Page 12 of Heat Force
“Too early for you?”
The deep voice carried through the open window, stopping Lexi mid-motion as she prepared the equipment for her morning rounds. A shadow moved across the sunlight spiling across the clinic floor. She didn’t have to look up to know who it was.
“Your timing’s perfect,” she called back, drying her hands on a towel before squirting a generous amount of hand sanitizer into her palms. “Come on in.”
Hawk stepped through the door, looking infuriatingly refreshed, his khaki shirt rolled up at the sleeves, the morning sun catching on his dark hair. Behind him, Jasper shuffled in looking disheveled in a rumpled shirt with dark circles beneath his eyes and scratching at a red welt on his arm.
“How did you sleep?” Lexi asked, politely. “I hope the Lodge was comfortable.
“Perfectly,” replied Hawk, then he added with a wry smile, “Although it seems Jasper had a run-in with a mosquito.”
“More like a swarm of mosquitoes,” Jasper groaned, holding up his arm to show off a collection of angry bites. “They wouldn’t leave me alone.”
Lexi winced sympathetically. “Are you using the mosquito nets? Estelle has them in all the rooms.”
“Yeah.” Jasper threw his arms in the air. “And I’m taking the malaria meds like clockwork. They still got in somehow.” He frowned at Hawk. “Strange you didn’t have the same problem.”
“Guess they liked you better,” Hawk said smoothly, glancing at Lexi. There was a flicker of dry amusement in his voice. She suppressed a smile. Who knew he had a sense of humor?
“Why don’t you both wash up?” She nodded toward the sink. “Disinfectant’s over there. I’ll show you the recovery room once you’re ready.”
After a few minutes, they followed her down a short hall to the room where two orphaned baby gorillas were playing with their carer. Mto, the younger of the two, caught sight of her first and made an excited noise, his long arms outstretched.
“The carers look after the infants twenty-four hours a day,” Lexi explained, slipping into tour-guide mode. “Right now, we’ve got two orphans, a male and a female. Mto and Misha, and an older gorilla recovering from a gunshot wound.”
Hawk raised an eyebrow. “How long until they’re released back into the wild?”
Lexi reached down to pick up Mto who immediately wrapped his little arms around her neck, his soft fur brushing her skin. “It depends. First, they have to recover their strength—and from the mental trauma. From there, we move them to an outdoor enclosure to help them transition. But whether or not they’re released depends on their chances of survival.”
“Do a lot of them make it?” Jasper took an uneasy step back as Lexi placed Mto on the steel observation table. He looked like he wanted to stay as far away from the baby gorilla as possible. Hawk, on the other hand, moved closer.
She glanced up, surprised. “Not enough. The younger ones are easy targets. Mto, for example—he was caught in a snare. Poachers are their biggest threat.”
“Do you need a hand?” Hawk asked.
Lexi hesitated. She didn’t know what to make of this helpful, almost soft-spoken version of him. In some ways, she preferred the cool, detached businessman. At least she knew how to deal with men like that.
But this… this was confusing. And distracting.
“Sure.” She forced her voice to stay steady. “Pass me that blood-pressure monitor.”
Hawk reached for the device and handed it over. His fingers brushed hers briefly, sending a faint jolt up her arm. She pretended not to notice and busied herself with wrapping the cuff around Mto’s small, furry arm and taking the reading.
“Want to hold him while I write this down?” she asked, more out of curiosity than necessity. Would he still be so composed with a wild animal in his arms? Patrick looked up in surprise.
Interestingly, he nodded. She handed Mto over, half expecting the little gorilla to squirm away. Instead, it made a soft, gurgling sound and clung to Hawk’s chest like they’d known each other for years.
“He likes you,” she gasped, unable to hide her surprise. The baby gorilla displayed his teeth in what looked like a grin.
“You don’t have to sound so shocked,” Hawk replied, stroking Mto’s back tentatively.
Lexi didn’t reply, too busy watching the way he held the little gorilla—gentle, confident. The cold, arrogant businessman had a way with animals. Now that, she would never have guessed.
From the corner of the room, Jasper broke the moment. “They’re big for babies.”
“They are.” Lexi held a thermometer under the gorilla’s arm and put her fingers over his pulse. “Even an infant gorilla canweigh up to a hundred pounds. Mto’s just over a year old, and Misha’s closer to two.” She paused as she counted, aware of Hawk watching her with that same focused intensity he always seemed to have.
Jasper snapped his fingers. “They’d be amazing on camera. Can we bring the film crew in here?”