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.They worked on theassembly-line principle, shooting them five or more at a time.It might be an independent operator, a native out tosupplement his low income.There were always a few of them.Whoever it might have been, however, Richard's thoughtswere back on Christopher and what one of those bullets mighthave done to him.Richard steered the Land Rover around bushes and trees,expecting horror beyond each turn.He feared what he mightfind, but Christopher's life might depend on Richard reachinghim in time.Richard became more and more frantic butstrove to stay calm and cool.He was no good to anyone if hedidn't keep his wits.300Tusksby William MalteseHe almost didn't hear it.It wasn't loud like the gunshots.Itwas a muted thumping, a sound like a muffled dissonantpounding on a tom-tom.Richard tested the air like an animalsensing prey without seeing it.The sound was very near.Itstopped and began again.He made a quick turn to avoid animpenetrable stretch of thorn bushes and low-growing scrub.He almost hit Christopher's parked Land Rover.He braked,and his engine stalled.More low thumping.Richard unfastened his seat belt andgot out.His subconscious was putting meaning to the sounds,even though he had never heard them before.He shuddered,fighting off the awareness of what they could be.The ground dipped into a depression.He walked towardthe edge.The heat of the sun burned the back of his neck.Hewas perspiring.His heart was racing.His lips and throat weredry.There would have been nothing worse than seeing hislover dead, but what he did see came in a close second.Christopher was very much alive, stripped to the waist andbent over.His back muscles rippled beneath the African sun,turning glossy with the sweat of his exertion.His shirt waswrapped around the large stone he was using to knock thesecond of two large horns from the dead rhinoceros.The firsthorn was already knocked free and lying in the dust besideMelissa's deformed snout.More pathetic than the ongoingmutilation was the sight of Suzy dead within a few feet of hermother.All hope that these two animals had represented forthe survival of their species had been erased by two bullets301Tusksby William Maltesefrom a rifle.Christopher's rifle lay on the ground within hiseasy reach.Richard watched, and a blow of the stone substantiallyloosened the second horn.The three-foot projection tiltedprecariously without coming loose.Another blow knocked itcompletely off.The full impact of what Richard was seeing, and what it didto Christopher and his relationship, dropped on Richard like aton of bricks."Oh, Christopher!" Richard said with a groan.Christopher heard him and looked up the incline to whereRichard stood."Richard?" Christopher said in obvioussurprise.He believed Richard was back at camp.He knewCraig was miles away with a patrol.Had Craig been sent outon a wild-goose chase while Christopher moved in for the realprize?Richard turned and ran, but the picture of Christopher'shalf-naked body laboring over Melissa's horn, Suzy's lifelesscarcass close by, was forever branded on his memory.It wasthe perverted mingling of his lover's living masculine beautywith the ugliness of the dead animals that Richard found sosickeningly obscene.Christopher's brutality and wanton slaughter spoiledeverything.There was no forgiving him.Christopher knewwhat those rhinos symbolized but had snuffed it all out withtwo bullets, snuffing his and Richard's love in the process.If only it were that simple! It.wasn't, though.BecauseRichard still loved Christopher.Not even this act erasedsixteen years of caring and dreaming.But it did make Richarddetermined to fight those feelings.Whether he loved302Tusksby William MalteseChristopher, or not, Richard couldn't find happiness with anyman who killed helpless animals for profit.No matter howmuch gold those horns bought on the black markets of theOrient, it was a drop in the bucket compared to what the VanHoon empire poured into Christopher's pockets every minuteof every day.Why had Christopher done it? For a few coins ofblood money, he had put a species one step closer toextinction.Once a species was gone, there was not yet anyavailable way of resurrecting it.Millions of years of evolution were lost forever with thedeath of the last rhinoceros, or elephant, or zebra, orwildebeest.Had Christopher thought of that?Richard was in the Land Rover, driving.He didn't knowwhere he was going.He didn't care.He wanted to be as faraway from Christopher as possible.He couldn't face him afterwhat Richard had seen.Richard had thought Christopher was in danger, butChristopher was alive and well.Richard resented the way he'dbeen drawn toward Christopher's naked torso even as thathorn came loose.Richard resented loving Christopher toomuch to put the man in jail where he belonged.He resentedChristopher becoming more important than Richard's ideals.Considering that Richard had come to Africa for sweetvengeance, he was missing the perfect opportunity to keepthe promise he had made to his dead father, which showedthat his values had become doubly warped not only forharboring a deep resentment all these years but for nurturingan unnatural love for Christopher Van Horn in the present
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