Noble Hearts (Wild Hearts Romance Book 3) Read Free

hand gripped Gus’s collar to my shoulder and then to my face, I could also clearly see the firm chisel of his jaw and cheekbones framing features both rugged and striking. My breath seized in my chest. We got few enough white visitors out here, and certainly none who looked like him.
    When I caught myself staring, heat stung my cheeks, although I was pretty sure the healthy tan on top of my normally deep olive tones wouldn’t show a blush easily. Besides, the mothering instinct kicked in strong when I forced my eyes from his face to points lower where sticky blood covered the front and side of his blue cotton shirt.
    Whatever his other circumstances, he was in pain and needed help. “Who are you?”
    “Mark—Mark LeSabre. I’m a doctor, an American. Do you know you have hidden militia units out here and helicopters and men with rifles? I thought I left that kind of gang and drug warfare behind in the States. What the hell?”
    I frowned at the mention of helicopters, remembering the one I’d seen earlier, but my ears perked at the word doctor . I’d also been keeping up with the news. The fresh start promised by the upcoming elections had a dark and growing shadow over them, and suspicion pricked at me. I must have communicated my unease to Gus because his anxious whine turned into a chest-deep growl. “The incumbent regime doesn’t want to be ousted and the opposition party wants to be sure they are. But it’s internal, political. A foreigner shouldn’t concern either party unless he’s here to abet one or the other. Is that why you’re here, Dr. LeSabre?”
    The surprise in his eyes looked genuine. “Abet? No! I didn’t even know where the Doctors Making a Difference folk were even sending me until two weeks ago.”
    “So that”—I nodded toward his blood-stained shirt—“was what, a hunting accident?”
    “Look, all I know is a team of guys in red armbands—the Democrats, right?—came to the clinic and kidnapped me off to their camp where they threatened to force me to go to Hasa with them. That’s when the Republican dudes in a helicopter came charging in. I took the opportunity to escape, but apparently my hosts weren’t as distracted as I thought.” He glanced briefly down to his lower chest where he’d folded a hand over his ribs.
    I scanned the hill above. “Are they following you?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “But they could be?”
    “I didn’t hang around long enough to find out what any of them were doing next.”
    “Is there anyone else at your clinic?”
    “Just me. I signed on for a month. My replacement won’t be here for another two-and-a-half weeks.”
    “You’re awfully free with your information, Dr. LeSabre. Did it never occur to you I might be sympathetic to the men who shot you?”
    He blinked. “I don’t even know for sure which side did shoot me. Does it matter—to you?”
    I shrugged, deliberately non-committal. “Whose side are you really on?” I stared the question into his heart.
    “Yours.”
    I almost smiled at that. My coloring, hair and features were decidedly not African, nor were they white either. Maybe he thought my feelings were as mixed as my heritage, but he’d be wrong. My allegiance was strong—to Zahur. Whatever became of Ushindi was mere fortune in the wind, so long as my plantation and all who worked it endured.
    In the end, I nodded my answer to his unspoken plea.
    He was wounded and displaced, a stray like any number of others who’d found their way to me—gorillas, chimps, bush babies and more. I couldn’t turn him away any more than I could walk away from any stray in need that came my way. Not that I went out looking for strays—it seemed Fate threw more than enough in my path as it was. I had a choice: ignore them or shoulder the responsibility. I chose to be one of the ones on the other side of the balance scale from those who hunted, poached and exploited Africa’s resources. To be a caretaker of its land, its animals and