her. Of course I knew that, but at the moment, they wanted what I’d busted my ass for—what our documentary desperately needed—and there was no chance I was giving it to them when I’d gone through hell for all that fucking paperwork.
“You do not get to tell us no,” the officer said, his eyes flickering over my right shoulder.
“Pax!” Leah screamed, her hand ripped away from me.
I spun around, a cold rage settling over me when I saw an officer wrench the bag away from Leah, shoving her to the ground in the process. Two steps and my fist was in his face, knocking him back. “Don’t fucking touch her!”
“No!” Leah yelled as two of the officers tackled me from the side, pinning me into the hard ground, tiny rocks cutting into my skin.
They yanked my arms behind my back as Landon picked Leah up off the ground, putting her behind him with Penna. Little John ran toward us while Bobby yelled at the men, but I heard nothing, simply saw the wide fear in Leah’s eyes as the same officer I punched walked over, flipped me to my back, and slammed his fist into my face.
“Paxton!” Her voice was the ringing in my ears as another blow fell.
I vaguely saw Landon holding her back, then Little John lifting her over his shoulder. They had to get her out of here. She had to be safe. They could take the fucking cameras as long as they kept their hands off Leah.
“I think one more to learn his lesson,” the biggest officer said, and the third punch was delivered.
Then I saw nothing.
