Ryenne had drawn the heavy curtains across the window when she’d gone to her room last night, so the bright sun didn’t wake her. The alarm on her phone roused her, as she’d planned. There was too much to do to risk giving in to jet lag.

She had a leopard shifter to hunt.

At breakfast, Lucien looked more alert and fresh than anyone had a right to be after the night they’d had. His hair was still wet from the shower.

“Bonjour,” he greeted her. The mango on its way to his mouth dripped juices and Ryenne had a sudden urge to lick them off Lucien’s skin. She could smell the sweetness, feel the thick nectar on her tongue, taste the faint salt of his skin.

“Good morning,” she muttered, dropping into the seat next to him.

“You are not a morning person?”

She looked at him from the corner of her eyes but didn’t answer. Instead, she concentrated on the plate in front of her. Mango and a croissant. A good start, but she’d need more to get through today.

The houseboy appeared at her elbow. “Would you like eggs?”

She perked up. “I’d love eggs. Scrambled, please, on the soft side.”

He nodded and glided away.

“Where’s our host?” she asked, digging into the fruit.

Lucien shrugged. “He was pretty upset last night and was still up when we went to bed.”

They ate mostly in silence, appreciating the food and the company and the absence of the tension caused by their mutual employer.

Afterward, they started their investigation—into last night’s leopard shifter attack and the greater problem—by following the animal tracks outside Ryenne’s window.

“Even for a leopard, these are large prints,” she muttered, her gaze aimed at the dirt beneath her window. They followed them until they disappeared into a patch of woods about a quarter mile from the compound. On the way, they passed a couple of houses and the village church. “Damn. We’ve lost him.”

Lucien didn’t seem to hear her. He kept walking into the woods, searching the overgrown forest floor, his nostrils flaring.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He didn’t answer. About thirty yards into the woods, he stopped at the base of a tree and looked up. Then he walked around the tree, staring at the ground again. “Here,” he said, pointing at an area of disturbed earth. “Looks like something heavy landed here.”

“Landed? From where?”

He pointed up. “Leopards climb trees.”

Ryenne crouched down and inspected the ridges and bumps and whorls of earth. “You’re right. Here are his paw prints.” But the trail didn’t lead far. It soon got lost in the underbrush and even Lucien couldn’t follow it anymore. She made a mental note to ask him how he’d done it, later, when they knew each other better.

“What would you like to do now?” he asked.

She walked a little farther before answering. “Let’s visit Kyeri’s widow and see if she knows what he did last night, if anyone visited, if he went out with anyone.”

Lucien nodded and they walked in silence back to the compound to ask a guard the way to Kyeri’s house.

Once there, Ryenne knocked on the iron door of a small mud cement house. A woman answered, wearing a traditional Kenyan wrap as a skirt, a frilly black blouse, and flip-flops. Her  glassy eyes were red rimmed. Ryenne introduced herself and Lucien and asked to come in for a moment.

“Karibu,” the woman mumbled, stepping back to let them in. She gestured into a sitting room and offered tea.

“No, thank you,” Lucien said as he and Ryenne sat on a wood-framed couch. “We don’t want to take up too much of your attention during this sad time.”

The woman nodded and held her head high.

“Do you know who your husband went out with last night?” Ryenne asked, voice quiet, and what she hoped was a sympathetic expression on her face.

Mrs. Kyeri shook her head. “I went to my sister’s after dinner. She is going to have her first baby soon and she has been very uncomfortable. When I came home, Benjamin was already out.”

“Was this normal for him?”

“Yes. He often went out in the evening for drinks with friends at the bar on the other side of the village. I was not worried then. When I woke in the morning, I was surprised not to find him in bed, but then Muteti’s men came and told me what happened.”

“We won’t take any more of your time,” Lucien said, rising from the couch. “Thank you for speaking with us.”

“We’re very sorry for your loss,” Ryenne added.

Mrs. Kyeri walked them to the door and held it open. “Thank you for coming.”

Outside, Ryenne and Lucien shared a glance. “No new information,” Ryenne said.

“No.” He headed for the compound. “Maybe we should go to the bar and see if anyone saw him leave with someone.”

“Good idea. We can go tonight.”

They continued in silence for several steps, Ryenne thinking about what they knew and what they didn’t, the sun beating down on her head. The leopard could come back any evening. Could kill any number of unsuspecting and ill-equipped people in this beautiful village.

She couldn’t let it happen.

“What if we set a trap?” she asked.