Safari Moon by Rogue Phoenix Press Page B

this an elaborate illusion? No, that was one thing Solo
would never do. He’d never concoct a story like this, never lie to
her. If he said he was desperate, he was desperate. But where was
he.
     
    She’d made it to the Redmond airport in less
than an hour, a shoulder bag containing a few changes of clothing
and other necessities over her arm. The pilot had grinned at her
and with hardly a word spoken between them, took off. When she
changed planes in Anchorage, the pilot gave her detailed directions
to the cabin Solo occupied before he taxied down the runway.
     
    Meanwhile, “What have I gotten myself into?
There isn’t another living soul for miles and miles.” How on earth
could one of Solo’s women find him way out here? The Colonel, of
course. A stupid question. If there was another female with Solo,
what could she do about it?
     
    Alaska had not surprised her. This huge
emptiness, the vast acres of land, and the barrenness that seemed
to stretch on forever was everything she'd envisioned. What did
surprise her was that she had not come up with a plan yet.
     
    And now, grounded, she trudged toward what
she hoped was an encampment of some sort. She never knew what
living arrangements Solo would come up with, but she prayed this
time there would be something better than a tent. The thought of a
bear invading her bed was not pleasant.
     
    Nyssa was the first to admit she preferred a
soft bed and a roof over her head to sleeping in the great outdoors
with nothing but the sky and twinkling stars above.
     
    She began to have dangerous second thoughts
as she walked on and could no longer see the thin spiral of smoke.
The sky grew darker by the minute and the trail looked
non-existent. But there was a trail and it did run in the direction
of the smoke--if she could still see the smoke. Which she
couldn’t.
     
    This was the kind of thing she hated about
Solo’s adventures. Nyssa pushed away a thorny bush. She seldom knew
where she was until she was there. By that time it was always too
late to turn around.
     
    Alaska reminded her of the time she’d been
stranded in the desert with Solo. While Solo ate the delicious
flora and fauna of the arid, dry landscape, she escaped with second
degree burns and a tarantula that couldn’t live without her.
     
    That was the first time she vowed to never
ever let him talk her into an adventure again. She was weak-willed.
But she couldn’t blame her ineptness on Solo as she’d like to
do.
     
    When she saw a narrow curving road emerge
from behind a thicket of bushes, her spirits lifted. Perhaps her
luck was changing. Emitting a little determined sigh, she
repositioned her shoulder bag and trudged on. Finally, she saw the
cabin.
     
    The place was larger than she’d prayed for.
Of course it didn’t count that she’d prayed for anything larger
than a tent. A wide porch wrapped around the outside. Light
shinning from what looked to be a loft gave the retreat a romantic
ambience.
     
    A drop of rain brushed against her cheek.
Lightning lit the sky and she heard a crack of thunder. She wasn’t
sure what to do, rush the place or sneak around back, so she stood
and stared while the rain began to do more than drip.
     
    One car--so dirty its color was
undistinguishable--sat in front of the cabin. So what was going on
here? If there was a female, where was she? Did she drive to the
cabin with him? If so, he deserved her. If not, why was she still
here? No, she knew why. One thing Solo had trouble doing was
telling a female to get lost. The word ‘no’ was not in his
vocabulary.
     
    Now that she was here, standing in front of
his cabin, she still didn’t have a plan. She thought furiously as
she started walking again.
     
    A shiver shot down her spine when she
stepped onto the porch. Her second step brought a loud creak to her
ears, and with the noise, she froze. “I don’t know why I agreed to
this. You’re going to owe me big time.” Valiantly though, she kept
on, striding