Daughter of Destiny (19 page)

“Don't forget,” Jake told her gently, “you have the same heart as they do. It's in your blood, your genes. It's there….” His eyes connected briefly with her blue gaze. He'd never seen Kai so moved as she was now, their conversation touching her in an unexpected way. Jake saw the
stubborn set of her mouth, her refusal to cry, and he ached silently for her. He wanted to reach out, drag her over to his camel, set her on the saddle in front of him, so that she could lean back and discover how much love could assuage the pain she always carried.

Of course, all that was fantasy. Still, he held out hope because she'd come to him in the hut and allowed him to hold her. Hope sprang strongly in his chest as he drowned in the aqua color of her eyes, which spoke so eloquently to his heart and soul.

“I look at them and think that's not me. I don't have what they've got. I never did.”

“Yes, you do, Kai.” Jake gave her an intense look. “You were chosen to find the crystal mask precisely because you
do
have that same wide, deep-hearted compassion that they have. You've never been given a chance to get in touch with that part of yourself. Real life intruded. You made different choices, Kai, but they weren't wrong ones.” Jake glanced fondly toward Kalduke, which lay somewhere over the red horizon. “By going on this mission, by finding the mask, you're getting training you never received before.”

Kai smiled grimly. “Yeah, dude, it's called ‘on the job training' and the learning curve is steep. We could've died if we didn't do things right. We're not out of danger yet.”

They had tried to call Mike Houston after leaving the canyon, but the sandstorm had caused local interference. They still hadn't received a call from Medusa to tell them about the helicopter registration or Marston Enterprises, and she and Jake remained very much on guard.

Shrugging, Jake said, “Every medicine person runs that
risk, Kai. And I don't feel you're going to die. You're already successful.” He grinned. “You've got the mask.” He gazed around the desert, which was coming alive once more. “The energy around us, even though it's invisible, is still here with us. Medicine people have learned how to open themselves up and allow this universal energy to run through them and help them.”

“I guess I'm learning how to get out of my own way?” She smiled ruefully.

Chuckling, Jake looked up at the soft azure sky. “It's called life, Kai.” He returned the sheepish smile he saw tugging at her luscious mouth. “You're a fast learner in my book.”

Kai heard the pride in Jake's tone, and her skin prickled beneath his hooded, burning gaze. “I guess I'm the last to believe in my people's spirituality—or myself in relation to it.”

“Life has conditioned you differently,” Jake said soothingly, “but that doesn't mean you can't open yourself up to what is a natural heritage for you to tap into and use.”

Looking ahead, feeling the heat as the sun's rays burned silently over the undulating landscape once more, Kai said, “I wish Mike would call. I'm sitting on pins and needles about those jokers in the copter.”

 

The call from Medusa came that evening as they sat around a small campfire. Kai was pouring billy tea from the blackened kettle sitting on the grate over the flickering fire when the phone buzzed. She looked up, kettle in hand.

“Answer it, will you?”

Jake nodded and pulled the device off his belt. “Carter here.”

Kai heard Jake talk in low tones. She moved away from the fire and poured more of the strong tea into his cup, which he held out to her. Moving to her saddle, she poured some into her own tin cup, then returned the kettle to the edge of the grate to keep warm. As she sat down cross-legged near her saddle and picked up the cup, Jake finished the transmission. He shut off the phone with the punch of a button, folded it and slid it back onto his belt.

“There are two helos at Yulara,” he told Kai. “That Huey and the Bell Longranger we saw when we got off the commercial flight at the airport.”

“Right.”

“The Bell Longranger is registered to a Dudley Dawson, from Alice Springs, the largest town in the Northern Territory.”

“It's roughly two hundred miles northeast of Yulara.”

Jake nodded. “Yes.”

“Anything on this Dawson dude?”

Shaking his head, Jake muttered, “Nothing. He's a local entrepreneur. He also runs a big restaurant in Alice Springs, and hosts one-, two-and three-day treks out into the Gibson Desert for tourists by Jeep, helo and on foot.”

“No prison background?”

“He's clean,” Jake said. “However, that Huey belongs to Marston Enterprises. Robert Marston is the owner. So those two dudes work for him. He said the Huey is a tourist helo and that it's a legit company at Yulara.”

“Bingo,” she murmured, sipping her hot tea.

“Mike said Marston is a multimillionaire media mogul from Canada. His passion is collecting museum quality
items from around the world.” Raising an eyebrow, Jake added, “And Mike dug up a lot of stuff on this guy. He's a shady character. Some of the people who work for him were caught stealing Native American pipes from the Blood tribe in Canada at one time. In another theft from a local museum in the Black Hills, South Dakota, a number of sacred items to the Sioux people were stolen. The men were caught with the goods two days later, trying to get them through Seattle, Washington customs. They didn't admit working for Marston, but a customs investigator found a tie with him. The man has never been directly charged.”

“Robert Marston's the one, then. I feel it in my gut, Jake.” Kai stared at the small flames licking up into the darkness. In the background, somewhere in the night, she heard the howl of a pack of foraging dingos.

“Houston said Marston's too smart to be caught. He pays off his henchmen through third-and fourth-hand sources, so they never know he's involved in it.” Jake eased back on his saddle, which was covered with the thick wool blanket that acted as a pad for it. “Except this time. Those were Marston's men. They were wearing the logo on their polo shirts. They're flying one of his copters but they run a helo operation out of Yulara.”

Exhaustion pulled at Kai. “And what is Mike going to do? Alert Australian authorities that we're being tailed?”

“He can't go to the police with hearsay,” Jake muttered. “All we can do is stay alert.”

Nodding, Kai said, “We know that old helo of theirs doesn't have night-stalking equipment on board, so we
should try and get a good night's sleep under our belt. Tomorrow, we'll reach Uluru, and five miles beyond that, we'll be at the Mulga Station and can drop our camels off with Coober.” She was still sweating profusely. The heat was unbearable. Heatstroke or sunstroke were a genuine possibility in this oven they called the Red Center.

Finishing his tea, Jake got up and brushed the sand off his trousers. “I'm in agreement. I'm going out to check on Rocket and Booster. Hit the sack. We're both ready to keel over.”

Nodding, Kai pulled out the saddle pad and stretched it out on the sand to lie on. It was a good seven feet long and three feet wide. The thick wool prevented the saddle from hurting the camel's hump. Lying down, Kai turned her back toward the fire, nestled into the thick, padded saddle that acted as her pillow, and closed her eyes. Within moments, she spiraled down into a very deep sleep. The unbearable heat of the day took a toll on her as nothing else ever had, and the only way she could deal with it was to sleep a good eight hours. Nestled nearby was the pouch containing the crystal mask.

The dream began later. Kai found herself riding Booster near Uluru. Terror sizzled through her. Unable at first to pinpoint why she was so scared, Kai heard the whapping sounds of a helicopter coming toward her. A helicopter? Frowning, Kai twisted around on Booster. The helo was coming in swift and low. There was gunfire! Throwing herself forward on the camel, Kai saw the helicopter zoom past, and someone fire a rifle out the door toward her. Tracer bullets flashed through the darkness.

Then the helo turned and began to fire at another unseen
target.
Jake! Oh, no!
Screaming his name, Kai saw him galloping ahead of her on Rocket. He had a pistol in his hand and he was firing back at the helicopter. Breathing hard, Kai screamed a warning. She watched in horror as the stream of red tracer rounds stalked him.
No!

Jerking upright, Kai gulped and choked for air. Her heart thudded heavily in her chest. It was dark. The familiar sounds of crickets singing, a far-off cry of a dingo, were all that she heard. Perspiration trickled down her temples. Hands shaking, Kai wiped her face and leaned forward as she brought her knees up against her body. The fear was real. Her stomach churned violently. Forcing herself to steady her breathing, she finally looked around.

The fire was out, with nothing but a few orange coals glowing. In the starlight, she saw Jake sleeping on the opposite side of the fire. He was snoring softly. All was right in his world. Rubbing her face, Kai turned and reached for her bottle of water near the saddle. She drank in huge gulps, trying to put out the fire in her knotted belly, to douse the fear that was eating her alive.

Sitting there, under a beautiful river of stars moving silently above her, Kai wondered what it all meant. All her dreams had come true, thus far.
Jake
…She groaned softly and buried her face in her hands. They were in danger. Was this dream a forewarning? Or just some crazy thing cobbled together by her subconscious that meant nothing?

After capping her water bottle, Kai lay back down. Sighing, she shut her eyes. She had to get some sleep! But for the first time in a long time, she felt completely vulnerable.

“J
ake, I had a crazy dream last night.” They were nearing Uluru in the late afternoon, the sun brutal and hot overhead.

Jake looked over as he gently scratched his camel's neck. “Another dream?” He saw Kai's mouth quirk. Jake knew she wasn't comfortable with the dreams she had. Would he be if his all came true? Probably not.

Kai shared the dream with him. “Jake, there was danger. I debated telling you at all, but we're here at Uluru and I've got a knot in my stomach, and that tells me danger is nearby. I don't know what kind, but I think we should be ready.”

Nodding, Jake pulled out his holster and strapped it around his waist. He tapped the Remington Safari rifle that lay beneath his leg in the leather sheath. It had been his turn to carry the gun today. “I think we're armed and ready to roll.”

Booster strode a few feet away from Rocket, his ears constantly moving. Kai breathed in deeply and muttered, “I wonder if the dream is true, or if I'm overreacting be
cause the others with Ooranye did come true.” She removed the baseball cap from her head, wiped the sweat off her brow and settled it back into place, scowling. Reaching down, she took the water bottle from a nearby saddlebag and uncapped it.

Jake urged Rocket alongside Kai's mount. “Why don't we treat it as real? We'll be better off than if we ignored it.” Jake did not want to lose Kai. He'd lost her once, when he was ten years old, and now the Great Spirit had given him a second chance to be with her. This time he intended to stay the course, come hell or high water.

Kai took another swig of water, leaving rivulets dribbling down both sides of her mouth. The slow swaying motion soothed some of her fear and helped her ground herself in the present. She capped the bottle and put it in a side pocket of the saddle. Looking over, she saw Jake studying her from beneath the bill of his cap. There was such concern in his golden gaze that it caught her off guard. It was only then that Kai realized he was genuinely worried. Maybe she
should
take this last dream seriously. Jake wasn't the type to make mountains out of molehills.

The warm presence of the crystal mask inside her vest made her feel more emotional than normal. Kai unconsciously touched the area where the crystal lay against her body. What was going on? Was she somehow being affected by the crystal's energy? Glancing at Jake again, she noted his tender gaze. She tapped her vest where the mask lay.

“I think this crystal is influencing me, Jake. It's weird….”

“Oh?” He looked around, his gaze sweeping the sky for
any aircraft. Glancing back at Kai, he saw confusion clearly registered on her face. “In a good way? Or bad?”

Shrugging, Kai said, “It's making me feel my emotions very sharply, Jake. A lot more, maybe, than I want to.”

Chuckling, Jake said, “Welcome to the club, Kai.” He saw her give him a questioning look. “You're a combat pilot. You're trained to keep your emotions in check. But you learned how to stuff your feelings down inside you long before that—as a kid. After you went into the Navy, you learned to stuff them even more deeply inside, so you could keep a level head during stressful wartime maneuvers.”

“That's true,” she conceded.

“What kind of feelings are you having?”

Rolling her eyes, Kai muttered, “I don't know that I want to share them with you, Jake.”

He gave her a boyish grin. “Are they about me?”

“I'm
that
transparent?”

“Oh, not usually, but you are right now,” he said soothingly. His grin broadened. “Hey, you wear it well, Kai. Even your face is softer, less tense. I started noticing it this morning after we broke camp and you put on that vest with the mask in it.”

“Oh.”

“It's not a death sentence, you know.”

Snorting, Kai shook her head and looked off to the left, across the rolling red desert. “Maybe not…”

“Good feelings about me, huh?”

It was her turn to grin. “There's no shame in you, is there, Carter?”

Jake lifted his hands, laughter rolling out of his chest. “Guilty as charged.”

“Yes, they were nice feelings about you.”

“See? That wasn't so hard to admit, was it?”

“You're gloating, Carter.”

“Yeah, but I won't ever use it against you, Kai.” He reached over and captured her hand, which was resting on the round pommel of the saddle. Her eyes widened in surprise—and then pleasure. Jake released her fingers and said, “I'm glad we're together on this mission, Kai. Are you sorry?”

Her voice was hoarse as she held Jake's hooded look. “No…I'm not, Jake. Scared as hell, but not sorry.” She saw him give her that little-boy smile. Heat flowed through her, strong and good. Jake's smile always made her feel like there was hope, even when things seemed hopeless.

“So, are these new feelings for me? Or old ones?” he asked, teasing her gently. Jake saw her wrestling with his question. More than anything, he wanted Kai back—in all ways. In ways he'd dreamed of. But life had never allowed them that opportunity—until now.

“If you must know, they're old and new.” Kai rubbed her chest. “When I fell in love with Ted Barnes I thought it was real. But when it came right down to it, he couldn't treat me as an equal.” Her eyes flashed and her voice deepened. “And I was damned if I was going to end up like my mother, browbeaten by a man who thought women were second-class citizens. He helped me realize my mother was a victim. For that, I should thank him, but it was a damn painful lesson. I don't have to be like my mom, and that realization freed me a lot from my past with her, with the confusion I had about her as a child. I could never fig
ure out why she didn't leave that alcoholic bastard she married. At least with Ted, I realized I could walk away. And I did.”

Jake nodded. “That was a valuable lesson to learn, Kai….” He could see the pain in her eyes and hear the anguish in her softened tone. She was a proud woman, so very capable and able to stand on her own. Yet her feelings confused her and she was less sure of herself. Kai wasn't invincible and that made her that much more precious to Jake. “I know you had a lot of confusion about your mother. If Ted helped you clear that up, it was probably worth it to you, Kai.” Jake gave her an understanding look. “We all need someone in our lives. None of us want to go through it alone.” Opening his hand, he said, “I fell in love, too…or thought I did. Learned a lot of hard lessons along the way of what I did and didn't want.” Casting a glance at Kai, he added, “And if it's any consolation to you, no one ever measured up to you, Kai.”

Jake scratched the back of his head. “Maybe I was comparing these women to you, which sure wasn't fair to them. If I did, it was unconscious. You made a hell of an impression on me.”

“It's not good to compare,” Kai agreed, her heart warming as she realized again that he'd never forgotten about her or what they'd shared.

“Are you over Ted?”

Nodding, Kai said, “Almost. It took a year to get back to normal.” She gave him a jaded look. “And just when I was swearing never to mix it up with any guy again, you rolled back into my life, Carter.”

Chuckling, he said, “You know how bad pennies are. They just keep showing up whether you want them to or not.”

Realizing he was teasing her, Kai laughed. Touching her vest where the mask lay, she continued in a more serious tone, “What I was feeling was all the good things we shared when we were kids, Jake. And now those feelings are being magnified in me times ten. I don't know whether it's the mask…you, me…or the combination of events we're living through right now.”

“Then let's give ourselves the time to see,” Jake counseled. “It's enough to know you still like me a little bit.”

“You're incorrigible, Carter!” Like him a little bit! Kai shook her head and hid her smile from him. If Jake only knew the power of her feelings toward him, he'd probably crow with delight and strut around like a rooster who owned the barnyard, judging from the warmth dancing in his golden gaze.

“But lovable,” Jake murmured. Seeing Kai flush, he knew he'd hit a nerve. Could she love him? Was that possible? As a boy, he had been so deeply in love with her. Puppy love, but what a love it had been. Jake wanted it all back. He wanted Kai. He wanted to share with her his love, but he knew he'd have to give her time and space to come to that conclusion herself.

Glancing ahead, Kai saw the rolling red desert before them, the thick clumps of spinifex grass, the proud desert oaks dotting the horizon and the endless blue sky that seemed to stretch forever around them. Kai wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve.

“Does the mask affect you constantly?” Jake asked.
He'd noticed that Kai was unusually pensive today as they rode across the desert. She looked as if she were somewhere else, not here. Did the crystal hold properties that would change her? Influence her to love him? Jake didn't know, but he hoped so. He had observed that Kai's mouth, usually pursed and thin, was relaxed and full.

How he ached to kiss that mouth! How he longed to share with Kai the feelings he'd carried since the day he'd met her long ago.

Kai laughed briefly. “No question about it.”

“Then keep on wearing it. I like the woman I see now, because she reminds me of the little girl from so long ago….”