Second Nature

Chapter 24

24 

Cade landed in the leopard pen and pitched forward onto his hands. The male leopard was already dragging Gen away. The attack had lasted only seconds. Was she dead? Could anyone survive that mauling? He swore he'd heard fangs crunch down through her skull-an unimaginably sickening sound. 

Cade bellowed from the bottom of his lungs and charged after the leopard. He hadn't the slightest idea what he was going to do when he reached the beast.  

The leopard dropped Gen and jerked up its big head. It snarled and its bared fangs dripped blood. Cade circled away from Gen and the leopard tracked him, crouching low, muscles rippling beneath blood-soaked chest fur. 

Cade stripped off his Hawaiian shirt and wrapped it around his forearm. Heartbeats boomed in his head like pounding kettle drums: ba-boom ba-boom ba-boom. In the SEALs, he'd excelled in hand-to-hand combat instruction, and he'd practiced a dozen ways to kill an enemy soldier without a weapon, but nothing in his military training had prepared him for this: man versus leopard. 

His eyes shot over to Gen. She's alive! She had risen to her knees and now was standing up on wobbly legs. She looked at Cade and clasped a hand to her mouth, obviously afraid for his safety. 

While his attention was distracted, the leopard sprang at his throat. 

Cade whipped his arm in front of him, blocking the attack but catching a crushing bite through the wrapped cloth into the muscles of his forearm. The 175-pound cat would have slammed him down on his back, but Cade pivoted with the force of the blow and the leopard sailed by. The animal hit the ground and clawed and scrabbled and spun in a cloud of dust to lunge again. This time Cade thrust out his forearm, but spun his whole body at the last second before the leopard's teeth sank into flesh. With the cat directly under Cade's center of gravity, he dropped to one knee, driving his fist into the back of the cat's broad head where its skull and neck joined. The animal's dense muscles sent a shock wave up Cade's arm into his shoulder and his hand vibrated as if he had slammed a baseball bat against an iron post.  

The cat crashed down in the dirt as limp as a sandbag. The blow would have snapped a man's neck, but Cade saw ribs heaving and knew the leopard wasn't dead. Or even defeated. He was relieved because he had only wanted to stop the animal, not kill it. But he didn't plan to wait around to see how long it stayed unconscious. 

He kept his eyes glued on the female of the pair. She had backed against the fence on the far side of the cage, fur bristling, hissing like a monstrous alley cat. 

"Nice kitty," Cade said. The aftershock of adrenaline zigzagged through his nerves, and he found himself giggling. "Nice pussycat." 

Gen stood a few feet from him in a tattered T-shirt, breasts exposed, chest and throat slick with blood, yet seemingly unfazed. 

"Get over here, behind me." He eyed the female leopard. "How bad are you hurt?" 

"I...I'm not." She smiled weakly as she stepped over to him. "I'm okay." 

"Let's get out of here." He grabbed her hand and tugged her over to the entrance of the concrete den. It was shaded inside and smelled strongly of cat piss. Cade scanned the cool darkness, just to make sure there wasn't a Siberian tiger inside as a bonus exhibit.  

When he looked back to the female leopard, she had already crossed the compound and was crouched beside the unconscious male, guarding him. Damn, she's quiet. She could have sneaked right up and attacked us from behind.  

Suddenly the male lifted his head and looked straight at Cade. Dirt stuck to his bloody white fur in reddish-brown patches. Then he stood up, still a little wobbly.  

Oh shit. Hope he's not in the mood for a revenge match. "Nice kitty-kitties," Cade whispered. This time he didn't giggle at his own joke. 

He entered the leopard's den with Gen in tow. He wasn't going to let go of her hand until they were in the Land Rover heading home. A steel zookeeper's door stood at the far end. 

Sawdust covered the concrete floor. The shadowed space reeked of animal musk that made Cade's nose itch. Sweat dripped off his chin. He licked dry lips and tried to catch his breath. "As soon as they open this door, run like hell to the Land Rover. We gotta go before we get busted." 

Gen nodded. She wasn't even breathing hard. 

"What the fuck got into you?" Cade said.  

"I'm sorry." That tearful look again. "I couldn't help myself." 

"Shit, that was stupid. Jesus. I thought you'd gotten yourself killed." 

She looked down at her feet. 

"How can you not be hurt?" He reached out and wiped at the blood on her throat with the shirt that still wrapped his forearm. The blood came off in a streaky smear. The skin beneath was unscathed. He wiped her chest, roughly jostling her breasts. His shirt sopped up sticky blood over skin as smooth and richly toned as coffee ice cream. 

A key clacked and turned in the lock. 

"Here goes," he said. "You stay behind me, like in football. I'm the running block, okay? The parking lot is the end zone." 

The door swung open and a huge, red-bearded man in a khaki safari outfit stood at the other end along with two normal-sized human beings, a man and a woman. The smaller man carried a first-aid kit, the woman held a shotgun, and the big Viking held an electric cattle prod. 

Cade knew the crew was here to mop up what was left of the stupid idiots who had jumped into the leopard pen, and he figured the police were on their way. The police would bring in the whole media circus on their heels, because newspaper and TV reporters monitored emergency radio bands for juicy stories. Like, deformed girls who jump down inside leopard cages and get slashed apart, and men who knock endangered species senseless. He didn't want to get arrested for Gen's obsession with touching every goddamn living thing she saw, and he especially didn't want to answer a lot of tricky questions.  

He darted out of the den, cutting sideways past Erik the Red and the other two zookeepers, with Gen right behind him; the two bolted in a dead run toward the parking lot. 

"Stop! Get back here!" 

"I'm making a citizen's arrest!"  

"Stupid bastards!" 

In the parking lot, Haven had the Land Rover's motor running. She dove over the front seat into the back when she saw them coming. Bless her little criminal heart. She made a great getaway driver. 

Gen ran like an antelope and reached the car fifty steps ahead of him. Cade hopped in behind the wheel, shifted, stomped the gas and the car roared out of the parking lot, spitting gravel. As they passed the Tallahassee airport, he slowed to a leisurely pace. 

No point in getting arrested for speeding.